Gov. Ron DeSantis has signed a $117.6 billion state budget, vetoing about $1.6 billion to deliver a shrinking spending plan for the fourth year in a row.
The full veto list was not immediately available following DeSantis’ budget signing news conference. The new budget goes into effect Wednesday.
In exercising his veto pen, DeSantis quipped, “I’m not trying to set a record here at this point. I’ve been there, done that. I have that T-shirt.”
In 2022, DeSantis vetoed a record-breaking $3.1 billion from the state budget.
DeSantis said he vetoed items that he either considered “either inappropriate or maybe nice to have.”
“Nice to have is fine,” DeSantis said. “I want to fund things that we have to have.”
Without giving any details, DeSantis also said he vetoed funding for “organizations that just don’t share the vision of the state of Florida.”
“If you have a more politicized vision that’s contrary to ours, that’s fine. It’s a free country, but we’re not going to want to fund that if it’s something that we don’t think is good,” DeSantis said.
During his news conference, DeSantis also said he vetoed security funding for Miami-Dade Catholic schools, pointing out that they already received $15 million in taxpayer-funded vouchers.
One item that survived DeSantis’ vetoes was $4 million for the descendants of the Groveland Four, a group of young men who were falsely accused of rape in Lake County in 1949.
“There’s historical precedent for when you’re righting wrongs to be able to do the claims,” DeSantis said Monday. “I know I talked with a lot of members of both the Senate leadership and the Black Caucus, they felt strongly about it and so we were supportive.”
DeSantis posthumously pardoned the Groveland Four in 2019.
The Governor touted the state’s spending plan as investing billions to speed up road construction projects around the state, increasing teacher pay and major investments for cancer research.
The new budget also sets aside $665 million for restoring the Everglades.
“This funding also includes what is needed to complete the state portion of the EAA Reservoir, the central and critical piece of the Everglades restoration puzzle that is set to be realized five years ahead of schedule,” The Everglades Foundation said.
“Beyond the funding impacts of this budget alone, this budget adds to the historic amount of funding that has been secured for restoration under the leadership of Governor DeSantis.”
DeSantis highlighted that the budget sets aside an estimated $18 billion in reserves.
“That rainy-day fund has more than tripled since I took office in 2019,” DeSantis said.
At Monday’s budget news conference, DeSantis also said he is vetoing a sovereign immunity bill that would have increased the amount of money local governments and the state pay in negligence lawsuits. The bill would have increased the cap from $200,000 to $350,000 per person and $300,000 to $500,000 per incident.
DeSantis said he was vetoing the bill because the current system “disincentivizes frivolous lawsuits,” and he feared that more suits would be brought.
He also pointed out that Florida already has an exemption where a claims bill can be filed, allowing people to recover beyond the damages cap.
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