TALLAHASSEE – It’s been 40 days since Florida emergency management officials missed their deadline to document for the Legislature how they spent the millions of dollars in state funds allocated to them each year.
Now, a dozen state Democratic lawmakers are demanding answers for that delay as the state enters the height of hurricane season.
“This is not a complicated request,” Rep. Anna Eskamani, D-Orlando said in a written statement emailed Tuesday. “We are in the peak weeks of hurricane season and neither chamber can say with confidence what is left in the fund Florida depends on when a storm hits. Floridians deserve to know that money is there.”
The letter is addressed to state Transportation Director Jared Perdue, who was tapped by Gov. Ron DeSantis to be the acting head of the Florida Division of Emergency Management after the abrupt departure of Kevin Guthrie last week. Guthrie resigned when he was announced as Lt. Gov. Jay Collins’ running mate in the Republican gubernatorial primary. Collins lost, and Guthrie has taken a job in Indiana.
“We would like to understand what happened, and when we can expect the report,” the letter signed by 12 state senators and house members says.
The division did not respond to requests for comment Wednesday.
But at a press conference in Miami, DeSantis, when asked about the delayed report, said Perdue was working on it, adding it was largely done and just needed an “internal review” before it was released.
“I would imagine he’ll have that relatively soon,” DeSantis added.
Earler this year, the Legislature passed a bipartisan measure renewing the emergency preparedness fund created four years earlier for DeSantis to use to speed up recovery after natural disasters hit. But lawmakers added restrictions to how he and the division can spend that money after discovering he had diverted over $600 million to immigration enforcement efforts, including $573 million to build the now-defunct Alligator Alcatraz detention center last year.
The Legislature has given DeSantis $4.7 billion since 2022 for emegency preparedness.
The bill signed into law by DeSantis in March would allow funds to be spent on natural, manmade and technological disasters, but it requires approval from the Legislature’s budget commission for spending on emergenices that go beyond 60 days.
The state is also not allowed to spend that money on aircraft, boats or motor vehicles under the new law. Between 2023 and 2025, the state spent close to $30 million on helicopter engines, cargo vans and trailers, all tied to immigration enforcement efforts.
The new law also requires the governor’s office and emergency management division to file quarterly reports to the Senate President and House Speaker on how much was spent, the remaining balance or projected year-end balance, an account of federal reimbursements, and an itemized list of equipment and assets purchased. It also requires that any unspent fedreral funds be deposited in a separate account and not go back into the emergency fund.
The division said it sent the report on July 28, but the letter from the House Democrats said what was delivered were five spreadsheets “cataloguing disaster spending across several years.” That report did not include the itemized accounting of inventory, assets and invoices required by the new law and only one addressed immigration-related expenses.
The Democratic lawmakers have asked for the complete report by the end of the month, along with an explanation for the delay and a specific date they can expect the next report for the quarter that ends in September. They also asked for an accounting of all outstanding debt to contractors and a reconciliation of federal reimbursements.
“We recognize that this deadline passed before you assumed leadership of the Division, and we are not asking you to account for decisions that were not yours,” the lawmakers wrote. “We are asking you to close it out.”