By Gray Rohrer, The News Service of Florida<\/p>\n
Gov. Ron DeSantis signed his eighth and final budget (HB 5001E) of his tenure Monday, vetoing $810 million from a $117.6 billion spending plan.<\/p>\n
The move came two days before the fiscal year was set to begin, after lawmakers\u2019 battle over the amount of spending led to a stalemate that required a special session in May to settle. The main budget was $114.5 billion before the vetoes, with lawmakers adding more funding to cover items addressed in the previous budget.\u00a0<\/p>\n
After an infusion of federal stimulus funds during the COVID-19 pandemic, DeSantis has touted a reduction in the budget for four straight years, as well as reduction in the state debt and a decrease of 1,300 state worker from when he first took office in 2019.<\/p>\n
\u201cWho else is doing that?\u201d DeSantis said at a bill signing event at Hillsborough Community College in Tampa. \u201cThe footprint of government is not growing in Florida. If anything it\u2019s shrinking.\u201d<\/p>\n
DeSantis\u2019 office released the veto list several hours after he announced it. He vetoed $810 million in spending, as well as a $750 million transfer from the state\u2019s main fund to a budget stabilization fund.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe things that we vetoed, a lot of those are just either inappropriate or maybe nice to have. Nice to have is fine, but I want to fund things that we have to have,\u201d DeSantis said.<\/p>\n
He also said he vetoed a companion budget bill (HB 5403E), which would have required $50 million in funding each year for the next 40 years for capital projects for the corrections system. The bill also required construction of a new 600-bed corrections hospital and bonds to be issued to pay for it.<\/p>\n
There were also provisions in the main budget bill (HB 5001E) that tied $91 million in pay increases for corrections officers to the approval of the prisons bill, so those salary hikes are also nixed.<\/p>\n
Another $24.9 million in prison repairs, and $56.4 million for new prison cells at Lancaster Correctional Institution in Gilchrist County were tied to the approval of the HB 5403E and fell to DeSantis\u2019 veto.<\/p>\n
The money for new prisons and maintenance at corrections facilities would have come from a debt reduction fund, which DeSantis has highlighted throughout his term as governor.<\/p>\n
DeSantis said that while he supported the hikes in pay for prison guards in recent budgets to help retain and recruit employees to an agency plagued with turnover, the extensive borrowing required by the bill led him to quash it.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a casualty of saying, \u2018Okay, we\u2019re going to rob Peter to pay Paul,\u2019\u201d DeSantis said. \u201cThat accounts for a decent chunk of the vetoes.\u201d<\/p>\n
In other parts of the budget, there\u2019s more than $30 billion for K-12 schools, or about $9,338 per student, about $150 more than the prior year. That includes about $4.5 billion for the state\u2019s school vouchers program, which pays parents a stipend to send their children to private schools or for homeschooling.<\/p>\n
The funding also sets aside $1.5 billion to boost teacher pay, with more than $201 million for teachers with at least 10 years of experience, although the increase will be capped at $3,000 per year.<\/p>\n
There is also $665 million for Everglades restoration projects, another priority for DeSantis throughout his two terms in office.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis budget continues to move Everglades restoration forward so that Floridians \u2013 and those that visit our great state \u2013 can realize the ultimate benefits ahead of schedule,\u201d said Everglades Trust CEO Anna Upton in a released statement. \u201cRestoring the natural flow of water south through the Everglades and decreasing harmful discharges from Lake Okeechobee will mean that Florida\u2019s economy, which relies on clean water, will continue to thrive.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Gray Rohrer, The News Service of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed his eighth and final budget (HB…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":232609,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[232,234,233],"class_list":["post-323718","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tallahassee","tag-tallahassee","tag-tallahassee-headlines","tag-tallahassee-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/323718","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=323718"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/323718\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/232609"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=323718"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=323718"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=323718"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}