{"id":323873,"date":"2026-06-29T22:08:48","date_gmt":"2026-06-29T22:08:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/323873\/"},"modified":"2026-06-29T22:08:48","modified_gmt":"2026-06-29T22:08:48","slug":"desantis-vetoes-1-7-billion-signs-state-budget","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/323873\/","title":{"rendered":"DeSantis vetoes $1.7 billion, signs state budget"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Florida\u2019s Governor Ron DeSantis signed the 2026-27 state budget Monday morning in Hillsborough County. The governor exercised his <a href=\"https:\/\/flgov.com\/eog\/sites\/default\/files\/shared\/2026\/06\/2026%20Veto%20List.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">veto power to eliminate $1.7 billion<\/a> from the proposed budget, including nearly $810 million in line-item vetoes.<\/p>\n<p>The Florida Legislature sent its $116 billion budget proposal to DeSantis in late May; the governor had until July 1 \u2013 the start of the next fiscal year \u2013 to approve it, or issue line-item vetoes.<\/p>\n<p>\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<p>It was the eighth and final state budget finalized under DeSantis\u2019 two terms as governor.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI am proud to leave Florida better positioned than ever to meet future challenges while preserving the freedom and prosperity that have made the state the nation\u2019s model for effective conservative governance,\u201d he said in a letter to Secretary of State Cord Byrd announcing the signing.<\/p>\n<p>Noteworthy local vetoes include:\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Pinellas County PACE expansion, 250 new slots: $3,939,123<br \/>\nPinellas County Lealman Exchange hurricane hardening: $2,000,000<br \/>\nClearwater Elevate Bayshore: $1,000,000<br \/>\nMadeira Beach Area 6 Roadway Improvement Project: $1,000,000<br \/>\nEvara Health, Addressing Medical Workforce Shortage in Florida: $750,000<br \/>\nTampa Bay Watch Shoreline Protection and Water Quality Improvements: $750,000<br \/>\nPinellas County PACE expansion, 50 new slots: $590,869<br \/>\nSt. Petersburg Childs Park Storm Drainage Improvements: $500,000<br \/>\nRedington Beaches Fire Suppression Unit: $500,000<br \/>\nSt. Petersburg Police Department K-9 Facility: $350,000<br \/>\nTarpon Springs Pinellas Trail Culvert Project: $175,708<br \/>\nSafety Harbor City Hall Security Improvements: $160,000<br \/>\nAMPLIFY Clearwater Chamber Foundation\u2019s Young Entrepreneurs Academy: $140,500<\/p>\n<p>This is a developing story.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Florida\u2019s Governor Ron DeSantis signed the 2026-27 state budget Monday morning in Hillsborough County. The governor exercised his&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":323874,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[202,204,203,199,201,200],"class_list":["post-323873","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-st-petersburg","tag-st-pete","tag-st-pete-headlines","tag-st-pete-news","tag-st-petersburg","tag-st-petersburg-headlines","tag-st-petersburg-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/323873","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=323873"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/323873\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/323874"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=323873"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=323873"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=323873"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}