{"id":418079,"date":"2026-10-03T23:32:09","date_gmt":"2026-10-03T23:32:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/418079\/"},"modified":"2026-10-03T23:32:09","modified_gmt":"2026-10-03T23:32:09","slug":"amendment-1-scrambles-traditional-partisan-lines-pitting-david-jolly-and-the-florida-gop-against-ron-desantis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/418079\/","title":{"rendered":"Amendment 1 scrambles traditional partisan lines, pitting David Jolly and the Florida GOP against Ron DeSantis"},"content":{"rendered":"

Amid a rift between the Republican Party of Florida and Gov.\u00a0Ron DeSantis regarding November\u2019s Amendment 1<\/a>, Democratic gubernatorial candidate\u00a0David Jolly says he backs the ballot item that would increase the amount of money that could be kept in the budget stabilization fund<\/a>\u00a0to 25%.<\/p>\n

During a press availability Saturday, Jolly said \u201cguardrails into how it\u2019s used\u201d are necessary, and that the money shouldn\u2019t be a \u201cslush fund for the Governor.\u201d<\/p>\n

But he believes that the state is on \u201cstronger financial ground the more savings we have.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cA rainy day fund is always great, and I support raising that cap. I appreciate those who say don\u2019t do it, but it\u2019s because they don\u2019t trust our current Governor and they don\u2019t trust the guardrails. So let\u2019s raise the rainy day fund, let\u2019s put strong guardrails in place, and let\u2019s put ourselves on a strong financial footing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jolly\u2019s position on the proposal is the latest sign that it scrambles traditional partisan delineations.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The current Governor opposes the initiative that would raise the fund from today\u2019s 10%.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a foolish constitutional amendment proposal. We already have a maxed out rainy day fund and have run the largest surpluses in state history. Any additional revenue should be used for lower taxes, including assisting local governments with grants so that homestead properties can be exempt from local property tax. Surplus revenue could also be used to remove tolls once the property tax issue is settled,\u201d DeSantis said last month.<\/p>\n

Other opponents on the Democratic side include House Democratic Leader Fentrice Driskell<\/a>\u00a0and Rich Templin<\/a> of the Florida AFL-CIO, who voiced concerns ahead of passage of the legislation.<\/p>\n

Republican Party of Florida Chair Evan Power, meanwhile, says\u00a0\u201cAmendment 1 keeps Florida prepared for storms, emergencies, and downturns without raising taxes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Amendment 1 passed the Legislature via a joint resolution (HJR 5019)<\/a> that the Governor does not approve or reject like most bills. The proposal passed the House 100-1 and the Senate 29-4.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

If at least 60% of voters approve the proposal, the Legislature would be obligated to move to the fund the lesser of $750 million or the amount needed to reach the cap. This year, DeSantis vetoed<\/a> an initial $750 million transfer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Amid a rift between the Republican Party of Florida and Gov.\u00a0Ron DeSantis regarding November\u2019s Amendment 1, Democratic gubernatorial…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":418080,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[165438,165439,1813,51922,28,30,29,412],"class_list":["post-418079","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-amendment-1","tag-budget-stabilization-fund","tag-david-jolly","tag-evan-power","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news","tag-ron-desantis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/418079","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=418079"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/418079\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/418080"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=418079"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=418079"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=418079"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}