TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Florida will spend a little bit less next year. Wednesday afternoon, Gov. Ron DeSantis signed off on the $116.5 billion state budget. That’s about a billion less than what Florida lawmakers sent him during the legislative session and a hair lower than our current fiscal year’s budget.
Highlights included more than $1.5 billion in tax relief through sales tax holidays and other programs like toll credit. There are more per-student allocations for public schools than the current year, plus an additional $200M for teacher salaries. The My Safe Florida Home Grant Program, which can help Floridians harden homes and cut insurance rates, getting refilled with $200 million. There’s more than $232 million dedicated to cancer research funding. The governor signed off on $1.5 billion for environmental and water projects like Everglades restoration. Plus — $17 million more for a third year of the Law Enforcement Recruitment Bonus Program.
“Historic support for education, historic support for conservation and environment and protecting natural resources, historic support for transportation and infrastructure and major tax relief,” said the governor while speaking in Tampa, Wednesday. “All the while the budget is actually spending less than we did last year. Aren't you happy to see that?”
But what about the near $1 billion in cuts DeSantis eliminated with his line-item pen? According to the official document, DeSantis is eliminating $949,611,399. Of that, $766,287,757 is general revenue and $183,323,642 are trust dollars.
Florida’s fiscal conservatives cheered the cuts and touted the $17 billion expected to remain for budgetary reserves.
"The balanced budget signed today by Gov. Ron DeSantis reflects Florida’s diverse needs & prepares us well for the future,” said House Speaker Paul Renner in a post on social media site X. “I am grateful for [Appropriations] Chair Rep. Tom Leek’s diligent work in collaboration with his team & Senate partners to craft a responsible budget that Floridians can be proud of.”
Democrats in the Florida House were not as happy.
“Unfortunately, it is largely as expected,” wrote one official in an email to staff and members. “It appears the Governor vetoed 121Democratic member projects totaling over $80 million which was more than half of the total value of member projects House Democrats had in the budget.”
By contrast, the email said, Republicans “only lost about 25% of the value of their member projects.”
The full veto list is 16 pages in length, but based on value alone here are some of the biggest cuts:
- Pensacola State College - Training Center-Pensacola (HF 1233) (SF 1193) -- $13.4 million
- FGCU -Reed Hall Renovations -- $11.6 million
- University of West Florida - Science and Engineering Research Wing - Phase II (HF 2817) (SF 1203)-- $26.2 million
- Jacksonville U. GROW Nurses program -- $2.9 million
- Menstrual Hygiene Products Grant Program pursuant to section 1006.064 -- $6.4 million
- University of West Florida Water Quality Research Center -- $5 million
- New Worlds Tutoring Program -- $30 million
- Northwest Boys and Girls Club Remodel Gainesville -- $3 million
- Florida Alliance of Boys & Girls Clubs – Opioid Awareness and Prevention -- $4.6 million
- USF – Opioid Incident Response Simluation Modeling and Healthcare Professionals Training Program -- $3.9 million
- Town Center YMCA Construction (HF 3018) (SF 3647)-- $6 million
- Resuscitation Systems for EMS -- $3 million
- District 23 Medical Examiner’s Office -- $11.7 million
- Hardee County Sheriff’s Office Critical Facility Jail Project -- $2 million
- Grants And Aids To Local Governments And Nonstate Entities - Fixed Capital Outlay - Florida State Fair Authority -- $12 million
- Flagler County Septic to Sewer Conversions and Water Treatment Expansion -- $10.1 million
- Lump Sum - Legislative Support Services - Senate -- $28 million
- Lump Sum - Legislative Support Services - House -- $28 million
- Palm Coast Regional Rapid Infiltration Basin Expansion -- $5 million
- City of Bradenton – Transportation Safety Improvements -- $5 million
- Wauchula Municipal Airport Improvements -- $5 million
- Orlando International Airport Ops Center - $5 million
- State Group Insurance (Florida College System) -- $80 million
- Transitional Homeless Family Housing (SF 3161) -- $3.5 million
- Crystal River Government Center Phase 2 -- $10 million
- Pinellas and Pasco Affordable Homeownership Initiative -- $3 million
- St. Johns Central Public Safety Station -- $7.5 million
- Special Categories - Grants And Aids - Cultural And Museum Grants -- $26 million
- Grants And Aids To Local Governments And Nonstate Entities - Fixed Capital Outlay - Grants And Aids - Special Categories - Cultural Facilities Program -- $6 million
Governor DeSantis Signs the 2024-2025 "Focus on Florida's Future" Budget https://t.co/viOYu1nMte
— Ron DeSantis (@GovRonDeSantis) June 12, 2024
You can check out the full veto list below:
FY 2024-25 Florida Budget V... by ABC Action News
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