DeSantis says he'll take action 'soon' on Florida budget for next year

Gov. Ron DeSantis on Tuesday said his office continues to review a $117 billion budget that lawmakers passed last month for the 2023-24 fiscal year, which starts July 1.

“We’ll put the finishing touches on this budget very, very soon,” DeSantis said during an event in Wildwood.

Lawmakers have not formally sent the budget to DeSantis, who has line-item veto power, for his final approval. 

As of Tuesday afternoon, the budget was among bills from the 2023 legislative session that had not been delivered to DeSantis. He has signed 196 bills and vetoed two, while 39 others await action.

Florida lawmakers last month passed a record yearly spending plan that covers more than 500 pages and includes high-profile issues such as money for schools, health care, environmental projects and road construction.

But also tucked inside the spending plan are more than 1,500 projects pushed by individual lawmakers and fine print that details how tax and other dollars must be used. 

Here are examples of some of the items included in the 2023-24 budget:

— $8 million for the Florida State University Institute for Politics to implement “an online accurately depicted statewide history program adhering to all state standards.”

— $6 million to design and plan “a new state office building and parking garage” at the Capital Circle Office Complex in Leon County.

— $3.35 million to expand efforts to remove Burmese pythons and other non-native fish and wildlife. The money also would go to “research and to assess risk and the efficacy of control efforts.”

— $2 million for the Cattle Enhancement Board to expand uses of Florida beef and to market the state’s cattle industry.

— $2 million to replace the Elliot Building across Monroe Street from the Capitol with a “Memorial Park.”

— $1.75 million for a meat-processing and training facility in Newberry. A funding request by Sen. Keith Perry, R-Gainesville, and Rep. Chuck Clemons, R-Newberry, said the purpose is “to serve small cattle, pig, sheep and goat ranchers within a 100-mile radius. It will also provide high-skill workforce training in butchery and other value-added meat processes in coordination with UF/IFAS and Santa Fe College.”

— $1 million for the Florida Department of Health to study “the long-term health impacts of exposure to blue green algae and red tide toxins to residents, visitors and those occupationally exposed in Florida.”

— $1 million for the Department of Children and Families to establish a pilot digital media campaign to recruit foster parents and guardian ad litem volunteers.

— $1 million for an in-state tourism marketing campaign by the Florida Restaurant and Lodging Association.

— $1 million to support aerospace and life-science projects tied to a memorandum of understanding between Space Florida and Israel.

— $500,000 to assess the progress of tire removal at Osborne Reef, an area off Broward County where millions of used tires were sunk starting in the 1970s as part of an artificial-reef project. The budget also requires development of a plan for when the “debris is removed from the reef.”

— $250,000 to improve signs along equestrian trails and another $100,000 on a website to promote those trails in places such as state parks, state forests, wildlife management areas, national forests, wildlife refuges and greenways.

— $300,000 for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission to study the impacts of spraying herbicides on wildlife habitat in Lake Okeechobee. “The study should compare spraying versus mechanical harvesting as to the effectiveness of habitat management and the effects on wildlife, including fish and bird populations,” the budget says.

— $250,000 to provide $50 bonuses to International Baccalaureate teachers for each student they teach who received scores of "C" or higher on an International Baccalaureate Theory of Knowledge subject examination.

— $150,000 for Florida State University to create the Center for Rare Earths, Critical Minerals, and Industrial Byproducts within the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory. It would evaluate Florida’s potential to produce “rare earths, critical minerals, and industrial byproducts for national security, supply-chain independence, meeting state infrastructure needs, supporting emerging industries, and other beneficial uses.”

Also Tuesday, fiscal watchdog group Florida TaxWatch released its annual list of budget “turkeys,” which focuses more on the process of putting the budget together rather than the merits of individual funding items. It hit on 218 projects totaling $598.7 million.

"The 'budget turkey' label does not signify judgment of a project’s worthiness, but rather identifies appropriations that circumvent transparency and accountability standards in public budgeting," the group said. 

The turkeys include $35 million for the Hotel Ponce de Leon in House Speaker Paul Renner’s northeast Florida district, $25 million for beach and dune restoration in Ponte Vedra Beach, DeSantis' hometown before becoming governor, and $9 million for phase 2 of the Inverness Airport Business Park.

Other large items tagged by TaxWatch fall within university and college construction, include:

— $17.5 million directed for a Workforce Development Center on the Leesburg Campus of Lake-Sumter State College.

— $30 million for Florida Atlantic University’s College of Dentistry.

— $75 million for the University of Florida’s Health and Financial Tech Graduate Education Center. 

— $10 million for Florida State University’s Veterans Legacy Complex.