Gov. Ron DeSantis stayed true to his prediction of vetoing half a billion dollars from the Florida budget that begins Tuesday, including $8.5 million earmarked for Alachua County projects.
DeSantis signed the budget Monday, with less than a day before the new fiscal year. The governor said the budget, finished after an “extensive” legislative session, mirrored the bottom line and priorities he outlined in his proposed budget released in February.
Line-item vetoes killed $576 million in projects. These were projects the Florida Legislature wanted to fund. Alachua County was slated to get more than $230 million, but the majority of that went to UF, Santa Fe College and state departments. Allocations for city, county and community projects totaled around $26 million.
For Alachua County, the following projects were vetoed:
- City of Newberry Electric System Resiliency Project: $350,000
- High Springs police station: $250,000
- City of Alachua Wastewater Treatment Facility Expansion: $225,000
- Dance Alive National Ballet Center for the Arts: $475,000
- Gainesville Southwest Public Safety Services Center: $1,170,500
- Girl Scouts of Gateway Council Camp Kateri Capital Project: $400,000
- City of High Springs North-West Alachua County Utility Improvements: $250,000
- Alachua County Jail – Capital Efficiency Analysis: $225,000
- Save Florida Waters, Inc. Northern Springs Restoration Project: $250,000
- Department of Agriculture’s Doyle Conner Building (Gainesville) Renovation and Construction: $4.9 million
With the budget, DeSantis approved sales tax holidays and made some items sales-tax-free permanently.
A back-to-school sales tax holiday will happen every August and applies to clothing under $100, school supplies under $50, learning aids under $30 and personal computers under $1,500.
Event tickets, state park admissions, life jackets, sunscreen, bike helmets and insect repellent will be permanently exempt from sales tax “so families can enjoy all the outdoor fun Florida has to offer.”
The permanent exemptions also include disaster preparedness items like batteries, portable generators, tarps, gas cans, smoke detectors and carbon monoxide detectors.
A “Second Amendment” sales tax holiday will occur this year from Sept. 8 through Dec. 31 and include bows, firearms, ammunition, tents, sleeping bags, camping stoves, fishing rods and reels, tackle boxes and bait and tackle.
DeSantis also signed off on the removal of the business rent tax, estimated to annually collect $904 million. Florida is currently the only state that levies this tax.
A press release from the governor’s office highlighted that Florida has reduced spending for the second year in a row while growing emergency reserves and paying off $830 million in an accelerated debt initiative.
He needs that money for his Alligator Alcatraz project.
I’m so proud of our alligators for helping us deter unwanted and illegal individuals to come to our United States. If you don’t want to come here and go through the appropriate process or have a criminal background then suffer the consequences whatever they may be at your own risk. I’m willing to pay for my family and communities safety period
I’m rather surprised that he cut the $350,000 for the City of Newberry; those folks are DeSantis’ people.
The other vetoes were, considering our governor, pretty predictable:
[Warning: the remainder of this comment is meant to be ironic]
e.g., wastewater treatment facilities don’t really need to be expanded; our springs really don’t need to be restored; Gainesville can do without a Public Safety Services Center, etc.. As for items that involve organizations such as Girl Scouts and Dance Alive: that’s just “fancy stuff,” not needed, if they want more money, they can just sell more cookies.
People need to wake up and vote the buffoons out of office.
True. But there are now 5,522,017 registered buffoons in Florida, far more than any other party and more than the NPAs. So the buffoons are in charge now and for the foreseeable future.
This is so very sad. We are losing our country to the “I could care less” crowd who have no empathy, conscience or soul.
Love the old photo they use of the governor. That’s my big brother behind him looking so serious after making his speech! lol
Alachua does not need $225K for wastewater anything. They just voted to spend over a half a million dollars on the worthless 30 by 60 foot Theater Park downtown. They obviously have plenty of money and can pay for their own sewer plant. The state does not need to subsidize them from their own bad decisions.