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By
Lawrence Mower | Times staff
The traditional hanky drop that signifies the end of the legislative session took place in a packed rotunda on Friday. [ ALICIA DEVINE | AP ]
TALLAHASSEE — Gov. Ron DeSantis has presidential-size ambitions this year, and state lawmakers gave him a budget to match.
With the governor potentially days away from announcing an expected run for president in 2024, legislators on Friday approved a record $117 billion spending plan that gives DeSantis another political springboard into the race.
Friday was the final day of the legislative session, and lawmakers assigned tens of millions of dollars to pursue DeSantis’ political goals — from reshaping New College of Florida to flying migrants around the country. They’re assigning millions more to fend off the inevitable lawsuits that will follow.
Lawmakers also continued to expand the executive branch, which has seen its budget grow nearly 600% since DeSantis took office.
DeSantis’ “big-government” conservatism has prompted Republican lawmakers to open up the checkbook, spending billions to expand social programs, preserve the environment and give state workers pay raises.
The spending even has the approval of Democrats, who voted unanimously for the budget on Friday.
Republican leaders have justified the spending by pointing to the state’s booming sales tax revenues. They are required to pass a balanced budget, so if the revenue is there, they can spend it. The state has also been helped by billions of federal dollars from the Biden administration.
“People say we’re spending money left and right,” said Sen. Debbie Mayfield, R-Melbourne. “But our economy is growing and we have the money to spend, and we’re spending it all in the right places.”
DeSantis’ agenda
Lawmakers funded nearly every DeSantis agenda item this year.
They approved another $12 million to continue DeSantis’ migrant flights, even though the program has only financed one trip that flew 49 migrants to Martha’s Vineyard last year. They’re assigning $109 million to expand DeSantis’ Florida State Guard, although Republican senators were doubting a few weeks ago that the fledgling agency could spend that much.
Lawmakers are also supporting DeSantis’ wish to impose conservative ideology on the state’s education system.
A plan to offer every K-12 school-age child in Florida a voucher or education saving account, regardless of family income, comes with a projected total cost of $2.2 billion.
New College of Florida is receiving $25 million to recruit faculty and students and offer salary increases to its top deputies. The influx comes months after DeSantis picked a group of hard-line conservative loyalists to shake up the liberal arts college.
“We are investing in New College,” House Higher Education Appropriations Subcommittee chairperson Jason Shoaf, R-Port St. Joe, said Thursday. “The governor has put a lot of emphasis on making sure that all of our institutions are at peak performance.”
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Limited government?
In his latest book, DeSantis makes no mention of the need to reduce the size of government but instead elaborates on his strategy of using expansive government power to protect individual freedoms against what he called the “woke mind virus.”
DeSantis’ philosophy is a shift from two decades ago, when Jeb Bush was governor and the Republican-led Legislature proudly cut over $1 billion on a $50 billion budget.
Continues:
https://www.tampabay.com/news/florid...cord-spending/
https://www.lewrockwell.com/political-theatre/desantis/
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Originally Posted by Matt Collins
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