Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) on Wednesday unveiled his budget proposal — the “Framework for Freedom Budget” — which totals $114.8 billion and reportedly includes the use of unspent coronavirus relief funds.
The budget is expansive, covering a range of areas — from $2 billion in both permanent and temporary tax relief on a variety of items to millions for tourism efforts and salary increases in a variety of sectors.
More specifically, the DeSantis budget proposal provides $1.5 million for victims of human trafficking, $9.2 million to support Florida National Guardsmen (including renewal bonuses), $124.3 million for salary increases across several “public safety” agencies (including $107.2 million to increase the Department of Corrections’ base rate of pay), $13.4 billion for the State Transportation Work Program focusing on transportation infrastructure projects across the state, $614 million focusing on projects related to Everglades restoration, $400 million to establish a Debt Reduction Program, and much more.
The budget also focuses on education, allotting $1 billion for teacher salary increases and $3.1 billion for the State University System.
“Now you look at that and you see those reserves, and that is $15.7 billion, not even accounting what the revenue is gonna look like between now and the end of June,” DeSantis said of the budget during his Wednesday press conference, explaining that they upped the estimates, and the state has still exceeded them “sometimes by a couple $100 million, sometimes by $500 million.”
“So this budget doesn’t even include February, March, April, May, June, but even being very conservative, you’re looking at another billion, billion and a half on top of this, so probably end up over $17 billion, but that’s also taking out what we just proposed earlier this week with the moving Florida Forward Initiative,” he added.
However, some have noted that DeSantis’s proposal also includes more than $400 million in unused coronavirus relief funds. According to Politico, the greatest portion of that funding — $220 million — is going toward the $1,000 bonuses for first responders,
Per the outlet:
Over the past two years, state budgets have included nearly $10 billion from the federal pandemic assistance, money that has been used to pay for some of DeSantis’ most politically divisive proposals heavily criticized by Biden and other Democrats, including the migrant flights.
Florida’s use of the funds comes on the heels of Florida Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) asking local leaders to return unused coronavirus relief funds to help reduce America’s stunning debt, which stood at $31.5 trillion at the time of his January letter.
“For over a year, I have been calling on governors and mayors across the United States to reject and return any unused federal funding from these massive and wasteful multi-trillion [sic] dollar ‘COVID’ spending packages,” Scott wrote, noting how Democrats “recklessly threw billions of taxpayer dollars into the air with no accountability,” as local officials have used the funds for projects unrelated to coronavirus relief.
He continued:
I once again urge you to make a commitment to returning unused and unneeded COVID stimulus dollars, which will serve the best interests of hard-working American taxpayers and send a clear message to Washington: politicians in Congress should quit recklessly spending taxpayer money.
DeSantis, however, rejected that plea, contending that returning the unused funds would not help reduce the debt, as Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen would likely take the funds and reallocate them to blue states.
“It doesn’t make any sense,” the governor said, according to Politico.
“If Florida were to send the money back, Yellen is going to send it to Illinois, California, New York or New Jersey. I don’t think that would make sense for Floridians — for us to be giving even more money to the blue states that already getting such a big windfall in this bill,” he added.
DeSantis’s press conference on the budget proposal:
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