State Budget Now In Gov. DeSantis’ Hands, Giving Him Two Weeks To Make Covid-Related Cuts

From the Florida Phoenix:

By Danielle J. Brown

The Florida House and Senate on Wednesday sent the $93.2 billion state budget to Gov. Ron DeSantis, exactly two weeks before it is scheduled to take effect.

The budget was presented to DeSantis on Wednesday at 10:45 a.m. Now he’s free to apply his line-item veto against spending provisions approved by the Legislature.

DeSantis has made clear that large cuts are in store because of the damage done to state tax receipts by his efforts to mitigate the COVID pandemic. He also must take into account the prospects for an active hurricane season.

During a press conference Tuesday, DeSantis warned of a budgetary bloodletting that he compared to Game of Thrones’s infamous “Red Wedding” scene.

Also potentially on the chopping block is DeSantis’ $600 million plan to boost minimum teacher pay to $47,500.

“We want to, obviously, try to deliver as many of the priorities as we can. It’s just a situation where I created a budget under certain assumptions and conditions, the Legislature did a budget under certain assumptions and conditions,” the governor said at the press conference.

This story was originally published by the Florida Phoenix. For more stories from the Florida Phoenix, visit FloridaPhoenix.com.