05-02-2025
DeSantis' $115B budget: Fiscal responsibility or missed opportunities?
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WFLA) — Florida Governor Ron DeSantis came out with his proposed budget, saying it focuses on fiscal responsibility. But the relationship between the Governor and the legislature has been rocky lately, so how are his proposals being received?
'The budget I've proposed has a top line of $115.6 billion, that represents a spending reduction of 3 billion over current year,' said Governor DeSantis.
'Second Amendment Summer': DeSantis unveils guns and ammo sales tax holiday
Many are aware of the continuing tensions at the statehouse between lawmakers and the Governor, but when it comes to the state's budget and being responsible with taxpayers' dollars everyone is on board.'So, we've got a lot of momentum, we need to keep the momentum going, and I am confident that this focus on fiscal responsibility will do just that,' said Governor DeSantis.
Lawmakers across chambers say there needs to be transparency and responsibility when creating the state's budget.'I think it's really great to see again that we're being very thoughtful how we're spending money. We're not trying to be in California, were not trying to spend and spend and spend. We have a surplus, we are being very conservative about how we do things, but yet we're still making large investments in education, transportation, and infrastructure,' said State Senator Jay Collins (R-Tampa).
Senator Collins is focused on transportation investments in Hillsborough County.
'In Hillsborough County, people are rolling in from all over the state all over the country, it's a growing community. We know we got to get on top of this. As the transportation Chair, that's something we're really focusing on. How can we continue to use these dollars more efficiently, more effectively and get more out of it,' said Sen. Collins.
Some lawmakers are cheering on the pay raises for law enforcement, no tuition hikes at state colleges, funding emergency response efforts, and tax holidays.
'I am very supportive of areas that we can reduce our budget. We have rapidly rising costs throughout the state, whether it's property insurance or just the price of milk and eggs. A lot of those things we don't have direct control over, right?' said State Rep. Adam Anderson (R-Palm Harbor). 'There's only so many levers that we can pull to influence those expenses. But one of them is, if we're continuously reducing the size of our government, we're continuing to extend tax cuts, renew our tax sales tax holidays. Those are areas that can continue to provide relief for Floridians.'
Several state lawmakers are interested to learn more about the Second Amendment tax holiday, while others say firearms are not an 'essential good' and see the Governor's budget proposal as a 'missed opportunity.''When it comes to the tax package, which I play a big role in as the ranking member of the ways and means committee, the Governor wants to give a tax break for ammunition and firearms, but that's not what a tax break is supposed to be for, a tax break is supposed to provide relief to families in need on essential goods,' said State Rep. Anna V. Eskamani (D-Orlando).
With the mixed reaction to the Governor's budget proposal, one thing both parties can agree on is relief after the hurricanes, making sure the My Safe Florida Home program continues.
'We unfortunately, were affected by the back-to-back one-two punch of the Hurricanes, a few a few months ago. And a lot of our residents are really still hurting from that. And that really moves to the forefront some of the issues we have with property insurance, you know, so budget wise, I'm excited to see that the Governor's proposal is increasing programs like My Safe Florida. That's a program that's had tons of success, but still a waiting list, so we need to start moving people through that program,' said State Rep. Anderson.
HEADING INTO LEGISLATIVE SESSION:
'On the health care side, there's a number of programs that we are funding but are not being used efficiently and effectively,' said State Rep. Anderson.
Heading into next session, House Representative Adam Anderson shares that on the health care front there are some oversight and accountability issues, and he would like to prioritize a way to better utilize state programs.
'I can tell you firsthand there's some legislation that I passed a couple years ago that established a grant program to provide cutting edge genetic testing to babies that were in the NICU that are on Medicaid, we allocated $3.3 million on a recurring basis, and that that program was based on a pilot study that was done in 2021 at Nicholas Children's Hospital where they studied 50 children that received this test and they studied their claims over the next 12 months and they found, that saved $2.8 million,' said Rep. Anderson.
Rep. Anderson adds that if we use the same math on the 3.3 million, we should get savings of somewhere between $70 – $80 million a year of cost savings in our healthcare system.
'Unfortunately, it's not being utilized to its full extent today, so I'm deeply focused on trying to figure out where those bottlenecks are, how do we fix that? Because we can do the right thing for these patients. Quickly diagnose them so they can get treatment and save their lives in some cases but also save taxpayers $70 – $80 million every single year,' said Rep. Anderson.
Anderson plans to introduce a bill soon for a genetic testing piolet program called, 'Sunshine Genetics' that he hopes will help position Florida as a national leader in genetics and precision medicine.
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