While Florida lawmakers and Governor Ron DeSantis have seemingly buried the hatchet in their immigration fight, legislative leaders aren’t done pushing back against him,
Lawmakers have been meeting over the last few weeks to decide which of the governor’s 2024 budget vetoes to override. After they voted during a special session last month to override a couple of the governor’s 2024 line item budget vetoes, House Speaker Daniel Perez formed four work groups to reconsider the $950 million worth of projects DeSantis cut last year.
Several of the groups already have their recommendations ready to go. One committee is recommending 22 of the 160 vetoed water infrastructure projects should receive funding. Lakewood Ranch Republican Representative Bill Conerly said the projects will have a sweeping impact across the state.
“This looks like a civil engineer’s wish list, like what they would wish for Christmas. All of these projects are very good. And the geographic span of it, and the types of projects we have septic to sewer projects, we have a member membrane bio reactor project, high service pump for frost proof, water treatment. It's just very broad, both geographically and the type of projects and the benefits,” he said.
Eight of the 60 vetoed human services projects have also been recommended for funding. In those work groups, lawmakers selected a set number of projects they believed deserved reconsideration, then discussed them over several meetings. But as Miami Republican Representative Mike Redondo points out, the workgroups are just submitting recommendations.
“We'll prepare a list of these eight projects that will be recommended to the Speaker's office for additional review, and again, they have the discretion at that point to accept, reject, modify, whatever they may want to do. But I do think that this has been a productive process for us,” he said.
But Escambia Republican Representative Michelle Salzman, who managed one of the work groups, said during a group meeting legislative leaders were hands off in the process.
“Speaker Perez had no recommendations, no input at all. He didn't come to me, call me, ask me what was happening. He really empowered each of you to make the right decisions and for us as a body to come up with this process on our own,” she said.
One of the most publicized parts of DeSantis’ vetoes was his decision to spike every allocation for arts and culture projects. The Libraries, Cultural and Historical Preservation work group recommended revoking vetoes on 6 projects. One of them is the Florida Black Music Legacy exhibit at Wells’Built Museum of African America History and Culture in Orange County.
Several lawmakers, including Fort Lauderdale Democratic Representative Daryl Campbell, wanted the project reconsidered because it was championed by Senator Geraldine Thompson, who passed away this month.
“For her, gospel was also something that she lived day in and day out. Sometimes, you could hear her humming and singing some e gospel tunes. But having had the pleasure to work with her, I think this project right here would be something that her community can utilize and reflect on as they mourn a loss of a giant in their community,” he said.
The Speaker’s office will decide which of the projects will make it in the final package of proposed veto overrides. From there, a supermajority in the House and Senate, or two thirds of lawmakers, will have to vote to override DeSantis’ veto for it to happen.
