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Monday, April 6, 2020

DeSantis does not sign budget, cuts inevitably coming.

The budget which included a paltry raise for teachers and generous allocations to vouchers and charters has set on DeSantis's desk for weeks with no signs of being signed.

From News4Jax.com

Gov. Ron DeSantis said he isn’t in a rush to review the $93.2 billion budget or nearly 200 other bills recently approved by the Legislature as he focuses on the fight against COVID-19.

DeSantis also told reporters Wednesday that the state might not have to dip deep into its nearly $4 billion in reserves with President Donald Trump declaring earlier in the day that a major disaster exists in Florida.

“I’m just going to let the budget sit for now. I’m not going to start vetoing everything, and I’m not going to sign it yet,” DeSantis said. “Let’s see where we are, and let’s kind of see how the situation unfolds. This is a constant thing where you are reassessing everything you know.”


The truth is we know whats coming and that is revenues are going to crater. The real question is will the state's reverse cover the shortfall and my guess is no, which means cuts are going to be required and sadly education is always the first to be cut.

One thing DeSantis has not backed down on was a half billion in tax rebates for some of the wealthiest companies in Florida.

From the Suwanee Democrat,

“The hit to the budget will just simply be an effect of what happens with the economy,” DeSantis said. “How does this thing turn? When does it turn? So, we are going to monitor that and see how the next few weeks turn out. Then we’ll make a decision on that.”
The governor did say, however, he does not plan to veto or delay the budget’s $543 million in corporate tax refunds due in six weeks, noting lawmakers committed to issuing them by May 1 two years ago.
“The corporate taxpayers who are entitled to receive these automatic tax refunds under the law have anticipated these refunds and have likely made business decisions around them,” DeSantis spokesman Ryan Ash said. “At a time when businesses are being pinched with closures and reduced revenues, these automatic tax refunds will inject capital back to employers when they need those dollars to continue operations and employment.”

Lets be clear this is not money the companies expected and its a choice that Florida has made.

From the Orlando Sentinel, 

Florida is about to give more than $500 million to some of its biggest corporations. 
That’s enough to more than double state funding for pre-kindergarten, where Florida currently ranks in the bottom 10 in the country. It’s more than the state will spend this year combating toxic algal blooms, fighting the opioid epidemic, buying conservation land, subsidizing adoptions and rebuilding beaches -- combined. 

The mammoth tax cut is a result of an obscure law passed by the Republican-controlled Florida Legislature last year amid lobbying by companies such as Anheuser-Busch InBev SA, Comcast Corp. and the Walt Disney Co. 

Lawmakers said at the time that the tax cut probably wouldn’t amount to much.


You know because those companies really need the money.

The health care system which has seen massive cuts, the unemployment system which a republican strategist described as a sh*t show and the shoddy treatment of education should all show people the GOP in Tallahassee does not have the states people's interests at heart. Cuts are going to come friends, and Florida has a history of hitting the people and institutions that can afford it the least first. Lets not let that happen again.

To read more, click the links, 

Health Care,

Unemployment,

2 comments:

  1. Our own senator, Kelli Stargel, is one who said the corporate tax cuts "wouldn't amount to much."
    That does not pass common sense. When did Disney (owner of ABC, ESPN and other tv networks) lobby for a tax cut that didn't amount to a lot?

    ReplyDelete
  2. When will people realize the tax burden, both with the states, red ones anyway, and the federal government, when republicans run it, is slowly and methodically being transferred in it's almost entirety to people.

    ReplyDelete