Axed: $1 million for a proposed AgriCenter at the South Florida Fairgrounds, west of West Palm Beach, which would also serve as a special-needs emergency shelter able to withstand Category 5 hurricane winds.
Approved: $3 million for pedestrian-safety improvements, lighting, landscaping and resiliency work to prevent flooding on Breakers Avenue near State Road A1A in Fort Lauderdale.
Axed: $500,000 for a pedestrian and bicycle underpass on Spanish River Boulevard in Boca Raton, to improve safety for people attempting to cross near Interstate 95 where a new highway interchange has increased traffic and made crossing more difficult.
Approved: $3 million for the LeMieux Center for Public Policy at Palm Beach Atlantic University in West Palm Beach, whose namesake, former U.S. Sen. George LeMieux, is a major Republican Party political player.
Axed: $550,000 to help repair the International Fishing Pier in Deerfield Beach, which was severely damaged by Hurricane Nicole storm surges in 2022.
The spending decisions came from Gov. Ron DeSantis, who has the final say on the state budget for the fiscal year beginning July 1. The Legislature passed the budget in March. On June 12, DeSantis signed $116.5 billion in government spending into law.
As he approved the vast majority of the spending authorized by the Legislature, DeSantis vetoed money for hundreds of arts and culture projects; eliminated funding for part of the Legislature’s operations, forcing leaders to come up with a stopgap workaround; and zeroed-out hundreds of community initiatives added by state senators and state representatives.
His vetoes totaled $949.6 million — just enough to bring the total of the new budget below the level of the current year’s projected spending.
The Republican governor used his veto message to depict himself as fiscally prudent, writing that the budget “reflects less overall spending for the upcoming fiscal year, emphasizing the fiscal soundness and security of Florida under my leadership. … Few other governments in the world can claim they are reducing overall spending at a time when governments only seem to know how to grow, bloat, and waste.”
State Sen. Lori Berman, a Palm Beach County Democrat, sees another factor. “I think it is very political. I think that he is trying to set himself up for a potential 2028 presidential run. And he wants to show that he is going to be very, very fiscally conservative,” Berman said. “What people need to realize is that it’s hurting our infrastructure, it’s hurting our cultural arts. And I think there are real negatives to making political gestures.”
Underpasses
Examples of the kinds of projects eliminated by DeSantis’s veto pen are pedestrian underpasses in Broward and Palm Beach counties.
A budget document said the proposed $500,000 for proposed tunnel under Spanish River Boulevard and El Rio Trail for bicyclists and pedestrians is needed to remedy an “unsafe condition for the existing crosswalk” because the relatively new connection to I-95 increased traffic volumes.
The location is where the entrance to Florida Atlantic University, the Interstate 95 ramps and the Boca Raton Airport converge.
“I’m really sad about the tunnel,” said state Rep. Peggy Gossett-Seidman, a Palm Beach County Republican, who said the state money would have covered half the cost. “We’ll find another way.”
DeSantis also vetoed $500,000 to design a pedestrian underpass under Hiatus Road to “provide safe pedestrian connectivity” among the Miramar Town Center, the Miramar Park of Commerce and a future mixed-use development called “The Park Miramar.”
Budget requests said it would reduce congestion on Red Road, Miramar Parkway and Hiatus Road and promote walkability and reduce emissions.
The Boca Raton underpass was sponsored by Republican Gossett-Seidman and Democrat Berman. The Miramar underpass was sponsored by Senate Minority Leader Lauren Book, a Broward Democrat, and state Rep. Felicia Robinson, a Broward/Miami-Dade County Democrat.
Need or turkey?
Besides the big-ticket items such as spending for education, the budget included a long list of local projects added by lawmakers throughout the state.
The merit is often in the eye of the beholder.
Florida TaxWatch, which describes itself as “an independent, nonpartisan, nonprofit taxpayer research institute and government watchdog,” praised DeSantis for vetoing 219 of the 450 appropriations the organization labeled as budget “turkeys.”
Those are projects added to the budget by lawmakers, typically without having gone through significant review that would evaluate its merits, especially compared to other ways the same money could be spent.
TaxWatch also applauded his vetoing another 283 items it had recommended he review with “especially close security.”
Among the projects TaxWatch labeled “turkeys” that DeSantis approved: $375,000 for security upgrades at the Holocaust Documentation & Education Center in Dania Beach. It was sponsored by two Broward Democrats, Book and state Rep. Hillary Cassel
Legislators defend the projects as ways that specific communities can secure money for what they regard as important local needs. And they allow senators and representatives to show the public that they have the juice in Tallahassee to get things done.
About $54 million in specified projects were in the budget for Broward and Palm Beach counties; DeSantis vetoed about half. That doesn’t include everything in the budget for a particular reason. Sometimes the name of the item isn’t sufficient to identify the location.
Political reactions
Party affiliation didn’t guarantee the outcome. Republicans like Gossett-Seidman and state Rep. Chip LaMarca of Broward didn’t get all their projects approved. “I think we did fairly well,” LaMarca said.
Democrats like Berman, Book, state Rep. Marie Woodson of Hollywood and state Sen. Jason Pizzo, who represents parts of Broward and Miami-Dade counties and becomes Senate Democratic leader in November, all had some projects that got the green light.
Republicans emphasized their projects that their party’s governor approved and downplayed those that were vetoed.
“We were very lucky. And I would say a majority of my key appropriations were funded. We lost a few,” Gossett-Seidman said.
Among those she cited is an appropriation of $270,500 for Lake Worth Lagoon seagrass rehabilitation. The project will utilize nursery-grown seagrasses for planting in designated natural and restoration areas, budget documents said. It will then be assessed as a potential component of future large-scale restoration projects within Lake Worth Lagoon.
Republican LaMarca had multiple projects approved, including the Breakers Avenue money, which was also sponsored by Democrat Pizzo.
LaMarca said the Breakers Avenue project could get started “fairly quickly” because the city of Fort Lauderdale and Broward County are ready to go on the project that would cost $12 million, with a quarter of the total coming from the state.
He said it would help “put some new life into an area that should have some investment.”
Another approved LaMarca-Pizzo effort provides $110,000 for the Friendship Grill job skills training program at the Las Olas Chabad Jewish Center in Fort Lauderdale, which provides culinary training and other assistance to people with autism and developmental and intellectual disabilities.
An approved LaMarca-Book project provides $250,000 to help the Museum of Science and Discovery and the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission establish “interpretive installations” at three sites in Broward highlighting land, water, wildlife and people.
(A separate allocation of $500,000 for the Museum of Discovery and Science was eliminated when DeSantis vetoed $32 million in spending on arts and cultural organizations, reducing their allocations to zero.)
Democrats decried the vetoes, but also sought to highlight their projects that remained in the budget.
State Sen. Marie Woodson, a Hollywood Democrat, had projects signed and vetoed.
“It’s unfortunate that he would cut those projects out of the budget. Whatever the reasons, I don’t know,” she said. “Why would he veto some and not veto others?”
Pizzo told WFOR-Ch. 4 that he had 23 projects in the budget and 12 were vetoed.
Berman said she had 31 projects in the budget, and 16 were vetoed. One of the vetoes was the shelter at the fairgrounds, which she said would have provided space for people with autism and developmental disabilities.
“We know that people with autism and developmental disabilities have unique requirements. This was really going to make it so they could come to these shelters and be comfortable and in an emergency situation be able to stay there” until the emergency has passed, Berman said.
State Sen. Bobby Powell, D-West Palm Beach, was sharply critical of DeSantis’s vetoes.
“The people who can least afford these cuts to vital infrastructure, maintenance, and educational programs and projects are the ones who suffered the greatest losses,” Powell said in a statement. “These callous and cruel cuts weren’t delivered by a man who weighed the pros and cons before axing a project. These cuts were made by a man who caters to the select few who bolster his political ambitions, and ignores the majority left to fend for themselves.
Water
DeSantis vetoed a large number of water projects.
He said a $500 million funding mechanism now in place at the state Department of Environmental Protection would be able to handle the request.
Earlier this year the Legislature passed and DeSantis signed a law earmarking the state’s share of profits from expanded gambling offerings by the Seminole Tribe of Florida for improving the state’s water quality.
Berman said she was disappointed by water-related vetoes. Mid-June flooding was so heavy in some areas that DeSantis declared a state of emergency in five counties, including Broward and Miami-Dade, which Berman said reinforced that “figuring out how to make sure our water system works properly should be a priority.”
Gossett-Seidman said the potential to fund water-related projects through the new program makes sense. “The DEP has quite a good fund set aside for water projects,” she said.
Veto list
— Member projects vetoed in Broward and Palm Beach counties include:
— Spanish River Boulevard – El Rio Trail Underpass, $500,000
— South Florida AgriCenter and Emergency Shelter, $1 million
— City of Fort Lauderdale Sidewalk Repairs & ADA Upgrades, $1.5 million
— Riverland Road Traffic Safety Improvements – Fort Lauderdale, $60,000
— Broward County Student Athlete Mentoring Expansion Program, $250,000
— Broward Sheriff’s Office Substance Use Disorder Co-Responder Program, $82,375.
— Broward Senior Support Services, $250,000
— Coconut Creek South Potable Water Line Retrofit Project, $75,000
— Cooper City Hiatus Road Traffic Safety Improvement – Phase II, $470,000
— City of Coral Springs – Public Safety Improvements, $500,000
— City of Coral Springs – Everglades Greenway Loop, $800,000
— Davie – Shenandoah Drainage Improvements, $200,000
— Deerfield Beach International Fishing Pier Repairs, $550,000
— Hillsboro Beach Water Treatment Plant Improvement Project, $375,000
— City of Hollywood – New Police Headquarters Backup Generator, $400,000
— Lauderdale-by-the-Sea Public Safety Facility Design, $1 million
— Lauderdale Lakes Fire Station Walk-in Triage Phase, $389,000
— North Lauderdale Regional Training & Emergency Operations Center, $250,000
— Lauderhill Lift Station #25 Reconstruction Relocation, $750,000
— Margate 800MHz Radio Tower Repair Upgrades, $ 300,000
— Margate Front Line Rescue and Aerial Truck, $372,007
— Miramar Real Time Crime Center Phase III, $200,000
— Miramar Real Time Crime Center Phase III, $50,000
— Miramar Citywide Canal Embankment Improvements, $350,000
— Miramar Citywide Streetlight Improvements, $300,000
— Miramar Town Center – Pedestrian Underpass, $500,000
— Parkland Fire Rescue and Alarm Control Panel Improvements, $250,000
—Town of Pembroke Park Hardening / Mitigation Improvements for Town Police Facility, $562,000
— Pembroke Pines Utility Emergency Operations Center, $400,000
— Old Plantation Water Control District Stormwater Pump Stations Rehabilitation and Automation, $500,000
— Pompano Beach NW 16th Lane Stormwater Project, $500,000
— Southwest Ranches SW 163rd Avenue Drainage Improvement, $435,080
— Sunrise Fire Rescue Regional Highway Response Equipment, $400,000
— 94th Avenue Traffic and Pedestrian Safety Improvements – Tamarac, $ 716,533
— Weston Wastewater Lift Stations Hardening and Rehabilitation, $550,000
— Wilton Manors Transparency In Public Safety Project, $500,000
— Wellington – Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office Substation, $500,000
— Palm Beach County Food Bank – Rural Community Mobile Food Pantry, $125,000
— Palm Beach County Green Cay Phase 2, $500,000
— Palm Beach County Loxahatchee Slough Habitat Restoration Phase II, $90,000
— Zoological Society of the Palm Beaches Inc. Zoo Wetlands & Ecosystem, $ 750,000
— Fixed Capital Outlay – Palm Beach Zoo Safety And Security Upgrades, $100,000
— County Road 880 in Palm Beach County, $2 million
— City of Palm Beach Gardens RCA Boulevard Roadway Improvements, $400,000
— Royal Palm Beach – Park Road North Pedestrian and Parking Upgrades, $ 500,000
— Palm Beach County Fire Rescue Water Vessels for Hazard Mitigation, $385,000
— West Palm Beach Fire Department – Contaminant Reduction Project, $116,000
— City of Belle Glade Sidewalk Replacement, $250,000
— City of Belle Glade Structure Demolition, $200,000
— Boynton Beach Lake Shore Bridge Canal Project, $591,066
— Boynton Beach Sky Lake Neighborhood Road Resurfacing, $1 million
— Boynton Beach 911 Communications Center Generator Replacement, $ 600,000
— Delray Beach North Swinton Avenue roadway and underground utility improvements, $750,000
— SW 8th Avenue Roadway Restoration – Delray Beach, $500,000
— Jupiter Community Web-cams, $411,245
— Ocean Ridge Water Valve Project, $250,000
— Mangonia Park Water Plant Modernization and Expansion, $750,000
— Riviera Beach – Shore, Palm, Riviera Drive Pavement Restoration, $ 350,000
— Riviera Beach Design and Demolition of existing Fire Station on Singer Island, $500,000
— Wellington – Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office Substation, $500,000
Anthony Man can be reached at aman@sunsentinel.com and can be found @browardpolitics on Bluesky, Threads, Facebook and Mastodon.
