Money for Public Safety, Flood Projects Vetoed by DeSantis

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(TNS) – 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.