Not Your Money Gov. DeSantis
- Smith
- Mar 27
- 5 min read
On Feb 3, 2025, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis announced his $115.6 billion budget for FY 2025-2026 with its “Focus on Fiscal Responsibility.”
Be wary. Given his history, the governor may not spend his budget as allocated or responsibly. As the following examples show, he has used funds not as intended to feed his culture war at the expense of Florida taxpayers. This even included supporting private school tuition for rich families at the expense of public school budgets. Here's what he didn't fund: In 2024, DeSantis upset constituents by vetoing $32M in grant funding to the state’s cultural institutions, including the Orlando Philharmonic Orchestra, reportedly for disagreeing with the content of a local Fringe Festival unaffiliated with the orchestra. So he paid for migrant flights from Texas to Massachusetts but denied funding to arts organizations that contribute to the Florida economy.
Below are examples of DeSantis's not-as-intended use of funds. They are a cautionary tale and a warning to everyone to watch what your government officials are doing--even if you can't stand watching the news or politics.
Example 1: Money earmarked to help those affected by opioids was used instead for political ads
Florida receives funds from the landmark 2021 settlement between states and opioid distributors and pharmacy chains. States typically spend the funds on addiction treatment and prevention according to an analysis published by KFF Health News. (12/16/2024)
But DeSantis spent approximately $4 million from the Settlement Trust Fund on political advertising. He wanted to defeat the proposed Amendment 3 in the 2024 election, which would have legalized cannabis for those 21 and older. The amendment was defeated.
Republicans and Democrats disagreed with that use. “…To me that is not one of expenditures that should be or one of the uses of the funds that we have from the opioid, from the Pharma settlement,” said Lee Constantine, Seminole Republican County Commissioner and member of the Statewide Council on Opioid Abatement. (Florida Phoenix, 10/30/2024)
The Miami Herald called it, ”Another example of DeSantis weaponizing state government..."(11/2/2024)
DeSantis used taxpayer money to wage a political battle at the expense of those who truly needed help.
Example 2: Migrant flights from Texas were paid for with Florida funds meant to help COVID economic recovery
DeSantis signed a bill that allocated $12 million “to create a program for transporting unauthorized migrants out of Florida.”(NY Times, 10/2/2022) In Sept 2022, DeSantis transported asylum seekers from Texas to Massachusetts by private plane with a brief stop in Crestview, Florida. None of the migrants was from Florida as the bill required.
DeSantis paid for it with interest earned from the (federal) American Rescue Plan’s Coronavirus State Fiscal Recovery Fund—money designated to help Florida families and businesses struggling with the public health and economic impact of COVID.
Those funds should have benefited suffering Floridians.
Question 3: FL taxpayers subsidize wealthy kids in private schools
Florida’s school voucher program was started in 2001 to help low-income students attend kindergarten to 12th grade private schools or public schools in a different geographic area. Florida is one of 29 states (with Washington, DC) with such a program and only one of two states (with Arizona) "with universal programs that allow students to spend state funds on unaccredited private schools.”(EducationWeek, 10/8/2022)
The program was expanded in 2023 when Gov. DeSantis signed a bill that eliminated both the income requirement and the cap on the number of students using vouchers. "Of the new students, 44% are from households that made $120,000 or more per year—more than double the median household income in the state. Only 30% are from families that make less than $55,000 per year." (NCPE, undated) Research shows that 70% of voucher recipients have never attended public school.
“When it was signed into law last year [2023], it was estimated that Florida’s ‘vouchers for everybody’ would cost between $200 million and $700 million a year.” That estimate has ballooned to $2.8 billion to $4.2 billion.(Florida Phoenix, 01/20/2022)
Meanwhile, FL currently ranks 48th in the country in public teacher pay. Vouchers drain resources from public schools and Florida’s program disproportionately helps the wealthy.
Example 4: Former Sen. Ben Sasse ran up a tab when he was the president of the University of Florida (Feb 2023 to July 2024). Gov. DeSantis helped make that happen.
Sasse was selected by the University of Florida Board of Trustees headed by a DeSantis ally, Mori Hosseini. He was reportedly shepherded through the hiring process by DeSantis’ then chief of staff, James Uthmeir. DeSantis cleared the path for Sasse’s selection by signing a law that same year that, for the first time, made much of the selection process secret.
Ben Sasse resigned 17 months into his five-year term. His off-the-chart spending on entertainment and on hiring former associates shocked the University community. Sasse spent $17.3 million his first year compared to his predecessor, Ken Fuchs, who spent $5.6 million in his last year.
This prompted an audit by the Florida Auditor General who identified overspending that included $300,000 in university funds for charter flights “with no clear business purposes”; excessive salaries for some hires; a $169,755 holiday party and a $6.4 million consulting contract “with no apparent benefits to the university’s operations,” as reported in the Florida Alligator. (02/03/2025)
The Auditor General also flagged Sasse’s post-presidential UF salary of $1 million (the same as his base salary as president) even though his new roles (as professor and advisor to the chair of the Board) “‘appear to be significantly less in scope’ than his duties as president.”
Sasse's contract guaranteed him a full-time faculty position after he was no longer president—even if he left early—with the “rank and salary to be determined” solely by the Board chair. Writing in Higher Ed Dive, researchers Judith Wilde and James Finkelstein of George Mason University concluded that Sasse was awarded the richest contract of more than 300 university presidents they analyzed over ten years. (11/28/2022) Sasse’s sweetheart deal included, not only his base salary of $1million (for a total of of $5.4 million over five years), but reimbursed legal fees for his salary negotiation; rent-free living; and tuition waivers for his parents and grandparents (in addition to his wife and children, which is a common perk).
Sasse did not have the credentials to warrant such an offer. He was previously a senator from Nebraska and the president of Midland University, a private Lutheran school with an enrollment of 1700 students. He then headed UF, a top public university with 61,771 students. Midland was listed #143 of Regional Universities Midwest in a recent US News and World Report. The University of Florida is listed as 7th among public universities; 5th when Sasse took the helm.
The examples total more than $25 million not including the voucher program and all of Sasse’s overspending and contract perks. Think how Floridians might have benefited from that money. It could have been used to raise teacher salaries, lower college tuition, produce art and culture programs, treat red algae, lower property insurance for Floridians and help people in need with housing.
On February 25, 2025, “Governor Ron DeSantis announced the creation of the Florida State Department of Governmental Efficiency (DOGE) task force, which he said will work to further eliminate waste within state government, save taxpayers money, and ensure accountability in Florida.”(Executive Office of the Gov., 10/24/2025) Colleges and universities were cited as an area of scrutiny “to eliminate any wasteful spending.”
Don’t let him near your money.
Sources
15 https://www.alligator.org/article/2025/02/state-audit-finds-unnecessary-spending-under-ben-sasse#