Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis trimmed $510.9 million from a record-high state spending plan signed Thursday, with nearly one-fifth of the cuts coming from a single program designed to keep swaths of rural property from commercial and residential development.
While DeSantis didn’t give any explanation for projects he slashed for the fiscal year that begins July 1, the governor’s line-item vetoes put the state budget at roughly $116.5 billion, a 6 percent increase from the current year’s spending plan.
DeSantis, who is running for the Republican presidential nomination, used a budget signing event at the Pelican Yacht Club in Fort Pierce Thursday morning to contrast Florida’s fiscal approach to that of President Joe Biden and large states led by Democrats.
