DeSantis enacts Florida's new $114.8 billion Framework for Freedom Budget

Fort Pierce— Florida’s 2023-2024 Fiscal Year “Framework For Freedom” Budget was signed into law Governor Ron DeSantis on Thursday morning.

The historic $115 Billion package includes scores of funding, tax relief, and salary increase records across all sectors of the economy. A historic $20 billion surplus in Florida’s reserves was tapped to finance initiatives aimed at returning unused taxpayer dollars to Floridians.

Namely, the Budget provides over $2.7 billion in tax relief, the highest of its kind in Florida history. The previous record was $1.2 billion, also set by the DeSantis administration last year. Popular tax-relief measures in the Budget include a 50% reduction in tolls and savings for families and children in the form of sales tax exemptions. Together, just these two measures amount to over $1 billion in savings for taxpayers.

For State Education, the budget pledges salary increases for eligible teachers to the tune of $1.1 billion, a record increase. DeSantis emphasized how the funding was narrowly tailored to be exclusively used for salary raises. According to him, the budget ensures the raises are not “going to Bureaucracy, or to Unions, only to teachers. 100% of this money will go to the teacher’s pockets.”

An additional $26 billion are apportioned to state education, $12.1 billion of which are reserved for the k-12 public school system, another state record. Furthermore, Florida’s Voluntary Pre-Kindergarten (VPK) initiatives will receive $451 million. The budget describes VPK as “a high-quality, free education initiative, which serves approximately 155,000 four- and five-year-olds.”

The entire Framework for Freedom Budget can be found here.

The budget also set new records regarding business and environment state efforts. Transportation infrastructure improvement projects will receive $13.4 billion, while workforce education programs will be bolstered with a record $635 million funds injection. $614 million are promised for Everglades restoration, with $3.3 billion for both Everglades conservation and water resource protection scheduled for release over the course of the next 4 years.

DeSantis also highlighted a repeat of popular $1k bonuses previously granted for all Florida law-enforcement agents and firefighters.

Lodged in the budget are $12 million for “facilitating the transport of unauthorized aliens”. Commonly referred to by the media as “illegal migrant flights”, these have been the center of national controversy throughout the past months.

While presenting the budget, DeSantis contrasted Florida’s economic successes under his leadership vis-a-vis American economic decline under President Joe Biden. DeSantis commented that while the country suffered due to sky-high inflation, Florida inflation was “lower than that of the United States while having the 2nd lowest debt per capita in the United States.”