Price tag for Gov. DeSantis’ protection up $1M

Image via AP.

Keeping the DeSantis family safe at home and during travel cost the state $4.8 million last fiscal year, up more than $1 million from the year before.

That’s according to an annual report published this weekend by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE).

This year’s report covers July 1, 2019 to June 30, 2020 and is the first report covering exclusively Gov. Ron DeSantis and his family. The prior Report of Transportation and Protective Services combined the costs for DeSantis and former Gov. Rick Scott during that fiscal year.

The total is also up from roughly $3.25 million in 2017-18, and $2.99 million in 2016-17.

A $1.6 million increase in the Governor’s transportation costs drove the more than 30% increase in protection costs, according to the report.

Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, which officials first confirmed in Florida on March 1, DeSantis has made near-daily public appearances to discuss the virus.

While Scott was no stranger to travel, the multimillionaire used his own private plane and got rid of the previous state plane shortly after taking office in 2011.

In December, the state finally secured a Cessna Citation Latitude, the fuel and operating costs of which are included in the report’s transportation column. The state is financing the jet at $1.2 million a year.

Earlier in 2019, DeSantis started using a Beechcraft King Air aircraft FDLE bought in 2016 at a federal government surplus auction for $10,000. But that plane had to make an emergency landing with him onboard days after his inauguration.

While DeSantis’ transportation costs are more than Scott’s, the state spent only $2.6 million on FDLE security personnel, $400,000 less than the prior year. That was split between $1.6 million for the Governor, $443,000 for the First Lady, $129,000 for the First Family and $444,000 for the Governor’s Mansion and Capitol grounds.

Overall, the state spent $457,000 protecting First Lady Casey DeSantis and $131,000 for their now three children.

FDLE also spent $274,000 protecting “visiting dignitaries,” mostly governors from other states, across 71 different visits. Costs in that section include agents’ and officers’ salary and any overtime, plus the cost of transportation and other expenses.

State law authorizes security and transportation for anyone “whom the failure to provide security or transportation could result in a clear and present danger to the personal safety of such persons, or to the safety of other persons or property within this state, or could result in public embarrassment to the state.”

The most expensive of those trips was the Republican Governors Association Conference in Miami from Nov. 20-21, which cost the state $113,000. The Governor and First Family of the U.S. Virgin Islands made a combined 17 visits, 15 official and two personal.

The previous year saw 57 trips for official and personal business among dignitaries and staff officials who weren’t Governor, totaling $675,000. That included $549,000 for DeSantis as Governor-elect.