Cost of taxpayer-funded security, travel for Ron DeSantis soared ahead of presidential bid

Ron DeSantis goes on a bill-signing tear. Image via AP.

Guarding and transporting Ron DeSantis and his family got a lot pricier for Florida taxpayers as the Governor began ramping up for a run at the White House.

In the past year, the cost of DeSantis’ full-time security and travel increased by nearly 60% to $8.86 million, according to an annual report from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE).

The Governor’s security and travel costs have swelled each year since Fiscal Year 2020-21, when taxpayers paid $4.3 million for FDLE personnel to protect and escort him, First Lady Casey DeSantis and their children.

In the following fiscal year ending June 30, 2022, the cost rose 28% to $5.5 million. No single year-over-year jump, however, was higher than in the fiscal year that ended two months ago.

The uptick was primarily the result of raises and additional personnel on the DeSantises’ security detail, whose cost more than doubled from about $2.4 million in 2022 to $5 million in 2023 as the Governor began traveling across the country to fundraise for a presidential bid.

DeSantis officially entered the race May 24. By then, he had already been campaigning for months while on a national tour to promote his new book.

“Over time, staffing levels and costs associated with protective services have exceeded the department’s allocated resources,” an FDLE list of requested budget changes for the current fiscal year said.

To maintain proper protection for the Governor, FDLE reassigned law enforcement personnel working in regional investigative units to guard him. Those reassignments, the document said, “may impact regional investigations.”

Following the 2023 Legislative Session, DeSantis signed bills exempting his travel records from Florida’s public records law and exempting himself from the state’s resign-to-run rule.

The travel records had previously been used to expose the dubious travel habits of several state politicians, including former CFO Alex Sink, former Lt. Gov. Jeff Kottkamp and former Attorney General Bill McCollum.

Former Gov. Rick Scott, now a U.S. Senator, highlighted the travel scandals in his 2010 bid for Governor, upending establishment favorite McCollum in the GOP Primary and then edging out Sink in the General Election.

Scott made good on a campaign promise to sell the state planes and used his private jet while in office to save the state money. But once he left, the Legislature approved the purchase of new planes to serve DeSantis.

The effects of the new rule were made evident late last month, when records of a roadway accident the Governor was involved in while campaigning in Tennessee revealed he is using state government vehicles to seek federal office.

Florida’s resign-to-run law, meant to keep officeholders from neglecting the duties of their current office and from unfairly using their incumbency for political leverage, has undergone prior changes.

Lawmakers exempted candidates for President and Vice President in 2008, when former Gov. Charlie Crist was briefly among those being considered as a running mate to Republican presidential candidate John McCain. For years, the rule did not apply to candidates for federal office.

But in 2018, Scott signed a measure reimposing the requirement but exempting his own successful run for the U.S. Senate from its strictures.

St. Augustine Republican Sen. Travis Hutson sponsored both that measure and this year’s resign-to-run legislation that DeSantis signed.

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Jacob Ogles and Gray Rohrer of Florida Politics contributed to this report.