A.G. Gancarski
Florida has finally figured out how to give back money it didn’t want to appropriate during the Joe Biden administration.
“For years, Florida has been trying to return federal funds to the federal government due to the ideological strings attached by the Biden Administration—but they couldn’t even figure out how to accept it. Today, I met with Elon Musk and the DOGE team, and we got this done in the same day. Other states should follow Florida in supporting DOGE’s efforts,” posted Gov. Ron DeSantis to Musk’s X on Friday.
More than $848 million is headed back to Washington, according to a letter from the Governor.
The Governor’s recent claims that the previous administration couldn’t figure out how to take money differ from what he was saying when Biden was in office, when his predecessor pressed him and others to send the money back. If DeSantis asked Scott how that should be done, it was never publicized.
In 2022, U.S. Sen. Rick Scott was asked about DeSantis continuing to “deploy” COVID-19 relief funds for priorities not related to the pandemic. Scott said leaders with extra funds should return them to defray the federal debt.
“What every responsible state and local official should do is they should say ‘Hey, I’m going to send that money back. We need to pay down this $30 trillion worth of debt.’ We can’t waste money,” Scott said.
“If there’s something that we needed to do to deal with the COVID crisis, I get it,” Scott added. “But you’re sending money to states that they can spend basically any way they want, or to local governments. It makes no sense. Somebody’s going to pay that money back.”
Scott offered a similar appeal in 2021: “Send it back! We’re all American citizens. Don’t waste the money,” the Naples Republican urged on America’s Newsroom.
When rolling out the $116 million Civic Literacy Excellence Initiative in 2021 in Scott’s hometown of Naples, DeSantis suggested he had complete discretion on how to allocate the federal pot.
“We got this money dumped,” DeSantis said in March 2021. “I could have just spent it and said it was emergency spending.”
The Governor took issue with the funding formula, suggesting it has served as “a bailout for blue states, poorly managed states.” He also has described the allocation process as “Washington at its worst.” And he said before running for President that there was no point in giving the overage back to the federal government.
“It doesn’t make any sense,” said DeSantis, as reported by POLITICO Florida. “If Florida were to send the money back, (Treasury Secretary Janet) Yellen is going to send it to Illinois, California, New York or New Jersey. I don’t think that would make sense for Floridians — for us to be giving even more money to the blue states.”
The money returned is just a fraction of what the Biden administration sent to Florida.
Billions of dollars worth of that cash went to the Sunshine State, and the Governor made no moves to return it to the federal government.
The office of Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis noted that “the Coronavirus Relief Fund … provided $150 billion in direct assistance across the nation to State, territorial, local and Tribal governments.”
“Of this amount, the State of Florida was allocated $8.4 billion: $5.86 billion was deposited into the State Treasury as General Revenue and approximately $2.47 billion was allocated to 12 of the largest counties directly by the U.S. Treasury,” the CFO office noted. Those large counties include Brevard, Broward, Hillsborough, Duval, Lee, Miami-Dade, Orange, Palm Beach, Pasco, Pinellas, Polk and Volusia counties.
The Florida Housing Finance Corporation received $250 million. Smaller Florida counties got $1.137 billion from the CARES Act as well.
6 comments
Paul Passarelli
March 22, 2025 at 12:22 pm
the article states:
“… and approximately $2.47 billion was allocated to 12 of the largest counties directly by the U.S. Treasury,” the CFO office noted. Those large counties include Brevard, Broward, Hillsborough, Duval, Lee, Miami-Dade, Orange, Palm Beach, Pasco, Pinellas, Polk and Volusia counties.”
So, basically the money went to buy Blue-Votes aka a bribe.
PeterH
March 22, 2025 at 2:22 pm
LOL….tell DeSantis that ‘blue states’ prop up red states. It’s been that way for decades! Red States are very low GDP taker states. Texas is an exception!
MH/Duuuval
March 22, 2025 at 2:38 pm
This will go down as the dumbest thing Dee does this year. Or, not, since the year has just begun.
Twor
March 23, 2025 at 10:47 am
The worst governor ever. These backwards thinkers cost us in the long run. A government should NEVER have surplus money. Profiting at the expense of citizens is stealing from taxpayers. They only care about politics and the dollar. He doesn’t understand that government should serve He should be worried about Florida needs.
Florida has congested roads, decaying infrastructure, like water pipes and bridges and decaying roads. We need recreational facilities for our youth. We need more public beaches, and parks. Runoff into the the Gulf and Atlantic need cleanup to prevent red tide and beach closures. and we need more environmental land protection.
There is no growth planning and it is out of control. He is sitting on 17 Billion in surplus besides this money. We have a large disadvantaged population as well as growing numbers of homeless. Over a million Puerto Ricans migrated to Central Florida in the last few years, and more are coming. Resources are strained and we need support for food banks. We need public transportation in growing cities. Stop tolls. We need expanded health care for the disadvantaged so they don’t end up in ERs and cost us 10x more. His type live for the wealthy and not the average citizen.
George Romagnoli
March 23, 2025 at 10:16 pm
Any details on what the money sent back was going to go for?
MH/Duuuval
March 24, 2025 at 6:50 pm
That would be an interesting read.
One thing we know is Dee has turned down extra federal money for summer food programs three years in a row, saying Florida already has that base covered. Perhaps it’s time for him to start paying for his meals. And wait until his three become teenagers and empty the fridge before the food is settled in after shopping.
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