Gov. DeSantis strips public radio and TV funding from final budget

Image via AP.

It’s time to ramp up the pledge drives.

For yet another year, the Legislature wanted money for public broadcasting, and Gov. Ron DeSantis struck it down in his veto list.

He axed $1.3 million meant to go toward public radio stations’ recurring base appropriations project. The Governor also cut more than $4.4 million in additional funds for public TV stations.

The budget bill had $370,400 allocated to each public television station recommended by the Commissioner of Education, with radio stations slated to get $100,000 each.

In previous years, DeSantis had vetoed renovations for stations.

That money wasn’t in the budget this year, but the Governor still found a way to put the left-of-center, adversarial outlets on their heels a day before the new fiscal year begins.

It wasn’t all bad news though. The Florida Channel emerged unscathed.

For closed captioning, $390,862 will be provided. An additional $800,000 is allocated to satellite transponder operations. Statewide governmental and cultural affairs programming will draw the requested $497,522. Florida Channel year-round coverage will receive more than $3.1 million, while the Florida Public Radio Emergency Network Storm Center will get $256,270 for when weather turns woeful.