Fentrice Driskell<\/a> of Tampa. \u201cIt\u2019s just waste.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n\u201cDeSantis pushes for these bills, these extremist policies knowing that they\u2019re unconstitutional, knowing that they will be likely challenged in court,\u201d she added. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
More legal muscle, money needed<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But lawmakers were intent on giving DeSantis added muscle for a likely deluge of lawsuits. The governor in June is expected to formally kick off his campaign for the Republican presidential nomination and aggressively engaging in these courtroom challenges is seen as pivotal by strategists. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Republican legislative leaders acknowledge that the governor has been pushing the political envelope. But they went along with him and view the litigation expenses imposed on Floridians as merely the cost of doing business. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe know that some of the things we\u2019re doing in Florida are leading the nation on how we feel about certain issues,\u201d said Senate budget chair Doug Broxson, R-Gulf Breeze. \u201cWe want the governor to be in a comfortable position to speak his mind, and we\u2019re going to support him on those things.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Senate President Kathleen Passidomo, R-Naples, also rationalized the costs, saying, \u201cWe\u2019re in a litigious society.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe want to make sure there\u2019s enough to handle the matters through the governor\u2019s office and the agencies responsible,\u201d Passidomo said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The $15.8 million set aside for legal costs\u2212$6 million earmarked for the governor\u2019s office, alone \u2013 is slightly more than what the state is steering in additional money for operational expenses at New College of Florida, the Sarasota state university effectively taken over by the governor and his allies who are subjecting the liberal-leaning school to a wide-ranging, conservative makeover. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The $15 million spent at New College will help pay salaries, staff recruitment expenses and other day-to-day costs. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
But the increase in dollars for defending DeSantis lawsuits also is more than seven times the $2 million more set aside by lawmakers to take 226 people off a lengthy waiting list for community care for the elderly. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt\u2019s ridiculous,\u201d Driskell said of the spending choices. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Dollars can open door to top-flight outside counsel<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Attorney General Ashley Moody\u2019s office and its staff attorneys routinely represent the state in legal challenges to new laws enacted by the governor. But the dollars included in the budget for litigation costs will allow DeSantis, Moody and other agencies to hire costlier, outside counsel for help in critical cases. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Records obtained last year by the Florida newspaper-allied First Amendment Foundation showed the state under DeSantis has paid private attorney rates of between $425-$675 an hour in some cases. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
DeSantis received $1.6 million in last year\u2019s state budget for litigation expenses, an amount corresponding to what typically was directed to the governor\u2019s office. But it proved not enough for last year\u2019s cascade of cases. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The $6 million now included for DeSantis\u2019 legal expenses tops the $4 million he requested in his own budget recommendation made in February. Lawmakers appeared on track to match that request until the closing days of the Legislature, which ended May 5. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The reporting substack, Seeking Rents, which recently wrote about the legal spending, pointed out that the increase to $6 million came within 72-hours of Disney suing DeSantis in federal court. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The company claims the governor has been retaliating against it for opposing last year\u2019s parental rights law, dubbed \u201cDon\u2019t Say Gay,\u201d by critics. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Reedy Creek Improvement District, the taxing authority including Walt Disney World, has been recast by the governor into the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District, with his own, hand-selected appointees. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Clash with Disney is costly<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That board subsequently sued Disney in state court. The dueling lawsuits suggest that legal costs for Floridians are certain to mount. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The governor\u2019s policies affecting schools, universities, COVID, law enforcement, transgender Floridians, abortion, social media, immigration, migrant flights and congressional redistricting have brought a heavy toll of lawsuits, with most still at some lower court level or pending on appeal. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Along with the $6 million for DeSantis\u2019 office, lawmakers included in the state budget $2 million for the State University System Board of Governors, which has been embroiled in a fight over last year\u2019s \u201cStop Woke\u201d act, which sought to limit diversity training on campuses and in businesses. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The law was blocked as \u201cdsytopian\u201d by a federal judge, whose ruling was recently upheld by an appeals court. But another round of legislation this spring aimed at barring diversity, equity and inclusion programs at universities may bring more litigation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Department of State, which oversees elections, is getting $2.8 million for lawsuit costs, as lawmakers recently advanced another measure adding more restrictions to voter registration groups. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
And Moody\u2019s office was given $5 million for legal services related to COVID-19 vaccinations, another long legal siege prompted by DeSantis policies. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Miami Herald in December totaled up nearly $17 million<\/a> in legal fees paid by DeSantis and the state over challenges to measures then already in play. <\/p>\n\n\n\nBut for Florida taxpayers, the governor\u2019s recent signing of new measures into law means the meter is still running and the lawsuit costs are likely to climb. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Gov. Ron DeSantis has been fortified with millions of dollars in taxpayer money for legal fights stemming from his polarizing legislative agenda, with the scene now shifting from the Capitol to the courthouse. Republican… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":31581,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"wpai_generated_summary":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"{title}\n\n{excerpt}\n\n{url}","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"dois","default_image_id":71799,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[15],"tags":[5027],"class_list":["post-32179","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","tag-desantis-uses-taxpayer-money-to-fight-lawsuits"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32179","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32179"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32179\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31581"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32179"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32179"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32179"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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