{"id":47817,"date":"2024-07-16T19:12:39","date_gmt":"2024-07-16T23:12:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/?p=47817"},"modified":"2024-07-16T19:12:44","modified_gmt":"2024-07-16T23:12:44","slug":"free-state-of-florida-welcome-signs-touting-desantis-motto-cost-taxpayers-60k","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/2024\/07\/16\/free-state-of-florida-welcome-signs-touting-desantis-motto-cost-taxpayers-60k\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Free State of Florida\u2019 welcome signs touting DeSantis motto cost taxpayers $60K"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Florida spent $60,000 on new highway welcome signs that feature a campaign slogan used by Gov. Ron DeSantis in speeches and on merchandise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Signs welcoming visitors to \u201cThe Free State of Florida\u201d now stand at 24 locations along highways and at two welcome centers, said Michael Williams, a spokesman for the Florida Department of Transportation, in an email.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Williams did not answer questions about who decided to erect the new signs, which he said were created in-house at a department facility in Lake City. The state disclosed the cost of the signs, which were unveiled in a DOT press conference last week, in response to a public records request from the Orlando Sentinel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The department was reviewing its messaging and \u201ctook the opportunity to offer a refresh of the signage, including now offering \u2018Hurry back\u2019 signage as motorists leave Florida,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The signage, he added, was \u201cnot unique to Florida as many states choose to offer a friendly message to drivers who are excited and look forward to crossing state lines when they travel.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Florida spent $60,000 on new highway welcome signs that feature a campaign slogan used by Gov. Ron DeSantis in speeches and on merchandise. Signs welcoming visitors to \u201cThe Free State… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":47818,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"17","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","inline_featured_image":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"wpai_generated_summary":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2,"attached_media":[{"id":47818,"url":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/TOS-L-FL-state-sign.webp","type":"image\/webp"}]},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[17],"tags":[9144],"class_list":["post-47817","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-regional-and-world-news","tag-free-state-of-florida-welcome-signs-touting-desantis-motto-cost-taxpayers-60k"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47817","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\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47817"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47817\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":47819,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47817\/revisions\/47819"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/47818"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47817"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47817"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47817"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}