Arts & Culture Programs Fully Funded, but Support for People In Need Hard to Find
Orlando, FL — Florida’s State Budget saw the Governor veto $3.1 billion in line-items from the original document approved by the Legislature in the spring.
Vetoes included support for local government water projects and public safety buildings, LGBTQ+ youth housing programs, access to long acting reversible contraception (LARC), food banks and environmental restoration and research projects. Two of the largest vetoes included $75 million for the University of South Florida’s Environmental & Oceanographic Sciences Research & Teaching Facility and a $1 billion fund proposed by the House to help the state respond to inflation.
He also vetoed a one-time, $250,000 earmark for teacher recruitment in the 2022-23 state budget, canceling a third of the cost for a hiring program servicing high-need, low-income communities in Duval, Miami-Dade and Orange counties.
Many vetoes impacted Central Florida directly, with the Governor once again vetoing funding allocated to support homeless LGBTQ+ youth via Zebra Coalition. He also vetoed $1 million for a Valencia College documentary on the 1920 Election Day riots in Ocoee. See a more thorough list of Central Florida vetoes from WKMG here.
Many important funding needs did survive the Governor’s veto pen. That includes $75,000 secured by Representative Eskamani and Senator Lauren Book for The Mothers’ Milk Bank of Florida. As noted by the organization’s leadership team: “The Mothers’ Milk Bank of Florida is celebrating a win for Florida’s babies. Confirmation of the $75,000 funding initiative for Babies at Home permits the distribution of pasteurized donor human milk to non-hospitalized, yet medically fragile, babies regardless of the ability of Florida families to pay for such a lifesaving resource.”
Arts and culture grant programs were fully funded too — in fact, 2022 marks the first year in nearly a decade that Florida 100% funded these grant programs totaling $59.1 million for 710 groups statewide. That equates to 52 grantees in Orange County alone.
Below is Representative Anna V. Eskamani’s response to the Florida’s 2022-23 budget and the Governor’s vetoes:
“I am proud of our bipartisan efforts to bring taxpayer dollars back to Central Florida, and especially thrilled that we were successful in fully funding arts and culture funding in Florida. This has been a funding priority for me since before I ran for office; seeing it become a reality speaks to our effective advocacy and relationship building in the Florida Legislature and to the shared commitment we each hold for arts funding.
“I am also grateful that funding for The Mothers’ Milk Bank of Florida was secured, as their work has become even more important in the face of national baby formula shortages.
However, the Governor has continued down his anti-LGBTQ+ path by once again vetoing funding for Zebra Coalition, a local nonprofit providing care to some of our most marginalized community members. He also vetoed public safety dollars we had secured for the City of Belle Isle, funding to increase access to long acting reversible contraception and funding for iDignity.
Meanwhile funding for anti-immigrant policies and elections police were finalized in the budget; and despite the budget being heavily cushioned by federal dollars, DeSantis continued to attack President Joe Biden.
Time and time again funding decisions are made along political lines, versus what’s best for the state. And as we continue to be flooded by Floridians in search of housing assistance, it becomes clear to me that we need a budget focused on the needs of everyday people and their local communities versus one that feeds into the Governor’s personal and political agenda.”
###