“It’s hypocrisy at its finest,” said a Florida Democrat.
Florida House Speaker Paul Renner defended not returning federal cash given to the state by Congress. | Francis Chung/POLITICO
TALLAHASSEE, Florida — Florida’s Republican-controlled Legislature has slammed Washington, D.C. for “out of control and unsustainable” federal spending multiple times this session.
But they’re making sure they don’t have to return tens of millions of dollars Congress sent to the state.
Lawmakers are poised this week to approve a new $117.4 billion spending plan for the coming year that includes several key provisions designed to keep money that Washington delivered to Florida as part of the American Rescue Plan — the coronavirus relief plan Congress passed shortly after President Joe Biden was sworn into office three years ago.
Legislators have come up with a plan to shift more than $750 million from programs and projects that were coming up against federal spending deadlines. Lawmakers will redirect the money where they can spend it more quickly, including using $200 million to shore up a program used to pay for health insurance coverage for state workers.
House Speaker Paul Renner was unapologetic about Florida taking extra steps to lock in the federal cash.
“If we send it back it will be spent on something that is useless and wasteful,” Renner said. “And at least we know here between the House and Senate we’re going to spend money on things that actually matter.”
Florida Republicans, including Gov. Ron DeSantis, have long decried Washington’s policies while embracing its cash. In 2021, DeSantis signed a $100 billion state budget that was fortified by almost $9 billion in federal stimulus funds and later used that money for various pet projects, including giving around 85,000 firefighters and cops $1,000 checks ahead of his 2022 successful reelection.
The move to hold onto the federal money comes after Republican legislators this year approved resolutions supporting a constitutional amendments that would require the federal government to have a balanced budget and give the president line-item veto power.
During debate over the proposed balanced budget constitutional amendment, state Sen. Debbie Mayfield, a Melbourne Republican and a likely congressional candidate, read out the amount of the federal deficit on the Senate floor.
“That will never get paid off unless we take dramatic actions to require the federal government to put a plan in place to balance our budget,” Mayfield said. “If that doesn’t scare people in this room it should.”
But Rep. Fentrice Driskell, a Tampa Democrat and House Democratic leader, slammed Republicans for the irony by noting they have resisted accepting federal money tied to expanding Medicaid eligibility yet were making sure to hold onto the Covid-19 relief dollars.
“It’s hypocrisy at its finest,” said Driskell. “If they want to spend federal money I have a great way to do it — it’s called Medicaid expansion.”
Florida received $8.8 billion as part of the American Rescue Plan and the money must be obligated by the end of 2024 and fully spent by 2026. But the Legislature late last year asked for updates from state agencies and concluded that some of the money stood at risk of not getting spent in time.
Katie Betta, a spokesperson for Senate President Kathleen Passidomo, said the decision was made to manage the “funds wisely rather than returning them to the federal government.”
“We felt for Floridians it was best for our state to decide how those funds should be spent,” Betta said.
Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.), who while governor rejected federal grants for high-speed rail in the state, has long called on states including Florida to return the money they got from Covid-19 relief packages such as the American Rescue Plan. Scott said the money sent to states and local governments was being used as a “slush fund” for “pet projects.” DeSantis, however, rejected Scott’s suggestion, saying that it “doesn’t make any sense.”
The GOP senator made his request shortly after Congress changed the law so that any left-over coronavirus relief money could be used to pay down federal debt.
The House and Senate’s final budget agreement this year calls for withdrawing nearly $500 million in federal money from a handful of previously approved projects, such as the Resilient Florida program that was created to help communities deal with flooding and sea level rise. The money will be backfilled with state money. There is also another $253 million in federally funded projects that will be withdrawn and not replaced.
The freed-up federal cash was then redirected to an array of other programs, such as an affordable housing program that provides down payment and closing cost assistance to first-time homebuyers and a health insurance program for state employees.
Florida spends more than $3 billion a year providing health insurance coverage to state workers and university employees, but recent forecasts have shown that the trust fund was going to go into the red starting in 2025. Legislators have frozen health insurance premiums paid by state workers for many years, increasing the need to find other sources of money to shore up the program.
Source: Politico