Gov. Ron DeSantis vetoed at least $8.2 million in local projects as part of $600 million in vetoes to the state’s $115 billion 2026 budget.
Among the local items vetoed included $350,000 to improve the local law enforcement’s gunshot detection system, ShotSpotter, in Pensacola and Escambia County.
Another item vetoed was $1.6 million to expand the University of West Florida’s early childhood education and daycare for students, faculty and staff at UWF. The funds would’ve added 5,000 square feet of space dedicated to early childhood education.
Other vetoed items included $1 million for Escambia County’s Carpenter Creek and Bayou Texar stream restoration project, $850,000 for an extension of the taxiway at Whiting Aviation Industrial Park, $275,000 for traffic improvements at the entrance of NAS Whiting Field, $850,000 to preserve 27 acres of wetlands in Santa Rosa County advocated by Save our Soundside, and $150,000 for veterans treatment court in Santa Rosa County.
Most of the veto items were sponsored by Pensacola Rep. Alex Andrade, with his name listed as the sponsor of about $7 million of the $8 million in local vetoes.
Andrade has become a vocal critic of DeSantis and the handling of Hope Florida. Andrade, chairman of the House Health Care Budget Subcommittee, held hearings to investigate allegations DeSantis’ administration engaged in fraud by transferring $10 million from a Medicare legal settlement to Hope Florida, which then transferred the funds to political campaigns against recreational marijuana.
Pensacola Rep. Michelle Salzman also clashed with DeSantis earlier this year over board appointments to the University of West Florida and a bill she sponsored that would require university searches to be subject to the Florida Sunshine Law and prevent the governor from discussing presidential appointments with trustees outside of publicly noticed meetings. However, Salzman appeared to make amends with DeSantis and applauded the selection of Florida Education Commissioner Manny Diaz Jr. as interim president of UWF.
Salzman still lost most of her sponsored projects that were passed as part of the budget with a $1.1 million veto, including $250,000 for rural mental health for the National Alliance on Mental Illness Florida and $375,000 for modernizing senior care facilities in Escambia County.
DeSantis signed the 2025-2026 budget on June 30 in a ceremony at The Villages in Central Florida. The budget goes into effect on July 1.
DeSantis said he made the vetoes to reduce the budget to a spending level he had initially recommended.
“Some of it wasn’t bad, but I thought it was important to get the budget spending in line with my recommendations,” DeSantis said.
This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: DeSantis kills $8 million in Pensacola-area projects as part of $600 million veto list
Reporting by Jim Little, Pensacola News Journal / Pensacola News Journal
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
