Northwest Florida received approximately $15.7 million worth of individual projects that survived Gov. Ron DeSantis’ veto pen in the 2026 budget.
DeSantis signed the budget on June 30 and vetoed $600 million out of the total $115 billion budget, which took effect on July 1.
Local legislators had about $8 million worth of projects vetoed by DeSantis. Sen. Don Gaetz was the local legislator who had the most success with getting projects past DeSantis’ Veto. Gaetz was a sponsor of $14 million worth of local projects that made it into the budget signed by DeSantis.
The projects include $3.5 million to fund clinical research at the Andrews Institute in Gulf Breeze on regenerative medicine and a $4 million environmental study to move forward a connector project to ease traffic congestion in the Navarre area.
Here’s a list of what made it through:
This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: Arts to estuaries, here are the Pensacola-area projects that survived DeSantis’ veto pen
Reporting by Jim Little, Pensacola News Journal / Pensacola News Journal
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