Tallahassee – Citing “deep frustration” and the lack of cooperation by governor Ron DeSantis’ administration officials, House budget leaders have issued letters of demand to several state agencies, perhaps in an investigation into vain government spending.
The House’s finances investigation ordered by Rep. Daniel Perez is part of a broader effort by lawmakers to significantly reduce spending as they prepare budgets for the 2025-2026 fiscal year. The House and Senate Committee approved the Chamber of Commerce’s proposed budget on Wednesday, setting negotiations in the coming weeks with a final spending plan.
The House Budget Committee on Wednesday heard many concerns about finances at a small number of agencies, but some lawmakers accused the agency head of thwarting efforts to dig into questionable spending.
Rep. Jason Shoaf of R-Port St. Joe said lawmakers need to “better understand how billions of people were spent on each disaster” by the emergency management department. Shoaf, chair of the House Transport and Economic Development Budget Subcommittee, accused employees of highway safety and motor vehicle divisions of salaries without permission from Congress.
“There’s a problem with some of my agencies,” Schoef said, referring to the agency that has a budget he oversees. “Dadgum It’s got to get more information and wrap this around after hearing all this.”
The committee approved Shoaf’s proposal to send letters to the Emergency Management Department, the Department of Management Services, the Department of Corrections, the Department of Education, the Department of Health Management and the Florida State Guard requesting “production of documents and records.”
Speaking to reporters after the committee meeting, House Budget Speaker Lawrence McClure (R-Dover) characterized the agency’s request for information as an effort to carry out some of Perez’s mission to eradicate unnecessary spending.
“There is a deep frustration. We are not trying anything other than to make sure we are a good trustee or custodian of taxpayer dollars. But if we don’t have data or information… there is a contradiction that doesn’t pass the general test, but if we don’t have data, we can’t see it.
Rep. Vicki Lopez, a Miami Republican who chairs the House State Budget Subcommittee, told the McClure Committee that she was “stone” from the Administration and its secretary, Pedro Allende.
Lopez pointed to a recent audit showing that the department cannot occupy 2,200 vehicles. The agency also has at least four employees living out of state earning six-figure annual salary, Lopez’s committee found.
“We all tried to be accountable, but we failed miserably to get answers. We needed them and we need them now,” Lopez said.
Lopez included a clause booking Allende’s salary, which would earn more than $210,000 a year, in part of the home’s proposed budget of nearly $113 billion.
The committee also approved measures to create a new “Florida Accountability Office” and enhance legislative oversight of state agencies’ performance and finances.
According to R-Shalimar’s House Judiciary Budget Chairman, Patt Maney, lawmakers also need answers about state spending on prisons.
The Department of Corrections “has a chronic problem of properly managing both pay and overtime expenses,” Manny said.
Manny said the state also paid $35 million in interest after issuing bonds to fund mental health prison facilities at lake correctional facilities. However, the facility has never been constructed.
“We got nothing for it. We’re not spending money. We’re not starting anything…and there was really no explanation as to why,” Manny said.
The demand for information from the Desantis administration seemed to deepen the increasingly strange relationship between the Republican-controlled home and the governor.
For example, DeSantis is pushing for a cut in property tax on Homestead, while Perez is moving forward with plans to lower the state’s sales tax rate. Meanwhile, Senate President R-Wauchula, President Ben Albritton, this week showed that more time is needed to study tax proposals.
A video posted on social media punched the House of Representatives after DeSantis recently failed to deliver what governs what he called the “budget expansion” and what he called the “Florida model.”
“They all campaigned on our conservative agenda and now they’re in power, so they’re basically wasting this,” DeSantis told radio host Dana Roche on Tuesday, “slamming the house that came with Democrats to increase their pork spending.
McClure said House investigations on spending would not target the governor.
“We are not hostile to anyone. We are genuinely interested in looking for Florida taxpayers,” the House Budget chief told reporters.
McClure’s committee on Wednesday also addressed a split with the DeSantis administration through an office on the 21st floor of the Capitol.
The Administration canceled a House lease in the office that allowed House leaders to use former U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, former U.S. Sen., who is now President Donald Trump’s Secretary of State. DeSantis said the House did not provide an office for former Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody when DeSantis appointed her to replace Rubio in the U.S. Senate.
A House Committee approved a plan to turn House, Senate, governor and cabinet members into “permanent” tenants of the Capitol complex. Any changes to Congressional leases must be approved in advance by the Speaker of the House or Senate. Legislative leaders must also register for a Capitol building or remodeling project.
By Dara Cam, Florida news service
