Q&A of the Day – Did Governor DeSantis Target Joe Gruters’ District for Budget Cuts Due to a Trump Endorsement?
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Today’s Entry: @brianmuddradio Is there any truth to the story that DeSantis allegedly targeted Sarasota for cuts in the budget because Joe Gruters endorsed Donald Trump for president?
Bottom Line: News of this possibility certainly took off like wildfire late last week after reporters gleefully ran with the story that checks many of their desired boxes. 1) A DeSantis – Trump feud story – check. 2) A story that makes Governor DeSantis look bad – check 3) An elected Republican in the Florida legislature going after DeSantis – check. While ultimately only Governor DeSantis knows in his heart what is true – there is a way to analytically evaluate the line-item vetoes the governor used in Sarasota, compared to other areas to determine if there was disproportionate vetoing in state senator, and former Florida Republican Party Chairman, Joe Gruters’ district – which might hint at potential political payback. Let’s start this analysis by taking a step back to look at the big picture.
As I reported on Friday, Governor DeSantis used the line-item-veto to cut $511 million in projects approved by the legislature in the budget – with most of the cuts consistent with recommendations by Florida TaxWatch – via their Budget Turkeys report. That factoid is important because Florida TaxWatch most certainly doesn’t have a political ax to grind with Gruters. And the vetoes came from districts across the state. As I illustrated in Palm Beach County, we had these projects which were specifically axed by the governor:
- Delray Beach: Public Seawall project, Historical Campus drainage and parking project and a playground
- Juno Beach: Drainage project
- Jupiter: Cyber security project
- Mangonia Park: Road repaving
- Palm Beach: Historic Fire Station renovation
- Palm Beach County: Discounted bus pass program
- Rivera Beach: School outreach project
- West Palm Beach: Command vehicle
I think looking at what got the ax in Palm Beach County is instructive as there’s a specific theme to these. While they all may be projects worth consideration, none of them seem to be appropriate for the state government to be funding. Why for example should the rest of the state’s taxpayers be made to buy a command vehicle for West Palm Beach, or to pay for a Delray Beach seawall and playground? Why should the state’s taxpayers be made to pave streets in Mangonia Park or to subsidize bus passes in the County? These types of projects are precisely why we have local governments and it’s easy to see why DeSantis cut them from the budget. It looks like a case of state legislators attempting to pull fast ones to get outside funding through the state’s massive budget – which is their right to attempt – but is also why the expression “bringing home the bacon” exists in politics. These are clearly all local pork projects in the grand scheme of state funding. So, in this context, in the Grueters’ allegations against DeSantis, the question is whether it’s local pork that DeSantis sliced or if there’s more meat than fat to what happened in Sarasota. Let’s start with sheer numbers...
By my calculation Governor DeSantis cut $30.75 million in projects from Joe Grueters’ districts – most of which ($20 million), was to be for the University of South Florida – which likely didn’t have anything to do with Grueters – as appropriations for universities were the largest single category of vetoes with other universities seeing larger projects than the USF project axed at the state level. There are 40 state senators in Florida, meaning each Senator represents 2.5% of the state. What that means in the context of budget vetoes is this...
- 2.5% of the vetoed projects equals $12,777,630
So, on the surface, with nearly $31 million in vetoes in the Gruters district, it looks like he may well have been on the governor’s mind when he was using the veto pen. However, if you remove the USF project that wasn’t given the go ahead by DeSantis, which again – I think is entirely appropriate there’s zero evidence that had anything to do with pet local projects advocated by Gruters – it looks vastly different. Minus the USF project there were only $10.75 million of vetoes in Gruters’ district. Adjusting for population – that's greater than $2 million less in cuts, or 16% fewer cuts in total dollars, in his district compared to the norm across the state. In reality, not only is there no evidence of Gruters having been targeted, and singled out by DeSantis for retribution, his district fared considerably better than most in the end. And back to the PBC example for a moment, what were the projects killed in the Grueters district?
- Local road expansion
- A grant for the Education Foundation of Sarasota County
- A local environmental project
- Pipe replacements for Sarasota County
- Sarasota School of the Arts Campus expansion
- Venis Fire station project
- A golf course conversion
Like the Palm Beach County example, you’ll notice similar themes. Local projects which raise questions about why state taxpayers, as opposed to those within these communities, would fund the projects. Analytically, Joe Gruters’ district saw significantly less in cuts than most state senators and the projects which were cut were consistent with cuts in other districts across the state. Not only is there no empirical evidence of what Gruters has alleged, his district was a disproportionate beneficiary of the process. In other words – whatever is or isn’t in DeSantis’ heart pertaining to Gruters and his endorsement of Trump – it wasn’t reflected with his veto pen. This entire attempted controversy is evidenced to be a false narrative with zero supporting evidence. Not that you hear or see that elsewhere... As always there are two sides to stories and one side to facts. What I just presented are the facts.