A joint investigation by the Miami Herald and Tampa Bay Times recently found that Ron DeSantis' administration diverted far more public funds to campaigning against ballot initiatives than previously understood.
At the very least, more than $36 million in taxpayer money—including more than a million dollars from the cash-strapped Department of Children and Families—was illegally used to defend Florida’s six-week abortion ban and oppose the legalization of marijuana.
DeSantis used DCF money that primarily assisted organizations that help kids in foster care or helped keep families together by offering counseling and other services for parents at risk of losing custody of their children. Nearly $1 million from the community public health fund and $4 million from the state’s opioid settlement trust fund, won in a 2022 suit against drugmakers, were also used. The latter was supposed to help drug-addicted Floridians get treatment. The Department of Health spent $6 million on advertising, while the Department of Transportation spent $4.4 million.
While some of the funding fell under broader uses, many stretched or outright violated statutory restrictions on spending, such as FDOT funds that were legally required to be used for physical assets. The Department of Financial Services is the agency responsible for identifying whether spending by state agencies is lawful. The elected Chief Financial Officer, a cabinet-level position, heads the department. At the time, Jimmy Patronis was Florida's CFO. Patronis has since been elected to Congress.
It was already known that DeSantis had gotten Medicaid contractor Centene to donate $10 million to the Hope Florida Foundation—overseen by his wife, Casey—as part of a legal settlement in September of 2024. That funding was then steered to a political committee controlled by Florida Attorney General James Ulthmeier, who was DeSantis' chief of staff at the time. The Hope Florida Foundation is currently the subject of a grand jury investigation examining potential financial crimes and fraud related to the handling of the settlement funds.
The administration used a complex array of financial transactions to obscure the origins of many payments, most of which went to consulting firms, many of which were located out of state. None of the five agencies involved responded to requests for comment from the publications. Amendment 3 would have legalized recreational marijuana, while Amendment 4 would have overturned the DeSantis-led six-week abortion ban. Both amendments fell just short of the 60% needed to pass.
What had already been a strikingly brazen redirection of public money only gets more audacious as investigative journalists dig deeper into a scandal that might best represent the current rotten state of corruption in Florida’s government.
Anyone familiar with the intense struggles of the Florida Department of Children and Families' efforts to fulfill its responsibility to protect the vulnerable children in our state’s foster care system is sure to be particularly sickened by the diversion of funds from a chronically underfunded department of critical importance to our most defenseless Floridians.
DeSantis’ bid to bolster his culture-war bona fides before running for president and his quest for a legacy beyond being a divisive governor who was laughed out of the GOP presidential primary have come at a steep cost to Floridians on multiple fronts.
From his costly, failed War on Woke fight against Disney to his exorbitantly expensive effort to reinvent New College of Florida as a “Hillsdale of the South,” taxpayers have paid the bill only to come out worse for wear.
However, robbing resources from foster children, the physically infirm, and opiate addicts may be a new low, even for DeSantis. Hopefully, there will be a price to pay for such blatant malfeasance, even in a state where justice for the politically connected can be as rare as falling snow.
Dennis "Mitch" Maley is an editor and columnist for The Bradenton Times and the host of our weekly podcast. With over two decades of experience as a journalist, he has covered Manatee County government since 2010. He is a graduate of Shippensburg University and later served as a Captain in the U.S. Army. Click here for his bio. Mitch's 2015 novel, A Long Road Home, was recently released in its third edition. His other books can be found here. He can be reached at editor@thebradentontimes.com.
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lib224
Apparently, the "Freedom State" means the freedom to corrupt elections and steal money from taxpayers.
Sunday, January 4 Report this
rayfusco68
Your article begs the question how can DeSantis and his cronies be held accountable? What independent agency has the power to deal with this corruption?
Sunday, January 4 Report this
san.gander
Is there an independent justice system left to give the citizens due process? DeSantis record, concurrent with the Republican behavior in the Legislature, has been one of the most corrupt, degrading administrations in Florida's checkered political history. One good example the, shamble of a once respected New College... that no longer has academic liberty, but puts on the "straight jacket" of conformity and costume of classicism.
Sunday, January 4 Report this
pattybeenutty
The Republicans have run this state for over 30 years. Good luck to all citizens.
Sunday, January 4 Report this
Lktinsanfran
Why is it that not only the Florida government, but the national one as well, just do what they want to do with no repercussions? Where are our elected officials and others who still care about democracy and doing the right thing? It is obvious that the current leadership only care about themsleves and not the citizens of this country. It is shameful.
Tuesday, January 6 Report this