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With only the second budget proposal of his administration, Gov. Ron DeSantis on Monday already has gone from "bold" to "bolder."
At $91.4 billion it is the largest budget proposal by a Florida governor — a $400 million increase over the current spending plan.
Indeed, when DeSantis released his first budget proposal earlier this year he called it a “bold vision for a brighter future.” When he announced his proposed spending plan for 2020-2021, he said it would lead to a “bolder, brighter, better future.”
State economists expect general revenue collections to increase by a billion dollars and DeSantis wants to divert money to set a minimum starting teacher salary of $47,500 — a raise for 101,000 public school teachers — and earmark $625 million for Everglades restoration and water quality programs.
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“It is great to have bold ideas ... but we live in the realm of what is possible. All the stuff we laid out is doable, possible and will have a real impact on the state of Florida,” the Republican governor said at a press conference. 
DeSantis noted that even though he wants to increase government spending, his proposal has the smallest increase in general revenue spending in the past nine years.   
At a cost of $3,640 per resident, Florida delivers services to residents at the lowest cost in the nation — trailing Texas ($3,925), California ($6,607), and New York ($7,910), according to the Kaiser Foundation.
“I said we have got to do this in a way that is fiscally responsible and fiscally sustainable,” DeSantis said. “And I think that is what we have done today.”
House Speaker Jose Oliva agreed, calling the spending plan “most encouraging.”
“He is to be commended for a strict adherence to fiscal restraint,” said Oliva, a Miami Lakes Republican. “His commitment to responsible spending is crystal clear."
But both Oliva and Senate President Bill Galvano telegraphed that it'll be tough for lawmakers to accept all of DeSantis' budget recommendations in a tight budget year.
DeSantis recommends $480.5 million in cuts and the elimination of 144 jobs in a state government workforce of more than 97,000 employees. Almost all those positions targeted for elimination are currently vacant. The lost positions will be made up by new hires in the Department of Corrections and the Department of Veterans Affairs, which will open two hospitals next fiscal year.

EDUCATION

The largest reductions in spending will come with the elimination of the Best and Brightest teacher bonus program.  It consumes about $284 million in the current budget, but DeSantis said he agrees with critics that the program is unworkable and teachers have complained the lawmaker-designed bonus system is unfair. 
DeSantis takes that money and adds it to a pot that will spend an additional $600 million to raise all teachers’ salaries and another $300 million on a new bonus program for teachers and principals. Also, the education proposal boosts the per-student funding in the classroom by $302 to a total of $7,979.
The proposal would increase the "required local effort," the amount local school districts must spend to qualify for state dollars, by a total of $158 million, which DeSantis said would come mostly from property taxes paid by new construction.

ENVIRONMENT & ECONOMY

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The governor wants to spend $100 million on the Forever Florida land buying program. His environmental plan includes an additional $322 million for Everglades restoration projects, $200 million for targeted water quality programs to combat blue-green algae, $50 million for springs restoration and $50 million for beach renourishment.
Still another $6 million is targeted to help coastal communities become more resilient as climate change contributes to rising sea levels and changing habitats.
The spending package also includes $50 million in funding for Visit Florida, keeping the doors to the state's tourism-marketing agency open despite repeated attempts by the House to shut down the agency, which it has long criticized as a dispenser of "corporate welfare."
DeSantis would direct $1.4 billion toward hurricane recovery. He also wants to provide a $10 million increase, boosting to $50 million the Job Growth Grant Fund, an economic-development program created in 2017. 

REACTION

Monday’s announcement marks the start of the budget process in the House and Senate. Lawmakers will consider the potentially popular plans included in the DeSantis proposal as dozens of them, coincidentally, run for re-election in 2020.
“I hope the Legislature will share the governor’s commitment to water quality and supply,” said Rep. Loranne Ausley, D-Tallahassee. “I appreciate the fact that he mentioned resiliency and measures to prepare for climate change/sea level issues, but we need to extend the focus on how to slow these impacts not just prepare for them."
The new spending on education and the environment comes as state economists warn about a possible economic slowdown and the possibility of budget shortfalls two and three years down the road.
Galvano, a Bradenton Republican, quickly responded to the proposal with a note that the budget recommendation reflected many priorities of senators, including himself, and that the Senate will dive into the details during the one week of December committee meetings.
“I want to thank Gov. DeSantis for the great considerations he has shown to the Legislature and our professional staff by submitting his recommendations in a timeframe that accommodates both the final interim committee week and the upcoming Holiday Season,” Galvano said.
But Galvano added he would “closely” monitor upcoming state economists' estimating conferences for insight into how much money the state will have to spend in the 2020 -2021 fiscal year, which begins next July 1. 
“We are also anticipating a new general revenue estimate, which will indicate if there has been a change in the amount of revenue available,” Galvano said.
His counterpart in the House was also non-committal when talking about the governor's budget proposal.
“The details of his ambitious teacher-pay program remain obscure — not a small matter,” said Oliva about the DeSantis plan.
“(But it’s) a solid base upon which to begin our budget discussions,” Oliva said.