Will our legislature fund its electoral Keystone Kops at the level requested by Governor DeSANTIS? Governor DeSANTIS's Office of Election Crimes and Security investigate our St. Johns County Commission for intimidation of Commissioner Krista Keating-Joseph by censure under color of law, falsely citing to F.S. 104.31, an inapplicable criminal statute, which requires corrupt intent according to the 1988 State Attorney General Opinion? What does OECS think about elected officials abusing the power, without legaL research, reading or understanding?
From Florida Politics:
Gov. DeSantis seeking $2.2 million for election police force.
Jacob Ogles
Florida Politics
December 11, 2023
Gov. Ron DeSantis wants another $2.2 million for a controversial election police force. But there’s no guarantee the Legislature will provide the funding.
This week, DeSantis released his “Focus on Florida’s Future” budget and requested funding for 16 full-time positions in the Office of Election Crimes and Security.
The salaries for those positions make up more than $1.38 million in the Governor’s budget. DeSantis also wants about $411,000 for various contracted services, more than $224,000 for nonstaff expenses, and about $90,000 in other equipment and personnel costs.
That’s all pretty much the same as DeSantis requested a year ago for the current budget year, but it’s nearly $1 million more than lawmakers included in the 2023-’24 budget.
The Florida Legislature last approved about $1.4 million for the election crimes office. While that represented roughly a 20% increase in funding for the office from its inception the prior year, the Legislature approved fewer full-time positions and no equipment budget that DeSantis’ administration wanted.
It remains to be seen if the Legislature sees more value this year than it did in the past.
State Rep. Alex Andrade, chair of the House Infrastructure & Tourism Appropriations Subcommittee, said he was “not sure yet” if the Legislature could meet the Governor’s request.
“They requested additional FTEs last year, and they weren’t in our budget. It’ll depend on a whole host of factors, but it’s certainly not guaranteed to be funded,” Andrade said.
The election force has also proven to be controversial.
Shortly after it was formed, the election police force arrested 20 individuals the administration claimed had registered and voted illegally in the 2020 election. Most of those individuals said they believed their right to vote had been restored after the passage of a 2018 constitutional amendment, and many had even been contacted by state or county officials and encouraged to register. Several ultimately had charges against them dropped.
The Legislature responded by giving the statewide prosecutor reporting to Attorney General Ashley Moody greater authority to prosecute individuals for election crimes.
Jacob Ogles
Jacob Ogles has covered politics in Florida since 2000 for regional outlets including SRQ Magazine in Sarasota, The News-Press in Fort Myers and The Daily Commercial in Leesburg. His work has appeared nationally in The Advocate, Wired and other publications. Events like SRQ’s Where The Votes Are workshops made Ogles one of Southwest Florida’s most respected political analysts, and outlets like WWSB ABC 7 and WSRQ Sarasota have featured his insights. He can be reached at jacobogles@hotmail.com.
I can see why people wouldn't want to pay taxes if the creation of phoney jobs and tasks is the result. Funny thing is that it's usually Republicans crying about taxes and here we have a Republican feeding that sentiment. Just one way that Republicans sabotage government so they can turn right around and say that government is a problem. Behaving as an empty suit and otherwise an asshole is another way to make people hate government. All courtesy of GOP saboteurs of government, empty suits, and derelicts. Not to mention he pissed and moaned about "the administrative state" and here he is creating a phoney administrative task force.
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