As writer Matthew Woodruff discussed earlier this week: DeSantis’ Trips Have a History of Costing Florida Taxpayers Big, but Soon They Won’t be Allowed to Know.:
Florida residents are wondering if they just footed the bill for Ron DeSantis latest ‘campaigning trip’, after Donald Trump posted on Truth Social that DeSantis would be using taxpayer money for his “emergency Round the World tour…. On his taxpayer funded plane.”
In 2019, also as Governor, DeSantis made an international trip that cost Florida taxpayers almost $500,000.
Prior to this latest international jaunt, DeSantis has been crisscrossing the country, ostensibly to speak to GOP groups, but seemingly to shore up support for his own bid at the White House, where in polls, Trump is far outpacing him by strong double digits.
And, as Woodruff explained, “soon DeSantis’ trips can be done in secret, so Florida Taxpayers, the people he purports to serve, won’t know where he is or how much it is costing them.” Here’s more on that from Politico:
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ use of state planes and other information about his official travel could soon be secret under a far-reaching bill that is coming while the Republican governor has been ramping up visits across the country ahead of a likely presidential campaign.
The Florida Senate passed the bill Wednesday by a 28-12 vote, with Republicans using their supermajority to pass the measure since the Florida Constitution requires exemptions to the state’s public records law to clear a required two-thirds threshold. The legislation heads next to the Florida House, where lawmakers are also expected to pass it.
The legislation would not only apply to future travels by DeSantis, but it would also apply retroactively to all records dealing with the governor’s use of the state plane, as well as other top state officials such as legislative leaders.
Republicans contend they are pushing for the bill, SB 1616, at the urging of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, the agency which now manages the state plane used by the governor and which has been inundated with record requests. GOP lawmakers asserted that releasing the information would allow someone to look for “patterns” that could jeopardize DeSantis’ security.
And if you believe that, I’ve got some swampland in Florida to sell you. As the Politico article discussed, “Democrats ripped the bill as a way to keep DeSantis’ actions out of public view while open government advocates called it one of the worst ever proposed exemptions to the state’s much-lauded Sunshine Law.”
Republicans pretend to hate “big government” and “welfare” but they sure don’t seem to mind either if it means lining their own pockets and staying in power.
