South Florida impacted by DeSantis' state budget cuts

As he approaches the end of his time in office, Governor Ron DeSantis broke out his budget veto pen one last time. 

He axed about $1.7 billion from the state's $117.6 billion budget; approximately $95 million in state funding earmarked for projects here in South Florida was canceled. Miami-Dade lost the most, $55.3 million, while Broward County lost $20.7 million, and Palm Beach County lost $19.4 million in state money. Some of the most impactful cuts in Miami-Dade included 12.3 million dollars for flood mitigation and water and sewer projects. Nearly $2 million earmarked for a homestead emergency operations center to aid disaster response was also cut. The governor also cut $1.5 million to build a roller hockey rink at the county-owned Palmetto Golf Course.

Perhaps the most controversial cut DeSantis made was the $15 million that would have gone to fund security efforts at Catholic schools in Miami-Dade County. DeSantis defended that decision, saying the state has already done plenty for Catholic schools.

"No one has done better for Catholic schools than we have because we have universal school choice, and so I see that you know, we started with the security with the Jewish day schools because there were specific threats involving some of those schools, and we've done that. Now that's grown too, but what I don't want is for the state to somehow have an entitlement that we're going to have to fund all the time," DeSantis said in a recent news conference.

The Archdiocese of Miami said in a statement that it was disappointed by the governor's decision and said security for the 37,000 students at its area schools remains a distinct and critical need. The fallout from the governor's vetoes will reverberate across the county, so CBS News Miami decided to get a perspective from Miami-Dade County Commissioner Raquel Regalado, who says she wasn't actually surprised.

"The governor has been very consistent in what he considers important and what he doesn't consider important, I will say that this session was different from last session," Regaldo said. "I did spend a lot more time in Tallahassee talking to the governor, specifically about Tri Rail, and we were very happy that Biscayne Bay, that the homelessness was all there. There was a lot of line items that we were expecting would be taken out. I was sad about water and sewer, but I think it's that we have to just advocate better."

Regalado said she knows DeSantis has said in previous years that he wants to put money in reserves. Still, she said there wasn't much requested this year.

"But we didn't even have that many asks this year because we learned from last year, we tried to be very consistent. There were some like animal services that were in there that got vetoed. The port, for example, we knew, given everything that's happened at the port, there was no way that anything that Port Miami asked for wasn't going to get vetoed, right? So I don't really blame the governor."

Regalado said Miami-Dade County is seen as "an anomaly" in Tallahassee, something she says has to be considered when talking with lawmakers at the state capitol.

"We're different from the rest of the state. We don't move as a region. I've really dedicated the last six years to working with Broward and Palm Beach on tri-county issues and really explaining to Tallahassee that we are good partners," she said. "We send a lot of money up to Tallahassee, and we don't get back an equivalency. And the issue is that we always get hyper-political with them. I think we have to be very concise. We have to move away from these line items and really talk to them about our responsibilities and their unfunded mandates."

That view was seemingly apparent in a lot of meetings toward the end; Regalado said there was "tremendous criticism about Miami-Dade County" from elected leaders.

"They said horrible things about us. They called us corrupt. You know, they said that everything down here was horrible," she said. "It was unnecessary carnage, and a lot of it is party-driven, and was a criticism of the administration. But we are all Miami-Dade County, so when you go to Tallahassee, and you speak about Miami-Dade County, you're speaking about every single resident, every single elected official. So I think we have to advocate better and stop airing our dirty laundry in Tallahassee."

One thing cut from the budget that stood out: a line item for the Miami-Dade Sheriff's Office on preventing corruption.

Regalado said that with water and sewer projects impacted, taxpayers may feel the hit.

"It's a ratepayer issue, so we're going to be having a conversation about raising our water rates, which we do not want to do. But it's either that or not do the projects that have us complying with the consent decree that the state has forced us to comply with, so it's an unfunded mandate, and we were trying to get some help to alleviate the cost to the taxpayer," she said.

We also asked Commissioner Regalado about the fuel depot on Fisher Island. That facility is the only storage place for fuel used at Port Miami, one of the county's key economic engines. The county is trying to use eminent domain to seize the land the depot sits on. Regalado voted against going the eminent domain route because she's concerned the county could be stuck with an outdated facility. We asked her where things stand now.

"I hope that the county continues to consider other options," she said. "One of the things that I've explained is that historically, the litigation costs us more. It is very probable that as we go into litigation, we will end up paying more. I didn't agree with the deal that was offered to us. I think that we need to consider putting it on Dodge Island. It is a doable thing, but we have to have the desire to do it. Port Miami has a lot of issues, and by moving forward with the taking, we are going to put in jeopardy all of our capital funding for the next 50 years."

Regalado also said the county needs to shift its strategy when it comes to acquiring facilities.

"We're going to buy a fuel facility that needs a tremendous amount of repair. The county needs to stop buying dinosaurs. We just purchased the West Flagler Government Center, and now we know that it's going to cost us $200 million more than what we paid in order to fix it. We continue buying old infrastructure, and we need to stop doing that. We are the only port that does not have our system," she said. "We currently barge oil in the most antiquated way. This is 1920s barging when everyone else has pipes that are secure, that are new, that go directly into the ships."