DeSantis gets millions in taxpayer money to fight lawsuits over hard-right policies

TALLAHASSEE − Gov. Ron DeSantis has been fortified with millions of dollars in taxpayer money for legal fights stemming from his polarizing legislative agenda, with the scene now shifting from the Capitol to the courthouse.

Republican supermajorities in the House and Senate tucked an unprecedented almost $16 million into the state’s $117 billion budget for litigation costs to defend policies DeSantis just advanced or to cover battles already underway, like his yearlong clash with the Walt Disney Company.

The state’s largest teachers union, the Florida Education Association, filed the first lawsuit from the recently completed 2023 legislative session Wednesday, a day after DeSantis signed into law a bill imposing new restrictions on public employee labor unions, mostly targeting those allied with Democrats.

FEA and other unions claim in their federal lawsuit that the governor is violating their free speech, among other constitutional rights.

“He’s using taxpayer dollars to fund the legal defense of his poor choices,” said House Democratic Leader Fentrice Driskell of Tampa. “It’s just waste.”

Cultural divides mark session: Florida Legislature's tough-edged session ends with budget, tax breaks and cultural scars

DeSantis vs. Disney: GOP lawmakers give governor more muscle ahead of court fight

Stop Woke, flopped: Gov. Ron DeSantis dealt 'Stop Woke' setback, after promoting policy on Election Night

“DeSantis pushes for these bills, these extremist policies knowing that they’re unconstitutional, knowing that they will be likely challenged in court,” she added.

More legal muscle, money needed

But lawmakers were intent on giving DeSantis added muscle for a likely deluge of lawsuits. The governor in June is expected to formally kick off his campaign for the Republican presidential nomination and aggressively engaging in these courtroom challenges is seen as pivotal by strategists.

Republican legislative leaders acknowledge that the governor has been pushing the political envelope. But they went along with him and view the litigation expenses imposed on Floridians as merely the cost of doing business.

“We know that some of the things we’re doing in Florida are leading the nation on how we feel about certain issues,” said Senate budget chair Doug Broxson, R-Gulf Breeze. “We want the governor to be in a comfortable position to speak his mind, and we’re going to support him on those things.”

Senate President Kathleen Passidomo, R-Naples, also rationalized the costs, saying, “we’re in a litigious society.”

“We want to make sure there’s enough to handle the matters through the governor’s office and the agencies responsible,” Passidomo said.

The $15.8 million set aside for legal costs−$6 million earmarked for the governor’s office, alone – is slightly more than what the state is steering in additional money for operational expenses at New College of Florida, the Sarasota state university effectively taken over by the governor and his allies who are subjecting the liberal-leaning school to a wide-ranging, conservative makeover.

The $15 million spent at New College will help pay salaries, staff recruitment expenses and other day-to-day costs.

But the increase in dollars for defending DeSantis lawsuits also is more than seven times the $2 million more set aside by lawmakers to take 226 people off a lengthy waiting list for community care for the elderly.

“It’s ridiculous,” Driskell said of the spending choices.

Dollars can open door to top-flight outside counsel

Attorney General Ashley Moody’s office and its staff attorneys routinely represent the state in legal challenges to new laws enacted by the governor. But the dollars included in the budget for litigation costs will allow DeSantis, Moody and other agencies to hire costlier, outside counsel for help in critical cases.

Records obtained last year by the Florida newspaper-allied First Amendment Foundation showed the state under DeSantis has paid private attorney rates of between $425-$675 an hour in some cases.

DeSantis received $1.6 million in last year’s state budget for litigation expenses, an amount corresponding to what typically was directed to the governor’s office. But it proved not enough for last year’s cascade of cases.

The $6 million now included for DeSantis’ legal expenses tops the $4 million he requested in his own budget recommendation made in February. Lawmakers appeared on track to match that request until the closing days of the Legislature, which ended May 5.

The reporting substack, Seeking Rents, which recently wrote about the legal spending, pointed out that the increase to $6 million came within 72-hours of Disney suing DeSantis in federal court.

The company claims the governor has been retaliating against it for opposing last year’s parental rights law, dubbed “Don’t Say Gay,” by critics.

The Reedy Creek Improvement District, the taxing authority including Walt Disney World, has been recast by the governor into the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District, with his own, hand-selected appointees.

Clash with Disney is costly

That board subsequently sued Disney in state court. The dueling lawsuits suggest that legal costs for Floridians are certain to mount.

The governor’s policies affecting schools, universities, COVID, law enforcement, transgender Floridians, abortion, social media, immigration, migrant flights and congressional redistricting have brought a heavy toll of lawsuits, with most still at some lower court level or pending on appeal.

Along with the $6 million for DeSantis’ office, lawmakers included in the state budget $2 million for the State University System Board of Governors, which has been embroiled in a fight over last year’s “Stop Woke” act, which sought to limit diversity training on campuses and in businesses.

The law was blocked as “dsytopian” by a federal judge, whose ruling was recently upheld by an appeals court. But another round of legislation this spring aimed at barring diversity, equity and inclusion programs at universities may bring more litigation.

The Department of State, which oversees elections, is getting $2.8 million for lawsuit costs, as lawmakers recently advanced another measure adding more restrictions to voter registration groups.

And Moody’s office was given $5 million for legal services related to COVID-19 vaccinations, another long legal siege prompted by DeSantis policies.

The Miami Herald in December totaled up nearly $17 million in legal fees paid by DeSantis and the state over challenges to measures then already in play.

But for Florida taxpayers, the governor’s recent signing of new measures into law means the meter is still running and the lawsuit costs are likely to climb.

John Kennedy is a reporter in the USA TODAY Network’s Florida Capital Bureau. He can be reached at jkennedy2@gannett.com, or on Twitter at @JKennedyReport

This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: DeSantis culture wars call for nearly $16 million in legal defense