After Gov. Ron DeSantis vetoed nearly $57 million for legislative support services, House and Senate leaders plan to temporarily cover the cost with the Legislature’s rainy-day reserve fund.
By vetoing this funding, several state offices, including the Office of Economic and Demographic Research, the Office of Program Policy Analysis and Government Accountability, the Office of Legislative Information Technology Services (OLITS), the Office of Legislative Services and all House and Senate joint committees would be affected.
The Office of Legislative Information Technology Services provides computer technology and all tech support to the Florida Legislature. It also provides business process automation, communications, education, publishing and workplace support services.
Senate President Kathleen Passidomo and Speaker of the House Paul Renner wrote the following in a memo regarding the veto: “We have evaluated various options to ensure continuity of operations for the Legislature’s joint committees, including transparency programs like the lobbyist registration, the financial disclosure database and other joint information technology systems; critical economic estimating and research; government accountability functions; and joint contracted services, like the Florida Channel.
“While the final resolution of this matter may require an act of the Legislature at a future date, we have determined that use of the Legislature’s rainy-day reserve funding can temporarily bridge the gap,” the memo states.
Justifying the veto during a press conference, DeSantis pointed to an interchange fee study.
“Obviously, we want to support legislators being able to have adequate support and staff,” DeSantis said during the press conference. “I think this particular budget item had this interchange fee study, which we do not want. Basically, there’s some people that want to force all small businesses to use credit cards, and we think if you’re a small business in Florida and you want to be cash, you have every right to do that. So as long as I’m governor, we will ensure that our business can operate on a cash basis if that’s what they want.”
Furthermore, DeSantis said, “I also know that there’s enough money left over to be able to cover all the services for the coming years. So, you’re not going to see any interruption in services. But it was really rooted in that interchange fee issue, which we thought was a poison pill.”
More information about OLITS and the state’s other legislative offices can be found online.
Poison Pill? DeSantis Promises 'Enough Money' for OLITS and Legislative Support After $57M Cut
The Legislature is planning to use its rainy-day fund to support its tech office and other services after Gov. Ron DeSantis nixed nearly $57 million in his veto list.
