Budget vetoes of more than $560 million by Gov. Ron DeSantis affected vital services for Florida Keys children.
Before signing the $115 billion budget on June 30 in Wildwood, DeSantis cut a number of line items in the legislatively-approved spending plan. Nearly $1 million was tossed out of the budget by DeSantis for a Florida Keys nonprofit providing comprehensive medical and dental care for local school-age children.
Keys AHEC initially submitted a request to the state legislature for $975,000 to continue its work providing dental services, including cleanings, sealings and X-rays, as well as health services, including physicals ahead of the school year for children in the Keys.
Keys AHEC’s medical clinics had nearly 6,000 visits, while its dental clinic had 3,431 visits during the 2023-24 school year. In 2022, Keys AHEC received a new mobile dental van and the ability to offer free pediatric dental care to every child in the Keys.
Michael Cunningham, Keys AHEC executive director, said the Florida House and Senate initially included $500,000 in their respective spending plans. The figure eventually grew to Keys AHEC’s original $975,000 request as the budget process moved along.
“Everything was going well,” Cunningham said as the House and Senate eventually approved a budget with full funding for Keys AHEC. He said meetings with the Department of Health over the funding request were well received. Cunningham also said the governor’s office understood the importance of the funding in a meeting.
To the surprise of Keys AHEC, funds earmarked in the legislatively-approved budget were cut as the governor prepared to sign the legislation. DeSantis briefly discussed the vetoes as a whole during the budgeting-signing event.
“Some of the stuff I don’t think should have been in the budget. Some of it wasn’t bad, but I felt it was important to get the budget spending in line with my recommendations,” he said.
Cunningham believes the governor didn’t go line-by-line to examine actual projects and impacts of programs he was eliminating.
A little more than $5 million in similar health-related funding across the state, identified as “Appropriation 436” in the legislature’s approved budget, was cut by DeSantis.
“He eliminated budget sections which were very interesting. … It’s the first time I had seen that,” Cunningham said. “I don’t know whether he really understood the project or gave it a fair shake.”
The state Legislature extended the session beyond the typical 60 days due to a budget impasse stemming from differences among the House and Senate over tax cuts. A spending plan was ultimately approved on June 24, which didn’t leave the governor with a whole lot of time to examine and sign it before a new fiscal year on July 1.
With the loss of nearly $1 million comes some internal review to determine what kind of modifications, cost shifting and possible reductions Keys AHEC can make while still keeping services running for local children.
“We’ll have to dip into our reserves a little bit and look elsewhere to potentially raise at least $500,000 over the next 12 months to keep programs,” Cunningham said. “Anything less than that, knowing we’ll be able to raise $250,000 internally, with reductions and movement in internal budget, simply means less programs, less services and children not being served.”
Cunningham added he was appreciative of the work by state Rep. Jim Mooney and state Sen. Ana Maria Rodriguez in getting the funding request in their respective chambers.
“They did a great job for us. We couldn’t ask more from them.”
Rodriguez told Keys Weekly that while she’s disappointed funds were excluded for Keys AHEC, which was worthy of receiving state funds, she will advocate for “much-needed investments” next session.
This isn’t the first time Keys AHEC was left without funding from the state. A $650,000 request by Keys AHEC during the 2022-23 session yielded not a dime from the Legislature.
