TALLAHASSEE—In a rare departure from party loyalty, the Republican-dominated Florida Legislature on Monday overrode the governor's veto for the first time in 15 years.
Monday's nearly unanimous decision to restore $56 million of legislative funding after Gov. Ron DeSantis vetoed it in June came amid a rebellion from Republican leaders, who shut down his special session and called their own the same day. The last time the Legislature rapidly adjourned a governor's special session or overrode his veto was in 2010, with then-Gov. Charlie Crist.
"Separation of powers exists for a reason," Senate President Ben Albritton told lawmakers Monday, bashing DeSantis for cutting $28 million in support services for each chamber. The funding used annually to pay for IT systems, legislative research, and "transparency programs" was part of DeSantis's nearly $1 billion in veto cuts for the 2025 budget.
"We have the opportunity to override the governor’s veto and restore the funding for these key functions of our independent, co-equal branch of government," Albritton, a Republican, added.
After a 111-0 vote in the House and a 35-1 vote in the Senate, the chambers restored their funding. The sole "no" vote came from Republican Sen. Blaise Ingoglia, a strong DeSantis ally and rumored appointee to the soon-to-be vacant Chief Financial Officer post.
"As a staunch fiscal conservative, I don't believe in veto overrides for the purposes of increasing the budget," Ingoglia told reporters outside the Senate floor. "So a veto override to make the government bigger? Not on the list of things that I want to do."
This marks the third time in forty years that the Legislature has overturned a Florida governor's veto. Aside from NPA Crist, who had seven of his vetoed bills overridden in 2010, Democratic Gov. Lawton Chiles in 1998 and Democratic Gov. Bob Graham in 1986 both had vetoes nixed.
As Senators discussed the veto, Minority Leader Jason Pizzo asked that his fellow lawmakers consider overriding another hotly-contested veto: a $32 million line-item veto in budget funding for arts and culture projects.
"It was pretty devastating," Pizzo said. "That's [a veto for] afterschool programs, exposure to the arts...If we're gonna be throwing around tens of millions of dollars to deputize people, let's put the arts back in schools; let's bring it back to our communities."
Former Republican Senate President Kathleen Passidomo, who now chairs the committee in charge of scheduling bills, told Pizzo that the Legislature has an "entire session" to address that issue during the regular session in March.
