Gov. Ron DeSantis used his line-item veto pen on 50 projects in the Jacksonville area totaling around $70 million, but most of the bigger items that lawmakers inserted into the 2024-25 budget remained intact when DeSantis signed the budget into law on Wednesday.
DeSantis vetoed about 700 items statewide adding up to nearly $950 million so the cuts in the five-county Jacksonville metropolitan area fit into the approach he took elsewhere.
The biggest veto in the Jacksonville area eliminated $11.7 million for the District 23 regional medical examiner’s office serving St. Johns, Putnam and Flagler counties. He vetoed nearly $11 million in public works projects in St. Augustine and St. Augustine Beach and cut funding for several county road construction projects in fast-growing areas of St. Johns, Clay and Nassau counties. He also eliminated several million dollars for expanding nursing programs.
Even before releasing his veto list of projects that state lawmakers had added to the budget, DeSantis had said he supported an additional $75 million for a University of Florida graduate campus in Jacksonville and $20 million for enhancing security at the state’s four historically Black colleges and universities. Edward Waters University will receive $5 million of that amount.
He also left in place $40.2 million for construction of a University of North Florida student support and academic building that would have study space, learning centers, tutoring, career development and other academic enhancements. UNF wants to increase enrollment to 25,000 students by 2028 and school officials say the center will support that growth.
An extensive renovation of Hotel Ponce de Leon at Flagler College in St. Augustine will get another $35 million, following a $35 million amount in this year’s budget. The work will preserve the National Historic Landmark building that houses several hundred Flagler College students and is a tourist destination.
People walk by the main building of Flagler College in St. Augustine in 2018. The building, completed in 1888, was once the Ponce de Leon Hotel and was designed by New York architecture firm Carrere & Hastings.
DeSantis vetoed a $3 million line item for cargo cranes at JaxPort but he left a separate $23 million for cranes at the port intact.
He backed a one-time payment of $15 million to UF Health Jacksonville, the city’s main hospital for treating poor patients who cannot pay for their health care. He supported $5 million for the Ocearch research and operations center in Mayport that’s a partnership between Jacksonville University, Ocearch and the city of Jacksonville.
He left $5 million for the Museum of Science and History’s planned new museum on the downtown rivefront near the sports complex.
Penny, a female white shark, was 10 feet, 3 inches long and weighed 522 pounds when she was tagged off Ocracoke, North Carolina, in April 2023.
While DeSantis generally backed spending on higher education in Northeast Florida, he vetoed $2.8 million for Florida State College at Jacksonville nursing program facilities and $2.9 million from Jacksonville University’s Grow Florida Nurses program.
Many of the smaller items inserted by lawmakers to support non-profit organizations and road work made it through DeSantis’s review. Here is spending he rejected in different counties.
On the road: Where FDOT would spend billions in Jacksonville area
Signing day: Florida Gov. DeSantis signs $116.5 billion state budget after vetoing almost $950 million
Duval County projects vetoed
JaxPort crane modernization: $3 million
Jacksonville University Grow Florida Nurses program: $2.9 million
FSCJ nursing programs: $2.8 million
Dunn Avenue at V.C. Johnson Road intersection improvements: $1 million
Timucuan Parks Foundation’s healthy parks initiative: $850,000
First Coast High School pedestrian signal: $500,000
Neptune Beach stormwater improvements: $500,000
JEA’s St. Johns River Power Park transportation study: $500,000
Delores Barr Weaver Policy Center’s Girls Matter: $500,000
Growing Green Jobs Jacksonville: $482,500
Smart North Florida pilot project: $450,000
Atlantic Beach marshside septic tank elimination: $312,500
The Boselli Foundation mentorship program: $303,800
Atlantic Beach dune protection and beach access: $250,000
North Florida workforce soft skills and financial literacy training: $137,500
Historic Eastside community preventive mental health and wellness: $100,000
Jax Youth Exposure entrepreneurship program: $21,500
St. Johns County items vetoed
District 23 regional medical examiners office for St. Johns, Putnam and Flagler counties: $11.7 million
St. Johns County central public safety station: $7.5 million
St. Augustine-West Augustine septic to sewer in Four Mile Road area: $5 million
St. Augustine Beach Mickler Boulevard ditch erosion: $3.86 million
County Road 2209 central segment: $3.5 million
St. Augustine Beach Mizell Stormwater Treatment Facility improvements: $2 million
tag! children’s museum of St. Augustine: $1.75 million
Epic Community Services sober living transitional housing: $1,510,145
Clay County items vetoed
County Road 217 bridge safety improvements and replacement: $2.5 million
County Road 209 safety improvements: $1.5 million
County Road 218 extend four-lane road: $1.5 million
County Road 220 extension: $1.5 million
Clay County Utility Authority improvements: $1 million
Clay County fire station No. 21: $750,000
YMCA of Florida’s First Coast Immokalee Unique Abilities Center: $700,000
Florida 16 extension: $750,000
Green Cove Springs – Spring Park shoreline resiliency: $425,000
Black Creek Bike Trail: $375,000
Green Cove Springs senior center emergency generator: $200,000
Brooks Rehabilitation feeding and swallowing clinic: $185,000
Clay Behavioral Health Center accessibility project: $125,000
Nassau County items vetoed
County Road 108 extension: $3.7 million
Hilliard water supply expansion: $1.95 million
Fernandina Beach 200th anniversary beautification and preservation: $1 million
George Crady Bridge Fishing Pier State Park: $500,000
Boys and Girls Club of Northeast Florida Camp Deep Pond: $500,000
Nassau County 911 console replacement: $375,000
Lutheran Social Services mental health transition beds for elderly: $375,000
Coalition for the Homeless of Nassau County: $17,750
Light Up Amelia bicentennial: $15,500
Baker County items vetoed
Baker Fire District tanker: $250,000
Baker Fire District air compressor/purifier: $70,000
This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Florida Gov. DeSantis vetoes some Jacksonville projects