DeSantis promises more of the same in second term as Florida governor

Ron DeSantis was sworn in Tuesday for a second term as Florida’s governor, saying the “Free State of Florida” will remain a bulwark against so-called woke ideologies and federal government policies in what some are seeing as a kickoff to the 2024 presidential election.

“When other states consigned their people’s freedom to the dustbin, Florida stood strongly as freedom’s linchpin,” DeSantis said in address on the steps of the Capitol in Tallahassee.

“When the world lost its mind — when common sense suddenly became an uncommon virtue — Florida was a refuge of sanity, a citadel of freedom for our fellow Americans and even for people around the world,” he said, in an apparent reference to the state’s laissez-faire public health policies during the COVID-19 pandemic, which killed 83,906 people in Florida, according to Johns Hopkins University data.

DeSantis is a Republican in a state where the legislature is dominated by the GOP. He won re-election in November with more than 59% of the vote and is widely seen as being one of the top contenders for the Republican presidential nomination in 2024.

“In captaining the ship of state, we choose to navigate the boisterous sea of liberty rather than cower in the calm docks of despotism,” he said.

DeSantis cited the state’s economic prosperity and strength, claiming his policies during the COVID-19 pandemic helped keep the state moving forward.

“Florida is leading the nation,” he said. “We are number one in these United States in net in-migration. Florida is the number one fastest growing state. We are number one in new business formations. Florida is number one in tourism. We are number one in economic freedom. Florida is number one in education freedom. And we rank number one in parental involvement in education. Florida also ranks number one in public higher education.”

Democrats blasted the governor’s second-term agenda, saying it would be a disaster for the state’s residents.

“During his first term Ron DeSantis made Florida more expensive, housing less affordable and corporate industries richer while distracting Floridians with divisive culture wars. His second term promises more of the same,” Florida Democratic Party press secretary Gricel Gonzalez said Tuesday in a response to the Inauguration address.

“The governor looks set to double down on his extreme agenda to strip Floridians’ freedoms in an effort to beat Donald Trump to the Republican nomination for president in 2024,” the Florida Democratic Party said in a statement.

“Everything DeSantis has done has been with one goal in mind — courting billionaire mega-donors to fund his run for president. Already, DeSantis has the financial backing of more than 40 billionaires who get special treatment from a governor who is leaving working Floridians behind,” the Democrats said.

A report issued last month by the state Division of Bond Finance said Florida is well positioned economically and should see stability through future economic cycles despite threats from rising inflation and higher interest rates.

“We continue to position ourselves well for the future,” Ben Watkins, director of the division, told The Bond Buyer. “This is like the antithesis of what they’re doing in Washington, D.C. We’re actually having debt going down and needing less money to pay for it.”

Total state direct debt outstanding was $17.1 billion as of June 30, 2022, a decline of $1.3 billion from the prior fiscal year.

Florida’s general obligation bonds are rated triple-A by Moody’s Investors Service, S&P Global Ratings and Fitch Ratings.

“Florida has accumulated a record budget surplus, and we need to enact a record amount of tax relief, particularly for Florida families who are grappling with inflation,” DeSantis said Tuesday.

He also took rhetorical aim at the federal government, which bolstered Florida’s state and local governments with more than $24 billion of COVID-19 relief funding.

“Florida’s success has been made more difficult by the floundering federal establishment in Washington, D.C.,” he said. “The federal government has gone on an inflationary spending binge that has left our nation weaker and our citizens poorer, it has enacted pandemic restrictions and mandates — based more on ideology and politics than on sound science — and this has eroded freedom and stunted commerce.”

He returned to a familiar theme — the emergence and spread of what Republicans call “woke” ideology in an effort to stigmatize efforts like the pursuit of equal rights for Black or gay people, protection of the environment or working to slow climate change.

“Now fighting for freedom is not easy because the threats to freedom are more complex and more widespread than in the past — the threats can come from entrenched bureaucrats in D.C., jet-setters in Davos and corporations wielding public power,” said DeSantis, whose massive campaign finance haul was bolstered with jet-setting contributors like hedge fund magnate Kenneth Griffith, who gave $5 million, and $2 million from the Club For Growth, which endeavors to reduce government regulation of big business and taxes on wealthy people.

“We will never surrender to the woke mob. Florida is where woke goes to die,” DeSantis said.

He referred back to one of the themes from his first year, an effort to eliminate mention of gay people from public education through a bill opponents called “Don’t Say Gay,” which led to retaliation against the Walt Disney Corp. after its then-CEO Robert Iger spoke up for his gay employees.

“We will defend our children against those who seek to rob them of their innocence,” DeSantis said.

“We must ensure school systems are responsive to parents and to students, not partisan interest groups, and we must ensure that our institutions of higher learning are focused on academic excellence and the pursuit of truth, not the imposition of trendy ideology,” DeSantis said.

In the upcoming legislative session that starts in March, state lawmakers will have to deal with the looming dismantling of the Reedy Creek Improvement District, which is set for June 1.

Rubber-stamping DeSantis’ anti-Disney Corp. agenda, the Legislature approved a bill in April that would result in the dissolution of all independent special districts created before 1968.

The bill was aimed at the Disney, which Reedy Creek was created to serve, for the firm’s opposition to the Parental Rights in Education Act, which bans public school instruction for children through grade 3 about sexual orientation or gender identity.

It made no provision for carrying on the responsibilities and obligations of the Reedy Creek district, in which Disney itself paid nearly all the taxes that fund public services in its central Florida theme parks.

The district has about $950 million in outstanding bonds, most of which is ad valorem tax debt.

While DeSantis made no direct mention of the special district in his address Tuesday, he said last month that Disney had “brought this [situation] on themselves. All we did was stand up for what’s right. They are big powerful company, but we stand up for our folks and I don’t care what a Burbank-based California company says about our laws.”

Watkins said he expects any successor entity to Reedy Creek to assume all responsibilities and obligations under the existing bond documents, security structure, pledges, revenue collection and payment mechanisms for bondholders.

“Whenever we endeavor to change a governance framework potentially, it’s to do so in a manner that does not have any adverse consequences on the bondholders. And so that’s exactly what we’ve undertaken to do,” Watkins said in a Bond Buyer podcast in August.

“I would expect that to be identical to the, the current flow of funds, the current pledges and the current collection and payment mechanisms that, that currently exist,” he said. “So that there’s a transfer and assumption by the successor entity of all of the obligations currently applicable to Reedy Creek and that are important for bondholder security. So I would expect no change in the Reedy Creek the credit structure or the security for the repayment of debt relative to outstanding Reedy Creek bonds.”

Democrats were pessimistic about the upcoming legislative session.

“As insurance companies go insolvent, Florida homeowners are getting crushed by rising insurance costs — now more than three times the national average — and climbing,” the Democratic Party said. “Unfortunately, DeSantis’ previous efforts to lower costs amounted mostly to a handout to his insurance industry pals and donors. And there’s little reason to think the next legislative session will be any different.”