DeSantis vetoes all arts grants in Florida

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DeSantis Vetoes All Arts Grants in Florida
nytimes.com

Gov. Ron DeSantis gave no explanation for zeroing out the $32 million in grants that were approved by state lawmakers.

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Leaders of arts organizations in Florida, many of whom have worked in the state for decades, cannot remember a governor ever eliminating all of their grant funding. Even in the lean years of the Great Recession, at least a nominal amount — say, 5 percent of the recommended total — was approved.

Established arts organizations usually know better than to overly rely on nonrecurring state dollars subject to the discretion of politicians, said Michael Tomor, executive director of the Tampa Museum of Art. But to cut funding at a time when arts organizations are still struggling to recover from the coronavirus pandemic sends a concerning message “that taxpayer dollars should not be used in support of arts and culture,” he added.

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Mr. DeSantis, a Republican, gave no explanation for zeroing out the arts grants. His office said in a statement that he made veto decisions “that are in the best interests of the State of Florida.”

In all, Mr. DeSantis vetoed nearly $950 million in proposed spending and proclaimed that the remaining $116.5 billion came in under the previous year’s budget.

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This high heeled tough guy wannabe is the living embodiment of poor and spiteful decision making. Nothing he does helps anybody. It's fascinating really. Everyday I wake up I count my blessings I escaped that shit hole state

Fascist 101:

Blame minorities

Get to Power

Make things worse for everyone

Blame minorities harder

Manifest more power

...

run on "government bad"

get elected

govern poorly

"told you so"

I think he does help some people, primarily his rich donors and the rest of the do nothing class.

Nothing he does helps anybody.

He's been a real boon for the state's money laundering, human trafficking, landlord profiteering, and fossil fuel industries.