Florida Governor Ron DeSantis took a pause from his whirlwind tour of Iowa ahead of next week’s presidential caucuses Tuesday to return to his home state and deliver the annual State of the State Address.
The speech, delivered to a joint session of the Florida Senate and Legislature, marked as an unofficial starter’s pistol to the 60-day 2024 Legislative session.
In the 35-minute speech, DeSantis painted 2023 as a year of nonstop accomplishments, and said 2024 would be a great year.
“The state of the state is strong. Let’s stay the course and continue to make Florida the envy of the nation,” he proclaimed.
State Democrats, however, called that message is an “increasingly out of touch agenda.”
“It’s championed by a governor more pre-occupied with running for President than solving problems in our state,” said Senate Minority Leader Lauren Book. “The backbone of our economy is under constant attack, and families across the state are burdened by the cost of living.”
House Minority Leader Fentrice Driskell noted that, while “the absentee governor” was in Iowa, insurance and the cost of living for Floridians skyrockets.
But, as the person at the lectern, and without directly discussing his White House campaign, DeSantis made much of a Florida-versus-everyone-else message — their dysfunction and “ideology over sound policy” — up against Florida, which he called a “refuge of freedom and sanity … in this time for choosing, the state of Florida has chosen well, and our choices have produced results that are second to none.”
For example, he noted Florida added more jobs than New York, has more manufacturing jobs and a bigger budget per capita than the northern state.
Policy items familiar to Floridians in the know were the order of the speech, as he mentioned expanded spending on education, teacher pay and education choices, a parent’s bill of rights, the protection of fair competition in women’s sports, keeping state college tuition affordable and standing up to a “woke mob”.
He said that Florida will be “The state” for economic responsibility, delivering services with a smaller government, and he proposes a $114 billion budget that is $4 billion less than last fiscal year and puts billions in reserves and paying down millions in state debt. That is while working to continue a string of sales-tax holidays on back-to-school items and disaster preparation supplies, the Hometown Heroes mortgage assistance program and toll rebates, all that saved, he said, another $1 billion.
“Let’s see another state match that list of achievements,” DeSantis said, also choosing to quote a line from the Bible inscribed on the Liberty Bell: “Proclaim liberty throughout all the land, unto all the inhabitants thereof,” he said.
“A replica of that sits here in Tallahassee, a thousand miles away from Philadelphia, reminding us of our path to proclaim liberty. Here in the Sunshine State we deliver good government that protects liberty, a blueprint for America’s revival. Together, we will keep Florida free.”
Click here to see the full speech in its entirety.
