Gov. Ron DeSantis on Friday presented a giant ceremonial check to Dixie County officials as he made clear he will not veto money included in a new state budget for the rural county.
Lawmakers have not formally sent the $112.1 billion budget to DeSantis for the fiscal year that will start July 1. But DeSantis, who has line-item veto power, said he was “committing to approve” items for Dixie County.
“We’ve seen in Dixie County there’s been a lot of impact from natural disasters over the past many years,” DeSantis said while outside the county emergency operations center in Cross City.
“You had infrastructure damage. And the county relies on certain types of infrastructure. And, as a smaller county, that’s more fiscally constrained, the county needs help from the state of Florida.”
The check represented three line items in the budget: $2.71 million for flood and stormwater mitigation; $3.55 million for repairs to the Dixie County Old Town Fire Station, which was damaged by Hurricane Hermine in 2016; and $3.74 million to build a new fire station next to the county emergency operation center.
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