DeSantis budget vetoes cut $55.3 million from Miami-Dade projects
DeSantis cut $55.3 million from Miami-Dade projects, hitting flood control, Homestead emergency planning and Catholic school security.
Ron DeSantis’ vetoes stripped $55.3 million from Miami-Dade County projects, leaving flood protection, emergency readiness, park amenities and school security among the biggest local losers. The largest cut in the county ledger was $12.3 million for flood mitigation and water-and-sewer work, followed by nearly $2 million for an emergency operations center in Homestead and $1.5 million for a roller hockey rink at the county-owned Palmetto Golf Course.
The dollar hit is small next to Miami-Dade’s $13.233 billion adopted budget for fiscal year 2025-26, but the vetoes landed on priorities the county says matter most: resilience, infrastructure and public safety. County budget materials frame water and sewer spending as protection for public health and the environment, while also planning for growth by extending sewer service into developed commercial and industrial corridors. Losing state support for that work can force local leaders to delay projects, shrink them or find replacement money elsewhere.
Homestead took another direct hit in the veto list. A Florida Senate funding request filed Dec. 8, 2025, said the city needed a Joint Operations Center to bring together federal, state and local agencies and noted that no similar venue exists in south Miami-Dade. That makes the nearly $2 million cut more than a line item on paper. It pushes back a project tied to emergency coordination in a fast-growing part of the county that faces hurricanes, flooding and other major incidents.
The most politically charged veto was the $15 million that would have helped pay for security at Catholic schools in Miami-Dade. In April, the Archdiocese of Miami urged state help with private-school security costs, and Superintendent Jim Rigg said safety expenses should not fall only on parents. The archdiocese says its schools serve 37,000 students in the area. DeSantis defended the veto by arguing the state already supports Catholic schools through universal school choice and by rejecting what he saw as an open-ended state obligation for security spending.
County Commissioner Raquel Regalado said she was not surprised by the vetoes, a reaction that fits a broader pattern of friction between Tallahassee and Miami-Dade’s capital needs. Regalado, the first Miami-born Hispanic woman elected to the county commission, has long been identified with school facilities, transportation, housing, seniors and disability issues. DeSantis has used the veto pen aggressively before, cutting $567 million when he signed the state budget on June 30, 2025, and Miami-Dade officials now face the same question again: which projects get replaced locally, and which get pushed into another budget cycle.
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