LINKAGE TO THE GOVERNOR'S PRIORITIES
The Executive Office of the Governor's goals, objectives, and performance measures are all associated with the DeSantis administration priorities as listed below:
1. Restore and Protect Florida's Environment
• Secure $2.5 billion over 4 years to improve water quality, quantity, and supply.
• Prioritize Everglades' restoration, and the completion of critical Everglades' restoration
projects.
• Prevent fracking and off‐shore drilling to protect Florida's environment.
2. Improve Florida's Education System
• Increase access to and expand options for quality educational choices for Florida's families.
• Revamp Florida's curriculum to lead the nation and expand civics and computer education.
• Maintain the Florida higher education system's status as number one in the nation while still
making necessary adjustments to improve it.
• Provide quality career and technical education options for Florida's students and workforce.
3. Economic Development and Job Creation
• Focus on diversifying Florida's job market, including a focus on an expansion of manufacturing and the financial services and technology sectors.
• Maintain Florida's status as a low‐tax state and continue to find opportunities to reduce taxes and fees.
• Reduce existing regulations, and stop any new regulations that do not serve the public health, safety and welfare.
• Prioritize infrastructure development to meaningful projects that provide regional and statewide impact, especially focused on safety and improved mobility.
4. Health Care
• Focus resources on continuing to combat the opioid crisis and substance abuse in general, and addressing mental health.
• Promote innovation in healthcare that reduces the cost of medical procedures and services and increases access to care for Floridians.
• Reduce the cost of prescription drugs through state and federal reform.
5. Public Safety
• Continue to uphold immigration law to protect our borders and communities.
• Support local and state law enforcement's ability to investigate and prevent criminal activity.
• Develop and implement comprehensive threat assessment strategies to identify and prevent
threats to the public.
• Continue efforts to enhance safety in our schools.
6. Public Integrity
• Protect taxpayer resources by ensuring the faithful expenditure of public funds.
• Promote greater transparency at all levels of government.
• Hold public officials and government employees accountable for failure to serve the public interest at all times.
The following outlines the Executive Office of the Governor's goal(s) and the associated priorities:
EXECUTIVE OFFICE
GOAL: To improve the health, safety, welfare, and education of Florida's citizens
PRIORITIES:
1. Restore and Protect Florida's Environment
• Secure $2.5 billion over 4 years to improve water quality, quantity, and supply.
• Prioritize Everglades' restoration, and the completion of critical Everglades' restoration projects.
• Prevent fracking and off‐shore drilling to protect Florida's environment.
2. Improve Florida's Education System
• Increase access to and expand options for quality educational choices for Florida's families.
• Revamp Florida's curriculum to lead the nation and expand civics and computer education.
• Maintain the Florida higher education system's status as number one in the nation while still making necessary adjustments to improve it.
• Provide quality career and technical education options for Florida's students and workforce.
3. Economic Development and Job Creation
• Focus on diversifying Florida's job market, including a focus on an expansion of manufacturing and the financial services and technology sectors.
• Maintain Florida's status as a low‐tax state and continue to find opportunities to reduce taxes and fees.
• Reduce existing regulations, and stop any new regulations that do not serve the public health, safety and welfare.
• Prioritize infrastructure development to meaningful projects that provide regional and statewide impact, especially focused on safety and improved mobility.
4. Health Care
• Focus resources on continuing to combat the opioid crisis and substance abuse in general, and addressing mental health.
• Promote innovation in healthcare that reduces the cost of medical procedures and services and increases access to care for Floridians.
• Reduce the cost of prescription drugs through state and federal reform.
5. Public Safety
• Continue to uphold immigration law to protect our borders and communities.
• Support local and state law enforcement's ability to investigate and prevent criminal activity.
• Develop and implement comprehensive threat assessment strategies to identify and prevent threats to the public.
• Continue efforts to enhance safety in our schools.
6. Public Integrity
• Protect taxpayer resources by ensuring the faithful expenditure of public funds.
• Promote greater transparency at all levels of government.
• Hold public officials and government employees accountable for failure to serve the public interest at all times.
Executive Office of the Governor Long‐Range Program Plan
Fiscal Years 2022‐2023 through 2026‐2027 Trends and Conditions Statements
The Governor is the state's chief elected official. His duties and responsibilities are enumerated in the Florida Constitution and in the Florida Statutes. Supreme executive power is invested in the Governor, as are the duties of commander‐in‐chief of all military forces of the state not active in the service of the United States. The Governor is also the chief administrative officer responsible for the planning and budgeting for the state. The Executive Office of the Governor assists the Governor in fulfilling his constitutional and statutory duties and responsibilities through planning, policy development, and budgeting; directing and overseeing state agencies; facilitating citizen involvement in government; and communicating with citizens at all levels.
Governor Ron DeSantis was sworn into office in January of 2019 and from his first day in Tallahassee he has worked to lead our state and has been dedicated to keeping Florida free. Governor DeSantis has ensured that all Floridians have the right to work, the right to operate their business, the right to go to school, and the right to live their lives without onerous restrictions imposed from any level of government in the name of public health. Not only did Governor DeSantis make sure that Florida provided every student with the opportunity for in‐ person education this past school year, but he also further expanded school choice, promoted options for non‐college‐track careers, and provided Florida's teachers with $1,000.00 bonuses to thank them for stepping up to the plate to be in the classroom for their students. Governor DeSantis also stood by law enforcement, protecting them and all Floridians by signing HB1, the state's Anti‐Riot Act, and giving $1,000.00 bonuses to all sworn law enforcement officers and first responders because these heroes couldn't respond to emergencies from home. Governor DeSantis also forged ahead with investments to promote Florida's environmental resiliency, including record funding for the restoration of the Everglades and accelerated reimbursement of hurricane recovery expenditures.
Governor DeSantis follows the science and has used facts and data — along with a deep and abiding respect for and dedication to the American traditions of limited government, individual liberty, and personal responsibility — as the basis upon which to govern during COVID‐19. From setting up testing sites and keeping COVID‐positive residents out of nursing homes to putting Seniors First for vaccines, rapidly expanding vaccine access through retail pharmacies, and making monoclonal antibody treatments readily available, Governor DeSantis has protected the vulnerable and provided all Floridians with the tools to protect themselves while respecting the privacy of all Floridians' health information and defending their freedom to choose how best to maintain their health and wellness.
In Florida the economy is thriving, the population is growing, the children are learning, the environment is rejuvenating, and under Governor DeSantis' leadership the Sunshine State will remain an oasis of freedom for all who call Florida home.
Please see the following statement from Governor Ron DeSantis:
"Last year was a time of great uncertainty. There were dire predictions about budgetary shortfalls which led me to veto more than $1 billion from the 2020‐2021 state budget. Despite this fiscal revision following a successful legislative session, I made sure to maintain critical funding for key policy areas to continue to deliver on my promises to Floridians and the priorities I set for our state government. Over the past year, Florida's economy has been thriving as a result of my liberty‐minded approach to governing and our revenue projections have been revised ever upward. This has allowed me and my administration to redouble our efforts to deliver on our promises to the people of Florida.
Education
"Teachers play a profound role in setting their students up for success in the classroom and beyond. What we saw in the spring of 2020, though, is the importance of being physically in the classroom for students to thrive academically and socially. I vowed to make 2020 The Year of the Teacher in Florida and our teachers lived up to the designation when they returned to their classrooms at the beginning of this past school year while other teachers around the country were forced to teach remotely. My administration, with the support of the Florida Legislature, has invested $550 million to increase teacher salaries throughout the state, bringing Florida's teachers' starting salaries from among the lowest in the nation to among the highest. And to thank our educators for being there in person for our children, I provided $1,000.00 bonuses to all of them.
"Educational opportunities must be expanded for all of Florida's students regardless of their background, their ZIP code, or their parents' income level. By expanding the Family Empowerment Scholarship and the Florida Tax Credit Scholarship and ensuring that school choice is an option without first having to send a child to public school, we are increasing the rights of parents to determine their children's educational pathway. I have also protected women's sports and defended the rights of parents to decide the academic and medical upbringing of their children. In Florida, we are defending parents' freedom to choose whether or not to mask their children at school.
"My administration has also continued to further the success of Florida's world‐renowned higher education system by investing in the Florida College System and State University System and funding Florida's Historically Black Colleges and Universities. I have also stood up for freedom of speech and academic debate on campus by signing HB 233 in June.
Environment
"I have continued to invest in maintaining the beauty and resiliency of Florida's environment, securing more than $2.1 billion since 2019 for Everglades restoration and the protection of the state's water resources.
"Florida's Wildlife Corridor has also been secured, providing our state's wildlife with an unbroken stretch of undeveloped land on which they can roam freely, allowing the incredible range of plants and animals native to the state to maintain genetic diversity and flourish unmolested by human activity.
"I have also met regularly with experts on algal blooms who continue to work to lessen the impacts of these phenomena that occur in Lake Okeechobee, in our estuaries, and in our bays. The funding that the Legislature and I have provided to respond to algal blooms now allows responses to these situations to occur with full effect without the need for states of emergency to be declared.
Health and Human Services
"When the COVID vaccines arrived late last year, I put Seniors First and made sure that those most vulnerable to novel coronaviruses were able to receive protection. I then expanded access to the entire eligible population by utilizing the retail footprint of our pharmacies, an approach which has led Florida to have the highest vaccination rate in the southeast. I also led the way in increasing access to monoclonal antibody treatments, employing a dual‐pronged, data‐driven approach of vaccines and therapeutics to keep Floridians out of the hospital and save lives.
"My administration has also worked to bring down the cost of prescription drugs by doing our part on the state level to provide for the importation of medicines from Canada. We now have a warehouse ready to accept inventory as soon as the federal government gives the go ahead.
"I, along with Florida's First Lady, have also been focused on mental health initiatives and supporting vulnerable populations, securing $158.4 million for the State Opioid Response Grant, $3 million to allow 211 call centers to expand coordination initiatives for mental health services, and investing in programs administered by the Department of Children and Families while increasing monitoring of those programs' performance to ensure accountability for the effective delivery of services.
Transportation and Economic Development
"The Florida Department of Transportation continued to take advantage of reduced levels of traffic in 2020 to fast‐track key construction projects. We accelerated $2.1 billion in critical infrastructure projects, moving them ahead by a combined 650 calendar days. As our economy has rebounded, the benefits of this period of rapid infrastructure improvement can now be taken advantage of to further spur economic growth.