Gov. Ron DeSantis’ 2023-24 state budget includes a 150 percent spike in anticipated litigation expenses to defend against lawsuits challenging the governor on multiple issues, including congressional redistricting and the transportation of migrants to other states.
Under the proposal, which was released last week, the litigation budget for the Executive Office of the Governor would go from $1.6 million for the current fiscal year to $4 million in 2023-24. Under the plan, the additional funds would be used to hire outside attorneys to deal with litigation deadlines and filings.
“The department has legal staff and resources to handle ongoing lawsuits,” an explanation in the budget recommendations states. “However, in recent years, the department has been involved in a large number of time-sensitive, short-deadline cases, and the resources required to effectively handle the litigation duties have necessitated hiring outside counsel.”
James Clark, a senior lecturer at the University of Central Florida’s History Department, indicated the budget increase was understandable and that it would not be feasible to simply use personnel at the state Attorney General’s Office to deal with the lawsuits.
“The attorney general is a constitutional office independent of the governor,” Clark told the Florida Record in an email. “The governor has no control over the attorney general. When people sue the governor, he has his own general counsel's office to handle the matter.”
And that office is simply not able to handle the current volume of legal challenges, he said.
“Governors – Republicans and Democrats – have been hiring outside counsel for decades,” Clark explained. “The difference now involves the number of lawsuits against Gov. DeSantis, which has more than doubled the cost of outside counsel.”
Other litigation facing the Governor’s Office includes efforts to overturn the “Stop Woke Act” and a law on parental rights in public education.
The new budget proposal represents a 3.3 percent increase over the current year’s total budget and would amount to about $114.8 billion. The provisions include a 5 percent increase in salaries for all state employees and sales tax exemptions on products such as baby and toddler necessities, gas stoves and pet medications.