Is it possible to be unsurprised yet shocked at the same time? As a member of the Florida House Appropriations Committee, that’s how I felt when Gov. Ron DeSantis decided this month that he could unilaterally spend public funds without legislative authorization.

The unsurprising part was the governor’s position, which is entirely consistent with the Donald Trump successor audition he has been performing since COVID-19 began. What’s shocking to me is the fact that the speaker of the Florida House of Representatives, the president of the Florida Senate, and other Republican legislators acquiesced to this usurpation of legislative authority.

Article II, Section 3 of the Florida Constitution states that “the powers of the state government shall be divided into legislative, executive and judicial branches. No person belonging to one branch shall exercise any powers appertaining to either of the other branches unless expressly provided herein.” Article III, Section 19 specially assigns the responsibility for budgeting and appropriations to the Florida Legislature. The Constitution gave the Legislature the power of the purse.

Those are not just words on paper, but specific direction from the people of Florida. Voters confer specific authority to exercise those legislative responsibilities every other year, when they elect members of the Florida Senate and Florida House of Representatives.

Yet the will of the people, as expressed through our most fundamental governing document, is apparently nothing but background noise to the governor and legislative leaders. Their casual disregard for the Florida Constitution is one of the most concerning responses to the pandemic.

In March, the Florida Legislature passed a $93 billion annual budget — the largest in state history. To the credit of the House and Senate Appropriations Chairs, it was also bipartisan, as they included Democratic requests that had been ignored when Rick Scott was governor. The result was a consensus spending plan for Florida’s next fiscal year.

When COVID-19 hit later that month, it was clear to me the pandemic would render that budget obsolete. It was based on a revenue projection we received from state economists last fall, well before the virus wreaked havoc on the economy. We saw how outdated that projection was when Florida lost $1.45 billion in net tax revenue in April and May. June numbers will worsen the loss.

The obvious solution was for the Legislature to exercise its constitutional authority and amend the budget to match the changed circumstances. But the governor and Republican legislative leaders said there would be no special session to rewrite the budget — or to address other pressing issues. Instead, the governor signed the budget, while vetoing funding for many projects around the state.

So how will our state’s budget hole be filled? Fortunately, Congress passed some initial emergency relief to the states in the CARES Act, including several billion dollars for state operations in Florida. Since the Florida Legislature has exclusive authority to appropriate funding, surely the governor, House speaker and Senate president will reconvene the Legislature to decide how that money is spent?

Nope. Gov. DeSantis decreed he could appropriate money himself under his emergency powers, even though the Florida constitution says otherwise. How did legislative leaders react to this heist of their legal responsibility? With the sound of crickets.

Of course, rewriting the state budget would give us the ability to ask questions of those in leadership. And with an important election coming up for President Donald Trump, members of Congress and state legislators in a key swing state, the Republicans in charge of Tallahassee do not want any questions asked right now.

But the people are asking them. My phone continues to ring off the hook with questions from worried constituents:

“What are you doing to increase testing capacity?”

“I lost my job and can’t get any help getting unemployment benefits. Why won’t the CONNECT system work for me? Is the Legislature going to hold anyone accountable for this fiasco?”

“When do you head back to Tallahassee and fix some of these problems?”

So far, the answer to these questions have been disappointing: No time soon — maybe not even until the 2021 Florida Legislative convenes next March. While Congress and state legislatures around the nation continue to meet for the benefit of their constituents, Florida is governed by gubernatorial edicts met with legislative obedience.

Over the next four months, voters around Florida will hear from candidates for the Florida House and Senate. Make sure to ask each of them one simple question: Are you going to do the job we elect you to do — or will you let the governor do it for you?

Ben Diamond, a St. Petersburg Democrat, represents District 68 in the Florida House of Representatives. He is the Democratic Leader-designate for the Florida House.

Learn more about Ben Diamond