RPOF Chairman Joe Gruters’ Message
Once again, Florida is showing what effective Republican leadership looks like. In Governor DeSantis’s budget message Thursday, he made clear a top priority is to keep the state of Florida open for businesses to continue operating and students to attend school in person if they choose, while protecting our most vulnerable residents by prioritizing them receiving the vaccine.
The Governor announced that his recommended budget is $96.6 billion, with total reserves at $6.6 billion — which is more than 6 percent of the total recommended budget. This puts the state in a strong position of available resources for unforeseen expenditures related to the COVID-19 pandemic and the 2021 hurricane season. This is quite an accomplishment after a year of dealing with the pandemic and a credit to the foresight of keeping the state open and spending restrained. It’s tragic what other states have done to their economies and their people.
"The cornerstone of my mission has been to protect our most vulnerable residents and put Florida’s Seniors First, while ensuring that every Floridian can go to school, go to work, and provide for themselves and their families,” Governor DeSantis said. “Because of this approach, Florida has been an exception to many of the economic struggles we are seeing in other states.”
Governor DeSantis’ budget also continues his commitment to reducing Floridians’ tax burden. The budget proposes to cut taxes of $65 million. Florida’s per capita state tax burden of $1,917 is currently the fourth lowest among all states, and Governor DeSantis believes in keeping taxes low to help Florida’s future generations.
Governor DeSantis is delivering freedom for businesses and employees, for families and students, protection for those most in need, maintaining a healthy budget to fund schools, environmental protection, transportation and the rest of state operations — all accomplished while still giving Floridians a tax break.
Yes, this is what effective Republican leadership looks like.
Unfortunately, per the usual arrangement, the media is taking talking points directly from Democrats in ongoing attempts to smear Florida’s successful efforts at getting out the COVID-19 vaccine to our most vulnerable populations. In this case, it was President Biden’s new press secretary disingenuously attacking Florida by claiming the state had only distributed 50 percent of the vaccines it holds.
Naturally, media ran with it. But Governor DeSantis pointed out the next day that many of those unused doses have been purposely kept in reserve for the necessary second round of doses needed to create the full regimen needed. The FDA guidelines have been for two doses as that is where the high effectiveness comes from. Shouldn’t all states be doing that? There is a window in which the second shot needs to be administered.
“Florida is averaging more than 300,000 first doses per week but we are not going to divert away from our seniors,” DeSantis said. “We are committed to ensuring our seniors are the priority and get their second dose, and if the White House is suggesting that we shouldn’t be doing that, I don’t think that’s a good suggestion.”
The Governor’s office also shared these CDC comparables of vaccinations per 100,000 people from the 10 largest states, since the White House claims to like facts and data so much.
1. Florida – 7,193
2. New York – 7,019
3. Michigan – 6,962
4. Texas – 6,081
5. North Carolina – 6,068
6. Pennsylvania – 5,816
7. Georgia – 5,689
8. California – 5,568
9. Ohio – 5,536
10. Illinois – 5,517
The full CDC numbers are here:
Also, per our usual arrangement, Governor DeSantis continues to be leader in battling the COVID-19 scourge — such as the CDC just coming out with guidelines saying that schools should re-open with precautions as in-person learning is essential for children, exactly what Governor DeSantis has been saying since last Spring.
And under the Governor, Florida has developed perhaps the most robust and innovative infrastructure for getting vaccines to residents, including public-private partnerships with hundreds of Publix locations, plus state-run locations and, of course, health care facilities.
FLORIDA WOMEN’S HALL OF FAME INDUCTS ALMAY LEE LOY POSTHUMOUSLY
Attorney General Ashley Moody joined the Florida Commission on the Status of Women in honoring the newest inductees to the Florida Women’s Hall of Fame. The Commission inducted Alice Scott Abbott, Alma Lee Loy and E. Thelma Waters during a virtual ceremony Thursday night for significant contributions to the citizens of Florida. Alma Lee Loy died in April 2020.
Attorney General Ashley Moody said, “I am honored to recognize the efforts of three amazing inductees to the Florida Women’s Hall of Fame. Alice Scott Abbott, Alma Lee Loy, and E. Thelma Waters each played an extraordinary role in our state’s history. They are pioneers that paved the way for the many women who will follow in their footsteps. I look forward to seeing the impact their work will continue to have on our state, making it a better place for the people who call Florida home.”
For the first time in history, the Hall of Fame ceremony was held as a fully virtual event. To commemorate the ceremony, inductees or surviving relatives received replicas of the plaques to be placed on the Hall of Fame wall in the Florida Capitol Rotunda in the inductees’ honor and an American flag that flew over the U.S. Capitol. The virtual ceremony streamed for audiences around the state and included live video footage of inductees or surviving relatives with family and friends, celebratory videos, and remarks about the legacy of accomplishments and the contributions each inductee has made to the lives of Floridians. The virtual ceremony also presented a great opportunity to recognize the many ways women’s history is woven into the fabric of Florida and the United States.
For more information on the 2020 inductees, click here.
Since its inception in 1982, the Hall of Fame has recognized and honored Florida women that make significant contributions to the improvement of life for all Floridians. Additional inductees include former U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno, singer Gloria Estefan, internationally honored tennis athletes Chris Evert and Althea Gibson, pilot Betty Skelton Frankman, Bethune-Cookman College founder Mary McLeod Bethune, Congresswomen Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, Carrie Meek, Tillie Fowler and Ruth Bryan Owen; Florida Trend Publisher Lynda Keever and Everglades advocate and suffragist Marjory Stoneman Douglas.
This year’s inductees join current members on the walls of the Florida Capitol and in state-of-the-art video kiosks. Visitors can view all the Hall of Fame members immortalized in the Capitol Rotunda or on the Florida Women’s Hall of Fame website by visiting FLWomensHallofFame.org.
