Your tax dollars at play
Kudos to CBS News Miami which just broke the story on grand jury findings concerning the “misappropriation” of $10 million in reimbursed taxpayer money, diverted into a charity founded by Gov. Ron DeSantis’ wife and then funneled into a pair of PACs and the Republican Party of Florida.
The money was part of a $67 million Medicaid settlement from Centene Corporation, which had been overbilling the state for prescription drugs under Florida’s Healthy Kids Program.
“Those funds were then used in 2024 to defeat Amendment 3, the citizen initiative to legalize marijuana in Florida,” CBS reports in its story that can be found at cbsnews.com/miami/news.
We are not going to recap that story here.
We are going to urge our readers to give the report by CBS reporter Jim DeFede a deep read as it highlights well the grand jury findings which follow the paper trail from the $10 million ostensibly for Casey DeSantis’ Hope Florida Foundation through the actions of the various government officials the grand jury found put the funds into political play.
“The grand jury report describes a coordinated effort involving government officials across multiple state agencies and outside interest groups aligned with the governor,” the CBS News Miami report states.
Among them? James Uthmeier, then Gov. DeSantis’ chief of staff, now Florida’s attorney general, and Ashley Moody, then Florida’s attorney general, now one of our U.S. senators.
Both are seeking re-election.
For those who may be skeptical as, as CBS reports, Gov. DeSantis has called the matter a “hoax” and Mr. Uthmeier a “big nothingburger,” we also urge a look at the original source: the grand jury findings.
The CBS News Miami story includes the full 19-page grand jury report. As is typical with court documents, the grand jury findings — which fill about three pages — are toward the bottom as are the grand jury’s recommendations, made in the wake of its conclusion that: “Despite our finding that the money was misappropriated, we find insufficient evidence to charge anyone criminally. Nobody will take responsibility for deciding the $10 million of taxpayer money would go to Hope Florida. This decision was the original misappropriation, and no witness would take responsibility for making the decision or any memory of who made it… We recognize that this would be an impediment to criminal prosecution. While we can’t prove who is responsible, we can plainly see that taxpayer money was misused for political purposes and we would like to see changes made to prevent this from happening again.”
So would we.
So would, one would hope, every single person in the state of Florida from Gov. DeSantis on down to all those are clamoring for “tax reform” as so much public money — our money — is being wasted on pet projects and politically-driven initiatives.
According to the grand jury document published by CBS and posted on its website, the grand jury made two recommendations — that the state legislature enact a law to prevent this type of situation from occurring, for example a law that states that any money received by the state from any private source be deposited into general revenue with “real consequences for anyone violating this law.”
The second recommendation is that the legislature enact “clear laws” related to any private-sector use of taxpayer funds “ensuring usage of said funds are tracked and monitored, and providing consequences as for violation of these mandates.”
That would not only be a good start, it would be tax reform at its roots.
The jury recommendations should be a first order of business in the next legislative session.
We urge residents to prompt the Lee County Legislative Delegation to lead that effort.
Breeze editorial