The Florida Department of Law Enforcement is paying a lot more to protect and transport Gov. Ron DeSantis.
But the public can know a lot less about that travel, even though it’s out of their pockets, courtesy of recent legislation the governor signed into law providing a public-records exemption for travel records for himself and some others.
During the 2022-23 fiscal year, FDLE spent more than $8 million protecting and transporting the governor, who is campaigning for president, according to a report released Tuesday. It spent less than $5 million the year before.
“[The new law] prevents the public from holding the governor accountable,” said Michael Barfield, the Florida Center for Government Accountability’s director of public access initiatives. “Were these expenses reasonable? Were they incurred truly in his position as governor… or were other things outside of the scope of his position as governor, for example, campaigning as a candidate for president, included necessarily within these expenses?”
In an email, Jeremy Redfern, DeSantis’ press secretary, said, “By law, FDLE must provide protective services to the Governor and the First Family.”
“His record as the most effective conservative governor in American history has also earned him an elevated threat profile, and FDLE has increased the number of protective agents to ensure the governor and his family remain safe,” Redfern said.
The USA TODAY NETWORK-Florida has sent FDLE public records requests for breakdowns of those expenses over the last two fiscal years.
The exemption, from Senate Bill 1616, comes at a time when DeSantis’ travel has come under increased interest due to his White House bid.
Even before DeSantis announced his candidacy, former President Donald Trump, the leading GOP presidential candidate, accused DeSantis of “taxpayer-funded globetrotting.”
The governor’s office dismissed this at the time.
“The state does not coordinate or plan political travel, nor does the taxpayer fund political travel,” spokesman Bryan Griffin in an email earlier this year.
As the bill made its way through the Capitol, Democrats said the exemption would go beyond travel itineraries and also prevent the release of information about where the governor went and who attended meetings and events. Republicans countered the measure would help with security, as it would prevent people from being able to map out travel plans of DeSantis and other officials.
“With the security situation, how you do patterns of movements, if you’re somebody that is targeted, which unfortunately I am, and I get a lot of threats, that could be something that could be helpful for people that may not want to do good things,” DeSantis said in May about the exemption.
The law also conceals records about who makes unofficial visits to the governor’s mansion.
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Those costs for himself, his family and the governor’s residence totaled $5,943,268 in the 2021-22 fiscal year. That went up to $9,418,862 the following year, though the costs for First Lady Casey DeSantis went slightly down.
The 2022-23 fiscal year began on July 1, 2022, and ended on June 30.
The FDLE protection and transportation costs for traveling dignitaries went from $154,096 during the 2021-22 fiscal year to $457,242 in the next.
In that increased amount is more than $117,000 for the governor’s inauguration and $96,925 for the Republican Governor’s Association Conference.