Ron DeSantis Delivers Florida State of the State Address Transcript

Mr. Speaker, Madam President, members of the legislature and our fellow citizens, 2024 is going to be a banner year for the free state of Florida.

(00:14)
Now, this is somewhat of a unique start to the legislative session because every government building except this one is closed in Tallahassee because of the weather, and we’ve had a lot of weather move through Northwest Florida. We’ve issued an executive order to declare a state of emergency, and we just do what we do in Florida, we respond when these things happen. So those folks who have been impacted, just know the state of Florida stands with you and we’ll handle whatever fallout is from these dangerous tornadoes.

(00:42)
We are as a country in the midst of a great upheaval, and we see this throughout the land. Under the current administration in Washington, homelessness is at record level. 62% of Americans are living paycheck to paycheck, and the federal budget deficit is expected to hit $2 trillion this year. Of course, more than 8 million illegal aliens have entered the United States across the southern border in the past three years alone, and deaths due to fentanyl that have come across that border have reached record levels.

(01:16)
Cities throughout the land have decayed. Washington DC has experienced its deadliest year in more than two decades, and San Francisco has fallen into a doom loop whereby crime, homelessness, and drug abuse have eviscerated the quality of life in the city. Other states have enacted policies that have sparked an exodus of their residents out of their states.

(01:40)
In Illinois, residents are saddled with high taxes while spendthrift politicians continue to spend at borrow at some of the highest rates in the nation with massive unfunded liabilities that will require even higher taxes in the future. Of course, soft on crime policies have devastated public safety in major cities like Chicago.

(02:01)
California’s per capita spending is tripled that of Florida, and yet they face a $68 billion budget deficit. Their violent crime’s up, robberies are up, and a recent Stanford University study shows that businesses are leaving in droves.

(02:16)
Florida now has millions of more residents than New York State, yet New York’s budget is twice the size of ours here in Florida. They have a $4.3 billion deficit. We now have more manufacturing jobs than New York and have added twice as many jobs as New York in the past year, and our unemployment rate is close to 50% lower than that of New York. So it’s not surprising given this that we’ve witnessed and continue to witness a great migration of Americans away from cities and states pursuing these failed policies, with Florida serving as a refuge of freedom and sanity. These failures are not the result of chance. They are the result of choices made by elected officials to put ideology over sound policy. In this time for choosing the state of Florida has chosen well; we have chosen facts over fear; we have chosen education over indoctrination; we have chosen law and order over rioting and disorder; we have chosen fiscal responsibility over debt and prophecy. Our choices have produced results that are second to none in this country.

(03:57)
We have earned rankings of number one for education, number one for education freedom, number one for parental involvement in education, number one for talent development, number one for public higher education, number one for domestic in migration for the third consecutive year, number one in new business formations, number one in GDP growth amongst large states, and better than almost all countries throughout the world. We are number one for entrepreneurship, and we have set the standard for limited government.

(04:32)
Florida has the fewest state employees per capita and the lowest state government costs per capita in the entire United States. Our crime rate is at a 50-year low, and we have the lowest unemployment rate of all large states.

(04:50)
The 2023 legislative session was monumental, and it’s incumbent upon us to build upon those accomplishments as we continue to deliver results for the people that elected us. My message is simple, stay the course, the state of our state is strong, let’s keep doing what works, let’s continue to make Florida the envy of the nation. Florida is the education state. We lead the nation in school choice. Last legislative session under the leadership of Speaker Renner, we enacted the largest expansion of school choice in all of American history. Florida has close to 1.5 million students enrolled full-time in various choice programs, from private scholarships, to charter schools, to choice options within individual school districts. Through these programs, we have delivered for people like Hera Varmah who is here with us today. Please stand.

(06:16)
Hera has 11 brothers and sisters making education somewhat difficult to afford for their parents, but because of our school choice scholarships, she and her siblings have been able to attend high quality schools. Today, she’s a college graduate. Her three older brothers are college graduates. Two of her younger sisters are in college, and the rest are on track to follow in her footsteps.

(06:53)
As she likes to say in her own words, “When people say that school choice doesn’t work, I simply show them my family.” Thank you, great job.

(07:14)
Florida also leads the nation in protecting the rights of parents. School systems are important, but they exist to serve the students, parents, and the community, not to supersede the rights of parents to direct the education and upbringing of their own children. We were one of the first states in the country to enact a parent’s bill of rights and to enact curriculum transparency.

(07:37)
We protected women’s sports. As the father of two daughters, I think it’s important that our girls and women athletes have the opportunity to compete with fairness and with integrity.

(07:50)
Thanks to the legislature, we have protected our children from indoctrination and sexualization of the curriculum, and we stood up for parents against the woke mob. This includes parents like Tia Bess, who’s here with us today… Where’s Tia? There she is… from the Jacksonville area. She’s a mom of three. She’s fought for her children to be educated without having an agenda imposed on them. And Tia is proof that what parents in this state want is exactly what we’ve done. We must always protect the innocence of our children, let kids be kids; thank you.

(08:42)
And as we’ve delivered historic wins for our parents, we have also provided historic support for our

School teachers. Over the past four years, we’ve invested a record $3 billion solely for the purpose of raising teacher pay. My budget proposal for this year includes another $1.25 billion for even more pay increases. These initiatives are important because they help us recruit and retain great teachers, including who’s with us here today, our teacher of the year, Adrianna Swearingen. Please stand up and be recognized. Job well done. Congratulations. It is thanks to teachers like Adrianna that our fourth graders are first in the nation on their NAEP scores.

(09:50)
Now, on October 7th, Israel suffered one of the worst terrorist attacks in modern history. We knew the effects would reverberate here in the state of Florida. Many Floridians were stranded in Israel after the war broke out and were not receiving adequate assistance from the US Embassy or the State Department, so the state of Florida stepped up. We organized evacuation flights and we rescued more than 700 Americans and brought them back home to the state of Florida. That includes Allison Zur, her husband, and two children that were on one of the flights that we brought back from Israel. They are here joining us today. They were able to come back safe and sound, and we’re glad we were able to help you get back home.

(10:56)
But we didn’t stop there. Thanks to the help of the legislature, we were able to sign legislation after a special session where we passed expanded sanctions on the country responsible, ultimately, for these heinous attacks, the Islamic Republic of Iran. They were behind the attacks, they funded the attacks, and the state of Florida has recognized we are going to do everything we can to stop having money flow into the coffers of that regime.

(11:24)
Now, as threats of violence continued here at home, we stood up to protect our Jewish day schools, our synagogues, and Jewish students on university campuses. But we realize that many universities outside of Florida have simply failed. This week, Jewish students across the country are returning to campuses that have outright condoned antisemitism. Over the coming months, they’ll have a tough decision to make. Do they pack up and leave or do they stay and continue to endure a hostile environment? If they do decide to come to Florida, I can tell you this, we will welcome them with open arms. This includes waiving minimum credit hour requirements for transfers, waiving application deadlines for transfers, and encouraging universities and colleges to use their existing statutory authority to provide in-state tuition for students with a financial hardship. The pro Hamas activities and rampant antisemitism that we’ve witnessed throughout the country on these campuses has exposed the intellectual rot that has developed on so many university campuses over the years. In Florida, our universities must be dedicated to the pursuit of truth, the promotion of academic rigor and integrity, and the preparation of students to be citizens of our republic. We reject the modern trend of universities that subordinate high academic standards in favor of promoting an ideological agenda. To this end, we have eliminated so-called DEI from our public universities. DEI is a highly ideological agenda. In practice, it stands for discrimination, exclusion, and indoctrination, and that has no place in our public institutions and universities.

(13:50)
We have also overhauled faculty hiring to avoid ideological litmus tests and require all tenured professors to undergo review every five years so poor performers can be terminated. JT Lianos is here. He’s a freshman baseball player at New College in Sarasota. Take a stand. Which is well on its way.

(14:21)
New College is on its way to being the premier classical public liberal arts college in America. The reforms instituted by the New College Board of Trustees and by President Richard Corcoran have transformed the college from an outpost of ideological indoctrination into an institution rooted in truth. Now, we have ensured that higher education in Florida is affordable, freezing tuition for the past decade. Our out-of-state tuition is less than in-state tuition in many states across this country, and we’ve also supported Bright Future scholarships that make it even more affordable for our top students in Florida to attend school. Now, while higher education’s important, a degree from a four-year brick and ivy university is not the only path to success, and for many, it is not the best pathway to success.

(15:10)
When I took office in 2019, I set the goal to make Florida number one in workforce education by the year 2030, and with the support of the legislature, we are well on our way. Since 2019, Florida students have earned more than 365,000 rapid credentials, and just last year, more than 235,000 students earned an industry certificate before they graduated high school. We have more than tripled our state’s capacity to train truck drivers with CDL licenses, and this year set a record for CDL program completion, and we have now set a record of 229,000 students enrolled in career and technical education at Florida colleges. There is no question that on this trajectory and with your continued support, Florida will soon be number one in the nation for workforce education.

(16:20)
Florida is the state for fiscal responsibility and for economic freedom. The recklessness of spending, borrowing, and printing of money over the past four years by the federal government has driven up the cost of everything from groceries to housing and has saddled Americans with high interest rates. The national debt now stands at an astounding $34 trillion.

(16:44)
In New York City, there’s a famous debt clock that shows the national debt going up in real time. I’d like to see one of those made for Florida’s debt. Only a Florida debt clock would be counting down, not up, because we have paid down nearly 25% of our state’s debt over the past four years. Imagine that.

(17:11)
Indeed, if you took the share of the national debt and apportioned that to every individual American, it would be $100,000 a pop that each American would owe. Florida, the average individual Floridian share of our state debt isn’t $100,000. It’s $661, the lowest per capita debt in all of these United States. That is the way you do this. Now, we’re able to reduce debt because we’ve been fiscally responsible, but also because we have embraced smaller government. Florida has the lowest number of state employees per capita

… and the lowest cost-per-state resident for state government in the entire United States, and yet we deliver services better than most states. In fact, when people move from places like New York, the first thing they tell me is that our roads are better, our services are better, and we know now our schools perform better as well.

(18:19)
This year, my budget proposal reduces the budget by $4 billion from the previous year, placing 16.3 billion in reserves, and paying down another 455 million in state debt ahead of schedule. We have run budget surpluses and paid down debt while also enacting record-setting tax reductions. Even with these tax savings given to our residents, we have still brought in $1.3 billion in revenue over the projections, just since the start of the fiscal year on July 1st. Last year I asked the legislature to reduce taxes on families, as a way to mitigate the effects of the federal government-induced inflation, and you delivered. We have made it tax-free to raise a child in Florida by permanently removing sales taxes on all baby items, cribs, strollers, diapers, wipes, children’s clothing, shoes, among other items. We say we’re family-friendly. We didn’t just talk the talk, we walked the walk and families are benefiting as a result of what you did in last legislative session. We also provided very timely relief for commuters in the state of Florida. In 2023, the Toll Relief Program reduced commuter costs by almost half a billion dollars, helping nearly 1.2 million Floridians save hundreds of dollars each on tolls. Mike Honeycutt is here with us today. He’s the founder and owner of JET ICU, an air ambulance company that recently located to Tampa from Hernando County, and he’s up there. Now, their business moved. Mike and his employees are still commuting to Tampa while in the process of relocation, and he’s taken on the burden of paying not only his tolls, but also the tolls of his staff as well, and through our toll relief program, his staff and he were able to save almost $4,000 in toll savings. So, congratulations on that and keep doing a great job.

(20:52)
In governor’s budget recommendations. I’m proposing that we return another $1.1 billion to the people through additional tax cuts that will provide even more relief to families, individuals, and retirees that are just trying to get by during these uncertain times. Let’s reduce the cost of homeowners insurance through tax relief. Let’s continue our record-setting sales tax holidays, and let’s provide permanent tax relief for Florida’s small business. In D.C. they’re failing to get inflation under control. While we cannot control federal, monetary or fiscal policy here in the state of Florida, we can take what is already one of the lowest-per-capita tax burdens in the entire country and make taxes even lower. Now, our low tax burden, AAA credit rating and great business environment has attracted families, businesses, and retirees alike. But so too has the fact that in Florida, we are proudly the law and order state. Our policies to support law enforcement personnel to combat riots, to keep criminals off the street and to remove lawless prosecutors from office, have kept Florida at a 50-year low in the crime rate and have brought new law enforcement recruits to Florida from all of the other 49 states. Law enforcement officers like Rachel Richardson who is here with us today.

(22:36)
Now, Officer Richardson left her home and her job in Illinois to come to Florida for a new career with the Venice Police Department. She wanted to work for a state that valued the difficult work that police officers do every day to protect and serve. Officer Richardson, we welcome you to the great state of Florida. Thank you for your service. I haven’t met any police officer that’s regretted relocating to Florida yet, so we must be doing something right. This year’s budget proposal includes an additional $20 million to provide signing bonus so we can recruit even more officers to the Sunshine State. Now, to help our police officers and others achieve their dreams of home ownership while here, we also created the Hometown Heroes Program. Recipients of this program include Detective Frank Jones who is here with us today. Where’s you at? Stand up, Frank. In 2020, when you saw a lot of places try to defund the police, Detective Jones moved from Chicago to Collier County to work in a state where he knew his efforts would be respected and supported. Thanks to our Hometown Heroes program, detective Jones was able to achieve his dream of home ownership. And thanks to the leadership of President Passidomo through the Live Local Act and record housing funding, countless police officers as well as other staples of the community like teachers and nurses, will now be able to live in the communities in which they serve. Good job, Senator Passidomo.

(24:50)
We’re proud of our successful efforts to provide law and order, but we still see the impacts of the open Southern border, that that’s made its way all the way to the state of Florida. Here today is Brian Ramos, who is the victim of a hit-and-run that tragically also took the life of his friend, Nico Bagleyhog, at the age of 28. Where are you? Stand up. Okay. The driver who ran over Brian and Nico was here illegally, and when the suspect was arrested by the Florida Highway Patrol, they found that he had been previously deported three times and had no right at all to be in this country. If the federal government had simply done its job, this would not have happened in the first place.

(25:47)
Also here today is Paula Frederick, the mother of Amy Frederick, who was killed by Fentanyl at just 25-five years old, fentanyl that has undoubtedly been trafficked across our southern border. We’re sorry for your loss, and unfortunately this is a loss that’s all too common throughout these United States of America. Every community has become a border community. The fentanyl is laced in pills that people don’t even realize would be in that, and they take one pill with the fentanyl laced, and that could be enough to poison somebody to death. We’re on your side and we’re doing everything we can to combat this scourge of the fentanyl epidemic. So, God bless you. Thank you.

(26:43)
We can’t just sit idly by while we continue to see a massive invasion across this country. Federal government’s not doing anything to stop this. We in Florida are picking up the slack. We’ve now sent over 100 Florida state troopers and dozens of Fish and Wildlife officers

To help Texas with border operations through your support, we have banned sanctuary cities and we’ve also instituted policies to deter illegal immigration into our state in the first place. The Biden border crisis has made every state a border state, and thanks to your efforts, Florida is fighting back on behalf of our people. Florida is also the preparation state. Last year, hundreds of Floridians had their homes destroyed or rendered uninhabitable by Hurricane Idalia, we rallied resources to the Big Ben region before, during, and after this powerful category three storm made landfall. In my direction, nearly 30,000 utility linemen were staged for preparation for the storm, and among thousands of first responders and natural guard who prepared to respond. There were members of our newly reformed Florida State Guard that deployed for the first time since 1947.

(28:09)
As a result of our preparations, in less than one week, 96% of power was restored, a record for such a rural part of the state we have with us today, Citrus County Sheriff, Mike Prendergast. If you can stand up and be recognized back there? We stood side by side with the sheriff in the immediate aftermath of the storm, and we’ll continue to stand by Citrus County and the Big Ben, as the communities rebuild over these next week’s, months, and years. As the Big Ben recovers from this past year’s storm, we still remain focused on the long-term recovery that is still going on in southwest Florida after Hurricane Ian. While the news cameras have long since left, we are still there to support residents like Rachel Pierce, a Sanibel base artist whose art gallery was destroyed by the storm. Rachel, thank you for coming here. After receiving a grant from the Florida Disaster Fund just a few months ago, Rachel was able to reopen her art gallery in November. Congratulations, Rachel. Florida is also the conservation state. With your support, we have made good on our promise to leave Florida to God better than we found it. As the fishing capital of the world, and home to more than 1300 miles of world-renowned coastline, Florida’s economic success is tied to a healthy environment. Since 2019, we’ve invested $5 billion to support Everglades restoration and water quality efforts, and I’m calling for another $1.1 billion to continue these great efforts. Much of our state, the great outdoors is a way of life, and we must preserve that way of life for generations to come, which is why I’m calling for $125 million to protect Florida’s conservation lands and waterways. While across the nation, activists have attempted to take away our God-given rights to hunt, fish, and enjoy our great outdoors, in Florida we will continue to honor and protect those important traditions. Now, before I close, it’s worth pointing out some more accomplishments that we’ve been able to deliver, and I got to run through these pretty quickly. Otherwise, we’ll be here all day.

(30:51)
We have protected Floridians against COVID authoritarianism. You have a right to breathe without having someone put a mask on your face, and you can always count on that in the free state of Florida. We have expanded Second Amendment rights with the constitutional carry bill from last session we have kneecapped so-called ESG, Environment Social Governance. We are not going to let these woke corporations impose radical policies on our citizenry. Together, we worked and passed legislation to protect the sanctity of life. We have banned China from buying land in the state of Florida. No farmland, no land near military bases, nothing. We have provided hundreds of millions of dollars in relief for Florida homeowners, and instituted long-needed reforms that have, against all odds, attracted new insurance companies into the state of Florida. We have enacted a digital bill of rights to protect Floridians online privacy. We passed the best election integrity measures in all of the United States of America. We created a program to accelerate repayment of our state debt.

(32:22)
We have protected Floridians against the imposition of a central bank digital currency. We authorized the death penalty for pedophiles. We have brought accountability and transparency to pharmacy middlemen to lower drug costs for Florida consumers. We won the fight finally, after years and years with the federal government to be able to purchase less expensive drugs from Canada, and we will save $100 million plus a year by doing that. Recognizing that we’re a growing state, we pass the Moving Florida Forward initiative to dedicate $4 billion to accelerate road projects so that we can alleviate traffic throughout the state of Florida, and that is just scratching the surface of what we have accomplished. Let’s see some other state match that list of achievements. I think you guys did very, very well. Now, just outside of this capitol building, there sits a replica of the Liberty Bell that rang in what is now known as Independence Hall, where our founding fathers signed the Declaration of Independence and later crafted the US Constitution.

(34:03)
On that bell is inscribed a verse from Leviticus, “Proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof.” The replica sits here in Tallahassee, 1000 miles away from Philadelphia, reminding us of our task; to proclaim liberty. Here, in the Sunshine state, we’ve delivered good government that protects liberty and maintains public order. We have won the backing of a populace, reflective of the country at large, and we have put forth a blueprint for America’s revival that has instilled hope into the hearts of millions that a new birth of freedom can emanate from this land once more. We are the heirs to the spirit of 1776 represented by that Liberty Bell. Over the next two months, let’s enact policies that focus on Florida’s future and that keep faith with our nation’s founding ideals. Together we will keep Florida free and provide hope for revival of the American Spirit throughout these United States. Thank you. God bless you, and best of luck in this legislative session. Thank you so much.