The Florida Legislative session starts Tuesday. Will DeSantis and lawmakers battle it out? | Opinion

The Florida Legislature, which now appears to take its cues primarily from President Donald Trump loyalists rather than from the governor, will begin its annual session next Tuesday.

Still, DOGE issues will be front and center no matter who leads.

“We were DOGE before DOGE was cool.” Those were the words of Gov. Ron DeSantis on Fox News back on Feb. 11, when the controversial actions of President Trump and co-President Elon Musk were dominating the news.

This week DeSantis followed up by providing more specifics on what his Florida version of DOGE might look like. It included plans to eliminate 900 state jobs, sunset 70 or so state boards and scrutinize public universities and local government spending.

To political observers around Tallahassee, his announcements sound like those of a politician frantically scrambling to regain relevance in a political landscape now dominated by President Trump, the man who’d blocked his presidential ambitions.

Their rivalry did not stop when Trump moved back into the White House. The other day Trump proffered an endorsement of Byron Donalds for Florida governor. On Tuesday, the Southwest Florida congressman officially announced he is running in 2026. This came while DeSantis was touting polls showing his wife, Casey, as a potential candidate.

Meanwhile, the Legislature, which now takes its cues primarily from Trump loyalists rather than from the governor, will begin its annual session next Tuesday with DOGE-like plans of its own.

Now, the Legislature is mulling its own plans to make Florida’s already lean government more efficient at a time when DeSantis has lost the legislative clout he’d wielded after his landslide re-election in 2022 Powerful House Speaker Daniel Perez, R-Miami, who challenged DeSantis’s clout over a call for a special session last month, tasked the state administration committee chaired by Rep. Vicki Lopez, R-Miami, to investigate the state government’s staffing levels.

Even so, the governor still has one formidable weapon in his arsenal: the line-item veto. Moreover, he’s shown himself to be vengeful enough to use it to delete budget items sponsored by those who cross him.

What Lopez found is that the state budget provides money for scores of positions that have remained vacant, some for several years, because their salaries aren’t competitive with private sector jobs. That’s not a surprise. A Zip Recruiter survey found that Florida’s employees rank dead last in average pay, trailing the other 49 states and DC. Because of this, in several state agencies, the funding for vacant positions has been shifted to augment the salaries of other jobs when the agencies deem it essential to retain key personnel.

Now the Legislature is mulling its own plans to make Florida’s already lean government more efficient at a time when DeSantis has lost the legislative clout he’d wielded after his landslide re-election in 2022. Even so, the governor still has one formidable weapon in his arsenal: the line-item veto. Moreover, he’s shown himself to be vengeful enough to use it to delete budget items sponsored by those who cross him.

So, in keeping with the Legislature’s newfound sense of independence, House Speaker Perez has committees reviewing DeSantis’ vetoes that deleted nearly a billion dollars from the current fiscal year’s state budget.

Trump, whose three appointees now form part of the Supreme Court’s 6-3 conservative majority, may be expecting a favorable rulings if his legally dubious DOGE actions if they reach the high court. Actually, Trump may be in for a surprise.

As the Yale Daily News recently noted, six of the nine Supreme Court justices considered themselves members or affiliates of the Federalist Society.which champions the notion that the Constitution means what it says – and it does not say a president may impound funds or eliminate federal agencies created by Congress.

The federal government urgently needs downsizing with budget deficits and the burgeoning national debt. However, any DOGE downsizing — at both the federal and state level — must be done within the confines of the Constitution and the law.

Robert F. Sanchez, of Tallahassee, is a former member of the Miami Herald Editorial Board.

This story was originally published February 28, 2025 at 7:54 AM.