Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis vetoes all arts grant in the state

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis vetoed all arts grants in Florida, a move that organizations said is unprecedented and could jeopardize the operations of many.

"Something like this could literally be the death knell for some organizations, and succeed in doing what COVID could not," the executive director of the Symphony of the Americas, Steven Haines, told the Sun Sentinel.

Bari Newport, from GableStage, told Axios that the funding will fall heavily on Miami-Dade, one of the largest funders for arts in the country. "Many of these arts and cultural institutions are already relying heavily on the county to exist," she said.

Overall, the veto cuts $6.5 million for the county, impacting more than 120 organizations, including the opera, theaters and art museums. At a state level the figure tops 600.

The governor's office didn't provide an explanation for the decision, only saying that all vetoes were done "in the best interests of the State of Florida."

The decision is part of a larger set of vetoes from the state's annual budget, which overall amount to some $900 million. Another scratched item that made the headlines was a program seeking to provide free tampons and pads in public schools.

Rep. Kelly Skidmore, a Democrat from Boca Raton, had pushed for a bill with that purpose, saying that getting their period was the reason why one in four students missed class.

"For girls in school, it is no different and they shouldn't be deprived of attending class and furthering their education five days out of every month," she added. Skidmore also noted that fifteen states and Washington D.C. had passed such measures.

The outlet noted that previous attempts at making tampons and pads more accessible to schoolchildren failed in the state Legislature over the past years, although they did pass a bill requiring prisons to provide the items to female inmates in 2019. The Menstrual Hygiene Products Grant Program had an estimated cost of $6.4 million.

"Some of the stuff I don't think was appropriate for state tax dollars. Some of the stuff are things that I support but that we have state programs for," DeSantis said in a press conference addressing the issue.