TAMPA, Fla. — Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed the 2024-2025 state budget into law at a press conference Wednesday.
The signing took place at a venue in downtown Tampa.
The governor was joined by Florida Department of Environmental Protection Secretary Shawn Hamilton, Florida Department of Education Commissioner Manny Diaz Jr. and Florida Department of Transportation Secretary Jared Perdue.
“We are providing historic support in education, historic support in conservation and environment and protecting natural resources, historic support for transportation and infrastructure, and major tax relief, all the while the budget is actually spending less than we did last year,” DeSantis said.
The governor's office released extensive budget highlights on its webpage.
Of the list of items in the new state budget is a record increase in teacher pay, which DeSantis held a specific press conference to cover earlier in the week.
The state has allocated a record $1.25 billion for teacher salary increases in the budget, which is close to a quarter of a billion dollar increase in teacher funding from the year before.
DeSantis said the funding can only be used for teacher salary and can't go toward paying unions.