Screenshot of press call organized by Smart & Safe Florida. Clockwise from top left: Morgan Hill from Smart & Safe Florida; John Morgan; Sen. Jason Pizzo, and Sen. Joe Gruters on Oct. 25, 2024.
A bipartisan trio of leading state political figures slammed Gov. Ron DeSantis on Friday for using $50 million in taxpayer funds to try to defeat Amendment 3, the proposed constitutional amendment that would legalize use of recreational cannabis for adults 21 and older.
DeSantis made it clear this spring that he would use all his resources to bring down both amendments 3 and 4 on the Nov. 5 statewide ballot shortly after the Florida Supreme Court approved submitting those measures to the voters.
Amendment 4 would enshrine abortion rights into the Florida Constitution.
Advocates said Friday they never contemplated that the governor would resort to pushing state agencies to use taxpayer funds to advocate against the measures.
“No matter where you stand on this issue, this is still a democracy. We do not spend taxpayer dollars in advance of a political issue,” said Sarasota Republican state Sen. Joe Gruters on a Zoom conference call organized by Safe & Smart Florida, the advocacy group behind Amendment 3. “Tax dollars are meant to be spent on our police, schools, roads, and other public programs that make our state great, not political agendas.”
Gruters’ conservative credentials are unassailable. Chairman of the Republican Party of Florida from 2018-22, he has twice served as co-chair of Donald Trump’s presidential campaigns in Florida (Trump has come out in support of the measure, as well.) And he’s strongly opposed to Amendment 4, but says DeSantis is out of line for spending taxpayer dollars to campaign against that measure as well.
“I’ve been an outspoken critic against Amendment 4, but no matter what the issue or where I stand, I fully believe that this is undemocratic and a violation of Florida laws to spend taxpayer funds on political ads. Period,” Gruters added.
South Florida Democratic state Sen. Jason Pizzo filed a lawsuit earlier this month in state court alleging that the Florida Department of Transportation had improperly spent state money to combat Amendment 3. A Leon County circuit judge, however, granted a request by FDOT to dismiss the lawsuit last week, as reported by the News Service of Florida.
Pizzo said the intent of his lawsuit wasn’t to use the courts to penalize anyone. He said he just wanted the agency to stop running a public service announcement that “warns that DUI crashes increase in states with legalized marijuana putting everyone at risk.”
“There is no appropriation for FDOT to go in and spend any money on this,” he said on the Zoom call.
“We’re now seeing upwards of $50 million that we have data to support, $50 million to spend on this ad campaign … that’s more than half of what we spend on Visit Florida to drive tourism as our largest economic driver of the state, and this is all for the ideology and position of just a few people.”
Six state agencies
Independent journalist Jason Garcia in his Seeking Rents newsletter wrote this week that the governor has enrolled at least six state agencies into what Garcia reported was at that time nearly $20 million in taxpayer funds to maintain the six-week abortion ban and laws against recreational cannabis in the Sunshine State.
Organizers with Smart & Safe Florida now say that the combination of 13,000 television ads, more than 5,000 radio ad hits, along with digital and billboard ad hits around the state actually total more than $50 million in taxpayer funds.
The campaign is taking place as more than 3.3 million Floridians have already voted, either by mail ballot or at an early voting polling locations, according to the state Division of Elections.
In addition to being the only Republican in the Florida Legislature to actively support Amendment 3, Gruters appears also to be the only GOP state lawmaker to publicly condemn the practice of using taxpayer funds for explicit political purposes.
“We shouldn’t be spending money on propaganda one way or another, because what it does is it sets a bad precedent for future administrations,” he said on the call.
Ulterior motive?
Orlando trial attorney and Democratic Party fundraiser John Morgan has actively been involved in three campaigns to promote constitutional amendments over the past decade (medical marijuana in 2014 and 2016 and increasing the minimum wage in 2018). And he’s flirted with the idea for running as a political independent for governor in 2026. He speculated that the desire to quash the amendment is driven by financial donors to the GOP who have their own agenda.
“What donors? Donors who have a vested interest in the pharmaceutical industry and the alcohol industry,” he said. “Marijuana — recreational and medical — is an existential threat to both of those industries. With all the due respect to the two senators, money runs Tallahassee, and you have to follow those donors.”
Morgan added that the only way for the public to combat what the state government is doing is to go ahead and collectively move the measure over the 60% threshold required for passage.
“The thing I hope that comes from all of this is that you, the Florida taxpayers, are so outraged by this theft of tax dollars, that you say, ‘By God, I’m going to go out and I’m going to vote. And when you go out, I urge you, vote yes on 3,” he said.