Cape Coral programs included in $3.1B veto by Gov. DeSantis

Gov. Ron DeSantis vetoed $3.1 billion in programs across the state, including four big plans for Cape Coral, effectively booting Southwest Florida improvement projects from the governor’s budget.

When DeSantis signed the budget the number he had in mind was $109.9B and not a penny more. That meant $3.1 billion worth of projects had to go.

“Just because something was vetoed does not necessarily mean it didn’t have any merit,” DeSantis said. “We just were not going to go above a certain amount.”

Four of those projects on the DeSantis hit list were in Cape Coral. One of these is the Cape Coral Police Department’s Tactical Intelligence and Analytics Center, similar to the real-time intelligence center at LCSO. Its goal is to give officers more technology to share investigative and intelligence in real time and serve as an emergency response center.

Cape Coral Police Public Affairs Officer Brandon Sancho said, “That’s going to help us progress as an agency as we add new officers, as we try to keep up with the population growth and also in order to keep our residents safe.”

Now, the city has to find the $350,000 it was counting on from the state, but how Cape Coral will do that is not clear.

But two other projects the governor decided not to fund will move forward anyway, thanks to grants and utility rates money: The Caloosahatchee Connect Project and the North Wellfield Expansion, which would add five groundwater production wells to help the city maintain an adequate quantity of raw water supply.

The fourth project the governor vetoed is for the refurbishment of the boardwalk at the Four Mile Cove Ecological Preserve. The city says the project will most likely be put on hold.

$1 million was also cut from the renovation of Fort Myers Beach Time Square.