These South Florida projects are in the state budget, but will DeSantis veto some?

When Florida lawmakers officially received the copy of the state budget Wednesday afternoon, it outlined vast swaths of $91.1 billion the state is expected to spend, from education and healthcare to the environment and dozens of other agencies.

But the budget, as it is every year, is also studded with scores of local requests from lawmakers for projects back home. Among them are the sewers, roads, senior centers and museums that gird local governments’ wish lists regularly. They reach into hundreds of millions of dollars that now await not just lawmakers’ votes to pass the bill but also what will be the first run of Gov. Ron DeSantis’ veto pen.

On the line in South Florida are scores of projects, like more than $8 million for the SEED School of Miami, which does not charge for its low-income students to attend, to $850,000 set aside for a new senior center building in Miami Springs.

Much of it is infrastructure and construction: The Underline, the 10-mile outdoor linear park that is planned to extend from downtown Miami to Dade

This year’s proposed state budget includes millions in local projects around the state, including South Florida.

land under the tracks of the Metrorail, got $1.5 million in this year’s budget though it had requested $7.5 million. New ADA-accessible walkways, greenways and facilities for a business park in Miami Lakes, home to House Speaker José Oliva, got $853,000.

There are also millions of dollars in water and drainage projects, from $1.5 million for stormwater and tidal flooding projects in Miami to $30,000 to protect against canal erosion in Miami Gardens and $300,000 for a well in Homestead to offset water needs.

Local social services make an appearance in the appropriations, including $250,000 for a senior meals program in Hialeah, and more than $400,000 for a Sweetwater senior center. Despite some initial budget negotiations that threatened to cut its funding, the Little Havana Activities and Nutrition Centers of Dade County got $334,770.

Even promotional efforts for the Miami International Agriculture, Horse and Cattle Show get $98,850 in this year’s budget, though requests to help fund those efforts have been vetoed by the governor twice for the past two years.

These projects are also only some of the several hundred projects that lawmakers proposed, many of which never made it into the budget at all. Legislative leaders who must eventually come to agreement on the document have broad sway over what is included.

Tens of millions for local projects in northern Florida received particular attention in this year’s budget, including more than $8 million alone for Bay County, which was hit with the brunt of the storm.

Last year, it was projects in the Florida Keys, which were battered by Hurricane Irma, that received millions in recovery funds.

Lawmakers are expected to vote on the budget on Saturday, to satisfy a 72hour “cooling period” that must be observed after the budget is officially published.

Assuming that happens as now scheduled, the budget will then go to DeSantis, who has the power to veto individual line items if he desires.

DeSantis’ predecessor, now-U.S. Sen. Rick Scott, notably used his power to line-item veto more spending than any other governor in the state’s history. This year’s budget will be the first test of how much DeSantis might lean on his own power to check the Legislature’s spending.

SOUTH FLORIDA PROJECTS

A SEED School of Miami, $8,760,331

Underline Multi-Use Trail/Mobility Corridor, $1,500,000

Miami Biscayne Bay Tidal Valves and Stormwater Improvements, $1,500,000

Miami-Dade Adults with Disabilities Program, $1,125,200

Florida Keys Aqueduct Authority Stock Island Reverse Osmosis Facility, $1,000,000

Aircraft Service Center — Opa-locka Airport, $1,000,000

A Mount Sinai Medical Center Road Improvements, $1,000,000

West Miami Potable Water System, $985,210

Miami Lakes Business Park SE Resilient Transportation Infrastructure Project, $853,000

City of Miami Springs Senior Center — New Building, $850,000

Broward County Public Schools Adults with Disabilities, $800,000

Monroe County Mobile Vessel Pumpout Program, $750,000

Miami-Dade County Operation Blue and Brown, $500,000

Sunny Isles Beach Pedestrian Park Bridge, $425,000

City of Sweetwater Elderly Activities Center (Mildred & Claude Pepper Senior Center), $418,242

Miami Shores VillageWide Traffic Calming, $410,500

Virginia Gardens — 38th Street Stormwater/ADA Improvement, $380,000

Virginia Gardens —

64th Avenue Stormwater/ ADA Improvement, $380,000

Little Havana Activities and Nutrition Centers of Dade County, $334,770

Homestead — Well Number 7, $300,000

Bal Harbour Village Stormwater System Improvements, $300,000

A Downtown Miami Pedestrian Bridge — Phase 1, $300,000

City of Hialeah Gardens — Elder Meals Program, $292,000

City of Opa-locka Crime Prevention Technologies, $255,200

Aventura Curbing of Swale Flooding Country Club Drive, $252,106

City of Hialeah Elder Meals Program, $250,000

Bay Harbor Islands Sewer Lateral Lining Project, $250,000

North Bay Village — Sidewalk and ADA Improvements, $229,950

North Bay Village Stormwater Pump Station, $200,000

Doral Stormwater Improvements NW 114th Ave./50th St., $200,000

North Miami Beach Snake Creek Canal Park, $200,000

Cutler Bay — Drainage Improvement Cutler Ridge Section 3, $200,000

Miami Beach Senior Center — Jewish Community Services of South Florida Inc., $158,367

North Miami Arch

Creek North/South Drainage Improvements Basin D, $150,000

Coconut Creek Wastewater Conveyance System Improvements, $150,000

Surfside Biscaya Island Water Main Crossing Relocation, $124,000

Coral Gables Stormwater System Improvements, $100,000

Monroe Association for ReMARCable Citizens, $100,000

Miami International Agriculture, Horse and Cattle Show, $98,850

North Miami Beach Police Athletic League STEM/Robotics Leadership Academy, $75,000

City of West Miami Community Center,

$69,071

Holocaust Memorial Miami Beach, $66,501

A WPBT- TV, Miami — Repair Disintegrating HVAC Condensing Units, $51,000

North Miami Foundation for Senior Citizen Services Inc., $50,000

Miami Gardens NW 203rd Street Outfall Retrofit Project, $50,000

A WMNF- FM, Miami — Replace Security System and Lighting, $43,814

Miami Gardens Canal Erosion Protection Project, $30,000

A WDNA- FM, Miami — Repair Damaged Exciter on Transmitter, $5,400