{"id":43829,"date":"2019-07-13T15:24:41","date_gmt":"2019-07-13T19:24:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/?p=43829"},"modified":"2019-07-13T15:24:57","modified_gmt":"2019-07-13T19:24:57","slug":"total-taxpayer-costs-for-fl-gov-desantis-trip-to-israel-exceeds-100000","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/2019\/07\/total-taxpayer-costs-for-fl-gov-desantis-trip-to-israel-exceeds-100000\/","title":{"rendered":"Total taxpayer costs for Fl Gov. DeSantis trip to Israel exceeds $100,000"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

More than a month after Gov. Ron DeSantis and Florida\nCabinet members wrapped up a six-day trip in Israel, the price tag of the\nmostly privately funded trip was revealed on Friday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The costs for the trip, in which the governor traveled to\nTel Aviv and Jerusalem with a delegation of nearly 100 people, totaled\n$442,504, with private donors covering more than two-thirds of the bill.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Florida taxpayers, however, were hit with a tab of more than\n$131,000 to cover lodging, airfare and other travel costs for Agriculture\nCommissioner Nikki Fried, three of her aides, Chief Financial Officer Jimmy\nPatronis\u2019 chief of staff, Attorney General Ashley Moody\u2019s general counsel,\nthree staffers with the governor\u2019s office and security provided by the Florida\nDepartment of Law Enforcement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The $131,000 cost also included travel expenses for\nEnterprise Florida staffers, according to documents released by the state\neconomic-development agency Friday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A major source of funding for the governor-led trade mission came from twelve private donors, which included GrayRobinson and Greenberg Traurig, two top-tier legal and lobbying firms; the Florida Realtors association; Duty-Free Americas; and Marc Goldman, owner of New Jersey\u2019s Farmland Dairies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A month after the trip, Goldman, who was a co-chairman of the Israel trade delegation, contributed $2,000 to the governor\u2019s political committee, according to the information posted on the Friends of Ron DeSantis website.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTrade missions provide an opportunity to promote Florida\u2019s\nbusiness advantages, assist exporters in meeting clients, and identify and\nattract foreign direct investment,\u201d Enterprise Florida said in a statement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The trip to Israel, proposed by DeSantis in April after declaring he wanted to become the most \u201cpro-Israel governor in America,\u201d became controversial when the Fl Governor announced it would include a Cabinet meeting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A day before the meeting was held inside the U.S. Embassy in\nJerusalem, media organizations unsuccessfully sued, arguing the plan violated\nFlorida\u2019s open meeting laws.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

DeSantis called the lawsuit \u201cfrivolous\u201d and said the Cabinet meeting was being live-streamed to the state Capitol, where the Cabinet usually meets, \u201cso it\u2019s not being done in secret.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The governor\u2019s office has remained mum about the cost of the\ntrip, referring all questions to Enterprise Florida, which helped plan the\nexcursion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

DeSantis\u2019 office did not respond to questions Friday seeking\ncomment about more than $9,000 in state-funded expenses incurred by three\nstaffers in the governor\u2019s office.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While in Jerusalem, members of the delegations stayed at\nDavid Citadel, a five-star luxury hotel selected by Enterprise Florida which\ncost $425 per night.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Enterprise Florida spokeswoman Kathleen Keenan said the\nhotel was chosen because of security concerns and consideration of room\ncapacity to accommodate the large delegation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Delegates included economic-development partners,\nrepresentatives of communities, and legislators who paid their own expenses on\nthe trip, according to Enterprise Florida.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Enterprise Florida\u2019s final tally of expenses associated with\nthe trip also included a \u201crevenue\u201d section. The $200,000 in revenue included\n$72,827 in \u201cstate reimbursement (security, transportation and EOG staff\ntravel),\u201d which includes about $9,000 for three of DeSantis\u2019 aides and $63,000\nfor security provided by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, according\nto Keenan. The reported revenue also included $7,500 for \u201cpress registration,\u201d\n$71,500 for \u201cdelegation registration,\u201d and $47,500 for \u201csponsorships.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

More than a month after Gov. Ron DeSantis and Florida Cabinet members wrapped up a six-day trip in Israel, the price tag of the mostly privately funded trip was revealed… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":42765,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[128],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43829"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43829"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43829\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/42765"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43829"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43829"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43829"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}