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DeSantis Slashes Over $3.4 Million In Funding For Escambia Public Safety, Century Wastewater
June 30, 2026
Gov. Ron DeSantis line-item vetoed items totaling $810 million when he signed Florida’s $117.6 billion Fiscal Year 2026-2027 budget on Monday, including a wastewater project in Century and public safety for Escambia County.
DeSantis vetoed:
- Escambia County Hazardous Materials Regional Emergency Response Vehicle — $1.35 million. It was intended to be a regional response vehicle used across multiple counties.
- Escambia County Station Management System — $1.05 million. The advanced management system would have been used in all staffed fire stations.
- Escambia County 911 Dispatch Communication Improvements — $700,000. The project would have replaced outdated 911 dispatch consoles.
- Century Inflow and Infiltration Study — $315,000. The study was to be aimed at problem areas in the system to reduce wastewater flow at the town’s wastewater treatment plant.
Other Escambia County and Century funding requests never made the budget and were not funded:
- Escambia County Radio System Upgrade — $38 million. Escambia County requested $38 million to replace the county’s aging P25 UHF radio system with a modern 800 MHz trunked platform. The upgrade would have renewed all hardware and software for fire, EMS, law enforcement, transit, and public works, in addition to improving interoperability with regional partners during major incidents and planned events. “The 2012 system nears end-of-life in 2030, and failure may risk public safety,” the appropriations request stated.
- Century WWTP Motor Control — $1.061 million center. The Town of Century requested $1.061 million for a wastewater treatment plant motor control center (MCC) replacement. The town said parts on the current MCC routinely fail, and the age of the system makes it difficult to find replacement parts. The MCC replacement is a requirement set forth by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection.
RELATED: DeSantis Inks $117.6 Billion State Budget
NorthEscambia.com graphic, click to enlarge.
Comments
6 Responses to “DeSantis Slashes Over $3.4 Million In Funding For Escambia Public Safety, Century Wastewater”
County Government should live within their means like the rest of us! If you needed a 1.5 million dollar response vehicle then budget for it! Escambia County taxes are extremely high. You can’t tell me with thousands of new homes boosting the tax base substantially that they need more and more money! They are like my next neighbor with a new house, new cars and spend every dollar every month. One month away from bankruptcy! One other thing,
It seems like all the items cut should fall to the respective counties to fund. It isn’t the state’s issue to make sure counties don’t waste their tax money. With all the building and value increase comes a huge influx of money to the county by way of property tax. Escambia county has an additional 1.5% to fund things like this. Santa Rosa doesn’t have the extra and seem to do just fine.
How about the counties and cities do what they should as a “business” and fund what you are suppose to and keep costs under control. Waste is why they beg the state for additional funds—like they say, we don’t have an income problem, we have a spending problem
Very weird comments. It’s like these people like crumbling and deficient infrastructure. Do you not like the taxes you pay to go to our county? Would you rather the tax money you spend to go to not improving health and safety infrastructure? Very odd
I’m sure the County will bill it to us now. Try spending less Escambia County!!! Your residents are what pays these bills. Stop gouging us!!!
That’s what happens when you have a track record of not using previous funding responsibly.
You “Have” to show due diligence with the money you’re given.
I always kept in close communication with the accounting department giving them frequent updates on the status of my projects.
All “I’s” dotted and “T’s” crossed, several competitive quotes submitted by as many contractors that are qualified to do the job (Safety record etc.)
Quotes submitted to contract department personnel for final selection (Keeps the buddy system out of the Contractor awarding)
It’s a complicated process that department heads just don’t want to do so they get their funds yanked away.
Not saying this is what is going on with all of these projects but it’s usually true for a lot of them.
Tax payers have had to more for less for years. Tax payers are the producers. Good job sir.