Florida

Zorro

(17,244 posts) Wed Apr 9, 2025, 06:31 PM Apr 9

Lawmaker says $10 million donation to DeSantis charity was illegal

One lawmaker questioned why money from a state settlement with a Medicaid contractor went to the Hope Florida Foundation.

The mysterious $10 million donation steered by Florida officials to a charity created to fund Hope Florida — first lady Casey DeSantis’ top political initiative — was part of a larger settlement with the health care giant Centene, and “illegal” under state law, a top Republican lawmaker said Wednesday.

During a tense more-than-two-hour House committee hearing, top Florida officials said that the company owed tens of millions of dollars last year for overbilling the state for services. The Agency for Health Care Administration wrote a $67 million settlement in which $10 million of that would be made by Centene as “a one-time donation” to the Hope Florida Foundation, according to a copy of the settlement obtained by the Times/Herald.

Under state law, money from those types of settlements has to be deposited into a trust fund or the general fund, where lawmakers can oversee it.

But the $10 million donation, made shortly after the Sept. 27, 2024, settlement was signed, was never disclosed to lawmakers — raising the prospect that the DeSantis administration unilaterally steered millions of taxpayer dollars to the first lady’s initiative.

https://www.tampabay.com/news/florida-politics/2025/04/09/hope-florida-desantis-casey-centene-settlement-donation/

Republican knives are out for DeSantis and his preferred heir-apparent...Now watch DeSantis blow his stack and claim a vendetta against his wife by nefarious (Democratic influenced) Republican Party members...

2 replies

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Highlight:

Lawmaker says $10 million donation to DeSantis charity was illegal (Original Post) Zorro Apr 9 OP

Who is surprised by this? LetMyPeopleVote Apr 9 #1

Raw Story: 'A subpoena would be valid': Heat turns up on DeSantis over diverted $10 million Dennis Donovan Apr 12 #2

LetMyPeopleVote

(161,898 posts)

1. Who is surprised by this?

Reply to Zorro (Original post)

Wed Apr 9, 2025, 06:33 PM

Apr 9

Dennis Donovan

(30,428 posts)

2. Raw Story: 'A subpoena would be valid': Heat turns up on DeSantis over diverted $10 million

Reply to Zorro (Original post)

Sat Apr 12, 2025, 02:41 PM

Apr 12

Raw Story - 'A subpoena would be valid': Heat turns up on DeSantis over diverted $10 million

Tom Boggioni
April 12, 2025 2:14PM ET

There is a growing firestorm in Florida over how $10 million that was given to a non-profit headed by the wife of Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) ended up being used to defeat a ballot initiative he opposed.

According to a report from Politico's Arek Sarkissian and Gary Fineout, Florida first lady Casey DeSantis, who reportedly has political aspirations of her own, received the $10 million in dispute and then flipped it within days from her Hope Florida non-profit to two groups who backed her husband's attempt to derail a pot amendment.

That has Florida lawmakers, who have been increasingly combative with the governor who is termed out, seeking answers.

Politico is reporting, "Last week, Florida’s House Health Care Budget Subcommittee spent more than an hour asking the state Agency for Health Care Administration about $10 million that was donated to Hope Florida as part of a settlement agreement with the state’s largest Medicaid operator. The AHCA settlement was included in the minutes of an Oct. 14 board meeting of the Hope Florida Foundation," adding, " The scrutiny of Hope Florida by the state House prompted DeSantis to lash out, accusing the chamber and House Speaker Daniel Perez (R-Miami) of working against other state Republicans.[GOP Rep Alex] Andrade has also taken heat from DeSantis after he accused the administration of breaking the law by misusing state settlement funds when it brokered a $10 million donation that went to Hope Florida in the last weeks before the November election."

"Hope Florida was launched by Casey DeSantis four years ago as a community-based welfare initiative designed to reduce the need for government-subsidized programs. Gov. DeSantis asked the Legislature this year to put Hope Florida into state law, spurring a financial review that left state House leaders with questions and concerns about how taxpayer dollars have been spent," Politico is reporting.

/snip

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