That sentence buried deep inside the budget — the line that enabled Florida’s top politicians to pull off a land deal that a longtime conservation leader called “a sham” — came, emails show, from a lobbyist for the developer...

And the state’s GOP-controlled Cabinet quickly signed off on the extravagant purchase price, which, at more than $20 million an acre, is more than 10 times the price the developer and his partners paid for the land less than a decade ago...

Three months later, the administration of Gov. Ron DeSantis used that little line in the budget to spend $83.3 million in taxpayer money on a tiny spit of vacant land in Destin that records show is majority owned by a prominent real-estate developer and Republican Party donor...

In June, just before Florida’s Republican-controlled Legislature finalized the state budget, GOP leaders slipped a sentence into the spending plan authorizing state officials to acquire a piece of property in the Panhandle through a popular land-preservation program. 🧵...

Oddly, Wilton Simpson's office doesn't mention this part of his "farm bill" in a lengthy press release they put out this morning...

That's not all. Simpson's bill would even enable ag companies to sue critics of "any agricultural practices used in the production." Like, say, the sugar industry's practice of setting pre-harvest fires in their cane fields that produce a toxic soot known as "Black snow"...

The idea is buried inside a 60-page "farm bill" just filed in the Florida Legislature that is being spearheaded by Florida Agriculture Commissioner Wilton Simpson. It would expand what is known as Florida's "food libel," "food disparagement" or "veggie libel" law...

Altogether, Seeking Rents now estimates that Florida's governor burned between $35 million and $40 million in taxpayer money on so-called "public service announcements" attacking the two ballot measures each of which were supported by large majorities of Florida voters...

At the same time, the Agency for Health Care Administration — a state agency ultimately overseen by then-DeSantis Chief of Staff James Uthmeier — paid $100,000 to TAG for “media placement and production” as a subcontractor under Strategic Digital Services...

Campaign-finance records show that Keep Florida Clean — the anti-marijuana political committee run by then-DeSantis Chief of Staff James Uthmeier — paid TAG more than $25,000 for “advertising” and “media production"...