Florida governor Ron DeSantis has had a busy Miami Art Week, participating in the fourth Republican presidential debate on Wednesday night and releasing his proposed state budget for 2024-25 on Tuesday.
While the topic of art did not come up in the former, it features fleetingly in the latter. In response to rising instances of antisemitism, he is proposing $600,000 in state funding for the Florida Holocaust Museum and providing $10m for museums and other non-profits to beef up their security. And, under the auspices of an initiative dubbed “Freedom Summer”, he proposed a sales tax holiday between Memorial Day and Labor Day, waiving state sales tax on cultural expenditures like admission to museums and tickets to performances.
To be sure, the budget also bolsters his hard-right credentials—he is also seeking $5m to continue transporting undocumented migrants to California and Massachusetts.