After Rays decry shootings, Florida governor vetoes funding for possible team facility

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) on Thursday vetoed $35 million in state spending for a youth sports complex in Pasco County, a project that had been pitched as a potential spring training site for the Tampa Bay Rays.

The money was included in the $112 billion budget plan sent to DeSantis by state legislators earlier this year. DeSantis, however, has line-item authority to veto specific expenditures, and he used that to cut a record $3.1 billion out of the initial budget proposal.

On May 26, the Rays issued a statement decrying the recent mass shootings in Buffalo and Uvalde, Texas, and said the franchise would be making a $50,000 donation to Everytown for Gun Safety, a gun-violence prevention organization.

“This cannot become normal,” the team statement read. “We cannot become numb. We cannot look the other way. We all know, if nothing changes, nothing changes.”

At a public speaking engagement Friday, DeSantis said he doesn’t “support giving taxpayer dollars to professional sports stadiums, period.” But DeSantis, a gun-rights supporter who is pushing the state to allow residents to carry concealed firearms without a permit, also suggested that the Rays’ support of a gun-control organization also factored into his decision.