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

[The Grand Illuminist]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/06/03/desantis-rays-practice-facility/

This is unconstitutional!!!

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.

[regnaD kciN]

1. Evil...but how is it "unconstitutional?"

[HariSeldon]

5. 1st Amendment right to free speech

The government may not penalize any person (and Republicans are strong on corporations being people) for expressing opinions in a safe way. If the content of the Rays' statement factored into Desantis's decision, he violated the 1st Amendment.

[kelly1mm]

8. Only people have constitutional rights, not corporations (unless you support R talking points) NT

[cilla4progress]

2. Spiteful

Pig

[tanyev]

3. So Citizens United gives corporations freedom of speech--as long as they support Republicans?

[nycbos]

4. Tampa doesn't deserve that team anyway.

They one of the best teams in the American League the last few years often beating my Yankees, and they can't even sell home playoff games.


The team should go to a community that appreciates good baseball.

[Haggis 4 Breakfast]

6. deSantis is a pathetic little man,

an improper bully. First Disney, then the Special Olympics, now the Rays.

What a small petty man.

[moondust]

7. Cancel culture?

Has DeathSentence denied it yet?