DeSantis Responds to Newsom’s Florida vs. California Criticism

TALLAHASSEE, Florida  – Florida Governor Ron DeSantis took to X to fire back at California Governor Gavin Newsom’s comparisons of their states, laying out a stark contrast between Florida’s policies and California’s challenges.

In a detailed post, DeSantis highlighted key differences in homelessness, crime, infrastructure, transportation, emergency response, and economic factors, attributing California’s struggles to “leftist ideological commitments” over taxpayer well-being:

Homelessness: Florida law prohibits homeless encampments in public; California has allowed homelessness and public drug abuse to overwhelm communities.

Crime: Florida has strong anti-crime policies (including against retail theft) and demonstrates strong support for law enforcement; California is soft-on-crime (especially on quality-of-life offenses) and exhibits weak support for law enforcement.

Infrastructure: California has among the poorest quality of roads in the nation; Florida is above average and improving due to recent efforts to accelerate new road projects.

Transportation: Florida has a high-speed rail line that goes from Miami to Orlando that was privately funded at a cost of ~$6 billion. The South Florida to Orlando extension was completed in four years. California’s high-speed rail represents one of the biggest boondoggles in U.S. history, with no operational segment in existence (the project was approved by voters in 2008) and costs as high as $130 billion.

Emergency response: Florida maintains the strongest state and local emergency management apparatus in the nation; California has a lot of great first responders and law enforcement personnel, but poor political leadership has caused the bungling of major disasters like the LA wildfires.

“It is well-documented that California has the nation’s stiffest state income tax while Florida has zero income tax,” DeSantis stated in another post.

“But California also has a higher sales tax than Florida—indeed, California has the highest state sales tax in the country. California has the highest gas prices in the nation (~$5/gal vs. ~$3/gal in FL as of 3/2025). And California’s utility rates of 34 cents/kWh (highest in continental U.S.) are double Florida’s rates of 15 cents/kWh.”

“None of this is by accident,” DeSantis concluded. “It is the result of deliberate policy choices to elevate leftist ideological commitments over the well-being of the taxpayer.”