DeSantis unveils $96.6B budget with $2.6B more for pandemic response Updated: Tags: TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – While unveiling a record $96.6 billion proposed budget for the 2021-22 fiscal year, Gov. Ron DeSantis touted Florida’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic and its effort to increase teacher pay. DeSantis said he wants to put more funding toward both those areas in next year’s budget, which is $4.3 billion more than the current budget. DeSantis said more than half of that increase -- $2.6 billion -- is for costs related to the state’s COVID-19 pandemic response. “There are not a lot of spending increases throughout the budget that are not pandemic driven,” DeSantis said.