Alligator Alcatraz costs revealed as Florida Attorney General goes quiet | Facing South Florida

In this week’s edition of Facing South Florida: The man many say is responsible for the notorious immigration detention facility in the middle of the Everglades has gone silent about it. After a CBS Miami analysis determined that Alligator Alcatraz could wind up costing state taxpayers $1.2 billion, questions are piling up for the man who coined the name and helped push for the detention center – Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier. But whereas he once used to be happy to talk about the controversial facility, now that the sky-high price tag has become known, Uthmeier has gone quiet. At last weekend’s Sunshine State Showdown – a gathering for Republicans – Uthmeier was a featured speaker. Yet he did not mention Alligator Alcatraz at all. His opponent in November’s election for Attorney General, Democrat Jose Javier Rodriguez, says Uthmeier is “the most corrupt attorney general we’ve ever had.” He says Uthmeier has stopped talking about it because he knows public opinion on Alligator Alcatraz is overwhelmingly negative. “The fact that this is 20 times the national average per day cost. It's astronomical,” says Rodriguez. “When the facility was first announced…Uthmeier was all over this. I mean, this was his baby, it is his baby. When DeSantis had a press conference to announce its closure, my opponent was nowhere to be found, and we understand why. This is an embarrassment a boondoggle, it's an abuse, but it's also extraordinarily wasteful. It’s just a big political stunt to try to get attention in Washington.” CBS News Miami's Jim DeFede also addresses another controversy Uthmeier is involved in, the Hope Florida scandal. He was in charge of the political action committee that wound up using $10 million in tax dollars diverted to the Hope Florida Foundation … to help bankroll opposition to the marijuana ballot amendment in 2024. A grand jury in Leon County looked into it, but the report has never been released. There is speculation that people named in the report, like Uthmeier, have made a behind-the-scenes push to keep the report from being seen by the public. Rodriguez says the report must be released so taxpayers can know the truth about how their tax dollars were used. DeFede also sits down with Congressman Byron Donalds, the clear frontrunner for the Republican nomination in the race to be Florida’s next governor. Donalds says he supports the property tax amendment that state voters will decide on in November, but admits he would have pushed a different plan. “I mean, look, everybody would have had different ideas,” he says in the interview. “My idea was moving the homestead exemption to three or $400,000 a year and then finding some ways to do some revenue offsets. But at the end of the day, this is the policy that moved through the legislature in both chambers. So now it's going to be in front of the voters.” Guests: Byron Donalds/(R) Running for Governor Jose Javier Rodriguez/(D) FL Attorney General Candidate Michael Barfield/Executive Dir., Florida Center for Government Accountability Catch Facing South Florida With Jim DeFede Sunday at 11:30AM ET #florida #floridanews #election #alligatoralcatraz #attorneygeneral #governmentaccountability