SB 1134 is signed — and already moving local money months before it takes effect

Florida's new law barring cities and counties from funding or promoting DEI does not take effect until Jan. 1, 2027. Local governments are not waiting: programs are being suspended, grants are going to legal review, and one Tallahassee gallery is trying to replace $45,000. The mechanics, without the argument.

• What it bars: counties and municipalities may not fund, promote, or take official action related to diversity, equity, and inclusion as the statute defines it — and may not expend funds on, establish, or staff a DEI office or officer. (Florida Senate staff analysis)
• The definition: efforts to manipulate or influence the composition of employees with reference to race, color, sex, ethnicity, gender identity, or sexual orientation; preferential treatment or special benefits on those grounds; or training, programming, or activities designed or implemented with reference to them. Anti-discrimination compliance is carved out.
• The teeth: before a county or city grant or contract is awarded, the recipient must certify it will not use local funds to require anyone to ascribe to, study, or be instructed with DEI material. Any resident can sue a local government that violates the law, and an official who violates it commits misfeasance or malfeasance in office.
• Already moving: Leon County voted in June to suspend its Minority/Women Business Enterprise Participation Program ahead of the deadline. Since 2023, $46.7 million in city, county, and Blueprint contracts had been awarded to firms certified through it.
• The local example: Tallahassee's 621 Gallery is raising $45,000 — a $17,000 state arts grant it was not recommended for this year, a separate state decision, plus $28,000 in local Council on Culture & Arts grants it says are at risk under the new rules.

SB 1134 — the "Official Actions of Local Governments" act, sponsored by Sen. Jonathan Yarborough — passed the Republican-controlled House 77-37 and was signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis in April 2026. Its prohibitions do not legally bite until Jan. 1, 2027. On paper, nothing has changed yet. In practice, the sorting has already started, because the law was written so that guessing wrong is personally expensive for the people who sign local budgets.

Start with what the statute actually does. Counties and municipalities may not fund, promote, or take official action — ordinances, resolutions, rules, programs, policies — related to diversity, equity, and inclusion, and anything already on the books that conflicts is void on the effective date. They may not spend money from any source on a DEI office or officer. "DEI" is defined in the statute itself: efforts to manipulate or otherwise influence the composition of employees with reference to race, color, sex, ethnicity, gender identity, or sexual orientation (other than complying with anti-discrimination law); promoting or providing preferential treatment or special benefits based on those characteristics; or promoting or adopting training, programming, or activities designed or implemented with reference to them. Material about equal opportunity and the prohibition on discrimination is expressly not included.

Then the enforcement machinery. Any resident of a county or municipality can bring an action against a local government that violates the prohibitions. A commissioner, council member, or other official who violates them in an official capacity commits misfeasance or malfeasance in office — the finding that opens the door to removal by the governor. And the requirement reaches past government itself: before receiving a county or municipal contract or grant, a recipient must certify that it does not and will not use local funds to require employees, contractors, volunteers, vendors, or agents to ascribe to, study, or be instructed using material relating to DEI as defined.

That is why the effects are arriving a year early. In April, Leon County staff warned commissioners that proceeding with DEI-related charter changes could put a $16.8 million grant for North Monroe Street improvements and FEMA funding at risk — and could put commissioners' own seats at risk. In June, the county commission voted to suspend its Minority/Women Business Enterprise Participation Program, in place since 1996, rather than carry it past Jan. 1, 2027; since 2023, $46.7 million in City of Tallahassee, Leon County, and Blueprint contracts had been awarded to firms certified through the program. In September, Leon County cultural-event grant applicants were told their applications required legal review by the county attorney under the new statute — section 125.595, Florida Statutes — and would not advance to scoring until eligibility was confirmed.

The Tallahassee gallery is where the machinery meets a small balance sheet. 621 Gallery, in the Railroad Square art district since 1981, is asking the public for $45,000. Two different decisions make up that number, and they should not be blurred. The first $17,000 is a state arts grant the gallery was not recommended for this year — a decision by the state Division of Arts and Culture's process, separate from SB 1134, in a year when 563 organizations applied, several established Leon County arts groups received nothing, and applicants publicly called the selection process confusing and lacking transparency. The second $28,000 is local money — Council on Culture & Arts grants — that the gallery says is at risk precisely because of SB 1134's certification and eligibility rules. Gallery president Josh Johnson says the organization has been deemed too "DEI" for certain funding because it has housed free-thinking, contemporary, avant-garde art.

Whether the law is overdue or overreach is the political argument, and readers will settle it themselves. The mechanics are not in dispute: a statute that takes effect in 2027 is already deciding, in 2026, which local programs get suspended, which grants get a lawyer's review before they get a score, and which small organizations go to their donors to replace public money. The Wire will follow the local decisions as counties and cities work through them — starting with what Leon County does about the grants still sitting in legal review.