Mike Fasano

For several years within the Senate, Fasano served as the Chairman of the Transportation and Economic Development Appropriations Committee, where he oversaw a budget of about 12 billion dollars.

During the 2012 legislative session, Fasano was removed from his chairmanship of the Budget Subcommittee on Criminal and Civil Justice Appropriations for his opposition to a plan to privatize at least 27 prisons in South Florida and turn them over to for-profit companies.

Passage of the plan was a major goal of Governor Rick Scott and then Senate President Mike Haridopolos.

We're certainly going to make our voice heard on behalf of our constituents, saying what the governor (Scott) and he (Haridopolos) want to do in privatizing 18 counties and 27 prison facilities is the wrong direction and bad for the taxpayers of Florida."

Source: Sen. Fasano Stripped of Chairmanship after Speaking Against Prison Plan [1] Source: Florida Senate defeats prison privatization bill [2] On August 7, 2013, Representative Fasano was appointed to the position of Pasco County's Tax Collector by Florida Governor Rick Scott.

[4] In October 2020, he appeared in an advertisement headlined, "I Love My Party But I Love My Country More", endorsing Joe Biden for President of the United States, calling himself "a Reagan Republican" and "in 2020, I'm a Biden Republican", and proclaiming Donald Trump "a global embarrassment.