Between the $24.76 million Flagler County will receive from the Legislative Priorities list to support four projects and another $64.42 million combined that the cities will receive, the State of Florida will be allocating nearly $89.18 million countywide as the result of the Legislative Session and the budget recently approved by Gov. Ron DeSantis.
The sum rises to $99 million if the state follows through on building a Florida State Guard joint use facility in the county.
“We are very fortunate to have Senator Travis Hutson and House Speaker Paul Renner as our Legislative Delegation,” said County Administrator Heidi Petito. “We have always enjoyed a good working relationship with them, and there is no question that they are committed to representing Flagler County’s interests in Tallahassee.”
The $24.76 million includes:
- $10 million for a combined Fire Administration and Fire Station
- $10 million for an integrated stabilization unit and Men’s Substance Abuse Treatment Facility
- $4.26 million for Wildlife Corridor Tract acquisitions
- $500,000 construction grant for the South Library
“These are all very important projects for Flagler County that will help us better serve the needs of our residents,” said Chief of Special Projects and Library Director Holly Albanese, who is also the legislative liaison. “Three of the four coming to the Flagler County governmental body are somewhat self-evident as to their benefit to the community. The Wildlife Corridor Tract acquisitions are a little more obscure.”
Flagler County has identified 5 properties that have potential to provide protection for drinking water quality, wildlife habitat, and floodplain management for local citizens. All five are identified within the Florida Wildlife Corridor “Opportunity Area.”
Those five properties are:
- Pringle Forest, in the northeast of the County, is an 8,000-acre tract of land that surrounds the City of Palm Coast’s well fields and is the location of the headwaters for Pellicer Creek
- Townsend Lake Disston tract is a 2,400-acre tract that provides a significant wetland buffer to Lake Disston Lake, which is in the flow way of the St. Johns River and provides significant clean water input as the river meanders north
- Townsend Haw Creek tract is a connector piece between the Haw Creek Preserve State Park and the county’s Russell Landing/Haw Creek Preserve
- Townsend Dead Lake tract would provide a conservation and floodplain buffer and connect the county’s Haw Creek Preserve to the lake’s edge
- Melvin tract, more than 900 acres, would provide protection to one mile’s length of Middle Haw Creek in central Flagler County
The municipalities of Palm Coast, Flagler Beach, and Bunnell have also been allocated funding:
Palm Coast
- $5 million – Fire Station 26
- $1.25 million – Weir replacement
- $4.5 million – Belle Terre Parkway Safety
- $25 million – Matanzas Woods Parkway Extension West
- $18.3 million – North Old Kings Road Widening Phase 2
- $500,000 – South Old Kings Road Phase 2 Study
Flagler Beach
- $4.5 million – Pier Removal and Replacement
Bunnell
- $4.5 million – Water Treatment Plant and Distribution System Projects
- $870,000 – Remediation of the Historic Coquina Bunnell City Hall
Dennis C Rathsam says
Let me be the first to thank our governor, & Mr Renner & Mr Hutson! Great job!!! 3 of Flaglers finest! Thank god for the GOP!
Tony Mack says
Before some folks go heaping praise on the Tallahassee Tyrant and his Taliban legislature for all the great budget work they’re doing, they might want to think about the source of at least one-third of those funds. Of course, DeSantis and his minions would never but never, allow any reference to Prsident Biden or the Democrats, but the people ought to know they are being deceived…
“$1 of every $3 (Ron DeSantis) spends comes from the federal government.”
From Politifact…By Yacob ReyesMarch 9, 2023
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ State of the State address contrasted the pressures of rising inflation during President Joe Biden’s first term with Florida’s economic success.
But state Democrats said DeSantis ought to give the president more credit.
“He will attack President Biden and Congress over and over again,” House Minority Leader Fentrice Driskell, D-Tampa, said in her March 7 response to DeSantis’ speech. But he “won’t mention that $1 of every $3 he spends comes from the federal government.”
Driskell is the Democratic ranking member of the Florida House Appropriations Committee, which will be key in shaping the state budget during the 60-day legislative session that started March 7.
Her claim references DeSantis’ proposed budget, which is a statement of policy priorities; lawmakers will shape the budget as they wish, leaving DeSantis room for line-item vetoes. PolitiFact wondered whether Driskell’s ratio of federal-to-state spending is accurate.
Her figure fits the bill. Federal funds comprise one-third of Florida’s budget. That’s not out of whack with other states: Florida’s federal percentage is consistent with the national average.
Federal funds make up about 34% of DeSantis’ proposed budget.
When we asked about the source of Driskell’s “$1 of every $3” claim, House Minority Office Staff Director David Grimes directed us to the text of DeSantis’ proposed $114 billion budget for fiscal year 2023-24, which starts July 1.
The recommended budget uses about $39 billion in federal funding. “Dividing the federal portion over the entire budget reveals federal funding constitutes approximately 34.5% of the budget, or $1 out of every $3 he spends,” Grimes told PolitiFact.
Experts agreed with that methodology and offered additional context.
For one, Florida’s federal share is not unusual. The federal government sends money to support states’ public education programs and Medicaid, which is run jointly with states, among other programs. States spend nearly half of federal funding on Medicaid.
Federal funding provides money to local school districts to help educate students with disabilities or from low-income families, such as the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act and Title 1 programs.
On average, federal dollars made up about 38% of states’ spending in fiscal year 2021-22, according to the National Association of State Budget Officers.
“While it is correct to say that $1 out of every $3 comes from the federal government, it is irrelevant to attribute it to President Biden,” said Lucy Dadayan, senior research associate at the Urban Institute. “All states, including Florida, get federal funds each year regardless of who is the president.”
The federal share grew throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, experts said. There is some variation in how much federal money each state receives because of unexpected events like hurricanes or wildfires.
Because of the 2021 American Rescue Plan that Biden signed, Florida received around $8.8 billion in state and local recovery funds. More than half of the money went to capital construction projects, such as building or improving highways.
The state also set aside $1.7 billion for the environment and about $526 million toward education, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a left-leaning think tank. Florida has until 2026 to spend the money.
“Federal aid to the states had increased in the past decade for all states,” Dadayan told PolitiFact. “Federal funds to Florida represented at least one-third of total state spending since 2010.”
If DeSantis’ proposed budget is enacted, the federal government’s share of 34.5% would be the lowest percentage of federal funds since fiscal year 2018-19, the last budget before he took office.
None of the four budgets enacted during his tenure surpassed 38.7%. The highest share of federal money in Florida’s budget for the last decade was 46.7% in 2009-10, when it received a spike from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act during the economic recession.
The governor’s office did not respond to PolitiFact’s request for comment. But much of the initiatives DeSantis lauded in press conferences throughout Florida heavily relied on funding from the American Rescue Plan.
A high-profile example includes Florida’s one-month gasoline tax holiday in 2022; about $200 million in funding from the federal stimulus package went to the project. The state’s 2022-23 budget also used $30 million from the American Rescue Plan to give $1,000 bonuses to law enforcement officers, firefighters and other first responders.
Our ruling
Driskell said $1 of every $3 DeSantis “spends comes from the federal government.”
If DeSantis’ budgetary recommendations are enacted, about 34.5% — or $1 out of every $3 — of the total budget would come from the federal government. That percentage is consistent with the national average.
We rate Driskell’s statement True.