It pays to have seniority in leadership like House Speaker Paul Renner and Sen. Travis Hutson. Both are in their last year as legislators representing Flagler and parts of other counties. To local officials’ salivating, grasping delight, and with all pretenses of fiscal conservatism out the window, both are doing their best to make it pay.
Outdoing last year’s requests by far, Hutson filed 34 special funding requests–what used to be termed pork–on behalf of Flagler County governments and agencies, totaling a staggering $475.8 million–or 0.4 percent of the size of the current state budget. Hutson’s requests don;t include those he filed on behalf of St. Johns, Putnam, Volusia and Clay counties. Seven of the local requests are for Flagler County government, totaling $92.5 million. Fourteen requests were for Palm Coast, totaling a third of a billion dollars.
Many of the requests will not be funded by the time House and Senate conferees agree to a budget by today’s deadline, with Gov. Ron DeSantis’s vetoes still ahead.
But last year Renner and Hutson teamed up to pipe nearly $100 million Flagler County’s way. The list of projects this year reflects both the extent of local-government needs, wishes and hail Marys, and their audacity to take advantage of the legislative leadership’s rare combined power, an alignment unique in Flagler County’s history, and that may not be repeated for generations. Hutson’s and Renner’s audacity is no less remarkable for Republicans who, rhetorically at least, preach and prize spending restraint.
While local government and agency officials provided a glimpse of their requests in a few meetings before the legislative sessions, as each agency was drawing up its wish list, the actual list of requests, their direct purpose and especially their costs have not been disclosed until now. (See the chart below.)
In most cases, the requests are not unreasonable, and reflect the gap between local governments’ needs and available resources, though that gap is in some measure the result of local officials’ reluctance to tax responsibly, of the state’s byzantine tax structure, and of homestead rules that have allowed homesteaded property owners, whose tax burden has fallen significantly over time, to be subsidized by the non-homesteaded, whose tax burden keeps rising sharply.
Flagler County is poised to receive another $29 million in beach-protection dollars as the county continues to buttress its weakened dune line along 11 miles of coastline outside of Flagler Beach and Marineland. Lawmakers have already approved $10 million for acquisition of conservation land, part of Renner’s ambitious Florida Wildlife Corridor plan to develop a conservation corridor along the spine of the state, including parts of western Flagler County.
The county also asked for $10 million to fund its eco-tourism center on 22 acres at the foot of the new pedestrian bridge on State Road 100. “This conservation and educational center will act as the main hub in Flagler County to protect, conserve and enhance recreational, natural, historical, and cultural resources,” the request states.
Among the head-scratchers from the county is a $10 million request to build a dedicated emergency special-needs shelter, ostensibly “to eliminate its Special Needs Shelter deficit as defined by the Statewide Emergency Shelter Plan,” though the special needs shelter at Rymfire Elementary, in times of hurricane emergencies, has never drawn public concerns–from the public or from officials. On the other hand, the shelter would replace Cattleman’s Hall at the county fairgrounds and in non-emergencies would be used “on a regular basis to serve as a community center hosting a variety of community events,” from agriculture programs to rodeos to fairs and youth shows, and so on.
The county is also asking for $5 million to build a new terminal at the county airport, and $27 million for road improvements along County Road 304.
Palm Coast is focusing on the planned expansion of the city west of U.S. 1, which would double the size of the city over the next decades. It all starts with a loop road going from Matanzas Woods Parkway west, then south across the (now) vast hinterland, then east to link up with Palm Coast Parkway. Last year the city secured $25 million, or enough money to build a “fly-over” connection from Matanzas Woods over the Florida East Coast Railway line. That construction begins this year.
That’s barely a beginning. This year, the city requested nearly $200 million spread over three separate requests to build the segments of the loop road through those 20,000 acres. It is not likely to get much of that. Last year the city secured $18.3 million to widen North Old Kings Road, and a few hundred thousand dollars for a design study for the widening of Old Kings Road South. This year, it’s asking for $22 million to widen the rest of Old Kings Road from Town center Boulevard to just south of Palm Coast Parkway, thus sparing property owners the burden of paying for the road–as existing property owners are burdened for the segment south of Town Center Boulevard.
Palm Coast is also requesting $6 million for an eventual YMCA in Town center. The city secured at least $1 million for that project last year. That’s in addition to a $3 million request Hutson filed for all the YMCAs in Volusia County, with a portion of that money potentially going to Flagler as well, as was the case in last year’s request: Hutson had requested $3 million, and got $5 million.
As with the county, Palm Coast has a head-scratcher of its own: it is requesting $25 million for an “Operations Center.” That would be built as “a critical, fortified facility, doubling as the City’s Emergency Operations Center,” the request states. “It will be the primary facility for coordinating staff and equipment. The site will include designated areas for debris storage, storm event material staging and storage, and the distribution of public sandbags as well as being a key part of our strategy to ensure that we can maintain the expected service levels needed to serve and protect citizens.”
All these functions have until now been accomplished, without apparent difficulties, through the city’s public works facility–itself undergoing a lavish reconstruction–City Hall and Fire Station 25 on Belle Terre Parkway. The county, of course, has the county-wide Emergency Operations Center, which was built to serve both county and cities.
The requests also include one for a $12.5 million “Multi-Agency Regional Training Facility” that would be “a collaborative training model with the
Flagler County Sheriff’s Office (FCSO), Flagler County Fire-Rescue, Flagler County Emergency management and its other partner organizations in Putnam and Flagler County’s to deliver training unique to their public safety missions.” Just this year, the Florida State Guard announced it would build precisely that kind of facility in Flagler County, next to the county jail, with $10 million already appropriated (another $10 million is in this year’s appropriations). Yet the Hutson request, which makes no mention of the State Guard, may well be to fund that same facility.
The Flagler County Health Department had requested a $20 million, 28,000 square foot public health facility in Palm Coast “as a second location for the
Department of Health-Flagler,” the request states. “This would also provide an opportunity to create a public-private partnership and create a
shared space for all health and social services from Flagler Cares under one roof for a wrap-around service.” There are also requests for new Agricultural Museum facilities, for the University of Florida’s Whitney Lab in Marineland, a $1.6 million request from Flagler schools to build an expansion to its vocational operation, and for infrastructure improvements in Bunnell and Flagler Beach, though those pale in comparison with the requests from the county’s largest governments.
Funding Initiative Requests by Sen. Travis Hutson for Governments and Agencies in Flagler County
Source: Florida Senate's Local Funding Initiative Requests page for 2024-25. Click on each funding request for details as filed by Hutson.(*) The figures are from the appropriations bill engrossed on March 8, 2024.
(**) Appropriation for the multi-agency facility is funded through the State Guard's budget.
Jan says
Wow! If House Speaker Renner and Senator Hutson fund those requests AND ensure that Flagler County continues to have local control over short-term rentals (so the residents will stay and enjoy being part of their neighborhood and a wonderful city), they would be heroes.
Tired says
Hmmm, 10 million to build a shelter for occassional use but only 1.5 million for stormwater infrastructure improvements AND resiliency!? Speaks volumns on their priorities, or lack of.
Laurel says
Jan: Don’t hold your breath. Those two will never reach “hero” status in my book. Your taxes, and utilities, will continue to climb, and your roads will continue to get more crowded.
Good luck with your dream!
PCPW says
I have seen the amount of money and employee hours that the city has thrown away on upgrading the current public works center on US1 recently and $25 million for a new center is a joke! Instead of wasting all of the upgrade money that you’ve already spent how about take that $25 million and fix our roads!
Jerome says
Been here since 1998 and time to go. The republicrumbs have destroyed what was once a great place to live in !!!!
Nephew Of Uncle Sam says
I don’t see anything for PC swale or road resurfacing, I do see a lot of unneeded buildings though or should we refer to them as legacy buildings.
Bill says
Lining his own pockets and some developers!
ben jonson says
Seniority in leadership, like that of House Speaker Paul Renner and Sen. Travis Hutson, proves beneficial, especially in their final year representing Flagler and adjacent areas.
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The Sour Kraut says
So what is Palm Coast government going to do a year from now when the pork dries up? At this point they are used to having all these extra dollars to spend. Scary thought.
Flatsflyer says
Then you will need more employees to staff the new facilities, then more “managers. That equates to higher taxes driven by salaries, benefits, pensions all with Cola’s. When will public service sector follow the private sector? The public service sector is draining us dry and leading to public bankruptcy.
Dbhammock says
I’m not sure I understand what’s wrong with them asking for state money, that’s their job to support their constituents. The state gives money to local governments, the local governments tell their state representatives what they want the money for, and where they have shortfalls. The representatives go and ask for the money. This is politics the way it’s been done for years. Are some of the requests pork, I’m would assume so, but if you have issue with what our state representatives are asking for, go to your local government officials, and ask them to justify the requests because I can assure you Hutson and Renner did not come up with these requests, your local leaders did. They are just doing their jobs in presenting them to the state.
Donna Kahler says
All these frivolities! The state has a budget surplus, which is good, but PC is woefully underfunded for the basic infrastructure to support its insatiable growth! Why aren’t our representatives asking for money for roads, wastewater treatment plants, cell towers etc?