(The Center Square) — Gov. Ron DeSantis announced Tuesday that the Florida Department of Transportation will distribute $122 million for new infrastructure projects in rural communities.
One third of the money will be distributed to rural communities impacted by hurricanes Idalia and Debby.
DeSantis said because the population is growing so rapidly in Florida, to get ahead of the growth, work is now being done to ensure Florida is able to accommodate Floridians, but also newcomers to the state.
“We have over 23 million people now in the state of Florida, we have industries that really rely on us continuing to modernize and taking care of our infrastructure, whether it’s agriculture, whether it’s trucking, whether it’s shipping, we need to do this and Florida’s rural communities are a big part of that,” DeSantis said.
DeSantis said that over the past year, he has awarded $90 million to Florida’s rural infrastructure fund for rural communities and over $250 million to the Job Growth Grant Fund since 2019.
“We’ve made a huge impact on some of our rural communities by doing those Job Growth Grant Funds, so we’re proud of doing that,” DeSantis said.
DeSantis noted that the Moving Florida Forward Program has been key to keeping Florida “above water” when it comes to building new infrastructure to keep up with population growth.
“We launched Moving Florida Forward in 2023,” DeSantis said. “This effort, thanks to the support of the Legislature, has expedited 20 major interstate and roadway projects aimed at reducing congestion and to address Florida’s expanding population.”
DeSantis noted that the federal government will spend billions on projects that produce little results and pointed out that Florida has earmarked billions for its projects, some of which are expected to be completed up to 10 years ahead of schedule in some instances.
“We also understand that as good as all that is, the rural infrastructure fund, as good as what we’ve done on our work program for Florida Department of Transportation, as good as what we’ve done for Moving Florida Forward – we have other ways we can help bolster and modernize Florida’s infrastructure, particularly in our rural communities,” DeSantis said.
The funding will be split between several rural counties and distributed through the Small County Outreach Program and the Small County Resurfacing Assistance Program.
Here is a list of the counties and how much each will receive:
$4.25 million for Bradford County.$5.24 million for Calhoun County.$2.48 million for Citrus County.$985,000 for Collier County.$2.98 million for Columbia County.$2.28 million for DeSoto County.$2.46 million for Flagler County.$1.87 million for Gadsden County.$2.19 million for Gilchrist County.$2.3 million for Gulf County.$594,000 for Hamilton County.$1.12 million for Hardee County.$4.58 million for Hendry County.$4.81 million for Highlands County.$1.47 million for Holmes County.$1.55 million for Indian River County.$4.31 million for Jackson County.$1.63 million for Lafayette County.$2.5 million for Levy County.$7.72 million for Liberty County.$1.45 million for Madison County.$1.55 million for Martin County.$2.22 million for Monroe County.$2.04 million for Palm Beach County.$9.12 million for Putnam County.$2.23 million for Sumter County.$3.66 million for Suwannee County.$2.6 million for Taylor County.$3.05 million for Union County.$6.41 million for Washington County.
