Budget bringing in $32M locally

A record state budget includes significant funding for Columbia County and North Florida.

The $117 billion budget, which is approximately $7 billion larger than the current spending plan for Florida, was released Tuesday by the legislature, triggering a 72-hour “cooling off” period that will end with the House and Senate voting on the budget Friday, the final day of the session.

The budget will then go to Gov. Ron DeSantis, who has line-item veto power.

“Our budget is a fiscally responsible, balanced approach to making key investments in our environmental, housing, and transportation infrastructure and our clean water resources, while maintaining a historic rainy day fund that ensures we remain prepared to tackle any future challenges that may face our state,” Senate Appropriations Chairman Doug Broxson (R-Gulf Breeze) said in a prepared statement Tuesday.

That budget includes more than $10.7 million in projects in Columbia County, as well as nearly $11.5 million for Suwannee County projects and just shy of $9 million for projects in Lafayette County. Hamilton County is set to receive just more than $1 million.

“We’re very thankful to the legislature,” Columbia County Manager David Kraus said. “Now it all goes to the governor and we’ll see what happens. But we’re very happy with the legislature.”

More than half of the money the House and Senate negotiators approved for Columbia County will go to the North Florida Mega Industrial Park with $5.716 million allocated for the industrial park’s water plant. Last year, nearly $3 million was appropriated for a roadway into the park.

Improvements to SW Bascom Norris Road received more than $1.2 million to improve traffic flow, repaving 1.75 miles of the road from SW Faith Road to State Road 47, where Florida Department of Transportation has improvements planned.

Three other Columbia County projects are set to receive just shy of $1 million with the Florida Gateway Fairgrounds netting $985,000, a new crime lab and evidence building for the Columbia County Sheriff’s Office provided $980,000, and $950,000 set aside for Columbia County Fire Rescue to replace Station 51 off Lake Jeffery Road, the department’s busiest station.

The legislature approved $422,000 in funding toward replacing the HVAC system at the City of Lake City’s Public Safety Building, as well as $475,000 for a community center in the Bethlehem community in the southern part of the county.

“We know our local legislative delegation, Sen. (Jennifer) Bradley and Rep. (Chuck) Brannan, work very, very hard and we’re very, very appreciative of them,” Kraus said.

SUWANNEE COUNTY

Suwannee County, which is represented by Rep. Jason Shoaf (R-Port St. Joe) and Sen. Corey Simon (R-Tallahassee), received funding for 11 projects, totaling $11.499 million.

The biggest appropriation came for a healthcare expansion at RIVEROAK Technical College with $4 million earmarked for the college, which will allow it to offer additional critical need programs including dental assisting, hemodialysis technician and medical assisting, the request states, which could serve an additional 200 adult students annually. The college’s Practical Nursing Program could accept an additional 31 students if the facility is expanded while other health care programs offered — surgical technology, pharmacy technician, patient care technician, phlebotomy and nursing assistant — would also be able to increase its capacity leading to the 200 additional seats.

“It is a project that Sen. Corey Simon and Jason Shoaf worked very hard to get through the House and the Senate side,” Superintendent of Suwannee Schools Ted Roush said Tuesday. “We’re cautiously optimistic that with the governor’s focus on Career and Technical Education that it will be approved.”

Roush said the school district held a meeting with stakeholders in healthcare, ranging from HCA Lake City Hospital and the VA Medical Center in Lake City to doctor’s offices to long-term care facilities, they all said the same thing: they need additional staffing help.

“They were very helpful in filling out need surveys that basically said we have ‘X’ number of vacancies and we need more production out of this college,” Roush said. “We’re having to turn down students with waiting lists for every new cohort in pretty much every medical program we have.

“Everybody came on board and said we don’t need to be in the business of turning away students that are wanting to be here just simply because of capacity from a facility perspective.”

The county received $4.75 million on four projects toward economic development at its Catalyst Site west of Live Oak, including $2 million for a sewer plant at the industrial park and $2 million toward an elevated water tower at the site. The lawmakers also approved $250,000 toward a water line extension from the water plant at the park and $500,000 for a rail crossing repair at 169th Road, the main access road to the industrial park. The existing crossing was constructed for residential traffic and the increased truck traffic led to it being damaged.

Suwannee County was awarded nearly $3 million in funding from the state at various points last year for water and wastewater improvements at the site.

The City of Live Oak is also getting $304,000 for water main loop extension along U.S. Highway 129 in the growing commercial development area. In December, $764,000 in state funding was allocated for sewer infrastructure in that area.

Suwannee County Fire Rescue netted $800,000 for a pump engine. The county is also receiving $620,000 for the Coliseum and fairgrounds complex.

In southern Suwannee County, Branford netted just more than $1 million for three projects: $475,000 for an aerial platform firetruck, $300,000 for new spray fields for its wastewater treatment plant and $250,000 toward new recreation fields for soccer and football.

LAFAYETTE COUNTY

Shoaf and Simon landed money for just three projects in Lafayette County, but is getting major funding for those with $4 million designated for a renovation/expansion of the 71-year-old county jail that was last renovated 27 years ago as well as $4.5 million for a new emergency operations center, which would provide room all interested parties to attend emergency meetings.

Repairs for SW County Road 534, which was washed out due to heavy rans and flooding in August 2021, received $428,241. The repair project would also repair culverts on the road to ensure the water can flow without damaging the road again in the future.

HAMILTON COUNTY

The Hamilton County Fairgrounds also received funding with a $300,000 appropriation, while $750,000 was allocated for a sewer lift station on U.S. 129 near the Interstate 75 interchange to spur economic development growth at the interchange

LEO RAISES

In addition to the projects, an additional $2.8 million was allocated to the area for raises for deputies and correctional officers with the sheriff’s office. Columbia County is receiving $1,378,388 for those raises, while Suwannee County is getting just shy of $800,000. Lafayette County is receiving $388,927 for those salary increases with Hamilton County funded $271,000 for the pay bumps.

Also, the plan includes $19.03 million to cover $5,000 hiring and retention bonuses for correctional officers at 15 Department of Corrections facilities with high vacancy rates. Another $8.5 million would go to raise salaries of correctional officers in privately operated facilities, including more than $2 million for the Lake City Correctional Facility.

OTHER DETAILS

The budget also includes $26.7 billion for the Florida Education Finance Program, the main funding source for public schools; $47.3 billion for health and human services programs; and 5% across-the-board pay raises for state workers, with some employees eligible for additional increases. Also, $850 million is headed to a planned statewide wildlife corridor.

DeSantis in January announced what he dubbed the Moving Florida Forward plans to speed construction on 20 road projects. With DeSantis seeking $4 billion, the new budget will initially provide $2.5 billion.

The Joint Legislative Budget Commission, which is made up of House and Senate members and can make mid-year budget decisions, would be able to release the remaining $1.5 billion when road plans are advanced, Broxson said.

The budget is bolstered, in part, by higher-than-expected tax revenues.

News Service of Florida contributed to this report.