- October 7, 2024
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Gov. Ron DeSantis has passed a $116.5 billion state budget for the 2024-2025 fiscal year, after line-item vetoing almost $1 billion from the state legislature's proposed $117.46 billion budget.
Among the vetoed items were appropriations requests from Flagler County governing bodies. Beginning in October, the county and its municipalities jointly filed for over $460 million in appropriations requests. Much of the requests did not make the cut.
Flagler County sent nine project for its funding requests, Chief of Special Projects Holly Albanese said. Only three made it past both appropriations and DeSantis' veto, but Albanese said the funding it did receive were for "three great projects."
"We're appreciative for anything that we receive," Albanese said. The county will be looking at grant opportunities for the other projects that did not receive state appropriations
In total, she said, the county had requested roughly $136 million in state appropriations and has ended up with $25 million for its three approved projects. But, Albanese said, each of the three projects also received the full amount the county requested.
Having a non-school shelter for special needs will really help this community in a big way."
— HOLLY ALBANESE, Flagler County chief of special projects
The first project has been on the county's radar since Hurricane Matthew hit in 2016. Albanese said the scope of that disaster made it clear to the county that using only schools as emergency shelters would not always work out. During Matthew, she said, it took longer to close the all shelters — particularly the special needs shelter, held at Rymfire Elementary School — and therefore delayed the reopening of normal school activities.
The Multipurpose Emergency Preparedness project, she said, will essentially rebuild Cattleman's Hall. It will be used as an emergency shelter for residents when needed and still serve as a community center the rest of the time, she said.
"Having a non-school shelter for special needs will really help this community in a big way," Albanese said.
The county requested and received $10 million each for that project and for its land acquisition and conservation program. The county's land acquisition program is used to purchase sensitive lands from local landowners to "conserve, preserve, protect, and utilize existing natural floodways" to store and move water, according to a March email from Flagler County General Services Assistant Director Mike Lagasse.
The county also requested and received $5 million toward building a general aviation terminal at the Flagler Executive Airport.
Palm Coast's City Council members, on the other hand, were less sanguine about the city's results with its state appropriations request at the June 18 meeting. After receiving only $82 million of the city's $150 million requests, council member Theresa Carli Pontieri motioned to not renew the contract with its lobbyist company, the Southern Group, this upcoming October.
Pontieri, who made the motion, said the number of infrastructure projects that were vetoed showed the group did not prioritize or communicate properly with the council. Palm Coast needs to prioritize its infrastructure, she said.
"Either they didn't do their jobs efficiently, or they took it upon themselves to prioritize things that they shouldn't have," she said.
Ultimately, the council decided to table Pontieri's motion until the June 25 workshop meeting, both to give Southern Group a chance to appear and for staff to present information on the group's previous success rates.
Of the major city projects that were vetoed included funding for a YMCA in Town Center, several drainage and water treatment projects and road expansion projects.
The city's westward expansion projects expanding and connecting Matanzas Woods and Palm Coast Parkways received around $80 million. One rapid infiltration basin project received $2 million of the requested $4 million.
It definitely came as a surprise to not get that, but we understand that every year there will be items that are vetoed."
— LASHAKIA MOORE, Flagler Schools superintendent
DeSantis also vetoed a $1.6 million building expansion project for Flagler Technical College, which is under Flagler Schools' umbrella.
"It definitely came as a surprise to not get that, but we understand that every year there will be items that are vetoed," Flagler Schools Superintendent LaShakia Moore said. "We will just continue to work within the funding that we have in order to continue to expand the programs that we offer through Flagler Technical College."
The school district had planned to expand the current facility to add additional programs and additional program sessions, Moore said.
"So, we will have to look at other options for us to continue to do the great work that they're doing there at Flagler Technical College," she said. "We may not be able to do that and we may not be able to do it in the current time frame that we had established as we look at other options."
The FTC expansion was the school district's only request for local funding.
Associate Editor Brent Woronoff contributed to this story.
