Loading
Strength in numbers
Throughout the Gulf Coast, a common refrain echoes about the area's political clout in Tallahassee: What clout? From the lack of road-building funds - probably the single largest issue - to lesser state-funded needs and desires, the Gulf Coast gets to feeling quite orphaned in Tallahassee.
But the Tampa Bay area is trying to do something about it.
Spearheaded by the Tampa Bay Partnership, it has created the Bay Area Legislative Delegation (or BALD) to act as a more cohesive unit to muscle its way to the table that has long been dominated by Southeast Florida.
The group includes lawmakers from Pasco, Hillsborough, Pinellas, Polk, Manatee and Sarasota counties. That gives it 38 legislators, or about 25% of the Florida Legislature.
While that seems like a good-size block, it has been woeful in bringing home bacon, losing out consistently to the funding black hole of Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties. Part of the reason is that it has not acted as a block, something at which Southeast Florida legislators have been more effective.
The BALD group formed just before last spring's Legislative session and lawmakers believe they had some positive affects on a few budget issues. But the group's impact was minimal. The big dog is transportation funding, and breaking the stranglehold of Southeast Florida on those funds.
One priority for the group during the upcoming session is to create a regional transportation authority that covers the entire area as an avenue for snatching more of the roads funding pie.
Also taking aim at Tally
Further down the Gulf Coast, legislators are also gearing up for the Spring Legislative session.
At a forum held at Florida Gulf Coast University, the most common request from companies and individuals was to act, somehow, on affordable housing - an issue that gets inordinate air time and print space from politicians and the media, but which has yet to yield solutions.
Most solutions offered by government tend to create a specific number of "affordable" housing units at the cost of additional regulations and requirements that result in higher housing costs, exacerbating the problem with the "solution."
At the meeting, a general outline of a planned community for nurses, law enforcement, teachers and other essential services workers was revealed. The development, called Fountain Lakes in East Naples, is expected to be a co-op owned by residents.
Interestingly, in some ways the Lee and Collier communities have recognized that they are too far down the road-building chain to get the money they need - witness the fact that Interstate 75 is still only two lanes and in gridlock twice daily. So they have created a two-county authority with the intent to build toll roads, starting with one in the I-75 corridor.
It's an option others on the Gulf Coast are beginning to talk about.
-Rod Thomson
Your free article limit has been reached this month.
Subscribe now for unlimited digital access to our award-winning business news.
Join thousands of executives who rely on us for insights spanning Tampa Bay to Naples.
