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Today’s entry: I’d like to address Governor DeSantis’ complaints regarding the amount of funding Florida is set to receive in the infrastructure bill. If it’s true that Florida is set to be underserved by the legislation, shouldn’t he be directing his ire at those in his own party here in Florida? After all, there are more Congressional Republicans than Democrats in our state and it’s their job to advocate for their constituents.
Bottom Line: The dynamic you’ve described is valid, however, the point of emphasis with where the governor’s ire is directed is the inverse of what you’ve suggested. First, let’s dig into what we know about the legislation to see how big of a shaft Florida might be getting. The overall price tag of the legislation is approximately $1.2 trillion. That’s a result of reallocating about $600 billion of previously authorized spending by Congress with about $600 billion new dollars of spending.
As for Florida’s expected share, it’s currently estimated to be $19.1 billion. The first tell that Florida is getting the short end of the infrastructure stick is the knowledge that New York, a state smaller than Florida, is set to receive around $7 billion more.
According to the 2020 Census, Florida’s population stands at 21.5 million. That compares to a national population of 331 million. This means Florida represents 6.5% of the US population, thus any equitable legislation from the federal government would allocate 6.5% of the funds to our state. When evaluating the estimated funds for Florida in the infrastructure legislation, we see Florida is set to receive only 1.6% of the proceeds. That’s a staggering shortfall for our state.
Governor DeSantis is right to be outraged by what’s happened here. While it’s true there are more elected Republicans in Congress representing Florida than Democrats, 18 Republicans, including both senators, compared to 10 Democrats currently, it’s Florida’s Democrats who failed to represent their constituents. First, Democrats retain complete control of Congress, they naturally have the easiest path forward in negotiations with party leadership over the details and distribution of funds. Republicans were largely left out of the process.
Secondly, Florida’s Republicans all voted against the legislation on principle, thus they retained no influence in a reallocation of the funds within the legislation. It’s Florida’s ten Congressional Democrats that failed to wield influence for their constituents in exchange for their yes votes.
Florida’s infrastructure grade from the American Society of Civil Engineers is “C”. That ranks above the national average of a “C-”. In other words, states such as ours that do better than average in managing infrastructure get punished at the literal expense of those who’ve not managed infrastructure well. But even that attempted justification doesn’t come close to explaining why we’re getting less than a quarter of what’s equitable for Florida.
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