- 1 year ago
Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) announces new community development block grants.
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00:00Sit down, sit down. Amazing facility. Great to be back in Arcadia. We got some great announcements
00:06here today, and I'm excited to be joined by the President of the Florida Senate and your
00:11State Senator, my friend, Ben Albritton.
00:22We also have the Secretary of the Department of Commerce, Alex Kelly. We have Representatives
00:28Nix and Oliver. We have Mayor Judy Wurst Strickland from Arcadia, Mayor Melissa Hendricks from Lake
00:36Butler, City Manager Larry Sessions of Live Oak, and City Manager Deanna Naugler from Webster,
00:43and I want to thank all of them here. I'll talk about why we're here in a minute, but I do want to
00:49provide an update. I think many of you saw we had three Floridians killed last week in a crash that
00:57was perpetrated by a guy driving a tractor trailer that was an illegal immigrant to this country.
01:06He got a driver's license, a commercial driver's license from Washington State and, of course,
01:11California. Didn't speak English, and he tried to do a U-turn where it's official use only,
01:19and the other car didn't have a chance because it's just totally, totally reckless and out-of-control
01:25driving. He is in custody in California, and I've sent our Lieutenant Governor Jay Collins, who's,
01:35you know, Green Beret. He knows operations. He is over there in California. He's going to be taking
01:43possession of this illegal alien truck driver. We're extraditing him back to Florida. He will arrive in
01:50Florida today, and he will get the book thrown at him very shortly after that, I can guarantee you, so
01:57stay tuned. You're going to be able to hear more for that, but how ridiculous is it that somebody would
02:03get a commercial driver's license who doesn't understand the language of this country, doesn't
02:09understand road signs, doesn't understand these things, and the feds, when they had him detained a couple
02:15days ago, they did an English test, and he failed abysmally, not even close, like not only like, you
02:21know, you know, a little English, like, like, no, he was terrible, and yet he's getting these commercial
02:27licenses from these sanctuary states, and you know, in the U.S., we all kind of have our opportunities to
02:34run our states the way we want. We've chosen to be the free state of Florida, and I think most people
02:39here appreciate that. California, Washington state, they're choosing much different pathways,
02:46and I think it's been very destructive to the people there. That's why people have fled those states,
02:51but you know, their policies and their recklessness spills over to other states in this country, and it's
02:59spilled over in this case to the state of Florida, so the three Floridians are dead, you know, in part
03:05because of the recklessness that we see out on the left coast, and you know, I think it needs to stop,
03:11but ultimately, you know, it's going to require Congress to get off its rump and actually do
03:17something about this. Defund sanctuary states, defund sanctuary cities, rein in the excesses that we've
03:24seen in these states time and time again, and I hope that that happens, because we cannot just sit and
03:30allow these tragedies to occur on and on and on. It's got to stop. We're here today to talk about our
03:39support for rural communities in Florida, and our state is, you know, we've been ranked number one
03:45economy three years in a row by CNBC. We have a major, we've had, I think, 80 percent GDP growth
03:55since I've been governor, which is, which is almost doubling the entire size of the Florida economy,
04:00and we're not done yet. We've, of course, been a very fast-growing state. Part of it, we were open
04:05during COVID. People were fleeing lockdowns. They also fled crime and BLM rioting. They embraced our
04:12education choice. There's a lot of reasons why people have chosen to come to Florida. We've seen more
04:17investment. We have AAA credit ratings from Fitch, S&P, and Moody's. Since I've been governor, if you take
04:24all the debt in the history of the state of Florida that we've accumulated over 180 years,
04:30thanks to the budget that I signed a couple months ago, we will have paid off almost 50 percent of
04:36that just in my tenure as governor, and we're going to do more, and I know Ben is supportive of us doing
04:42more in the future on that. So we now have the lowest amount of state debt per capita of all the states
04:48that have debt. Of course, no income tax, and we're working on the property tax, so we're going to get
04:53relief there too, so be ready.
05:01And number one in higher education. We've been number one in education freedom, parents' rights.
05:07All these different things are really, really important, but I will tell you, me as governor,
05:14you know, it's easy when you're in governor in a big state, you know, because when I got in,
05:18we had like 21 million people. Now we have like 23 and a half million people, and I'm not asking
05:23people to move here. Trust me. I, some governors are like, oh, please come to my state. Like, no,
05:29I'm, I, we, I'm happy with what we got, but you know, it's a free country. And so, you know, people
05:34come. I know a lot of, a lot of my supporters when COVID was happening, you know, they'd see these
05:40California license plates showing up. They got freaked out, you know, as we don't want to import
05:45Berkeley to, to Florida. It turns out a lot of these people were fleeing those policies and were
05:50really embracing our policies, but be that as it may, you know, the reality is, is people have voted
05:56with their feet. We've seen the state continue to thrive. And, and when you have those types of numbers,
06:0223 and a half million people as a governor, just politically, if you're running one running for
06:07you, if you just focus on like Miami and Tampa and a handful of areas, politically, you probably,
06:13you know, can be fine just doing that, but that wasn't the way I did it. Um, in my first term as
06:18governor, I became the first governor in the history of Florida that at least that's been recorded
06:23to do public events in all 67 Florida counties. Uh, we've made investing in our rural communities a
06:30priority because I think ultimately it's an important foundation for the state, not just
06:35economically, but culturally and historically as well. Uh, and we have done, uh, huge, uh, initiatives
06:42up and down this state, uh, whether it's infrastructure, whether it's job training, you name it,
06:48we've been there and we've gotten it done and we're going to keep on doing that. One vehicle that we have
06:53for strategic investments is the Florida small cities community development block grant program.
07:00This is a program since 2019 that has awarded more than $138 million in funds to more than 120
07:10small city and rural communities throughout the state of Florida. And part of what makes us strong
07:16is that we understand, uh, the opportunities that we have in our rural communities. You know, yes,
07:22you know, someone like Ben can talk to me. He knows agriculture. It's a big important part of the
07:26backbone of the state, but I will tell you in some of these rural areas, you know, very attractive for
07:31manufacturing, you know, very attractive for a lot of other things that people, uh, are going to be
07:36continue looking to do. So today I'm proud to announce that we're going to continue to build off
07:41this momentum and this success through our Florida small cities CDBG program. Uh, and we are going to
07:49reward a number of small cities, really significant awards. And first, and maybe most importantly,
07:57because I'm here, uh, we are pleased to announce that we're awarding $6.4 million to the city of Arcadia to
08:05upgrade to upgrade the existing biosolids processing system at the William Tyson wastewater treatment
08:23plant. The city's sole wastewater treatment plant is aging and frequently failing. It poses both
08:29environmental and health risks. And so this award will fund the critical upgrades for the plants
08:35biosolids and aeration systems, and it'll help move the city toward regulatory compliance and will
08:41benefit about 8,000 local residents. So I know this has been something that people have wanted to see,
08:48and we're happy that we're able to deliver. We are also pleased to announce we're awarding $5.9
08:53million to Florida city to make wastewater treatment plant improvements at nine service areas
08:59throughout the city. Due to ongoing deterioration, the city's sanitary sewer system requires major
09:05upgrades across nine service areas. Uh, this project will benefit nearly 12,000 residents in Florida
09:14city. So Florida city south. Now we go 4.5 million north to live Oak and north central Florida, uh, to
09:22rehabilitate low income homes as well as making upgrades to the city's potable water system. $3 million grant
09:30will fund the upgrades to the water system. An additional 1.5 million grant will rehab rehabilitate
09:37or replace at least 21 homes for lower income households throughout Suwannee county. We're also
09:44doing 2.89 million to the city of Webster to install a new master lift station and a new emergency
09:51generator. Uh, this is something that will come in handy. 2.8 million to the city of Lake Butler to replace
09:57water lines throughout the city. 1.7 million to the city of Port St. Joe to make sidewalk landscaping,
10:04irrigation, and underground utility improvements. 1.2 million to the city of Green Cove Springs
10:09to install stormwater piping, swales, and inlets. 1 million to the city of Bluntstown to replace aging
10:16and unreliable water and sewer lines. 1 million dollars to Liberty County to complete improvements at
10:24Veterans Memorial Park. 1 million to Santa Rosa county to construct a retention pond, uh, at the
10:31Whiting Aviation Park in Santa Rosa, creating 10 jobs and retaining 10 existing jobs. Almost a million
10:37dollars to the town of Esto to complete improvements of the town water plant and to conduct water line
10:44replacement activities. Uh, we also have for housing missions 1.5 million to Hamilton County. Uh, you know,
10:51we, we have America's 250th anniversary coming up, uh, next year. So we're already doing things.
10:57And one of the things I'm doing, you know, around the country, you have some of these jurisdictions,
11:02they're tearing down statues of the founding fathers. Well, in Florida, we're putting up new
11:07statues of the founding fathers. And so we've already done one for George Washington in the state capital,
11:13which is amazing. Uh, we did a Thomas Jefferson that had been mothballed by another state because he's
11:19politically incorrect, I guess. And we put that in Jefferson County. And then we're going to do
11:24Hamilton County, Madison County, Franklin County, Monroe County. And, uh, you know, I may even airdrop
11:31some founding fathers into Gainesville, Broward. I don't know. We'll make it interesting.
11:35So 1.5 million to Hamilton, 1.5 million to Lafayette, 1.2 million to Columbia, 950 K to Madison,
11:52900,000 to Hendry County, 850,000 to St. Lucie County, 750,000 to Levy County. And then finally,
12:00uh, 912,000 to town of Malone, uh, which is, uh, really, really good. And, um, you know,
12:08we're looking forward to, um, working particularly with those, uh, counties named after the founding
12:13fathers to be able to advance the ball there. Uh, so this is meaningful. Uh, we'll present the checks
12:18here in a minute. Uh, but first I want to be able to bring up a couple of speakers. And so,
12:23you know, I think if you look at what happened in the most recent, uh, legislative session,
12:27now, I don't know that there's ever been more support, uh, for rural Florida, uh, than what we
12:32saw, uh, in that legislative session. And the reason for that quite simply is because of Senator
12:39Ben Albritton. Uh, he's really been a champion for the communities, not just here in his district,
12:44uh, but the rural communities throughout the state of Florida. And that's evident, uh, by the
12:48legislation and, uh, the budget priorities, uh, that we saw come to fruition. So I want to invite him
12:53up to be able to say a few words. Say first and foremost, as a sixth generation Heartland resident
13:07and a fourth generation citrus grower, uh, I want to say, man, it's good to be home.
13:13It is good to be home. And I look out through this crowd, see a lot of friendly faces, a lot of family,
13:18a lot of folks. I want you to know, I love you. I'm thankful for you. I'm thankful for your
13:22encouragement, your support over the years. Um, couldn't do this without you. I just couldn't do
13:27this without you. Uh, governor, I want to point one thing out. Yeah, I appreciate your kind words,
13:32but look at the end of the day, it's easy. It's easy for me to be supportive of rural Florida
13:37because it's who I am. That is who my family has been for six generations. Uh, you have been
13:43consistent though, to be supportive of rural Florida. Rural Florida is full of freedom, loving
13:50patriots. And the fact of the matter is you are beloved in rural Florida. And it's because you've
13:55been consistent. And I want to thank you for that. You know, rural Florida exists, you know, rural
14:00Florida is important, and you also know in rural Florida that agriculture matters. And those
14:05communities matter. It evolves around agriculture. You completely get that. I appreciate that. And I'm
14:11sure everybody in the room. So, uh, lastly, I want to leave you with this. Um, everything I just said
14:25is true. Everything I just said is true. And the Florida legislature and this governor, we know that
14:31rural Florida exists. At the end of the day, there are 31 fiscally constrained counties in this state.
14:37And what that means is every single day, there are some places in the state to where they have to
14:42try to figure out how to, how to spend their money and how to, uh, be responsible and thoughtful.
14:47Hello. Um, how to be responsible and thoughtful with that many times in those 31 fiscal constrained
14:54counties, they don't have two pennies to rub together. There is no choosing between a chicken
15:00and the egg. They don't have either. All right. They want one of the two, but they don't have it. So
15:06I bring that up because the numbers that you're talking about here may not be substantial relative
15:12to other investments around the state, but they are strategic. They are key. And at the end of the
15:18day, they really matter. They really matter. Every single dollar that gets allocated to be in support of
15:27rural communities makes a difference. And the magnitude of that impact is pretty difficult to measure when you
15:35start with nothing. So, uh, so governor appreciate your focus on rural Florida and not just saying it,
15:49doing it. So thank you for that, uh, friends and family. Love you. Appreciate you. Thanks for the
15:55support. Thanks for the encouragement over the years. And I look forward to continuing to serve
16:00you as long as the good Lord allows. Thank you.
16:10Well, governor, thank you so much, uh, Senate President Albrighton. Thank you so much to
16:14Alex Kelly, Florida secretary of commerce. Um, governor, thank you for your, for your leadership
16:19and support and direction to really embrace and support rural counties throughout the state. Um, all,
16:24all 20 of the grants that you discussed today for 19 different communities in the state, uh, really
16:30do, uh, the values that, uh, president Albrighton, you just described really do, really do hit those
16:34values. Uh, they really are core to these communities and they really are meant to catalyze economic
16:39development. Um, so thank you governor. Thank you president for your focus on rural communities. Um,
16:44I want to maybe just cover, you know, two quick additional points that I think, you know,
16:48are really important first here for here in DeSoto County for the project for the city of Arcadia. This was one
16:54that, um, that we at Ford part of Carmas really kind of took, took personally took under our wings
16:58because, uh, a little more than a year ago, we were here, we were in, we were in the city. Hey,
17:02Beth, I see you. Um, uh, uh, we were here in the city visiting, uh, we were doing a rural heartland
17:09tour of the central Florida regional planning council took us around several counties. And our last stop
17:15was the water treatment facility, uh, in the city of Arcadia. We got a great briefing and understanding as to
17:20how critical that is going to be to catalyze economic development. And then we were back here
17:25a few months later and Beth actually pulled us aside. Beth Carson pulled us aside at a, uh,
17:30at a rural economic development initiative meeting and said, Hey, we're running short on this project.
17:36You know, we might need some help. And so we started that dialogue. We started that process. And so
17:41when applications came in, this was the first one that we grabbed and we said, we got to get Arcadia there.
17:47Um, so it became very personal, but it's really because of great partners here locally who,
17:50you know, local and state partnership. Uh, it just shows to the points that, that governor and
17:55president, you were making that, uh, sometimes these dollars, it's, it covers a gap that you
17:59don't always realize is there until that critical moment. Uh, and it just makes a difference. Uh,
18:03and it's again, state and local partnership really matters. The other thing is just all 19 of the
18:08communities governor that you went over that are getting grants today. We really, um, you know,
18:12reflecting on, uh, the, the, the storms of the last couple of years, uh, Adalia, Debbie, Helene,
18:17Milton, we really proactively reached out to at your direction to a lot of those communities,
18:22particularly rural communities have been impacted by those storms. All 19 of these communities had
18:28impacts from at least one of those storms, 13 of had impacts from two of those storms, uh, or more.
18:32So, uh, this was also really a part, uh, governors you do every day to really build up the resiliency of
18:38these communities to make sure that whatever those impacts were, they don't repeat themselves.
18:41And these communities are stronger, uh, and better the next time. So again, governor,
18:45thank you for your leadership, Mr. President, likewise, uh, and everybody here, just thank you
18:49for your partnership, uh, in getting today and supporting these grants. Thank you, sir. Okay.
18:55So why don't we, let's bring everybody up. We'll do the, uh, we're going to do the checks.
19:01We'll snap some quick photos. Um, so city of Arcadia.
19:05We got, um, city of Lake Butler.
19:15Live Oak.
19:19And we have Webster.
19:22You guys come over on my side.
19:24Okay. Yeah, there we go. Perfect.
19:32You guys come over by your check.
19:33Okay.
19:35Can we do it?
19:38All right. Let's move.
19:40All right. There we go.
19:42Hey, please.
19:42Congratulations.
20:02Now I told them like, I don't know how the banks in Arcadia, uh, are that's cardboard. They can try to
20:08cash that. Um, I do think the actual checks in the mail. So stay tuned on that and we'll,
20:13we'll get to it. Um, so very important, really appreciate, uh, happy to support a rural Florida.
20:19And I'll tell you, like, I just did it because it's the right thing to do. But you know, they,
20:23they were, uh, uh, great for us. I've always been very supportive of everything we've done.
20:27You know, we just did, uh, we opened up, uh, a deportation depot in Baker County, right by Jackson
20:34books. You know, we have the one in the alligator Alcatraz and, you know, they go there, they get
20:38processed and then they get removed by DHS, which is why, you know, what we want to see. Um, and so
20:43we did this thing, you know, it's right next, uh, Duval County where Jacksonville is. And someone was
20:48like, Oh, it's our, our Baker County residents, you know, going to be mad that you're doing a
20:53deportation depot. It's like, I got 90% of the vote in Baker County. So probably they're probably
20:58excited about it. Um, and I think if you look at like these rural counties, um,
21:03and, and look at back that, you know, that election, um, you know, we were getting Saddam
21:07Hussein margins, you know, Saddam would like, you got to vote for Saddam or you, well, that wasn't
21:12us. People just did it. They were 90, 88, 90, 92% in all those counties. So we appreciate it. And,
21:18um, uh, we're happy to be supportive. Okay. Uh, take some questions real quick. Yes.
21:23A new report from James Madison Institute calls Florida's election system of gold standard,
21:29especially since 2020, when they say it was the laughing stock because of the hanging 2000,
21:342000, 2000, sorry. Uh, so 25 years later, your thought and your reaction, is there anything we
21:40could approve going into 2028? Well, I think it's important to say how far we've come. So look at
21:46what we've done in Florida. Uh, no ballot harvesting it's banned. No Zucker bucks. We banned it. I established
21:54with the help of the legislature and election crimes office in the office of the attorney general.
22:00So if an illegal alien votes, they get prosecuted. Now, if somebody votes in New York and in Florida,
22:06they get prosecuted. Now we've had the most robust enforcement of any place in the country. And when
22:11you vote in Florida, you know, we know how many people have voted as the election goes on. And then
22:17at seven o'clock we stop it. Uh, and you're either in line, uh, or your ballots been received or that's it.
22:24You're not going to have votes coming in for weeks and weeks. And so on election night,
22:28we publish the results and, uh, you're able to know who won the election. We don't do like California
22:34where it's kind of like a rolling process like election day, but then we get votes two days later,
22:40a week later, two weeks later, and this candidates win and then they lose and all that other stuff.
22:45I think it's a total fraud what they do in California. I don't think that there's any safeguards.
22:50And so Florida, I think is the gold standard. Uh, I'm always open to suggestions about what we can
22:55do better, but I think on all the things people cared about cleaning the voting rolls, we did it.
23:01Voter ID. We did it. Uh, no, no ballot harvesting. We did it. No Zucker bucks. We did it. Prosecuting
23:08people that violate election laws. We did it. Uh, and so I'm proud of that. We know, uh, where,
23:13how many ballots are cast. We count them and then we report the results. So it's been really good.
23:18Uh, I know we always do some tweaks here or there, and if there are things that need to be improved,
23:23I'm all ears, but like compare where we were in 2020, 2000, but even 2018, you know, when I got
23:29elected, there was chaos, uh, in Broward and Palm Beach counties. I came in and removed those
23:33supervisors as governor and we've instituted a lot of reforms, but 2020, we had the most transparent
23:39and efficient election in the country. And there were a lot of badly run states that year. Of course,
23:4422, most transparent and efficient election in the country. And 2024, we had the most transparent
23:50and efficient election in the country. So I think that's a great track record.
24:10Why would they not be?
24:12Yeah. I mean, like it's, you know, we, we don't say like rural communities is only one ethnic or not
24:17ethnic. I mean, you know, you have different folks, um, in, in different parts of the state
24:21and we're a very diverse state. And so, um, you know, to say we're given to Arcadia and it's only
24:27going to be limited to some, that's just not how we operate. Um, so, uh, so we're, um, you know,
24:32you know, we're good now, you know, some people will try to draw this or they'll try to draw the
24:36connection and say, oh, well, if someone's Latino, then, oh, they must be an illegal alien. And that's false.
24:42That's not true. Uh, I can tell you in Florida, you know, our, uh, Hispanic American population,
24:48not only very patriotic, very strong on borders. They want strong borders more than anybody. I
24:54can tell you, uh, because I was the one that led the charge to ban sanctuary cities and people,
24:58so you can't do that. Uh, Hispanics won't like it. Hispanics liked it more than anybody else in
25:03the state of Florida, overwhelming support. So some of these misnomers that get thrown out there,
25:08I think, um, you know, have not been accurate. And those are certainly, uh, flawed assumptions
25:13that I've never subscribed to. And that's why we've been really strong on law and order. We've
25:18been really strong against illegal immigration. We've got a lot of support from folks across
25:23different ethnic lines as a result of that. All right, guys, you have a good one. God bless everybody.