Due to Hurricane Irma, Florida lawmakers are warning their constituents that they may not have a lot of money this year for local projects. It comes as legislators across the state hold legislative delegation meetings where the public, local governments, and organizations outline their funding requests.
Speaking during a recent legislative delegation meeting in Santa Rosa, Sen. Doug Broxson (R-Gulf Breeze) said Irma is the only storm he knows of where all 67 counties lost electricity. And, he added the problems in Central and South Florida are enormous—primarily in the agricultural area.
“And, we are going to see effort to stand those counties up, and we don’t really know at this point—since we haven’t really gotten into the budget—what that’s going to mean to our discretionary spending,” he said, during Monday's meeting. “We know we have needs, but just like during the BP oil spill—when the state stood up for us [in the Panhandle]—we’re going to have to stand up for them, and hopefully, we can recover our citrus crop.”
Broxson says while every lawmaker is going to try to do what they can for their district, it’s important to note the legislature is dealing with a major issue it did not have last year.
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