DeSantis celebrates nearly $15 billion in budget for transportation and congestion relief

AUBURNDALE, Fla. – Gov. Ron DeSantis highlighted the state’s efforts to decrease congestion on Thursday, noting the nearly $15 billion for transportation infrastructure in the recently signed budget.

He also criticized the federal government for using transportation to push an “ideological agenda.”

“Since I became governor in 2019, we’ve invested almost $70 billion to improve transportation infrastructure in the state of Florida and our main focus has been in reducing congestion,” DeSantis said during a press conference.

He explained that the latest fiscal budget he recently signed has $14.5 billion for 946 different transportation projects across the state, including over $5 billion to maintain and construct new highways.

He mentioned how some states don’t put an effort into improving and upgrading their transportation infrastructure.

“You drive around New York City, if you drive around to all the different boroughs, they’re charging you massive tolls to go across this bridge and that bridge, and if you drove around all those areas you’d be paying $30, $40, $50, $60 in tolls probably in just one day,” he said. “And yet, you drive on these roads and you get motion sickness because it’s so bad.”

“People have said when they look at Florida’s infrastructure, we’re ranked in the top five for the quality of our roadways,” he added.

He pointed out how Florida has been able to maintain good roads even with a large population and many people visiting the state.

“We also have in this years budget $400 million to repair 72 bridges and replace another 15 bridges, so that’ll be almost 600 bridge repairs or replacements since 2019,” he said.

DeSantis argued that the federal government weaponizes transportation and infrastructure to push partisan platforms. He also mentioned how Florida is one of the states utilizing the least amount of funding from President Joe Biden’s administration.

“Part of that is, we don’t do the strings attached. If we have to sign up for DEI and all this stuff just to receive road funding, we’re not gonna do that,” the governor continued. “We’re not going to allow the federal government to use the purse strings to impose bad policies on the state of Florida.”

“But make no mistake, they are trying to use transportation and roadways to promote a political agenda. In 2022, the Biden administration’s secretary of transportation launched a $1 billion transportation project that he said would combat racist roads,” DeSantis said.

“They also have so-called social justice initiatives that they’re trying to shoehorn into transportation and the Federal Highway Administration even tried to circumnavigate Congress by requiring states to track car emissions, despite Congress voting to exclude this authority in the so-called Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act,” he said. “Make no mistake, they want to be able to monitor how you use your vehicles. In Florida we can say any proposal that would try and monitor how you’re using your vehicle is quite simply Dead on Arrival in this state.”

Florida Department of Transportation Secretary Jared Perdue thanked the governor for his work in keeping Florida’s transportation infrastructure amongst the top in the nation.

“I’m proud to say that our industry is leading the way and it’s because of the governor’s leadership and supporting us and cutting through government bureaucracy that we can really do something like this,” Perdue said.

“While we’re innovating and cutting through that bureaucracy, the Biden administration continues to inject social and political ideologies into transportation. This diverts resources away from delivering real infrastructure,” he said.

“Today, U.S. DOT Secretary Pete Buttigieg is actually testifying before Congress on their annual budget request. It will not be surprising to hear a continued focus on wasteful spending and ideas that don’t actually build infrastructure,” he continued. “These damaging policies are threaded throughout all of the Biden administration’s initiatives.”

House Speaker Pro Tem Chuck Clemons, R-Newberry, emphasized the legislature’s work that they accomplished to make sure transportation infrastructure was addressed in the recent legislative session.

He noted the governor’s mention of $15 billion going into transportation infrastructure and the significance of it in relation to the entire $115 billion state budget.

“That’s 10% of our budget that’s going into this initiative and that’s outstanding,” Clemons said.