By PATRICK GILLESPIE
Florida Senate President Ben Albritton has been talking about his policy priority for the 2025 Florida Legislative Session, which he has dubbed a “rural renaissance” for Florida, providing opportunities for Florida’s smaller communities to thrive.
On Feb. 19 in a memo to Senators, Albritton discussed his vision for helping create, “opportunities to improve our rural quality of life, while preserving the time-honored way-of-life that has been deeply cherished generation after generation.”
Senate Bill 110, filed on Feb. 19 by Sen. Corey Simon, whose district covers a large swath of North Florida rural counties, lays out a variety of measures designed to accomplish this. Among the areas of focus:
Redefining Florida Statutes to allow certain counties to be eligible for state funding. The bill would change funding structures for fiscally constrained counties, providing at least $50 million per fiscal year, with revenue tied to sales tax.
Creating the Office of Rural Prosperity within the Florida Department of Commerce to assist with planning, staffing, and to provide a tool for rural counties to navigate federal and state grants.
Allowing grants for development and funding a competitive application process to bring innovations to local communities.
Creating housing, transportation, and broadband opportunities within rural counties to increase job creation and capital investment, increasing several existing funding sources for this purpose.
Providing programs in education to aid school districts in construction projects and creating a student loan repayment program for educators, while also increasing funding for regional education consortia grants to help school districts in a variety of areas.
Training rural paramedics and EMTs, expanding a hospital grant program to provide mobile units and telemedicine kiosks, assisting with funding construction for start-up physician and APRN offices and practices in these areas.
In total, Albritton and Simon propose $197.4 million in specific funding for the programs laid out in the bill. This is in addition to more than $100 million in general revenue redirected to these efforts and funding of nearly $19 million for the State Housing Initiatives Partnership Program.
“We’re not pushing an agenda to turn Liberty County into Seminole County,” Simon said in an interview with Florida’s Voice Radio with Drew Steele. “We’re trying to make sure that Liberty County has access to the information, administrative assistance, and resource dollars to grow Liberty County the way they think it should be over the next several years.”
