Rural scene near Archer in Alachua County. (Courtesy Saint Peter-Saint Paul Community Council)
Rural communities are a step closer to a “buffet” of grants, loans, and administrative support for roads, schools, and businesses.
SB 110, dubbed by Senate President Ben Albritton as the Rural Renaissance, received unanimous support on the Senate floor Wednesday. It now heads to the House.
The measure would create the Office of Rural Prosperity within the Department of Commerce and provide grants focused on infrastructure, housing, and incentives to teachers, doctors, and nurses to practice in rural areas.
The package has a $200.8 million price tag.
Albritton, of Wauchula, said the bill is not a mandate for rural areas but instead a “buffet” of opportunities for communities to “be able to grow the way they want to.”
Albritton said the bill is meant to be a “hand up, not a handout,” calling it “quintessential” in what government is meant to do.
Sen. Corey Simon, who represents several rural counties in North Florida, sponsored the legislation.
“I can tell you, driving around my district in the 12 counties that are impacted by it, this is a real game changer, this is really taking a sledgehammer to a lack of prosperity in some of these communities,” Simon said.
The bill would redirect about $51 million to fiscally constrained counties in general revenue funding.
“These are the communities that do not come and ask for everything,” Sen. Don Gaetz said. “These are the communities who do not expect everything. They don’t think they’re entitled. They still have that ethic that says, ‘We ought to be able to take care of ourselves as much as possible. And while we’re at it, maybe we’ll take care of our neighbors too.’
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Breakdown
The Office of Rural Prosperity would provide planning assistance for local governments and operate liaison centers for locals to connect to state and federal grants and resources.
The bill would provide $1 million annual block grants focused on population growth for each of the eight counties in the state that have lost population in the last 10 years — Gadsden, Hardee, Taylor, Jackson, Calhoun, Liberty, Madison, and Lafayette — until their population increases for three consecutive years.
The bill would boost the State Housing Initiative Partnership minimum distribution to counties to $1 million from $350,000, totaling a nearly $19 million increase, according to Albritton’s office.
The bill redirects a portion of vehicle licensing fees to small county road assistance and aids in funding roads commonly used to carry goods to market, redirecting more than $65 million of general revenue to rural roads.
Teachers would be eligible for a student loan repayment program under the bill, up to $15,000 if they teach for five years.
The bill aims to increase medical services offered in rural areas including mobile units for primary care, behavioral health, obstetric, and gynecological services.
Sen. Kathleen Passidomo called it an “amazing, amazing bill.”
“This is going to create the framework for our rural communities to grow and thrive their way. We’re not telling them what we want them to do. We’re saying, ‘Here are the tools, … here’s what you can do, decide what you want to do,’” Passidomo said, adding that the legislation “is a legacy that will stand forever.”
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