Before Governor Rick Scott signed this fiscal year’s budget, late last Thursday, he had already announced over $1 billion in tax cuts. Meanwhile, some counties are licking their wounds after $256.1 million in cuts from the budget. However, Santa Rosa County was not one of those, slipping past the governor’s veto pen, which resulted in nearly $1.9 million for projects in the area.
The following budget requests to the State of Florida made it into Governor Scott’s FY2017 budget:
- The City of Milton Riverwalk – $198,048
- Santa Rosa County I-10 Industrial park – $1,000,000
- Santa Rosa County Fair – $643,000
City of Milton Councilwoman Ashley Lay said, “I am appreciative to our Delegation and their staff for their hard work. The proposed amount in the budget will help us with the first phase of the Riverwalk South Project.”
According to City Manager Brian Watkins, the $198,048 will go for preliminary work in the project. “Mainly, the money is for…the surveying, geotech studies, and design of the extension of the Riverwalk to the south,” he said.
Long term, Watkins said the project will be more boat friendly. “The current section,” he said, “is more of a boardwalk.” Further down the road, Watkins said, after extending the Riverwalk toward the railroad tracks, the project will go north to “connect to the Quinn
Street marina and eventually to Carpenter’s Park.”
With the $1 million for the I-10 Industrial Park, Economic Development Director Shannon Ogletree said the governor “held true to the veto list,” the list Scott released days before signing the budget of items he vowed to veto. Ogletree said, “The state is willing to put its money where its mouth is.” For details on the purpose of this budget appropriation, see March 9’s SRPG article, “State budget could see $1 mil to county, $200k for Milton.”
As reported in December of last year, Kyle Holley, on the Santa Rosa County Fair board said in a press release, “The Santa Rosa County Fair Association has focused its community impact primarily on the development of a true agriculture complex known as the AGRI-PLEX to enable youth programming and larger events. The Junes Ates Arena…is considered by planners the first phase of the AGRI-PLEX.”
The $643,000 the governor approved was for the second phase. According to Robyn Enfinger, instructor for the Milton High School Agriculture Technology Academy, the next segment would see the development of the 25 acres above the arena for the purpose of hosting more and larger events and concerts.
Holley said he’s excited to “put out a well planned project that can meet the needs for now as well as 50 years (from now).” He said this conversation has lasted more than a decade, but credited the county’s delegates and the county’s lobbyists saying, “They got the governor’s budget analysts to call us and ask questions, which gave us the chance to prove our case.” He said the analysts scrutinized every angle of the project, but Holley and the rest of the team were prepared with researched data. “That’s why no one person can take credit for this.”
Holley said, with the approval of the funds for the AGRI-PLEX’s second phase, more information will arrive with details of this second phase.
Keep up with the Santa Rosa Press Gazette for more on how Governor Scott’s budget will impact Santa Rosa County.
This article originally appeared on Santa Rosa Press Gazette: Santa Rosa County avoids Governor's veto pen