{"id":20931,"date":"2025-03-20T16:35:50","date_gmt":"2025-03-20T20:35:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wfsu.org\/local-routes\/?post_type=wfsu-news&#038;p=20931"},"modified":"2025-03-20T16:41:42","modified_gmt":"2025-03-20T20:41:42","slug":"floridas-rural-renaissance-bill-passes-out-of-senate-heads-to-house-floor","status":"publish","type":"wfsu-news","link":"https:\/\/wfsu.org\/local-routes\/wfsu-news\/floridas-rural-renaissance-bill-passes-out-of-senate-heads-to-house-floor\/","title":{"rendered":"Florida\u2019s &#8216;Rural Renaissance&#8217; bill passes out of Senate, heads to House floor"},"content":{"rendered":"<!--[if lt IE 9]><script>document.createElement('audio');<\/script><![endif]-->\n<audio class=\"wp-audio-shortcode\" id=\"audio-20931-1\" preload=\"none\" style=\"width: 100%;\" controls=\"controls\"><source type=\"audio\/mpeg\" src=\"https:\/\/cpa.ds.npr.org\/s390\/audio\/2025\/03\/ruralfl0320ss.mp3?_=1\" \/><a href=\"https:\/\/cpa.ds.npr.org\/s390\/audio\/2025\/03\/ruralfl0320ss.mp3\">https:\/\/cpa.ds.npr.org\/s390\/audio\/2025\/03\/ruralfl0320ss.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n<ul>\n<li>A bill to support rural communities through economic development has approval from the full Senate. <\/li>\n<li>The measure, a priority of Senate President Ben Albritton, is on its way to the House.<\/li>\n<li>Listen to what the bill offers smaller, rural areas in Florida. <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>BROADCAST TRANSCRIPT: <\/b><\/p>\n<p>Senate President Ben Albritton says the measure will bring what he calls a \u201cRural Renaissance to Florida.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAs I\u2019ve traveled the state, what I\u2019ve seen is just an eminence amount of opportunity in rural Florida,&#8221; Albritton, a Wauchula Republican, said on Wednesday.<\/p>\n<p>Senators passed the measure unanimously. The bill would mandate new state funding for rural communities.<\/p>\n<p>Some examples include establishing programs for educational and healthcare support within rural communities, fixing roads used for transporting farm goods, and adding a recruitment program that offers different initiatives to recruit doctors and educators to rural counties.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/npr.brightspotcdn.com\/61\/f3\/3fbd345f432e956e75424ebbc477\/screenshot-2025-03-20-162435.png\" width=\"837\" height=\"507\" alt=\"The bill\u2019s sponsor, Tallahassee Republican Senator Corey Simon, spoke about the measure after the Senate session, Wed., March 19, 2025. Sen. Simon is carrying SB 110, which is a high priority for Senate President Ben Albritton, a sixth-generation Floridian and fourth-generation citrus grower. (The Florida Channel)\"><\/p>\n<p>The bill\u2019s sponsor, Tallahassee Republican Senator Corey Simon, spoke about the measure after the Senate session.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe impact that this will have is far reaching from everything from health care, from education, to transportation,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Especially dealing with in this part of the state, what we\u2019ve dealt over the last year and a half, with the number of storms that have come through and really decimated these communities.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Simon said some rural communities have fallen behind in recent years, specifically in economic and population growth.<\/p>\n<p>The lawmaker believes the bill addresses that by creating the Office of Rural Prosperity at the State Department of Commerce. This will ensure small county outreach.<\/p>\n<p><div class=\"Enh\" data-align-center>\n<\/div>\n<\/p>\n<p>The measure also increases grant funding by $50 million for \u201cfiscally constrained counties,\u201d and provides $1 million block grants to counties with declining populations.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think there are things that we need in these communities in order to be successful going forward,&#8221; Simon said. &#8220;I was always taught, if you\u2019re not growing, you\u2019re dying.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Republican lawmaker estimates his plan will cost about $200 million. <\/p>\n<div class=\"fullattribution\">Copyright 2025 WFSU<\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":20932,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","wds_primary_category":0},"categories":[],"tags":[1136,1135],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Florida\u2019s &#039;Rural Renaissance&#039; bill passes out of Senate, heads to House floor - WFSU Local Routes<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/wfsu.org\/local-routes\/wfsu-news\/floridas-rural-renaissance-bill-passes-out-of-senate-heads-to-house-floor\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Florida\u2019s &#039;Rural Renaissance&#039; bill passes out of Senate, heads to House floor - WFSU Local Routes\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Florida Senate passed the measure unanimously.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/wfsu.org\/local-routes\/wfsu-news\/floridas-rural-renaissance-bill-passes-out-of-senate-heads-to-house-floor\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"WFSU Local Routes\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-03-20T20:41:42+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wfsu.org\/local-routes\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/52777410121-8481589a77-c.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"799\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"533\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/wfsu.org\/local-routes\/wfsu-news\/floridas-rural-renaissance-bill-passes-out-of-senate-heads-to-house-floor\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/wfsu.org\/local-routes\/wfsu-news\/floridas-rural-renaissance-bill-passes-out-of-senate-heads-to-house-floor\/\",\"name\":\"Florida\u2019s 'Rural Renaissance' bill passes out of Senate, heads to House floor - WFSU Local Routes\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/wfsu.org\/local-routes\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2025-03-20T20:35:50+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-03-20T20:41:42+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/wfsu.org\/local-routes\/wfsu-news\/floridas-rural-renaissance-bill-passes-out-of-senate-heads-to-house-floor\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/wfsu.org\/local-routes\/wfsu-news\/floridas-rural-renaissance-bill-passes-out-of-senate-heads-to-house-floor\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/wfsu.org\/local-routes\/wfsu-news\/floridas-rural-renaissance-bill-passes-out-of-senate-heads-to-house-floor\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/wfsu.org\/local-routes\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Florida\u2019s &#8216;Rural Renaissance&#8217; bill passes out of Senate, heads to House floor\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/wfsu.org\/local-routes\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/wfsu.org\/local-routes\/\",\"name\":\"WFSU Local Routes\",\"description\":\"Local stories from northern Florida and southern Georgia.\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/wfsu.org\/local-routes\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Florida\u2019s 'Rural Renaissance' bill passes out of Senate, heads to House floor - WFSU Local Routes","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/wfsu.org\/local-routes\/wfsu-news\/floridas-rural-renaissance-bill-passes-out-of-senate-heads-to-house-floor\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Florida\u2019s 'Rural Renaissance' bill passes out of Senate, heads to House floor - WFSU Local Routes","og_description":"The Florida Senate passed the measure unanimously.","og_url":"https:\/\/wfsu.org\/local-routes\/wfsu-news\/floridas-rural-renaissance-bill-passes-out-of-senate-heads-to-house-floor\/","og_site_name":"WFSU Local Routes","article_modified_time":"2025-03-20T20:41:42+00:00","og_image":[{"width":799,"height":533,"url":"https:\/\/wfsu.org\/local-routes\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/52777410121-8481589a77-c.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/wfsu.org\/local-routes\/wfsu-news\/floridas-rural-renaissance-bill-passes-out-of-senate-heads-to-house-floor\/","url":"https:\/\/wfsu.org\/local-routes\/wfsu-news\/floridas-rural-renaissance-bill-passes-out-of-senate-heads-to-house-floor\/","name":"Florida\u2019s 'Rural Renaissance' bill passes out of Senate, heads to House floor - WFSU Local Routes","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/wfsu.org\/local-routes\/#website"},"datePublished":"2025-03-20T20:35:50+00:00","dateModified":"2025-03-20T20:41:42+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/wfsu.org\/local-routes\/wfsu-news\/floridas-rural-renaissance-bill-passes-out-of-senate-heads-to-house-floor\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/wfsu.org\/local-routes\/wfsu-news\/floridas-rural-renaissance-bill-passes-out-of-senate-heads-to-house-floor\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/wfsu.org\/local-routes\/wfsu-news\/floridas-rural-renaissance-bill-passes-out-of-senate-heads-to-house-floor\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/wfsu.org\/local-routes\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Florida\u2019s &#8216;Rural Renaissance&#8217; bill passes out of Senate, heads to House floor"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/wfsu.org\/local-routes\/#website","url":"https:\/\/wfsu.org\/local-routes\/","name":"WFSU Local Routes","description":"Local stories from northern Florida and southern Georgia.","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/wfsu.org\/local-routes\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wfsu.org\/local-routes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/wfsu-news\/20931"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wfsu.org\/local-routes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/wfsu-news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wfsu.org\/local-routes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/wfsu-news"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wfsu.org\/local-routes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20932"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wfsu.org\/local-routes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20931"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wfsu.org\/local-routes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20931"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wfsu.org\/local-routes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20931"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}