{"id":118770,"date":"2026-01-15T03:59:12","date_gmt":"2026-01-15T03:59:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/118770\/"},"modified":"2026-01-15T03:59:12","modified_gmt":"2026-01-15T03:59:12","slug":"florida-senate-approves-rural-renaissance-bill-fate-unclear-in-state-house-sun-sentinel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/118770\/","title":{"rendered":"Florida Senate approves \u2018rural renaissance\u2019 bill; fate unclear in state House \u2013 Sun Sentinel"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>TALLAHASSEE \u2014 The Florida Senate on Wednesday unanimously approved a \u201crural renaissance\u201d plan that is a priority of Senate President Ben Albritton, a Hardee County citrus grower, but its fate remains unclear in the House.<\/p>\n<p>The bill (SB 250), sponsored by Sen. Corey Simon, R-Tallahassee, and passed by the Senate on the second day of the annual <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sun-sentinel.com\/2026\/01\/07\/from-ai-to-property-taxes-here-are-10-florida-legislative-issues-to-watch\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">legislative session<\/a>, is aimed at boosting such things as health care, education, transportation and economic development in rural areas.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere are things that are needed in these communities, roads that are torn down, water systems that are failing, and so they do have that need, but it\u2019s almost pulling and tugging at them to make that request,\u201d Simon, who represents a sprawling, mostly rural North Florida district, said.<\/p>\n<p>As an example, the bill seeks to help attract and retain educators in rural areas by establishing a student-loan repayment program that would provide up to $15,000 to teachers and administrators who live in the areas.<\/p>\n<p>Other examples include increasing money to help rural counties resurface and rebuild roads and creating an Office of Rural Prosperity at the Florida Department of Commerce.<\/p>\n<p>The Senate approved a rural-renaissance plan during the 2025 legislative session. But the package got broken up in the House and did not pass.<\/p>\n<p>Asked about this year\u2019s proposal Tuesday, House Speaker Daniel Perez, R-Miami, said a similar measure (HB 723) has been filed by Rep. Shane Abbott, R-DeFuniak Springs. But Perez said it will be up to the members of the House to decide if the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sun-sentinel.com\/2026\/01\/13\/florida-lawmakers-start-new-journey\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">issue is taken up<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAs of right now, that\u2019s a process that will take place over the next 60 days,\u201d Perez told reporters.<\/p>\n<p>Examples of funding in the plan include $50.3 million for rural \u201cfiscally constrained\u201d counties, $50 million to improve \u201cfarm-to-market\u201d roads, $48.8 million to further help small county roads, and $18.8 million that would go to the State Housing Initiatives Partnership, or SHIP, program.<\/p>\n<p>Simon said programs would be offered \u201ca la carte\u201d so local governments could select what best meets their needs.<\/p>\n<p>Senate Minority Leader Lori Berman, D-Boca Raton, backed the bill and said \u201crural prosperity is not a partisan issue.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis bill is about making sure that Florida\u2019s rural communities are no longer an afterthought but a priority,\u201d Berman said.<\/p>\n<p>Before the vote, Simon removed nearly $50 million in health care measures from the package.<\/p>\n<p>The Senate said Florida is set to receive $209.9 million a year for five years for rural health care as part of the federal One Big Beautiful Bill Act approved last summer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TALLAHASSEE \u2014 The Florida Senate on Wednesday unanimously approved a \u201crural renaissance\u201d plan that is a priority of&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":118771,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[28,29,114,115,109,232,234,233],"class_list":["post-118770","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tallahassee","tag-florida","tag-florida-news","tag-latest-headlines","tag-news","tag-social","tag-tallahassee","tag-tallahassee-headlines","tag-tallahassee-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118770","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=118770"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118770\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/118771"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=118770"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=118770"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=118770"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}