ST. LUCIE COUNTY, Fla. (CBS12) \u2014 High taxes and long commutes have become part of everyday life for thousands of families in St. Lucie County. Many residents spend hours on the road each day, traveling to jobs in Palm Beach, Broward, or Miami-Dade counties, while homeowners shoulder most of the county\u2019s growing tax burden.<\/p>\n
According to county data, more than 75,000 workers commute out of St. Lucie County each day, one of the highest rates in the region. But local leaders say they\u2019re working to change that \u2014 by attracting new employers, expanding industrial space, and building a stronger local economy that keeps residents working closer to home.<\/p>\n
One of the newest success stories is Florida Coast Medical Center, a $200 million hospital in Port St. Lucie that includes a 24-hour emergency department. CEO Tyler Sherrill says the county\u2019s deep labor pool was a key reason to build here. \u201cWhat was a consistent theme is the availability of applicants,\u201d Sherrill said. \u201cWe found that of the 350 jobs we recruited for, we had nearly 4,000 applicants.\u201d<\/p>\n
Another example is OCULUS Surgical; a global manufacturer of high-tech equipment used in eye surgery. The company recently completed a new headquarters and manufacturing center in Tradition, consolidating its operations under one roof. CEO Michael Ansorge says local officials helped make the transition smooth. \u201cEveryone we met from the official side was very welcoming \u2014 they really wanted us to be here,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
These projects are part of a wave of economic activity led by the St. Lucie County Economic Development Council, or EDC, which marked its 25th anniversary this year. Since 2017, the EDC has helped attract or retain more than 21,700 jobs, generating over $1.2 billion in annual income and an estimated $4.3 billion in economic output \u2014 nearly 17% of the county\u2019s total economy.<\/p>\n
See also: West Palm Beach presses FAA, Secret Service as Mar-a-Lago flight paths shake neighborhoods<\/a><\/p>\n Still, the county\u2019s economic story has deep roots. In the 1950s and \u201960s, Fort Pierce was a fishing and tourism hub, while Port St. Lucie was platted as 80,000 small housing lots \u2014 with little land set aside for business or industry. \u201cThat decision shaped our economy for decades,\u201d said Wes McMurray, the EDC\u2019s senior vice president.<\/p>\n That imbalance \u2014 homes without nearby jobs \u2014 is what local officials have spent the last two decades trying to fix. Since the early 2000s, leaders have set aside new commercial land and built what\u2019s now a booming business corridor. Nearly 17 million square feet of industrial and business space has gone up in just the last eight years, housing giants like Amazon, Walmart, and Cheney Brothers.<\/p>\n But as the EDC points out, job growth means little without a ready workforce. To close that gap, the county recently launched the Treasure Coast Center for Economic and Educational Development (TCCEED), led by Anita Fischer. The nonprofit partners with schools and local businesses to train young people for emerging careers. \u201cThis generation right now is excited to get to work,\u201d Fischer said. \u201cBecause there are going to be high-wage, salaried positions that they can actually be part of.\u201d<\/p>\n County leaders say these investments \u2014 from new hospitals to high-tech manufacturers \u2014 represent a turning point. The goal is simple: keep talent here, grow the tax base, and give residents the chance to live, work, and thrive without spending half their day behind the wheel.<\/p>\n Find more ways to stay up to date with your latest local news. Sign up for our newsletter <\/a>to get the day’s top headlines delivered right to your inbox. Subscribe to our YouTube channel <\/a>for the biggest stories and can’t miss video.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ST. LUCIE COUNTY, Fla. (CBS12) \u2014 High taxes and long commutes have become part of everyday life for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":35592,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[171,173,172],"class_list":{"0":"post-44980","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-port-st-lucie","8":"tag-port-st-lucie","9":"tag-port-st-lucie-headlines","10":"tag-port-st-lucie-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44980","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=44980"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44980\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35592"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44980"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44980"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44980"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}