{"id":55000,"date":"2025-11-21T01:56:10","date_gmt":"2025-11-21T01:56:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/55000\/"},"modified":"2025-11-21T01:56:10","modified_gmt":"2025-11-21T01:56:10","slug":"corey-simon-files-rural-renaissance-bill-to-invest-in-floridas-country","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/55000\/","title":{"rendered":"Corey Simon files Rural Renaissance bill to invest in Florida’s country"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sen. Corey Simon<\/a> has filed the 2026 Rural Renaissance package that carries the support of Senate President Ben Albritton<\/a> and seeks to add more resources to lift up rural areas by expanding health care, improving roads and more.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs we prepare to embark on a nationwide celebration of America\u2019s 250th Anniversary<\/a>, there is no better time to celebrate and renew our focus on heritage farming communities across our state and nation,\u201d Albritton said in a statement.<\/p>\n

SB 250<\/a> would update the definitions of \u201cfiscally constrained counties\u201d to provide more support, create an Office of Rural Prosperity to offer help, and allocate block grants to grow populations, among other provisions that are part of the nearly $218 million Rural Renaissance package.<\/p>\n

Simon, a Tallahassee Republican, said the bill is needed to help rural communities facing struggles and disappearing.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cQuality of life in rural areas can be impacted by access to job opportunities, education and health care. Rural Renaissance combines enhancements to the traditional infrastructure for schools and hospitals with innovations that drastically expand opportunities for education, commerce, and health care in rural Florida,\u201d Simon said.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The bill redirects $50 million from the general fund to build farm-to-market roads between rural agricultural areas and market distribution centers.<\/p>\n

It also would create the Office of Rural Prosperity at the Department of Commerce<\/a> to help local governments plan, win state and federal grants and be a resource for local officials.<\/p>\n

\u201cPersonnel will be permanently assigned to regional rural community liaison centers across the state to engage with locals and facilitate access to resources,\u201d Simon\u2019s Office said in a press release. \u201cThey will aid local governments in accessing state and federal resources and conduct routine trainings on the requirements of the Community Planning Act and other relevant state and federal legislation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Several rural areas, like Gadsden, Hardee, Hamilton, Taylor, Jackson, Calhoun, and Liberty counties, are shrinking in population and businesses are closing.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe bill creates a $1 million block grant for each of the seven counties with declining populations. Each county must develop a plan to use the funds with the goal of population growth,\u201d Simon\u2019s Office said. \u201cUse of these funds will be audited. The grant will be awarded annually until the county sees three consecutive years of population growth.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Among other measures, the bill would increase the Rural Revolving Loan Program<\/a> that the Legislature started in 1996 to help spur rural communities\u2019 economic development.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cCurrently, the program receives $420,000 annually,\u201d Simon\u2019s Office said. \u201cThe bill increases recurring funding to a total of $1.4 million, with an additional one-time infusion of $4 million. Because these are loans, these funds will be leveraged by rural communities many times.\u201d<\/p>\n

The sweeping bill also would create a new grant program to encourage medical providers to relocate to rural areas to expand access to health care. The grants would cover the startup costs of starting a practice, like facility construction, a lease, medical equipment and furnishings.<\/p>\n

The push comes after a combative Session earlier this year saw the 2025 Rural Renaissance package largely blow up<\/a> amid fractured negotiations between chambers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sen. Corey Simon has filed the 2026 Rural Renaissance package that carries the support of Senate President Ben…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":55001,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[29964,4218,34275,34276,34277,34278,232,234,233],"class_list":["post-55000","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tallahassee","tag-2026-legislative-session","tag-ben-albritton","tag-corey-simon","tag-rural-renaissance","tag-sb-250","tag-senate-bill-250","tag-tallahassee","tag-tallahassee-headlines","tag-tallahassee-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55000","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=55000"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55000\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/55001"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=55000"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=55000"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=55000"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}