Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) celebrates finishing I-4 congestion relief lanes eight months early in Kissimmee, Florida.
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00:00Turned out to be. We're excited. Chamber of Commerce. Now, we're here joined by Jared Perdue,
00:06who's our FDOT secretary. We also have a local business owner, Jason James, going to talk.
00:12Now, when we come to this neck of the woods, a lot of times infrastructure is on the agenda.
00:19Anyone that's tried to drive around Champions Gate knows why infrastructure would be on the
00:24agenda. And so we've done a lot, particularly over the last few years, to take a lot of money
00:32from our budget surplus. We still have a massive surplus and accelerate a lot of these infrastructure
00:38projects that really are necessary to be able to make sure people can get around the state,
00:44but particularly in this part of the state. And that's partially about congestion, partially about
00:50we don't want families to be in wanting to get back people to get back to their families and not
00:55be sitting in traffic. But it's also a matter of commerce and being able to move goods efficiently
00:59and effectively. So there's a lot to recommend. And so moving Florida forward was accelerating
01:06projects by between 10 and 15 years. A lot of these things weren't even scheduled to start
01:12until next decade. And we said, you know, with the way Florida's grown, that ain't going to cut it.
01:18And I always tell people, I'm not begging people to move to Florida because we've got a lot of folks.
01:24There's a lot of challenges that come with it. There can be benefits, but people are free to go
01:29and move where they want to go. And they've obviously gravitated here for many, many years
01:35in really, really big numbers. And I mean, why not? I mean, we do have the number one rated economy
01:40in all of the United States for two years in a row by CNBC.
01:45And by U.S. News and World Report last year, AAA credit rating from every credit rating agency,
01:55number one in new business formations, fastest growing state in 2024, and we're number two
02:02in real GDP growth since 2019. Idaho is the only state that's more than that. But I think we're about
02:1010 or 15 times the size of Idaho. I was actually there recently. It's a great state. We're doing
02:16the balanced budget amendment and hopefully the Idaho legislature will do what Florida's done and
02:22certify that. And so it was great. And they got, they're doing a lot of good things. But when you're
02:27at 23 and a half million people, having the second highest growth rate in the country, economic growth
02:34rate, that's a big deal. That's a big sign of success. And we've also had lower unemployment
02:40than the nation as a whole for 52 weeks or 52 months in a row. We're proud of that as well.
02:46Now, I think most people who are in Central Florida know, we've got a lot of public roads,
02:5512,000 miles of state highway system. And that alone are public roads, 332.4 million daily vehicle
03:03miles traveled each and every day in the state of Florida. We have a big, it's efficient, but it's a
03:10big Department of Transportation budget. And you have to manage very many billions of dollars. I mean,
03:16we're $15, $16 billion for that. And it's important. And right now there's 700 active
03:23construction projects across the state. Anywhere you look, there's something happening in the state
03:29of Florida. Now, those aren't all road projects. There's a lot of commercial projects. I mean,
03:34I was just down in, um, in the Sarasota area, Longboat Key. I attended a charity event and that
03:41got hit by two hurricanes last year. And you really wouldn't know it. I mean, these people are out
03:46there, massive tourism, massive cranes, a lot of stuff happening. And that's really been true all
03:52across the country or all across the state of Florida. Our infrastructure is typically rated in the
03:59top five in terms of quality of roadways. If you look at like New York, they have really bad roads. You
04:05know, they charge you exorbitant amount of tolls. And yet the road you get sick just being on them
04:11because they're so bouncy. In fact, they want to do congestion pricing in New York City. I know
04:16there's a big battle over that. But I mean, like people pay a huge amount of money every day just to
04:21go into work. And yet, where does that money go? It doesn't go go very far. Here in Florida, we take
04:28pride in the quality of the roads. Now, we're always looking to do better. And there's things we're looking
04:33to improve on. We also were able to do two years in a row, which is big, I think, in Central Florida.
04:39We did the toll relief, 50% reduction in tolls for our commuters on a monthly basis. You know,
04:44that saved people over two years hundreds of dollars in a difficult priced economy with all
04:51the inflation that we've seen over the years. And so I was proud to lead that effort to help deliver the
04:56toll relief for folks. Now, the moving Florida forward has been really, really well received.
05:03We initially started with $4 billion out of the surplus. We've now delivered a total of $7 billion.
05:10So this is everything we were already doing, having a strong transportation budget, all that. We continue
05:16to do that. This is on top of that. So there are projects in the queue that are now being brought to
05:22fruition that likely wouldn't have broke ground until the middle of next decade. We have at least
05:2720 major interstate and roadway projects that have been expedited through moving Florida forward.
05:34Addition of regular and express lanes on I-275 in Pinellas County, reduction in traffic delays up to
05:4182-85% and helps with hurricane evacuation routes. A redesign of Golden Glades interchange on I-95 in
05:50Miami to enhance connectivity between major road corridors in the region. Very difficult area in
05:57the state of Florida for traffic. And this is going to be helpful. Very difficult because it's all built
06:03out. Reconstruction of the Fruitville interchange on I-75 in Sarasota County to a diverging diamond design.
06:12We've showed that previously. You know, these guys study all this stuff and they can tell you what's
06:17faster or what's not. So this diverging diamond is going to increase volume capacity by 40,000 vehicles
06:23and it will reduce the number of conflict points between merging vehicles. They also have done
06:29studies. You know, every hurricane season, if we do have a storm and people evacuate, we'll always get
06:34asked, are you going to do contraflow and shut down one way and make it all one way? And we always say
06:41no because this has been studied and it just doesn't work. Partially because you still need to get people
06:47coming into the hurricane zone for first responders, for supplies, emergency. There's a whole bunch of
06:53stuff that needs to happen, but they've looked at it and it doesn't work. So the things that they're doing
06:58in terms of these designs, these are things that have been vetted. Widening US-98 in Bay County near
07:05Panama City Beach and you guys go up to the Panhandle, you know, I mean, it's amazing how that's boomed,
07:11particularly in the last five or six years. But the traffic can be really, really bad. So that's
07:16going to be helpful. We're also going to do the realignment of US 301 from County Road 470
07:23to Florida's Turnpike near the villages in Sumter County. That's going to increase mobility and reduce
07:29delays by up to 94% during peak hours. And last month I was in Ocala when I announced the addition
07:37of new auxiliary lanes to I-75, over 31 miles from State Road 44 in Wildwood to State Road 326 in Ocala.
07:46And that is going to be done 10 to 15 years ahead of schedule. And any of you who've gone up 75 north
07:52from here, you know how bad that can be. So this is a very important project that we're able to do.
07:59So our total investment in infrastructure over the next five years is going to is going to approach
08:0570 billion dollars in projects. And most of the focus is reducing congestion and improving
08:12the safety of Floridians, which brings us to today's announcement. Last June, we made a promise
08:18to deliver congestion relief lanes through one of the busiest sections of I-4 by the end of this year.
08:25Not only are we delivering on our promise, but we are going to beat our own deadline. I can announce
08:31that the completion of the two new here's the congestion relief lanes. So you look at some of
08:40those areas, World Drive all the way into Polk County, Champions Gate, Celebration Area, this needs it.
08:47I mean, this is a really big deal.
08:52So we are pleased to announce that these lanes will run in both directions between US 27 and Polk County
09:03and World Drive and Osceola County. They will be open beginning of the week of April 28th, which is
09:10eight months ahead of the schedule that we had laid out.
09:18This will be a really sigh of relief, I think, for a lot of people. It doesn't solve everything
09:25because we've got a lot of Champions Gate projects and some of these others. Point Sienna Parkway,
09:29that's all moving and it's going to be delivered way earlier than had we not done moving Florida
09:34forward. But in the meantime, this is something that's really, really meaningful. So we're proud
09:39to deliver this eight months ahead of schedule. The economic impact of all of moving Florida
09:45forward just in the I-4 region, we estimate to be over $13 billion because better mobility,
09:52easier to commute, all these things, really, really significant. And we're also excited to be able to
09:58get the project off the ground quickly and improve the connectivity in the region, as well as connectivity
10:03between the entire state. Now we're advancing several other major segments along I-4, as I mentioned,
10:09Point Sienna Connector, a critically needed new roadway that will connect I-4 and State Road 429
10:15to the future CFX facility just south of CR 532. This work in this area will be underway,
10:23all the while commuters will have additional congestion relief now once the final project is complete.
10:29So this is enhancing connectivity. I think doing it in a really, really meaningful way. So I want to
10:34thank everybody that's been involved in this. You know, we cannot, we don't, we can just sit here and
10:40say, oh, we're going to get to it. It'll happen. It's in the hopper. And all this stuff is eventually in
10:45the hopper. But what good does it do to break ground 10 years from now? We need to be breaking ground and
10:51bringing these projects to fruition now. And that's exactly what this initiative is doing today, eight
10:58months ahead of schedule, I think is a welcome announcement. But this is just one of many things
11:03that are going to be done to improve connectivity and mobility in and around the dreaded I-4 corridor.
11:11Thanks, everybody. Jared, come on.
11:18Thank you, Governor. It's great to be here this morning for this big milestone on the I-4 project.
11:24And I'll tell you, under Governor DeSantis' tenure, there's never been a stronger leader for transportation
11:30infrastructure. We have continued to have record funding for transportation. Right now, we're at a 15
11:37billion dollar annual budget. And then just two years ago, the governor had this bold idea. Let's
11:42take general revenue surplus and advance major congestion relief projects that won't see funding
11:48for another 15 to 20 years. That's exactly what we did. He brought four billion dollars of general
11:53revenue surplus to the table, and we advanced major congestion relief projects all across this state.
11:59I-4 is a great example of that. You heard him talk about I-75 in Central Florida and so many others
12:06already having a huge impact. We rolled this initiative out two years ago, and we're already
12:1170 percent underway just two years into the initiative. And it truly is remarkable and a testament to
12:18Governor DeSantis' leadership.
12:24So with the I-4 forward initiative here, we actually were able to fund a three and a half billion dollar
12:31project to completely reconstruct I-4. Don't know when this project would have been funded had it not
12:37been for the moving Florida forward initiative. It would have been another 15 to 20 years. This is going
12:42to be a game changer for the region. I'm sure many of you drove I-4 getting to this event this morning.
12:49It is a parking lot all day. It cannot come fast enough. And as you know, with the governor,
12:56he's a very strong leader. He has high expectations. The one thing we have to do is cut through red tape,
13:02cut through bureaucracy, and find ways to go faster, which is exactly what we're announcing today with
13:08these congestion relief lanes. So we're going to completely reconstruct I-4, but we're going to
13:13provide you with additional capacity in a few weeks. They're going to open up and we will maintain
13:19those new lanes throughout the entire duration of construction. It's eight months ahead of schedule.
13:24Truly remarkable.
13:27Also, if you look around the state with moving Florida forward, we have many other congestion
13:32relief projects that are going to have a huge impact with the Golden Glades Interchange in South
13:36Florida, Southwest 10th Street in South Florida, several I-75 projects in the Tampa region, and all
13:43over the state. You are going to see transportation projects being delivered everywhere you go in the
13:49state of Florida. And it can't come soon enough with the economic growth and the population growth
13:55that we're seeing all over the state. I'm really proud of the team here with FDOT that's working on
14:00this project and our industry partners for finding innovative ways to cut through that bureaucracy and
14:06go even faster. I think it's a testament to the commitment and the loyalty this industry has to
14:11deliver in transportation projects all across this great state. Again, Governor, thank you for your
14:18leadership and this Moving Florida Forward initiative. It truly is going to make a big difference.
14:22Thank you, Governor. My name is Jason James. I'm a local Floridian born and raised here and own a
14:38business here. And I can give you firsthand experience and testimony that logistics and infrastructure has
14:45a direct impact on our business every day. I started Mechanical One in the post-pandemic in 2021 with just a
14:58couple employees. Three and a half years later, we have over a thousand employees and over 700 vehicles
15:03that use the interstate system every single day. The interstate system is a crucial, crucial economic
15:10machine and quality of life for all of our residents and visitors and businesses. I wanted to thank
15:15the governor for having the vision to push things forward and cutting red tape. Having these timelines
15:20moved up have direct real world impact on local businesses and the community. With that, I thank
15:26everyone for today. Thank you.
15:35Well, we're excited about this. The best is yet to come. We're going to continue working really hard to
15:41increase mobility, reduce congestion, make sure Florida continue to lead the way. It's important
15:47for quality of life. It's also important for our continued economic vitality. And I think it's going to
15:53be even more challenge. We've got a new theme park that's going to be opening in May, Epic Universe, which is
15:59going to be a huge deal for this region and for the state of Florida. And it's been interesting. I mean,
16:04I remember when they announced it and you kind of think about, oh man, there's going to be some economic
16:09impact. Then you actually see it come to fruition, a pretty incredible project. And I think there's
16:14going to be a lot of people that are going to be beaten down the doors to want to go to Epic Universe
16:18over at Universal, which is really, really good. Now, I just want to say one thing. So, you know, when
16:25you're in this business, you know, you get used to, you know, a lot of baseless attacks that just goes with
16:32the territory. But I do think it's really sad to see manufactured smears against the First Lady
16:40and the program that's Hope Florida. Hope Florida is actually an example of government succeeding in
16:47lifting people up. And how many examples do we have of that happening? Almost never. But the
16:54inside of Hope Florida didn't ask for any money for it for the legislature, didn't need any new policy.
17:01But just through the First Lady's initiative, that we are going to reimagine the way we provide
17:06services to those in need. And so instead of the job of somebody working in these agencies to just
17:12try to get people on as many government programs as possible and keep them on indefinitely, we're
17:18transforming the role to be a Hope Navigator, where the job of government is to link those people in
17:25need to all the wonderful resources that we have throughout our Florida communities. So we've
17:31enlisted the faith-based community, we've enlisted charitable organizations, we've enlisted businesses,
17:36and we've enlisted individual volunteers who answer the call when somebody comes in need,
17:42the needs go into a care portal, and all of a sudden you have a single mom that doesn't have a place to
17:48stay. It's not the bureaucracy that's going to lift her up, it's the church that comes over or the
17:53charity that comes over to do that. And what are the results since this has been implemented? We've
18:00gotten 30,000 people off welfare and saved the state of Florida $100 million.
18:09And so that's a great success story. Now that's a success story that threatens some people.
18:16That's a success story that's going to invite attacks because people have their own political
18:21agenda. And I got to tell you, I'm used to the baseless smears from liberal media. I'm used to the
18:28baseless smears from Democrats. I've been dealing with it for over six years. It's par for the course.
18:34But I think now we have Republican leadership in the Florida House joining with liberal media
18:41and joining with Democrats to launch baseless smears against Hope Florida and, by extension,
18:49myself and the First Lady. Let me tell you something. None of these Republican leaders got elected
18:56on the platform that they were going to launch baseless attacks against the governor and First
19:01Lady. That is not why they got elected. Had they run on that, they would have lost their primaries.
19:06They would never have been elected in the first place. No, they were elected to continue our success
19:13in Florida to build off the great achievements of the last six years. They were elected to cut
19:18property taxes, which they refused to do. They were elected to help alleviate and end the condo crisis,
19:25which the Florida House has refused to do. They were elected to continue our Florida First agenda.
19:33And what are they doing with their actions? Not only are they trying to sabotage that agenda,
19:38but they are stabbing the voters in the back with their behavior. Shame on you
19:44in the Florida House and your terrible behavior and leadership. Questions? Yes.
19:53You voice support for dismantling FEMA. What's the message to people who might worry they might not
19:57get help as quickly as that might happen? So the question is, is about President Trump's plan
20:04to dismantle the FEMA bureaucracy and empower the states. Excuse me. So I think the media is not honest
20:11about this because he is going to block grant the money to the states. And so we're not going to be
20:17left in the cold. But I can tell you that the FEMA bureaucracy is an impediment to disaster recovery.
20:24It is not doing a good job. Florida, we don't rely for preparation and immediate response. We
20:31don't rely on FEMA. We do it. We lead. We got local partners. We got the best emergency management team
20:38from the local state level anywhere in the country, bar none, not even close. FEMA.
20:47How else? How the hell? Who the hell else could rebuild the bridge in six days? Three days? Three
20:52days was the barrier. So I mean, of course, we've got that. But and so that's just how we roll. Now,
21:00there are programs on the back end of a storm, individual assistance, block grants, things like that,
21:06that really paralyzes the recovery because of the bureaucracy. So we'd be better off block getting
21:13the block grant and then letting the states administer based on the needs that we have.
21:18But too much of this gets gets hung up in bureaucracy. Our mantra in Florida has been don't
21:24let the bureaucracy grind you down. Make sure that you're responding very quickly. There are times when we
21:31spend money to prepare where we don't end up needing some of the preparation. FEMA, you know,
21:37though you can't get reimbursed. I mean, for example, Hurricane Helene. We had a lot of fuel trucks
21:43ready to go in case we had fuel knocked out. It didn't really happen. Right. And so we used some,
21:49but then the rest, you know, we stored or did what we needed to. But then Milton came and we had the
21:55fuel contracts. Well, guess what? It knocked out for a time the port of Tampa and the port in Bradenton.
22:01And so that interrupted the fuel coming in. So we set up gas stations around the Tampa Bay area with
22:07our trucks. People could go for free to get them through that three or four day period as the supply
22:13ramped back up. So we do these things. We're nimble. We're quick. We adjust. So empower the states,
22:19give us the resources. And we don't need necessarily the federal government to be involved
22:25at all. Now, look, will we have maybe Coast Guard supplement some of our rescue? Yeah,
22:30we probably will call on that. But by and large, this is a local and state driven process. We have
22:36the Florida State Guard, the Florida National Guard, Florida Highway Patrol, our sheriff's departments,
22:41our police departments, Fish and Wildlife, Florida Department of Law Enforcement. All these people,
22:46you know, do a great job. Even the the the the search urban search and rescue teams,
22:51you know, those are ostensibly under the banner of DHS. But they're basically local fire departments
22:56that then get federalized. So those are our people anyways, especially the teams one and two.
23:01And we've got folks in central Florida to do it. So block granting that money to the state of Florida,
23:07we will be able to respond more appropriately. Now, some have said, well, what if they don't block grant
23:13any money? What if they just get out of disaster management and just say the states must fend for
23:18themselves? Well, listen, if that happens, we've got a big surplus. We would have to make adjustments
23:24to how we approach things. But but I can do that. You know, just let me know what's in the best
23:29interest of the United States. And if it is, the Florida will respond very, very appropriately.
23:35But that would obviously require us to change a little bit about what we're doing. But I don't
23:39anticipate that being the case. I think what you're going to see is you're going to see a block
23:43grant of money, maybe not this hurricane season, but maybe in time for next, bypassing the
23:48bureaucracy and the red tape and then let us go ahead and get the job done for our people.
23:54Yes.
23:58So the question is, is there any updates regarding the grand jury investigation into
24:11state attorney Monique Worrell? And my answer is, is I'm not privy to what goes on in grand
24:16jury investigation. So I'm not the right guy to ask. Those are secret investigations. That was not an
24:22investigation that that I that I am leading. I can call for the Florida Supreme Court to certify
24:28statewide grand juries. But that's the extent of my authority that I've exercised now with respect to
24:34Monique Worrell. As you recall, I suspended her from office because she was not enforcing the laws
24:41as they are written on the book. She had her own agenda. And that was putting the people at Central
24:46Florida at risk. I think what happened was she was able to delay this and never went in front of the
24:52Florida Senate where I think they would have found her guilty and removed her permanently. And so she was
24:58able to kind of manipulate that. Obviously, it's a very Democrat area. So when you run as a dem here, you have
25:04an advantage. But I will say this. You have a responsibility to faithfully execute the laws of
25:11the state of Florida. You do not have the ability to pick and choose which laws you're going to enforce.
25:17You don't have the ability or the authority to let the inmates run the asylum. So I know the attorney general
25:24is keeping a close eye on what she's doing. That could end up on my desk if there's
25:31proof that somebody is neglecting their duties or satisfying one of the other provisions of the
25:36Florida Constitution. Then obviously, I could act again. But that's separate from any type of grand
25:41jury. And those grand juries are outside my purview. So one, I have no comment on it. But two, even if I
25:49knew anything, it wouldn't be appropriate. But two, I don't know anything because it's not something that I
25:54have control over. All right. Thanks, everybody. God bless you.