Florida bill could raise highway speed limits
TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) — Highway speeds in Florida could be raised if a new bill passes through the Florida Legislature and makes it to the governor's desk.
The bill, SB 462, is currently moving through the Florida Senate. It passed a transportation committee vote on Wednesday.
The bill would raise speed limits on interstates and Florida's Turnpike from 70 mph to 75 mph.
The proposal calls for increasing the speed limit on four-lane highways in rural areas from 65 mph to 70 mph and allowing the Florida Department of Transportation to set maximum speed limits for all other roadways to 65 mph.
'We should be protecting our pets': Lawmakers advance bill to protect dogs during natural disasters
The transportation bill would also allow FDOT to widen Interstate 4 from U.S. 27 in Polk County to Interstate 75 in Hillsborough County.
The bill asks FDOT to develop a report on widening I-4 and I-75.
The report would need to include detailed cost projections and schedules for project development and environment studies, design, acquisition of rights-of-way, and construction.
The report would be due to the governor, the Florida president of the Senate and the Florida Speaker of the House of Representatives by the end of the year.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Washington Post
27 minutes ago
- Washington Post
Senate GOP plan would sell millions of acres of Western public land
Senate Republicans have proposed selling off up to 3.3 million acres of federally owned land in 11 Western states, according to a draft legislative text offered as part of their spending and tax cut bill, prompting an outcry from conservationists and Democratic lawmakers. According to a budget blueprint released Wednesday evening by the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, the federal government would be required to sell off between 2.2 and 3.3 million acres of land owned by the Bureau of Land Management and the U.S. Forest Service over the next five years. The proposal stipulates that the sold land will have to be used to develop housing or 'community development needs,' which it said could be defined by the secretaries of the Interior or Agriculture departments. The 11 states that would be affected by the proposal are Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming. Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah), who chairs the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, said in a statement Wednesday that the draft legislative text would turn 'federal liabilities into taxpayer value, while making housing more affordable for hardworking American families.' Current law allows BLM to sell off land in some instances, such as in a specific ring around Las Vegas, at a discount if it's developed for affordable housing. But the push to scale up these land sales has spurred pushback from not just Democratic lawmakers and environmentalists but also some House Republicans, who managed to block a similar provision from being included last month in the House's tax and spending bill. Democrats and several conservation groups sharply criticized the Senate blueprint, warning that it could deprive future generations of public access to public land and suggesting much of the land sold might not be used for affordable housing. Sen. Martin Heinrich (New Mexico), the panel's top Democrat, accused Republicans of 'taking up a sledgehammer' in a 'fire sale' of public lands, in a statement Wednesday. 'We all lose access to public lands forever, jeopardizing our local economies and who we are as a nation.' In a statement, the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership said it opposed the proposed forced sale, arguing that the budget reconciliation bill was not the right process for public-land sales of this scale. 'The Senate proposal sets an arbitrary acreage target and calls for the disposal of up to six times more land than was proposed in early versions of the House budget reconciliation bill,' said Joel Pedersen, the group's president and CEO. 'If passed, sportsmen and women would lose access to large tracts of public land.' If enacted into law, the draft text would require the Bureau of Land Management and Forest Service to sell between 0.5 and 0.75 percent of the 438 million acres of land that they own collectively. It does not include the sale of land with existing grazing rights, along with federally protected lands such as national parks, monuments and wildlife refuges. The committee projected that the land sales would generate between $5 billion and $10 billion of income between fiscal years 2025 and 2034, citing an analysis by the Congressional Budget Office.
Yahoo
37 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Michigan GOP school spending plan spends more while axing free breakfast and lunch
LANSING — House Republicans would outspend Democrats under a $21.9-billion budget for K-12 schools they passed June 11. But there are major differences in how school money would be spent, with more of it going to wealthier Michigan districts, cyber schools and even private schools under the GOP plan. House Bill 4577, approved in a 56-53 mostly party line vote, is sure to see significant changes before the K-12 budget is finalized for the 2026 fiscal year that begins Oct. 1. It is a markedly different plan from the $21.8 billion plan approved by the Democratic-controlled Senate and the $21.2-billion proposal unveiled in February by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, also a Democrat. In the coming weeks or months, leaders from both legislative chambers will attempt to reach a consensus on a school spending plan, as well as a broader state government budget that both chambers can pass in identical form, and that Whitmer is willing to sign into law. House Republicans passed the record K-12 spending plan after repeatedly criticizing Whitmer for what they described as bloated budgets and after using their social media platform on X June 11 to taunt Whitmer for saying in her February State of the State address that Michigan spends more per pupil than most other states but gets less in terms of academic results. "Gov. Whitmer admitted Republicans are right," the Michigan House GOP posted, with a clip of that portion of Whitmer's speech, just before proposing even higher per-pupil spending than Whitmer did. In 2024, House Republicans made an election issue of the Democratic K-12 budget for reducing line-item spending on student mental health and school safety. The plan the GOP passed June 11 eliminates that $107.8-million line item altogether, according to a House Fiscal Agency analysis, rolling mental health and school safety into broader chunks of funding that Speaker Matt Hall, R-Richland Township, said gives school districts more flexibility in how they spend. Districts would be required to certify that their budgets support at least one school resource officer and one mental health support staff member, according to the fiscal analysis. The GOP plan sets a school foundation allowance of $10,025 per pupil, up from $9,608 this year. That's higher than the $10,000 per-pupil grant proposed by Whitmer and the $10,008 per-pupil grant in the Senate Democrat plan. But in eliminating many line items and earmarks, the Republican school budget also provides for an additional $3.1 billion in per-pupil payments, with about $2,200 per pupil going to school districts and intermediate school districts and $40.8 million to private schools. The Michigan Constitution prohibits public funding of private schools, so that part of the Republican plan would likely face a court challenge if it ended up in the final version of the school budget. The GOP school budget eliminates Whitmer's signature policy of providing free breakfast and lunch to all public school students. Instead, it leaves participation in such a program up to individual school districts, regardless of how wealthy the families in that school district are. Also eliminated in the House GOP plan are proposed spending increases for at-risk students, who are defined as economically disadvantaged. Whitmer proposed a $42.3-million increase from the School Aid Fund, while Senate Democrats proposed an extra $258.7 million. The Republican plan holds at risk spending at 2025 levels. "We're building a stronger model by putting trust where it belongs — in the hands of local school boards, parents, and educators who know their communities best," said state Rep. Ann Bollin, R-Brighton Township, who chairs the House Appropriations Committee. "Every district is different, and the people closest to the students should be the ones making the decisions.' But Curtis Hertel, chairman of the Michigan Democratic Party, said the plan will force many children to go hungry while doing nothing to improve academic performance. 'This education budget kills the school breakfast and lunch programs, cuts funding for school safety and mental health programs, and will reduce the actual dollars going into the classroom,' Hertel said in a news release. Under the Republican plan, public cyber schools, which have lower building and transportation costs, would receive the same foundation allowances as brick-and-mortal schools do. Whitmer's plan and the Senate plan would give cyber schools a per-pupil grant that is 20% lower, saving around $30 million, according to the House Fiscal Agency analysis. Two of the most conservative House Republicans, Rep. Steve Carra, R-Three Rivers, and Rep. Josh Schriver, R-Oxford, were the only GOP members to join all House Democrats in voting against the plan. Contact Paul Egan: 517-372-8660 or pegan@ This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Michigan GOP school spending plan bigger, axes free breakfast, lunch
Yahoo
37 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Florida lawmakers save state parks from golf, then yank away funding for preserving land
The boardwalk at Lake Jackson Mounds Archeological State Park has been closed for repairs for nearly two years, but the Legislature wants to cut spending on our popular state parks. (Photo via Florida State Parks) Hey kids, here's a civics lesson for you. The Florida Senate and House of Representatives — or as they're sometimes called, 'Dumb and Dumber' — make a lot of headlines by passing dopey laws, but that's not their real job. Deleting mentions of climate change from state statutes? Not their job. Changing the name of the Gulf of Mexico after 500 years to the cheesy Gulf of 'Murrica? Not their job. Supporting the wacko conspiracy theories about chemtrails? Not their job. The one thing that IS their job, kids, is passing a budget for the state. Period. They're supposed to complete this job by the end of their annual two-month legislative session. This year, they failed, which qualifies them for inclusion on the satirical 'You Had ONE Job' website. This is not considered a high honor. They're still working on it, they say. They hope to hold a vote on June 16. They're racing the clock, because they have to finish by July 1. That's the start of the next fiscal year. If they're not done by then, state government may be forced to shut down. Surprisingly, one of the budget items on which the two houses differ from the governor is parks. 'Florida's renowned state parks would suffer under state House and Senate proposals for the 2025-26 state budget, supporters of the public lands said this week,' Politico reported last week. I say 'surprisingly,' because both the House and Senate just passed a bill to protect the parks from another dimwitted drive by Gov. Ron DeSantis to build golf courses there. They passed this pro-park bill because they saw how immensely popular the parks are, and how immensely unpopular DeSantis' efforts to 'upgrade' the parks were. Yet now they're also cutting the parks' throats. I know Oscar Wilde said consistency is the last refuge of the unimaginative, but c'mon, folks. Do you really think our legislators have ever listened to Oscar Wilde about anything? What's even kookier is that they also voted to repeal a law that created a big source of funding for buying and preserving even more environmentally sensitive land. It's a law they had passed unanimously and with great fanfare just a year before: the Seminole Gaming Compact. The compact is still there, and the gambling is still going on. But now the money will go elsewhere. Former state parks director Eric Draper told me he'd never seen anything like it. First Florida politicians brag about securing millions for a popular cause, 'and then one year later, they just reverse it. The whole thing is tossed out.' I contacted the most environmentally minded legislator I know to see what she had to say about it. She was, in a word, upset (two words, one of them a verb starting with a P and the other one 'off,' would also be appropriate). 'I don't think they consider the things that are most valued by all Floridians,' said Rep. Lindsay Cross, an actual environmental scientist. 'Honestly, it's like nothing is sacred anymore.' The Seminole Tribe has the most remarkable turnaround story in Florida history. Before you ask, yes, I'm counting the time the Florida Marlins won the World Series and then finished dead last the following season. The Seminoles fought three wars against the federal government and never waved a white flag. They became the only tribe that never surrendered to the U.S. But the members spent decades barely scraping by, living in chickee huts and eking out a living selling roadside souvenirs and putting on alligator wrestling shows for the tourists. According to a 1913 report to Congress, gambling was 'unknown among them.' Not anymore. The Seminoles were the first tribe in the nation to launch its own gambling operation in 1979, fighting off a legal challenge from the Broward County sheriff. Today, this tribe of about 4,300 controls six casinos in Florida and six more in other states, Canada, and the Dominican Republic, not to mention the Hard Rock hotel and restaurant chain with locations in 70 countries. Thanks to a 2021 agreement with DeSantis and the Legislature, the Seminoles are now running the largest legal sports betting operation in the country. Sure, calls to the gambling addiction helpline have doubled since their sports betting operation started. But hey, you can't make an omelet without impoverishing a bunch of blue-collar workers who don't have money to lose, can you? But what would happen to the state's share of this gambling bonanza? Last year, at the urging of Senate President Kathleen Passidomo, the Legislature passed a bill decreeing that hundreds of millions of dollars from sports betting would be spent on land acquisition, preserving wildlife, and protecting waterways. Gambling for greenspace! See how wholesome it is? Why, the amount was enough to make some environmental advocates start singing along with Marlon Brando, 'Luck be a lady tonight!' The money was desperately needed, especially for the Florida Wildlife Corridor. 'To truly keep pace, Florida needs at least $500 million a year to permanently connect and protect the Florida Wildlife Corridor,' corridor foundation CEO Mallory Dimmitt told me. The money wasn't just for the parks and the corridor, but for water quality improvements too, noted Ryan Smart, executive director of the Florida Springs Council. Yet now the Legislature wants to repeal that supposedly worthwhile investment. What were they thinking? Or maybe the better question is: Were they thinking? Seeking clarity, I turned to the legislative leaders' aides. Turns out that was one commodity in short supply. 'This was a position the House had in their budget that the Senate has agreed to in the budget conference process,' Katie Betta, spokeswoman for Senate President Ben Albritton, told me. She suggested I contact the House with my questions. So I tried several times to contact Betta's counterpart in the House, Speaker Daniel Perez spokeswoman Amelia Angleton, but got no response. Perhaps it was 'Talk Like a Mime Week' in Tallahassee. It's hard to say why they're doing this, just judging by the paperwork that's been made public so far. Florida has a rich tradition of open government, but when it comes to the current budget process our legislators have been imitating Peter Falk in 'The In-Laws' and going serpentine. 'There is very little transparency here,' said Clay Henderson, a longtime environmental attorney and activist who literally wrote the book on land preservation in Florida ('Forces of Nature,' I give it five stars). 'I've never seen a budget conference like this and guess no one has.' The Seminole gambling money was 'a solid commitment of funds,' he said. The repeal language 'appears to wipe this out and basically says the Legislature will appropriate these funds as they see fit.' He called the whole Seminole snatch-back 'deeply disturbing.' Even beyond the loss of the Seminole gambling money, legislators have made it clear that they want to cut the taxpayer resources going to Florida's popular parks. Both the House and the Senate are proposing to spend a mere $15 million on park facilities improvements, compared with $37 million requested by DeSantis (for once, playing the good guy in a park scenario). The House also does not want to put any money toward the Florida Forever land-buying program, even though nearly 75% of all Florida voters approved a constitutional amendment to fund such programs. But wait, it gets worse. House negotiators want to eliminate 25 positions in the Florida Park Service that are currently vacant. Draper told me that move made no sense, given that the state recently approved turning a parcel of Panhandle land into a new park in Walton County, No. 176 for the state. Staffing that new one would require hiring people to fill those empty slots, he said. 'You can't run a new park without any park rangers,' he said. 'People love the parks, and they really love the park rangers. But the parks are desperately understaffed.' A wise man (okay, it was me, so it was more like a wise guy) once said, 'Florida's state parks are one of the glories of this place we call home.' Our award-winning parks cover 800,000 acres where you can hike, fish, swim, bike, canoe, kayak, camp, and watch wildlife. At Florida Caverns State Park in Marianna, you can even spelunk, should you so desire. There are places of awe-inspiring beauty, like Edward Ball Wakulla Springs State Park, home to one of the largest and deepest freshwater springs in the world. There are also places that preserve some slice of pre- Disney Florida kitsch, such as Weeki Wachee Springs State Park, where you can watch a mermaid show that dates to when it was a roadside attraction. No matter where they are, people flock to them, seeking a respite from the overcrowded sprawl that's spoiling the rest of Florida. The parks admitted some 30 million people last year, generating $3.6 billion (that's billion with a B) in direct economic benefits to the surrounding local communities. Given their economic and environmental value, can you believe that our duly elected dummkopfs want to shortchange the parks? It's like owning a souped-up Lamborghini and equipping it with the cheapest tires possible. Here's a partial list of what's broken, taken from the Politico story I mentioned earlier: 'At Torreya State Park along the Apalachicola River, the campground has been closed since last August for repairs. The campground at Suwannee River State Park remains closed until August, as is an overlook along the river… And the boardwalk at the Lake Jackson Mounds Archaeological State Park near Tallahassee has been closed for repairs for nearly two years.' Two years! That's an inexcusable length of time for a public boardwalk to be inaccessible. If one of the Disney theme park rides were shut down for two years, people would demand the park's managers be fired. In this case, the managers are those folks in Tallahassee who control the purse strings. Given how passionate parks supporters have been in protesting DeSantis' golf course plans last year, Henderson said, 'There's no excuse for cutting Florida Parks Service funding.' It's possible that our tightwad legislators don't care about the parks because they've never been to one. If you happen to know any of these lawmakers, invite them out to join you for a trip to a spring, river, hiking trail, or fishing hole so they can see how magical these places can be. And they're a lot cheaper than the theme parks, too. In the past, when I heard about some problem with Florida's state parks, I would sincerely wish that the legislators at fault would be forced to go to one park in particular: Homosassa Springs Wildlife State Park. Then, at least in my imagination, they'd be forced to stand in the 'splatter zone' for the park's biggest celebrity, Lu the Hippo, until they saw the error of their ways. Alas, Lu — made an honorary citizen of Florida by then-Gov. Lawton Chiles — has died at age 65 and gone to that great splatter zone in the sky. Lacking Lu's persuasive power to convince these lawmakers that they shouldn't take the parks for granted, perhaps we must turn to more conventional means of turning this boneheaded budget move around. DeSantis, lame duck though he is, still holds veto power over the budget. If Albritton and Perez fail to restore the parks money the way they should, I would encourage all of you to send the governor a strongly worded message encouraging him to employ his veto pen on that part of the budget. Feel free to point out to him that, under the state Constitution, that's his job. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
