They Build It. You Pay for It

If you've sat in traffic on a road built for half the people using it, or watched your street flood after an ordinary storm, you know the problem. Growth has outrun the roads, pipes and drainage meant to carry it. The people profiting from that growth are working hard to make sure you cover the cost.

When Manatee County commissioners voted to make developers pay more toward roads and services, developers sued. When commissioners moved to restore the wetland buffers that soak up floodwater, they threatened to remove them from office. The reason is Senate Bill 180, a law sold as hurricane relief that blocks local governments - us - from tightening land-use rules.

Sydney Gruters, my opponent for Congressional D16, has raised money at fundraisers hosted by developers Pat Neal and Carlos Beruff. Her husband, state Sen. Joe Gruters, voted for SB 180, and this year lobbyists for both developers fought & paid to keep it alive. Beruff's company once sued Manatee County to throw out its wetland protections, and lost. You have to ask yourself who Sydney will help? 

And Tallahassee keeps going further. Under a new agricultural enclave law, if a county does not rule on a developer's application within 90 days, it is approved automatically. Brevard County commissioners rejected a subdivision on environmentally sensitive land, then were forced to approve it. The law's House sponsor said some counties "get a little big for their britches." A Republican county chair warns that fighting these applications could cost "millions of dollars" each. Taxpayers cover those legal bills, then the bills for roads, flood insurance and disaster recovery. Joe Gruters was absent when the opportunity to stop it took place. 

Congress can't repeal a state law or hand zoning back to our communities. But Congress controls federal money, and it can attach conditions. In Congress, I will work to require that federally funded roads, water and sewer projects match local plans written with public input. I will push to make developers, not taxpayers, pay for the infrastructure their projects demand. And I will ensure FEMA disaster relief is fully funded and arrives immediately after hurricanes. Two years after Helene and Milton, local jurisdictions in this Congressional district are still waiting for tens of millions of dollars from FEMA while the Trump administration simultaneously seeks to cut reimbursements to states from 75% to 50%. 

I have been in this fight before. When I ran for the Sarasota City Commission, I faced a Gruters-backed, developer-funded incumbent and was outspent three to one. Voters - left, right and center - chose me with 75 percent of the vote, because they wanted someone who answered to them.

Managed growth should pay its own way. When I go to Washington, all residents and their voices come with me. Let's fix this.

Kelly Kirschner is the Democratic candidate in the Congressional District 16 race.