Originally published Aug. 22, 2019
A few days before Christmas last year, after he was elected to the U.S. Senate but before he’d left Tallahassee for Washington, former Florida Gov. Rick Scott gave a $16 million gift to Orange County.
It was a grant to help pay for an extension of Kirkman Road in the county’s International Drive tourism corridor, and it had been pulled from a pot of economic development money known as the “Florida Job Growth Grant Fund.” It was the biggest grant Scott had ever awarded through the fund, which he and the Florida Legislature established in 2017 amid promises to end “corporate welfare.”
Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings, for one, was thrilled. In a prepared statement issued by Scott’s press office, Demings said the Kirkman Road extension would “support the economic growth of our various industries here in Orange County, including aerospace, defense and tourism.”
Neither Scott nor Demings mentioned the biggest beneficiary of the project: Universal Orlando, the giant theme-park resort that generates more than $2.4 billion a year in revenue, according to state records. Most of the 1.7-mile Kirkman Road extension will run alongside or through the 760-acre property upon which Universal plans to build a new theme park, dubbed “Universal’s Epic Universe,” plus new hotels and other facilities.
The $315 million road extension will provide a crucial link between Universal’s existing parks and hotels on the northern end of the I-Drive corridor and the new park at the southern end. It’s so important to Universal’s expansion plans that the resort will, according to a preliminary agreement with Orange County, design, engineer, permit and construct the publicly owned road itself -- and get public sources to help foot the bill.
Orange County is a conduit for the state grant; the $16 million will ultimately pass to Universal. The county has also tentatively committed $125 million of local tax money toward the Kirkman Road extension.
The law that governs the fund prohibits any of the money in it from being used “for the exclusive benefit of any single company, corporation or business entity.”
“Providing infrastructure is a key role of government. However, government projects should not benefit or provide one business with a direct competitive advantage,” said Phillip Suderman, the policy director of the Florida chapter of Americans for Prosperity, the conservative, Charles Koch-backed organization that opposes some economic development incentives. “The integrity of this program is at risk if government chooses to prioritize programs that only benefit one company with taxpayer dollars.”
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