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Governor vetoes $2 million Bradenton Beach Gulf Drive project

Not all municipal funding requests make it to the state’s final budget.

Even fewer make it past the governor’s desk.

Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a $90.9 billion budget June 21, including funding for two of three Bradenton Beach appropriation bills filed for the state’s 2019-20 fiscal year, which begins July 1.

DeSantis approved the city’s requests for $500,000 to fund seagrass mitigation and $2,694,248 for a flood prevention program, sending $3,194,248 in total from Tallahassee to Bradenton Beach.

However, the governor line-item vetoed the city’s request for $2,000,000 to improve Gulf Drive for multimodal use, specifically to improve bike and pedestrian routes along Gulf Drive.

The local request for money from the state transportation fund, submitted by the city in March, stated, “The project will implement sustainable alternative transportation modes that will reduce the need for motorized vehicles and provide safer transportation alternatives which will reduce emissions and pollutant loadings to Sarasota Bay. Measures will be installed along SR 789 (Gulf Drive) and the main bike/pedestrian routes providing a connection to the water taxi hub and main commercial area in Bradenton Beach.”