- December 4, 2025
As Flagler County prepares to advocate for its needs at the upcoming 2026 Florida legislative session, the county’s representatives have warned the upcoming budget will likely once again be tight.
Florida House Rep. Sam Greco and Florida Sen. Tom Leek met with Flagler County officials on Sept. 19, where county leaders presented their representatives with projects and policy items needing support. Leek said the upcoming session was likely to be another contentious one with continued pressure on the budget.
“Bluntly, if you look at the revenue projections, you will see that the growth in our costs are outpacing the growth in our revenue,” he said. “At some point in time, those two lines are going to intersect.”
In light of Leek and Greco’s predictions of another tight budget, Leek asked elected officials to provide detailed requests, preferably with local funding to support the project already designated.
“My experience is and I think the state's experience in general is we find the more you all have skin in the game, the more committed you are to the project," Leek said. "So if we give money to the project, it's more likely to be successful because you're committed.”
The largest funding request was for Palm Coast’s Old Kings Road widening project, Phase 2A. Phase 2 begins at Palm Coast Parkway and ends at the Town Center Boulevard and Old Kings Road intersection, where Interstate 95 passes over Town Center Boulevard.
Mayor Mike Norris on behalf of Palm Coast requested $30 million from the state.
“That is a choke point in our city,” Norris said.
Palm Coast does not have a specific local match designated yet, he said, but they are using impact fees for the project.
“The design alone is going to be like $6 million dollars,” he said. “So we’re pushing for that.”
The city had two other specific financial requests as well, these with local match funding already designated.
One is a $300,000 request to help build a stormwater park near Fire Station 23 and Burroughs Drive in Palm Coast’s B Section. The area often floods in strong rain events and the park would create green space for community use as well as help reduce flooding. Palm Coast is offering a $200,000 match for the project.
The last was a $500,000 request for a Woodlands neighborhood’s stormwater improvement project. Palm Coast has already set aside $500,000 as a local match.
“After Milton,” Norris said, “that was one of our hardest hit areas, was the Woodlands. We're trying to focus on fixing the flooding issues in that area.”
Palm Coast is also pursuing support for other projects on the city’s radar, according to a press release sent out after the meeting. Those projects include partnering with Flagler County on animal shelter needs, dredging the saltwater canals and preserving Fire Station 22, among other projects, according to a city press release.
Flagler County Commission Chair Andy Dance also only presented the county’s top three requests to Leek and Greco, beginning with the much-needed improvements to County Road 304. This road, he said, is in “dire need of improvements” especially with the growth in that corridor. This was a $5 million request, and the county does have additional funding to back it up, Dance said.
The county is also looking for help funding the construction of a north Black Branch drainage system, to be located near the future Florida State Guard site. The commission is seeking $2.6 million to help with this project, not including a local match the county has set aside.
Finally, Dance said the commission was requesting $548,000 to create a resilience staging site on the west side of Flagler County for emergency management. Flagler has a $126,000 match already designated.
“These are critical to Flagler,” Dance said.
But not all the requests were financial. Flagler Schools requested Greco and Leek’s support for two program initiatives with the state.
Superintendent LaShakia Moore asked Leek and Greco to support the education portion of a rural Florida initiative that was proposed in the last legislative session. The bill – Senate Bill 110, called “Florida’s Rural Renaissance” – would, among other things, bolster education offerings in rural communities, according to a March 2025 Florida Senate press release.
The bill was passed by the Florida legislature only to be vetoed by Gov. Ron DeSantis.
“This is the biggest opportunity for the school district in the 2026 session and we ask you for your strong support to adopt the education portion of the rural renaissance as proposed last session,” Moore said.
Moore also asked for the representatives’ support in changing formulas that generate or share capital outlay from recognizing kindergarten through 12th grade students to adding pre-kindergarten and adult career education students.
Leek and Greco said they were committed to helping fight for Flagler County's needs, but Leek also asked their constituents to look at all their resources. There are other grant programs that don't require an act of the legislature, he said.
"Don't put all your eggs in that one basket of going to the state legislature," he said, "because quite frankly it's the hardest rout to go down."
