TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – Florida port leaders continue to point to supply-chain problems in recent years as they push lawmakers to increase transportation infrastructure funding.
Appearing before the House Economic Infrastructure Subcommittee on Thursday, a panel of port officials pointed to a need for improvements as a hedge against future supply logjams and to offset competition from other Atlantic and Gulf coast states.
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“With our continued growth, the more efficient supply chains that we can create, the cheaper that we can get the products into our region, it benefits our communities,” Port Tampa Bay Executive Vice President Raul Alfonso said.
To attract more cargo companies, officials say it isn’t just about deeper channels for larger ships and upgraded dockside operations. Other needs include more drydock storage space and rail and road improvements to haul items to markets across the state.
“We are growing. We are making an indent, but we’ve just started to scratch the surface,” Alfonso said. “The potential that we have is tremendous. We have to offer the efficiency. But we are up against other states that have a direct conduit to (their) port authority, that they just write a check on providing incentives to those companies.”
Concerns about potential holdups in moving goods have been a selling point for Florida transportation leaders since late 2021, as global supply-chain problems were highlighted by images of cargo ships stalled outside California ports.
Last year, the Florida Ports Council outlined a five-year capital improvement plan for Florida’s 15 ports that exceeded $5 billion. The planned projects are for cargo and cruise operations.
“We build based on need and based on commitments. We really don’t build on, if we build it, will they come. We know they’re coming when we build,” PortMiami Port Director Hydi Webb said. “And we’ve been extremely fortunate that our partners, both on the cruise and cargo side, have invested in our infrastructure along with state and federal partners too. It’s a true partnership.”
The state transportation five-year work program approved for the current fiscal year allocates less than $80 million to ports, with an additional $35 million set aside for debt payments.
Lawmakers are set to begin the 2025 legislative session on March 4. A key part of the session will be negotiating a state budget for the fiscal year that will begin July 1.
Rep. Chip LaMarca, a Lighthouse Point Republican who chairs the Economic Infrastructure Subcommittee, expressed support for the port industry.
“At $109.6 million out of (a) $15 billion plus (budget), what the seaports are getting is less than 1 percent,” LaMarca said. “I’m just putting my opinion on the record that we need to voice our support for these ports.”
Rep. Kim Berfield, a Clearwater Republican who serves on the subcommittee, added, “In my humble opinion, I can see the need for our state to start really thinking more strategically about how we are establishing a very robust and comprehensive supply chain.”
As part of his proposed $115.6 billion budget for the 2025-2026 fiscal year, Gov. Ron DeSantis included $120.7 million for seaport infrastructure “to ensure Florida’s ports continue to have capacity while the rest of the nation struggles from supply chain backups at seaports.”
The governor’s proposal also recommended $25 million to spur supply-chain innovations involving “vertical takeoff and landing aircraft, vertiports, airports, inland ports, seaports, freight railroads, intermodal logistic centers, and fuel pipelines.”
DeSantis’ proposal is an initial step in the Legislature’s budget process.
The Florida Ports Council estimates that the cargo and cruise industries are responsible for 1.2 million jobs statewide, $196 billion in economic activity and $7.4 billion in state and local taxes.
A decade ago, as the state under then-Gov. Rick Scott made ports a bigger part of the transportation network, the ports council estimated that cargo and cruise activities supported close to 900,000 jobs throughout the state, provided an economic impact of almost $117.6 billion and generated more than $4.2 billion in state and local taxes.
“Even though there are some trade issues going on right now internationally, we expect that those (numbers) will continue to grow,” ports council President Michael Rubin said.