WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — Governor Ron DeSantis vetoed more than $500 million in state spending this week, including $742,000 for a drainage project on Australian Avenue in West Palm Beach aimed at addressing persistent flooding problems.
WPTV has tracked Palm Beach County’s efforts to fix drainage issues on Australian Ave. since October 2023. It’s one of many projects in our area where requests for funding help from the state were blocked by Gov. Ron DeSantis, including $1 million for Palm Beach County housing units for homeless and $750,000 for Riviera Beach’s new water treatment plant.
WATCH: Residents say road is 'complete disaster' during flooding
Other municipalities in Palm Beach County, like Royal Palm Beach and Boynton Beach, also had projects facing the governor’s veto pen. Those include drainage system replacements, stormwater pipe audit and replacement, a high flood swift water rescue response program and enhancing water infrastructure resilience through comprehensive energy audits.
The governor’s office said it vetoed a collective $567 million in spending, but didn’t give a specific reason for vetoing a certain project.
State Rep. Jervonte Edmonds and Sen. Mack Bernard sponsored the funding request from the county for $2.5 million, estimated to be equivalent to 4% of the project’s total cost.
The funding request estimated the state is already spending $13.3 million on the project, which county officials said would create a new underground stormwater drainage system while adding a shoulder and sidewalk replacement to alleviate flooding through a three-mile corridor.
“Many of the adjacent properties and older developments drain to the Australian Avenue right-of-way today, overwhelming the existing open-swale drainage system, causing flooding both in the road and properties adjacent to it,” county staff wrote in their application. “Construction of the new stormwater drainage system will alleviate both road flooding and offsite flooding that occurs by expanding the capacity of the drainage system as a whole, and providing additional locations for the system to drain to the Carver Canal. In addition, the new roadside shoulders can be utilized by cyclists, and the new and wider sidewalks provide additional mobility opportunities.”
State
DeSantis signs $117.4B budget, avoiding shutdown with hours to spare
The county estimates about 28,000 vehicles use the road a day, including a direct population consisting of 120 single family homes, more than 20 commercial businesses, nonprofits, churches, three apartment buildings, two schools and three bus routes.
County staff said the bid received for the project was in significant excess of the engineer's cost estimate and it was exploring ways to rebid the project in order to reduce costs and increase interest and participation by additional contractors.
Rep. Edmonds said he was trying to get a meeting with somebody from the governor’s office to understand its rationale for vetoing the spending, but acknowledged a lot of his projects received vetoes. Rep. Edmonds said he was unsure if he was just unliked or if being a member of the opposition party, Democrat, had influence on the decision.
WPTV reached out to Sen. Bernard, who didn’t return our call.
Moses Sims, who lives near the area, told WPTV’s Ethan Stein the road floods every time it rains. He said it’s dangerous because cars stall out and cause crashes on the three-mile stretch from 45th Street to Banyan Boulevard.
“It’s a complete disaster. A complete disaster,” said Sims, who lives near the affected stretch of road. “Trying to navigate through it because you don’t know if your car is going to be cut out or whatever. It’s very dangerous.”
Darrell Nelson, another driver who lives near the road, said he was disappointed in the governor’s decision because of the amount of crashes on the road during floods. He said he’s hopeful the county spends a larger proportion of its gas tax money, as mentioned in the county’s application, to complete the project.
There is some opposition to the project, as some homeowners near the road are concerned people will drive faster if it is widened. The project also removes trees from the area, which helped act as a barrier to cars hitting homes.
A spokesperson for Palm Beach County didn’t return our request for comment.
