AUBURNDALE, FL—Governor Ron DeSantis announced his latest attack on "wokeness" Thursday morning with the Florida Department of Transportation's new website: roadsarenotforpolitics.com.
"I'm pleased to announce that today, to make clear where Florida stands, the Florida Department of Transportation is launching a dedicated portal that will highlight for folks the politicization of the Biden transportation department and to demonstrate how Florida is just saying no," DeSantis said at an Auburndale press conference, revealing the roadsarenotforpolitics.com site.
The website boasts three main tabs: "Greenhouse Gaslighting", "Equity vs. 'Equity'", and "Weaponized Bureaucracy", insisting states should lead the way on transportation initiatives, slam money going toward climate change measures, and attack "COVID tyranny".
Why? Because, he claims, the Biden Administration is attempting to "shoehorn" social justice initiatives and "political ideology" into transportation, and, "If we have to sign up for DEI just to receive road funding we're not going to do that, we're not going to allow the federal government to use the purse strings to impose bad policies on the state of Florida."
"We are not gonna allow the federal government's underhanded tactics to impose an agenda on this state that the people have rejected time and time again," DeSantis continued, before lauding Florida's status as the number one economy in the nation. "We don't need to have our hand-out from the federal government."
These are just his latest contrast between the federal government and Florida, most recently announcing that the Sunshine State's economic growth has doubled the national rate over the last five years. As for so-called ideology allegedly shoved into transportation initiatives, he referenced the Biden Administration's $1 billion initiative in 2022 to correct "racist" highways.
"Everyone can drive our roads!" DeSantis said.
He touted the $14.5 billion in the recently signed budget for 946 different transportation projects statewide, stressing that with Florida's exploding population, "We're actually a state that people want to move to," meaning infrastructure investment must increase to match rising demand.
Of that $14.5 billion, $5 billion will go to maintaining and constructing new highways, $1.8 billion to resurfacing roadways, $1.4 billion to intermodal improvements, and $400 million to repair 72 bridges and replace another 15.
With these additions, this brings the total investment toward infrastructure under DeSantis to $70 billion.
