DeSantis Directed $92 Million In COVID Stimulus Funds To Highway Project That Benefits Top Donor/Developer

The Washington Post reports:

The administration of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) steered $92 million last year in leftover federal coronavirus stimulus money to a controversial highway interchange project that directly benefits a top political donor, according to state records.

The decision by the Florida Department of Transportation to use money from the 2021 American Rescue Plan for the I-95 interchange at Pioneer Trail Road near Daytona Beach fulfilled a years-long effort by Mori Hosseini, a politically connected housing developer who owns two large tracts of largely forested land abutting the planned interchange. The funding through the DeSantis administration, approved shortly after the governor’s reelection, expedited the project by more than a decade, according to state documents.

Hosseini plans to develop the land — which includes a sensitive watershed once targeted for conservation by the state — into approximately 1,300 dwelling units and 650,000 square feet of nonresidential use, including an outdoor village shopping district.

Read the full article. There’s much more. Gift link here.

This same developer has given DeSantis and wife rides on his private jet and was in the news just last week for an unreported $27,000 golf simulator he had installed at Florida’s governor’s mansion.

The administration of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis steered $92 million last year in leftover federal covid stimulus money to a controversial highway interchange project that directly benefits a top political donor, according to state records. https://t.co/lj2iHswWJr

— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) June 29, 2023