12/1/2023 0 Comments Mori hosseini desantisState transportation leaders notified local officials about the decision to use covid relief money for the interchange during a public meeting on Nov. DeSantis called on the state legislature to direct about $1 billion in covid relief to transportation projects in March 2021. Rick Scott (R-Fla.), who was independently wealthy and flew on his own private plane.ĭeSantis, a Republican candidate for president, initially criticized the American Rescue Plan in March 2021 as "Washington at its worst," arguing that much of the money "had nothing to do with covid" and that politicians were using the bill "as a Christmas tree" on which to hang pet projects.īut since the money arrived in Florida, he has used it for favored projects unrelated to the pandemic, including using interest from the federal funds to pay for the flight of mostly Venezuelan migrants from Texas to Martha's Vineyard last year. He has subsequently relied more on benefits from wealthy supporters than his predecessor, current Sen. Hosseini did not respond to multiple requests for comment by phone and email.ĭeSantis, who campaigned in 2018 with on a pledge to "drain the swamp in Tallahassee," reported a net worth of about $320,000 in 2021, according to public filings. "Florida currently leads the nation in net in-migration with a majority of these new residents moving to Central and Southwest Florida." "his enhanced interchange project will help keep up with Florida's growing population," she said. The Pioneer Trail project has been a priority for some local officials for decades. She said in a statement that state transportation planners "determined and prioritized projects that had local support and were production ready to use" the federal covid funds. He referred questions to Jessica Ottaviano, the communications director for the state transportation department, who also did not directly respond to questions about DeSantis's or Hosseini's involvement in the decision to fund the project. "You are trying to make an accusation to play 'gotcha,'" he wrote in one email to The Post, after he had been asked whether the governor had spoken to Hosseini about the Pioneer Trail project or advocated for its funding. Hosseini's plane has been repeatedly used by DeSantis, according to a Post analysis.Ī DeSantis spokesman, Jeremy Redfern, published on Twitter on Wednesday night, before this story published, emails from a Post reporter seeking comment. In the 2022 campaign cycle, companies controlled by Hosseini gave at least $361,000 to political groups that benefited the DeSantis reelection campaign, according to state campaign finance records. A year later, Hosseini donated a golf simulator that retails for at least $27,500 to the governor's mansion, according to records previously obtained by The Post. Hosseini helped DeSantis arrange a round of golf at Augusta National Golf Club in Georgia in 2018, according to the Tampa Bay Times. The governor's office occasionally received requests for DeSantis to attend events or support proposals from Hosseini, and DeSantis extended invitations to Hosseini in return for events in Tallahassee. Government documents obtained by The Washington Post through open-records requests show a steady relationship between DeSantis and Hosseini in recent years. "With or without the interchange, we would have built Woodhaven there, but it certainly helps," he told the Daytona Beach News Journal in March 2019. He has called the Woodhaven development, which has already begun construction, his "best project yet" and promised to pull out all the stops for its success. 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. Subscribe to The Post Most newsletter for the most important and interesting stories from The Washington Post. 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. 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. 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.
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