Florida Politics - Which Metro Benefits the Most?

[depechecureguyorl]

No way do I think that Miami funds the whole state! First, Florida collects no income taxes; a majority of our funds come from sales/gas taxes. Second, more tourists who travel to Florida come to Orlando than Miami and they're spending more money than all the residents in S Florida combined. Based on that, I would think Central Florida provides a good portion of funding for this state, not South Florida.

[poonther]

Second, more tourists who travel to Florida come to Orlando than Miami and they're spending more money than all the residents in S Florida combined. Based on that, I would think Central Florida provides a good portion of funding for this state, not South Florida.

Now that line will require a cite for varification in my book dpcguy. While the tourist numbers are higher in Orlando than South Fl, I don't think they are "spending more money than ALL the RESIDENTS in South FL combined." Just based on population in South FL (PB, Broward, Dade) would not make this statement true. Also there's a fair amount of international tourism in South FL and they tend to stay much much longer on vacation in South FL than your average midwestern family of 4 visiting Mickey. Also not to mention all the snowbirds that winter in South FL. I mean no disrepect, but this statement you've just got to prove cause I can't swallow it for truth w/out numbers to back it up.

[depechecureguyorl]

^ I admit, I'm going way off base there and I have no numbers to back up what I said. But I couldn't swallow the last comment that S Fl funds the whole state. Property values and S Fla wealth aside, I'm pretty sure Orange county provides a heafty portion of funds for Florida. Not more than all the S Fla residents, of course.

[poonther]

Now that revised statement I'll back you up on for sure!

[depechecureguyorl]

If you can get your hands on a budget... one will be released in a few months when the sesson is in, you can clearly see the generosity shown toward Southeast Florida.

OK, I've looked all over the Internet and cannot find anything that provides that type of info. However, if one would look at the populations of the respective Metro areas, then IMO, it's clear that S Fl needs the most funds. The infrastructure, social, and economic services needed to sustain such a large population warrant more funds than other areas of the state.

Taken from Wikipedia:

Metropolitan Area Population > 5,000,000

Miami-Ft.Lauderdale-West Palm Beach

Metropolitan Area Population > 2,500,000

Tampa-St. Petersburg

Metropolitan Area Population > 1,000,000

Jacksonville

Orlando

Metropolitan Area Population > 400,000

Cape Coral-Fort Myers

Daytona Beach

Lakeland

Melbourne-Titusville

Pensacola

Port Saint Lucie-Fort Pierce-Stuart

Sarasota-Bradenton

[poonther]

Just a tiny nitpick since I'm a statistics nut, I don't think Ft.Pierce/Port St. Lucie/Stuart should be in the 400k+ category YET. I'm not sure how Wikipedia came up w/those figures.

Based on 2004 census data, that metro area consist of only Martin and St. Lucie counties. Indian River to the north is the Vero Beach Metro, Palm Beach to the south is it's own metro and Okeechobee to the west is it's own micropolitan area.

2004 St. Lucie pop-226.8k

2004 Martin pop.- 137.9k

Entire metro pop thus equals only 364.7K, so not quite there yet.

Anyway was just surprise to see Ft. Pierce area in 400k pops. now and it really isn't there yet. It's just a nitpick so carry on.

[depechecureguyorl]

Wikipedia's credibility has been somewhat questionable of late. I only used their figures as a quick fix. Orl is already at 2M pop and Tampa/St. Pete metro is over 3M. Jax is well over 1M. I should look for better statistics and from a better source.

[jaxlvr_24]

I think the only good place to get population numbers is from the US census. Anybody can edit Wikipedia which is its problem.

[simms3]

depeche, are those Wikipedia figures bc those seem kind of exaggerated.

The poll also seems to reflect my perception about FL politics perfectly with MIA leading the pack and Tampa lagging. Maybe ORL gets more attention though than the poll suggests.

[depechecureguyorl]

^ Yes I got the figures from Wikipedia.org. Anyone can edit those pages, so exhagerated figures probably came from a local to the area.