BRADENTON, Fla. (WWSB) - Manatee County voters snubbed Tallahassee last fall when they rejected Gov. Ron DeSantis’ hand-picked, pro-development commission candidates and instead elected a slate of grassroots Republicans who promised to rein in runaway growth.
True to their word, the new commissioners quickly moved to cap sprawl — vowing to raise impact fees on developers to pay for new infrastructure, pushing to restore wetland protections and halting some large-scale projects altogether.
But those steps have now put them on a collision course with the governor and the powerful real-estate industry closely aligned with his administration, which has pushed back at every turn.
In June, the governor vetoed the county’s $4 million in state budget requests after a commissioner criticized Sen