The Biden years gave Florida a reminder of exactly what federal "investment" actually looks like – broken supply chains, empty promises, and bureaucrats in Washington deciding which communities deserved to survive.
DeSantis watched all of it, kept his mouth shut, and kept building.
Now he's standing in Panama City announcing $13 million in Job Growth Grant Fund awards that will create or retain nearly 1,000 jobs – and not one dollar came with a DEI rider or a green energy mandate attached.
Florida Job Growth Grant Fund Sends $13 Million to Bay County Airport and Eastern Shipbuilding
Here's what the money actually does.
Five million goes to the Panama City – Bay County Airport and Industrial District to build a 160,000-square-foot aircraft engine repair and testing facility at Northwest Florida Beaches International Airport.
120,000 square feet of that facility is pure engine repair work – real technician jobs, the kind that require real skills and pay real wages.
https://twitter.com/GovRonDeSantis/status/2028913394896588963?s=20
The project is expected to create up to 400 new positions in Bay County alone.
Port St. Joe gets $2.25 million for a two-phase road project that unlocks construction of 177 workforce homes.
That's not affordable housing in the Washington sense – the kind where your taxes pay for someone else's apartment in a city that hates you.
That's workforce housing – homes built for the 190 workers the project is expected to bring into the community, people who fix things and build things and show up every day.
Gulf County gets $6 million to expand Eastern Shipbuilding with a new self-docking float dry dock – keeping 125 existing jobs intact at the largest private-sector employer in Northwest Florida and adding 337 more.
Eastern Shipbuilding builds vessels for national defense and commercial clients and has delivered more than 350 ships in nearly 50 years of operation.
The federal government partially terminated their Coast Guard cutter contract last year.
DeSantis just sent $6 million to make sure they survive that and come back stronger.
Florida Ranked Number One in Workforce Education While Washington Was Still Talking
DeSantis reminded the crowd in Panama City of something Washington doesn't want you to notice.
In 2019, he signed an executive order setting a goal: make Florida the number one state in the nation for workforce education by 2030.
Florida hit that goal five years early.
As of February 2026, Florida is ranked number one for workforce education nationwide – with over 818,000 K-12 students enrolled in Career and Technical Education programs and record apprenticeship participation at 25,000 active statewide.
That's a 30% enrollment increase in seven years, driven by a governor who decided vocational training isn't a consolation prize – it's the point.
DeSantis put it plainly in Panama City: "There's colleges that nobody's even heard of that charge $70,000 a year. That piece of paper is not magic."
He's right.
https://twitter.com/GovRonDeSantis/status/2028894128134897920?s=20
The students coming out of Florida's aerospace, maritime, and technical programs aren't going into debt chasing credentials that don't produce careers.
They're walking into facilities like the one DeSantis just funded and getting paid to fix jet engines.
What $318 Million in Florida Jobs Actually Looks Like in Seven Years
Since 2019, the Florida Job Growth Grant Fund has awarded more than $318 million statewide.
That investment has produced over 42,000 new jobs and more than 32,000 workforce education opportunities.
No federal mandates.
No progressive priorities buried in the fine print.
Just a governor who looked at what Florida's economy actually needed – aerospace, aviation, maritime, defense – and funded it.
https://twitter.com/GovRonDeSantis/status/2029005066397696458?s=20
The rest of the country is still waiting for Washington to figure out infrastructure while Florida's already built it.
DeSantis is term-limited and leaving office in January.
Whoever follows him inherits a state that ranks number one in workforce education, number one in new business formation, and just locked in nearly 1,000 more jobs in one of the most hurricane-battered regions of the state.
That's the blueprint.
The question is whether anyone else in America has the spine to run it.
Sources:
- Ron DeSantis, Governor's Press Office, "Governor Ron DeSantis Announces Over $13 Million in Infrastructure Awards in Panama City," Executive Office of the Governor of Florida, March 3, 2026.
- Camille Sarabia, "Gov. Ron DeSantis invests over $13 million in infrastructure development, set to bring nearly 1,000 jobs," FOX 35 Orlando, March 3, 2026.
- Governor's Press Office, "Florida Reaches #1 in Workforce Education," Executive Office of the Governor of Florida, February 19, 2026.
- CareerSource Florida, "CareerSource Florida and State Leaders Host Second Annual Workforce Day at the Capitol," January 28, 2026.
- Eastern Shipbuilding Group, Inc., Company Website, easternshipbuilding.com, accessed March 4, 2026.
- Staff, "U.S. Coast Guard partially terminates contract with Eastern Shipbuilding Group," WJHG/WECP, July 15, 2025.
