The recovery and rebuilding in five Florida counties — Indian River, Martin, Okeechobee, Palm Beach and St. Lucie — is being helped by nearly $101 million in grants from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, including $21 million in Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funds. But measures taken in Tallahassee are providing a different sort of relief for the business community.
      On June 20, Gov. Bush welcomed the summer by signing into law the renewed Qualified Targeted Industry (QTI) and Qualified Defense Contractor (QDC) tax refund programs, keeping their provisions in place until 2010. That same day, he signed a measure cutting the intangible personal property tax in half and two measures limiting lawsuit abuse in the area of asbestos litigation.
      But another group of new laws may show even more promise to industrial site seekers. Signed later that same week in June, the three new measures establish what the administration calls a "pay-as-you-grow" plan for infrastructure development and growth management. The laws require roads to available or under construction within three years of a local government's approval of traffic-generating building permits, schools to be available or under construction within three years of locally approved new development and water plans to be more closely coordinated between communities and the state's five water management districts.
      Those three areas will be funded by $1.5 billion initially and $700 million annually thereafter. Among the provisions of the set of laws are regulatory incentives to develop within urban service boundaries and urban infill and redevelopment areas, and permitting and financial incentives to local water suppliers if they choose an alternative water supply project (e.g. desalination or reuse) from the regional water supply plan.