Florida Lieutenant Governor Jeanette Nunez is getting an office away from Tallahassee. Florida lawmakers are allowing Nunez to work remotely from South Florida. Nunez sees the move as a practical way to address the difficulty of travel to Tallahassee.
“Having a regional headquarters here will allow me to have a base in terms of where to work out of when I am dealing with issues out of South Florida," she says. " As you know, Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach are the largest population areas in the state. But it’s also important to recognize that this is not something that’s going to add an additional burden to taxpayers in terms of the office itself.”
Florida’s Constitution requires state government be housed in Tallahassee yet direct flights into the Capital City are often expensive and hard to come-by and travel by car from South Florida takes can take 10 hours. Nunez will share a space with Governor Ron DeSantis at Florida International University, home to one of the governor’s regional offices. Florida Supreme Court Justices are also getting the ability to have private chambers in a courthouse in the district they’re from.
Nunez, who also heads the state's Space Florida agency, says Florida is not out of the running to become the hub for U.S. Space Command. President Donald Trump created the agency through an Executive Order. A report from the Air Force last month revealed Florida was not one of the sites under consideration, but Nunez says she doesn't believe those initial reports.
“No other state hosts more combatant commands. No other state has as many military installations…we have a long history of supporting our nation’s efforts in space. And our commercial space industry is booming.”
Nunez says Governor Ron DeSantis has spoken to President Trump about the issue, and that Florida’s congressional delegation is working on it as well. Recently local and state government, chambers of commerce, and space industry officials met in Orlando to discuss a proposal to bring the space headquarters to Florida.
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