This week, the Florida Legislature finalized the $70 billion state budget and ended debate in the House and Senate on how Florida state tax dollars should be spent.  Included within the Florida budget are the following projects that some (including the Orlando Sentinel) are labelling as special deals done to keep powerful Tallahassee senators and representatives happy.

That may be, Florida politics being what they are, but the following projects will be good for Florida real estate development, Florida land investment, and the overall economy of these areas nevertheless.  Consider the following:

1.  Lakeland, Florida, will the hometown for a new state polytechnic university, an institution that will be independent from the University of South Florida.  Not to be confused with the current Polytechnic University in Orlando, either: that institution is affiliated with the Polytechnic University of Puerto Rico, serving as its Orlando Campus.  This project should be a boost for the entire Lakeland area - from Tampa to Orlando. 

2.  The Orlando Executive Airport will get $1.1 million to improve its facility before the October 2012 National Business Aviation Association Convention. 

3. A commercial research grant in the amount of $10 million was alloted for a new "economic development commission" to serve the Space Coast and help communities that have suffered a big economic blow from the loss of the space shuttle.  This includes a lot of benefit, direct and indirect, to  Central Florida.   

4.  There will be $5 million in funding for two business incubators at the Central Florida Life Sciences Incubator Consortium.  Since the CFLSIC has the Orlando area real estate developer Tavistock Group as one of its participants, the Orlando area and all of Central Florida should find this to be good news.

 5.  Major League Soccer (the kind that foreign investors like to watch, remember) got a boost with $1 million targeted to boost soccer in Florida by funding training camps for major league soccer teams to hold their training camps in Central Florida.  Connected with this:  Walt Disney World, which has professional-standard soccer facilities and the Central Florida Sports Commission.

Learn more about the details in the latest budget out of the Florida Legislature here. 

Meanwhile, consider this:  while the budget in this economy means once again tightening our belts (and yes, lots of squealing happens), lots of people are working very hard to find, fuel, and fund things that will help the State of Florida recover from its economic crisis so we can all look forward to a prosperous future.

For real estate development and land investment both foreign and domestic, this means more than looking at land prices and considering locations: it means thinking outside the box to things like promoting professional soccer, improving airports, and advancing technological education ... because all this works together for a better Florida.