The Rep. Brannan–Sen. Bradley Team: they
delivered the bacon to Columbia County
August 22, 2025 11:59 pm | 4 min read
Florida Representative Chuck Brannan holds up a check
for $3,050,000
COLUMBIA COUNTY, FL – Thursday evening, Representative Chuck Brannan visited the Columbia County 5 with a big check (3ft x 4ft) for $3,050,000. The check represented Florida legislative appropriations for the County, a team effort by Representative Chuck Brannan and Senator Jennifer Bradley – a recipe for success.
Representative Brannan explained to the County 5 (County Commissioners) that he and the County Legislative Liaison, Staz Guntek, “always talk and try to be strategic about what we ask for and what we try to get.”
See the 7-year Brannan-Bradley money trail, as laid out by Rep. Brannan
Rep. Brannan reflected on the legislative money getting process, “The longer I've been there [legislature] and the better position I get in, I try to get what I can get. And y'all realize we had about $2 1/2Bil-$3Bil of budget cuts this year. So, my job was to say we knew that had to come from somewhere, but my job was, 'Hey, it ain't coming from my area because I'm gonna protect my stuff.'”
Rep. Brannan continued, “I'm proud to say that Columbia County this year gets every project they asked for fully funded.”
Explaining his relationship with Senator Bradley, Mr. Brannan said, “The Senate and House, you know, there was a battle with the governor, too, at times, sort of got contentious, but it's never been that way between she and I thank goodness that we worked together.”
How much money is coming to Columbia County? Rep. Brannan explained, “This year, it looks like Columbia County, if you count the road projects that we appropriated for DOT and then all the member projects. Looks like the total this year will be $16,875,476.”
Rep. Brannon & the Senators Bradley, Rob and Jennifer, delivered the bacon
He told the County 5, “Our 7-year total for Columbia County is $169,623,282. Our total district money is now at over half a billion for the five counties.”
Rep. Brannan showed some frustration with the
legislature.
Rep. Brannan mentioned that the district used to include Suwannee and Hamilton, “Some of that money in the first four years went over there. Our total's going to be $650,627,164, and I kind of did a little math on my knee out there while I was trying to wait until the rain slacked up enough that I could get in here. So, if you divide that among the seven counties, Columbia County has gotten about fourth of that, $650 million.”
Rep. Brannan mentioned, “Only two schools are funded in Florida this year, Lake Butler and DeSoto County.” This is not surprising considering the state’s diminishment of public schools.
The Future
Speaking about the future, Rep. Brannan said, “I looked for this session to be just as contentious as the last session. Y'all know about this, all the property tax stuff that's on the horizon. Somebody asked me the other day what I thought was gonna become of that. I said, ‘I don't have a crystal ball, but I can tell you that that train's probably left the station and the governor's driving it, and it's gonna wind up somewhere, so we can look for something to be on the ballot.’”
He reiterated, “Okay, I'm gonna protect my pot over here 'cause it ain't coming out, out of mine. Let it come out somebody else's. We've got to try to protect our small and fiscally constrained counties.”
Rep. Brannan mentioned that this session’s legislative delegation meeting is just around the corner. “It will be here before we know it,” he said. The meeting will be at the end of September or the beginning of October.
The Process: it’s “wheeling and dealing and what we don’t pass”
There are lots of, and especially in that last three or four days, a lot of wheeling and dealing and a lot of stuff going on that they put you in jail for. [laughter] But that was enacted way before I got there. It's an interesting process, and it's a people process.
Rep. Brannan explained the process: “So, there are lots of, and especially in that last three or four days, a lot of wheeling and dealing and a lot of stuff going on that they put you in jail for. [laughter] But that was enacted way before I got there. It's an interesting process, and it's a people process.”
“You can't get this money without building relationships, and you can't pass policy. And believe me, I deal with a lot of policy as chair of the Judiciary [Committee], and I've chaired gaming and regulation. I've chaired criminal justice policy, and then I chaired Justice Appropriations… But, y'all would not believe sometimes it's not important what we pass, it's what we don't pass.”
“I root around just as hard as I can to bring these dollars home. But it was very hard, very tough this year. Once again, thank you to Senator Bradley for standing by our side. And it got contentious between the Senate and the House, as I said. So, some of the projects were zeroed out on the other side, and we just had to buy 'em – what we call buy 'em. That means, say the Senate puts in zero on this project, and the House puts in zero on that project. And we can't get 'em to come to meet us halfway and fund it, and we'll just buy it. We'll just say what the heck with it. You're gonna leave it at zero. We're gonna take it out of our money and fund it. We had to do that on some of these projects, going both ways.”
Rep. Brannan concluded his explanation, saying, "unlike the previous six years I've been there," this was "very, very contentious."
The Florida check rests on the floor. It wasn't clear
who was going to bring it to the bank.
Epilogue
After some more talk and County 5 thank-yous, Representative Brannan wrapped it up, “I'll leave you with this. You look at the bright side, and I think of it this way. When we're up there fighting for these dollars, especially in a year like this, whatever we can bring y'all is something you ain't gotta pay for out of something else. And maybe you can use that, use that money on something else. Thank you."
Updated Aug. 23, 2025: fixed spelling errors.