That adjusted data would have included many uncounted Floridians. A good example of Florida's grant deficit is transportation, the second largest grant program behind Medicaid. Despite efforts to address this, Florida continues to help fund other states' transportation systems. From 1992 to 1996, during the last federal transportation funding act, Florida also had a return of 79 cents per dollar. Only six states fared worse.
Outdated formulas penalize large, rapidly growing states like Florida.
There are numerous, complex allocation formulas, generally based on population, density and construction costs. These have not been adequately adjusted to reflect a changing nation, especially a changing Florida. The law marks an improvement for Florida. Although it does not go as far as some had hoped, it provides more dollars for Florida and gets the state's taxpayers a better return on their federal transportation investments. That said, closer inspection reveals that Florida's increase is not as great as it might seem.