LEDYARD KING USA TODAY NETWORK - FLORIDA

The sugar industry, energy companies and the owner of the Jacksonville Jaguars were among the Florida donors that helped bankroll President Donald Trump’s inauguration in January.

Companies and individuals from the Sunshine State collectively gave more than $5.5 million of the $106.7 million Trump’s committee raised from private sources nationwide to fund six days of events surrounding his Jan. 20 swearing-in.

The total was more than twice the $53 million President Barack Obama raised for his first inauguration in 2009, the previous record.

Thirty-eight contributors from Florida gave at least $25,000, according to the 510-page report Trump’s committee filed with the Federal Election Commission last week.

The list includes 20 who gave at least $100,000 and two who ponied up $1 million apiece: Shahid R. Khan, a business tycoon from Naples, who owns the Jacksonville Jaguars of the National Football League, and Ronnie Ory Jr. of Brandon, who owns Cyprexx Services, a real estate rehabilitation firm in the Tampa area.

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Florida donors also included companies who have a stake in what Washington will decide on numerous fronts including energy, health care and agriculture:

Florida Crystal Corps (West Palm Beach): $500,000

Nextera Energy Inc. (Juno Beach): $250,000

GEO Corrections Holding Inc. (Boca Raton): $250,000

Managed Care of North America (Fort Lauderdale): $135,000

United States Sugar Corp. (Clewiston): $125,050

Chiquita Brands (Fort Lauderdale): $100,000

Holland & Knight (Lakeland): $100,000

Met Life (Tampa): $100,000

White House spokesman Sean Spicer told reporters Wednesday that companies and individuals gave to the inaugural committee out of civic pride.

“Funding the inaugural committee is pretty much a non-partisan activity that has gone back every administration,” Spicer said. “I think a lot of Americans and companies and entities are proud to support the inaugural.”

Despite proposed cuts, Scott calls Trump ‘good partner for Florida’

President Trump’s 2018 budget blueprint proposes deep cuts in federal programs important to Florida: Coast Guard services, Superfund cleanup, and Community Development Block Grants to name three.

But Florida Gov. Rick Scott doesn’t sound too concerned.

“I believe Trump’s going to be a good partner for Florida,” the Republican governor told reporters Wednesday during a visit to the nation’s capital that included a visit to the White House. “That’s been my experience so far. The proof’s in the pudding.”

That “pudding” includes the Trump administration’s recent announcement that it would provide the state $1.5 billion to help its hospitals treat the poor and uninsured, a reversal from the Obama administration, which decided to reduce hospital aid in an effort to pressure Scott to expand Medicaid.

Scott also pointed to the president’s promise to him Wednesday that Washington would provide the money necessary to help the state complete the upgrade of the Herbert Hoover Dike around Lake Okeechobee by 2022 instead of the scheduled 2025 target.

A Corps of Engineers spokesman said Thursday that cost estimates to finish the project now exceed $900 million — up from the $800 million price tag a senior agency official cited two months ago.

Scott has proposed allocating $200 million in state funding toward the project. But even if the state legislature agrees, Washington would still be counted on to provide the remaining $700 million-plus at a time when the president is proposing deep domestic cuts.

Under Trump’s budget blueprint unveiled last month, spending on the Corps’ would be slashed from $6 billion to $5 billion. The agency wouldn’t have to come up with all the money in the 2018 budget to meet the 2022 target for dike upgrades but the cuts are unlikely to make it easier given other states’ demands for their water projects.

Poll: President travels too much to Mar-a-Lago, other Trump properties

A new poll suggests most Americans think President Trump spends too much time at his properties, including his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, and are uncomfortable with the amount of money spent on safeguarding him and his family when they stay outside the White House.

Fifty-five percent of 1,062 voters nationwide surveyed by Quinnipiac University from April 12 through April 18 say the president spends more time than he should at Trump-owned properties while 34 percent disagree.

Trump has stayed at Mar-a-Lago seven times since he was inaugurated Jan. 20. About a quarter of his time since he became president has been spent traveling to or staying at his glitzy Florida resort, according to some analyses.

In addition, the poll found only about a third — 35 percent — are “very comfortable” or “somewhat comfortable” with the amount spent on security so President Trump and his family can stay in places other than the White House. Sixty percent said they were “not so comfortable” or “not comfortable at all.”

Rubio, Nelson push for flood insurance reforms

Florida’s two senators — Republican Marco Rubio and Democrat Bill Nelson —are teaming up with other Gulf Coast lawmakers to push Senate leaders into updating the National Flood Insurance Program.

The program, set to expire Sept. 30, helps property owners along flood-prone coastal areas afford insurance and update floodplain management standards. Without the legislation, flood insurance would skyrocket and prove unaffordable for many homeowners.

But the program is heavily in debt — around $24 billion — because the premiums paid into it have not been able to cover the damage from major storms such as Katrina and Sandy, leaving federal taxpayers across the country to subsidize the program and some lawmakers reluctant to keep the program going as is.

In addition, Congress is wrestling with a host of major issues, including health care, tax reform and infrastructure funding.

“Reauthorization of the NFIP is critical to our Gulf State constituents, a large majority of whom live in coastal areas and high-risk flood zones,” Rubio and Nelson wrote to Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Minority Leader Charles Schumer.

Republicans Thad Cochran of Mississippi and Bill Cassidy and John Kennedy, both of Louisiana, also signed the letter.

“Given the program’s importance to our states, we urge Senate leadership to ensure that legislation reauthorizing the NFIP avoids any lapses in coverage and offers a long-term solution that promotes certainty in the market,” the senators wrote.

They suggest several areas for reform including: ways to ensure policies are affordable, expanding a competitive private flood insurance market with “robust” consumer protections, and the use of up-to-date flood maps “to determine rates with a more effective process for community involvement and appeals in adopting those maps.”

Contributing; Fredreka Schouten, USA TODAY

Contact Ledyard King at lking@gannett.com; Twitter: @ledgeking