Florida's economic decline predated the start of the Great Depression. Therefore, it had fewer resources and more debt "than other regions of the nation." Large amounts of local debt financing through bonds worsened the economic situation in the state with most of it coming from the years of the land boom. During the land boom, many local governments sold bonds to pay for projects related to development. After the boom, local government did not have revenue proceeds to pay down bond debt. This resulted in widespread unsecured bond default. Another contributing factor was that numerous counties in southern Florida would take out "large loans" during the boom to help build infrastructure projects to entice developers which led to these counties going into debt. Doyle Carlton was elected in 1928 as governor and during his tenure he tried to put a limit on the amount of bonded debt local governments could hold. He faced opposition from state representatives in northern Florida whose counties had less debt and did not want to pay for their southern counterparts.
