TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – Fiscal belt-tightening is coming in Tallahassee, according to Florida’s new legislative leaders who took their oaths of office Tuesday.
State Sen. Ben Albritton, R-Wauchula, formally became president of the Florida Senate, while State Rep. Daniel Perez, R-Miami, became speaker of the Florida House of Representatives.
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During the one-day organizational session, Albritton and Bartow said Florida voters made it clear in November that they were pleased with the state’s direction and trusted Republicans to continue to lead the state.
However, Perez said the state had spent freely in the last two years, and that was going to change in the coming legislative session, which will happen next March.
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“Floridians want to decide their own destinations. They want the freedom to travel paths of their own choosing, at their own speed. They expect the government to maintain the road, but they aren’t looking for handouts,” Perez said.
Perez said he especially wants to cut funding for local projects and programs championed by lawmakers, which have increased in recent years.
The final 2024 Florida budget came out to $116.5 billion after nearly $1 billion in vetoes by Gov. DeSantis. The budget used $48.6 billion in state general revenue funds, $30 billion in state trust funds, and $37.9 billion in federal dollars.
It was also $2 billion less than the previous year’s budget.
Perez also said that lawmakers would not hold a special session to address soaring costs condo associations and owners are facing, a side effect of a 2022 law requiring condo associations to have adequate reserves to pay for building repairs, and new requirements for inspections of tall condo buildings.
“I have heard the call for a special session on condos, just like the rest of us have,” Perez told reporters. “The question shouldn’t be when. The question should be, what? What is the solution that people are offering to the issue before condos? It’s an issue we’ll be discussing during session.”
Albritton, a citrus grower, said he wanted to hold the insurance industry accountable, though he did not provide specifics about what he wanted to do.
“Floridians have been paying faithfully their insurance premiums for years, sometimes decades, and now they expect their insurance company to keep up its end of the bargain,” Albritton said. “I want to make sure that impacted Floridians and insurance companies hear me loudly and clearly — we are watching. We’ve made changes that insurance companies said they needed to improve competition and stabilize rates. And we’ve enacted pro-consumer transparency to protect homeowners. The proof will be in the results. I’m not going to sit idly by if legitimate claims get denied while rates continue to rise. Period.”
Albritton also said he wanted to focus on reinvigorating the state’s rural areas and saving the citrus industry, which continues to struggle amid disease and hurricane damage. He also wanted to continue to focus on water quality.
Republicans continue to hold supermajorities in the Florida House and Senate, outnumbering Democrats 85 to 35 in the House and 28 to 12 in the Senate. This gives the Republican Party wide latitude to get its agenda through the legislature.
The minority party’s new leaders also spoke Tuesday, reminding lawmakers that Florida residents still want Florida lawmakers to focus on affordability in the state.
“There’s just so much, in a nonpartisan fashion, that has bubbled up and come to the forefront. The agendas of prior cycles, prior individuals and prior whims and wishes of other elected officials has lost the autonomy of the legislature,” said State Sen. Jason Pizzo, D-Hollywood, the new Senate minority leader.
“We are here to lead. We are here to challenge and to hold those with power accountable when they stray from the principles of justice and equality, because we wholeheartedly believe that every Floridian deserves the freedom to be healthy, prosperous and safe,” said State Rep. Fentrice Driskell, D-Tampa, the House minority leader.
Information from News Service of Florida was used in this report.
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