As the Republican super-majority celebrates opening day of Florida’s legislative session, Democratic lawmakers can’t do much more than watch -- and try to point out the weak spots in the GOP’s arguments.
In his State of the State speech, Governor Ron DeSantis called for more tax relief. He said that while property values have surged in recent years, this has come at a cost to taxpayers….who he described as “squeezed by local government property taxes.”
And DeSantis recently said he’d support eliminating property taxes, which would make Florida the first state to do so. Lawmakers have a bill this session that would launch a study looking into the proposal.
In her response to the governor’s speech, House Minority Leader Fentrice Driskell, a Tampa Democrat, went straight after that suggestion.
“Another of DeSantis’s recent schemes is to talk about ending property taxes," she said. "Unfortunately, he conveniently fails to explain how our communities would be harmed as a consequence. He wants the headlines and attention, but he doesn’t mention that property tax dollars fund our local public schools, police, firefighters, sanitation workers, and all the other things our local governments do every day.”
Driskell says if the state cuts property taxes, the fall-out will be on the shoulders of local government.
“And if these communities need to fire your kid’s teacher, or the officers that patrol your neighborhood, or the closest fire station to your house… Well, that’s not his fault," she said. "By the time that happens, he’ll have moved on to another culture war to distract us from a simple truth - he has no plans to make your life better.”
Senate Democratic Leader Jason Pizzo of Hollywood says he doesn’t want to engage in so-called culture war issues. He says those won’t lower property insurance, or your rent.
“Nor will they result in your kids’ GPAs getting higher nor their test scores going higher," he said. "And like many of you, I’ve wondered how, with more than 30 years of majority control in the legislature and executive branches, how any of these issues were so insidious that they festered into such an instant concern. Or rather, how did a generation of Republican predecessors allow us to get to this place?”
More important, Pizzo says, are questions like what is the legislature doing about failing infrastructure. Or why is the National Guard still filling critical staffing shortages at our state prisons?
However, Pizzo says he’s heartened by the leadership of Senate President Ben Albritton and House Speaker Daniel Perez, both Republicans.
“This morning, Senate President Ben Albritton presented an agenda, a legislative agenda, that is robust and real: to feed families, to foster economic growth, to protect our children, our homes, demand efficiencies with your tax dollars, and demand the right to course the years of neglect and indifference. Speaker Perez expressed much of the same.”
If the legislative leaders are focused on kitchen-table issues that help Floridians, Pizzo says he’s on board.
"And so I pledge my absolute commitment that if we can focus on this agenda, there need not be an ideology or even an aisle that divides us,” he said.
Democrats have outlined several of their own priorities for the session, many which don’t align with the agenda set out by GOP leaders.
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