A supporter came up to Don Gaetz at his 2024 victory party, a night that marked the former senate president’s return to the Legislature after eight years in private life. The constituent, Gaetz says, cleverly summed up what voters wanted from him: “If you don’t do anything about the affordability issues, it won’t matter what else you do in the Legislature,” the man said. “But if you do do something about affordability, it won’t matter what else you do in the Legislature.”
When the Legislature convenes Jan. 13, affordability issues are sure to dominate. Tax relief for homesteaded properties tops the list, with the House issuing a series of proposed constitutional amendments of varying impact. Some or all of them could be on next November’s ballot as constitutional amendments requiring 60% of the vote to become law.
Gov. Ron DeSantis has called for eliminating property taxes in Florida entirely, but as of press time, he had not issued a specific proposal. And in October he blasted the multiple proposed House amendments, calling them a “political game” that is “an attempt to kill anything on property taxes.”
Sen. Don Gaetz (R-Niceville) represents a district in the Panhandle and is proposing an affordable housing bill and a bill that would look at utility executives’ compensation.
It’s a sign that the dysfunction that pushed the 2025 session 45 days overtime in a budget stalemate may carry forward. “Anybody who says they know where this is going to end up is fooling themselves completely and that includes (House Speaker) Danny Perez, (Senate President) Ben Albritton and Ron DeSantis because I don’t think any of them have a clue what’s ultimately going to come about,” says veteran Florida lobbyist Ron Book.
He represents 28 local government and taxing districts and expects to be knee-deep in the property tax debate. The focus is on the wrong topic, says Casey Cook, chief of legislative affairs for the Florida League of Cities: “Frankly, Floridians aren’t asking for property tax reform. They’re asking for help with skyrocketing insurance costs.”
He and several city and county managers testified before the House’s Select Committee on Property Taxes in September, arguing their budgets are lean and emphasizing that most of the $55 billion in ad valorem tax revenue in 2024 went to essential services like police, fire and EMS and constitutional offices they are required to fund. Homesteaded properties accounted for about $19 billion of that total.
If budgets have grown, Fernandina Beach City Manager Sarah Campbell testified, personnel costs are among the key drivers. Florida’s minimum wage has increased by 64% since 2020, creating a ripple effect on salaries throughout local government.
Meanwhile, in more than 70% of Florida’s 411 cities, the 2024 millage rate is the same as, or lower than, it was five years ago, Cook says.
Still, skyrocketing home prices as well as high property insurance and tax rates over the past five years are an undeniable problem. According to Florida Taxwatch, the average first-time Florida homeowner in 1980 was 30 years old. That rose to 42 by 2021, and prices have increased dramatically since.
Cook offers a business argument against cutting taxes on homesteaded properties as a remedy, saying it would be more difficult to attract top talent to cities that cut services. “Unstable city revenues breed chaos. When revenue swings wildly, governments are forced to scramble with emergency cuts or tax hikes. That forces reactive policy-making — last-minute taxes or sudden regulations or slashed services — and reactive government is a nightmare for business.”
Local governments likely would turn to non-homesteaded properties to fill the void, which would drive up costs on rental and commercial properties.
That potential cost shift is “a big concern with us,” says Brewster Bevis, president and CEO of Associated Industries of Florida. AIF spent years fighting to eliminate the tax on commercial leases and won’t be happy to see some of those savings erased. “Who will businesses pass it off to?” Bevis asks. “Consumers.”
Striking a balance is vital, says Florida Realtors President Tim Weisheyer. “We understand that the entire real estate market is very symbiotic. You need a strong commercial sector in order to have a vibrant housing community and a place for us to all live and work and play.”
ACCESSORIZING HOUSING
Florida Realtors supports one of Gaetz’s affordability bills, which would mandate local governments to allow accessory dwelling units “in any area zoned for single-family residential use.” ADUs “hold incredible potential to ease Florida’s housing crunch,” a Realtors’ legislative priorities document says.
ADUs are not new, Weisheyer says, adding that his grandparents had one on their Long Island property, and his parents lived in one after his father left the Air Force. “We see ADUs as lending to Florida’s diverse housing stock” and limiting demand on transportation and other infrastructure needs.
He lives in a master-planned community that allows for ADUs in Orlando’s Lake Nona area. House prices range from $700,000 to $5 million, and “I’m not aware of any complaints within my neighborhood.”
The units — think in-law suites or garage apartments — can offer less expensive rent for tenants and a revenue source for property owners, Gaetz says. In his Panhandle Senate district, like in much of the state, affordable housing remains a challenge. “The consequence of that in our part of the state … is people living tucked up next to the Alabama border and having to drive 45 minutes, an hour, and hour and a half to go to work every day through long traffic lines and then turn around and drive home again.”
That strains people’s vehicles and their pocketbooks, congests local roads and creates problems for employers.
Cook, the League of Cities lobbyist, thinks such decisions should be left to local governments, and there are concerns the units could be used for vacation rentals, potentially imposing noise and traffic nuisances on neighboring homeowners.
“I plead guilty” of trying to preempt local governments’ authority, Gaetz says, blaming a NIMBY mentality in some cities.
Accessory dwelling units like in-law suites or garage apartments can help provide more affordable housing, advocates say. But they’re not allowed everywhere.
His bill mandates a one-month minimum lease, which should alleviate the vacation rental concern. A similar bill passed the Senate unanimously last spring and overwhelmingly passed the House, but the two chambers couldn’t bridge differences in their respective versions. Some House members wanted to eliminate the lease minimum to allow short-term rentals. “That would really defeat the purpose of the bill,” Gaetz says.
The bill has “a puncher’s chance” in its second go-around, he says, saying the affordable housing problem has gotten worse. However, another one of his bills admittedly has steeper odds to overcome.
ELECTRIC FIGHT
Gaetz also is reviving a bill to give the state’s Public Service Commission more bodies and more bite. He wants to add two new seats to the commission, bringing it to seven members. In addition, utilities would have to file annual rate reports with the governor and the Legislature detailing potential customer costs if excess returns on equity occur, detailing executive compensation including stock options, bonuses and more “and highlight any compensation that exceeds the industry average.”
“Before we give them a gift — a government granted gift of higher rates paid by people who are squeezed already by affordability issues — before we do that, let’s have a look at executive compensation,” Gaetz says.
He offered a similar bill last session. It got through one committee but “was smothered in the cradle,” he says. “The utility companies didn’t even have to show up to give testimony. It was all handled in the hallways.”
Florida Power & Light declined to comment on Gaetz’s bill. During an October third quarter earnings call, John Ketchum, the president and CEO of FPL’s parent company NextEra Energy, claimed electricity rates today are 20% lower than they were in 2005 when adjusted for inflation. A new rate package would trigger 2% annual increases through 2029, meaning “bills would remain well below the current national average.”
Tampa Electric customers will pay about $5.50 more a month this year for 1,000 kilowatt hours. Florida Power & Light energy customers will pay more too.
The bill was filed before Florida Power & Light’s most recent rate request, which originally was touted as the largest in U.S. history, worth about $10 billion over the next four years. A settlement agreement announced in August and approved by the PSC in November reduced that by about 30%, but typical bills still would increase about $2.50 per month each year through 2029.
Starting this month, Tampa Electric customers will pay about $5.50 more a month this year for 1,000 kilowatt hours.
The FPL rate case makes it “obvious that we have to look at utility costs as a primary cost driver that makes Florida unaffordable for some people,” Gaetz says. “We can either wring our hands about it, or we can do nothing or we can try to begin (implementing) some sort of guardrails that will bring utility costs down to or under the national average.”
Those guardrails include adding two members to the state’s five-member Public Service Commission. One must be a CPA and the other must be a “chartered financial analyst.” Gaetz says he was “alarmed” to learn that no one with those qualifications currently sits on the commission, which “makes decisions involving extraordinarily complicated and difficult financial considerations. To not have basic financial qualifications and competence on the commission struck me as a significant gap.”
Utilities should be able to make a profit, he says, but since they’re government-regulated monopolies, customers don’t have the ability to change providers seeking better deals. “The government handed us over as a group of involuntary consumers to utility companies who will charge us rates that we have nothing to say about and service that we have nothing to do about.”
STATE SPENDING
The 2025 budget finally approved by lawmakers came in at just under $115 billion — that’s $3.8 billion less than 2024’s budget even though revenues remained steady. That’s likely to change, according to the Legislative Budget Commission, which in September projected a $3.8 billion surplus for 2026 but a $6.575 billion deficit in 2028. House budget chief Lawrence McClure pledged that last session’s fiscal restraint will continue as a result.
While relations between the governor’s office and legislative leadership may remain rocky, lawmakers are likely to find ways to pass a budget on time this year, Gaetz says. “We’re not going to let this one drag on because the politicians running for re-election want to go and campaign.”
E-VERIFY EXPANSION
Florida’s current system, enacted in 2021, aims to ensure workers are in the United States legally but applies only to businesses with at least 25 employees. That threshold leaves out nearly 500,000 Florida businesses.
A bill from state Rep. Berny Jacques (R-Seminole) would make the requirement apply to every Florida business. “It’s already illegal to hire these unauthorized workers, and we have a system that will verify whether or not you are in compliance with the law,” he said during a November committee hearing. “It will further strengthen the workforce integrity of our state.”
E-Verify matches an employee’s employment eligibility form against records with the Social Security Administration and the Department of Homeland Security.
LAWSUIT REFORM
It might be unusual for any special interest to prefer nothing be done in Tallahassee, but for Florida Chamber of Commerce CEO Mark Wilson, that’s the best outcome when it comes to lawsuit reform. The Chamber helped push through legislation in 2023 which limited damages and attorney’s fees in cases in which the plaintiff is at least partially found at fault. And it eliminated “one-way” attorney fees, paid to plaintiffs’ attorneys when damages are awarded.
“The people on the billboards want to undo the reforms,” Wilson says. “The problem is they’re working.”
The 2025 session featured a bill that would restore those fees, which Wilson argues would forfeit gains made since the 2023 changes. More insurers are returning to the state market, he says, and rates have stabilized or decreased.