FIGHTS BETWEEN GOVERNOR, HOUSE AND SENATE?

An Opinion By Jan Bergemann

Published April 15, 2025

As usual -- this has happened many times before in past sessions -- we'll see this year a fight between the three legislative branches during the legislative session in Tallahassee.

This year it's mainly a big "disagreement" between Governor Ron DeSantis and House Speaker Daniel Perez.

Two issues are the bone of contention:
1.) Eliminate Property Tax or lower sales tax?
2.) The provisions of the CONDO BILL 3.0 (HB 913 + SB 1742)

Governor Ron DeSantis made it very clear at recent press conferences that he seriously "dislikes" the House version of CONDO BILL 3.0 (HB 913), claiming it favors developers too much at the expense of condo owners, while the Senate version provides more flexibility for associations and boards. Let's just hope that cooler heads prevail and an owner-friendly version of the condo bill will end up on the Governor's desk so he doesn't use his veto-pen eliminating all help these new versions of FS 718 would provide for Florida's condo owners in serious financial distress.

While the fight over the condo bill may finally get settled, the tax proposals are definitely more difficult to settle. Lowering sales tax would help tourism and definitely not help the general tax budget of Florida. Eliminating property tax would create a big hole in county budgets, but adding another 1 percent to sales tax might make up for it. Florida lives in big part of tourism and a sales tax increase would as well be paid by tourists, while eliminating property tax would help Florida's property owners -- and renters. In the end the fighting parties have to answer this question when making a decision: Do we want to help tourists or the folks living in Florida -- meaning Florida's citizens. Don't forget: Eliminating property tax would seriously help Florida's condo owners who are in serious financial distress caused by recently enacted "Condo Safety Bills"!

Governor DeSantis, Speaker Perez and Senate President Albritton are all Republicans. Shouldn't they just be able to find solutions to help their constituents?