By Jim Turner ©2024 The News Service of Florida
TALLAHASSEE — Expect fiscal belt-tightening in the Florida House, but not a special legislative session to address soaring costs faced by condominium associations and owners, new House Speaker Daniel Perez, R-Miami, signaled Tuesday as he started a two-year term as speaker.
Perez, a 37-year-old Cuban American lawyer, briefly questioned past state spending and said Floridians “aren’t looking for handouts” and don’t want lawmakers to “tell them what to think or how to live.” But he also pointed to concerns about issues such as the affordability of living in Florida.
“In my experience, Floridians are realistic. They understand that there are trade-offs. They understand that in a state battered by hurricanes, insurance will be a challenge,” Perez said to lawmakers and other audience members, including Gov. Ron DeSantis, during a post-election organization session. “But they need to know that our state’s insurance laws are not being written by and for the insurance companies. They want to own their own homes, not be tenants to private equity firms. They want to open up a business without jumping through endless bureaucratic hoops. They want to pick their own doctors and send their kids to good schools.”
Rep. Sam Garrison, a Fleming Island Republican slated to become speaker in 2026, described Perez as a “bro,” a word Perez often uses, but also as someone who “takes his role in the Cuban American story, his family’s story, his friends’ story, very, very seriously.”
“He carries a heavy burden, a burden that many of you in this chamber, whose families lost so much and who found hope in our great state, share alongside with him,” Garrison said.
The one-day organization session came after Republicans maintained super-majorities in the House and Senate during the Nov. 5 elections. Along with Perez becoming speaker, Wauchula Republican Ben Albritton became Senate president Tuesday.
While Democrats will have relatively little legislative power over the next two years, House Minority Leader Fentrice Driskell, D-Tampa, said they will “be the voice of reason, the voice of conscience,” as Floridians “are far more evenly divided on many of the most important issues that will be raised among us.”
“Since the House last met, our state has encountered numerous challenges, from devastating weather events like back-to-back hurricanes to … tornadoes that carved a path literally through our state, to escalating property insurance affordability and condo crises,” Driskell said.
Speaking to reporters after the session, Perez said lawmakers will start addressing condominium issues when they hold committee meetings in the weeks before the 2025 regular session, which will start in March. Also, Albritton said he expects lawmakers to address condominiums during the regular session, rather than a special session.
“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.”
DeSantis has said it was up to the Legislature to address significant increases in assessments that condo residents face on top of homeowner association fees.
After the 2021 collapse of the Champlain Towers South condominium building in Surfside that killed 98 people, lawmakers during a 2022 special session passed a measure aimed at requiring condominium associations to have adequate financial reserves to pay for needed repairs to buildings. Also, the bill set requirements for inspections of condominium buildings that are three stories or higher.
The law was tweaked in 2023, and the Legislature this year passed a measure that targeted wrongdoing by members of association boards.
Perez was first elected in a 2017 special election and had long been in line to become speaker, one of the most powerful positions in the state. He replaced former Speaker Paul Renner, R-Palm Coast.
Heading into the organization session, Perez had cautioned House members about a need to reduce spending on projects and programs lawmakers pursue for their districts. Such funding grew from $174 million in 2019 to $1.3 billion in 2024.
“It is far easier to spend money than to save it,” Perez said during his speech Tuesday. “We talk about being fiscally responsible. But are we? Or are we just giving ourselves a free pass in Florida by pointing out that we aren’t Washington, D.C.?”
“State government has become so flush with cash that we have lost any sense of discipline,” Perez said. “We make purchases following natural disasters with little to no inventory control. We buy land that we can’t keep track of, much less manage competently. We spend millions of dollars on failed IT projects. How much money has been spent on Capitol renovations only to have parking garages that leak water and flood?”
Perez noted there’s been talk of revamping the state Department of Business and Professional Regulation. He said lawmakers should “actually dismantle any license that stifles competition and keeps hard-working Floridians on the outside of jobs looking in.”
Here are Perez’s remarks as prepared for delivery
“Members, it is my honor to serve as your speaker. There are many people that I need to thank, but I will do that privately. Today isn’t about me or my personal journey.
“And I’m not going to talk for very long because I feel like everywhere we turn people are talking. They are opining about what we should think or say or do. So many people talking; so few people listening. And as politicians, we are among the worst offenders. We use too many words but often say so little that matters.
“In the last few weeks, reporters have endlessly asked, ‘What will your priorities be as speaker?’ I understand the question. If I mention two or three issues, then they have an easy framework for every story they write. It’s what’s expected. I make a speech, announce a priority, give it a fancy name, promise to spend a bunch of money, and then pat myself on the back when the bill passes, claiming that my speakership was a grand success. Except when the dust settles, the new law doesn’t actually make a difference. It doesn’t really solve the problem I claimed I was worried about. It’s a game of labels and leverage for the purpose of ego and credit. I understand the game. I’m opting not to play.
“Instead, let me answer that question in a different way: My priority for the 2025 and 2026 sessions is to serve the people of Florida. The actual people of Florida. Not the online social media activists, not the lobbyists or interest groups, not the institutions that dominate our political conversations.
“I’m more interested in talking about the small business owner in Jacksonville, the abuela in Miami-Dade, the single mother in Orlando, the entrepreneur in Tampa. We are the Florida House of Representatives. We are the People’s House, and it is the people of our state who should be our priority. We aren’t a debate society, and we shouldn’t be the House of Talk. We should be the House of Action. We should pass laws that really matter to the lives of real people facing real problems.
“So what do the people of Florida want? Since the creation of the Florida territory, our state has been a destination for people of all races, ethnicities, nationalities, and religions. Our growth and prosperity were linked to the network of highways that bound our state together. The people of Florida believe in the promise of the Open Road. 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 or no-interest loans or income guarantees. The people of Florida do not need or want us to tell them what to think or how to live.
“In my experience, Floridians are realistic. They understand that there are tradeoffs. They understand that in a state battered by hurricanes, insurance will be a challenge. But they need to know that our state’s insurance laws are not being written by and for the insurance companies. They want to own their own homes, not be tenants to private equity firms. They want to open up a business without jumping through endless bureaucratic hoops. They want to pick their own doctors and send their kids to good schools. And they want elected officials who are on their side.
“Thousands of years before anyone coined the phrase ‘crowd sourcing,’ humanity assembled in legislative bodies to try to take advantage of our collective wisdom. I’m not standing before you today to announce a program of legislation because that’s not my job, it’s our mission together.
“But that mission isn’t an easy one. After all, it is far easier to spend money than to save it. We talk about being fiscally responsible. But are we? Or are we just giving ourselves a free pass in Florida by pointing out that we aren’t Washington, D.C.?
“State government has become so flush with cash that we have lost any sense of discipline. We make purchases following natural disasters with little to no inventory control. We buy land that we can’t keep track of, much less manage competently. We spend millions of dollars on failed IT projects. How much money has been spent on Capitol renovations only to have parking garages that leak water and flood?
“We need to build a state budget that values value. We need to ensure that the laws we write have actual meaning. For example, there has been some talk about taking the pieces of DBPR (the Department of Business and Professional Regulation) and redistributing them to other agencies. We reshuffle the pieces on the board, but we don’t change the game. It’s a headline not a solution. Let’s have real conversations instead of changing the label, let’s actually dismantle any license that stifles competition and keeps hard-working Floridians on the outside of jobs looking in.
“Floridians want equality of opportunity. They want to believe that if they play by the rules that the deck won’t be stacked against them. They want a system that isn’t built around the needs of special interests, but one that treats the needs of everyday Floridians as special.
“They want a House of Representatives that represents them, believes in them, fights for them. We have two years to show the people that we hear them. We have two years to act. We have two years to widen the Open Road to the Florida Dream. The time for talk is over. It’s time to get to work. God Bless you and God Bless the great state of Florida.”
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