Florida's Latest News

Gov. DeSantis drives argument for property tax cuts, threatens to veto House sales tax plan

Florida’s Governor is pressing the case for property tax abatement, saying he won’t entertain a House plan to cut sales taxes from 6% to 5.25%.

At Tampa’s Hula Bay Club, Gov. Ron DeSantis convened a roundtable designed to address his stalled-out request to phase out millage in favor of taxing “snowbirds and tourists” via hotel and consumption taxes.

“This is what it means to be a low-tax state,” he said.

But DeSantis also directly threatened to veto House Speaker Daniel Perez’s proposal as lawmakers look to hammer out a budget and tax framework during an extended Session.

DeSantis said he is willing to work with Senators and “relevant House members” on a Florida-first tax package, while saying the House sales tax reduction proposal is a nonstarter in any budget deal.

“None of the Senators support it,” DeSantis said. “Honestly, a lot of the House members don’t support it either, but the way the House is run, you know, they threaten you, they take away your committee, they do all that.”

DeSantis bemoaned that “Canadian tourists” would get a “tax break” under the Perez plan while visiting Florida and said any proposal that emerges should focus on relief for Florida residents.

Ron DeSantis breaks with Byron Donalds, backs UF presidential pick despite DEI past

Florida’s Governor is standing by the Presidential Search Advisory Committee that selected Dr. Santa J. Ono as the next University of Florida President, despite Ono’s past praise for diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives.

“I trust the people that were involved in that process. They were trustees that I’ve appointed, that have performed exemplary for the state of Florida in those capacities,” Gov. Ron DeSantis said in Tampa.

U.S. Rep. Byron Donalds, a 2026 candidate for Governor, disagrees. He criticized Ono, the former University of Michigan President.

The Naples Republican urged the “Board of Trustees at UF to go back and do an evaluation of where they think they are on this one” and “to go back and figure out somebody else.”

Ono was the sole finalist announced by the university.

DeSantis delineated his expectations but stood by the process and the product.

“We reject woke indoctrination. We were the first state in the country to eliminate ‘DE and I’ from our public universities. We’ve done more than any state to restore the mission of universities to the classical sense of what a university should be: teach people to think for themselves, pursue truth, prepare our students to be citizens of our republic. And we’re proud of that,” he said.

Jared Moskowitz introduces bipartisan FEMA reform bills to speed disaster aid deployment

U.S. Rep. Jared Moskowitz is partnering with Tennessee Republican Congressman Tim Burchett on legislation to streamline the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) block grants program for faster disaster aid deployment.

The related bills, titled the Disaster Housing Flexibility Act and Disaster Response Flexibility Act, would allow states to opt into block grants for housing and public assistance after a major disaster declaration.

“By allowing states to deploy this critical disaster assistance through block grants, we can get it to communities in need faster than is done now,” Moskowitz said in a statement.

Moskowitz — a past Florida Emergency Management Director who in December was reportedly being eyed to lead FEMA under President Donald Trump — also re-filed his FEMA Independence Act to restore FEMA to a Cabinet-level agency.

U.S. Rep. Byron Donalds of Naples, the current Republican frontrunner for Governor in 2026, co-introduced the measure with Moskowitz.

FEMA today operates under the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), where bureaucracy is “getting in the way of FEMA fulfilling its core mission,” he said.

Bills banning toxic chemicals and vaccines in food fail to pass

A collection of bills that would have required labeling of, or completely banned, certain chemicals and vaccine ingredients being put into food products failed to make it through the process this Regular Session.

Sarasota Republican Sen. Joe Gruters sponsored legislation (SB 196) that would have required clear labeling on food that contains vaccines or vaccine materials.

The Senate passed the bill unanimously. But the measure fell short in the House and was permanently withdrawn.

The bill’s analysis states that the regulation of drugs and cosmetics is intended to protect public health and public welfare by protecting consumers against any injuries or merchandising deceit.

The use of plant food being used as a delivery mechanism for mRNA vaccines would have also been prohibited, with the analysis noting that recent studies have been conducted into ways of implanting DNA containing mRNA into lettuce and other plant foods that would be similar to the dosage in a COVID vaccine.

Its House companion bill (HB 525) sponsored by Palm Bay Republican Rep. Monique Miller was not picked up in any committees it was assigned to.