Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) proposes cutting the Florida property tax.
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NewsTranscript
00:00who's a Central Floridian and a veteran, he's going to have some things to say about what
00:05we're talking about this morning.
00:09So I think most people who've been in Florida over the recent years have seen, you know,
00:15on the one hand, if you're a homeowner and you bought a home 5, 10 years ago, your home's
00:20worth a lot more now, just based on the market, based on people wanting to have a demand to
00:25live in Florida.
00:27And so, you know, there's obviously a lot of benefits that come to that.
00:30I mean, I know people who bought their homes for $250,000 30 years ago, and now they're
00:37assessed at over a million dollars.
00:39That's not something that is out of the ordinary.
00:42And that is a source of wealth, particularly if you're free and clear of the mortgage.
00:47But one of the drawbacks of that is you have bought a house at a certain price.
00:53You can obviously afford that.
00:54You may have been taxed at that price at the time.
00:57Now you have local governments telling you, well, actually, no, your house is worth a
01:01lot more, pony up more to us in the form of property taxes.
01:05And so people have seen, even with Homestead exemption, it has not been enough to be able
01:11to protect people against these rising assessments.
01:15And then, of course, if you're in a situation, and look, we have a relatively mobile workforce.
01:19I mean, if you're somebody that has a job in Tampa, and then you have a better offer
01:24to come to Orlando, you sell that house.
01:26But then now you're buying a new house at a higher value.
01:29You're locked into a higher tax base right there.
01:32And so that has been something that's been very difficult for a lot of people to afford.
01:36And then, of course, you've got elderly on fixed income.
01:40They had budgeted for a certain number of costs, and now, all of a sudden, they're having
01:44to see more and more in the form of higher property assessments.
01:50So we've recognized this as an issue.
01:53I was the first, I think, elected official in Florida to call for a constitutional amendment
01:59to protect people against what's happening with property taxes.
02:02Now, there's a lot that's going to go into that.
02:04That'll be on the ballot, hopefully, in 2026.
02:07But of all the taxes that are impacting Floridians, right now, property taxes are the most significant.
02:14I can tell you, when people talk to me about taxes, I would say it's like 99% talk about
02:20property taxes.
02:22That is just something that people are concerned about.
02:25So when you're doing proposals, whether it's working with the legislature, whether it's
02:29putting something on the ballot, to me, the threshold question is, the tax relief needs
02:35to be Florida first.
02:36We need to focus on our Florida residents, we need to focus on, in this case, Florida
02:41homeowners, particularly our homesteaded homeowners, and we need to focus the relief there.
02:48I want Canadian tourists and Brazilian tourists subsidizing the state and making it so Florida
02:54residents pay less taxes.
02:56I don't want to give Canadians a tax cut.
03:01So we understand that this is something that is really significant, and one of the things
03:06we're looking to do and work with the legislature on is authorizing, and I have a lot of authority
03:12as governor under both the Constitution and statutes, but authorizing a nice, crisp doge
03:18effort for local governments where you'd have the keys to the kingdom, you'd be able to
03:23look at the payments, the contracts, and then publicize this.
03:28Because if you look at the budgets, it's very opaque.
03:31There may be a line item, you don't know where that money's being funneled, as we've seen
03:34with the federal government.
03:35It ends up going to all these different places.
03:38We have major counties in this state that have had massive expansions of their budgets
03:43just in the last five or six years, and the reason is they're getting more revenue from
03:47the property tax.
03:49And is that, do those budgets need to grow by that much?
03:52I think the answer is probably going to be no, but we want to be able to do that so that
03:57voters can see, because they'll tell you, oh, they can't do property tax relief because
04:01then you're not going to have any police or any, that's not true, okay?
04:05That is not true.
04:06But that's what they'll say.
04:07You're not going to have any more schools.
04:08You're not going to do it.
04:09No, it's not true.
04:10But I think we can show that through the DOJ effort.
04:12So we want to be able to do that, and then, of course, build up to having very robust
04:18constitutional protections, and the thing about it is, you know, property taxes are
04:22an anomaly because, you know, they're not voluntary.
04:26Consumption taxes are basically voluntary.
04:28And I go to the supermarket, and most of the stuff you buy there is not taxed, right?
04:32But if I buy some other stuff that is not considered a staple, I just know I'm going
04:35to pay tax on it.
04:37If I go buy a big screen TV, I'm going to pay tax on it, and I can choose to buy that
04:40or not buy that.
04:41But you just basically, for subsisting and living on your own property, on your own parcel
04:47of land, your own home, particularly people that own it free and clear of any encumbrances,
04:53you got to just keep writing a check to the government just for the privilege of using
04:58your own property, and that's an anomaly.
05:00That's not the way good tax policy should be.
05:03It certainly undercuts the idea of private property that you own outside the reach of
05:08the government, and you effectively are wards of the local government because you're having
05:13to pay rent to them just to be able to exercise your basic rights to own and enjoy property.
05:18And we don't do that on other things.
05:21When I buy that big screen TV, I'm not paying a tax on it every year.
05:25No, I put it in, I plug it in, hang it on the wall, and I'm done paying tax on it once
05:29I bought the original thing.
05:31So I think a lot of people are looking at it and saying, you know, in Florida, we have
05:35this great luxury of being able to offload tax burden to non-Floridians because people
05:42visit, people invest here, people live here part-time who aren't residents, and there
05:48are definitely ways that you can structure a tax system to give the homeowners the relief,
05:54our homesteaded homeowners particularly the relief, and yet still raise revenue for core
06:00functions, although I don't think you need to raise as much as they've raised because
06:04I think they're spending too much.
06:05So there's a combination of these things.
06:07So we have done, in my time as governor, record tax relief.
06:12It used to be they do a million, 100 million, 200, 300 million a year.
06:17For the last, I think, four years, we've done at least a billion dollars a year in tax relief.
06:23Two years, we did 2.5 billion.
06:25This most recent current fiscal year, we've done 1.5 billion, including for two years
06:30in a row, toll relief.
06:32Any of the commuters, they get a 50% reduction in their toll.
06:35So in your places like Central Florida, it's like everywhere you turn, there's a toll.
06:40I didn't put those tolls in, by the way.
06:43But there's tolls everywhere.
06:46And so ping, ping, ping.
06:47If you ping enough, then once we know you're a commuter, you get a rebate at the end of
06:52the month.
06:53And so we've done that for two years in a row, and I would not want to give a rebate
06:58to Brazilian tourists that come, like let them pay the tolls, right?
07:01We're giving the rebate to our Floridians who are working here and are commuting here.
07:06So that was something that was really good.
07:07We've also done back-to-school sales tax holidays for every year since I've been governor.
07:12We instituted a disaster preparedness tax holiday.
07:16There's actually two periods, once before hurricane season, once kind of in the middle
07:21of hurricane season, where you can get all these supplies tax-free.
07:24And a lot of Floridians have availed themselves of doing that.
07:28We also instituted a freedom summer holiday for four years in a row, and that exempts
07:34recreational items and outdoor activities for families and Floridians from taxes who
07:39are looking to enjoy our great Florida summer.
07:42And look, as someone that grew up here, I know there's people that go elsewhere over
07:45the summer, and I understand, but there's a lot to do over the summer here, and people
07:50have a good time.
07:51We also have done a skilled worker tools holiday, which exempts tools and equipment
07:56used by skilled trade workers, but also just, you know, families, if you want to have this
08:01around your house, you can do it for that.
08:04We've done a gas tax holiday in 2022, when gas taxes spiked.
08:09We are also proposing the permanent relief of the business rent tax.
08:14That was something that we've reduced significantly.
08:16We're the only state in the country that taxes this.
08:19I think it would be good for our economy, I think it would be good particularly for
08:23small businesses.
08:24We've also proposed tax holidays for Second Amendment sales between Memorial Day and Fourth
08:30of July.
08:31There's, you know, we got a lot of people buying the ammunition, whatever, you get it
08:34tax-free.
08:35Also, a two-month boating fuel tax holiday that'll save Floridians $27 million by reducing
08:43the motor fuel taxes levied on boating fuel.
08:48We also will, you know, work on other things, and we've done a lot, like for now, all baby
08:54items are permanently tax-free from sales tax in Florida.
08:58We did that a couple years ago.
09:03And so, we've never done more than what we've done since, not even close, in terms of the
09:09numbers when you look at the tax relief.
09:11And so, we want to be as bold as we can be, but I also have a reality that, you know,
09:17you have to get these things passed by the legislature, you've got to convince them that
09:21this is something that you want to do, and if that's kind of the range that we've been
09:26in on the high end already, you know, what are the possibilities?
09:29Well, as it turns out, the House of Representatives leadership produced a proposal to dedicate
09:37$5 billion to tax relief.
09:40Now, they proposed to reduce the state sales tax by three-quarters of a penny, and, you
09:46know, the issue with that is people, one, are not clamoring for sales tax relief, they're
09:51clamoring for property tax relief, so there's no property tax relief in that proposal, but
09:56it also allows relief for foreigners, it allows relief for visitors and part-time residents.
10:04I think the tax relief needs to be focused on Floridians.
10:08We need a Florida-first tax package, and so I very much appreciate those folks in the
10:14House that set that $5 billion target, that'll be more than we've ever done, by a country
10:21mile, and if that is something that's in the ballgame, if that's something that they're
10:25willing to discuss, we'll accept that, but we'll come with a proposal to focus that $5
10:31billion on reducing property taxes for people in Florida, and we have a chance, I know we
10:36want to get on the ballot, but we have a chance to do this this year, so this would be kind
10:40of an opening salvo to what the main event would be in November of 2026.
10:45So with that $5 billion, I'm proposing that the legislature direct that to immediate relief
10:52for all Florida homestead owners, and if we do that, we would end up with about $1,000
11:01in property tax cut for every homesteaded Floridian, and that will make a big, big difference.
11:11And part of the reason we're able to do this is, although property taxes are local, there
11:16is a portion of that that is required local effort for state, for schools, we have a massive
11:23surplus, we can cover that through our normal budget reserves, we don't need to have people
11:29paying property taxes this year on that specific line item, so we would roll that back to zero,
11:35we'd also roll back some of the local lines and issue a rebate, and so that's how you
11:40end up getting to the $1,000 per resident or homesteaded property, and look, I mean,
11:46I know we have people that have investment properties, I'd rather focus it on the homesteaded
11:52Floridians and the Florida residents, so that's where it'll be, and that's how you get to
11:55a number that's pretty significant.
11:58You know, if you were to do this rollback with the normal range, where you dedicate
12:03$250 million or whatever, $300 million, it would be very, very modest, I don't know that
12:07it would pack much of a punch, but if you're going to go up to $5 billion, you have a chance
12:10to really pack a punch, and so for some, for middle class, $1,000 tax rebate, you know,
12:17that's a substantial portion of their property taxes, I know some of the wealthier folks,
12:22that may not be quite as much, but focusing on the middle class folks, this is going to
12:27be a really, really big deal, and again, we think it'll be likely about $1,000 per homesteaded
12:33property.
12:34Now, I think you guys in the realtors know better than ever how this process works and
12:38the notices and all that, so this would be something that we would see percolate throughout
12:43the year and end up with end of the year trim notices, but I think it's something that would
12:48be really, really meaningful, and if it's passed into law now, people would know that
12:52this is coming down the pike very, very soon, and so, but anything that we're rolling back,
12:59we do have the funding to be able to backfill, so don't let anyone tell you, oh, they're
13:03taking from schools, no, we'll fund that, we have a big surplus, we've quadrupled the
13:08rainy day fund since I've been governor just over the last six years, we've paid off 41%
13:13of our state's debt since I've been governor, we're in good shape, and we'll be able to
13:16make it work, and we want to use that.
13:21Now, ultimately, as I said, this is just the opening salvo.
13:27We want to have a constitutional amendment on property taxes, and that's going to require
13:33a lot of effort, it's going to require us to do the doge through the balance of this
13:37year so that voters see that this can actually be done and that they have an ability to both
13:44shrink their own budgets, but also shift tax burdens to our tourists and our non-Floridians,
13:50and I can tell you, it's like, people say, oh, people aren't going to come to Florida
13:52for this reason, this reason, this reason, it's like, you know, they said the Canadians
13:55weren't going to come, and I'm with my kids, you know, we were down at spring break, and
14:00we're at Legoland, and all these people coming up to me for pictures, which is fine, I normally
14:05do that, and I'd say, like, 80% of them were Canadians, and I'm like, I thought you guys
14:11weren't coming to Florida anyway, oh, no, we love Florida, so we're going to continue
14:15to be a destination, and we are excited about doing that.
14:21Now, we are a low-tax state, we have the second lowest per capita state taxes in the entire
14:29country, of course, we have no income tax, and even though we rely on sales tax, our
14:34sales tax is basically middle of the pack, you know, California, they have this really
14:38stiff income tax, but they also have the highest sales tax, they have an 8% sales tax statewide,
14:45it's higher in a lot of localities, so we've done a good job on that, and the property
14:49taxes are basically local, but we rank middle of the pack on property tax rates throughout
14:57the country, I don't think that's good enough, I think we have an opportunity, particularly
15:01given that we have, we draw a lot of people to really, really make an impact on property
15:06taxes, man, I'll tell you, first of all, the realtors, I mean, you guys would boom
15:11like never before, I mean, are you kidding me, this would be really good, but part of
15:15what's happened right now, we're not seeing the same amount of sales, partially because
15:20of interest rates, but partially because of the property taxes.
15:24Who wants to move from Tampa to Jacksonville, if you're going to end up with a house that's
15:29going to have a much higher tax basis, and then you're going to have to fork over all
15:33of that, so people are locked into lower interest rates, lower property tax, it still
15:38goes up with Homestead, but not as much as it would, and that's really, I think, inhibited
15:44the market, I think you would see the market respond very positively to this.
15:47So that's the main event, that's what we're going to be looking to do in November of 2026,
15:53and when you're in a position to be able to make a difference, listen to folks, what are
16:00the concerns, what would make it easier, there's certain things that, if I could snap
16:03my finger, I would do, we don't have control over everything as state government, I mean,
16:07there's a lot that goes on, we have a national economy, we have national policy, we have
16:11all this other stuff, but the one thing that we as Floridians, through the political process,
16:17can control is the tax, we can control that, we can go to the amendment, and we can do
16:23property taxes that way, we can cut taxes on other taxes in Tallahassee, there's things
16:28you can do, we're in total control of that, that's not market-based, it's not because
16:33of what's going on in Washington, it's not because of what's going on in the private
16:36sector, we control that, and so if people need relief, we're in good fiscal shape,
16:42we have the ability to provide relief, we have a responsibility to get it done.
16:45So I'm excited to be able to make this proposal, I wasn't sure that something like this would
16:49be possible, but, you know, if you up the ante, we're going to be there to call that.
16:55So I want to thank everyone for being here, we're going to hear from Tim first, from the
16:58realtors, and then we'll hear from Bill Hyde, one of our homeowners here in Central Florida,
17:03so come on up.
17:04Well, thank you, Governor DeSantis, and thank you for putting forward this initiative.
17:13You know, Florida Realtors not only serves as the largest professional trade association
17:18in the state of Florida, but the largest voice for real estate in the United States.
17:21We have 240,000 members in the state of Florida, what I like to say is that's 240,000 small
17:26businesses.
17:28What that really is, is that's 240,000 advocates for homeowners, it's 240,000 people every
17:33single day that wake up and say, how do we make sure that we continue to preserve the
17:37American dream?
17:39And as our leaders and our members would tell you, that every single day that we're meeting
17:42with homeowners and prospective homeowners and future homeowners, they're talking to
17:46us about the concerns and the cost of homeownership.
17:49We have a longstanding process and policy at Florida Realtors to work for the reduction
17:54and elimination of taxes on real estate because we understand that homeownership and property
17:58ownership truly is one of the key gateways to wealth building, financial independence,
18:04and certainly the American dream.
18:06In fact, our theme for 2025 is champions for the American dream, because what we understand
18:11is that when you have homeownership in communities, you have connection, you have people that
18:15are going to get involved.
18:17Students perform better in schools when they have homeownership, but then you have to think
18:20about the burden that's placed on them.
18:22As our governor has shared, property taxes are one of those burdens.
18:26I can't help but think about my parents, blue-collar family that worked hard, became debt-free,
18:30have not had debt in over 35 years, but to the governor's point, every single year has
18:35a debt, if you will, to the state of Florida to pay those property taxes, and that burden
18:39continues to be placed on them year after year after year.
18:43A proposal such as this is one that not only will open up the marketplaces our governor
18:47talked about, but it will also protect those that are living in their homes on fixed incomes.
18:52Those that are saying, you know what, I want to make sure that I can continue to be in
18:54the community that I love, the community that maybe I raised my family in, or in the community
18:59that I chose to move to from another part of the world or another part of the country.
19:04Homeownership truly is one of those cornerstones of the American dream, but making sure that
19:07it's affordable is going to continue to be important.
19:10We are truly blessed that people from around the world and certainly from around the country
19:14choose every single day to move to the state of Florida, and our members welcome them in.
19:18We're the ambassadors that meet them on the front lines every day and say, how do we make
19:22you, how do we help you get connected and secure within this community?
19:25How do we help you find the pathway to your financial well-being and your wealth building
19:29and homeownership?
19:30So Governor, I want to thank you for the proposal.
19:32I want to thank you for doing this with Florida Realtors.
19:36Our organization knows better than anyone that property ownership is a core foundation
19:41of wealth, of opportunity, of stability, and of what families look for every single day.
19:46And we know that when families get to the end of work and retirement and all those things,
19:50their home is often their most valuable asset.
19:54And we want to make sure that Floridians have the ability to stay in their homes, to enjoy
19:58their homes, and to continue to build a financial wealth for their families.
20:01We believe that tax reform is needed across the board in the state of Florida, and certainly
20:05Florida Realtors is always standing on the front line to advocate for reductions when
20:09it comes to property taxes.
20:10So we thank you.
20:11We stand with you and the leaders in the state to continue to have this conversation and
20:14to figure out how we can make sure that Floridians are protected, homeownership is empowered,
20:19and that more people see the dream of homeownership come to life for them.
20:23All right.
20:34Thank you, Governor.
20:35Thanks to everybody here for giving me a few minutes to express my thanks for this proposal.
20:42My name is Bill Hyde.
20:44My wife, Hope, and I have been married for 46 years.
20:47She's also my former pit crew, by the way.
20:52I grew up in Ohio, Leah.
20:53I served in the Navy, also in a merchant marine.
20:57We settled in Oviedo many years ago, where Hope's family has been since the 1950s.
21:03And we are here to support Governor DeSantis' proposal to eliminate property taxes.
21:08We've owned our home in Oviedo, mortgage-free, for the last 25 years and paid our taxes on
21:14time every year.
21:15We have no mortgage or escrow, so we write the check every year, and we write it on November
21:20the 1st to get that little discount.
21:23That's the truth.
21:26On first hearing about Governor DeSantis' proposal, I got pretty excited, because it
21:31hadn't been that long ago that I wrote that check.
21:35I wouldn't call myself a tax watchdog, but I do try to know where my tax dollars go.
21:41And I'm pretty sure that my Seminole County commissioners and my state legislators know,
21:45and they will vouch for that, that I'm pretty noisy sometimes.
21:48In previous years, I've stood in front of those meetings setting the millage for property
21:53taxes, often alone, asking to hold at least to the rollback rate to give us a little chance
21:59to catch up on our taxes.
22:01Honestly, I gave up on that a couple years ago.
22:04It was frustrating.
22:05Doctors said I needed to lower my blood pressure.
22:09We're retired.
22:10We live on a very fixed income, and property taxes take a big bite out of our budget, like
22:14a lot of seniors here.
22:16Yes, there are other big-ticket items for homeowners, but we have some slack with those.
22:21We have to pay our taxes every year to keep from being one of our tax collector's tax
22:27auction items and potential losing our home.
22:31Governor DeSantis' analogy that we are just renting our home from the government is true.
22:36I know, because I write the check, right?
22:40The argument that local governments sometimes hold the millage just doesn't work for everybody.
22:45As property values increase, sometimes in double digits, revenues to the government
22:50goes faster than the rate of inflation.
22:53So the result is our taxes increase faster than our income.
22:57If you're on a fixed income, you know exactly what I'm talking about.
23:01The rise in property values is pretty much meaning to us, to be honest with you, because
23:06we are most likely to live out our lives in our home where we are now, and we hope to
23:12do that.
23:13I read that there's another proposal for tax relief, or lowering sales tax instead.
23:18That's all well and good and would be appreciated, but it isn't as helpful to Florida's homeowners.
23:23I've done some rough math, and we already have exemptions for basic necessities like
23:27our groceries, like the governor talked about, and our prescription drugs.
23:31Old folks know about that.
23:33And substituting a sales tax increase would help homeowners a little, but removing the
23:39property tax would help us a lot.
23:42That's a big difference.
23:43The governor's plan would help Floridians more than Canadians.
23:47That's just a cool fact.
23:49I like that better.
23:50If I don't want to pay sales tax on a new car, it's not a problem, but if I choose not
23:55to pay my property tax, that's a big problem.
23:59There are adjustments that would have to be made to state and local government's budgeting
24:03process.
24:04I don't know all about that, and I am not advocating defunding local state government.
24:11I understand that, but I do encourage my local and state legislators to work with our governor
24:16and find a way to relieve homeowners of our tax burden just so that people like Hope,
24:21me, and many other seniors are no longer just renting our homes from the government.
24:27Well, thanks, Bill.
24:34I appreciate that very much, and look, people have asked for relief.
24:38They need relief.
24:41There's positives when you have a state that people want to move to.
24:45The values going up can be positive.
24:47Part of the thing, though, I think that I've noticed, it's like this condos.
24:52The legislature passes all these condo restrictions after the Surfside Tower collapse, and I was
24:58down at Surfside for like two weeks straight after it.
25:00I mean, it was a tragic event, and if there was something that could have been done legislatively
25:05to have prevented that, obviously, people would want that, I think, but what's happened
25:08with this is it's imposed all these really onerous costs on condo owners, so then you
25:14have some of these folks, and they're on fixed income, too, and they're not able to afford
25:20these massive assessments.
25:22I mean, how many people, if you're a senior on fixed income, you just pay a $90,000 assessment
25:28if that comes down the pike from a condo association, and some people say, well, that's true, but
25:33they can just sell their place.
25:34I mean, it's worth a lot more today than it was when they bought it 20 years ago, and
25:39that may be true, but then where do they go, right?
25:42I mean, because yeah, they're making money off that, but then everything else costs lots,
25:46so it's not that simple, and obviously, the tax is an important component.
25:51We do need to make sure that people can stay in their condos.
25:54I mean, I don't think that government imposing some of these prescriptions, if it was all
26:00targeted to preventing a surfside, that's one thing, but if it's bleeding into other
26:05things where people are having costs imposed upon them, I'm all for transparency.
26:10I'm all for making sure these associations are on the up and up, but to say you must
26:15pony up this money because government's telling you to, people just can't afford that, so
26:20we need to provide relief there as well, but it goes hat in hand with, as these issues
26:25percolate, we want to make sure that we're responding, and at the end of the day, it's
26:29about Florida first.
26:30We've got to put Floridians first.
26:32I don't want to keep taxing Floridians on these properties to be able to subsidize a
26:39tax cut for Canadians.
26:41I'd rather the Canadians pay taxes to subsidize the reduction in Florida property taxes.
26:46It just makes sense to me.
26:48All right, we got any questions?
26:51Yes.
26:52Would you like to see the legislature extend that another year?
26:59I'm for it.
27:01I don't know that that's something that they've been too wild about, but it's something that
27:05I think has made a difference for people when they get that rebate at the end of every month.
27:11That, you know, people spend $100, $200 a year in tolls, sometimes more than that, and
27:18actually some of these tolls, some people are spending a lot, so to be able to get half
27:21of that, if you're spending $300 a year in tolls, to get $150 back, I think that's been
27:26meaningful, I think it's been helpful, and especially in some of our areas where there's
27:30a lot of tolls, and so I think it's been an effective program and I'd support continuing
27:34it.
27:35If the legislature passes the sales tax cut instead of the property tax relief, would
27:40you veto it?
27:41Well, we're going to support lower taxes, and so I veto higher taxes when they come
27:45down the pike, and I support lower taxes.
27:48I'm fine with doing sales tax reductions.
27:51Heck, I've proposed sales tax reductions and enacted many sales tax reductions since I've
27:57been governor, and I'm happy to do that, but I also think that how are you cutting taxes,
28:03are you going to focus on what gets you the most bang for the buck to help Florida residents?
28:10That is where I think the focus needs to be, so you've got to do property relief.
28:15If you want to do sales on top of that, I'm all for that, for sure, but this property
28:21stuff needs to be addressed.
28:22Governor, one other problem with homeownership is homeowners insurance, any headway in solving
28:28that problem?
28:30So the legislature's done a series of reforms, and so in 2024, Florida saw 11 new companies
28:39enter the market.
28:41In California, they're all leaving the market, and other states too, not just California.
28:46We had the lowest premium increases of all 50 states.
28:51Insurance is going up everywhere.
28:52People act like we had six major hurricanes in seven years, and we had record inflation
28:58nationally over much of that period.
29:01That's just a fact, and that's very difficult.
29:03So right now, you're continuing to see very modest premium or increased requests of like
29:10between .2 and .8% is kind of the norm that's happened over the last 60 to 80 days.
29:16Most people that follow the market say Florida has reached a point where it's kind of plateaued
29:22in their stability, but ultimately, you need to make sure the market is inviting to people
29:29to be able to put private capital at risk.
29:32And then if you have more companies that come in, eventually, people are going to be able
29:35to do that.
29:36I can tell you what has not worked is what they did in California.
29:40They basically government dictated, you can only do these rates or that rates.
29:44Companies left, and so now they don't have any.
29:46Now the fire's been a total, total catastrophe.
29:50They also able to announce this year, Citizens Property Insurance announced rate reductions
29:56in Miami-Dade County for 73% of Miami-Dade homeowners, which has not been a very easy
30:02place to insure for many, many years, and partially because of all the litigation that
30:07takes place down there.
30:08They also did 50% of the homeowners in Broward were given reductions for that.
30:15Now there's proposals in the legislature.
30:17Some I think are trying to follow the California model, obviously oppose this, but there are
30:22things that are being done.
30:23People like Blaze Angolia.
30:25You also have Senator Leak that's proposed.
30:29If you have hurricane situations, we want quick adjudication of claims, and so we have
30:34these administrative judges that can go down and maybe do these a lot quicker.
30:39So I think some of this stuff, some of it's good.
30:41Auto insurance, GEICO announced a 10% reduction in auto rates in Florida.
30:47We've never had a reduction in, I mean, Florida has always had difficult situation.
30:53We have difficult driving for a variety of reasons.
30:58But auto insurance, if you look at like the 2024 end of year inflation print, auto insurance
31:03nationwide was the number one inflationary item of all the major things that people do
31:10anywhere in the country.
31:11So that is going up everywhere.
31:13The reason why GEICO announced 10%, Progressive announced 8% decrease, State Farm announced
31:196% decrease is because a year and a half ago, we did litigation reform.
31:26Florida had been a lawsuit maven.
31:28You see the billboards everywhere.
31:29You don't see that in a lot of other states, but they're everywhere.
31:33And it's all about ginning up litigation.
31:36And you'll have a client that gets $25,000, and then the lawyer gets $75,000.
31:42How is that sensible?
31:43But guess who pays the cost of those legal fees?
31:47You do.
31:49It's part of the cost of doing this, so everything raises.
31:52So we had, I think, a really bad litigation climate.
31:55I think it's gotten a lot better.
31:56But the only reason you have the reduction in auto rates that were announced, the only
32:02reason is because of the litigation reform.
32:04So if you undo that, which they're now trying to do in the Florida House, that will benefit
32:11personal injury, liberal trial lawyers, that will give them more money for sure.
32:16Is that going to benefit you and your rates?
32:18No.
32:19Of course your rates are going to go up with what they're trying to do.
32:21I think they're even admitting that the rates would go up.
32:25So why would you do, when you finally have seen some relief, all tied to the litigation
32:31reform, why would you try to unwind that just to benefit one interest group?
32:36It doesn't make any sense to me at all.
32:39So we don't control the rates of auto insurance.
32:43I mean, it's a private market.
32:45Obviously, there's a lot of behavior in Florida.
32:47I do think that if we enforce immigration law, I think that's going to help because
32:52the illegals don't carry insurance.
32:54The illegals, they don't drive, honestly, they don't drive very well.
32:58And so you get into an accident, and then you're just left holding the bag.
33:02So we're working on doing that.
33:04We have in Florida, there's almost a million illegal aliens nationwide that have active
33:10deportation orders.
33:12So you hear this stuff in the media, oh, where's due process, where's this, they're sending
33:16people to El Salvador.
33:17These are people, almost a million, they have gone through all this process, which honestly,
33:23if you come across the border illegally and you get caught, I don't know what process
33:27there is.
33:28You just go back.
33:29But nevertheless, there's people that are spun up about that.
33:31These people have already gone through all this process.
33:34They've been ordered removed by an immigration judge.
33:37These are not Article III judges, but fine.
33:40So yeah, we think there's probably 50,000 of those folks just in the state of Florida.
33:44Well, just imagine, if you go, identify, do, you are going to see an impact.
33:49When we announced, when we signed the immigration legislation, I had people coming up to me
33:54two weeks later saying they noticed the difference in traffic, because I think there is a fear
33:59that if you're here illegally, you don't have a license, and you get an offender bender,
34:03it's not just going to be you skate anymore, like you actually will get sent back and you'll
34:07get deported to your home country.
34:09So I think the immigration stuff is going to have a positive impact on some of the costs
34:15that we see in the state of Florida, if we're able to work constructively with the federal
34:19government to swiftly remove.
34:23But yes, I mean, man, the whole thing with the auto rates finally getting some relief,
34:30no one, I don't think other states are seeing that.
34:32I think that was purely because Florida did the litigation reform.
34:35So just, we want a stable market, we want to make sure that the goal of it is not to,
34:42you know, line pockets of interest group, but actually just provide a transparent process.
34:47And so that's what I'm going to be fighting to do.
34:48Okay, thanks, everybody.
34:49God bless.
34:50Transcribed by https://otter.ai