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Article
Courtesy of The Tampa Bay Times
By Lawrence Mower
Published March 11, 2026
TALLAHASSEE — The high cost of living is the top
constituent issue in Florida, but you wouldn’t necessarily know it if you
were in the state’s Capitol.
With the legislative session winding down, lawmakers have done little to
make the state more affordable. Efforts to drive down insurance and utility
rates failed. They haven’t agreed on a way to lower property taxes.
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And for thousands of
Floridians, lawmakers could make things more expensive.
They’re prepared to impose Medicaid work requirements on
nearly 112,000 of the poorest Floridians. Another bill could
force thousands of condo owners onto pricier insurance.
The trend flies in the face of what Americans, and
Floridians, have been saying for months: Life is too
expensive.
This week, a University of North Florida poll showed that
half of respondents identified affordability and the cost of
living as the most important problem facing them. Political
division was a distant second at 12%.
Top Florida GOP pollster Ryan Tyson agreed — and said the
issue wasn’t going away any time soon. One of his recent
Florida GOP primary polls showed that 44% of voters said
lowering property taxes or homeowners insurance was their
top priority. |
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Affordability is Floridians’ top issue. Lawmakers
aren’t addressing it.
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That was higher than the percentage of people who said
the top priority was supporting President Donald Trump’s agenda (21%) and
fighting illegal immigration (14%).
But lawmakers in both parties had ideas this session.
House lawmakers passed a bill to place limits on homeowners insurance
companies using affiliates to shift profits. It hasn’t received a hearing in
the Senate.
Powerful Pensacola Republican Sen. Don Gaetz had a bill that would have
required state utility regulators to consider affordability when taking up
rate hike proposals.
But he told the Tampa Bay Times this week that Florida Power & Light, owned
by the world’s largest electric utility, lobbied hard against it. His bill
only passed one of its committees.
“The bill was smothered in its legislative cradle,” Gaetz said.
Gov. Ron DeSantis has pushed for legislators to place a constitutional
amendment to reduce property taxes on this year’s ballot. The House passed a
proposal that would phase out all non-school property taxes on primary
homes, but DeSantis said he doesn’t want lawmakers to approve something
until later this year.
Even if lawmakers do put a property tax reduction on the ballot, and 60% of
voters approve it, changes wouldn’t take effect until next year. And cities
and counties have warned that such reductions could lead them to increase
other taxes and fees, including charging to use public parks.
Meanwhile, lawmakers are poised to pass a bill that could force
cash-strapped condo owners into riskier and more expensive policies.
The bill, pushed by a billionaire GOP megadonor, would force condo owners
with Citizens policies into private policies if they get offers within 15%
of what the state-run insurer is charging them.
House and Senate bill sponsors said the legislation could drive down costs
by spurring more competition in the private market.
Gaetz is also sponsoring SB 1758, which could pass the Senate next week. It
would require the state to create a plan to impose additional work
requirements on Medicaid recipients, following language in the federal One
Big Beautiful Bill Act.
The act required states that have expanded Medicaid, the health insurance
program for the nation’s poorest and neediest, to adopt work requirements.
Florida hasn’t expanded Medicaid but is pushing ahead anyway. Most
Floridians, such as parents of young children and caretakers, wouldn’t have
to comply. But an estimated 112,000 people deemed able-bodied would.
Opponents have said the change could cause those people to lose their health
insurance by forcing them into low-paying jobs, earning too much to qualify
for Medicaid, but too little to qualify for Affordable Care Act coverage.
“There’s a reason the federal government did not require states that have
not expanded Medicaid to have work requirements,” Susan Harbin, a senior
director for the patient advocacy group American Cancer Society Cancer
Action Network, testified Monday.
The bill would also raise the age limit of people who have to comply with
work requirements for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program,
previously known as food stamps, from 59 to 64.
Gaetz said the change was needed to address a $1 billion hole the state
faces because the One Big Beautiful Bill Act is penalizing states like
Florida that have high error rates in their food assistance programs.
Democratic lawmakers, who introduced a slate of affordability ideas at the
beginning of session, have said that Republicans instead have spent time on
lesser issues.
On Wednesday, Senate Minority Leader Lori Berman noted the chamber spent
five hours debating a bill cracking down on local governments’ diversity
initiatives instead of the costs of health care, insurance and other
pressing issues.
“I think we need to refocus a little bit here in this chamber,” the Boca
Raton Democrat said.
House Minority Leader Fentrice Driskell, a Tampa Democrat, said the cost of
living was the top affordability issue in the 2024 election, and Republicans
entered the 2025 session wanting to do something about it.
“Instead of doing what our communities have asked us to do, Republicans in
fact have done the opposite,” she said.
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