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Article
Courtesy of Florida Politics
By Jesse Scheckner
Published January 16, 2026
Miami Republican Rep. Juan Porras enjoyed a successful
Session last year, passing nearly 40% of the bills he filed, including
measures strengthening consumer-contractor protections and placing “Gulf of
America” nomenclature in schoolbooks.
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He’s entering the 2026 Session with a
fleet of new bills he says will boost transparency and
accountability — two pillars of his policymaking philosophy.
“I always run on common-sense conservatism, transparency and
accountability across the board,” he told Florida Politics.
The top-of-mind measure he’s advancing is HJR 205, one of
several proposed constitutional amendments on property taxes
that the House is considering this year.
If approved, the measure would place a question on the
November 2026 ballot asking voters whether they want to
amend the Florida Constitution to exempt homes owned and
occupied by people 65 or older from property taxes for all
levies except school district taxes.
The bill, which has already cleared two of three House
committees, would also bar counties and cities from reducing
law enforcement funding below what they budgeted in Fiscal
Year 2026, even if the new senior exemption reduces ad
valorem revenue.
“It’s the most commonsense approach and has the smallest
fiscal impact among the seven proposals that were
highlighted by the House,” he said. “And I do think it’s the
one that would have the greatest likelihood of passing on
the ballot in November.”
Another measure (HB
657) designed to overhaul how condominium and
homeowners’ association disputes are resolved represents the
largest homeowner association reform bill in Florida
history, Porras said.
The measure, if passed, would eliminate
mandatory pre-suit mediation by steering many disputes
instead to Department of Business and Professional Relations
(DBPR) arbitration, court or optional mediation. It would
create a formal, member-driven process for dissolving an HOA,
including petition thresholds, supermajority approval,
trustee oversight and penalties for misconduct during a
termination effort. |
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Representative Juan Carlos Porras
District: 119 -- Republican
Part of Miami-Dade
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Further, the proposal would require new HOAs — and prompt existing ones to
vote — to add language tying their governing documents to the Florida
Condominium Act. And it would allow judicial circuits to establish
specialized community association court programs to handle condo and HOA
disputes.
Porras, who represents some of the state’s largest HOAs, said the changes
the measure contemplates are much needed.
“We’d be shying away from what we would normally use, a government
bureaucracy of DBPR, which has proven unsuccessful or unresponsive for many
constituents, and adopting a community association court program that the
state is going to fund,” he said. “And for the first time ever, we’re going
to put in guidelines and statutes on how to dissolve or eliminate homeowner
associations.”
To that end, HB 657 would establish the “Homeowners’ Association Dissolution
and Accountability Act,” which would allow HOA members to initiate
termination through a petition signed by at least 20% of the voting
interest, followed by a member vote requiring two-thirds approval.
Porras is also carrying legislation (SB 1064, HB 1027) with Fleming Island
Republican Sen. Jennifer Bradley to allow Judges, prosecutors, police,
elected officials and their family members to demand that data brokers stop
disclosing their sensitive personal information.
Under the measure, which awaits a first hearing in the Senate and committee
referrals in the House, data brokers would be required to comply within 10
business days of a notice and could face civil lawsuits, statutory damages,
attorneys fees and punitive damages for violations, even if the information
is otherwise publicly available.
Porras said the measure is meant to reduce threats and violence against
public servants by limiting the commercial spread of their personal data. He
pointed to a recent attack on Vice President JD Vance’s home. Authorities
said the perpetrator, who broke windows at the Ohio residence, suffers from
mental health issues.
“Considering this political violence, like what happened with Vice President
Vance and Charlie Kirk, it’s important now more than ever that we protect
the people who hold our community together,” he said. “That’s obviously our
Judges and public officials.”
Notably, Porras has also filed legislation to rename a West Miami-Dade
street adjacent to Florida International University “Charlie Kirk Memorial
Avenue.”
Porras said he’s also planning to sponsor legislation rolling back some of
Florida’s post-Parkland gun restrictions, including limiting the ability of
courts to seize firearms in cases where a red flag law may apply.
“Essentially, instead of Judges having full discretion to remove somebody’s
right to have a firearm, it would allow the defendant to defend against
somebody proponing that they are either violent or crazy,” he said. “They
would have a chance to defend their case in court.”
Porras noted that he has worked on legislation in the past with lawmakers
like Merritt Island Republican Rep. Tyler Sioris, who is again carrying a
measure to return the minimum long rifle purchase age to 18, on Second
Amendment-focused proposals.
“This is kind of in combination with those pieces of legislation and trying
to scale back some of the red flag laws that were passed by the Legislature
after Parkland,” he said. “Despite all the great victories we have had with
the Second Amendment, there are still some very bad laws on the books. And
if we can make a bad law less bad, it’s our job to do that.”
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