Lately, a great deal of oxygen on cable, legacy news, and social media has been spent documenting a perceived "Civil War" between Republicans in the Florida State Legislature and Gov. Ron DeSantis, R-Fla.
While the dialogue between the branches has without question shifted from back rooms to the public square, this writer doesn’t know of anyone responding in a way that we should be — celebrating.
Over the past 20 years, this writer has had a front row seat to policymaking in what we Floridians like to call "The Free State of Florida."
Many may be too young to remember: Prior to 1996, Florida’s legislature was resoundingly blue. Prior to Jeb Bush’s election in Nov. 1998, the only Republicans elected to the governor’s office over the last century were those who switched party affiliations (Bob Martinez and Claude Kirk).
Since 1998, both chambers of the legislature and the governor’s office have been controlled by Republicans (although we do acknowledge the Charlie Crist years as questionable).
The Sunshine State has shifted from purple, to plum, to red, to deep red — cycle after cycle. In 2022’s election, the legislature got its first Republican supermajority.
In 2024’s election cycle, both chambers increased their supermajority, spurring a couple of Democratic representatives to switch parties.
Over that same time, the Sunshine State has become a laboratory for advancing a conservative policy agenda unmatched by any other state.
Also in that same time-period, we have seen millions of Americans become political refugees, fleeing big-tax-big-government states like California, New York, and Illinois.
Where are they going?
Straight to Florida!
[A statistic often touted is that in 2012 (when Barack Obama won Florida in his reelection bid), the state had 600,000 more registered Democrats than Republicans.]
Fast forward just a dozen years, and in 2024 the state had 1.2 million more registered Republicans than Democrats.
That almost two million voter-shift has led to a case study on the impacts of true conservative governing.
Moreover, Florida will almost certainly, this year, pass a state budget around $115 billion --- which is an actual cut of a couple of billion dollars from the prior year.
By contrast, New York State, with about 3.5 million fewer residents, will pass a budget of roughly $252 billion (yes, more than double).
At the same time the Sunshine State is cutting the actual size of government, blue states are grappling with how to generate new streams of revenue, increase existing taxes, or expand the nanny state to levels many would find outrageous.
This year, ahead of the 2025 60-day legislative session, Gov. Ron DeSantis issued his policy agenda, and he called for the elimination of property taxes entirely.
The arguments by Florida's 46th chief executive for the proposal, are rooted in conservative principles. You can "own" your property outright, but you never really own it when the government can slap a lien on it if you fall back on paying your property taxes.
Additionally, property tax revenue has exploded the size of local governments at the expense of ordinary residents.
With 125 million annual tourists who inject billions in tax revenue every year, it's a lofty goal, but not an impossible one.
Meanwhile, in presenting his chamber’s 2025-2026 budget proposal last week, Fla. House Speaker Danny Perez, R-Dist. 116, surprised many with his pronouncement that the House would seek to lower the state’s sales tax rate from 6.0 to 5.25% — permanently.
The governor’s position is that property tax relief is necessary to help put downward pressure on costs and promote housing affordability.
And with six tourists for every resident, sales tax reductions unnecessarily subsidize out of state visitors. The State House argues that the governor’s proposal would require a constitutional amendment, and their plan will provide relief to all Floridians immediately.
But what's lost in the media’s desire to create a narrative of conflict among Republicans is a simple question: Where else in our nation does state government operate as the leanest in the United States, pass a budget that cuts government further, and then argues that a massive tax cut package is the best one to pursue?
Where else are two branches of government arguing over whose tax cut is bigger?
It's like living in a candy shop and arguing about which chocolate bar is the best.
So, in between rage posts on Twitter/X and calling fellow Republicans RINO’s or whatever other name is getting tossed around these days, let’s celebrate.
For those of us lucky enough to call ourselves Floridians, our future is one in which the question is not whether taxes are cut, but rather where and how big the final cuts will be.
Dr. Robert McClure is president and CEO of The James Madison Institute in Tallahassee, Florida. Read Dr. McClure's Reports — More Here.
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