U.S. Rep. Jimmy Patronis this spring won a special election to replace former U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz in a Northwest Florida district. Patronis, a Republican, served nearly eight years as the state’s chief financial officer before his April election to Congressional District 1. Patronis, whose father and uncle started the popular Captain Anderson’s restaurant in Panama City, also served in the state House and as a member of the Florida Public Service Commission.
The News Service of Florida has five questions for Jimmy Patronis, with the interview conducted last week as the stalemate over the government shutdown continued.
What was the biggest surprise when you joined Congress?
PATRONIS: My biggest surprise, which disarms a lot of people, was just how nice everyone is. There are just a lot of really good people. I mean, a lot of them, on both sides of the aisle. They love their country. They are there because they want to make a difference, you know? Because we (Republicans) only have a one-seat majority right now, it's really difficult to move things along.
The speaker (Mike Johnson of Louisiana) is incredibly accessible. You know what? He's got to be accessible, when we only have a one-seat majority so he’s working himself silly. … We’ve got good members in the process.
Both sides of the aisle have their terrorists, which can definitely make things challenging and painful. It's just the rule of numbers. If you got 100 people in the room, there's gonna be that 10 percent that are just a real pleasure to avoid.
We’re in the midst of the government shutdown. Do you see any light at the end of the tunnel, and what’s the impact in your district?
PATRONIS: I really think it all comes to a head after the first Tuesday in November after the elections, and there will be some breathing room. Whether there'll be new Democrats to rally around, or a mixed bag of Democrats and Republicans, moving forward, I think then that will allow a decision to be made on behalf of the Democrats in the Senate.
Then you roll right immediately into Thanksgiving, which kind of gives a nice distraction for people. Then you come back after Thanksgiving, and you start to roll your sleeves up. And then we start talking about subsidies, the Obamacare subsidies.
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You’ve got subsidies that have kind of always been there, but the enhanced subsidies that were established during COVID, this is what the Democrats are spun up on. They want the enhanced (health care) subsidies. … This is some of the paralysis that we've had, where they're (Democrats) trying to take the high ground on the subsidies but those subsidies don't expire till the end of the year, so there's plenty of time to talk about subsidies. … I’ve probably got the highest per-capita military personnel in my district of any member of Congress. Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) … has got a bill proposed that would pay all those military personnel, those essential folks, a paycheck. It was voted down by the Democrats last week. They didn't even want to go there. This is what I'm telling you. It all boils down to leverage.
And this is something that the Democrats have slipped up and said publicly that, unfortunately, they've got to use this leverage of our military personnel in order to make their case. It's the sausage being made that's probably about as bloody and nasty as I've ever seen it. I'll talk to our service members and typically, I'm Jimmy taking care of the customer, and I ask them, ‘What can I do for you?’ And they always say, ‘Can you pass a budget?’ Because they don't like being in the middle of this garbage, either.
There’s a lot of talk about property tax reform here in Tallahassee. What are your thoughts on the issue?
PATRONIS: I voted before, in the (state) House, to get rid of property taxes. It would be great. It would be a huge shot in the arm to the economy in a lot of different ways. The problem you’ve got is how you get those dollars back to local government.
We tried multiple different ways of giving property tax relief over the years. I remember, ultimately, as we had all these fantastic formulas and ideas out there, the only thing that really resonated with the voters, that would hit the 60 percent threshold in Florida … is increasing the homestead exemption. That's easy to understand. The voters get it and they will support it.
So, ultimately, I think that's probably the easiest sell that the Legislature can pass, that actually can get the 60 percent voter support. … The problem you're gonna run into, let's say, raising the exemption to $100,000. Now that's great, but then you will have counties like Holmes County or Liberty or Calhoun.
You will devastate those counties because it'll make almost the entire county exempt of just what's been built in over time. And they're maxed out in their millage. They can't raise their millage anymore. So how are you going to fund them? I know there's a dialogue, well, the state will fund them. Well, it's easy to say now, but the state always doesn't have a perfect revenue stream. … And then, when you increase the homestead exemption to $100,000, for example, then you're gonna have a shift, because now you will have an increase in taxes on non-homesteaded properties, which means, arguably, rental properties are gonna have to be paying more in property taxes.
So now rents are technically going up. So it's a very challenging process. … Florida's got fantastic revenues right now. It’s amazing how well we're doing financially. So there are some stars aligned right now to be able to pull this off. I'm just worried about year four, year five, when we have some type of a correction, and then we're in some type of a panic. Again, I'm a gray here, I've seen this show before.
As the former chief financial officer of the state, what do you think about your successor Blaise Ingoglia’s DOGE efforts?
PATRONIS: I think at all levels of government, there can be greater efficiency found. I've seen, even when we had tough times in Florida, back in ‘08 and ‘09, we still found ways to fund infrastructure and projects that maybe could have waited another year or so.
So, look, I always think that government can be run more efficiently. I don't know if the numbers that have been bounced around, that some of these counties are potentially seen as overspending. I don't know where those numbers come from.
But I was talking to one of my sheriffs this weekend, and we were talking about his budget, and he puts together a budget with his county, and it's a three-year budget. So he knows, this is what my budget is going to be for the next three years, and I’ve got to live within it. And he liked the trust given him in that.
You’re having a dinner party. What three people would you invite?
PATRONIS: I’ve had that question asked me before. I get torn, because I’d love to have family back. I’d love to have dinner with my dad or my uncle. Just to be able to sit down and catch up again. There’s all these famous people that would be so cool to sit with, but if I could just have one supper with my father, my uncle and my grandfather, I could get to ask all these questions I never asked.
