The office of lieutenant governor may be one of the least consequential statewide offices. Still, Bryan Avila, who's running alongside Republican Byron Donalds, made his case for the job Friday before the Tampa Tiger Bay Club.
Avila was mostly evasive answering questions from Tiger Bay members, including one on how the Donalds campaign would differ from any of President Trump's policies. But he did plug the property tax reduction amendment on November's ballot.
Avila, after all, was a sponsor in the legislature.
"At the end of the day, every single dollar that government spends first came from someone's paycheck," he told the audience at the Cuban Club in Ybor City. "With Amendment 3, I will tell you I think that the people and each resident and each family knows how to spend their money better than local government does."
Amendment 3 would raise the non-school homestead exemption to $250,000 over time. Many local governments say that would limit basic services.
He was also asked his position on the use of flock cameras, which are automated license plate readers. Avila says their use is a balancing act between privacy protection versus the needs of law enforcement.
"We are working with law enforcement to make sure that we obviously don't want to take away any tools in their toolbox that would prevent them from solving a crime," he said. "We want to make sure our neighborhoods are safe, but we also wanna make sure that each and every resident's personal rights are also respected."
He says the Donalds campaign has asked for recommendations on the use of flock cameras from local sheriffs and police chiefs.
