Florida's leading gubernatorial candidates, Democrat David Jolly and Republican Byron Donalds, both joined WLRN's Sunshine Economy Summit on Wednesday.
The candidates appeared in separate 30 minute one-on-one conversations at the event in Fort Lauderdale. It came just days after negotiations fell apart for debates between the candidates, according to several media outlets.
Each candidate was interviewed by WLRN CEO Tom Hudson, who previously hosted WLRN's Florida Roundup.
Here is what Donalds said in response to three key policy issues in Florida.
Affordability
Amendment 3 would increase the homestead property tax exemption from $50,000 to $150,000 in 2027, and it would rise to $250,000 in 2028. The 10% cap on annual assessment increases for non-homestead properties would be lowered to 5%. It needs 60% support from voters to become law.
Many local government officials, fearing massive cuts to their budgets if the measure passes, have campaigned against the proposal.
Donalds discussed his plan to streamline the permitting process statewide. He pitched a new technology service that could modernize the process. He said the state would pay the subscription fees for local governments to use the new system.
This helps affordability, he said, because it allows developers to build more homes more quickly and reduces construction timelines.
"The longer every project takes, the more expensive it is. And if you wanna talk about affordability, but don't talk about permitting, then you're just running your mouth, and you're not talking about the real ideas that can lower cost of construction, especially for the people who work hard every single day," he said.
READ MORE: WLRN Economy Summit: David Jolly proposes state-backed disaster insurance, opposes Amendment 3
Property insurance
Donalds said property insurance premiums are up because of a policy enacted after Hurricane Wilma in 2005. This policy added a 25% surcharge on premiums that are paid into the Florida Hurricane Catastrophe Fund, or CAT fund. He said that it was done to build up the fund when it began, but now that the fund has more than $12 billion, the surcharge is unnecessary. This reduction, he said, would be passed along to the consumer.
" We wanna make sure that we pass those savings on to the people of Florida. Get rid of that kicker. You don't really need that. If you're thinking about what happens if the CAT Fund ever got depleted again, we can come up with some other solutions to deal with that," he said.
He disagrees with Jolly's plan to tax insurance providers who are subsidized by the state, instead he believes the best course of action is to tighten regulations on them.
" I'm not in a restricting mode. I said that we have to make sure that we work very diligently with these carriers to make sure that the premiums that they charge are actually going towards the different claims that have to be put out there in the event of damage or storm," he said.
Amendment 3
Donalds supports Amendment 3. He said statewide property tax collected has risen from $32 billion to $53 billion in the past six or seven years. Part of that increase is due to the rise in home values and the number of new homes in the state, but Donalds said local governments should have adjusted their rates to flatten this increase.
" Local governments had an opportunity over the last six years to go to a rollback rate, to actually smooth out the increases. Most municipalities and counties did not do that. … So while your budgets did not adjust, especially over the last, four years or so, inflation was almost double digits through most products that people were buying every single day, county government and city government said, 'We're just gonna keep taxes the same even though values rose on everybody,' and they collected more tax revenue. The people of Florida do need relief," he said.
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