What did Manatee County lawmakers focus on at 2022 session? Here’s what they said.
Manatee County’s state lawmakers are proud of the work they got done over the past two months, but their work in Tallahassee might not be done just yet.
A limited session means lots of unfinished business, and members of the county’s state delegation may be called back this summer for a special session to tackle Florida’s property insurance laws and redistricting maps.
Speaking with more than 100 residents and community leaders during the Manatee Chamber of Commerce’s Pints and Politics event at Motorworks Brewing last week, Manatee’s lawmakers shared updates on what they accomplished and what still needs work.
Property insurance is one of their top concerns, but legislators couldn’t agree on a fix by the end of the legislative session earlier this month. Over the past several years, property insurance has become a crisis for Florida homeowners, with companies raising rates significantly or canceling plans with little warning.
“I don’t know if we’re going to do a special session and come back and look at insurance again before the end of the fiscal year, but I won’t be surprised if we do,” said state Rep. Tommy Gregory, R-Sarasota. “The government needs to do something to improve the market.”
State Sen. Jim Boyd, R-Bradenton, provided his own update for county leaders during a joint meeting between the Manatee County Commission and the city of Bradenton on Thursday. He hinted at future work on property insurance legislation and celebrated an upcoming land acquisition.
“Rattlesnake Key, not just the sheer beauty of it, but it helps the resiliency of the coast. The plan is to make it a state park for a new generation of Floridians and visitors,” Boyd explained.
Earlier this year, Manatee County agreed to spend up to $3 million to help state lawmakers purchase Rattlesnake Key, an island of mangroves forests, just east of Terra Ceia. The state plans to buy the property for $23 million, pending the governor’s review of the $112 billion state budget.
While Florida’s state maps have already been approved as part of the redistricting process, Gov. Ron DeSantis has vowed to veto the congressional maps prepared by the Legislature. If that happens, lawmakers may need to reconvene to draw new maps.
Gregory, along with state Rep. Will Robinson, R-Bradenton, and state Rep. Fiona McFarland, R-Sarasota, also shared what they were able to accomplish this year.
Pointing to the government’s ban on COVID-19 restrictions and record levels of visitors and tax revenue, Gregory praised DeSantis for being a “bold leader.” Big revenue means big savings for residents in the form of several tax-free shopping holidays throughout the year, lawmakers say.
“I was explaining all of those to my wife and she said ‘That’s great, we’re going to go broke saving money this summer,’” Gregory joked.
Unlike recent years, the 2022 Legislative session wasn’t interrupted by a crisis, such as the Parkland shooting in 2019, COVID-19 in 2020 or the Piney Point environmental disaster in 2021.
“It frankly allowed us to focus on two of the most critical issues and frankly the only two constitutional issues that we have to tackle in Florida — That’s one, to pass a balanced budget and two, to pass maps,” said Robinson.
In addition to those requirements, Robinson said he was proud of several successful bills that acquired funding for power line removal in the city of Bradenton Beach, flooding mitigation in the city of Holmes Beach, and sewer improvements in Bradenton.
After wrapping up her first term as a state lawmaker, McFarland said she learned many lessons along the way. One of her most ambitious bills, a law that would place strict regulations on how companies manage sensitive data online, failed to make it to the governor’s desk.
“Some things take multiple sessions and multiple terms,” McFarland said. “Recognizing the problem and designing the solution are two very different things.”
