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New Florida House Speaker Daniel Perez hints at budget cuts, no special session on condo issues

Rep. Daniel Perez, R-Miami closes on his bill titled SB 4-D - Building Safety in the Florida House of Representatives Wednesday, May 25, 2022 at the Capitol in Tallahassee, Fla. The bill passed 110-0. (AP Photo/Phil Sears)
Phil Sears/AP
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FR170567 AP
Rep. Daniel Perez, R-Miami closes on his bill titled SB 4-D - Building Safety in the Florida House of Representatives Wednesday, May 25, 2022 at the Capitol in Tallahassee, Fla. The bill passed 110-0. (AP Photo/Phil Sears)

TALLAHASSEE — Expect fiscal belt tightening in the Florida House, but not a special legislative session to address soaring costs faced by condominium associations and owners, new House Speaker Daniel Perez, R-Miami, signaled Tuesday as he started a two-year term as speaker.

Perez, a 37-year-old Cuban American lawyer, briefly questioned past state spending and said Floridians “aren't looking for handouts” and don’t want lawmakers to “tell them what to think or how to live.” But he also pointed to concerns about issues such as affordability of living in Florida.

“In my experience, Floridians are realistic. They understand that there are trade-offs. They understand that in a state battered by hurricanes, insurance will be a challenge,” Perez said to lawmakers and other audience members, including Gov. Ron DeSantis, during a post-election organization session. “But they need to know that our state's insurance laws are not being written by and for the insurance companies. They want to own their own homes, not be tenants to private-equity firms. They want to open up a business without jumping through endless bureaucratic hoops. They want to pick their own doctors and send their kids to good schools.”

Rep. Sam Garrison, a Fleming Island Republican slated to become speaker in 2026, described Perez as a “bro,” a word Perez often uses, but also as someone who “takes his role in the Cuban American story, his family's story, his friends’ story, very, very seriously.”

“He carries a heavy burden, a burden that many of you in this chamber, whose families lost so much and who found hope in our great state, share alongside with him,” Garrison said.

The one-day organization session came after Republicans maintained super-majorities in the House and Senate during the Nov. 5 elections. Along with Perez becoming speaker, Wauchula Republican Ben Albritton became Senate president Tuesday.

READ MORE: New state Senate president promises to hold insurance industry accountable

While Democrats will have relatively little legislative power over the next two years, House Minority Leader Fentrice Driskell, D-Tampa, said they will “be the voice of reason, the voice of conscience,” as Floridians “are far more evenly divided on many of the most important issues that will be raised among us.”

“Since the House last met, our state has encountered numerous challenges, from devastating weather events like back-to-back hurricanes to … tornadoes that carved a path literally through our state, to escalating property insurance affordability and condo crises,” Driskell said.

Speaking to reporters after the session, Perez said lawmakers will start addressing condominium issues when they hold committee meetings in the weeks before the 2025 regular session, which will start in March. Also, Albritton said he expects lawmakers to address condominiums during the regular session, rather than a special session.

“I have heard the call for a special session on condos, just like the rest of us have,” Perez told reporters. “The question shouldn't be when. The question should be, what? What is the solution that people are offering to the issue before condos? It's an issue we'll be discussing during session.”

DeSantis has said it was up to the Legislature to address significant increases in assessments that condo residents face on top of homeowner association fees.

After the 2021 collapse of the Champlain Towers South condominium building in Surfside that killed 98 people, lawmakers during a 2022 special session passed a measure aimed at requiring condominium associations to have adequate financial reserves to pay for needed repairs to buildings. Also, the bill set requirements for inspections of condominium buildings that are three stories or higher.

READ MORE: Three years after condo collapsed in Surfside, what do we know?

The law was tweaked in 2023, and the Legislature this year passed a measure that targeted wrongdoing by members of association boards.

Perez was first elected in a 2017 special election and had long been in line to become speaker, one of the most-powerful positions in the state. He replaced former Speaker Paul Renner, R-Palm Coast.

Heading into the organization session, Perez had cautioned House members about a need to reduce spending on projects and programs lawmakers pursue for their districts. Such funding grew from $174 million in 2019 to $1.3 billion in 2024.

“It is far easier to spend money than to save it,” Perez said during his speech Tuesday. “We talk about being fiscally responsible. But are we? Or are we just giving ourselves a free pass in Florida by pointing out that we aren't Washington, D.C.?”

“State government has become so flush with cash that we have lost any sense of discipline,” Perez said. “We make purchases following natural disasters with little to no inventory control. We buy land that we can't keep track of, much less manage competently. We spend millions of dollars on failed IT projects. How much money has been spent on Capitol renovations only to have parking garages that leak water and flood?”

Perez noted there’s been talk of revamping the state Department of Business and Professional Regulation. He said lawmakers should “actually dismantle any license that stifles competition and keeps hard-working Floridians on the outside of jobs looking in.”

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Jim Turner | News Service of Florida