In The News

At an Argus Foundation event in 2019, Secretary of State Laurel Lee said that state law doesn’t allow ranked-choice voting.

The report’s foundation is based upon a very important premise, “In the United States, housing supply has failed to meet demand, resulting in higher housing costs.” This is no longer a debatable issue, the market is not meeting population growth and therefore driving housing costs upwards. In Sarasota County, no one is in doubt that we are experiencing this issue right now, home sales prices have skyrocketed as we experience a demand from the flight of people from high-tax states.

What is inhibiting the building of housing supply? Regulation. According to the report, “A significant body of research has examined the relationship among land use regulation, housing supply, and housing prices, finding that increasingly strict local and State government regulations have driven up the cost of building new homes and prevented housing supply from keeping up with demand.”

Otherwise known as “regulatory tax,” the cost of regulation can be serious and significant.

Passidomo told the Sarasota Herald-Tribune Tuesday that she supports much of the Texas law but does not its $10,000 incentive for people to sue anyone “participating” in illegal abortions.

“There are provisions in there that don’t make sense,” she said. “We need to do what’s right for Florida.”

Passidomo, who succeeds Sen. Wilton Simpson, R-Trilby, as Senate President after the 2022 session, was speaking to the newspaper after it reported that she told the Argus Foundation Monday, “I am pro-life but I am not pro-telling on your neighbors.”

“Given the recent opinion by the U.S. Supreme Court, we may pursue greater protections for life in Florida,” said the Naples Republican, who is in line to be Senate President if Republicans maintain a majority in 2022.

The statement came a day after Passidomo made headlines for criticizing portions of the Texas “heartbeat” bill that bars abortions around six weeks into a pregnancy and makes no provisions for rape or incest. She made her remarks in a speech to the Argus Foundation in Sarasota, where she said “I am pro-life but I am not pro-telling on your neighbors,” according to the Sarasota Herald-Tribune.

“I am pro-life but I am not pro telling on your neighbors,” Passidomo told the Argus Foundation crowd gathered at Michael’s on East, adding that she is “uncomfortable with that language” allowing citizen enforcement.

Passidomo said in an interview with the Herald-Tribune after the event that she does favor banning abortions after a fetal heartbeat can be detected.

All local governments in the county are receiving more money this year than last year. They will also see more money next year than this year if they maintain current millage rates because property values are increasing. Our overall local tax revenue did not take as...