Representatives Roth and Caruso Give their Views on the 2024 Session

Representative Mike Caruso, RCPB President Kim Davis, JID Commissioner Jim Davis, Representative Rick Roth

On Tuesday, May 28th, Representatives Rick Roth and Mike Caruso gave us their impressions of the accomplishments of this year’s legislative session.

As each legislator has their particular areas of focus, each had a different list of highlights. Here are the major items they discussed:

• 207 bills so far signed by the Governor, with 27 awaiting approval and 77 more to be presented to him
• Home schooling has really accelerated under the school choice framework – 77K 10 years ago is now 155K
• 2/3 of the house is republican – the reason we can pass such important legislation
• There was a focus on public safety this year, including:
  • HB1365 – Unauthorized public camping and public sleeping – sets minimum standards for a county to allow homeless encampments
  • HB49 – relaxed rules on hours worked for 16 and 17 year olds
  • HB621 – allows for the efficient eviction of squatters
  • HB549 – reduces threshold for felony theft to $40 from $750 and targets “group retail theft”
  • HB75 – raises penalties for impeding, threatening or harassing 1st responders
  • HB1451 – no ID cards for illegals issued by out of state jurisdictions accepted (issuing them already banned in Florida)
  • HB1036 – enhanced penalty for illegals returning after being deported

• $117B budget, 40% health care, $22B for agriculture
• HB1 – Keeping roads open when closed by protestors
• HB7073 – cuts business rental tax to 2% from 4.5%
• HB1611 – reduced lawsuits against insurance companies and lower taxes on insurance
• CS/SB 7028 – up to $10K to harden homes under “my safe homes”
• HB3 – limit access to social media for under 14
• HB1403 – increases school choice with additional voucher programs
• SB184 – protects 1st responders – stay 20′ back

As reference material, Representative Roth provided his written notes on the session which are available HERE.

The meeting included some elected officials – County Commissioner Sara Baxter and Jupiter Inlet Commissioner Jim Davis were in attendance along with the two representatives.

Candidates introducing themselves included:

Joe LaFauci for State Committeeman
Jody Schwartz and Tami Donnally for State Committeewoman
Anthony Aguirre for House District 94
Michael Gauger for County Sheriff
Deborah Adeimy for Congressional District 22