State Rep. Tom Leek discounts notion that DeSantis, after losing GOP primary, lost clout

One of the things that made the 2024 Florida Legislative Session unique was the circumstance where Gov. Ron DeSantis began the session as a presidential candidate campaigning in Iowa and South Carolina, and by session's end, he was not.

Many reports of previous sessions suggested DeSantis as a strong governor, largely getting what he wanted from lawmakers. In 2022, legislators passed redistricting legislation only to have DeSantis veto it in favor of a plan that flipped an additonal congressional seat. And in 2023 was a year DeSantis hailed as "historic," with him getting nearly everything he wanted − universal school choice, reducing the amount of time women have to get an abortion from 15 weeks to 6; money for Everglades restoration, and raises for teachers and law enforcement officers, eliminating the need for permits to carry a gun, barring minors from receiving gender-affirming care, such as medicine and surgeries that help transgender people begin to transition.

So 2024 was a year when DeSantis was absent for part of the session, then characterized as having less sway over lawmakers, who passed a bill barring children under age 16 from having access to social media despite DeSantis' objections. In the end, though, House Speaker Paul Renner and DeSantis worked out a compromise, with the governor vetoing the first bill and getting a second to pass, this time allowing parents to grant permission for their 14- and 15-year-olds to use social media.

At a Tiger Bay Club of Volusia County meeting Thursday in Daytona Beach, Republican Rep. Tom Leek, the powerful House Appropriations chair, was asked about DeSantis' perceived loss of clout.

Phil Maroney, a local business leader, asked: "Is there really at the level of the House and Senate amongst the Republicans sort of a mindset that 'we're free now from that?'"

Leek didn't mince words.

"I think that's garbage," said Leek, R-Ormond Beach,. "Honestly, the relationship with the governor's office prior to his getting out of the presidential race and after is roughly the same. ... The exact same things are happening. Governor asks for things and sometimes we say no and we work out those differences and what you see is the final product."

Leek, and Sen. Tom Wright, two members of the Volusia County legislative delegation, discussed and fielded questions about the 60-day session that wrapped last Friday.

For Wright, R-New Smyrna Beach, the best work done was in the state budget, for which he credited Leek − the budget's architect on the House side. Wright called Leek "my best friend."

"We're going to get close to $100 million coming back to District 8 with his help," Wright said of the district he serves, covering southern Volusia and northern Brevard counties.

Leek said he and Sen. Doug Broxton, his counterpart, committed to get the budget done on time and without deficit spending.

"It was not a game to be played .... where the Senate should win or the House should win. Our focus was going to be on delivering a budget that was good for the state of Florida and delivering it on time," Leek said.

That $117.5 billion spending plan includes:

• Education: A 2.75% increase in per-student spending and a 3% increase in the base student allocation for the Voluntary Prekindergarten Program.

• Environment: More than $1.7 billion for Everglades restoration and $1.3 billion for low-interest loans for the creation of drinking water systems, wastewater treatment and stormwater management systems.

• Healthcare: An 8% increase in Medicaid reimbursements for nursing homes and pediatric physicians, as well as establishing a pilot program for the Integrated Plan for Persons with Developmental Disabilities using $38.4 million, plus $120.5 million for prevention and treatment services to address the opioid epidemic.

Leek said Florida's economy has been "remarkable" and "resilient," attracting high earners who bring their income with them, helping the state to continually beat revenue projections, while states where some of those new residents are leaving, California, New York and Illinois, to contend with budget deficits.

"If your people who are best able to pay the taxes are leaving your state, and not (paying taxes), the tax burden remains the same but is now spread across fewer people who are less able to support those taxes," he said. "So you start to see the spiral."

A couple of the questions from Tiger Bay Club members touched on Florida's property insurance crisis, a subject Leek − whose day job is chief legal officer for Foundation Risk Partners, a Daytona Beach insurance brokerage − has contended with for years.

"You have to think of this as a macroeconomic problem," he said. "In the state of Florida, you are going to pay more for your property insurance than you will in many other states because the demand to get into the state of Florida is so high. People want to live here."

Fraud led insurance companies to leave the state, so lawmakers reformed the system to make it more attractive to carriers, Leek said.

"Over time, we have had six new carriers come back into the state. We need about another six carriers, maybe a dozen, before you'll start to feel some of what I think is going to be a more moderate increase in insurance premiums, and that's about the best I think you can hope for in a state with this much demand on it."

Lawmakers put $230 million into the My Safe Florida Home and My Safe Florida Condo programs, which provide matching grants of $2 for every $1 a homeowner spends on upgrading roofs and hurricane-safe garage doors and windows.

"You, by doing those things," Leek said, "can bring down your property insurance."

Leek said one aspect of the problem lawmakers still need to address is streamlining the claims process.

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This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Tiger Bay Club of Volusia has legislative delegation discuss session