INSURANCE:
The likely best two solutions are: allow radical competition between ALL legitimate and financially strong insurance carriers. Encourage a wide menu of deductibles, so that if customers wish, they can participate in risk in return for lower premiums.
Lawmakers must tell homeowners the truth; that not all homes and home locations can be made safe against hurricanes, and that there is not a good free market solution available for same.
Poorly constructed homes, homes in flood zones, homes near large bodies of water, are all poor risks (bets) and are likely going to be badly damaged in a hurricane, something all insurance companies will want to avoid, or charge unacceptably high premiums for.
In the end, owners with hurricane resistant homes and safer locations will enjoy (relatively) competitive rates.
The other homeowners and their lenders must face the reality that short of a subsidy from government, whether in the form of premium assistance or financial assistance after a hurricane, there are few good options.
To understand the dilemma in a nutshell, a homeowner could simply ask him/herself this question: if I had the $1,000,000 my neighbor’s home is insured for as cash in my bank account, what premium would I be willing to charge in return for handing over that entire $1,000,000 bank account to my neighbor in the case my neighbor’s home was hit by a hurricane?
The truth is, most would not want to take on the risk for any premium.
So, since there is no good free market solution for a large number of homes, what can be done?
1) For homes that can be satisfactorily fortified against hurricanes, the total cost of approved upgrades could be offset against the property’s real estate taxes. Of course, in the short run this would impact local municipalities, but have the long-term benefit of strengthening homes, improving taxable values and retaining residents and entire neighborhoods that could be displaced following a hurricane.
2) For homes that are not candidates for fortification initiatives, and cannot buy affordable insurance, homeowners could be incentivized, one time, to buy a new, hurricane-proof home by providing them with an additional homestead exemption amount on their new home equal to the sale price of their existing home.
3) All home lenders must make a determination prior to the issuance of any home loan that the property’s structure is hurricane resistant and following issuance of the loan, shall not be permitted to withdraw the loan or penalize a homeowner in any way, during the term of the loan, related to the hurricane resistance of the structure.
Radically Transform Florida’s Auto Insurance
Goal: Protect responsible drivers from being financially penalized by uninsured motorists and create stronger accountability for those who drive without insurance.
The Problem is that Florida’s current auto insurance system allows too many drivers to operate vehicles without continuous coverage. This places an unfair financial burden on law-abiding drivers through higher insurance rates, while also creating safety risks on the roadways.
The system makes it relatively easy for uninsured drivers to maintain valid vehicle registrations, weakening enforcement and accountability.
My proposed reforms require annual, Non-Cancellable insurance policies.
Insurance companies would only be permitted to issue 12-month auto insurance policies. These policies would be non-cancellable by the insurance company and policyholder during the term, except in cases of total loss or sale of the vehicle.
Require Proof of Full-Year Insurance to Obtain or Renew Registration.
Drivers must provide proof of a full 12-month auto insurance policy before receiving a new or renewed Florida license tag sticker. Without this proof, the tax collector’s office would be prohibited from issuing the updated registration.
Tie Insurance Coverage Directly to the annual License Tag sticker renewal.
Insurance coverage would be directly linked to the vehicle’s registration. A vehicle’s registration would only remain valid when supported by continuous insurance coverage for the full registration period as evidenced by valid annual license tag sticker.
An insurance company could only terminate its obligation to provide coverage before the end of the 12-month policy period if it physically obtains the vehicle’s license tag and current registration sticker from the policyholder. Until the insurance company takes possession of the tag and sticker, it would remain fully obligated to maintain coverage for the entire year.
Insurance companies would be responsible for collecting premiums and maintaining continuous coverage for the full 12-month period, matching the duration of the vehicle’s registration shown on the license tag sticker.
Any driver unable to provide proof of a full year of auto insurance would be ineligible to obtain or renew a license tag sticker. Without a current tag sticker, the vehicle could not legally be operated on Florida roadways.
The foregoing simple changes will significantly reduce the number of uninsured drivers by removing the ability to register a vehicle without maintaining full-year insurance coverage.
The changes create clear accountability by making it difficult for either the driver or the insurance company to create coverage gaps during the registration period.
The changes protect responsible drivers by reducing the cost-shifting caused by uninsured motorists.
The changes simplify enforcement for law enforcement, as vehicles without a current tag sticker would be clearly operating illegally.
And in the end, strengthens the overall insurance market by rewarding compliance and holding non-compliant drivers accountable.
RADICALLY TRANSFORM HEALTH INSURANCE
“Healthcare” has become a meaningless term.
It exists only in the fantasy world of policymakers whose laws make care far more costly and complicated than it should be.
Policymakers have forced insurers to cover pre-existing conditions—which is just like requiring car insurance to pay for crashes...that have already happened!
It sounds compassionate, but everyone knows that’s not how insurance actually works. Yet this is exactly the broken system we have today - thanks to politicians who take orders from their handlers.
Our elected leaders have so thoroughly wrecked the insurance market that it is now nearly incomprehensible. Trying to compare insurance policies is a fool’s errand.
The language is impenetrable, the costs obscene, and the situation keeps getting worse.
Buying any policy is little more than an act of hope that it will actually pay the bills when you need it - and it probably won’t.
What can be done? We absolutely, positively must return to basics.
1) Restore real incentives for doctors—driven out of private practice by crushing costs, litigation, insurance companies, and red tape—to reopen small offices, treat patients directly, and bill as they see fit.
2) Restore the sacred doctor-patient relationship, free from bureaucratic interference.
3) Rewrite the unaffordable, broken healthcare laws. Put doctors, not government and insurance companies, in charge. Make ‘Right to Try’ laws absolute. Affirm and codify “My Body, My Choice.” Free Florida medical research from bureaucratic and litigious strangulation.
4) Restore our insurance market back to pricing risk, reflected in policy premiums.
5) For healthy individuals with no pre-existing conditions - rebuild a genuine insurance market.
6) Radically simplify the choices.
Have Government create five clear, cookie-cutter standardized policy categories.
For each category, create low-, medium-, and high-deductible versions—producing 15 easy-to-compare plans.
Insurers would then compete aggressively on price for each and offer them in the market:
a. Diamond Plan – Covers every healthcare circumstance.
b. Platinum Plan – Covers most healthcare circumstances.
c. Gold Plan – Covers most healthcare circumstances, excluding accidents.
d. Silver Plan – Covers only accidents, not routine health issues.
e. Bronze Plan – Covers 50% of the cost of most healthcare incidents or accidents.
For people with pre-existing conditions, there is no traditional insurance option.
True insurance is protection against unknown future events, not pre-existing conditions.
The truth is, the pre-existing conditions insurance term is nothing more than a government-mandated subsidy scheme, a forced wealth transfer from healthy people (who pay grossly inflated premiums) to people who are already sick.
Slippery politicians want you to believe that it is just another form of insurance - it is not.
Worse, forcing this scheme into a legitimate market/risk-based insurance system destroys the risk-based market that functioned for centuries hurting more people than it helps.
That said, a responsible safety net is essential. It must however be deliberately engineered to minimize moral hazard, and it will require real creativity.
Here's my proposal:
Leverage the insurance companies' expertise in managing costs and their strong negotiated rates with providers.
Assign every person with a pre-existing condition to one of the insurers operating in the state.
In return for a fair administrative fee, each company would manage, not pay for, care for an equal share of these patients.
This 'care arrangement' would eliminate the crazy hospital pricing schemes, the extreme price shocks and anxiety patients face every day, like the well-known emergency room visit that gets billed to the patient for $21,000, and then is reduced for the insurance company to $1650! This one step alone could ignite a 'back to affordability' healthcare revolution!
Every applicant would first be means-tested. Those who qualify could access a state-backed loan fund — up to $200,000 lifetime per person — administered jointly by the patient and their assigned insurer.
Repayment would be capped at 28% of net income until the loan is repaid.
For those who do not qualify, or whose needs exceed that lifetime limit, they would necessarily enter a tightly managed state pool overseen by physicians and medical experts who would directly coordinate their care and make cost-conscious treatment decisions.
This plan keeps private insurers handling day-to-day administration and negotiation, uses loans instead of grants to reduce moral hazard, only applies full government control for the most extreme cases, and leaves the insurance market healthy, competing, and functioning with the most competitive premiums, exactly like it should function.
Those newly competitive premiums, and easy to understand policies, could also induce the many who now go without coverage to go out and buy some!
In other words, this plan would bring back “real” insurance coverage and aggressive competition, which will see premiums reflect actual risk – not the unknown costs of subsidizing a market with no visible bottom.
It also provides for fair, compassionate and cost effective healthcare coverage for the most sick and needy among us.
AFFORDABLE HOUSING:
Affordable and workforce housing (AWH) are critical components of any successful community.
Not everyone can afford market housing options, hence the need for AWH options.
To begin, AWH should be located near to the communities they serve. However, some believe that AWH should be built inside the communities they serve.
This is not ideal given the cost to build AWH in an already affluent community is extremely high and severely impacts the number and quality of the units that can be built.
On the contrary, AWH built nearby, in blighted or lower income areas, has many benefits. Those benefits include the ability to buy land at lower costs, build more and better-quality units, transform the blighted and lower income areas with investments in the community, including roads, sidewalks, funds for better municipal services, new and better infrastructure, community activities and programs and many other benefits that go along with large investments in new projects.
In short, AWH investment is desired and necessary. It should be used as a double-edged sword to both provide needed housing and improve needy areas.
This way, taxpayers and recipients get the biggest bang for their buck!
CLEAN WATER AND AIR:
This one is easy: take all steps necessary to make certain our water and air are clean and that Florida holds polluters accountable.
TRANSPORTATION:
Florida is a victim of its own success.
Overcrowding in our State is taking hold in our large cities and traffic is approaching gridlock levels.
The problem is that our leaders believe it is possible to put 10 pounds of population into a 5-pound population bag!
It is not possible and is having the predictable effect.
Florida needs to continue to invest in improving and enlarging where possible, its roadways.
Florida also needs to look at common sense mass transportation alternatives like more rail, bus and other transportation modes which will help move our people from point to point.
The real elephant in the room, however, is the massive population growth our State has experienced. As I said earlier, there is a limit to the number of people one can cram into a fixed area, and in much of our State, we have hit that limit.
The solution?
Stop building new housing until we can absorb the number of residents we currently have and start taking care of the Floridians who are already here and who deserve the quality of life they were promised and expect.
In addition, rather than continue to build more new units, let’s fix the broken- and run-down units we already have, making housing better for all.
If we stop making the problem worse by mindlessly adding more housing units, and fix and/or improve the housing units we already have, we might be able to preserve the amazing quality of life our current Florida residents envision, get our traffic nightmare under control and further increase the value of all our residents’ investment.
All of that would be a home run for everyone.
PENSIONS:
Our country is woefully overindebted and its retirement promises are unkeepable, as our Social Security and Medicare unfunded amounts alone are equal to 10 years' worth of every penny the United States collects in revenue!
In other words, the system will fail, the only question is when?
We do not want this to happen to our retirees in Florida.
While promises are nice, financial realities are something very different.
The State of Florida has one pension system, the Florida Retirement System, (FRS).
The mechanism for paying the aforementioned pension obligations is an investment account managed by the State.
The required size of the investment account is determined by the revenue the account yields in relation to the number of retirees needing to be paid.
Currently the account itself has become unable, on its own, to pay the amounts the State is required to pay.
Given same, in order to “fix” the pension system, the State would currently have to inject $43B into the fund, an amount equal to almost 50% of the State’s entire budget.
Finally with respect to the above structure to pay retirees, in the case where the investment account begins to fail, is cut significantly or goes to zero, the State will likely bear the ENTIRE responsibility to come up with all of the funds, over $200B, a second time, to restore the investment account.
Given the size of the investment account, this alone could bankrupt the State and devastate our taxpayers.
The chances of this happening are not zero.
Is there any alternative?
Contrast the above with a 401k type account for employees, with the State making very generous contributions; an account which each employee would own.
Unlike the defined benefit plan first described above, the 401K type account is a defined contribution benefit plan.
The 401k type plan has several benefits.
1) It allows the employee to own their account, benefit from it and take it with them with no strings attached.
2) Since the plan belongs to the employee they can invest and do with the funds in their account upon departure from the State as they wish.
3) It allows the State to pay as you go, budget responsibly, not go into debt and retain employees by raising the State’s contribution to a level which would entice and financially motivate its employees.
Lastly a 401K type plan for all new employees, which is intelligently designed, would be good for those new employees, while honoring the promises made to existing employees, and at the same time protect Florida’s residents from making financial promises that they probably can’t afford to keep.
PROPERTY TAXES:
First, they are way too high!
The truth is, in the Free State of Florida, the high property tax rate is choking residents and enabling unconscious elected leaders in our cities and school boards to spend like the flow of money is never-ending.
Given politicians are experts at talking, they will always have a reason why your paying more to them is necessary. Let's ignore that problem for a minute.
Property owners deserve relief and unconscious elected leaders need to do the hard work of caring for taxpayer money, by cutting their overall budgets by at least 5% and preferably 10%.
Floridians are continuously forced to tighten their belts, and the same should be required of government bureaucrats.
For example, Florida school budgets have grown from $2.5 billion in 1980 to $29.7 billion in 2024, a 12-fold increase.
Meanwhile the 1980 median income for the average Floridian was about $18,000, and in 2024 that number grew to $72,000, only a 4-fold increase.
Worse the number of people living in Florida expected to pay for the 12-fold increase in school budgets has only about doubled since 1980.
See the problem?
The real question is, how do Floridians pay any bill that has gone up 12-times, with personal income that has only increased 4-times?
Answer: They can’t.
What’s the solution and how to implement it?
Slash and eventually eliminate property taxes for residency vested Florida homeowners and renters.
For each year beyond a year-ten residency vesting period requirement, Florida homeowners would be entitled to a cumulative 10%-point increase of their existing homestead exemption, until their adjusted exemption reaches 100%.
Renters in Florida, who meet the ten-year residency vesting period requirement and who go on to purchase a Florida home, would also enjoy the same cumulative 10%-point increase of their new home's homestead exemption, until their adjusted exemption reaches 100%.
Additionally and critically, the adjusted homestead exemption shall be transferable to the homeowner's wife or children.
How to fund the relief.
1) Immediately reduce the Florida Constitutional maximum property tax rate by 50%.
This change would mean the potential maximum tax rate on one’s property would be necessarily dramatically reduced thereby reducing revenue to government by up to $18B.
2) Reduce school spending by at least 5%, possibly 10%, directing those savings to property owners, reducing revenue to government by $1.5B to $3B.
3) Reduce municipal spending by at least 5%, possibly 10%, saving property owners and reducing revenue to government by $1.5B to $3B.
4) Reduce fraud and waste Statewide likely saving $3B to $5B.
5) Other miscellaneous State and municipal savings of $1B.
6) Note: Florida had a $21B surplus in its most recent budget. These funds should be added to Florida’s version of a savings account for emergencies only, the Budget Stabilization Fund (BSF).
7) Last but not least, the law must be changed to allow homesteaded property owners the right to pass down properties to wives and children, without an increase in assessed value - which would otherwise make a family home instantly unaffordable and ensure that Florida families will all be involuntarily displaced.
By taking all of the above-mentioned steps, the likely result would be that property values would increase, revenues to government would necessarily increase, property owners would receive desperately needed relief and government would be forced to spend the revenue it collects much more carefully.
A win for everyone.
GAMBLING:
Florida has enough of it already.
IMMIGRATION:
Legal immigration is good. Uncontrolled, unvetted, unregulated, illegal immigration is bad.
AI
I support the responsible development of AI in Florida, provided it delivers clear benefits to Floridians and does not come at the expense of any of our residents.
To that end, I would require the following conditions for any new data center:
As a condition of approval, each data center must commit to building or funding additional power generation and infrastructure sufficient to supply at least 120% of its actual power consumption. This obligation would remain in effect for the entire life of the project.
Additionally, data centers would be required to pay 110% of the electricity rate charged to residential customers, or 110% of the rate they normally pay, whichever is greater. The extra 10% would be credited back on a pro-rata basis to Florida’s residential ratepayers.
MY PROPOSED "OASIS ACT"
Supercharging Florida’s Forgotten – Tough Love Will Work Here, Just Like it Does at Home.
Florida’s poor don’t need another handout. They need a real shot — and the support to seize it.
We have too many voiceless brothers and sisters trapped in slums, ghettos, and war-zone neighborhoods that no one should have to endure.
Enough is enough. We’re done subsidizing failure. We’re done watching good tax dollars vanish into programs that reward dependency and punish success.
The failed “Live Local Act” and its clones are a disgrace: they deliver almost zero low-cost housing for struggling Floridians, bulldoze historic neighborhoods, and stuff millions into the pockets of connected developers and politicians. It’s corporate welfare dressed up as compassion.
Enter my proposed “Oasis Act” — a no-excuses, results-driven revolution.
Instead of scattering money to the wind, the Oasis Act redirects the exact same developer incentives to the worst, most dangerous, and forgotten slum parcels across Florida where the land is dirt-cheap.
That means every state dollar stretches dramatically farther — and actually changes lives.
Here’s how it works, no sugarcoating:
- Ironclad security first. A hardened perimeter seals the entire site. One way in, one way out, with 24/7 security at the gate. Outside predators, gangs, drugs, and chaos are kept out. Period.
- Safe, dignified housing rises next — clean, affordable units for families who want better. Parks, playgrounds, and real neighborhood features included.
- Limited retail and offices go in — just enough to supply daily needs inside the Oasis. Residents will still do most of their shopping and work in the wider world.
- Rigorous rules. Every resident signs on to accountability: no crime, no drugs, school attendance for kids, work or training requirements for adults. Break the rules, and your spot is given to another willing to follow the rules. This isn’t a free ride — it’s a launchpad for serious and committed people who are ready to climb.
Once the first Oasis proves it works, we replicate it aggressively until every blighted war zone area in Florida is transformed. One day the walls come down, the gates open, and what was a dangerous slum becomes another safe, thriving Florida neighborhood.
Bottom line: This is the biggest bang for the taxpayer housing buck Florida has ever seen.
It gives our most disadvantaged citizens, who are willing to be accountable, a genuine, life-changing gateway out of poverty — not another trap disguised as “help.”
It gives our disadvantaged Floridians the tools, the safety, and the tough love they actually need to win.
Florida deserves better. Our poorest deserve a real chance — and the rest of us deserve policies that finally work and rid our state of the blight that ruins the lives of too many.
It’s a win for everyone.
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