By Christine Sexton | Senior Reporter
“I wish we could snap our fingers and say next time you go to Publix you’re going to pay what you were paying back in 2019. We don’t set those prices at the state level or any government level but this (property) tax is one thing that we do control.” — Gov. Ron DeSantis’ comments in support of Amendment 3
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis speaking in Tampa on July 1, 2026. (Photo by Mitch Perry/Florida Phoenix)
Gov. Ron DeSantis made it clear that while he was going to vote for it, he wasn’t going to use his influence to lobby Florida voters to pass Amendment 3, the most far-reaching homestead property tax reduction ever proposed by the Legislature. With the election less than two weeks away and polls showing the proposal doesn’t have the 60% support needed to pass, DeSantis and Miami leaders spent an hour in in front of TV cameras advocating for the amendment’s passage. The TV time comes on the heels of Senate President Ben Albritton’s announcement that he’ll vote against the proposal.
The race for Congressional District 22 is between Democrat Pia Dandiya — a 39-year-old Palm Beach native and daughter of Indian immigrants — and Republican Casey Askar, who was born in Iraq and immigrated to the United States with his family when he was a child. Both candidates support banning congressional members from trading stocks, but otherwise there are few similarities between them. CD 22 was one of four newly congressional drawn districts Gov. Ron DeSantis predicted would flip from blue to red this election. The Cook Political Report, an election forecasting agency, now considers the race a “toss-up.”
COMMENTARY
The Florida Department of Transportation has for the last 30 years been building wildlife underpasses to provide indigenous critters, like Florida panthers, safe passage to cross roads that block their migration routes. But there’s no sense in building underpasses (and now overpasses) in spots that safely lead panthers and turtles from one side of the road and into subdivisions, Phoenix columnist Craig Pittman writes. The recent decision by the Legislature to defund Florida Forever, a popular land buying program, makes it even more difficult for the state to control both sides of the street to really ensure wildlife’s safety.
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