By Michael Moline | Editor in Chief
“What I really find interesting is that idea that I’ve been talking about for several years, the Democratic potential nominee, David Jolly, runs on my idea. — state Rep. Hillary Cassel of a proposal to cut property insurance costs
A BMW lies submerged during flooding in New Smyrna Beach caused by Hurricane Ian, via New Smyrna Beach official Facebook page.
Byron Donalds claims David Jolly’s plan to bring down homeowners’ insurance rates would mean a $1,000 “hurricane tax.” His campaign seems to base that assertion on an FSU study that wasn’t drawn from Jolly’s proposal, but on a plan first introduced by a bipartisan pair of Florida lawmakers in 2024 to steer homeowners to Citizens Property Insurance Corp. for wind damage coverage. That’s not Jolly’s plan, the Democrat insists — in fact, he says, his plan hasn’t even been written down yet. He wants to create a sovereign wealth fund fueled by specific taxes to sell hurricane wind coverage. “It does not include an additional $1,000 tax for homeowners. No governor is going to do that,” Jolly says.
Districts and charter schools, at a minimum, must make policies to “protect students, parents, and instructional personnel from unlawful, deceptive, unsafe, or unauthorized uses of artificial intelligence systems, services, applications, and tools used in connection with educational programs and operations in Florida public schools,” with parents fully informed and subject to their permission. Similar rules would cover state colleges.
COMMENTARY
Lee County residents laughed down a proposal that would eventually remove neighborhood protections against developers, columnist Craig Pittman reports. Seventeen communities within the county enjoy growth control, which cheeses off developers. The accommodating county commission took up a plan to deny public hearings on new projects, but the communities mobilized and mocked the proposal. “What outraged them even more was that the staff seemed to be rushing it through before the area’s snowbirds could flock back to the region and raise objections,” Pittman writes. Now the commission has postponed the plan indefinitely. “Instead, they told their planning staff to come up with a new, non-rushed timeline for revisions and to include a robust public outreach so no one will think it’s being rammed down their throats.”
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