‘We promised to leave Florida to God better than we found, and we are doing just that,’ the governor said.
TALLAHASSEE, Fla.—Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis gave his penultimate State of the State Address to a joint session of the state Legislature on March 4, in which he championed the work his team has accomplished in the last six years, and emphasized the challenges they still face in the final regular session of his administration.
“We chose freedom over fear; education over indoctrination; law and order over rioting and disorder,” he said. ”We are proud of our state’s accomplishments while we recognize the work that lies ahead.”
“We can—and we must—continue to lead,” he added.
The governor’s touted Florida leadership in terms of immigration, economy and business, education, environmental restoration, and taxes.
He praised the Legislature for several of its accomplishments over the years, including but not limited to banning communist China from buying land in the state, enacting a digital bill of rights as well as parental rights in education, protecting Floridians against a central bank digital currency, divesting state holdings from China-based banks and investment firms, as well as from firms that pushed environmental social governance (ESG), and the pro-life heartbeat bill.
However, he called for his fellow lawmakers to work on fulfilling still incomplete projects for Floridans where needed. That incomplete work is found, he said, primarily in their homes, their environment, their education, protection of their second amendment rights, and petition reform.
Petition reform was originally slated to be addressed during the special session called at the beginning of the year but was pushed back to the regular session. It comes after widespread petition fraud was uncovered in connection with efforts to collect enough signatures to get two issues on state ballots in November 2024: constitutional amendments protecting abortion access and legalizing recreational marijuana use.
“We need to clean up the petition fraud, and we need to clean up this out-of-control amendment process, and you and the Legislature have the opportunity to do just that and protect Florida’s Constitution once and for all,” he said.
DeSantis called once again for the Legislature to address the needs of Florida’s condominium owners amid rising assessment costs.
He also spoke out in favor of eliminating tax on business rent and efforts being considered by the Legislature to eliminate property taxes via a proposed ballot amendment.
“You buy a home, pay off a mortgage—and yet you still have to write a check to the government every year just to live on your own property,” he said. “Is the property yours or are you just renting from the government?”
Along with his call to improve conditions for Floridians’ individual homes came a call to finish ongoing improvements to their collective natural home.
Florida’s Everglades restoration project, he said, needs to be completed, and the Trump administration is receptive to just granting the money to Florida instead of allocating it to the Army Corps of Engineers.
“We promised to leave Florida to God better than we found, and we are doing just that,” he said.
“Florida time is faster than Army Corps of Engineers time,” he added.
The governor then requested of the Legislature to work on expanding laws protecting residents’ Second Amendment rights. While the state allows permitless concealed carry, the state still lacks constitutional open carry laws.
He called for a Second Amendment-specific tax holiday, allowing for Floridians to stock up on guns, ammunition, and other gun-related items.
As for the momentum he hopes to maintain, DeSantis praised the continued reform work of bringing down property insurance rates and helping Floridians get back on their feet after disastrous hurricanes.
“The fact is that the Legislature has devoted more time and effort to address insurance reforms over the past few years than at any other time in the history of Florida,” he said. “I hope that the Legislature continues these efforts by providing funding for those on the My Safe Florida Home waitlist—these grants have helped tens of thousands harden their homes and generate rate relief.”
The governor gave praise to ongoing education reforms across the state as well, and urged the Legislature to further increase efforts to recruit new teachers.
“Our universal school choice program works—families and students have benefitted, and the academic bar has been raised throughout the state,” he said.
This regular session comes after a special session that saw the passing of anti-illegal immigration legislation and the governor, speaker of the House, and Senate president all mentioned that in their opening remarks.
“No state has done more, and no state did it sooner than we did in Florida,” DeSantis said. ”Thanks to the recent legislation, it is now a crime to enter Florida illegally, the days of catch and release are over, and all state and local law enforcement have a duty to assist in interior immigration enforcement efforts.
“The voters have spoken—and Florida has responded. We will be part of the solution, not part of the problem.”
But not all were left impressed. Senate Minority Leader Jason Pizzo gave an off-the-cuff rebuttal immediately after DeSantis’s address, and asked, in the spirit of looking back on the Republican’s track record in the state, why now did all of the social issues of DEI, ESG, and immigration, as well as infrastructure suddenly become a problem?
“I wondered how, with more than 30 years of majority control of the Legislature and executive branches, how any of these issues were so insidious that they festered into such an instant concern,” he said. “Or rather, how did a generation of Republican predecessors allow us to get to this place?”
Pizzo pointed out that he was the first state senator to introduce a bill expanding e-verify measures to all employees in the state, a measure that his Republican colleagues failed to include in the bill pushed forward during the special session.
E-verify requires private employers with 25 or more employees to verify the immigration status of new hires.
“You are not serious about probing legal immigration if you continue to cower to donors and not listen to our citizens,” he said.
However, the senator ended his short address with hope of a unified Legislature, affirming he was ready to back the agenda put forward by Senate President Ben Albritton, which will focus on families, economic growth, protecting Florida’s children, and demanding efficiency in government spending.
“I pledge my absolute commitment that if we can focus on this agenda, there need not be an ideology or even an aisle that divides us,” he said.