Chris Dawson, Attorney, GrayRobinson
Happy New Year, FRSA! I hope you enjoyed a fantastic holiday season with family and friends. May the coming year bring much joy and prosperity across our great FRSA family and across our beautiful state. Now that all of the champagne bottles have been popped… what comes next?
Well, that didn’t take long! The Florida Legislature was back in the business of legislating on January 3, kicking off the 2023 Regular Session with its first committee week. A December 2022 committee week was ultimately revised to a Special Session on property insurance. Don’t expect that issue to go far, as additional reforms are expected. For now, legislators will spend the balance of January and February catching up by receiving committee reports, filing legislation and – for all those freshman members elected in November – finding the bathrooms.
They will have to figure it out quickly, however, as the Legislature is set to convene in Regular Session on March 7. We know that legislators will have a healthy policy to-do list this year with major issues such as housing affordability, tort reform, local government regulation and hurricane recovery on the docket. Further, they’ll have to figure out how to spend $100 billion- plus over the sixty-day session in order to craft the state’s Fiscal Year 2023- 2024 budget. As always, the Florida Constitution requires legislators to pass a balanced budget.
The Florida Cabinet is housed on the Plaza Level of the Florida Capitol and most of the Cabinet will be returning for a second term, including Governor Ron DeSantis (R), Attorney General Ashley Moody (R) and Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis (R). Former Senate President Wilton Simpson (R) takes the reigns as the Commissioner of Agriculture where he has a head start from a long personal career in Florida agriculture. It will largely be business as usual for the Florida Cabinet, but the real intrigue surrounds Governor DeSantis and an often discussed – if not expected – run for President in 2024. Expect the Florida Legislature to grease the wheels for him with an early tweak to Florida’s resignto-run laws. As you can see, there’s no rest for the weary in 2023. Fortunately, FRSA is rearing to go and we are in a fantastic position to continue advancing the interests of Florida’s roofing profession. Cheers to another exciting, productive and rewarding trip around the sun in 2023.
Chris Dawson is an Attorney and professional Lobbyist for GrayRobinson’s Orlando office and is licensed to practice law in both Florida and Alabama. He primarily focuses on lobbying and government relations for public and private sector clients at the executive and
legislative levels of state government. He is credentialed as a Designated Professional Lobbyist by the Florida Association of Professional Lobbyists. Chris also holds two degrees in Civil Engineering and has experience in construction litigation and design professional malpractice defense.