Added funding for disaster resilience, insurance regs
Governor DeSantis announces his proposed 2025-2026 state budget on February 3, 2025 at The Capitol. Courtesy, The Florida Channel
Governor DeSantis has released his proposed 2025-2026 state budget for the fiscal year that begins July 1 and it includes added funding for disaster mitigation and recovery programs, as well as insurance regulation. The $115.6 billion price tag is more than $3 billion less than the current year’s budget, motivated by the end of federal COVID relief money. There is new and continued tax relief proposed, including reducing the commercial office lease tax from 2% to 1% in January 2026 and then eliminating it altogether the following year, which will be helpful for those of us who pay office rent.
Florida’s Office of Insurance Regulation (OIR) reports the Governor’s budget includes $475,000 to contract with a reinsurance expert to analyze reinsurance cycles that continue to impact the price of property insurance; $330,000 to establish a secondary OIR office in Tampa to boost staff recruitment; and $310,000 to bolster OIR’s data collection and analytics efforts required under the recent consumer insurance protection reforms.
Another $590 million in the Governor’s proposed budget would go to the My Safe Florida Home program, to help with the statewide “home-hardening” effort. The money will process the 45,000 homeowners with completed inspections who’ve been on the waitlist for actual repairs and improvements, and expand the program by 10,000 slots. Condo owners also got some help in the form of $30 million toward the My Safe Florida Condo Pilot Program which could help alleviate some of the mounting stress on the industry we’ve covered in recent newsletters. Affordable housing is also in the Governor’s budget, with $100 million towards the Hometown Heroes Program to help meet housing needs for community workforce members and families.
The Florida Division of Emergency Management (FDEM) has highlighted the following funding for disaster mitigation and recovery programs, following last year’s hurricanes Debby, Helene, and Milton:
- $505 million and 15 new full-time FDEM employees to enforce President Trump’s immigration policies.
- $1.24 billion in federal and state funding so that Florida communities and the state can respond to and recover from major disasters or emergencies and mitigate against future disasters or emergencies.
- $43 million for the Flood Mitigation Assistance (FMA) Swift Current Program to reduce or eliminate repetitive flood damage to buildings insured through the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) to rebuild more flood-resistant buildings.
- $8.2 million for the continued design, development, testing and application of the Division of Emergency Management Enterprise Solution (DEMES), a state-of-the-art information technology platform that provides seamless and expedited processing of FDEM’s emergency response and everyday business activities.
- $4 million for the Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities (BRIC) Grant Program to enhance and expand the ability for research-supported, proactive investment in community resilience.
- $3.6 million for the continued maintenance and advancement of information technology utilized by the State Emergency Operations Center for deployments.
- $3.2 million to help sustain the Statewide WebEOC initiative, a technological solution that allows counties, local municipalities and other entities to coordinate and respond to emergencies impacting Florida.
LMA Newsletter of 2-10-25
