TALLAHASSEE -- After spearheading a $711 million plan this year to try to make housing more affordable for workers, Senate President Kathleen Passidomo wants to take steps during the 2024 legislative session to attract more health-care providers.
During an appearance on the “Deeper Dive with Dara Kam” podcast, the Naples Republican said she’s gathering comments on how Florida can be more open to people in the medical industry.
“We do not have enough providers, whether it be physicians, nurses, technicians … facilities to handle our current population comfortably and easily,” Passidomo said. “You know, I hear oftentimes from constituents that if they want to have some kind of elective surgery, they have got to wait eight months to a year to get in.”
Without “creative solutions,” she said, “it’s only going to get worse.”
Meetings have already started with representatives of various groups, including the Florida Medical Association, the Florida Hospital Association and the Florida Department of Veterans’ Affairs, said Passidomo, who used a similar idea-gathering process before the 2023 session to help craft the workforce-housing bill, dubbed the “Live Local Act.”
But expanding Medicaid eligibility — a move long sought by Democrats — isn’t going to be an option.
“That's not an answer,” Passidomo said. “Whether you have insurance or you don't, if we don't have any doctors to treat you -- in the middle of the state there's a lack of medical professionals -- that's where we need to focus on. And so, the whole Medicaid thing is just a distraction to what we should be looking at.”
Signed on March 29 by Gov. Ron DeSantis, the Live Local Act provides incentives for investment in affordable housing and encourages mixed-use developments in struggling commercial areas. It also bars local rent controls and pre-empts local government rules on zoning, density and building heights in certain circumstances.
The “Deeper Dive with Dara Kam” podcast is a feature of The News Service of Florida and City & State Florida. Listen to the Passidomo interview here.
GRACE PERIOD
Nearly one-quarter of the Florida Legislature appears to have missed a soft deadline Monday to submit annual financial-disclosure reports to the state Commission on Ethics.
Don’t fret about tardiness. Late filers --- 26 in the House and 10 in the Senate as of Wednesday --- have two months to submit reports before $25-a-day fines may be imposed. The maximum penalty is $1,500.
Of the 110 reports publicly available as of Wednesday, 59 lawmakers posted net worths over $1 million. Seven lawmakers reported negative incomes, mostly due to student and home loans.
Fourteen reports were listed on the ethics commission website as being received by the agency, but the paperwork hadn’t been posted online.
Last year, 82 of the 160 legislators posted net worths topping $1 million.
State elected officials are required to file forms that disclose information about assets, liabilities and sources of income and overall net worths. Generally, the reports reflect financial information from the end of the previous year.
Based on the paperwork available Wednesday, Rep. Kevin Steele, R-Dade City, is on pace to remain the wealthiest member of the Legislature with a net worth at $405 million. That remains well above the $75 million posted by Rep. Ralph Massullo, a Lecanto Republican who is a dermatologist.
Steele, listed on the House website as “CEO, retired,” founded DataLink Software, a Tampa-based health-care technology company.
House Speaker Paul Renner, R-Palm Coast, put his net worth at the end of 2022 at $1.2 million, up from $858,761 as of the end of 2021. Rep. Daniel Perez, a Miami Republican who is in line to become House speaker after the 2024 elections, listed his net worth at $2.36 million.
Senate President Kathleen Passidomo, R-Naples, posted a net worth of nearly $11.77 million, a slight increase from the year before. Sen. Ben Albritton, a Wauchula Republican who is slated to become Senate president after the 2024 elections, put his net worth at the end of 2022 at $2.29 million.
TWEET OF THE WEEK: “The IRS is going to target Florida. They’re going to go where the fishing is good. Especially with the exodus of people from Blue States to Florida.” --- Florida Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis (@JimmyPatronis).