Keith on the Issues

Energy & Environment

One of Keith’s top priorities as a state representative is helping our state develop a dynamic economy that combines innovation and responsible natural resource stewardship.

• Fostering smart growth management:

  Keith has been a leader on growth and economic development issues. As a member of the Economic Expansion and Infrastructure Council, one of Keith’s top priorities in the legislature is to make it easier for our state to grow in smarter ways. Growth is necessary and inevitable, but we must do it in the right way to ensure that our communities remain enjoyable places to live for future generations.
  
  

  Keith will continue to work for proposals such as the “Urban Placemaking Initiative,” to enable the redevelopment of aging suburban commercial centers into sites for multimodal transportation, mixed use development, affordable housing and infill instead of sprawl. This legislation is an example of changing the way we do growth management in Florida that is good for business and the environment and coordinates transportation with land use policy.

• Promoting alternate energy through economic incentives and creating high-wage, skilled jobs for Floridians:

  In the State House, Keith Fitzgerald introduced legislation to implement net metering in Florida, allowing individuals to earn credit on their utility bills for energy they produce through renewable methods, such as solar panels, and send back onto the grid. This idea was later incorporated into the 2008 energy bill.
  
  

  Keith will continue to make market-based solutions such as net metering a major focus of his work in the legislature. One idea he is working on would implement a system similar to one in Germany that took renewable energy in that nation from about 2% of their total energy used to about 18% in a period of just over six years. This plan will put Florida in a position to export products and services on a large scale as other states catch up with us on using alternative energy sources.

  There is no reason why Florida should not be a leader in both capturing solar energy for our own use and manufacturing these green technologies for export to other states. These are exactly the kind of skilled, high-wage jobs we need in Florida to build a stable, diversified economy and to make sure our children don’t have to leave for other states just to make a decent living.

Reforming Florida’s Broken Tax System

The leadership of the legislature has repeatedly cut corporate taxes only to turn around and place a heavier burden on hard-working Floridians to maintain essential services, such as education. It is time to make Florida’s tax system equitable, and Keith is committed to working toward this goal.

• Reform Our Property Tax System:

  Florida’s tax system is broken and it needs more than catch-phrases and gimmicks to get it working again. In the legislature, Keith introduced legislation to implement a property tax “circuit breaker” system to ensure that property taxes do not exceed a person’s ability to pay. Circuit breakers are a credible policy with a track record of success, and Florida needs more ideas like these to get our state back on track. Keith is commited to working in a bi-partisan way for sensible policies like this in the legislature. Click here to read a report about property tax “circuit breakers.”

• End Unnecessary Special Interest Tax Breaks:

  Florida’s sales tax system is famous for its special-interest giveaways, like the “ostrich feed” exemption. Favors like these handed out to special interests mean that everyday Floridians have to pay more than their share just to make up for that lost revenue. In addition to ending unnecessary corporate giveaways like this, Keith supports closing corporate tax loopholes through such measures as adopting combined reporting, already in use in almost half the states. Combined reporting prevents companies from artificially shifting profits to out-of-state subsidiaries just to avoid paying their fair share for the services they consume.

Education

Building the world-class educational system Florida needs to remain competitive in the 21st century.

• Provide adequate funding to make our schools among the best in the nation instead of ranking near the bottom:

  Florida’s leaders must provide the necessary funding for our schools if we are going to provide our children with the education they need to succeed in this competitive economy. Florida must do better in attracting and retaining the best teachers if we are to achieve this goal. It is shameful that many teachers have to work second jobs just to make ends meet. Keith is committed to righting this wrong.

• Reform the FCAT:

  While school accountability is important and standardized tests certainly have their place in measuring student achievement, too much emphasis has been placed on the FCAT in recent years. The focus on these tests have constrained teachers’ ability to teach and respond to student needs. While Keith supported and was pleased that the legislature took action on this issue during the 2008 session, there is more work to be done in this area.

• Protect Higher Education:

  As a college professor, Keith understands the importance of higher education in preparing students to succeed in the highly competitive global economy. In the legislature, Keith has been an advocate for higher education and, in particular, community colleges. During these difficult economic times, it is critically important that students have the opportunity to further their education, and community colleges play a vital role in this regard.

Affordable Housing

Keith has been a leader on affordable housing during his first term in the legislature. He sponsored legislation to make property tax bills for Community Land Trust homes more affordable and to ensure that Habitat for Humanity property is tax-exempt and served as the lead negotiator for his party’s caucus on major affordable housing legislation during the 2008 session. Affordable housing issues will continue to be one of Keith’s top priorities.

• Making Community Land Trust Homes More Affordable:

  House Bill 431, which Keith sponsored, would have ensured that property tax bills for residents of Community Land Trust (CLT) properties remained affordable. HB 431 clarified that assessments of CLT properties should take into account the resale restrictions placed on the property, so that CLT homeowners are taxed on the value of the home to them. In a CLT, the land is separated from the house for the purpose of transferring title to the house without selling the land, keeping housing affordable for future residents. If the CLT homeowner is taxed on the value of the land and structure without regard to the resale restriction, the homeowner will be paying taxes on a value that substantially exceeds the value of the home to the homeowner.
  
  

  This language received bipartisan support in both chambers of the legislature and was successfully included in the major affordable housing bill considered by the legislature, but unfortunately that bill died along with a lot of other good ideas during the final hours of the legislative session due to infighting between the House and Senate.

• Ensuring Habitat For Humanity Land Receives Charitable Use Exemption:

  Keith sponsored House Bill 735 to clarify that property owned by a nonprofit working to provide affordable housing, such as Habitat for Humanity, that was in the process of development for affordable housing should be exempt from property taxes. Like the Community Land Trust proposal, the Habitat for Humanity legislation received bipartisan support in both the House and Senate and was included in a larger affordable housing bill, but died during the final hours of the legislative session due to disagreement between the House and Senate.

Property Insurance Affordability & Availability

The legislature has not gotten the job done on property insurance reform. For too long, the insurance industry has been allowed to write the insurance laws in Florida, and our state is now in a situation where insurance companies are allowed to write the most profitable policies, but back away when it looks like the risk is too big. All Florida policyholders are now on the hook if a major storm comes our way. We cannot let that continue.

We have to be realistic: this problem is not going to be solved in one day, and probably not even in one legislative session. But the majority party in the legislature has failed on this issue. In his first speech on the floor of the House during the January 2007 Special Session on property insurance, Keith said he would vote for the proposal but that the legislature must come back and do more to address this problem. The majority party let the people of Florida down and failed to do anything else to help make property insurance more affordable or to make our state more secure.

• We must continue to work for solutions:

  The solution to the property insurance crisis will not be simple, but we cannot simply let the problem fester until catastrophe hits. One solution that Keith believes should be given more consideration is a proposal for a Florida Reinsurance Corporation to replace the Florida Hurricane Catastrophe Fund (learn more about this proposal at www.FloridaReinsurance.com).
  
  

  Under the current Catastrophe Fund setup, all insurance policyholders (except those for workers compensation and medical malpractice) are subject to assessments to cover hurricane losses if a major storm hits our state. This puts a huge burden directly on Floridians. Under the proposal for a Florida Reinsurance Corporation, hurricane insurance would be separated from other types of property insurance (fire, regular wind, etc.) and would be provided by the Florida Reinsurance Corporation. Claims would then be paid out of policy premiums rather than from assessments after-the-fact.

  This system would eliminate the unpredictability and huge amount of risk that is currently being shouldered directly by Florida policyholders. It would also allow us to stop asking ourselves, “but where did all my premium payments go?” when a storm hits and the insurance companies suddenly announce that they are unable to cover their losses. In the past, the answer to that question has been that the payments went into the pockets of the insurance company executives. Under an arrangement like the Florida Reinsurance Corporation, those payments would actually be held to cover future losses.

• Call on our national leaders to help solve this problem:

  We also must encourage our national leaders to create a National Catastrophe Fund to help spread the risk of a major disaster among all the states. As has been highlighted in recent months, Florida is not the only state at risk of damage from severe weather.