Gov. Ron DeSantis wants you to have a fun Spring Break — as long as you don’t actually break anything.

“We want people to have a good time, but we must maintain public order,” DeSantis said as he announced Florida is deploying extra resources across the state to crack down on out-of-control partying.

Twelve local agencies requested extra assistance, so the state will deploy more than 100 Florida State Troopers, DeSantis said at a press conference in Miami Beach in advance of the upcoming busy holiday.

“We owe it to the people that live here. We owe it to people that visit here to make sure that this is orderly and safe for everybody involved,” DeSantis said. “Once again, the state is providing resources that cities throughout our state need to ensure Spring Break does not descend into chaos and mayhem.”

The state has equipment ready on standby, including drones, planes, canine units and BearCat armored vehicles, DeSantis said.

Spring Break is big business for Florida, as visitors from up north travel to beaches and theme parks.

But in 2024, around 140 Florida State Troopers were out at DUI checkpoints, doing curfew and traffic enforcements and street patrol in cities across Florida. In Miami Beach alone, there were about 50 extra officers on hand. By the end of Spring Break, there were 36 felony arrests statewide — 16 of them in Miami Beach, DeSantis said Thursday. Last year, police also arrested 51 on misdemeanors and 11 DUI arrests in Florida.

“That’s a huge deterrent when people are being held accountable,” DeSantis said.

He added there was a decrease in businesses complaining about destruction or guests running out on their bills.

“I think most people you talked to, 2024 was the smoothest and most successful Spring Break we’ve had here in a long time,” he said.

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When it comes to housing prices, the principle of “what goes up must come down” historically applies.

And to that end, Gov. Ron DeSantis says that a dip in home values can’t be ruled out.

“Maybe there will be a correction in the real estate market. Although I’ll tell you, I think that there was more authentic demand in Florida this time than in 2000 and 2007. There was a lot of speculation then, I’m not saying there’s none now, but … a lot of people have wanted to come here,” DeSantis said, suggesting that the “authentic demand” existed but is now in the past tense.

The idea that a correction is underway tracks with a recent analysis by Realtor.com that suggests a lot of stale listings linger on the market.

Florida’s inventory of homes for sale as of February was at a record high, up 40% year over year and more than 7% over January’s number. The average home price is down more than $100,000 year over year in Bradenton and Sarasota.

Other regions show the same problems. The Elliman Report, which tracks closed home sales monthly, showed Miami-Dade and Broward sales were down more than 45% year over year in January. And the Northeast Florida Association of Realtors (NEFAR) shows a 39% year over year decline in Jacksonville and surrounding counties.

DeSantis made the comments to illustrate his desire to reduce or even eliminate property taxes, which would pass a burden to local governments reliant on millage rates.

He believes market flux is one reason property tax punishes homeowners who may have bought at the top of the market, suggesting that property appraisers won’t take into account a decline in market value.

“Say there is a correction. So you bought it at a rate, they assess it much higher, there’s a correction and they’re going to say, ‘I keep that assessment up there.’ They’re not going to lower the assessment. That’s really, really hard,” DeSantis said Thursday in Miami.

If a crash similar to what longtime Floridians have seen before happens, homeownership rates likely will decline and loan defaults likely will increase, based on historical data.

Regardless of whether a “correction” happens or not, high interest rates clearly have cooled a market that was red hot in the early years of the pandemic, with remote workers, retirees, and others flocking to the “Free State of Florida” to find better values than in other areas and to escape COVID restrictions.

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Drew Dixon of Florida Politics contributed to this report.

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A House panel advanced a bill that critics fear will be a death blow to the citizen ballot initiative process.

The House Government Operations Subcommittee supported HB 1205 even as community activists and Democrats spoke out overwhelmingly against it during a more than two-hour debate.

Republicans argued that more protections are needed in the election process to protect the state constitution. 

HB 1205 would require petition sponsors to post a $1 million bond before they can pass out petitions, speed up petition deadlines and require people signing petitions to include their driver’s license number or last four digits of their Social Security number.

“Over the past few election cycles, it has become apparent that our citizen initiative process is broken,” said the bill sponsor, Rep. Jenna Persons-Mulicka. “The process has been taken over by out-of-state fraudsters looking to make a quick buck and by special interests intent on buying their way into our constitution.”

The Fort Myers Republican is sponsoring the bill as Gov. Ron DeSantis has targeted reforming the constitutional amendment process following last year’s failed Amendment 4 abortion rights initiative. Following the end of Roe v. Wade, a volunteer-led effort helped collect more than 1 million petitions to put Amendment 4 on the ballot. DeSantis became personally involved and deployed state resources to help defeat the initiative in November.

Persons-Mulicka called the $1 million bond a “reasonable amount” as she faced critics who spoke out against it.

“The bond is intended to protect the public, protect the integrity of the petition process, and provide a surety against any future fines,” she said, bringing up the Amendment 4 political action committee’s $164,000 settlement with the state over allegations the paid petition circulators submitted fraudulent petitions.

Lauren Brenzel, the former campaign director for Amendment 4, told lawmakers, “I’m hearing a ton of misinformation about Amendment 4 in this committee, and I want to address it. First of all, Amendment 4 had the highest validity rate of any petition in recent history.”

Persons-Mulicka said the changes also included requiring signed petitions to be turned in within 10 days, instead of the previous 30 days, to give Elections Supervisors more time to review them. 

As for the additional personal information required on the petitions, she said, “We need to put some type of protection on the actual petition itself, and that’s where the identification requirements come in. It’s the same identity requirements required for a voter registration application.”

When a lawmaker asked if other states had similar rules in place for ballot initiatives, Persons-Mulicka answered, “We’re trying to be the leader again in the nation.” 

In a Republican-controlled Legislature, citizen-led ballot initiatives have succeeded in the past to install more progressive proposals, such as raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour or reinstating voting rights for most felons. But ballot initiatives already face a steep challenge to win since they must get at least 60% of the vote.

“Our citizen’s amendment process allows anyone, regardless of wealth or resources, to propose an idea, whether good or bad. This has allowed fantastic ideas like Everglades funding, amendments on property taxes and many others to be enshrined in our constitution for generations to enjoy,” said Rep. Daryl Campbell, a Democrat from Fort Lauderdale.

Several conservative Christian groups and the Florida Chamber of Commerce spoke in favor of the bill to protect the constitution from being changed. Meanwhile, student activists and others argued the proposed $1 million bond meant only special interest groups would be able to afford to bring forth ballot initiatives.

Campbell argued that lawyer John Morgan or groups like Americans for Prosperity should not be only the ones moving constitutional amendments forward. “I want everyone to have an equal shot,” he said.

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