U.S. Rep. Jimmy Patronis publicly scolded Florida’s top resiliency official for failing to promote the My Safe Florida Homes program in a guide on how state homeowners can prepare for storms..

During a meeting of Florida’s congressional delegation in Washington, Patronis pressed Chief Resilience Officer Wesley Brooks over the omission.

“I’m going to embarrass you on this. There’s no excuse it’s not in this book,” the Panama City Republican said.

Brooks, who works within Florida’s Department of Environmental Protection, said it was produced for distribution among state agencies and local partners, and includes information on programs administered under Gov. Ron DeSantis.

While DeSantis last year approved $200 million for the program, which provides matching grants to homeowners who make improvements to protect against wind damage during hurricanes, the program is administered by Florida’s Department of Financial Services.

That’s an agency overseen by the state’s Chief Financial Officer, a job Patronis held for nearly a decade before his election to Congress in a Special Election this month.

Patronis noted that the published guide from the state includes several federal programs administered through the state, but doesn’t put the word out on the My Safe Florida Homes program that Patronis championed during his time on the Florida Cabinet.

“There’s laws on the books that force discounts to be passed on to our policyholders,” Patronis said.

He also noted that several former state lawmakers who now serve, including U.S. Reps. Aaron Bean and Randy Fine, championed the effort at the state level, and that they deserve to know that the program will be promoted and properly administered.

Brooks noted that much of the guide in question focuses on flood prevention and response, while My Safe Florida Homes deals chiefly with wind threats.

“Put it on your book,” Patronis said.

Brooks further addressed the issue on social media after the delegation meeting concluded. He included screenshots of times his state office promoted the My Safe Florida Homes program through sharing news articles or public promotions of state home inspections.

“While the Statewide Office of Resilience is statutorily directed to focus on flooding, we also regularly tout the great work happening through the residential windstorm hardening efforts of the My Safe Florida Home Program and share info across the state,” Brooks said.

“The Congressman and his team at FLDFS deserve a ton of credit for resurrecting and operating the program.”

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For weeks, Senate President Ben Albritton has been asked if he’s going to support Gov. Ron DeSantis’ proposal to get rid of property taxes or House Speaker Daniel Perez’s proposal to cut the state’s 6% sales tax by 0.75 percentage points.

Now he’s offering his own suggestion: eliminating the sales tax on clothing up to a certain amount.

“Step back and look at the average Florida family. What are the must haves? I don’t mean food, which is not taxed in grocery stores,” Albritton said. “Clothing.”

So halfway through Session, he has asked his staff to come up with a plan.

“If you’re a two-income household and you’re raising two kids, that’s a big deal,” he said. “I love the idea of the property tax and the sales tax, but we’re exploring ideas too to try to find that middle. How do we target some of this to those families too?”

While he’s open to some version of the DeSantis and Perez proposals, Albritton is concerned about what will happen if Florida struggles through another recession without the reliable income the state now has.

Once a tax is cut, it’s nearly impossible to restore. Not only that, but about 20% of the sales tax collected by the state comes out of the pockets of tourists, he said.

“The two proposals out of the Governor and the House are serious proposals. We’re just taking a little different look at it. Is there a blend of all of the above that can achieve the type of balance across the landscape in Florida so that it’s targeted more so to those who really need it than not?”

A sales tax exemption would help Florida families for years to come. For years the state has had a short tax holiday on back-to-school items, including clothes. Families would no longer have to wait for those few days of tax freedom.

“You want some really good reading? Read the Florida tax handbook. It’s really interesting and I’ve been working my way through that trying to stimulate ideas,” he said. “Where is there a point for those folks that we can drill down in?”

The tax cut issue is sure to dominate the rest of Session, and negotiations probably won’t get settled until the final days.

That also applies to the budget, where the House and Senate are about $4 billion apart. And at a time when the federal Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) is slashing spending and cutting programs and President Donald Trump’s tariffs send a shock wave through the stock market, Albritton wants to take a thoughtful approach to the state’s spending.

Albritton wants a Florida version of DOGE, but he assures Floridians that they won’t see the chaos being created in Washington because Florida is much more financially stable. Florida has already made a practice of continually looking at ways to make government more efficient, he said.

“Years ago, when Jeb Bush was Governor, they began this conversation — long-range planning processes, different fiscal responsibility kind of stuff. Kind of like Florida DOGE 1.0,” he said. “It’s served the state well. We continue to have balanced budgets, our economies have largely been resilient. Those things have worked. My goal is to enhance.”

Instead of Elon Musk’s theatrical chainsaw waving, Albritton said Florida just needs a scalpel.

“That was a heck of a chainsaw, wasn’t it? To use a scalpel takes work,” he said. “There are lots of states in the country that would look at our fiscal responsibility and say, ‘Y’all are doing a great job.’”

He said it’s a matter of continuously improving on what leaders have done before him.

“My hope is that looking out into the future — six years from now, eight years from now, 12 years from now, 16 years from now — that the leaders in Florida continue what Jeb Bush set in motion,” he said. “I hope that 10 years from now somebody comes up with an idea that I never thought about that can help that be better and they do it.”

As a tribute to his predecessors, Albritton’s public lobby has photos displayed of past Senate Presidents, including two that are still Senators: Don Gaetz and Kathleen Passidomo.

He said he’s tapped them for their advice before and since taking over the presidency, and will continue to do so as the end of Session approaches.

“What I’m looking for is wisdom. Share with me anything that you think would help me be a better President, but if you don’t mind, share with me things you’ve seen that maybe you’d do different today,” Albritton said. “Life’s a series of lessons and those previous Presidents, having that conversation with them, all that really does is help me learn a lesson before I have to learn it myself. That’s what wisdom’s about.”

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