The Islamorada Village Council hosted a workshop to go over legislative priorities for an upcoming 2025 state session in Tallahassee. Held June 11, the gathering served to establish a consensus surrounding key public policy issues to be expressed to lobbyists and the state Legislature, while also providing council members and the community a succinct overview of the legislative advocacy process.
The evening’s keynote speaker was Village Manager Rob Cole, who emphasized the importance of maintaining county-state relationships. Mayor Buddy Pinder emphasized the need for strong relationships between the local officials and state representatives.
“Building and maintaining relationships including with our state elected officials is central to success … getting to know them, getting to know their staff, getting to have open lines of communication,” Cole said.
Cole continued with an overview of issues expected to affect the next legislative session. Those included concerns over use of private providers for building permits and its accompanying lengthy inspection times, exclusionary zoning practices, the business rent tax and its potential elimination, and the potential for eight-year term limits to be enforced at the municipal level.
Environmental issues were expected to be of particular note, as last year a historic 96% of contract revenue from the Seminole Gaming Corporation was pledged to environmental causes — an effort expected to continue in the upcoming session.
Broader categories of legislation were outlined, along with potential council position statements. The village council agreed to support furthering environmental funding and protection, developing affordable and workforce housing and funding children and family services. They also prioritized more funding for Keys infrastructure and meaningful change to insurance policy, including changes to address the rising cost of flood insurance — a major concern, as flood insurance must now be carried by all Citizens policyholders, regardless of flood risk.
A discussion was also held over the importance of transportation development. The proposed policy statement was in favor of programs and legislation that would help cultivate a multimodal transportation network throughout the Florida Keys.
“We all know that the current level of service is terrible,” said Cole, who lamented the headache of Keys traffic and the lack of walking trails or sizable bike lanes. “Legislatively, maybe there’s programs that can help shift the car-driver activity into other modes, like busing. It has to be a viable transport alternative, and that’s going to take a lot of money.”
ackIn July, the village council will meet with its completed legislative agenda. Early next year, Monroe’s legislative delegation will visit Tallahassee to meet with legislators in person, in time for the Florida Legislature’s regular session convening on March 4, 2025.
