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State Rep. Mike Caruso outlines wins and fights from 2025 legislative session
Summary
Florida Rep. Mike Caruso reviewed legislation passed and blocked in the 2025 session, highlighting repeal of the commercial lease tax, expansion of condo safety grants and immigration and voting reforms; he warned municipalities to watch for future bills affecting home-rule and professional licensing.
Representative Mike Caruso, the state lawmaker for the district that includes Palm Beach Gardens, briefed the City Council on the 2025 Florida legislative session, saying the year was dominated more by blocking bills than championing new initiatives.
Caruso said the regular and special sessions included “chaos” and “misguided priorities,” and he stressed that much of his time was spent opposing measures he viewed as harmful. "This session...was more about stopping bad legislation than it was about championing the best of legislation," he said.
Caruso listed measures the Legislature killed or changed and steps he supported: the Legislature rejected a high-profile amnesty bill introduced in special session that would have limited local law enforcement cooperation with ICE, and later passed an immigration bill that Caruso described as allowing law enforcement to work with federal authorities while tightening remittance and detention rules. He also said he helped block proposals to eliminate corporate professional licensing oversight and to end community redevelopment agencies.
Among bills Caruso said his office helped enact, he highlighted the repeal of the state commercial lease (rent) tax beginning Oct. 1, the expansion of the My Safe Florida condo program to $150 million and higher per-project grants, the maintenance of current tort reform protections (which he said he fought to preserve), and amendments to the Live Local Act to allow certain affordable-housing development on partially zoned religious institution land.
Caruso described the enacted state budget as about $117 billion and said Florida reduced total spending by roughly 2% compared with recent years, which he characterized as fiscal restraint that helped secure the state’s high credit rating. He said roughly half the budget funds health and human services (primarily Medicaid), education received about 28% and transportation about $22 billion. He also said reserves were increased to roughly $15 billion and state debt declined about $2 billion.
On matters affecting municipalities, Caruso told the council that he expects future attempts to curb local home-rule authority and that bills concerning the Department of Business and Professional Regulation and tort reform could reappear. He encouraged municipal leaders to stay engaged with his office.
Council members thanked Caruso for the update and noted ongoing local priorities such as rail and transit improvements and continued collaboration on community events.
Ending: Caruso invited questions from council members and said he would continue to work with the city on items such as home-rule protections and transportation improvements.
