Jason Brodeur

Top problem and your suggested solution:

Affordability and cost of living. Central Florida families and small businesses have absorbed years of rising costs, and government should be making it easier to get ahead, not harder. My focus is delivering property-tax relief for homesteaded families, keeping property and auto insurance rates moving down after the reforms we’ve passed, and holding the line on taxes and tolls so people keep more of what they earn.

Problem 2 and your suggested solution:

Managing growth, traffic, and water. Our community is growing fast, and that puts pressure on I-4 and our local roads and on the springs, lakes, and waterways that make this a place people want to live — including the Wekiva. The answer is to plan growth responsibly: invest in the roads and infrastructure that keep us moving while protecting our water and natural resources, not choosing one over the other.

Problem 3 and your suggested solution:

Public safety. I’ll keep cracking down on fentanyl and opioids, backing the law enforcement officers who keep our neighborhoods safe, and making sure our communities have the resources to respond. Keeping families safe is the most basic job the government has.

I’ve spent my life in this community, I grew up here, went to school here, built a business here, and I measure this job by results. I’m a local small-business owner and the former President and CEO of the Seminole County Chamber of Commerce, so I understand what it takes for employers to keep their doors open and for families to make ends meet. In the Legislature I’ve sent more than 20 bills to the Governor’s desk and delivered real results back home: tax relief for families and small businesses, protections for foster children, expanded mental-health resources, the statewide Office of Resilience to protect our water and coastlines, including creating the Florida Wildlife Corridor, protecting over 17 million acres for our apex species, and have brought home tens of millions of dollars for the roads, water, and the infrastructure Central Florida needs to grow. I serve as Senate President Pro Tempore, which gives our community a strong voice in Tallahassee, and I’ll keep using it to deliver.

Housing affordability comes down to supply and cost. We have to build more homes that working families can actually afford, which means cutting the permitting delays and red tape that drive up the price of every new home, while respecting the character of our communities. I was named a Champion of Housing by the Florida Home Builders Association for that work. We also have to bring down the costs that come with owning a home property-tax relief for homesteaded families and the insurance reforms that are finally starting to lower premiums. Lower the cost to build and the cost to own, and housing gets within reach for more families.

Floridians have watched their property-tax bills climb for years without relief, and I support giving homesteaded families meaningful, lasting relief. On replacing local revenue, my answer is not a new tax – it’s spending discipline and the natural growth of our tax base. Florida’s strong economy and record reserves give us room to phase relief in responsibly while protecting the core local services families count on, like public safety. Any plan has to be honest with taxpayers about the trade-offs and protect those essential services.

Floridians should not see their power bills spike to subsidize large new energy users. Our utility regulators will make sure that big industrial customers like data centers pay their fair share of the infrastructure their demand requires, so the cost isn’t shifted onto families and small businesses. In fact, that’s in lines 181-183 of Senate Bill 484 that we passed this year that outlines that the risks of those costs “may not be borne by the general body of ratepayers.” That means rate structures and ratepayer protections that keep residential bills predictable, while we continue building a reliable, diverse energy supply so growth doesn’t outrun our grid. It was explicitly written into the bill not to do what we have seen in other states.

Water — protecting the quality and supply of it. In Central Florida that means our springs, our lakes, and waterways like the Wekiva, which are under real pressure from growth. I helped create the statewide Office of Resilience to plan for sea-level rise and protect our coastlines, and create the Central Florida Water Initiative outlining coordination of our three Water Management Districts in the area and I’ll keep fighting for the investments that protect our springs and water supply. Clean, abundant water is the foundation of both our quality of life and our economy, and it has to be managed as growth continues.

I support law enforcement and the law. If someone is doing something illegal – including being here without permission – then I support enforcing the law, which includes state and federal laws.

As someone who is adopted, I will always support life. I was given up by someone I don’t know who had the courage to give me a chance at life and every vote I have ever taken is a reminder and reflection of that opportunity. Every child deserves a chance.

For the last 100 years in Florida local zoning has been largely left to local officials, The state tends to weigh in when people believe their private property rights are being infringed upon, so state involvement is almost always a reaction to a local action versus a proactive pre-emption. I will work to make sure locals get to build the community they would like but also ensure it won’t be at the expense of a landowners’ private property right.

Florida’s Department of Transportation has a five-year work plan that outlines projects ahead. Local officials come up with the plan and the legislature works to make sure it is funded. At the state level we have made sure our plan has been funded every year for the last several years and I intend to continue to do that. 

Florida should always compete for high-value investment and the good jobs that come with it. But that has to be balanced against protecting our natural resources, preserving agricultural land, and shielding Floridians from the utility-bill spikes that come when data centers aren’t regulated properly. Where these projects make sense, the right approach is to require them to pay their fair share of the water and energy infrastructure they demand, site them responsibly, and make sure the benefit to the community is real — not a cost passed on to families. Which is why I supported SB 484 — it allows locals to maintain authority (lines 82-85), it ensures rates won’t be passed along to those that won’t benefit (lines 181-182), and it ensures we won’t be wasting precious water by requiring reclaimed usage (lines 247-283.) I think the state has successfully mitigated the major concerns we have seen from other states. And as all politics is local, I’m unaware of any major projects going on here because we just don’t have a ton of land and surplus energy to entertain applications.

I served on the City of Sanford Charter Review Board and the Seminole County Planning and Zoning Commission, so I respect local government and the value of decisions made close to home. At the same time, businesses and families need predictable, consistent rules across the state, and a patchwork of conflicting local mandates can choke jobs and housing. The balance I look for is this: leave local decisions local wherever possible, and use statewide standards where a local rule is blocking jobs, housing, or a fundamental right Floridians should have no matter their county of residence. 

I might also just disagree with the premise of the question – the idea of home rule, since it was added to the Florida Constitution in 1968, is that counties and cities general possess any power not prohibited by law. But if the state has an opinion, and passes a law, the local opinion is moot. The lLegislature can always (and has always been able to) limit local authority, occupy an entire field of regulation, override local ordinances, or withdraw powers previously exercised by local governments. Cities and counties exist at the permission of the state — — all home rule says is that if the state doesn’t have an opinion, a local municipality may have an opinion. But if the state does have an opinion, that’s the law. It’s nearly identical in concept to the 10th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution remanding uncontemplated federal decisions to the states. Nobody seems confused about balancing Congressional power with state legislatures. Because it’s not “balancing,” it’s simply separation of power.

I have always been a staunch defender of Seminole County’s rural boundary, which I demonstrated by casting the deciding vote last year to prohibit agricultural enclaves in Florida zoning. It is essential that we protect our rural spaces and ensure that development does not overreach into areas our community wants preserved. At the same time, I balance these vital local protections with a firm commitment to upholding the constitutional private property rights of landowners. * Editor’s note: Brodeur publicly backed and voted for a bill that would have gutted the rural boundary in Seminole and Orange counties.