Robert Prater

Affordability. Families in this district are being squeezed by the cost of housing, property insurance premiums, and the everyday cost of getting to work.

Part of the answer is income. Affordability has to be balanced against jobs that pay more, and I will work to bring more industry into this area and to expand the education and training that qualifies people for those jobs. Doing both raises what a family earns, and that raises their ability to afford to live here.

The other part is what comes out of that paycheck. I will work on property insurance premiums and on toll relief, because being taxed is a way of decreasing a person’s income, and that is one way to put everyday things out of reach.

As an Orange County Public Schools teacher, I have witnessed how the education system fails to provide students with the information and the pathways they need to seek a career or good paying job.

I would expand career and technical education so every student has more than one pathway to a successful future. That means bringing shop courses such as auto, wood and metal working back into our schools as elective options, offering construction and trade coursework as early as middle school, increasing funding for those programs, and expanding registered apprenticeships and industry recognized certifications. It also means better communication with guidance counselors so students and parents actually know these options exist. Career and technical education does not close doors, it opens them.

Access to mental health care and substance abuse recovery services. I would work to support access to both across our community.

I have dedicated more than 20 years to serving Florida families as an educator, school leader, and community advocate. Throughout my career with Orange County Public Schools, I have served as a classroom teacher, Dean of Students, and a member of school leadership teams, working alongside parents, teachers, and students to help every child succeed. I was also part of a team that helped improve benefits for educators by securing affordable healthcare and prescription programs for teachers and their families.

I am a graduate of Lynn Vocational Technical Institute, where I earned my diploma in 1982 with a major in Carpentry, and a graduate of Nova Southeastern University with a degree in Elementary Education. My wife, Donna, and I have been married for more than 33 years and have called Central Florida home for nearly four decades.

I am running because I believe strong families, quality education, safe communities, and responsible leadership are the foundation of a better tomorrow. I have spent my career investing in people, strengthening families, and creating opportunities for future generations, and I want to continue that work in Tallahassee.

I believe a One Stop Housing approach can be part of the solution. One Stop Housing is a Florida workforce housing developer that converts underused buildings such as hotels and malls into affordable rentals and also builds new. Its Central Florida work includes a public private partnership with the City of Orlando to convert the Ambassador Hotel into roughly 150 workforce rentals, and developments with housing designated for Orange County Public Schools teachers and staff.

Too often, housing projects face lengthy permitting processes, regulatory hurdles, and coordination challenges between multiple agencies. At the end of the day, that is a tax. It is government getting in the way and making housing more unaffordable. Streamlining that process among state agencies, local governments, developers, and employers would reduce delays.

To increase supply and encourage homeownership, we should continue first time homebuyer and down payment assistance, use public private partnerships, and reduce unnecessary barriers that drive up the cost of building, including taxes.

Property insurance premiums are the other half of this problem, and reform there is part of my platform.

The first question at hand is whether I will vote yes or no. Every Floridian will soon have the opportunity to weigh in on how our hard-earned money is spent in this state. This isn’t just about how a representative, senator, or commissioner feels; it’s about how we, the taxpayers, feel about government spending.

One aspect of this proposal I appreciate is that it keeps property taxes for schools intact and clearly states that the government cannot underfund police and fire services.

Regarding revenue replacement, a recent audit of several counties and municipalities across Florida uncovered dramatic revenue growth alongside wasteful and unjustifiable spending increases. Our elected officials have a responsibility to closely examine budgets to ensure that tax dollars are used wisely, not squandered on non-essential items, mismanaged by private sector alternatives, or wasted on excessive hiring that leads to bloated bureaucracies. These are vital considerations for our municipal leaders.

It’s crucial that we elect representatives who treat our tax dollars as if they were their own, rather than viewing them as “other people’s money.”

I have a real concern about the demand these systems place on our water supply and our electrical grid. The legislature needs to protect residents from shouldering the negative impacts on their quality of life and on their standard of living.

While there are several issues needing attention, one of the more pressing issues is septic to sewer conversion. Old septic systems are threatening Florida’s aquifer and critical watersheds. It will require collaboration with both county governments and the state. As the next state representative, I will fight for the needed funding to complete that work.

Additionally, I am working with several environmental experts and leaders already to act as an advisory committee. If elected, I plan to formalize that committee.

I believe the federal and state government must enforce our immigration laws. The government agencies must operate within their legal parameters as well. If individuals are not following the law or are abusing their enforcement powers, they should be held accountable. Commenting or speculating without specifics or facts would be unwise and possibly inflammatory. We don’t need more of that in the current political climate.

Having said that, I also believe our immigration system needs reform, which can only come from Congress. We are a nation of laws, and that includes immigration law. This country legally admits roughly a million people a year as permanent residents, more than any other nation in the world. Circumventing that process is a practice I do not support.

Stay the same.

Addressing growth and housing affordability often work against each other. If we want more affordable housing, that requires increasing the supply of housing. If the county says no to all developments, demand will outpace supply and housing costs go up. We as a community must find the balance between growth and affordability. The balance could be found by choosing geographic areas to limit or allow development.

The readers’ concern here, I believe, is support for the rural boundary in both Orange and Seminole County. My position as a state legislator is that I will not support legislation that would undermine the voters and constituents rights from working directly with their local governments to make those decisions.

Metroplan Orlando, the regional transportation agency, does a good job of objectively ranking and prioritizing federal and state transportation dollars in the tri-county area. The primary challenge is usually funding. However, if specific roads or intersections are identified, I would do my part to secure targeted funding, which will often speed up road improvement projects that are already on Metroplan’s Project Priority List.

I have a real concern about the demand these systems place on our water supply and our electrical grid. The legislature needs to protect residents from shouldering the negative impacts on their quality of life and on their standard of living.

In general, I support home-rule and believe government closest to the people is the best government. However, local governments must be kept accountable as well. They have not always acted in the best interest of their citizens. One example resulted in the Bert Harris Act, which was needed to protect the rights of individual homeowners from the abusive eminent domain practices their city government was using to aid commercial developers.

Municipalities and school districts have elected officials for a reason, and those officials have responsibilities. But from time to time, circumstances arise that cannot be addressed by a single municipality or may be exacerbated when dozens of counties adopt different standards when a uniform statewide standard is needed. In that case, the state may need to preempt local ordinances. Again, I generally support home-rule but also rec

When I say I support the rural boundary, I support the right of the citizens to make those decisions locally and will oppose legislation that would undermine their rights. How that boundary exists and how it operates is a decision I leave in the hands of local officials and the residents who elect them.