Kathleen Passidomo reflects on legislative achievements before passing on the Senate gavel

TAMPA, Fla. – Florida Senate President Kathleen Passidomo, R-Naples, reflected her top legislative accomplishments during her two session tenure in leadership, including the Live Local Act and Live Healthy program, before handing the gavel to Senate President-Designate Ben Albritton, R-Bartow.

Adopted in 2023, the Live Local Act addressed issues of workforce housing, which Passidomo acknowledged being a problem in the state for 40 years. After sitting down with vested partners, she concluded it was Florida’s missing piece.

“It was determined it was the missing metal. That is housing for people who are making too much money to qualify for federal aid or some of Florida programs, but not enough money to afford to live in a community, so we spent all summer, the summer of 2022, crafting a robust piece of legislation that will address workforce housing crisis in Florida,” Passidomo said on Florida’s Voice with Brendon Leslie.

Passidomo also addressed incentives to builders for better workforce housing, including how properties could qualify.

“We basically are giving the owners of these rental projects, if they can dedicate 30%, 40% to affordable housing to workforce housing, they could charge market rate for the remainder, but for the affordable units, that they’re charging lesser rent, we are giving them tax breaks and allowing local governments to do that,” Passidomo said.

Furthermore, Passidomo chided local government’s for not taking more initiative to address the issue.

“The reality is they didn’t want to do anything about it. They didn’t want to have people who worked in their communities live in their communities,” Passidomo said.

In response, Passidomo initiated successful polices including speed tracking and workforce housing programs.

“Now a lot of our local governments are coming on board because they’re seeing that the people that are availing themselves of the units that are being built, and that have been built within the last five years that can also get the tax breaks are the people who work with them every day,” Passidomo said.

As an example, Passidomo described how a law student could get a job in the State’s Attorneys Office and make $75,000.

“We’re not talking about the stereotypical ghetto kind of projects. We’re talking about housing for people who work with us everyday in law, the policemen, the firefighters, nurses, teachers, and it’s gonna work,” Passidomo said.

In her second year as Senate president, Passidomo helped initiate Florida’s Live Healthy program, which addresses the state’s healthcare force as it grows by upwards of 300,000 people per year.

“We don’t have enough healthcare personnel to manage the health care of our citizens today, whether you have insurance or no insurance, whether you’re a millionaire, or you’re an indigent, if there aren’t enough doctors to treat you, you’re not going to be seen,” Passidomo said. “We undertook last summer to build a whole program of trying to attract new medical personnel to Florida from other states. We also are adding additional residency slots in our hospitals.”

Passidomo emphasized making healthcare “efficient, effective, and economical.”

Moreover, Passidomo highlighted the package’s importance on behavioral health.

“The Behavioral Health Program is to create a system of Behavioral Health Teaching Hospitals, which we don’t have in Florida today, so that we grow a workforce of behavioral health specialists, psychiatrists down to social workers, psychologists, people who would be in that the industry,” she said. “Partnering hospitals with universities to grow the workforce, to research why people have behavioral health issues, and also to treat people, particularly people who can’t go home.”

Passidomo stated she hoped the bill could help people identify serious illnesses and be treated without committing a crime. She also highlighted the bill’s efforts with technology.

“Technology is going to be a game changer. We all know about tele-health, tele Mountain Health is working. And so we are looking for technology to change the whole system of health care in our state,” Passidomo said.

Over her two years as senate president, Passidomo helped champion funds into Florida’s Wildlife Corridor, Everglades Restoration, and clean water projects.

“As part of the compact to give them that privilege, they [Seminole Tribe of Florida] agreed to pay us a minimum of $450 million a year. They anticipated it could be up to $700, $750 million a year,” Passidomo said.

After speaking to Seminole Tribe Chairman Marcellus William Osceola Jr., Passidomo helped construct compact funds to land preservation.

“What better way to spend the money that comes from the gaming compact, then preservation of land. So we, we call a compact to conserve, and those funds and the speaker and I worked together on that it was a wonderful collaboration,” Passidomo said.

Replacing Passidomo, Albritton is expected to take over in November. The next senate president acknowledged having big shoes to fill in replacing the current senate leader.

“She manages very well, but I’ve rarely ever seen her shaken,” Albritton, R-Bartow, said. “I mean she’s a steady hand, really thoughtful, has a great heart, very compassionate person, very thoughtful about how she interacts with other people, wants good results. She’s a great leader. And listen I’m gonna say this, it’s going to be tough to follow her.”