DeSantis’ plan for Florida in his second term is starting to take shape

• DeSantis will lay out his ‘Freedom Blueprint’ for a second term in the coming weeks.
• It is generally considered the blueprint for
• He has already made some of his intentions clear, in areas from Disney to anti-China policy.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has become a Republican star thanks to his high-profile battles with the Biden administration, the millions he’s raised from donors and his Florida politics.

Today, he is the only Republican polling close to former President Donald Trump in the hypothetical race for the White House nomination in 2024.

After winning re-election in November, his work in Florida is not done. The next few months of proposing and implementing his agenda are widely seen in political circles as representative of the issues DeSantis plans to run on if he seeks the GOP nomination.

“I think you’ve seen over the last four years that when we say we’re going to do something, we do it,” DeSantis said during a news conference Thursday.

DeSantis, 44, has an enviable shot at a presidential race in his role as Florida’s chief executive, which includes a supportive Republican majority in the Legislature that is likely to be respectful of his plan.

More details on what the governor has called his “Freedom Blueprint” are expected in the coming weeks, including DeSantis’ State of the State address ahead of the Florida legislative session that begins in March. In that speech, he will formally ask state legislators for policy and budget changes.

From tax cuts to new school policies, here’s what DeSantis has said so far about what Floridians should expect this year. This story will be updated as more information becomes available.

Reduction of sales tax on numerous items

DeSantis has proposed $1.1 billion in cuts for his second term. The state has room to shift spending because it ended the last fiscal year, in June, with a $22 billion surplus.

DeSantis will ask the Florida Legislature to permanently eliminate the state’s 6% sales tax on baby supplies, including cribs, strollers, clothes, shoes, wipes and diapers. He also wants the state to abolish the sales tax on medical equipment and medicines for pets.

Other tax cuts would be temporary, including a one-year repeal of the sales tax on children’s books, sports equipment and toys, as well as a proposal to suspend the sales tax on pet food and household items that cost $25 or less. The latter would include items such as laundry detergent, paper towels and toilet paper.

DeSantis pitched his proposal as an anti-inflation measure to provide relief for items such as high grocery prices.

But some analysts, such as Howard Gleckman of the Tax Policy Center, have warned that the tax breaks could actually make inflation worse because people will spend and spend more at a time when supplies are tight. Florida is facing an affordability crisis in part because of an influx of higher-income out-of-state people who have moved there.

Phelan M. Ebenhack/AP Photo

Banning China from buying farmland and residences in Florida

DeSantis is prepared to ask state lawmakers to bar China from buying farmland and residences in Florida, the governor confirmed in January.

“We don’t want to own enemy nations,” the governor said. “And so if you look at the Chinese Communist Party, they’ve been very active across the Western Hemisphere in gobbling up land and investing in different things.”

DeSantis said the actual structure of the policy is still being discussed so his team can work out how to determine whether the Chinese government is behind the real estate investment.

While foreign policy is generally a small part of the governor’s role, such actions toward China could add to DeSantis’ foreign policy portfolio.

Smashing the teachers union

DeSantis wants to make it harder for teachers to join and stay in unions. Under the plan announced in December, teachers working in Florida would have to send a check to their unions each month instead of automatically having dues deducted from their paychecks.

Teachers unions have been one of the governor’s biggest foes, particularly starting in the fall of 2020 after they resisted his push to reopen schools during the pandemic and after DeSantis banned face masks in the classroom.

DeSantis also plans to raise teacher pay by record amounts, though he did not specify how much or if that would extend to teachers with more experience.

Drew Angerer/Getty Images

Increasing the transparency of prescription drug prices

In January, the governor released a detailed proposal to lower prescription drug prices, with actions mostly focused on price transparency.

It would require pharmacy intermediaries — known as Pharmacy Benefit Managers — to disclose more aspects of their business, such as complaints they’ve received, and would require prescription drug companies to publicly disclose their price increases and explain the reasons for the increase.

DeSantis made the announcement a day after the Biden administration announced key dates for a new program that will allow Medicare to negotiate prices for some of its most expensive drugs for the first time. The method is used in countries with similar economies, which pay far less for their medicines than Americans.

Easing gun restrictions

DeSantis wants lawmakers to pass legislation that would change Florida law so that gun owners can carry guns in public without a concealed weapons permit.

Under current law, Florida residents are not required to have a license to purchase or own a gun, but firearm owners must have a license when in public.

The legislation, if passed, would come just a few years after the mass shootings at Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, and at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando.

Joe Raedle/Getty Images and AaronP/Bauer-Griffin/GC Images

Completion of changes to Disney’s tax district

DeSantis signed a bill last year stripping Walt Disney World of its self-governing status, but it won’t go into effect until June of this year, and parts of the bill still need to be worked out so residents of Orlando, Fla., won’t see tax increases.

DeSantis is pushing for a measure that would replace Disney’s special self-governing power with a state board appointed by the governor, Fox News first reported. Disney would also pay $700 million for its debt.

Areas of uncertainty remain

DeSantis is expected to continue his abortion rights violations. Last year, he signed a law that bans abortion after 15 weeks of pregnancy, even in cases of rape or incest.

He has so far dodged questions about going further, saying only that he will “extend life protection”. The threat of an abortion ban has emerged as a major liability for Republicans during the 2022 primaries.

DeSantis is also expected to build on his Parental Rights in Education Act, a controversial bill that critics call “Don’t Say Gay.” The law prohibits teachers from discussing gender identity and sexual orientation in classrooms until third grade, though it has vague language that could apply to higher grades.

DeSantis has made it clear he intends to move on, but has yet to provide specifics. “We must ensure that school systems are responsive to parents and students, not partisan interest groups,” he said at his Jan. 3 inauguration.