Ahead of Florida’s 2026 legislative session, members of the Lee County Legislative Delegation met, Oct. 28 at Florida Southwestern State College.

Over the course of the nearly three-hour long meeting, lawmakers heard from 58 local officials and members of the public on a broad range of issues including local appropriation requests, property tax reform, vaccines, water quality and home rule.

Lee County Commission Vice Chair Cecil Pendergrass presented the county’s state funding requests totaling $24.6 million. The county is seeking more than $2.6 million to design and construct a new Medical Examiner’s Office to serve Lee, Hendry and Glades counties. Pendergrass said current caseloads exceed the capacity of the current facility.
Lee County is also seeking a combined $10 million for proposed roadway and sidewalk projects and $9 million for wastewater infrastructure.

Bonita Springs Mayor Mike Gibson presented the city’s state funding requests totaling $17.5 million, which includes money to help construct a new emergency operations center.

Fort Myers Beach Mayor Dan Allers requested state lawmakers’ support for keeping Fort Myers Beach Elementary School, which was heavily damaged by Hurricane Ian in 2022, and then again during 2024’s tumultuous storm season. Despite an agreement between the town and the school district to reopen the school by next fall, district officials say demolition remains on the table.

“We have a historical building that is under fire. It survived the strongest storm ever to see this area but is now under the siege of an ever stronger storm under the name of fiscal responsibility,” said Allers.

“To take away the education, and more importantly, to take away the home of those children who have already lost their main homes, to men, would be a travesty.”

Lee County Property Appraiser Matt Caldwell also addressed the delegation on property tax reform. Gov. Ron DeSantis’ comments on eliminating property taxes have been garnering public attention since early 2024, and earlier this month the Florida House introduced eight different property tax reform proposals, many of which would require voter approval as constitutional amendments.

DeSantis has been critical of this approach, calling it a “political game” to consider putting multiple proposals on the ballot. Caldwell highlighted one of those House proposals in particular: HJR 207, which would replace the current homestead tax exemptions for non-school taxes with one equal to 25 percent of a home's assessed value.

“By going to a percentage, you eliminate the effective inflation because percentages don’t care about inflation, but it also creates better equity between your fiscally constrained rural counties and your large urban counties,” said Caldwell.

“And certainly, I think it’s a good starting point.”

On The Florida Round Up from Florida Public Radio, House Speaker Daniel Perez recently mused about how property tax reform could lead to the elimination of some of Florida’s fiscally constrained rural counties.

Senate President Ben Albritton, R-Wauchula, said that’s not going to happen.
“I appreciate the creativity, but at the end of the day there are other ways to get to financial thresholds, call it efficiencies, without the conversation of eliminating or consolidating counties and governments,” said Albritton.

“I mean, you could argue the same thing with large counties that have lots of municipalities. Get rid of municipalities and then consolidate all of the county. Even in Miami-Dade, Hillsborough, Orange. So, you know, I don’t think that’s where we’re going to go. We’ll see what the session brings, but I wouldn’t expect that idea to go anywhere.”

Caldwell said he doesn’t foresee any “silver bullet” proposal that will resolve property tax reform in a single session, and predicts the issue will likely become a years-long effort for lawmakers.

Jim Nathan, who served as president and CEO of Lee Health for more than three decades addressed lawmakers as a member of a new national group called Grandparents for Vaccines.

“The focus has been to recruit grandparents and great grandparents to tell the stories of what younger people today have never experienced: the fear the emotion the destruction of families, the destruction of lives. The lives that have been saved since vaccines and the euphoria that occurred when those vaccines came about, and the successes that have occurred,” said Nathan.

“Sadly, Florida and states across the nation, because of this anti-vaccine movement are beginning to see a resurgence of some of these horrendous diseases.”

Sanibel Captiva Conservation Foundation Environmental Policy Director Matt DePaolis was among speakers highlighting water quality and environmental conservation and restoration. He said the foundation’s legislative requests tend to be similar from year to year, but that a new priority this year concerns home rule.

“Especially after what we saw last legislative session with bills like SB 180 that came down and really took away a lot of the power from our local governments, from our municipalities and our counties to be able to protect the resources and communities they’re closest to and that they know best,” said DePaolis.

Pushback to SB 180 centers on a provision that strips local governments of their authority to create and enforce stricter land-use and development regulations, especially after a hurricane.

Several Florida counties and cities have filed legal challenges, arguing that the law is an unconstitutional overreach into local authority. Whether legislators will scale back the law next year remains to be seen.

All members of the Lee County Legislative Delegation were present at Tuesday’s meeting included Sen. Jonathan Martin, R-Fort Myers, Sen. Kathleen Passidomo, R-Naples, Rep. Adam Botana, R-Bonita Springs, Rep. Tiffany Esposito, R-Fort Myers, Rep. Mike Giallombardo, R-Cape Coral, Rep. Jenna Persons-Mulicka, R-Fort Myers, Rep. Vanessa Oliver, R-Punta Gorda, and Sen. Ben Albritton, R-Wauchula.

To review the full agenda of the meeting and supporting documents from presenters, visit leedelegation.com.

Florida’s 2026 legislative session kicks off Jan. 13.

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