Steve Crisafulli for Florida House, District 32

Here’s a look at some of Representative Steve Crisafulli’s 2009 Legislative Accomplishments:

Sponsored and passed the Accurate Employment Statistics Enhancement Act to provide the State’s Agency for Workforce Innovation with more accurate employment data, which will ensure better allocation of taxpayer dollars for job retraining programs and better targeting of economic development programs.
Sponsored and passed legislation relating to State Construction Management Contracting, which will allow state and other public agencies to use a competitive selections based process to utilize construction managers for certain projects. This will result in decreased costs to the State and more rapid completion of construction projects.
Sponsored language that the Legislature adopted to allow state universities to more easily use their private funding for important projects, such as the University of Central Florida’s College of Medicine.
Received the Florida Chamber of Commerce’s Distinguished Advocate Award for sponsoring legislation to require a cost-benefit analysis in the staff analysis of proposed legislation.
Co-sponsored a ballot measure that, if approved by the voters, will end the public financing of campaigns in Florida.
Co-sponsored ballot measures for property tax reform that, if approved by the voters, will give Florida’s active duty deployed military personnel a property tax break and will give relief to first-time homebuyers and non-homesteaded properties.
Co-sponsored legislation to bring more choice into the property insurance market and increase competition for consumers.

By far, the largest pending issue for the people of our district is our economic future. All of us in both Brevard and Orange Counties are concerned about the economic downturn and its effect on both our state’s budget and our own daily lives. My highest priority in the Legislature is to revitalize Florida’s economy and bring new businesses to the state.

In Brevard County, the countdown is literally on for the jobs of up to 6,400 local people who could be displaced by the retirement of NASA’s space shuttle program. Unless we are prepared with new industries to take the place of the shuttle program, the impact could be devastating on our community. I am committed to working with federal, state, and local leaders to mitigate the effects of the shuttle program’s end, and to ensure that Florida continues to have a thriving space industry.

Providing a quality education for our students is critical. As the father of two children in public schools, ensuring that our schools are adequately funded is of great concern to me. Even during these difficult economic times, the Legislature protected education and provided our students with increased per-student spending, and gave school boards greater flexibility in spending the money appropriated to them.

Still, there are many problems that require our attention. Florida’s high school drop-out rate is one of the highest in the nation. This must be addressed. Appropriate incentives and a more solid education ought to be given to our young people so that they can compete in tomorrow's marketplace. Our students should be offered more vocational options in high school to keep their interests and prepare them for skilled jobs.

We must provide appropriate resources for our schools but also must have more accountability for the results achieved by our schools, and failing that, even more competition from the private sector. We have to be prepared to make a strong investment in our future leaders if we expect them to have a better ability to provide for themselves and their families.

Families and small businesses are having a hard time keeping up with higher property taxes. In fact, exploding property taxes are threatening the American Dream of home ownership – for young families and retirees alike. The Legislature has made strides in reducing property taxes. I supported legislation to level the playing field between taxpayers and property appraisers by removing the automatic presumption of correctness that is given to the property appraiser’s opinion on valuations of property. I also supported ballot initiatives to give our deployed servicemen and women property tax relief, and to help provide relief for first-time homebuyers and non-homesteaded property owners.

There is still much work to be done regarding our state’s broken property tax system, and I will continue to work on reforming the system.

While there has been some success bringing down property insurance rates, too much of the monetary risk for a major hurricane strike is still held by the taxpayers through Citizens Property Insurance Company. As such, I supported legislation to bring more competition into the Florida market and to give consumers more choice. With competition and choice will come lower rates.

That said, just like in the case of our property tax system, we still have a long way to go towards fixing our property insurance system. For example, Florida is a large and lucrative market. Insurance companies which sell homeowners insurance in other states, and want to sell other lines of insurance in Florida, should be made to sell homeowners insurance here, too.

To me, traditional values like family, church, and community are paramount. I believe that family values begin at home and my wife Kristen and I have tried to set an example of a strong, involved family. We are active in our church and our kids’ school.

As your State Representative, I will continue to work to protect our families from threats to our values that are posed by activist judges and special interests who have sought to change our societal norms.

Illegal immigration is costing Florida taxpayers over $2 billion every year in education and health care expenses, while at the same time these immigrants are taking jobs that could be filled by our citizens. Since Congress has been unable to solve the problem, I believe that we must do more in the State of Florida. Our law enforcement officers should be empowered to arrest illegals when they come across them, and we should crack down on companies who knowingly hire illegal immigrations and do business in the state. I supported legislation that makes it a first degree misdemeanor for a person to transport a person who is illegally entering or remaining in the US into Florida.

We all remember the effects that gasoline prices of $4.00 per gallon or higher had on our budgets. While much of this situation is controlled at the national and international level, I will look for every possible way to help reduce the impact of high energy prices on Floridians. We need to provide incentives for more alternative energy sources. We should also review existing Florida laws governing the marketing of gasoline and support more emphasis on mass transit options.