Key Votes 2024
Valued Member,
As the voice of Tampa Bay's business community, the Chamber engages in dialogue and advocacy with our state’s elected officials across a number of public policy fronts. Each legislative session presents new opportunities to achieve reforms that improve the quality of life and reduce the cost of living in our communities and for all of us who call Tampa Bay home. Key Votes 2024 puts into focus the Chamber’s positions on issues impacting our members, partners and community stakeholders and the actions of our state delegation on those bills.
In 2024, the Chamber focused their advocacy efforts on the return of the ~$590 million in funds collected as part of the 2018 Hillsborough County transportation referendum, along with education and workforce improvements, transportation and affordable housing. We are proud to report that many of these initiatives passed the legislature with overwhelming bipartisan support from our local House and Senate legislative delegations. These include:
- The return of more than $256 million of the transportation referendum dollars, despite efforts to funnel all the money to a sales tax holiday.
- The Live Healthy Initiative to improve Florida’s healthcare workforce by creating and expanding new training programs, establishing behavior health teaching hospitals and the creation of a new loan program to encourage innovative technologies in healthcare.
- The GATE Program to give those who did not complete high school an alternative education option to pursue a dignified career.
- The defeat of both artificial price controls on Florida businesses and reinstating attorneys fees in Personal Injury Protection cases.
The Chamber appreciates the efforts of the Florida Legislature this session and for those who fought for the return of your transportation dollars - advocates both in the Florida Legislature and among our membership. While we are thankful for the return of more than $256 million of those funds for the purpose of transportation projects, the decision to appropriate more than $330 million for a sales tax holiday and attorneys’ fees to benefit lawyers who fought against the will of Hillsborough taxpayers is an absolute disappointment.
The Chamber will continue to meet with and work with all members of the legislature to share the stories of our members and to build bridges toward a unified, thriving Tampa Bay.
|
Bob Rohrlack, DBA, CCE |
Brian Adcock |
For a summary of the Chamber's federal, state and local key issues, see the Chamber's Legislative Agenda.
Find more about the Chamber’s policy initiatives.
Table of Contents
Policy Council
Co-Chair
Mickey Jacob – Cormia Design Group
Co-Chair
Lorena Hardwick – Feeding Tampa Bay
Chamber Chair
Brian Adcock – Adcock Financial
Chamber Chair-Elect
Ed Narain – AT&T
President & CEO
Bob Rohrlack, DBA, CCE – Tampa Bay Chamber
Policy Council Members
- Daniel Abou-Jaoude – Skanska USA Building Inc.
- Rafaela Amador Fink – Tampa Bay Rays
- Debra Bauman – DPR Construction - Tampa
- Matthew Blair – Corcoran Partners
- Josh Bomstein – Creative Contractors, Inc.
- Sandra Braham – Gulf Coast Jewish Family & Community Services
- Melanie Brown – AdventHealth
- Brian Butler – Vistra Communications
- Gino Casanova – Shumaker
- Jeff Chernoff – IAT, Inc
- Sarah Combs – University Area Community Development Corp.
- Michael Corcoran – Corcoran Partners
- John DeLaVergne – DeLaVergne & Company
- Robin DeLaVergne – Tampa General Hospital
- Megan Dempsey – Duke Energy
- Matt Floyd – Mosaic
- Kimberly Guy – St. Joseph's Hospital HQ
- Charles Hokanson – Hokanson Consulting Group
- Chris Karlo – MercuryWorks
- Michelle Kazouris – Corcoran Partners
- Lauren Key – AdventHealth
- Cathie Koch – Bloomin' Brands
- Robert Ledford – Baker Barrios Architects Inc
- Katie Lopez – Tampa Bay Chamber
- Andrew Mayts – Shumaker
- Addie Mentry – AMLU Consulting
- Christopher Minner – Tampa International Airport
- John Mitchell – Coca-Cola Beverages Florida, LLC (Coke Florida)
- Jessica Muroff – United Way Suncoast
- Janice Palmer – Helios Education Foundation
- Aakash Patel – Elevate, Inc.
- Jim Porter – Akerman LLP
- Jason Quintero – Carlton Fields, P.A.
- Liz Reynolds – USAA
- Darren Richards – Tucker|Hall, Inc.
- Clara Rienhoff – Highwoods Properties, Inc.
- Jack Rybicki – CLA
- Bill Schifino, Jr. – Gunster
- Yvette Segura – Yvette Segura Consulting
- Debbie Sheridan – Hancock Whitney
- Rebecca Siviglia – Moffitt Cancer Center
- Andrew Smith – JP Morgan Private Bank
- Josh Talkington – Vistra Communications
- Ryan Toth – The Beck Group
- Taylor Traviesa Baker – Tampa General Hospital
- Chanetta Tunstall – Dawning Family Services
- Lauren Valiente – Foley & Lardner LLP
- Lauren Weiner – Command Holdings, A Pequot Company
- Percy Wells – Coca Cola Beverages - Florida
- Gretchen Whalen – CLA
- Jamie Wilson – Moffitt Cancer Center
Methodology
An integral component of the Tampa Bay Chamber’s mission is to communicate the views of the business community to our elected officials. Our Advocacy group identifies, prioritizes and recommends policy to our Board of Directors for those issues that affect our local economy, business environment and quality of life in Tampa Bay.
The Chamber’s Key Votes 2024* tracks legislators’ votes on bills related to our Legislative Agenda’s guiding principles:
- Business & Economic Development,
- Diversity, Equity & Inclusion,
- Heath Care,
- Military & Defense,
- Transportation,
- Workforce Development & Education, and
- Workforce Housing.
Key Votes tracks whether legislators voted for or against the Chamber’s legislative priorities.
We hope Key Votes 2024 provides some background and accountability in the efforts towards the priorities of the business community in Tampa Bay. This is not an exhaustive review of every bill considered or that we supported or prioritized during the 2024 legislative session, nor is it a complete picture of a legislator’s record on issues related to the Chamber. Rather, Key Votes provides a useful snapshot of which legislators side with the Chamber on full floor votes.
Conclusion
We thank the legislators who supported our legislative efforts. We hope Key Votes 2024 adds another dimension to assessing legislators’ track records when viewed alongside scorecards from our allied stakeholders and regional partners. We look forward to working with the Florida Legislature in the 2024 session to continue the work of ensuring a strong and vibrant business community in Tampa Bay.
Please Note
Key Votes 2024 is not a voter guide. While the Tampa Bay Chamber hopes this vote tracker will help you understand more about the legislative process in order to become a stronger advocate, it only tells part of the story when it comes to electing individual legislators. When accessing the qualifications of any candidate or incumbent, voters should consider matters such as performance on committees, constituent services, and positions on all matters in addition to those included here.
Legislators
| Name | Party | District | Local Delegations |
| Daniel Antonio “Danny” Alvarez | Rep | 69 | Riverview |
| Adam Anderson | Rep | 57 | Tarpon Springs |
| Mike Beltran | Rep | 70 | Valrico |
| Kimberly Berfield | Rep | 58 | Clearwater |
| Linda Chaney | Rep | 61 | St. Petersburg |
| Lindsay Cross | Dem | 60 | St. Petersburg |
| Fentrice Driskell – Minority Leader | Dem | 67 | Tampa |
| Karen Gonzalez Pittman | Rep | 65 | Tampa |
| Dianne “Ms Dee” Hart | Dem | 63 | Tampa |
| Jeff Holcomb | Rep | 53 | Spring Hill |
| Berny Jacques | Rep | 59 | Clearwater |
| Traci Koster | Rep | 66 | Tampa |
| Randall “'Randy” Scott Maggard | Rep | 54 | Zephyrhills |
| Lawrence McClure | Rep | 68 | Plant City |
| Michele K. Rayner-Goolsby | Dem | 62 | St. Petersburg |
| Kevin M. Steele | Rep | 55 | Hudson |
| Susan L. Valdes | Dem | 64 | Tampa |
| Bradford Troy “Brad” Yeager | Rep | 56 | New Port Richey |
| Name | Party | District | Local Delegations |
| Jim Boyd | Rep | 20 | Bradenton |
| Danny Burgess | Rep | 23 | Zephyrhills |
| Jay Collins | Rep | 14 | Tampa |
| Nick DiCeglie | Rep | 18 | St. Petersburg |
| Ed Hooper | Rep | 21 | Palm Harbor |
| Blaise Ingoglia | Rep | 11 | Spring Hill |
| Darryl Rouson | Dem | 16 | St. Petersburg |
2024 State Legislative Agenda
Guiding Principle
Economic development and business thrive where regional collaboration is strong, growth benefits the quality of life for businesses and residents, regulatory and tax burdens are reasonable, right-to-work laws that protect our citizens remain in place, and wages are at market rate.
The Chamber Supports
- Coming together to address climate change and clean energy transition with practical, affordable, flexible, predictable, and durable policies.
- Engaging and empowering women, veteran-led and minority owned businesses.
- Reinstatement of the full and immediate deductibility of research and experimentation costs in Section 174 of tax code.
- Policies that support the recruitment and retention of high-wage jobs.
- Pro-business legislative initiatives to attract new business to Tampa Bay.
- Legislation that strengthens Florida’s local governments & economic development.
- Support expeditious implementation of the “Live Local Act.”
- Flexibility that Florida’s Home Rule powers give municipalities.
- Florida Job Growth Grand Fund as an economic driver.
- A robust, private property insurance market and reduction in the burden of Citizen’s Insurance policy count.
- Phased initiatives to reduce the tax burden on commercial real estate leases.
- Sustained support for tourism via Visit Florida.
- Innovation Grants for company relocation or expansion to be used for office space on a collegiate/university campus, and research with professors applicable to business.
- Restoring arts and culture matching grants recommended by the Florida Department of State’s Division of Arts and Culture.
Guiding Principle
The Tampa Bay Chamber is committed to promoting and fostering a community of diversity, equity, and inclusion. Equity and inclusion drive business competitiveness and job creation ensures diverse employee populations and promotes inclusive economic growth from which everyone can contribute and benefit.
The Chamber Supports
- Advocating for policies that advance diversity, equity, and inclusion in business and leads efforts to remove barriers standing between workers and opportunity.
- Promoting diversity across all levels of business, supporting minority-owned enterprises and entrepreneurs and making the business case for closing the racial equity gap.
- Streamlining the process of becoming a certified minority-owned enterprise.
- Ensuring equal opportunity to career paths that lead to jobs and workforce initiatives that create a more equitable talent marketplace and strengthen the American economy.
- Regional workforce development initiatives that build diverse talent and are inclusive of traditionally disenfranchised populations.
Guiding Principle
The Tampa Bay Chamber supports reducing the cost of health care to the residents in the region, increasing access to quality health care for all Floridians, and legislation that gives our healthcare providers the infrastructure and regulatory environment needed to serve our community best.
The Chamber Supports
- Support hospital-based outpatient departments (HOPDs) but oppose site neutral payment cut policies that target them.
Guiding Principle
The Tampa Bay Chamber enjoys a close working relationship with our Armed Forces and the defense industry that supports them. We understand the importance of supporting our military personnel, their families who serve our country, and those who do business with the military and call our region home. As a Great American Defense Community, we will continue supporting policies and investments that strengthen Tampa Bay's defense community/industry.
The Chamber Supports
- Adequate transportation options for Military families in the region, including optimization of circulator routes for high-density military populations in East/South Hillsborough County.
- Opportunities that support veterans and military spouses seeking gainful employment and pathways to entrepreneurship.
- Economic growth opportunities that attract and grow the defense contractor community.
- Coordination between Hillsborough County Public Schools and military families to ensure a seamless education transition for military families.
- Legislation that creates a uniform framework for recognizing academic credits of service members and waives transfer fees or transcript fees for service members and their dependents.
Guiding Principle
The Tampa Bay Chamber believes that access to transportation is inextricably linked to sound economic development and enhanced quality of life. Sufficient multi-modal transportation funding is needed to implement a robust and connected transportation network in Tampa Bay. We will work diligently to compel our elected officials to support policies that fund innovative projects for roadways and transit systems that are critical to the infrastructure needs of our growing community.
The Chamber Supports
- Policies that encourage innovative transit alternatives and mobility options.
- Investments in our transportation infrastructure (airport, highways, port) to recover diminishing gas tax and other transportation revenues.
- Extending Brightline to Tampa Bay by preserving the sufficient right of way along I-4 between Tampa and Orlando for its corridor, with connection to Tampa International Airport and the Tampa Bay region.
- Florida Legislature appropriating the Hillsborough County Transportation Referendum Revenue back to the Hillsborough County community for local road and transportation needs.
Guiding Principle
The Tampa Bay Chamber supports policies and innovative solutions that strengthen workforce development, education, and supportive access to transportation and housing. Through robust partnerships, the Chamber will advocate for adequate resources to help attract, develop, and retain talent in Tampa Bay. Plans must be in place today to train and employ the workforce of tomorrow.
The Chamber Supports
- Trade and apprenticeship programs and experiential training offerings with clear pathways for development and approval.
- The prioritization of funding for Tinker K-8 School to improve educational continuity for military families.
- Pursuing available government support for workforce development and education programs.
- Bridging the digital divide.
- Policies and initiatives aimed at addressing the affordability of childcare.
- Early childhood learning as a path to a competent workforce.
- Associate degree dual enrollment course offerings.
- Creating pathways for non-violent ex-offenders to reenter the workforce and become productive, self-sufficient citizens.
- STEM education programs, with an emphasis on starting in middle school, to strengthen equitable access to high-quality workforce-related skill sets.
- Expanding the New Worlds Reading initiative to all students in RAISE schools
- Efforts to fund VPK students from half-day to full-day, providing a multi-year phased approach, which also seeks to prioritize students who require additional support.
- Granting flexibility to school districts to use the Mental Health Assistance Allocation to fund bonuses for school counselors, school social workers and nurses to help with recruitment and retaining the workforce.
- The funding and adoption of comprehensive arts curriculum as a driver of workforce readiness.
- Flexibility to implement the instructional requirements related to mental health education, substance abuse education, Youth Mental Health First Aid, and human trafficking education.
- Including industry certification and skills training in school and district grade calculations as an additional student success measure.
- Removal of punitive laws that suspend driver’s licenses for non-payment of civil fines.
- Legislation that authorizes public schools to offer coding as a second language and colleges/universities to accept coding as a foreign language credit.
- Community Partnership Schools, which are a priority in vulnerable communities.
- Policies that enhance job flexibility for parents with open cases in the child welfare system of care.
- Authorizing school districts to re-employ retired employees 3 months after retirement and without FRS pension penalty.
- Increased K-12 funding of schools.
- Additional recurring investment in the University of South Florida to continue its trajectory toward the Top 25 Public Universities in America.
Guiding Principle
Developing a sustainable inventory of workforce housing near centers of commerce and transit corridors is vital to the continued growth and success of Tampa Bay’s business economy. Increasing the inventory of attainable housing for working families is essential to our region’s ability to attract and retain talent, improve quality of life, and achieve the Tampa Bay region’s full potential.
The Chamber Supports
- Attainable housing that improves quality of life and ensures a vibrant, thriving community.
- Policies and budget prioritization that facilitate development and access to workforce housing.
- Utilization of available funding to increase attainable housing inventory.
- Waivers to activate irregular-sized parcels for affordable and workforce housing.
- An amendment to the “Live Local Act” that ensures the legislation does not supersede the Department of Defense (DoD) or other Federal protections that support compatible land use for DoD mission readiness.
- Legislation the prevents diverting the Sadowski Housing Trust Fund (state fund)
Community Partners
A significant goal of the Tampa Bay Chamber has been to establish Memorandums of Understanding and formal partnerships with other community partners and organizations that share our desire and vision for a united, strong voice for business in our region.
We’re proud to say that we currently have Memorandums of Understanding with the following community partners: Central Hillsborough County Chamber of Commerce, Central Pinellas Chamber of Commerce, Greater Plant City Chamber of Commerce, North Tampa Bay Chamber, Safety Harbor Chamber of Commerce, South Tampa Chamber of Commerce, Tampa Bay LGBT Chamber, Tampa Downtown Partnership, Temple Terrace Uptown Chamber of Commerce, Westshore Alliance, and Ybor City Chamber of Commerce — making up over 10,000 members.
Memorandums of Understanding with these chambers and business organizations do not necessarily reflect agreement on the legislative priorities or positions detailed within Key Votes 2024.
