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Government Affairs
2022 Advocacy Year in Review
By: Max Brandow, RASM Vice President of Advocacy and Member Programs
As we wrap up the year, it’s important to look back and reflect on the work that has been done over the past twelve months. It has been an especially busy year with major advocacy initiatives statewide and locally. Mix in a major natural disaster, add in a housing crisis, and, oh yeah, it also happened to be midterm election season.
All of this made for quite the year in the advocacy world for Florida REALTORS® and RASM. Despite the business and challenges, we are proud to say we accomplished a great deal in the advocacy world in 2022 for the industry!
LEGISLATIVE WINS
In Tallahassee, our team was hard at work this session. With the help of our Tallahassee Public Policy staff, as well as RASM members and key contacts, we were able to secure a handful of legislative wins.
BELOW ARE SOME OF THE NOTABLE WINS THIS LEGISLATIVE SESSION:
COMPREHENSIVE LAND USE PLAN
Locally, our major initiative this year was overhauling and updating the City of Sarasota Comprehensive Land Use Plan. This is the plan that almost all the zoning and land use decisions in the city stems from. The updated plan would allow major density increases in the downtown core and commercial corridors if a percentage of affordable housing units were also provided in the projects.
We advocated passionately for this because it accomplishes many of our goals: increase housing supply, increase affordable housing supply, and promote smart growth density where it makes sense. After over a year of meeting with city officials and staff, sitting in hours of various community workshops and commission meetings, we were ecstatic when the City Commission passed the plan. While many steps need to take place, and time is needed to see immediate results, we are confident this plan will be transformational for the city and our region generally.
THE CAMPAIGN TRAIL
On the campaign trail, we heavily supported the local Sarasota County surtax campaign. This was a renewal of the 1% sales tax locally. While we typically don’t advocate for higher taxes, this revenue stream was essential for local infrastructure, the budgets of local first responders like sheriffs and fire departments, and for investments in water quality projects. It also helps that 20% of the tax is paid for by tourists visiting the area. We’re proud to say that this campaign was successfully passed with an unprecedented 80% level of support! That number is absolutely unheard of in today’s political climate, and we’re proud that our members had a part in that.
$500,000 secured to combat unlicensed real
estate activity.
$100 million for the Hometown Hero
Housing program.
$262 million for existing affordable housing
programs.
$1.6 billion for water quality and restoration
projects.
HISTORIC FUND RAISING
This year’s fundraising was historic. Under the leadership of Chair Amy Worth, the RPAC Committee held our first annual Major Investor Celebration at Sarasota Waterworks. The event was packed with Major Investors, and we were honored to listen to the 2023 NAR President Kenny Parcell speak about the importance of investing in RPAC.
This year, the Committee’s focus was on getting more RASM members to step up to the Major Investor level of RPAC (more than $1,000 in RPAC contributions) Thanks to Amy and the Committee’s hard work, we are proud to say we had more Major Investors in 2022 than we have ever had! The bar has certainly been set for the future. •
