TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WCTV\/Gray Florida Capital Bureau) – The word that best summarizes 2025 at the Florida State Capitol is unprecedented.<\/p>\n
From significant snow and ice in January to public infighting among Republicans, it was another year of national headlines from Tallahassee.<\/p>\n
Historic winter weather hits Florida<\/p>\n
January 22, 2025, will forever be the day Florida\u2019s capital froze. North Florida became a winter wonderland as snow and ice shut down much of the Sunshine State.<\/p>\n
People made snowmen and used whatever they could to sled down hills in the capital city.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhite. It\u2019s honestly crazy,\u201d said Bethany Morse, who was sledding for the first time.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou don\u2019t get snow in Florida very often,\u201d said Spencer Gordon, also sledding.<\/p>\n
Morse said the experience was \u201ca little frightening just because you can\u2019t really slow down. I was worried I\u2019d go into the road.\u201d<\/p>\n
FDOT deployed its 11 snowplows on I-10. Troopers responded to hundreds of crashes. People were urged to stay home since much of the state doesn\u2019t have the equipment to deal with such rare weather.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor them to be stockpiling snowplows for a once-in-a-decade type thing, that\u2019s not the smartest thing to do so that\u2019s not a failing at all,\u201d said Gov. Ron DeSantis.<\/p>\n
Immigration battles dominate legislature<\/p>\n
The next week, the Republican-controlled legislature iced the governor out of a special session fighting illegal immigration, setting up a fight for power in the public eye that continues.<\/p>\n
It took three special sessions to get bills that Governor Ron DeSantis would approve, requiring state and local governments to help with the Trump Administration\u2019s deportation efforts.<\/p>\n
\u201cI can tell you the State of Florida will be safer and more secure as a result of this legislation,\u201d DeSantis said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just find it to be un-American for us to be demonizing immigrants as this country was built by immigrants,\u201d said Rep. Anna Eskamani, D-Orlando.<\/p>\n
Since then, every state and county law enforcement agency has an agreement to help with immigration enforcement, leading to several arrests of illegal immigrants. The state also has holding facilities, with alligator Alcatraz getting the most attention in the Everglades.<\/p>\n
Lawmakers are considering more legislation, including expanding the state\u2019s E-Verify requirement to all employers. The public fighting between DeSantis and House Speaker Daniel Perez continues.<\/p>\n
Cabinet reshuffling follows Trump appointments<\/p>\n
DeSantis reshaped most of his cabinet after Trump recruited Florida officials for Washington.<\/p>\n
He appointed Ashley Moody to the U.S. Senate to replace Marco Rubio, who is now Secretary of State. Then he appointed his then-chief of staff, James Uthmeier, to the Florida Attorney General\u2019s office.<\/p>\n
Jimmy Patronis resigned as Chief Financial Officer to replace Matt Gaetz in Congress. DeSantis replaced him with Blaise Ingoglia, who had been in the Florida Senate.<\/p>\n
Janette Nunez resigned her post as Lt. Gov to become FIU\u2019s president, allowing DeSantis to put Jay Collins in as his number two.<\/p>\n
Florida voters will be able to decide if Ingoglia and Uthmeier stay in their posts.<\/p>\n
Trooper\u2019s Law targets animal cruelty<\/p>\n
A story that pulled at the heartstrings of the nation changed Florida law. Trooper\u2019s Law makes it a felony to restrain a dog outside during a natural disaster.<\/p>\n
That means a five-year prison sentence and a $10,000 fine for anyone convicted of the crime. Last year, state troopers found a dog tied up along I-75 as Hurricane Milton was approaching.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are these cases that happen. It might not be a great ending for all. We hope it is. This is a great tool to pursue these cases and to hope all the dogs have a happy ending,\u201d said Kate MacFall, Florida Director of Humane World for Animals.<\/p>\n
The charges were dropped against the dog\u2019s original owner in this case.<\/p>\n
Lawmaker proposes HOA ban<\/p>\n
A state lawmaker says he wants to ban homeowners\u2019 associations in Florida. The legislature says Florida has more HOAs than any other state, with about 45 percent of all homes in the state in one.<\/p>\n
The Community Associations Institute says most people are happy with them. However, Miami Republican Juan Carlos Porras has led HOA reforms and now wants a larger conversation.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think that the conversation, like I said, needs to be started if we want to have a serious talk about any kind of regulation. We need to start at the point of, well, are they even necessary?\u201d Porras said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are so many people in Florida living in community associations that are very happy, that have invested their lifetime savings in their home, in their community,\u201d said Dawn Bauman, Community Associations Institute.<\/p>\n
As of now, a bill banning HOAs hasn\u2019t been filed, but Porras says it\u2019s coming soon.<\/p>\n
2026 is already shaping up to be a very busy year in Florida politics as Governor Ron DeSantis enters his final year in office. The race to replace him is already shaping up to be a bitter battle.<\/p>\n
Copyright 2025 WCTV. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WCTV\/Gray Florida Capital Bureau) – The word that best summarizes 2025 at the Florida State Capitol…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":107084,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[1007,1442,28,2161,43237,99,232,234,233,278,46913],"class_list":["post-107083","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tallahassee","tag-1007","tag-cody-butler","tag-florida","tag-government","tag-new-year","tag-politics","tag-tallahassee","tag-tallahassee-headlines","tag-tallahassee-news","tag-top-stories","tag-year-in-review"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107083","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=107083"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107083\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/107084"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=107083"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=107083"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=107083"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}