JUPITER, Fla. — State Democrats are trying to flip a district containing some of the wealthiest areas of Palm Beach County, including Palm Beach Gardens, Jupiter, Singer Island, Palm Beach, Lantana, and parts of Lake Worth Beach and West Palm Beach.
House District 87 went without a representative this session after Governor Ron DeSantis (R) appointed Mike Caruso as Palm Beach County’s new court clerk and comptroller in August, replacing Joseph Abruzzo (D), who became county administrator.
The race features Emily Gregory (D) and Jon Maples (R), who told WPTV the number one issue they hear about from voters is affordability. However, they have different approaches to dealing with the issue.
Maples said he would like to eliminate property taxes, which help fund services local governments provide like trash, police and fire. Maples said he believes the savings from eliminating property taxes will save people thousands of dollars and push cities to cut their spending.
“But we have to absolutely have the conversation realistically about tightening our own belt and making sure from a budget standpoint and planing and saving standpoint that we’re in line,” Maples said. “That we're not overspending on these things, that we're not having excess spending in areas that could be redirected to make sure our police and fire are well taken care of.”
Gregory said she is against eliminating property taxes because she believes the tax burden will just shift to other people because local governments will find ways to make up for the loss of revenue to keep the same level of services. She said she is much more interested in focusing on property insurance, which she believes needs various reforms including supporting a state catastrophic fund along with caps on insurance company profits and rate hikes, but she didn’t have specific proposals.
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“I think I need more information and more stakeholders to have an exact number…” Gregory said. “…I don’t feel comfortable today sitting on a number and being declarative. If I say something declarative I want to be able to stick with that six to 12 months to now.”
Maples said he’s also concerned about increasing the number of insurers to drive competition, which would hopefully lower property insurance premiums. But he also didn’t have a specific change to increase competition. Rather, he said he wanted to wait to see more effects from past reforms made by the legislature, like reducing legal costs for insurers.
“It’s supporting the current plan and continuing it,” Maples said. “Because insurers are already coming to Florida and we’re seeing premiums going down and more insurers going up.”
Maples was a former Lake Clarke Shores commissioner, which is not in the district he is running to represent. He said he recently moved to an apartment in Palm Beach Shores to run for the district, but he still has a homestead exemption for a property in Lake Clarke Shores. Maples said he plans to move to a house in Jupiter after a “walk through” earlier today.
“I’m renting a place in Palm Beach Shores and I have my house in Lake Clark Shores,” Maples said. “ Now, what I want to do because I want to follow law is put my family with me. So I bought a house to make sure that my family is with me."
He also said any issues with his residency are “political games” from his opponent. Gregory denies knowledge of any residency issue.
Election Day is Tuesday.
