I'm an engineer. When I say a system works, I have to prove it — with logs, with tests, with numbers anyone can check. This website runs on that standard: every figure sourced, every model downloadable, every error correctable. I think your government should run on it too.
Florida used to be the national model for open government. The Sunshine Law was something we bragged about. Look at what's actually happening in Tallahassee now, and the trend line points the wrong way. Here it is, in numbers.
$829.7 million in "budget turkeys." That's Florida TaxWatch's June 2026 count: 621 items in the $114.5 billion FY2026-27 state budget that TaxWatch says circumvented competitive selection or the normal review process, plus another 484 projects worth $441.1 million flagged for further review. Legislators filed more than 5,600 member project requests totaling $12.5 billion. Of the conference "Sprinkle Lists" — money added late in budget negotiations — TaxWatch writes: "this is the least transparent way to get an appropriation in the budget." A year earlier the turkey count was $416 million. It roughly doubled. (Florida TaxWatch, 2026; AOL/News Service of Florida, 2025)
50+ bills to restrict your access to public records — in one session. In the 2026 session, lawmakers filed more than fifty measures restricting public records access; fewer than ten passed, but the pipeline never stops. David Cuillier, director of the Brechner Freedom of Information Project at the University of Florida, told reporters: "In Florida and throughout the country, we're seeing more and more bills being introduced to keep records secret from the public." Meanwhile, a reform bill that would have helped you — response deadlines and civil penalties for agencies that stonewall records requests — passed the House unanimously, then failed to advance in the Senate. (Suncoast Searchlight / WUSF, Mar. 2026)
They shielded their own records too. In 2025, the Legislature voted overwhelmingly (34–2 in the Senate, 113–2 in the House) for SB 268, which exempts from public records the partial home addresses and phone numbers of members of Congress and state and local public officers — legislators included — along with their spouses, adult children, and certain information about their minor children. Safety concerns are real and were the stated rationale; my concern is the side effect, which is that address records voters could once use to check whether an officeholder actually lives in the district are now harder to get. (SB 268, Fla. Senate, 2025, ch. 2025-195) The Governor's travel records have been exempt since 2023. (NBC News, May 2023)
Ethics enforcement got weaker, not stronger. SB 7014, signed in June 2024 (ch. 2024-253), requires that written ethics allegations be based on the complainant's personal knowledge or information other than hearsay — which good-government groups warn can knock out a complaint built on documented news reporting or public records. Critics, including the Florida Ethics Institute, also say the bill blocks local ethics commissions from initiating their own investigations. Jacksonville City Council member Matt Carlucci, in a 2024 op-ed, called the measure "an assault on government accountability"; Florida Ethics Institute director Caroline Klancke urged a veto, writing that it "cuts to the heart of" the state Commission's complaint process. (Fla. Senate, SB 7014; Florida Ethics Institute, 2024; Carlucci op-ed, 2024)
And when oversight is thin, big money can move quietly. According to news reporting and a Florida House inquiry, $10 million of a $67 million state Medicaid settlement with contractor Centene was routed to the Hope Florida Foundation, which sent $5 million each to two nonprofits; those nonprofits then transferred funds to a political committee active in the 2024 Amendment 3 campaign. WUSF reported that the state financial review that should have covered the deal did not happen. A state attorney opened a criminal investigation in 2025 and a grand jury has heard evidence; as of this writing no charges have been filed and no court has found wrongdoing — so treat this as an open matter, not a settled one. Credit where due: it was a Republican-led Florida House committee inquiry, led by Rep. Alex Andrade, that surfaced the documents. That's what oversight is supposed to look like. (WUSF, May 2025)
None of this requires villains. It's what any engineer would predict from the system's design. Tallahassee's top ten lobbying firms each cleared an estimated $7 million or more in compensation in 2025 (Florida Politics, 2026) — "estimated" because the law only requires their pay to be disclosed in broad ranges, not exact amounts, so even the best public tally is a range-based approximation (F.S. 11.045). The budget's least-scrutinized step — the sprinkle list — is also its most attractive, because nobody's name is on it. And the state spending portal required by the Transparency Florida Act exists, but it isn't written for citizens; it's written for people who already know where to look. (F.S. 215.985 / FL CFO)
When the cost of hiding something is low and the cost of finding it is high, more gets hidden. You fix that the way you fix any system: change the incentives.
I'm not promising to reinvent government. I'm promising five specific, achievable fixes — plus a standard I'll hold myself to with or without a single new law.
1. Refile the records-compliance bill. The 2026 measure — response deadlines and real penalties for agencies that stonewall — already passed the House unanimously before dying in the Senate. That's a ready-made, bipartisan vehicle. Pick it up and push it through. (WUSF, 2026)
2. Put a name on every budget line. Require every conference-added appropriation — the sprinkle list — to carry a named sponsor and 72 hours of public posting, extending the 72-hour review the Florida Constitution already requires for the final budget (Art. III, §19). This is TaxWatch's own standing recommendation, and it's fiscal conservatism in its purest form. (Florida TaxWatch, 2026)
3. A budget you can actually read. Modernize the Transparency Florida portal into a plain-language, searchable "where every dollar goes" site. I've spent twenty years building exactly this kind of system. This is the bill an engineer files.
4. Restore ethics enforcement. Narrow SB 7014's "personal knowledge" requirement so that documented evidence — records, audited reports, credible journalism — can support an ethics complaint again.
5. Exact lobbyist pay disclosure. Replace the broad ranges in F.S. 11.045 with exact figures. It costs the state almost nothing and tells you exactly what influence is worth.
And four things that require no legislation at all, just a decision: a plain-English reason for every vote, posted within a week — House rules record every floor vote and allow members to file journal statements, but nothing requires anyone to explain a vote in plain English, and I could not find a standing practice of it (FL House Rules, 2024–2026); quarterly town halls; monthly office hours where no lobbyist is required to get fifteen minutes; and a posted calendar of who meets with me.
Florida law caps what my campaign can accept at $1,000 per person, per election (F.S. 106.08). But Florida also lets candidates be associated with political committees that accept unlimited contributions — a common vehicle for special-interest money in this state, and dark-money controversies here keep recurring (WGCU, 2025). Running such a committee is entirely legal, and plenty of candidates in both parties do it. I'm not accusing anyone of anything.
I'm simply making a different, checkable choice: capped donations from neighbors, no affiliated committee, every report filed in full and on time — posted on this site. Don't take my word for it. Check the Division of Elections database yourself. That's the whole point.
Sunshine isn't a partisan value. It's how you debug a government. Send me to Tallahassee and I'll bring the flashlight.
Every figure on this page is sourced. Find an error? Send me the source and I will fix it.
Updated: 2026-09-04