President Mike McGraw:
2023 Florida Realtors® President Mike McGraw here to say congratulations and thank you. We had an exceptional year in the world of advocacy and I want to highlight our wins regarding commercial real estate. When I say we, I mean we because of your commitment and generosity, our collective Realtor voice helped deliver notable legislative victories this year. With a recap of the fantastic accomplishments you helped make happen in commercial real estate.  Here's Florida Realtors Vice President of Public Policy Andy Gonzalez.
Vice President of Public Policy Andy Gonzalez
Hello Realtors. Thanks to your passion and hard work, we have been able to make commercial real estate a priority in Florida. Not only were we able to achieve significant legislative victories this past year for commercial Realtors, but your advocacy efforts over the past several years have been a boon to commercial real estate in Florida. This past year, we helped advocate for a 1% cut to the business rent tax, bringing that burdensome tax down from 5.5 to 4.5%.
This 1% cut is happening ahead of the planned cut to 2%. It will pick in during the summer of 2024 the same planned cut that we helped make happen during the 2021 legislative session, which was itself preceded by three successive cuts that we led the charge on. We also helped pass a live local act this year an historic new housing law,
That will let businesses reduce their tax burdens by directly contributing to the state's affordable housing programs. We didn't stop with tax related measures, though. We also passed a law this year that will give businesses new tools to help push back against harmful local ordinances. These victories are on top of the foundation of support we have built over the years for commercial Realtors through our ongoing advocacy efforts. Efforts that have resulted in things like the passing of Amendment two for 2018, which saved Florida businesses from a 725 million tax increase by capping proposed tax increases on commercial properties or the elimination of the outdated dual signature requirement of commercial leases. Longer than a year, or the approval of online remote notaries to make commercial real estate transactions faster and easier.
And let's not forget the fact that we help make sure commercial real estate transactions were not shut down during the pandemic and that Realtors had access to federal pandemic relief programs. Everyone knows that it takes residents to build a community, but only Realtors know that a community cannot be a success without commercial investment. On behalf of the entire Public Policy staff here in Tallahassee. Thank you for all that you do to support our commercial real estate advocacy efforts.