James Fishback

I was in Frostproof in Southern Polk County with...

Five generations of different citrus growers.

And what I found was that there's this greening that came from China about 15 years ago.

It is an infection, a disease.

And much like COVID, the Republicans and Democrats just pointed the finger and said, it's China's fault.

We're just going to give up.

We're just going to give up on citrus in Florida.

Citrus used to be 245 million boxes every single season.

In the most recent one, it's only 14 million.

million guess what that means fewer jobs fewer local industries fewer local businesses and and a sense of pride in our communities like in highlands county and sebring and frost proof and so what i've said is if you're a scientist anywhere in the world and i mean anywhere you could even be in iran if you're a scientist anywhere in the world and you have discovered the scientific cure to greening the state of florida will pay you one billion dollars cash because guess what florida citrus

could be upwards of a $50 billion industry again, why wouldn't we make a one-time investment to turn places like Moorhaven, Davie, where Citrus Groves once proudly stood, where we employed tens of thousands of young men and women, where we supported local industry and local businesses, when we gave these rural communities all over our state a sense of pride, why don't we put a little bit of investment for them?

Tell me the logic behind that idea.

Well, the logic is in economics, show me the incentive and I'll show you the outcome.

There is no disincentive right now for New Yorkers to pack up their things, throw in the towel, come to our state and price us out and push us out.

And crazy idea.

I believe that our state should work for the people who built our state, who put it on the map, like my grandmother, who was a 20-year English teacher at Plantation High School just about 10 miles southwest of here.

So the idea is very simple.

create a tax disincentive as opposed to a tax incentive for New Yorkers or any out-of-staters.

It's gonna be a property transaction tax.

It's $50,000.