Florida lawmakers earn less than $30,000 a year in salary. But two of them self-report a net worth above $100 million (Representative Kevin Steele and Senator Ralph Massullo). According to Form 6 filings with the state of Florida, the top 10 highest net worths reach above half a billion dollars. Many have started businesses and gained wealth before becoming lawmakers.
The men and women who set education policy, write tax law, and decide how to spend more than $100 billion in state revenue annually earn less than a starting school bus driver in most Florida counties and they have to take 15 weeks off from their regular jobs to do it.
Orlando Sentinel columnist Scott Maxwell has covered Florida politics for decades, and he says the math of who can actually afford that arrangement tells a revealing story about who ends up in Tallahassee.
“You have to take off 15 weeks of work. And I don’t know many normal people who can take off 15 weeks of work. So we have a lot of abnormal people running our state in Tallahassee. Most are independently wealthy,” said Maxwell.
Maxwell says the low salary isn’t just a quirk, it’s a filter. “There are those — and I would consider myself among them — who say we are getting what we pay for in the state of Florida with super low salaries for legislators.”
At $29,697 per year, it would take a Florida lawmaker more than 5,000 years to accumulate the same net worth as the legislature’s wealthiest member, Rep. Kevin Steele of Broward County, whose 2024 disclosure lists a net worth of $152,674,559.
What about the wealthy lawmakers themselves? Why take a $29,000 job when you’re worth $20 million or $50 million? Maxwell says the calculation isn’t always about the paycheck.
“There are a lot of people who look at it as a short-term loss to make a long-term gain. Some of these guys go on to become lobbyists afterwards. A lot of them get appointed very lucrative jobs running universities. Right now, virtually every public university in the state is run by a former lawmaker who was making $29,000 for a few years — and now making $2 million as a university president.”
On the other hand, News 6 also found seven lawmakers who report a negative net worth. This means their debt outweighs assets.
The data is sourced from the Florida Commission on Ethics’ 2024 Form 6 disclosure cycle. Search for your lawmaker below.