Jacob Ogles
Florida TaxWatch expects to vote on Wednesday to name a successor for longtime president and CEO Dominic Calabro.
The election will position former Lt. Gov. Jeff Kottkamp, the organization’s executive vice president and General Counsel, to take over as its leader at the beginning of 2026.
At a Spring meeting, Calabro said he hopes Kottkamp will run the organization for a decade. Regardless, he said it’s time to let the organization where he has worked since 1980 flourish under new leadership. A succession plan, first publicly announced at a Florida TaxWatch meeting in Coral Gables in 2022, has been in the works for about five years.
“I felt Florida TaxWatch is such an iconic and unusual institution; it was very hard to find a leader who embodied it to build upon what we had and make it even greater,” Calabro told Florida Politics.
While Calabro said he feels physically and mentally as strong as he has in years, he sees the need to hand the reins over. The organization has long been built on his outward personality in the legislative process, which he said was important in the organization’s young and entrepreneurial stages. But now it’s time for a more institutional leader, and he feels Kottkamp fits the bill.
“He’s deeply respected. He’s highly extraordinary and highly intelligent, but extremely dedicated to the mission and purpose of Florida TaxWatch that few are,” Calabro said of Kottkamp. “He has a sense of ownership that I feel is essential for the next CEO.”
Calabro said he will remain on the organization’s Executive Board. He also plans to quickly launch the Florida TaxWatch Foundation, an independent organization focused only on supporting the central organization’s overall mission.
