Port Canaveral officials took note of the division forming between Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and the state Legislature as they went over their government-related pursuits for the coming year.

In the port authority’s first meeting of the year Wednesday, commissioners discussed their legislative priorities.

Diane Luensmann, the port authority’s vice president for government and strategic communications, outlined the major pushes. They include port security grant funding, supply chain stability including improvement and expansion of roadways and bridges, support of commercial fishing, seaport stability, energy security, growing the tourism economy, protecting the environment around the port and to supporting Florida’s role in expanding space operations.

While commissioners voted to approve the priorities, commission chair Wayne Justice wanted to gauge how political headbutting that became apparent during a special session called by DeSantis this week would affect the port.

“It’s been a volatile week in Tallahassee. I’d like any comments on where this is all headed,” Justice said. “I mean, there’s a rift, to be kind — the term — and I’d like to just hear what some of your thoughts on as we look ahead.”

The GOP-led Legislature voted to end the special session called by DeSantis that was targeting immigration and killing several bills put forth by DeSantis. It then reconvened its own session and approved a single bill that was criticized by DeSantis, who later in the week threatened to seek primary opponents to some of the legislators leading the opposition.

Commissioner Micah Loyd echoed the concern after the week’s headlines, quoting Florida House Speaker Daniel Perez who said. “Threatening others to get your way isn’t leadership. It’s immaturity. I’m going to ask you to ignore the melodrama and instead focus on the work that we have to do.”

“So that’s what’s going on in Tallahassee right now, and I thought we – I know staff won’t say it, but I figured I would – so I look forward to working with our state legislators over the next year, couple of years,” Loyd said.

Luensmann said she didn’t have a crystal ball, and that the back-and-forth while unique, does not necessarily mean bad omens for the port.

“What I’ve learned over the decades of being engaged in politics and policy, anything can happen,” she said. “I think that we, Port Canaveral, will — to use maritime term “steady as we go” — we have a course set, and we remain focused on what the priorities are, what our mission is.”

She said that whatever laws are passed in Florida or federally, the port will respect them and operate in accordance.

Commissioner Fritz VanVolkenburgh weighed in about the port’s positive impact.

“No matter how things happen with the legislature, legislative bodies or the executive bodies, I think everybody would be supportive. I would hope, right? Just because of how much we mean to Florida, whether it’s economically or terms of jobs, in terms of all those things,” he said.

Luensmann said the port’s teams are in constant contact with relevant lawmakers.

“We talk to all of them, and we do that on a regular basis. The resounding comment is they’re very proud of Port Canaveral. They’re very supportive of Port Canaveral. They believe in our mission and are ready to help in whatever way they may,” she said.

The political commentary led off the meeting that also saw the port approve a 5% raise for CEO Capt. John Murray, which pushes his salary to more than $600,000 a year.

He highlighted numbers from the first three months of the fiscal year, covering from October-December 2024.

“It’s been a very, very active first quarter this year,” he said. “We had 245 ship calls, 2 million multiday passengers transferred through the port in the first three months of our fiscal year. Of that 838,000 multiday passengers moved through the port December. That’s a new record.”

The port saw nearly 110,000 more passengers in December 2024 than it did the previous December. Related cruise fees and parking drove the major portion of the one-month record of $20.7 million in operating revenue.

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Part of that was due to the arrival of two new cruise lines as both Princess Cruises and Celebrity Cruises joined the active fleet sailing normally from the port. It also saw the first revenue cruise from Disney Cruise Line’s new ship Disney Treasure and the arrival of the Italian-themed Carnival Venezia.

Through three months, the port has brought in $51.3 million in operating revenue.

“So our cruise numbers are strong,” he said. “We’re up to 16 home ported vessels this winter season. Every Saturday until early May is — from December until early May — is a six-ship day here in the port. So we’re getting maximum utilization out of our assets.”