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Florida's Special Session Has Begun, But Will It Be Special? · Conversations: Special Guests with Preston Scott

• 0:08
  Speaker 1: It's five past the hour, show fifty six hundred of
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  Speaker 1: the Morning Show with Preston Scott. He is Jose, I'm Preston,
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  Speaker 1: and joining me in studio is the executive director of
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  Speaker 1: Consumers Defense. He's our legislative go to. He is Salnuzoh. Hello, Hello,
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  Speaker 1: good morning to you. You're doing all right? I'm doing great.
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  Speaker 2: How are you?
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  Speaker 1: You know? I'm okay, okay. Our topic today is kind
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  Speaker 1: of it's annoying to me because I feel like the
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  Speaker 1: legislature for two years has really let us down as
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  Speaker 1: a state. And I feel like the governor has been
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  Speaker 1: let down, but he's running to the finish line. Yeah.
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  Speaker 2: We don't see very much in the way of, at
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  Speaker 2: least from the plaza level the executive office of the governor,
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  Speaker 2: any sense that they feel like they're a lame duck.
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  Speaker 2: No kind of session or period of time. They are
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  Speaker 2: running as if the race is neck and neck all
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  Speaker 2: the way to the finish line. They're gonna use every
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  Speaker 2: single day that they have.
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  Speaker 1: How much do you think and this is strictly conjecture.
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  Speaker 1: How different is redistricting as a topic considering the Supreme
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  Speaker 1: Court ruling here in the United States as well, as
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  Speaker 1: what happened in Virginia. Oh.
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  Speaker 2: I think both of those two things have turned what
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  Speaker 2: could have been a rather arcane process into this massive earthquake,
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  Speaker 2: you know, kind of ground shattering event, and we're seeing
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  Speaker 2: the ripple effects in many states. Just on the heels
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  Speaker 2: of Louisiana vi Cala being handed down, you had Tennessee
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  Speaker 2: and Alabama begin Tennessee finished their process and did what
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  Speaker 2: they did. You then have Virginia doing what it does,
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  Speaker 2: and then their states Supreme Court overturning it because they
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  Speaker 2: clearly violated the Virginia Constitution. It's important to note that
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  Speaker 2: that it's a different argument, and it's been pointed out
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  Speaker 2: that the governor of Virginia, a very left leaning dem
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  Speaker 2: was against those maps that the Virginia legislature were going
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  Speaker 2: to pass because she said there were constitutional issues with them.
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  Speaker 1: I'm curious whether we're going to see the floodgates open
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  Speaker 1: up on similar redistricting efforts because for years, like affirmative action,
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  Speaker 1: there has been affirmative districting, and I have long argued
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  Speaker 1: that it doesn't matter what it looks like, they're unconstitutional.
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  Speaker 2: And that's effectively what the Supreme Court said, that this
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  Speaker 2: is now not the purview of the United States Constitution anymore.
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  Speaker 2: So they overturned a prior precedent or standing a peace
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  Speaker 2: of the Voting Rights Act and said racial jerry mandering
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  Speaker 2: is no longer constitutional now. However, it was a and
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  Speaker 2: I'm not an attorney, so I know these two words
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  Speaker 2: carry weight, so I'm going to back walk them back.
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  Speaker 2: A said it was kind of a narrowly tailored ruling,
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  Speaker 2: but it wasn't narrowly tailored in the sense that legal
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  Speaker 2: scholars would state it. So it does open the door
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  Speaker 2: for as more states begin their own process, they could
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  Speaker 2: be subject to their own state constitutional challenges, which is
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  Speaker 2: what happened in Virginia. We already see Mark Elias in
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  Speaker 2: his law firm, and if you're unfamiliar with Mark Elias,
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  Speaker 2: he is basically, you know, kind of Satan and Karnate
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  Speaker 2: when it comes to the right and he is already
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  Speaker 2: challenged along with a number of other groups the Florida
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  Speaker 2: law I don't believe he's got a legal leg to
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  Speaker 2: stand on there. It will, it could get stayed in
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  Speaker 2: a lower court, but ultimately it's going to be upheld.
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  Speaker 2: My guests in the Florida State Supreme court. But the
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  Speaker 2: maps are done in Florida. The maps are done in Florida.
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  Speaker 2: The only question at the moment is will a judge
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  Speaker 2: stay those maps for this election cycle versus letting them
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  Speaker 2: go and letting the challenge carry over?
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  Speaker 1: Soundar is it with me? From consumers defense? So what
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  Speaker 1: got done in the legislative session worth talking about and
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  Speaker 1: what has been signed?
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  Speaker 2: Sure, so in the session you had I believe it
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  Speaker 2: was two hundred and thirty seven specific bills that got
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  Speaker 2: passed and will ultimately gets into this.
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  Speaker 1: Is that normal? Is that a normal number? Is it low?
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  Speaker 2: It's low, It's lower than we've seen. And to a
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  Speaker 2: point you made in the earlier segment, I think there's
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  Speaker 2: some level of sober kind of consideration that we live
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  Speaker 2: in a state where the last roughly eight to ten
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  Speaker 2: years we have seen monumental conservative gains in policy. And
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  Speaker 2: so if you were to take what Florida has done,
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  Speaker 2: even in this just this last session, and you were
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  Speaker 2: to put it into a purple state or a mild
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  Speaker 2: red state, they would consider it a win. We consider it.
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  Speaker 2: We left a lot on the table. But so to
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  Speaker 2: that end, right now, the governor has signed seventy two bills.
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  Speaker 2: Of the two hundred and thirty seven, not all of
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  Speaker 2: them have been sent to him, so they kind of
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  Speaker 2: stagger amount so that they can do consideration and what
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  Speaker 2: have you. He does have seventeen on his desk right
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  Speaker 2: now that have officially been presented to him, and the
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  Speaker 2: clock is ticking. The rest will becoming has not vetoed
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  Speaker 2: anything yet.
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  Speaker 1: When you say the clock is ticking, remind listeners how
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  Speaker 1: much time he has from when a bill gets to
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  Speaker 1: his desk.
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  Speaker 2: I believe it depends. It's usually like I think it's
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  Speaker 2: like fourteen days or thirty days, and depends on the
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  Speaker 2: type of bill, as at some junctures. But yeah, there
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  Speaker 2: is a clock that's ticking. But of those seventy two
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  Speaker 2: that he has signed, there are some pretty big ones.
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  Speaker 2: And you've got HB nine ninety one, which is the
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  Speaker 2: big elections package. Now we know that the Save America
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  Speaker 2: Act in the Congress. The Senate is just there exactly,
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  Speaker 2: so you have a number of states that are moving
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  Speaker 2: this type of legislation. Florida is the first it's actually
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  Speaker 2: passed it and it mandates citizenship requirements. It dictates what
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  Speaker 2: types of ID can be presented in order to get
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  Speaker 2: on the voter rulls.
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  Speaker 1: You know, just the idea to get into the Obama
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  Speaker 1: Presidential Library exactly, or to do anything else. Pick up
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  Speaker 1: your tickets from Ticketmaster exactly, but we hate Ticketmaster. HB
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  Speaker 1: twelve ninety six is another big one. That's the Union
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  Speaker 1: Certification Bill. What this would require is a fifty percent
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  Speaker 1: majority of available members to actually vote in a certification vote.
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  Speaker 1: So it complements the prior laws that have been passed
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  Speaker 1: and gets around this issue where you know a lot
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  Speaker 1: of available members just aren't voting in these elections, and
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  Speaker 1: so a handful of you know, a vocal minorities get
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  Speaker 1: to dictate what happens to everybody else. You've got nine
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  Speaker 1: oh five, which is the Foreign Influence Bill. This one's
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  Speaker 1: a really important one. It's an issue that we have
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  Speaker 1: worked on at Consumer's Defense along with some of our
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  Speaker 1: partner orgs. Prohibiting public officials and employees and others from
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  Speaker 1: accepting gifts or benefits from foreign countries. A concern really
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  Speaker 1: goes after CCP Chinese Communist Party influence in our economy. Good.
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  Speaker 2: You've got prohibiting locals from engaging in climate cartel activities,
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  Speaker 2: adopting net zero agreements for eighty four the Data Center Bill.
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  Speaker 2: This bill sets in place some regulations after these large,
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  Speaker 2: large ones, they call them hyper scale ones. Likely going
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  Speaker 2: to ban them unless that law is amended. Ten to
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  Speaker 2: seventy four pennies.
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  Speaker 1: Get asked, why will they ban them?
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  Speaker 2: There's concerns use. There's concerns about mainly the water issue.
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  Speaker 2: That the water regular and consumption given where Florida is at,
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  Speaker 2: is a concern. I understand the concern. We can quibble
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  Speaker 2: over the layers of regulatory kind of overreach there, but
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  Speaker 2: ten seventy four pennies on their way out. We've got
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  Speaker 2: rounding rules Senate Bill two ninety to Florida ag Agency Bill.
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  Speaker 2: It preempts a number of things like restrictions on gas
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  Speaker 2: and diesel powered machinery that locals may be considering. You've
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  Speaker 2: got six ninety seven some modest reforms to pharmacy benefit managers.
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  Speaker 2: These are the groups that are in between your drug manufacturers,
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  Speaker 2: insurance companies, and the pharmacies. And there's some concerns that
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  Speaker 2: they've been gaming the system and pocketing some rebate. Maybe
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  Speaker 2: maybe ten ninety three vertiport.
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  Speaker 1: Oh, your favorite.
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  Speaker 2: This is one of my favorite sign up, give me
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  Speaker 2: a ride on a Jetson's drone. I'm there exactly. I'm
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  Speaker 2: an early adopter. But I mean, if you notice what
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  Speaker 2: we haven't talked about property taxes, Yeah, the reforms, there's
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  Speaker 2: not much to update the governor set. A special session
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  Speaker 2: is likely to come in June. Phased approach, but that
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  Speaker 2: was a couple of weeks ago. I have not heard
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  Speaker 2: much since then.
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  Speaker 1: Morning Show with Preston Scott Salnwzo with us one more segment.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, we're going back to when we first did this
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  Speaker 2: three segments. I don't know how we ever did each week.
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  Speaker 1: You talked faster, Yeah, slowing down in my old age,
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  Speaker 1: like you could talk faster. Chance. All right, we've got
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  Speaker 1: a special session that I mean, first things first, it's
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  Speaker 1: the constitutional duty.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, they have to remind listeners they have one constitutional
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  Speaker 2: mandate that has pass a balanced budget. They did not
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  Speaker 2: do that in the regular sixty day session, so they
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  Speaker 2: have to come back and the budget has to be
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  Speaker 2: in place by July one.
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  Speaker 1: For listeners who might be new to the state, which
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  Speaker 1: we have plenty of, or might have forgotten. The budget
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  Speaker 1: number right now one hundred and thirteen billion to one
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  Speaker 1: fifteen how big of a gap is that historically speaking,
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  Speaker 1: so the.
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  Speaker 2: Gap between the House and the Senator is about one
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  Speaker 2: point four billion dollars when you when you get somewhere
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  Speaker 2: around that, and it's depending on the year. We have
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  Speaker 2: had years where the budget gap to start was three
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  Speaker 2: billion dollars. Now a lot of that was some COVID
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  Speaker 2: federal monies and they were moving pots around, so they
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  Speaker 2: were able to bridge the gap pretty quickly. This one,
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  Speaker 2: I would say, is bigger than what we would had
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  Speaker 2: seen in like the Rick Scott years. And in the
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  Speaker 2: first couple of years of DeSantis, COVID changed a lot
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  Speaker 2: in terms of how public dollars are allocated in budget
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  Speaker 2: because you had so much of an infusion from the Feds.
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  Speaker 2: But we're at one thirteen to one fifteen is the
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  Speaker 2: landing zone based on where the House and the Senate are.
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  Speaker 2: And it's important to note that will be another year
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  Speaker 2: in which he is a real dollar cut in the
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  Speaker 2: size of Florida's state budget, and that is a political
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  Speaker 2: selling point. I tend to get a little bit concerned
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  Speaker 2: that at some stage we enter into the zone where
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  Speaker 2: you're cutting meat of essential services that I would even
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  Speaker 2: believe are the purview of the state government, and I,
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  Speaker 2: you know, I get a little trepidation probably around this juncture,
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  Speaker 2: especially considering how much migration we've had in the state
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  Speaker 2: in the last five years.
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  Speaker 1: Let's play hypothetical for a second. If they get the
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  Speaker 1: property tax phased in. When it's fully phased in, I
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  Speaker 1: have to believe there's a belief that there's going to
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  Speaker 1: be new revenues. Because we are a consumer state in
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  Speaker 1: terms of how we pay taxes. That because there's more
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  Speaker 1: funding available for people to spend more more money, they're
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  Speaker 1: gonna spend more money, and therefore the state's going to
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  Speaker 1: grow it's budget that way and perhaps be able to
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  Speaker 1: fund cities and counties.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, most economic models that I have seen on property
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  Speaker 2: taxes do not account for some of those what they
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  Speaker 2: would call indirect economic effects, the ripple effects of all, right,
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  Speaker 2: I have three thousand more.
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  Speaker 1: Dollars, more discretionary spending.
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  Speaker 2: More discretionary spending. Now, what percentage of that do I
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  Speaker 2: invest and save? What percentage of that do I spend?
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  Speaker 2: And then depending on the model that they take with this,
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  Speaker 2: and if it were to pass, what do the sales
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  Speaker 2: tax rates in counties do and how do the tourists,
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  Speaker 2: then supplement and complement, because we are in a state
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  Speaker 2: where I think the last I heard or read was
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  Speaker 2: around thirty twenty seven to thirty percent of our tax
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  Speaker 2: revenues in sales and consumption taxes like the bed taxes,
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  Speaker 2: and all of that are coming from people who do
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  Speaker 2: not even reside in the state.
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  Speaker 1: Are of the big buckets that are inside the budget?
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  Speaker 1: What has your attention number? So the allocation total is
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  Speaker 1: fifty two billion dollars. Now that is the general fund revenue,
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  Speaker 1: so we don't have as much control over what the
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  Speaker 1: FEDS are sending down to us in most cases. So
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  Speaker 1: and so what we've got is the largest allocation is
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  Speaker 1: Health and Human Services. That's nineteen a little over nineteen
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  Speaker 1: billion dollars. You've got pre K to twelve, Education at
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  Speaker 1: sixteen billion, and higher ed and criminal and civil justice
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  Speaker 1: just si shy of seven billion each. The allocations also
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  Speaker 1: include about one point four billion for agon natural resources,
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  Speaker 1: five hundred and sixty five hundred and seventy million for
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  Speaker 1: general government, another five hundred and sixty for transportation, tourism
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  Speaker 1: and economic development, about four hundred and seventy five million
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  Speaker 1: for you know, your administered funds statewide issues. Of note,
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  Speaker 1: there is the potential for a pay raise for state employees.
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  Speaker 2: Now the Senate budget has a I believe it's a
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  Speaker 2: three percent across the board for all state employees, plus
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  Speaker 2: another two percent for the special risk categories law enforcement, firefighters,
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  Speaker 2: those kinds of positions.
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  Speaker 1: Okay, what's your hunt? What do you think is gonna
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  Speaker 1: come out of the wash here?
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  Speaker 2: I think they're gonna land closer to the Senate on
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  Speaker 2: this one. I don't know why. I it's just a
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  Speaker 2: gut feeling on this. I think they're gonna land closer
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  Speaker 2: to that one hundred and fourteen one hundred and fourteen
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  Speaker 2: point five billion dollar range.
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  Speaker 1: I just don't know.
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  Speaker 2: Now, when the governor gets his line item veto, we
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  Speaker 2: could drop closer to the House number from their original position.
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  Speaker 2: But that's gonna be my guest. Now, I'm sure my
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  Speaker 2: phone's phone's gonna blow up, and everybody's gonna tell me
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  Speaker 2: why that's a wrong prediction. And I'm happy to say,
• 14:48
  Speaker 2: you know, happy to say next week if I'm wrong.
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  Speaker 2: But that's where my gut's telling me.
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  Speaker 1: How long do you think this special session will last?
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  Speaker 2: So they're gonna go through this week with conferencing. Anything
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  Speaker 2: that's not finished up by FRO will get bumped. Members
• 15:02
  Speaker 2: I believe won't have to come back unless you're a
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  Speaker 2: conference member this week. Next week you'll just have to
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  Speaker 2: come back to vote. So they'll be done by the
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  Speaker 2: twenty eighth, maybe twenty seventh, is my guest.