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The 2024 Florida Legislative Session Is Already Gearing Up · Conversations: Special Guests with Preston Scott

0:15
And here we go second hour show five thousand and fourteen of The Morning Show
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with Preston Scott. That's Grand Allen over there in Studio one A. I
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am here sequestered in Studio one B, and by my side is the vice
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president of Policy for the James Madison Institute, the one the only Seal News.
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Oh, hello, good morning too. I'm doing great at this lovely
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hour of the morning. It first, that's weird. It's weird you and
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I talking in the second hour, not the third. But it's football season.
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That's comes with the territory. I'm with you. But it's also weird
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because we have to start talking in earnest now about the upcoming legislative session.
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It is shocking. They had their first sort of committee week. They had
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the designation vote for Danny Perez as speaker designated, and they had a couple
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of committee meetings. But yeah, the full slate of pre session committee weeks
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starts in October, which is just yeah, yeah, remind everybody once again
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we have a presidential election. We have a national election coming up. In
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the way the legislature handles it, yeah, in the even number years,
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like next year, twenty twenty four, twenty twenty six. The legislature does
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their session, the sixty day session January to March. In the odd number
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of years like this, they do it March April May. And that's largely
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because of the election cycle, whether it's governor or president. Because we have
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the mid term governor election, they will do it then so that they have
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that full time of campaigning getting out because they have they do have a ban
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on any kind of fundraising or campaign activities direct when they are in session,
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so it just kind of breaks it up when there is an election. I
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think it would be helpful to give people a little historical perspective on the governor's
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office in general. Yeah, and uh, kind of well are we talking
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like? Well, just I mean, I just I got the thinking sal
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when I when I read your note. The entire time I've been on the
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air of twenty one years, yep, the governor's office has largely been under
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the control of conservative leadership. Oh yeah, and it is very difficult for
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people to comprehend a liberal or left leaning Florida. But but prior to Jeb
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Bush, which is only I mean you and I can say, only twenty
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five years ago. But for the vast majority of people that might be listening
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or that are out there, it's not a frame of reference to them.
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When Florida was actually controlled by Democrats. Would you what would you say about
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Bob Martinez? H he would probably be categorized as what we would call these
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days a rhino, Okay, a moderate, very moderate Republican that was able
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to get elected as a Republican in the Florida in which he ran because between
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Martinez and Jeb Bush we had law and child And so here's my question.
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I think you're accurate in your description of Bob Martinez. Would Florida be where
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it is right now though, had it not had a transitional moderate Republican as
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governor. It's a very good question. And I think Bob Martinez set the
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stage one for Jeb Bush running because Jeb Bush ran against Lawton Childs and lost,
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and I think it was in Lawton's second term, and then he came
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back, and so there is absolutely a case to be made that maybe he
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was a little bit like John the Baptist and proclaiming the future of conservative movements
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in states in the South, like Florida Governor Rond De Santis, kind of
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unpack where he is now. Yeah, and this is one where I thought
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we were going to go there when you ask the question, but I realize
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you weren't. But kind of unpacking the political environment where how it shifted over
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the past twenty five years, not just in Florida but nationally, and we
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have in Rohn de Santis what you could argue is one of the most conservatively
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accomplished governors in our lifetimes. And by that I mean someone who walks the
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conservative principles but then also enacted more policy sim signs them than anybody that I
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can think of in the entire United States now twenty five thirty years ago.
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That would be the platform for running for president and being successful at it,
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regardless of the state, Arkansas, Texas, what have you. But against
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the Trump brand, he's been pilloried as a rhino and it's completely factually inaccurate,
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but it just doesn't seem to matter. And that is something that shocks
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me. Is someone who's paid attention to politics for as long as I have
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Morning show with Preston Scott. You're mocking me, aren't you. Oh no,
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no, no, no, no no no. I'm News Radio one
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hundred point seven WFLA. Sal News, Oh, James Madison Institute, our
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guest. It's one of the stories we talked about. It's a big story
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in the press box. It's in the news Florida Governor rond De Santis pulling
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the plug on school vouchers to four different schools, and it's almost unbelievable when
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you hear it, Sal that have direct ties to the CCP. Yeah,
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it's an interesting one, and so I tried to look into it a little
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bit. I didn't find out a whole lot of information, but I did
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find out some stuff about one particular school, and I can't remember which one
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it was, so I don't want to misstate. One of the schools is
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owned by a company who's founder and CEO is basically a Hong Kong China Guy's
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a member of Yeah, he's a member of the party, and they were
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like listing out a lot of his tweets and social media and such, and
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it was remarkable, like the level of kind of tie that there was back
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So on the other three, I'm not sure about. I am sure there's
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going to be a whole lot of information coming out, but given the state's
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stance, you know, kind of pushing back against Chinese influence. We've seen
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it in higher education with the Confucius Institutes, We've seen it in land buys,
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We've seen it with banning TikTok on state devices, all of that.
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I'm not surprised that given the tenor of this, that that's the direction that
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they're going. And what this does is it means that that school choice money,
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that vouchers cannot take a student to those schools. That is correct.
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And these are all charter schools, I believe, so I believe, Well,
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Nario, let me back up. I don't know. I think one
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or two of them are charters. There maybe a couple of that are just
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outright private school okay, but not necessarily within a school district as a typical
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exactly exactly. Don't quote me on that, but if I remember correctly,
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that was the case. All Right, let's talk a little bit about the
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legislature. You mentioned Danny Perez as the future Speaker of the House. Did
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he give you any indication what's going to matter to him? Yeah? And
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in fact, in part of his designation speech which happened the morning of the
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vote, and then he goes up and takes the gave a lot of pomp
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and circumstance. He did make a mention or two about the legislature asserting its
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proper role in the system of government within the state of Florida, and a
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lot of people saw it as kind of a bit of a thinly veiled shot
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maybe at the administration. They're used of the bully pulpit, how kind of
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the governor's office. There were a lot of articles about the potential that the
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governor's office was twisting some artens on some votes, and you know, kind
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of was that a kind of first step in the road of kind of the
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legislature taking a little bit more of a prominent role in pushing back. He
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pushed back completely against that notion. He said that the legislature under House under
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his leadership, will continue to partner with the governor completely. I expect a
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lot of that. Philosophically, they're aligned. There's not going to be a
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whole lot of kind of differences of opinion on policy. But I think there
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may be a case or two where the governor does not get his way in
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the way that he got in twenty twenty three. How does it change the
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governor's relationship with the House and Senate, and let's just say we're going to
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have a little bit more of the same with Pasodomo and Renter, but then
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we extend the next two leaders are going to walk the governor out if he
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does not win the nomination, then the presidency. Yeah, that's correct.
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So how much difference do you think that makes if ron de Sandis is the
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quote lame duck governor. I don't think it makes a whole lot of difference,
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but does it It sure would make a little bit of difference uncertain policy
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areas where I think the governor may have been a little bit more forward leaning
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than the legislature was comfortable with at that time, and you know, not
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being able to see off on the horizon what the threats might be. But
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a governor sees things that, you know, he's got to make the case
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to a legislature on wire particular policy track is needed. He's got a new
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Legislative Affairs director, Peter Kutterman, Stephanie Coppelousas, who's with the Governor's office
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for a long time, decided to retire. So there's going to need to
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be I think more of a sales pitch on some of the more forward leaning
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policy topics. It could be things like this with China, some regulatory things
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that may come down the pike. But again, the governor's got to make
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Any governor's got to make a sales pitch to his legislature. He did not
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have to do that as much in twenty twenty three. If ron De Santis
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doesn't carry the nomination, let's just set aside the general election. He doesn't
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carry the nomination. Does he lose clout in Florida with the legislature. I
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don't think he loses clout because he's got most of the legislature in his corner,
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doesn't he. And yes, even in his presidential work, Yes,
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and he won the governor's race by twenty points. I mean that still is
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a fact of how Florida looks from a legislative and policy world. I just
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I don't see him losing a whole lot of a moxie with the legislature.
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Twenty two minutes pass sal Newzer with me from the James Madison Institute. We're
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talking, We're really talking about the twenty twenty four legislative session now as we
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look ahead, and how much of that gets hammered out right now in committee
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weeks as they unfold, Oh a ton of not necessarily the bills moving through.
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They'll move some priority stuff to tee it up for that first week of
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session. But a lot of what you're going to see happen in committee weeks
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is bill's beginning to kind of come through drafting, get introduced, get reference
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to the various committees that they're going to go to. You'll begin to see,
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you know, pay attention to the numbers HB one, s B,
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you know, four or whatever. You know, those are some of the
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things that I think you're going to see a lot of and get a sense
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of what the legislature really going to want to kind of kick off in January.
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Is it too much of a layman's guide to say single digit bills or
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double digit bills have priority? Uh? Single digit bills, Yes, that's
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generally where you get your your priorities from leadership in both the House and the
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Senate. Double digit bills, I think you're talking just kind of when they
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come out and when they get filed into into bill filing, the topics that
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are must address topics? Is your list based on what you think they need
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to be doing or what you're hearing they're going to do hearing, so and
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I'm going to stress that, you know, am I focuses on economic issue,
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so there's probably some social stuff that are in there as well that we
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don't tackle or I haven't been Party two kind of the discussions, but just
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on the economic side, single biggest thing you're going to hear I think in
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the course of twenty twenty four is going to be on healthcare. I've already
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heard two speeches from the House Speaker, Paul Renner. There are big challenges
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of Florida faces with respect to healthcare, and it's a function of our success.
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So you have roughly nine hundred two thousand people moving to the state a
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day. The state is growing by several hundred thousand a year. Two thirds
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of that population growth is over the age of sixty, So that's the cohort
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of the population that consumes the most healthcare. It's not an insurance question.
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It's not a we've got a tinker with Medicaid or Medicare or what have you.
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It's an access question. We do not have enough practitioners at all levels.
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And so what happens when you don't have practitioners is you have shortages and
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you have time constraints. So I believe I saw a stat that we are
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thirty something, maybe thirty first or thirty second in primary care physicians per capita
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among the fifty states. That's not good for a growth state. So if
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you think about it, you need to get to a doctor. You've got
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a six eight ten week wait in order to see that doctor. That's on
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the horizon. So I think we're going to see a whole lot of things
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done on the access and affordability piece of healthcare in the coming session. What
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are the other priorities you think are coming? Sure? Energy it is a
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big issue, especially kind of countering what the Biden administration has been doing.
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They're going to look at how can we promote better energy development, consumption,
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transmission, distribution. Also, is it going to be trying to find end
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arounds to what Biden is doing and is done by even though, for example,
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there's a federal ruling on a rule that the Biden administration put on oil
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and gas leases in the Gulf, federal judge said you can't do that.
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Is it doing ends around or is it working within the system we got?
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I think a little bit of both. I don't think it's a an either
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or. I think it's a all right, what do we need to kind
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of work around the Biden administration rules and regulations? What can we do within
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the context of Florida to kind of promote the existing system, expand out generation
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and development, and again, with a gross state, when demand goes up,
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prices go up. So it's going to be something that they're going to
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tackle, as well as some ideas on how to kind of sidestep some of
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the ev stuff that's coming down the pike. I know you're gonna have to
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go lightning here, but does Florida need to consider discouraging the purchase of evs.
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I don't know if it's an outright discouragement, but I think there's going
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to be some pushback on any of the incentives that come down the way.
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Okay, what's left. Big thing in Florida still property insurance. I think
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they're going to come back. They're going to figure out if there's anything that
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they've got to tweak, especially on the insurance side, not just the torch
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side, which they tackled last session. Tech and innovation. It is going
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to permeate all different policy areas. But I think you're going to see quite
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a bit of conversation on what should the state and potentially the local government's roles
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be in regulating things like artificial intelligence, drone delivery, all of these things
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that are kind of new in the sense that they're now being developed and deployed
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in ways that we didn't have even just a couple of years ago. I
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would also expect to see some work done to the point of our prior segment
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on fine tuning the school choice language ESA availability. I've also heard of some
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speed bumps on kind of the deployment of payments to the school, so I
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would expect what you would call a glitch bill, which is kind of a
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clean bill to come from at least the House on there. Can't wait to
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see what happens. It's going to be a fun session. I am really
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looking forward to it. See you next month. Always a pleasure of my
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friend Salnuzo with the James Madison Institute. He closes down his laptop, he
16:15
removes the headphones, pushes back the chair, and off he goes, solving
16:21
the issues of the state of Florida with one giant leap. Here in the
16:26
Morning Show with Preston Scott, if you are a