Latest / Conversations: Special Guests with Preston Scott / UPDATE: Florida's Special Session On The Budget Continues

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UPDATE: Florida's Special Session On The Budget Continues · Conversations: Special Guests with Preston Scott

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: Showing Secretariat footage from the from the Preakness to Salnuzoh,
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: he's a horse buff just like I am. And here
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: we are together again. It's the Morning Show with Preston Scott,
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: third hour of the program Show five six hundred and
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: five and uh and we are joined by the Executive
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: director of Consumers Defense, Sal Nuzzo.
• 0:22
  Speaker 2: Hello, five six and five shows. Yeah, you got you
• 0:25
  Speaker 2: got some staying power. You might want to think of
• 0:27
  Speaker 2: a career in this field.
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: I you know, a few have suggested, But then I'd
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: have to get good about it. I'd have to become good. Yeah,
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: and I'm not good. No one's ever accused me of that,
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: so yeah, see I'm I'm just not good enough for that.
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: So I don't think I'm going to do it. But anyway,
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: how would you describe where we are in the special session?
• 0:48
  Speaker 2: We're about the midway point of the process, solely with
• 0:54
  Speaker 2: respect to the budget. And so is it that we
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: know we're at the midway point. We think so roughly
• 1:01
  Speaker 2: in the mid range, because what has happened is last
• 1:04
  Speaker 2: week you had the Conference Committee's meeting, and you had
• 1:09
  Speaker 2: all of the things that they could tackle, they got done,
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: and then what they couldn't. Whereas they had disagreements on
• 1:17
  Speaker 2: either the level of funding for a particular line item
• 1:20
  Speaker 2: or whether or not that line item should have any
• 1:23
  Speaker 2: money attached to it at all. You had those issues
• 1:26
  Speaker 2: that then get what they call bumped up to leadership.
• 1:30
  Speaker 2: So the committee, the budget chairs ed Hooper and oh gosh,
• 1:35
  Speaker 2: name is escaping me already, then work on it with
• 1:40
  Speaker 2: the House Speaker and the Senate President and their staff,
• 1:43
  Speaker 2: and they ultimately come to a decision on where they're
• 1:46
  Speaker 2: going to get to.
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: It could be split in the baby. It could be you.
• 1:49
  Speaker 2: Take twenty percent on this one and I take twenty
• 1:51
  Speaker 2: percent on the next one. It could be half and half.
• 1:53
  Speaker 2: It could be we're sticking to our guns. But that's
• 1:56
  Speaker 2: where when they talk about in reference a little bit
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: of the secretive nature of the budget negotiations, this is
• 2:04
  Speaker 2: the part that we're entering into now.
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: In your opinion, are we We're gonna have to have
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: for them to adjourn by the end of the week,
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: which is Memorial Day weekend coming up right, Yes. In
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: order for that to happen, they have to have a
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: budget out to members by the end of the day tomorrow.
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and they're gonna What they're gonna do is likely
• 2:26
  Speaker 2: land the budget, so to speak, on the desk late
• 2:30
  Speaker 2: this week. They will all travel back home for the
• 2:34
  Speaker 2: Memorial Day weekend and remember the special sessions through the
• 2:37
  Speaker 2: twenty ninth, and so.
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: They can hold the vote.
• 2:40
  Speaker 2: They will come back, They will hold a quick vote
• 2:42
  Speaker 2: and then come back probably on the twenty six, twenty
• 2:45
  Speaker 2: seven to twenty eight, depending on when that budget lands.
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: So sometime after Memorial Days when the voting's gonna happen.
• 2:51
  Speaker 2: Yeah, but it won't be anything like you typically see
• 2:55
  Speaker 2: where they're all coming in and there's a lot of
• 2:56
  Speaker 2: fanfare and all of this stuff like a normal even
• 2:59
  Speaker 2: regular or special session. This will be they come in,
• 3:03
  Speaker 2: they will be in for the vote, and it's only
• 3:05
  Speaker 2: because they are prohibited from casting the vote remotely. If
• 3:08
  Speaker 2: there were a provision in the constitution for them to
• 3:11
  Speaker 2: do that, they would they would absolutely vote remotely.
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: What's the Governor's posturing in all of this is he
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: kind of taking the approach of, look, I've laid my
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: priorities out. They know I have a pen, and whatever
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: they do they do, it'll land on my desk and
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: I'll take it from there.
• 3:28
  Speaker 2: Yeah, And that's pretty much where he's tacked in terms
• 3:31
  Speaker 2: of the nuts and bolts of the majority of the budget,
• 3:35
  Speaker 2: apart from his desire to enact property tax reform and
• 3:40
  Speaker 2: a big way for homesteaded properties. There hasn't been much
• 3:45
  Speaker 2: from the Governor's office that I've seen in terms of
• 3:47
  Speaker 2: prioritization in any of the silos, whether it be in
• 3:50
  Speaker 2: the education front or criminal justice or healthcare. We've seen
• 3:55
  Speaker 2: a lot of the priorities and the dialogue happening within
• 3:59
  Speaker 2: the chambers versus coming down from on high or from
• 4:04
  Speaker 2: the plaza level at the Governor's office.
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: On that salnwzo with me and you can find out
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: more about the work he does. A Consumer's defense by
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: going to their website, Consumers Defense dot com. It's a
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: dot com, right, not a dot org.
• 4:16
  Speaker 2: It is a dot com now our C three Consumers
• 4:20
  Speaker 2: Research is a dot org, but our website is a
• 4:23
  Speaker 2: dot com.
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: Nice the maps, the Supreme Court's made it clear you
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: cannot put congressional maps together with any regard to race.
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: I think it's long overdue. I thought affirmative action congressional
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: maps needed to be challenged decades ago, but some sensibility
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: has come. Maps have been done here in Florida. They're
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: gonna survive the test. More is happening. So what's left
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: to happen here in Florida as it relates to the mapping, Well,
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: there is some litigation.
• 4:53
  Speaker 2: Mark Elias in a host of other groups have filed
• 4:56
  Speaker 2: suit against the congressional maps in Florida, and so that
• 5:01
  Speaker 2: will have to play out. I don't believe it will
• 5:03
  Speaker 2: play out in time for this cycle. In this election,
• 5:08
  Speaker 2: so the maps that were passed will be the maps
• 5:10
  Speaker 2: that Floridians vote on in twenty twenty six. We are
• 5:14
  Speaker 2: likely to go from a twenty to eight Republican majority
• 5:19
  Speaker 2: in the state to something probably along the lines of
• 5:22
  Speaker 2: a twenty four to four Republican majority. Based on my
• 5:27
  Speaker 2: read and some stuff that I've read, it does look
• 5:30
  Speaker 2: like the biggest, so to speak, losers. The folks that
• 5:35
  Speaker 2: would have to figure out what their future looks like
• 5:37
  Speaker 2: are going to be Kathy Caster, Jared Moskowitz, Darren Sodo,
• 5:40
  Speaker 2: and Wi Watser Minschaltz. Now, those four Democrats are already
• 5:45
  Speaker 2: kind of figuring out where they're going to run. I
• 5:47
  Speaker 2: think Debbie is running in another district that kind of
• 5:50
  Speaker 2: has some of our old district in there. Jared moskowitz
• 5:54
  Speaker 2: Is I think he shifted to one of the new districts.
• 5:58
  Speaker 2: Kathy castor Is got a Republican challenger and may have more.
• 6:03
  Speaker 2: Darren Soto, I mean, he's fighting tooth and nail, but
• 6:06
  Speaker 2: he isn't going to survive in my book based on
• 6:10
  Speaker 2: where his district is. But at the same time as
• 6:13
  Speaker 2: Florida's doing this, you have other states. Because it was
• 6:15
  Speaker 2: a US Supreme Court ruling, some are stepping up and
• 6:20
  Speaker 2: some were finding are They started to step up. Now
• 6:22
  Speaker 2: they're walking back a bit. You had Mississippi and Alabama.
• 6:27
  Speaker 2: So Alabama's likely only going to pick up one seat
• 6:30
  Speaker 2: based on the new map that they drew, and they
• 6:33
  Speaker 2: probably could have done a little bit better. Mississippi decided
• 6:36
  Speaker 2: they're going to redistrict, but they're gonna do it for
• 6:39
  Speaker 2: the twenty twenty eight cycle. The South Carolina case, the
• 6:43
  Speaker 2: Senate voted to not redistrict. They had a majority, but
• 6:48
  Speaker 2: they need to Apparently in the state they need a
• 6:50
  Speaker 2: two thirds majority to do the redistricting ahead of when
• 6:54
  Speaker 2: it's required by the constitution. Now, why does this matter?
• 6:59
  Speaker 2: And it for a couple of reasons. One because the
• 7:01
  Speaker 2: House Republican majority is razor thin in the margin. And
• 7:06
  Speaker 2: then you've got again this sense of Florida kind of
• 7:10
  Speaker 2: taking their swords out and charging the field and saying,
• 7:13
  Speaker 2: you know, come on everybody, and you get states that
• 7:16
  Speaker 2: are kind of, well, we don't really know how aggressive
• 7:19
  Speaker 2: we want to be. And you have the whole political
• 7:22
  Speaker 2: dynamic in Florida with the governor's race, because there is
• 7:26
  Speaker 2: a press announcement coming today from Lieutenant Governor j Collins.
• 7:30
  Speaker 2: He's in Tampa at two thirty pm. I heard some
• 7:34
  Speaker 2: wild speculation that he may consider or is been considering,
• 7:39
  Speaker 2: dropping his bid for governor and maybe jumping into one
• 7:42
  Speaker 2: of those new congressional districts, particularly in the Tampa area,
• 7:46
  Speaker 2: because they carved it up pretty aggressively, and that Kathy
• 7:50
  Speaker 2: Castor seat could you know, be one that he is
• 7:53
  Speaker 2: able to mount a challenge on. Now, then it kind
• 7:57
  Speaker 2: of unpacks the what happens from here, what happens with
• 8:01
  Speaker 2: the governor, with Paul Renner, with Byron Donald's, what happens
• 8:06
  Speaker 2: with you know, the relationships and the dynamic with Trump,
• 8:10
  Speaker 2: And there's a whole host of dominoes and things that
• 8:13
  Speaker 2: could potentially happen as a result of you know what
• 8:16
  Speaker 2: the lieutenant governor decides and how far he takes his campaign.
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: What's your hunch?
• 8:22
  Speaker 2: You know, my hunch would have been, yes, he drops
• 8:26
  Speaker 2: the bid for governor. He is just not able to
• 8:31
  Speaker 2: get off of the launchpad really well, and he would
• 8:34
  Speaker 2: stand a reasonably good chance to pick up one of
• 8:38
  Speaker 2: those congressional seats. However, he has been adamant in every
• 8:43
  Speaker 2: single press statement he has given or interview he has
• 8:46
  Speaker 2: given he is in the governor's race until the end.
• 8:49
  Speaker 2: He is seeing it through. So I would I be shocked,
• 8:54
  Speaker 2: know would I be surprised a little bit?
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: Just based on that sal Newzo with us we're doing
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: a bit of a post mortem still on the legislative session,
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: because the governor just explained a little procedure here to us.
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: The governor gets bills a little bit out of time.
• 9:11
  Speaker 2: Sure, yeah, the governor. The legislature passes bills, the bill
• 9:17
  Speaker 2: has to be identical in both chambers, and then it
• 9:21
  Speaker 2: is what they call. There's two phrases. There's enrolled and engrossed,
• 9:25
  Speaker 2: and I may mix these up. I apologize if I do.
• 9:27
  Speaker 2: But when the legislature passed it, it's enrolled and then
• 9:31
  Speaker 2: when the governor signs it, it's engrossed or the other
• 9:33
  Speaker 2: way around. But they transmit it to the governor and
• 9:37
  Speaker 2: then the clock starts ticking, and depending on the bill,
• 9:39
  Speaker 2: he's got a certain number of days to pass it
• 9:42
  Speaker 2: or veto it or pocket veto it, and it goes
• 9:44
  Speaker 2: into law. And so they're sending bills. Now there's some
• 9:48
  Speaker 2: choreography to it. The governor's office may request a batch
• 9:51
  Speaker 2: of bills that the governor's ready to consider these, they'll
• 9:54
  Speaker 2: send those over sort of like clearing the desk. Yeah,
• 9:57
  Speaker 2: and so they want to also maxim the visibility of
• 10:01
  Speaker 2: certain bills or going to hold signing ceremonies and things
• 10:04
  Speaker 2: like that, and they got to coordinate with all the
• 10:06
  Speaker 2: other things that he does.
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: So of the bills he has signed, what stands out
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: to you.
• 10:10
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and he has had a lot of action in
• 10:13
  Speaker 2: signing what is a lighter load from previous sessions. But
• 10:17
  Speaker 2: I think we're up to just over eighty bills that
• 10:18
  Speaker 2: he signed and a number of notable ones from the
• 10:22
  Speaker 2: last week or so that I can go through three
• 10:24
  Speaker 2: ninety nine so on applications for new development. And these
• 10:28
  Speaker 2: can be very expensive because it's a big area. The
• 10:32
  Speaker 2: application fees have to have a pricing component related to
• 10:36
  Speaker 2: what it actually costs to process the application, So local
• 10:40
  Speaker 2: governments cannot just implement these kind of arduous application fees
• 10:46
  Speaker 2: that are just meant to kind of siphon money from
• 10:48
  Speaker 2: developers which then gets passed onto homeowners. Four twenty eight
• 10:53
  Speaker 2: expands the swimming voucher program that got started a year
• 10:56
  Speaker 2: or two ago to older children. It bumps it up
• 10:58
  Speaker 2: to seven years old. HB four forty five Child exploitation
• 11:02
  Speaker 2: charges added to the list of crimes where a non
• 11:05
  Speaker 2: monetary pre trial release is allowed. So I'm surprised that
• 11:10
  Speaker 2: it took this long to get there. But so judges
• 11:12
  Speaker 2: cannot release somebody pre trial on their own recognissance or
• 11:18
  Speaker 2: with what do you call them?
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: Those monitors and such. Only two hundred and fifty people
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: have gone missing in Chicago with them.
• 11:26
  Speaker 2: Only two hundred and fifty four fifty three. Two years
• 11:30
  Speaker 2: of marching band equals one physical education credit. Kids, if
• 11:35
  Speaker 2: you don't like running the mile, start playing the tuba.
• 11:37
  Speaker 2: It'll pay off, boy, it will, and you'll get your exercise.
• 11:40
  Speaker 2: You might die any Yeah, nicely done. Six eighty six
• 11:44
  Speaker 2: Agricultural enclaves now I've mentioned this one before, but I
• 11:48
  Speaker 2: wanted to provide some additional context. It allows for agriculture
• 11:52
  Speaker 2: land to be developed into housing, which we need, but
• 11:56
  Speaker 2: only when it connext to or is directly adjacent to
• 12:00
  Speaker 2: existing development. And when I say only, what I mean
• 12:03
  Speaker 2: is the local government cannot regulate that area out of
• 12:08
  Speaker 2: use for development. Okay, you get seven fifty seven expanding
• 12:11
  Speaker 2: the Campus Guardian program to public colleges and universities.
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: But that does not allow carry on campus correct.
• 12:17
  Speaker 2: I mean, we're talking short steps in the right direction,
• 12:21
  Speaker 2: and that's as much as you know we could hope
• 12:24
  Speaker 2: for at this juncture. One thousand and four pet Sales
• 12:28
  Speaker 2: allowing additional protections for people purchasing a pet from their
• 12:31
  Speaker 2: pet dealers. School Board Member Bill of Rights ten seventy three.
• 12:36
  Speaker 2: Given the issues we're facing here, I think I like
• 12:39
  Speaker 2: this one, and it could be a dark horse on
• 12:41
  Speaker 2: value members are guaranteed. School Board members are now guaranteed
• 12:45
  Speaker 2: access to district documents they need. It allows for members
• 12:48
  Speaker 2: to consult with the district CFO on budget information and
• 12:52
  Speaker 2: also allows them to request info from staff, and it
• 12:56
  Speaker 2: allows them to publicly comment on district business. Is where
• 13:01
  Speaker 2: that may be frowned upon, or where they get into
• 13:05
  Speaker 2: some hot water locally, or where the Sunshine law butts
• 13:08
  Speaker 2: up against it. So this kind of helps in that respect.
• 13:11
  Speaker 1: This also, I would guess, negates some of the influence
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: perhaps that we would assign to a superintendent of education,
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: we would.
• 13:22
  Speaker 2: Hope, so we would hope that this puts school board
• 13:26
  Speaker 2: members in a place where they don't just have to
• 13:28
  Speaker 2: trust what a superintendent says. They can trust, but verify.
• 13:32
  Speaker 2: And that's important as we encounter not just Leon County schools,
• 13:37
  Speaker 2: but districts across the state where they're having, you know,
• 13:39
  Speaker 2: outflows of students and the funding that goes with them.
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: Can I assume then that an individual school board member
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: could go to say, the budget supervisor, whatever, but two
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: of them together cannot go together. Is the operative work
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: because that would violate sunshine? That is correct.
• 13:57
  Speaker 2: Okay, you've also got eleven thirty four coming in handy here.
• 14:01
  Speaker 2: The DEI band I like, we don't need to think
• 14:05
  Speaker 2: about all the ways local governments are trying to take
• 14:08
  Speaker 2: national issues and make them local. Well, they're just dropping
• 14:11
  Speaker 2: the words though, diversity, equity and inclusiveness, but they include definitions. Okay,
• 14:17
  Speaker 2: those terms that I think would put. I mean, we
• 14:20
  Speaker 2: can take Leon County and the city of Tallahouse, lord
• 14:23
  Speaker 2: A and.
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: M University is doing it. Yes, they're getting around it,
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: and they're bragging about getting around it in some areas.
• 14:28
  Speaker 2: And that's actually an entirely separate issue because they're a university.
• 14:32
  Speaker 2: They've got to they've got to deal with the state
• 14:34
  Speaker 2: Board of Governors. You here, now you've got state law
• 14:38
  Speaker 2: that that would address what a lot of is a
• 14:42
  Speaker 2: lot of the things that are happening locally eleven fifty
• 14:45
  Speaker 2: nine sexual offenses, creating harsher penalties, establishing a new category
• 14:50
  Speaker 2: for generated child porn.
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: Back with Salnwzo of Consumers Defense one two more secon
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: let's keep talking about the bills that the governor signed
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: that people ought to be aware of. Yeah.
• 15:06
  Speaker 2: Sure, so you got a number of them that we started,
• 15:09
  Speaker 2: and so to kind of keep the list going. HB
• 15:12
  Speaker 2: twelve seventeen is one. I hadn't been completely aware of
• 15:18
  Speaker 2: this one during the session. But no more carbon taxes
• 15:22
  Speaker 2: in Florida or even studying them for that matter, at
• 15:26
  Speaker 2: the state or local level. So there is this dynamic
• 15:29
  Speaker 2: at play where it was popular in conservative circles about
• 15:33
  Speaker 2: ten years ago to talk about this issue called cap
• 15:36
  Speaker 2: and trade, yeah, which is basically like, we're going to
• 15:39
  Speaker 2: tax you based on your carbon emissions and then we're
• 15:41
  Speaker 2: going to establish kind of trading rights for those and
• 15:45
  Speaker 2: that's not going to happen in Florida twelve seventy nine.
• 15:48
  Speaker 2: Teacher funding a big one. Provides a mechanism for districts
• 15:52
  Speaker 2: to get their high performing teachers, and in particular the
• 15:55
  Speaker 2: ones who were teaching in lower performing schools. They can
• 15:58
  Speaker 2: get them immediate salary boosts without going through the collective
• 16:03
  Speaker 2: bargaining agreement.
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: That one is interesting to me. We've seen here locally
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: in this community that just because the state allocates money
• 16:15
  Speaker 1: doesn't mean it finds its way to teachers. Does this
• 16:17
  Speaker 1: bypass that problem?
• 16:19
  Speaker 2: In part it does, and it'll now there are some
• 16:22
  Speaker 2: provisions and some you gotta kind of meet some criteria
• 16:26
  Speaker 2: to be one of those teachers that is within that program.
• 16:29
  Speaker 2: But and Leon County is not the only district that
• 16:32
  Speaker 2: had this issue.
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: Sure.
• 16:34
  Speaker 2: In fact, the Commissioner of Education called out, I want
• 16:37
  Speaker 2: to say it was like four or five mens.
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: Isn't he about to be the former commissioner?
• 16:40
  Speaker 2: Potentially there's some scuttle buddy, maybe the new president of
• 16:44
  Speaker 2: Polk State College. Yeah, coming up. Great man loves Stacy
• 16:48
  Speaker 2: to death. He's a phenomenal public servant and it would
• 16:51
  Speaker 2: be a well deserved and well earned job for him.
• 16:55
  Speaker 2: But yeah, he called out a number of districts where
• 16:57
  Speaker 2: they were holding on to legislatively allocated money and under
• 17:03
  Speaker 2: the guise of, well, we have not reached an agreement
• 17:05
  Speaker 2: with our union for a new collective bargaining agreement, and
• 17:10
  Speaker 2: so that in and of itself is a problem for
• 17:14
  Speaker 2: districts and for teachers. So this would remedy that in part.
• 17:17
  Speaker 2: Have you heard at all how they would do it?
• 17:19
  Speaker 2: Would that would a check be issued directly from the state,
• 17:22
  Speaker 2: because if they're bound by collective bargaining, I would think
• 17:25
  Speaker 2: that would present a problem for the district issuing a check.
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: It would.
• 17:29
  Speaker 2: And I've got to look at the bill to find
• 17:31
  Speaker 2: out what is the protocol because it could be something
• 17:33
  Speaker 2: where they designate it by school. It could be under
• 17:37
  Speaker 2: the purview of even the principle where they have to
• 17:40
  Speaker 2: fill out a form and get that done. I got
• 17:42
  Speaker 2: to look at the protocols for how that would be interesting. Yeah,
• 17:46
  Speaker 2: and that's actually a good one. We can dive into
• 17:48
  Speaker 2: let me read the bill specifics on that portion of it,
• 17:51
  Speaker 2: and then we can unpack it.
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: What about a House Bill fourteen seventy one.
• 17:55
  Speaker 2: This has my interest, Yeah, and it's got a lot
• 17:57
  Speaker 2: of kind of hairs on the back of people's next
• 18:01
  Speaker 2: standing up, good or bad in both ways. So terrorist organizations,
• 18:06
  Speaker 2: I do believe this is going to be a bit
• 18:08
  Speaker 2: contentious as it's deployed. It creates a process by which
• 18:11
  Speaker 2: the state can designated group as a domestic terrorist organization.
• 18:16
  Speaker 2: So there are provisions for no religious courts or tribunals
• 18:20
  Speaker 2: being allowed to enforce anything that violates a person's constitutional rights.
• 18:24
  Speaker 2: That's that's an easy that's low hanging fruit on the bill.
• 18:27
  Speaker 2: No state school choice money for private schools that are
• 18:30
  Speaker 2: owned or funded by a group on the terrorist list. Now,
• 18:35
  Speaker 2: at first glance, one would assume that is a good
• 18:40
  Speaker 2: deal and accept that, except that one of the prisms
• 18:44
  Speaker 2: that I always try to look at a bill through
• 18:47
  Speaker 2: is how can this be deployed by the other side
• 18:50
  Speaker 2: if they were to come into power. And I've got
• 18:55
  Speaker 2: a little thing in my head that's saying, if the
• 18:58
  Speaker 2: pendulum swing, I would not be surprised to see the
• 19:05
  Speaker 2: left use this and try to deploy it against the
• 19:08
  Speaker 2: right as.
• 19:09
  Speaker 1: They otherwise known as Christian schools exactly, and because this
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: is targeting Islamic.
• 19:15
  Speaker 2: Schools in a sense, it is, yeah, And so it's
• 19:19
  Speaker 2: one that's we've got to be mindful of this as
• 19:23
  Speaker 2: it gets deployed, as rules and REGs get built out,
• 19:26
  Speaker 2: and I would expect some litigation on this to take hold.
• 19:29
  Speaker 1: I can defend it. This just send me to the courtroom.
• 19:32
  Speaker 2: Oh, I'm not as concerned on the constitutionality or legal
• 19:37
  Speaker 2: and I'm not an attorney.
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: No, But I mean, I know if the prism flips,
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: because I'm completely with you, how can this be used
• 19:44
  Speaker 1: as a cudgel on the other side when it's used
• 19:47
  Speaker 1: by a lever on this side?
• 19:48
  Speaker 2: And far smarter people than me are probably already thinking
• 19:52
  Speaker 2: of the arguments for that.
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: So all right, we got a little fun time left here.
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: So vaccine mandates are looking at it?
• 20:03
  Speaker 2: Are you implying that the first four sessions are not fun?
• 20:06
  Speaker 2: That's only the fifth second. Now we got through the
• 20:08
  Speaker 2: meat and now it's kind of like dessert time. Okay,
• 20:11
  Speaker 2: the main meal. I don't know if I want to
• 20:13
  Speaker 2: think about vaccine mandates as dessert.
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: I've you and I've shared in the break some conversations
• 20:19
  Speaker 1: I've had with with people in the healthcare industry that
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: have very strong opinions on this. But how do you
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: think this is going to unfold?
• 20:26
  Speaker 2: Yeah, this is one where so to back up and
• 20:28
  Speaker 2: set the table in both the regular session as well
• 20:32
  Speaker 2: as a special because the governor called for this in
• 20:35
  Speaker 2: writing up the call for the special session. He wanted
• 20:38
  Speaker 2: to push ahead with allowing for more freedom for parents
• 20:43
  Speaker 2: to opt out of certain vaccination requirements for their children,
• 20:47
  Speaker 2: notably in order to be able to attend a public school,
• 20:50
  Speaker 2: but there are other parts of that as well. The
• 20:52
  Speaker 2: issue got very much mired in the media narrative. I
• 20:57
  Speaker 2: believe the Senate passed bill, the House didn't take it
• 21:02
  Speaker 2: up in the regular session, and then they tried again
• 21:06
  Speaker 2: in the Senate to proceed forward in the special session,
• 21:10
  Speaker 2: but the House didn't even file anything in the Speaker's office.
• 21:14
  Speaker 2: In fact, it may have even been the Speaker in
• 21:16
  Speaker 2: a press conference had said no member filed a bill,
• 21:20
  Speaker 2: and he was not convinced that the public was on
• 21:24
  Speaker 2: the side of this issue. And he's pointing to some
• 21:28
  Speaker 2: polling that indicates that even among Republican audiences that this
• 21:36
  Speaker 2: issue is one that divides heavily. There is a large
• 21:40
  Speaker 2: contingent of the Republican population in the state that believes
• 21:45
  Speaker 2: in vaccine mandates, that do not want their kids going
• 21:48
  Speaker 2: to school with kids who were not vaccinated. And so
• 21:51
  Speaker 2: in kind of the lack of taking this up, the
• 21:56
  Speaker 2: speaker kind of telegraph that, look, we're gonna we're going
• 21:58
  Speaker 2: with public opinion on this, and that runs counter to
• 22:03
  Speaker 2: the governor of the Senate and the Surgeon General, who
• 22:06
  Speaker 2: has been out front on this issue from the moment
• 22:09
  Speaker 2: he was brought on.
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: Is there any discussion, Is there any polling? Is there
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: any research done on whether or not vaccine mandates are
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: fueling the departure from the public school system.
• 22:21
  Speaker 2: It's a great question, and I'm unaware of any polling
• 22:24
  Speaker 2: on that specific part of it, but you know, that
• 22:29
  Speaker 2: would be one that I would be very intrigued to know.
• 22:33
  Speaker 2: As the public school exodus continues and as school choice
• 22:36
  Speaker 2: options become more robust, are parents choosing either a charter,
• 22:42
  Speaker 2: a magnet, a private school, or at a homeschool based
• 22:47
  Speaker 2: solely or as a top tier reason the either mandating
• 22:51
  Speaker 2: of vaccines or the lack of a mandate.
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: I'll be also curious if the ongoing Senate investigation in
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: the US Senate on COVID vaccines and the pharmaceutical handling
• 23:02
  Speaker 1: of all of it starts to then unpack the issue
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: of these government vaccines period.
• 23:08
  Speaker 2: This to me is a very big issue because the
• 23:11
  Speaker 2: biggest fallout politically and from a governance standpoint has been
• 23:16
  Speaker 2: the tanking of trust in the FDA as a result
• 23:19
  Speaker 2: of the COVID issue and the CDC and the CDC
• 23:22
  Speaker 2: both of them. So everything that they put out now
• 23:26
  Speaker 2: is coming under that cloud, and it just makes the
• 23:30
  Speaker 2: entire debate very murky because you do not trust the
• 23:34
  Speaker 2: public officials who are telling you what they're telling you anymore.
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: We're gonna have to stop there. Thanks, always a pleasure
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: to be with you. Salnuzoh with Consumers Defense, my guest
• 23:43
  Speaker 1: here on the Morning Show with Preston Scott