Latest / Conversations: Special Guests with Preston Scott / Florida's Week Six of The Legislative Session

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Florida's Week Six of The Legislative Session · Conversations: Special Guests with Preston Scott

• 0:03
  Speaker 1: All right, it's third hour of the Morning Show with
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: Preston Scott. It's Monday, April fourteenth. Great to be with
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: you this morning. I am Preston. He is Jose and
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: this is sal Nuzo from Consumer's Defense. And I mentioned
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: earlier taking the vows this week. Congratulations, Yes, indeed he did,
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: Thank you very much. So this is our final blow
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: at the legislative session until it's done and we do
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: the recap in the second week of May. So let's
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: just start out here with the governor. And really there's
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: drama swirling and it seems to be coming strictly from
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: the House of Reps.
• 0:41
  Speaker 2: Yeah. In the midst of all that the governor is
• 0:43
  Speaker 2: trying to do navigating the session, he's also now dealing
• 0:47
  Speaker 2: with some drama related to one of his signature initiatives,
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: in the first lady signature initiative, Hope Florida. And so
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: it's kind of, I would suggest, casting a little bit
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: of a cloud over his ability to kind of try
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: to get his priorities through. Sure, but first let's kind
• 1:07
  Speaker 2: of table set on what Hope Florida is launched in
• 1:10
  Speaker 2: twenty twenty one. It was an initiative kind of set
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: up by the First Lady to help get Floridians connected
• 1:18
  Speaker 2: to non government programs that are designed to move people
• 1:23
  Speaker 2: out of poverty. So kind of a one stop shop
• 1:27
  Speaker 2: to say, yes, you can go to get unemployment benefits
• 1:32
  Speaker 2: and all of these other things that are government related,
• 1:34
  Speaker 2: but we also want to connect you with nonprofits and
• 1:38
  Speaker 2: church communities and things like that, and we want to
• 1:41
  Speaker 2: be able to do it in a way that's easily navigable.
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: It's a brilliant idea. I recognized it as a brilliant
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: idea when I first learned of it, because that's the
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: biggest obstacle that people have is where do I go
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: to get help?
• 1:55
  Speaker 2: And not only that, it's one of the few items
• 1:59
  Speaker 2: designed by a government or a government instrument to actually
• 2:03
  Speaker 2: move people off of government assistance. It's it's you don't
• 2:08
  Speaker 2: see this normally, especially not at the federal level. So
• 2:12
  Speaker 2: and to their credit, they've helped tens of thousands of
• 2:15
  Speaker 2: Floridians to date, just in the first three four years
• 2:17
  Speaker 2: of operation. It does not have any statutory consistency to it,
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: So if Florida's next governor, whoever that might be, didn't
• 2:26
  Speaker 2: want to continue it, it would just go away. It's
• 2:28
  Speaker 2: got no statutory authority to it, no lasting power in law.
• 2:32
  Speaker 2: If it wants to be ongoing, then it needs to
• 2:35
  Speaker 2: be codified in statute and then they can go through
• 2:38
  Speaker 2: the traditional appropriations, regulatory mechanisms and such, and it could
• 2:43
  Speaker 2: be spun off as a traditional nonprofit that doesn't deal
• 2:49
  Speaker 2: with a government, if that's a direction that they wanted
• 2:51
  Speaker 2: to do, and so the governor is pursuing having it codified.
• 2:55
  Speaker 2: You've got HB thirteen twenty seven, SB eleven forty four.
• 2:59
  Speaker 2: They are moving, but very very slowly. Now you've got
• 3:03
  Speaker 2: the background of all of the drama between mainly right
• 3:06
  Speaker 2: now the House and the Governor's office. Reporters from a
• 3:10
  Speaker 2: couple of different out outlets reported the program received potentially
• 3:16
  Speaker 2: an infusion of money that may have been the result
• 3:20
  Speaker 2: of a settlement payment that was between a company that
• 3:24
  Speaker 2: did business with a state agency and they had to
• 3:28
  Speaker 2: pay a penalty or something like that, and there may
• 3:30
  Speaker 2: have been a portion of that was that was line
• 3:32
  Speaker 2: item for Hope, Florida. The House has taken an interest
• 3:38
  Speaker 2: in that and run with it. There's now been some
• 3:41
  Speaker 2: national stories. You even had Matt Gates in his One
• 3:45
  Speaker 2: America news program talking about it, and so it's kind
• 3:51
  Speaker 2: of going back and forth. But then a really interesting
• 3:55
  Speaker 2: exchange on X Rep. Michelle Saltzman said something about this
• 4:00
  Speaker 2: and I can't remember what. And then Joel Rudman, who
• 4:03
  Speaker 2: had been a state Rep but then resigned to run
• 4:06
  Speaker 2: for the CD one race, he replied to the post saying,
• 4:11
  Speaker 2: you and I were in that private meeting on November
• 4:14
  Speaker 2: nineteenth with leadership when they talked about they were going
• 4:18
  Speaker 2: to attack the governor, and so all of this posturing
• 4:23
  Speaker 2: a lot of fireworks. You even had the House Speaker
• 4:27
  Speaker 2: talk about the potential for subpoenas over the weekend or
• 4:31
  Speaker 2: on Friday, and it's really just casting a cloud over
• 4:36
  Speaker 2: this entire legislative session. And you know, the thing that
• 4:40
  Speaker 2: I keep coming to in this is how much good
• 4:44
  Speaker 2: work is not getting done because of all of this
• 4:48
  Speaker 2: back and forth. And as we've mentioned in prior weeks,
• 4:52
  Speaker 2: this is how you lose majorities, this is how you
• 4:55
  Speaker 2: really sour voters on what you're accomplishments are. And it's
• 5:02
  Speaker 2: just sad at this point.
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: Mackrosalnuzzo of Consumers Defense, the legislative session week six, we're
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: three quarters of the way through and really anything that's
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: going to be done is on the radar at this point, right.
• 5:19
  Speaker 2: Yeah, we really won't seem much in the way of
• 5:23
  Speaker 2: surprises where we didn't even know something was an issue.
• 5:28
  Speaker 2: Now there certainly can be some surprises in the sense
• 5:31
  Speaker 2: of we thought this bill was dead and all of
• 5:33
  Speaker 2: a sudden it's resurrected. But that's a separate topic.
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: Let's get to the tax proposals because they are generating
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: a lion's share of the interest from the general public,
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: because they touch the general public. Everybody in the state
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: is going to be touched by this in one way,
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: shape or form, you got it.
• 5:50
  Speaker 2: And there are very different proposals. And again I want
• 5:54
  Speaker 2: to point to the gold nugget in all of this,
• 5:56
  Speaker 2: which is we are arguing and debating who whose tax
• 6:00
  Speaker 2: cut is better. And that's something. Yeah, that's great. But
• 6:05
  Speaker 2: so you've got the House of Representatives, which their proposal
• 6:08
  Speaker 2: is to lower the base rate on sales tax from
• 6:12
  Speaker 2: six percent to five point two five percent, roughly a
• 6:15
  Speaker 2: five billion dollar if you know, using their math and
• 6:19
  Speaker 2: physical analysis, cut to the sales tax revenue. And then
• 6:24
  Speaker 2: you've got which actually came before the Governor's proposal which
• 6:28
  Speaker 2: started early in the year, which was to completely eliminate
• 6:32
  Speaker 2: property taxes. Now that is a much bigger lift because
• 6:36
  Speaker 2: it requires a constitutional amendment. It also impacts local governments
• 6:42
  Speaker 2: in a way that the sales tax rate does not,
• 6:45
  Speaker 2: and there's just a whole lot of more moving parts
• 6:48
  Speaker 2: to that.
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: I want to add something though, if they go ahead
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: with the sales tax reduction, that all but eliminates any
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: chance of ever doing the property tax elimination.
• 7:00
  Speaker 2: I'm trying to never say never, but it would be
• 7:04
  Speaker 2: a monumental lift to try and do property tax reform
• 7:09
  Speaker 2: on top of that, on top of that at the
• 7:11
  Speaker 2: level at least which the governor is requesting.
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: And the property tax thing has been an issue for
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: me since I started this program twenty three years ago,
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: because I've been advocating that you never own your own home.
• 7:23
  Speaker 2: Which is exactly what the governor has been saying as
• 7:26
  Speaker 2: he has marketed this proposal. And he's also as a
• 7:30
  Speaker 2: last when he was in his twenties apparently, so yeah,
• 7:34
  Speaker 2: he's a young guy, right, That's sad. He was in
• 7:37
  Speaker 2: his twenties when I was saying this.
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: Ouch.
• 7:40
  Speaker 2: Yeah, hitting fifty now hits harder, Yes, it does, so
• 7:44
  Speaker 2: you've also got now the other chamber, which has got
• 7:47
  Speaker 2: a way in and they've waited until recently, and just
• 7:50
  Speaker 2: this past week the Senate President finally weighed in. And
• 7:54
  Speaker 2: their proposal is he's trying to be Solomon and slice them,
• 7:59
  Speaker 2: not slice the half, but you never know. So they
• 8:01
  Speaker 2: want to completely eliminate im perpetuity the sales tax for clothing,
• 8:08
  Speaker 2: which is a big hit, and so that would be
• 8:10
  Speaker 2: something rather than a base rate reduction across the board,
• 8:13
  Speaker 2: just make it such that any clothing you buy in
• 8:16
  Speaker 2: the state is not subject to the sales tax, and then.
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: If it's valued, it's seventy five dollars or less.
• 8:22
  Speaker 2: Yeah, something like that. So it's silly they're trying to
• 8:26
  Speaker 2: figure out the window within the fiscal to make it work.
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: Shoes and clothing seventy five or less, So it's a
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: sales tax holiday for two items.
• 8:36
  Speaker 2: Well, or you just keep going back in and I
• 8:39
  Speaker 2: don't like it. I digress. Then you've got another part
• 8:43
  Speaker 2: where he is suggesting that he wants to do a
• 8:47
  Speaker 2: big property tax cut. But in order to do that,
• 8:49
  Speaker 2: we really got to get our arms around how the
• 8:52
  Speaker 2: constitutional amendment I completely agree with logistically, look and so
• 8:57
  Speaker 2: he's trying to put into the proposal. All Right, the
• 9:00
  Speaker 2: auditor General or a pago or somebody is gonna do
• 9:02
  Speaker 2: a study. We'll figure it out and then put that
• 9:05
  Speaker 2: in the twenty twenty six legislative session priorities to get
• 9:10
  Speaker 2: on the ballot on the twenty twenty six election.
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: I like that plan the best because I as much
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: as I love the tax proposal for removing property tax,
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: I do think it needs more time to work through
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: all of the different issues.
• 9:23
  Speaker 2: I'm probably there with you. I've also got some concerns
• 9:26
  Speaker 2: about the base rate reduction with respect to tourism subsidiz
• 9:30
  Speaker 2: an let them let them pay.
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: They use our roads, they use.
• 9:32
  Speaker 2: Our infrastructure, which is exactly what the governor and others
• 9:36
  Speaker 2: are saying to absolute with that.
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: Twenty one, twenty two minutes past, Salnuzo with me from
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: j Am I no more he is. He's with Consumer's
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: Defense and we're talking about the legislative session, and we
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: were just the budget. It's what they have to get done.
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: Everyone's submitted their budgets, so now we wait and see.
• 10:05
  Speaker 2: Right, yeah, and we're kind of in the middle of
• 10:07
  Speaker 2: this process and there's more to unfold at the front
• 10:10
  Speaker 2: part of this week. So a couple of things I
• 10:12
  Speaker 2: thought to highlight that would be helpful. One is in
• 10:15
  Speaker 2: the healthcare arena. So you've got some reports that have
• 10:18
  Speaker 2: come out about some of the cutting. And to bring
• 10:21
  Speaker 2: it back to the macro, the House budget is coming
• 10:25
  Speaker 2: in at about one hundred and thirteen billion, the Senate
• 10:28
  Speaker 2: at about one hundred and seventeen or thereabouts, which are
• 10:33
  Speaker 2: actual cuts in the size of state government. And so
• 10:38
  Speaker 2: where you cut is important, and we've talked about this
• 10:40
  Speaker 2: in prior segments, wanting to make sure that the pendulum
• 10:43
  Speaker 2: doesn't swing so far that we're doing damage we shouldn't
• 10:47
  Speaker 2: be doing right. So, the House budget proposal does implement
• 10:51
  Speaker 2: some changes to what's called the Ease Grant Ease, which
• 10:56
  Speaker 2: is it helps state students in state students pay to
• 10:59
  Speaker 2: win at qualified independent nonprofit colleges and universities. It's been
• 11:05
  Speaker 2: a very successful program. If those changes do go through
• 11:11
  Speaker 2: in the final package, you would see you know, anywhere
• 11:15
  Speaker 2: from you know, eighteen to twenty two thousand students at
• 11:19
  Speaker 2: a couple of dozen Florida universities lose access to that.
• 11:23
  Speaker 2: And I think the acronym is effective access to student education.
• 11:28
  Speaker 2: And when you have the ability to use that money
• 11:34
  Speaker 2: for tuition, and we've been targeting trying to plug shortages
• 11:39
  Speaker 2: in nursing and in other healthcare areas where technical and
• 11:43
  Speaker 2: trade schools can and vocational education could be brought to bear,
• 11:48
  Speaker 2: and those scholarships have an impact on that. That's one
• 11:52
  Speaker 2: where I'm beginning to pay attention to this, And I
• 11:56
  Speaker 2: don't want to sound like a big government lefty, but
• 12:00
  Speaker 2: I still come back to the fact that you know,
• 12:02
  Speaker 2: Florida has the leanest state operation in the United States,
• 12:06
  Speaker 2: and if we're gonna do damage, it's going to look
• 12:10
  Speaker 2: like things like this, And so it's just a it's
• 12:14
  Speaker 2: a cause for a little bit of concerns. Tuition will
• 12:17
  Speaker 2: go up, well, tuition will go up, or students won't
• 12:20
  Speaker 2: be able to they'll have to withdraw. And those are
• 12:24
  Speaker 2: the types of residual impacts that I wonder about. And
• 12:28
  Speaker 2: so it's these.
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: Which side of that equation is it on House or Senate?
• 12:32
  Speaker 2: That's on the House proposal. On the correction side, I
• 12:36
  Speaker 2: took a look at their overall budget in the House proposal, which,
• 12:41
  Speaker 2: after sifting through every line item of one hundred sum
• 12:44
  Speaker 2: pages six point eight billion dollars. It's a five percent
• 12:48
  Speaker 2: bump over the current year, and the current year is
• 12:52
  Speaker 2: a nine percent bump over the prior year.
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 12:55
  Speaker 2: But what I'm trying to dive in more on, and
• 12:58
  Speaker 2: it's just going to take me a little time because
• 13:00
  Speaker 2: a lot of numbers is the staffing figures. Last week,
• 13:04
  Speaker 2: there was a post that I saw from Senator Jen
• 13:07
  Speaker 2: Bradley and she was referencing always protecting correctional officers and
• 13:12
  Speaker 2: it was in a context of something related to budgeting.
• 13:16
  Speaker 2: Now I wondered about that. I looked back, I saw
• 13:19
  Speaker 2: a piece from February where correction Doc Secretary Ricky Dixon,
• 13:25
  Speaker 2: he was presenting in a precession hearing about his budget,
• 13:29
  Speaker 2: and he was talking about the excessive overtime spending that's
• 13:33
  Speaker 2: been required because they don't have the staffing to staff
• 13:38
  Speaker 2: at the appropriate formulas.
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: We had eight thousand more inmates and they've got the
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: same staff and that doesn't work exactly.
• 13:43
  Speaker 2: So he's having to pay overtime and that costs money.
• 13:46
  Speaker 2: And so I think as the budget process unfold, you're
• 13:50
  Speaker 2: going to see a little bit more light shed on
• 13:52
  Speaker 2: this particular thing. And that's something that I'm paying more
• 13:55
  Speaker 2: attention to I expect a lot more movement, especially early
• 13:59
  Speaker 2: this week, is all of those committees, subcommittees begin moving
• 14:04
  Speaker 2: their silos through right now. It's it's just there's not
• 14:07
  Speaker 2: a whole lot more of god on that.
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: George Rodanoti said, any update on schools and phones?
• 14:12
  Speaker 2: Yes, the school the ban on school cell phone use,
• 14:17
  Speaker 2: which is House Bill nine nine from Demi Basada, it's
• 14:21
  Speaker 2: still moving. It is moved through all of its committees favorably.
• 14:24
  Speaker 2: It's ready for the House floor. The question at hand is,
• 14:28
  Speaker 2: and I got to investigate this maybe on one of
• 14:30
  Speaker 2: the breaks I can find out is does that companion
• 14:34
  Speaker 2: bill in the Senate, which is just a pilot project.
• 14:36
  Speaker 2: What I need to find out is has that been amended?
• 14:39
  Speaker 2: Are they looking to replace the Senate version with Demi's
• 14:44
  Speaker 2: version in the House side and.
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: Just move that they have been experimenting with it. They have,
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: there's a couple of school districts, Orange Counties one of them.
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: There is another one down to South Florida that also
• 14:53
  Speaker 1: has it and favorably. Yeah, and it's been reporting favorably
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: on the impacts of it. So I can look that
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: up and we'll find out for there. Yeah, and it's
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: important for me to note Orange County is a very
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: liberal area, and the fact that they embraced this and
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: said it's worked wonderfully to improve student performance and reduced
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: discipline issues is noteworthy. Salnuzo with me thirty five minutes
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: past the hour, final couple of segments here, and we're
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: talking about now some bills of notes, some things that
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: we've probably mentioned and talked about, just kind of an
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: update were things.
• 15:25
  Speaker 2: Yeah, over the last couple of weeks, we've gone through
• 15:29
  Speaker 2: deep dives, and so I wanted to kind of scale
• 15:31
  Speaker 2: back for a little bit and give you a rundown
• 15:32
  Speaker 2: of some stuff that we walk through.
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: Can pass.
• 15:35
  Speaker 2: So HB fifteen seventeen, it did pass the full House.
• 15:40
  Speaker 2: It allows for wrongful death lawsuits for fetus death, so
• 15:45
  Speaker 2: an unborn child's own mother could not be subject to
• 15:48
  Speaker 2: those lawsuits, nor would the medical providers giving lawful medical
• 15:52
  Speaker 2: care such as IVF and other reproductive treatments. The sponsor,
• 15:58
  Speaker 2: Sam Greco, said wrongful deaths must involve negligence, breach a contract,
• 16:02
  Speaker 2: and other factors at play for the law to apply.
• 16:05
  Speaker 2: The Senate companions also moving, there's only one stop left
• 16:08
  Speaker 2: for that. You've got Senate Bill seventy thirty the school
• 16:11
  Speaker 2: Choice program. It's through appropriations, it's onto the full Senate.
• 16:16
  Speaker 2: What they're doing is some tweaks to the programmatic elements
• 16:19
  Speaker 2: of it and kind of the back end of it
• 16:21
  Speaker 2: to make it easier for parents, some timelines on disbursements,
• 16:26
  Speaker 2: accountability on the state end for getting funds to parents,
• 16:30
  Speaker 2: as well as requiring and this is a good one,
• 16:33
  Speaker 2: requires the Auditor General to conduct an annual audit of
• 16:36
  Speaker 2: any organization that's involved in the money disbursement, what they
• 16:40
  Speaker 2: call the scholarship financing or funding organizations. Senate Bill one
• 16:44
  Speaker 2: eighty four Housing. It would allow people to put up
• 16:48
  Speaker 2: accessory dwelling units on their property. So if you want
• 16:51
  Speaker 2: to build a poolhouse that you can rent out or
• 16:54
  Speaker 2: something like that, a small extension of your property, this
• 16:59
  Speaker 2: bill would pre the local government in your area from
• 17:02
  Speaker 2: restricting that so that you couldn't do that. So what
• 17:05
  Speaker 2: about an HOA A good question. I would need to
• 17:09
  Speaker 2: find out on that. My guess is that Hoa's might
• 17:11
  Speaker 2: be exempt from that, but I am not certain. I
• 17:14
  Speaker 2: need to look at the bill language there. Senate Bill
• 17:17
  Speaker 2: thirteen hundred HB eleven forty three it's moving without any opposition.
• 17:21
  Speaker 2: Requires the Department of Environmental Production to conduct what's they're
• 17:25
  Speaker 2: calling a balancing test before graining a permit for oil
• 17:29
  Speaker 2: and gas activities in areas within one mile of the
• 17:31
  Speaker 2: coast or other bodies of water. Local Bill Corey Simon,
• 17:35
  Speaker 2: Allison Tant and Jason Show for all the sponsors of it.
• 17:37
  Speaker 2: And it relates to that what color springs.
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: I was just going to say that that's got what
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: colors springs all over it.
• 17:42
  Speaker 2: HB five forty one minimum wage exemptions. It's ready for
• 17:46
  Speaker 2: the House floor after favorable Commerce Committee hearing. The Senate
• 17:50
  Speaker 2: version is moving into the Rules Committee for its final stop.
• 17:53
  Speaker 2: The employer and the employee have to agree to the
• 17:57
  Speaker 2: reduced wage and it's likened to an in internship or
• 18:01
  Speaker 2: training wage. HB nine fifty five one you're paying attention
• 18:05
  Speaker 2: to from Rep. Jakas closes one of the everify loopholes. However,
• 18:10
  Speaker 2: I got to point out three bills in the Senate.
• 18:12
  Speaker 2: None have been placed on any agenda. It's just one
• 18:15
  Speaker 2: of those ones where when we go through what's what
• 18:19
  Speaker 2: they should have done but didn't, this will be on there.
• 18:23
  Speaker 2: Six seventy nine term limits for county elected officials. It's
• 18:26
  Speaker 2: on the House floor. The Senate companion has cleared one committee,
• 18:29
  Speaker 2: so they can take up the House version they're identical,
• 18:31
  Speaker 2: and move that through four thirty eight. On the Senate side,
• 18:35
  Speaker 2: regulation of the hemp industry at pass the full Senate.
• 18:39
  Speaker 2: This is there are companies in businesses in town where
• 18:42
  Speaker 2: you can buy products that are They don't claim to
• 18:47
  Speaker 2: be THHC, but they actually are. It's a derivative. It's
• 18:51
  Speaker 2: a bill that passed the full legislature last year. The
• 18:54
  Speaker 2: governor vetoed it. There were some considerations related to the
• 18:58
  Speaker 2: election and the amendments. This is basically the same bill,
• 19:02
  Speaker 2: and it would hit those businesses very very hard.
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: Okay.
• 19:05
  Speaker 2: A couple that your viewers.
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: Had asked about, especially my listeners listeners not viewers.
• 19:11
  Speaker 2: Yeah, we got those. I got a voice for radio
• 19:14
  Speaker 2: or I got a face for radio. HB seventy five.
• 19:17
  Speaker 2: The Flag Bill, the Senate version was withdrawn from consideration
• 19:20
  Speaker 2: a couple of weeks back, so that's dead. Senate Bill
• 19:23
  Speaker 2: eleven thirty two, the Consumer's Right to Repair It made
• 19:26
  Speaker 2: it through its final stop. But interestingly enough, my old
• 19:31
  Speaker 2: home JMI they testified in opposition to this bill, claiming
• 19:36
  Speaker 2: that there are market based opportunities out there for people
• 19:40
  Speaker 2: who own John Deere's to get them fixed, and there's
• 19:42
  Speaker 2: enough out there that the government doesn't need to regulated.
• 19:47
  Speaker 1: May I asked the flag bill that was about flags
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: being made in America?
• 19:51
  Speaker 2: No, No, it was the Flag bill was the display
• 19:54
  Speaker 2: display of YA flags, the display of other flags, gotcha
• 19:58
  Speaker 2: government facilities. So that's you've got the The other one is
• 20:03
  Speaker 2: in the transportation bill from Nick de seglely Sente Bill
• 20:06
  Speaker 2: four sixty two. The speed limit increases in there. It
• 20:09
  Speaker 2: is pardon the pun, moving ahead fast, and I am
• 20:12
  Speaker 2: excited because I have a heavy foot.
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: Forty two past the hour, final segment with Sal Newzo
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: of Consumers Defense, bring it in for a landing here.
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: Senate Bill eight forty six is interesting. Yeah, and one
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: of your listeners had pointed it out. I think it
• 20:27
  Speaker 1: was in the What's the Beef on Friday? So I
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: took a look at it. Yeah.
• 20:30
  Speaker 2: So apparently there's this trend growing where if you are
• 20:33
  Speaker 2: a notary public and you advertise your services in a
• 20:38
  Speaker 2: language other than English and think, you know, make the
• 20:40
  Speaker 2: connection maybe to immigrants when you translate the words notary
• 20:46
  Speaker 2: public into Spanish. It could very well be construed as
• 20:49
  Speaker 2: advertising that you are an attorney. So eight forty six
• 20:55
  Speaker 2: this bill would correct it by requiring notaries who are
• 20:58
  Speaker 2: advertising to either avoid using certain Spanish words in their
• 21:03
  Speaker 2: ads or to declare on your ad that you are
• 21:08
  Speaker 2: not an attorney. So interesting bill. It had not been
• 21:11
  Speaker 2: on my radar until I heard it, heard the individual mention.
• 21:15
  Speaker 2: It looked into it and I was like, oh, very interesting.
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: Is it too much to ask for people that are
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: in this country to speak the language?
• 21:22
  Speaker 2: Apparently?
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: It is? Okay?
• 21:24
  Speaker 2: All right? Now one I've been wanting to dive into
• 21:26
  Speaker 2: because we're in the last segment and it's my last
• 21:29
  Speaker 2: one before the inter session. It is in the alcohol arena,
• 21:32
  Speaker 2: and this is one it's been a personal passion project
• 21:34
  Speaker 2: of mine for many many years.
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: That means he's a boozer. Yes, it does, no.
• 21:42
  Speaker 2: HB. Four ninety nine. It's moving. It's a House priority.
• 21:47
  Speaker 2: It may come up in the Senate, but not sure.
• 21:50
  Speaker 2: Now I know you don't partake, but I'm going to
• 21:52
  Speaker 2: take a leap of educated faith and say many of
• 21:54
  Speaker 2: your listening audience do. Probably, So okay, it's a regulatory
• 21:58
  Speaker 2: we drive them to it. I know more than a
• 22:01
  Speaker 2: few that I do. All right, micro breweries defined as
• 22:05
  Speaker 2: under thirty gallons thirty thousand gallons per year, it would
• 22:10
  Speaker 2: allow them to self distribute. Now, to give you an
• 22:13
  Speaker 2: idea scale, proof brewing brewery on South Monroe they do
• 22:18
  Speaker 2: thirty thousand barrels a year, which is a little under
• 22:21
  Speaker 2: one million gallons. So we're talking small individual you know, garage,
• 22:27
  Speaker 2: really small. They're trying to get into the business of
• 22:31
  Speaker 2: building a small brewery. More than you can produce in
• 22:36
  Speaker 2: your garage. Trying to build something a distributor contract is
• 22:39
  Speaker 2: a huge hurdle to growing. So this dates back actually
• 22:44
  Speaker 2: to the abolition of prohibition. The federal government pushed all
• 22:47
  Speaker 2: alcohol regulation to the states. The first regulation that came
• 22:51
  Speaker 2: about with something called the three tier system. Florida has
• 22:54
  Speaker 2: it on the books, but in a very weird way.
• 22:57
  Speaker 2: You have manufacturers, distributors in retailer retailers. Under this system,
• 23:03
  Speaker 2: you can only have a license for one of those.
• 23:06
  Speaker 2: You can be a manufacturer, but you can't sell it.
• 23:09
  Speaker 2: You can be a distributor, but you can't make it,
• 23:12
  Speaker 2: and so forth. So if you are paying attention, you
• 23:17
  Speaker 2: would then likely say, well, you just mentioned Proof brewery.
• 23:20
  Speaker 2: They make beer and they sell it on their premises. Well,
• 23:25
  Speaker 2: there has been this thing called the tourism exemption. And
• 23:29
  Speaker 2: if you can cast your mind back decades to a
• 23:35
  Speaker 2: beer manufacturer that wanted to open a theme park in
• 23:39
  Speaker 2: maybe the Tampa area, and they wanted to sell their
• 23:43
  Speaker 2: own beer at their theme park, but they couldn't because
• 23:47
  Speaker 2: of the three tier systems. So they lobbied the legislature,
• 23:50
  Speaker 2: which is what you do when you have a lot
• 23:52
  Speaker 2: of money, and they got a carve out an exemption.
• 23:55
  Speaker 2: And so now we have Bush Gardens in Tampa, which
• 23:58
  Speaker 2: sells bush beer. So since then, any small brewery that
• 24:04
  Speaker 2: wants to sell their own beer at their brewery has
• 24:09
  Speaker 2: to apply for this tourism exemption. Now there are interest
• 24:14
  Speaker 2: groups in the state that would want to keep it
• 24:17
  Speaker 2: that way. If you are a distributor, you like the
• 24:20
  Speaker 2: distribution system, but it's antithetical to the free market, and
• 24:25
  Speaker 2: so the micro Brewery Bill four ninety nine would kind
• 24:29
  Speaker 2: of nip it that a little bit. It really should
• 24:32
  Speaker 2: get some more momentum because I would love to see
• 24:34
  Speaker 2: the three tier system go completely away. It has no
• 24:39
  Speaker 2: place in a free market economy. And so that's all
• 24:43
  Speaker 2: I have to say about that. The three tier system
• 24:46
  Speaker 2: actually mimics the old school and still in some areas
• 24:50
  Speaker 2: and in some quote industries, the protection rack it is
• 24:55
  Speaker 2: it is, and there are elements of the law where
• 24:59
  Speaker 2: if you want, once you sign a distributor contract with
• 25:02
  Speaker 2: a distributor, you can never get out of it. It's
• 25:04
  Speaker 2: what's called a perpetuity, which should be illegal, but it's not.
• 25:08
  Speaker 2: There's all kinds of little caveats to this that make it.
• 25:12
  Speaker 2: Once you dive into it, you get more and more
• 25:15
  Speaker 2: hypertension and so which causes you to which makes me drink.
• 25:21
  Speaker 1: So there you have it, Thanks buddy, Always a pleasure
• 25:23
  Speaker 1: to be with you. Sound News will be back with
• 25:25
  Speaker 1: us in May as we wrap up the legislative session.
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: Between now and then, he'll get married and stuff like that.
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: So forty seven past the hour,