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As Florida's 2026 Session Draws Closer We Offer A preview · Conversations: Special Guests with Preston Scott

• 0:06
  Speaker 1: Okay, third hour The Morning Show with Preston Scott. My
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: voice sounds a little croaky right this moment, because it
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: is been a lot of talking the last several weeks here,
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: and I'm feeling it. Salnuzoh joins us and back with
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: us again from Consumers Defense. Its website is Consumers Defense
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: dot com and Sal, how are you?
• 0:34
  Speaker 2: I'm doing good? How about yourself? My friend?
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: This is kind of like visiting the doctor. I feel
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: like we're gonna get a check up on the state
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: of Florida here today.
• 0:44
  Speaker 2: A little bit of a maintenance check. Yeah. We're in
• 0:47
  Speaker 2: kind of that period right before committee weeks begin in
• 0:51
  Speaker 2: Earnest and the session starts in January, so not a
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: lot of bills have been filed yet. The bill filing period,
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: I believe, began a couple of weeks back. We'll see
• 1:04
  Speaker 2: a whole lot more in the next couple of months ahead. Yeah,
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: but kind of the what's going on, what's the session
• 1:12
  Speaker 2: going to look like, what's the tenor going to be
• 1:14
  Speaker 2: a lot of those questions are kind of up in
• 1:16
  Speaker 2: the air at the moment for.
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: Listeners of the program that are kind of wonks and
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: they want to throw some ideas of legislation that lawmakers
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: need to consider. This is the golden window, right, Yeah.
• 1:28
  Speaker 2: Yeah, you're looking at a period from now until probably December.
• 1:34
  Speaker 2: If you've got a brand new idea and you want
• 1:37
  Speaker 2: to talk to your member, you need to do that
• 1:39
  Speaker 2: fairly quickly. In particular, on the House side, house members
• 1:44
  Speaker 2: are restricted to I believe it's seven bill slots, so
• 1:47
  Speaker 2: they can only file seven non appropriations type of bills
• 1:52
  Speaker 2: each each session. So yeah, if you're not with your
• 1:56
  Speaker 2: member now, your window's closing pretty quick. What do you
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: your years of following governors in and out and during
• 2:04
  Speaker 2: their time in office tell you about this final year
• 2:07
  Speaker 2: with Ron DeSantis? How aggressive do you expect him to
• 2:11
  Speaker 2: be pushing agenda. It's a great question, and traditionally I
• 2:16
  Speaker 2: would have suggested, you know, in prior governorships they might
• 2:20
  Speaker 2: tend to let off the gas a little bit in
• 2:22
  Speaker 2: that final year as they're kind of trying to cemental
• 2:26
  Speaker 2: legacy or figure out what the final things are going
• 2:29
  Speaker 2: to be. There's going to be a lot of shift
• 2:31
  Speaker 2: in kind of the narrative onto the campaign and who's next.
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  Speaker 2: But with this governor, I would say, the man is
• 2:40
  Speaker 2: only forty seven or forty eight. He's got a ton
• 2:43
  Speaker 2: of energy, He's got a lot of life ahead of him.
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: Lords this is all gas, no break he is.
• 2:48
  Speaker 2: I do not anticipate him coming off of the gas
• 2:51
  Speaker 2: this legislative session.
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: Have any fences been mended? Because I feel, and this
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: is just my observation, I feel as though there was
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: a lot of damage done between the House, the Senate,
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: and the Governor's office.
• 3:03
  Speaker 2: Oh. I don't think it's a feeling. I think there
• 3:06
  Speaker 2: was damage done in particular, I believe between the House
• 3:11
  Speaker 2: and in the Governor's office the Senate. I think Senator
• 3:16
  Speaker 2: Ben Albriton, Senate President Albriton, did probably the yeoman's job
• 3:20
  Speaker 2: of navigating some pretty rough and choppy waters over the
• 3:25
  Speaker 2: course of his first legislative session as Senate President, because
• 3:30
  Speaker 2: a lot of the challenges were between House leadership and
• 3:33
  Speaker 2: the governor. So, yeah, what happens ahead, You know, my
• 3:41
  Speaker 2: gut tells me it won't be as rancorous as it
• 3:45
  Speaker 2: was in twenty twenty five, simply because it's a big
• 3:48
  Speaker 2: election year. With that being said, and we can talk
• 3:51
  Speaker 2: about this in a later segment, you've got the proxy
• 3:55
  Speaker 2: battles kind of shaping up because of the nature of
• 4:00
  Speaker 2: the twenty six election and who's on the ticket. You
• 4:03
  Speaker 2: have two appointed cabinet members that will be running for
• 4:07
  Speaker 2: their first statewide elected office as those in those positions,
• 4:12
  Speaker 2: and so jury's out on what happens. What about Lieutenant
• 4:17
  Speaker 2: Governor j Collins? Is his presence as lieutenant governor at
• 4:22
  Speaker 2: this point an indicator Casey DeSantis has decided not to run.
• 4:26
  Speaker 2: My guess is is that that's the case. That they
• 4:29
  Speaker 2: may have been looking at either tea leaves or polling
• 4:33
  Speaker 2: or something. But the degree to which j. Collins, the
• 4:37
  Speaker 2: Lieutenant governor, came out of the gate, you know, just
• 4:41
  Speaker 2: kind of high profile. Yeah, high profile, all horsepower firing.
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  Speaker 2: He is doing what a sitting lieutenant governor would need
• 4:52
  Speaker 2: to do to be in a position to run for
• 4:55
  Speaker 2: governor in the state of Florida, and that is increasing
• 4:58
  Speaker 2: your statewide name recognition. Historically, lgs do not have a
• 5:03
  Speaker 2: big success record in a running for the main seat,
• 5:07
  Speaker 2: and this lieutenant governor is positioning himself to try and
• 5:13
  Speaker 2: change that, change that trend.
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: And the field is formidable with a Trump endorsed Byron
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  Speaker 1: Donalds and a former Speaker of the House, Paul Renner.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, since our last episode or last time we were together.
• 5:27
  Speaker 2: Paul Renner, the Speaker of the House, prior to Danny Perez,
• 5:30
  Speaker 2: who's hat in the ring. He's out barnstorming the state
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  Speaker 2: and doing what he can to get his name recognition
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  Speaker 2: up and create an alternative to to Byron Donalds. At
• 5:39
  Speaker 2: this point, okay, I want to get to some of
• 5:42
  Speaker 2: the cabinet sure officers. But first, there is no opposition
• 5:47
  Speaker 2: party here in Florida. Now there is, but there isn't there.
• 5:51
  Speaker 2: They're they're just they're terrible. Yeah, we do not have
• 5:55
  Speaker 2: a functioning opposition party. That's the word I was looking
• 5:58
  Speaker 2: for you. Yeah, and and this is really a mean
• 6:00
  Speaker 2: to you know, the in migration that the state experienced
• 6:05
  Speaker 2: in particular over the last six seven years. A stat
• 6:09
  Speaker 2: that I used often and still use on occasion is
• 6:13
  Speaker 2: in two thousand and twelve, when Barack Obama got reelected,
• 6:17
  Speaker 2: he won the state of Florida, and Florida had I
• 6:20
  Speaker 2: believe it was like eight hundred thousand more registered Democrats
• 6:23
  Speaker 2: than Republicans in the state twenty twelve. Fast forward to
• 6:27
  Speaker 2: twenty twenty four, so twelve years, and I believe it
• 6:31
  Speaker 2: was one point three million more registered Republicans in the
• 6:35
  Speaker 2: state than Democrats. You have a more than two million
• 6:39
  Speaker 2: registration swing, and as a result, the Democrat Party in
• 6:45
  Speaker 2: Florida by and large just does not exist statewide. And
• 6:49
  Speaker 2: then you've got one of their most highly visible members
• 6:52
  Speaker 2: of the state Senate, Jason Pizzo, dumping the party mid session.
• 6:56
  Speaker 2: Not only high profile, he was the minority leader in
• 6:59
  Speaker 2: the Senate and dumped the party mid session and said
• 7:03
  Speaker 2: I'm not with you'all. I'm not a Republican, but I'm
• 7:07
  Speaker 2: not you. So he is an NPA now and considering
• 7:11
  Speaker 2: his options for the next next campaign.
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: Let's get to the cabinet. We got Blazing Golia on
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: the program tomorrow. We've talked to Jay Collins. He's not
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: in the cabinet, but James Uthmeyer AG wants the job.
• 7:26
  Speaker 2: Yeah, the AG is kind of continuing his aggressive opening.
• 7:30
  Speaker 2: He's only been appointed a few months now if I remember,
• 7:34
  Speaker 2: or maybe it's longer than that, but he's been around
• 7:36
  Speaker 2: a little while, but he's taking on a lot of
• 7:39
  Speaker 2: high profile initiatives and efforts kind of going at corporate wokeism.
• 7:45
  Speaker 2: He famously went after Target as a retailer because their
• 7:50
  Speaker 2: actions were impacting shareholder value. He's taken on a lot
• 7:53
  Speaker 2: of the climate lawsuit groups and organizations that are out there,
• 7:59
  Speaker 2: kind of kind of perpetuating a lot of the boloney
• 8:03
  Speaker 2: that's out there there. And recently, once the appeals court
• 8:07
  Speaker 2: ruled i believe it was last week on the open
• 8:10
  Speaker 2: kerry statute in Florida or the lack thereof, he sent
• 8:14
  Speaker 2: out a message to all of the sixty seven county
• 8:18
  Speaker 2: sheriffs and guidance letting them know that it is the
• 8:22
  Speaker 2: position of the state now we are in open carry state.
• 8:25
  Speaker 2: They're not to consider arresting or detaining anybody and kind
• 8:29
  Speaker 2: of giving guidance there and that's how the state is functioning.
• 8:33
  Speaker 2: Now the legislature can come back in and try to
• 8:36
  Speaker 2: legislat to think Republicans are going to try, and I'm
• 8:39
  Speaker 2: hearing a few ideas that may get floated. I'm not
• 8:43
  Speaker 2: sure how much traction they're going to have though, you know,
• 8:46
  Speaker 2: you can file a bill, but I'm not so sure
• 8:51
  Speaker 2: with court precedent that there's going to be a whole
• 8:54
  Speaker 2: lot of appetite to move things. Thirty seconds on Blazing Golia.
• 8:57
  Speaker 2: Because he's done, he's taken a similar track he's and
• 9:00
  Speaker 2: very aggressive early. Yeah, getting a ton more visibility than
• 9:03
  Speaker 2: just about anyone in that office prior that I've ever seen.
• 9:07
  Speaker 2: And it's kind of important to remember how Blaze's got
• 9:10
  Speaker 2: to start in public service. He's an ordinary citizen. He
• 9:13
  Speaker 2: began a platform or an account called government Gone Wild.
• 9:17
  Speaker 2: It was a site, social media account chronicle government Waste.
• 9:21
  Speaker 2: So now we see him in this role as chief
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  Speaker 2: Financial Officer, and it's really something to marvel at. He's
• 9:27
  Speaker 2: taking that mission, that playbook of DOGE and now turning
• 9:31
  Speaker 2: it into a way to shine a light on local
• 9:33
  Speaker 2: government finances, which is going to lead into the big
• 9:37
  Speaker 2: policy debate that we have in the twenty six session,
• 9:40
  Speaker 2: and that's on property taxes. We have heard it since
• 9:44
  Speaker 2: the beginning of this year when the governor came out
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  Speaker 2: and said he wanted it to be kind of as
• 9:50
  Speaker 2: not necessarily a swan song, but it would be the
• 9:52
  Speaker 2: last major policy victory.
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  Speaker 1: Well, it would be a policy that would send shockwaves
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  Speaker 1: around the country.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, we would be the maybe the only state, but
• 10:04
  Speaker 2: at very least the biggest one to completely eliminate property
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  Speaker 2: taxes in the state.
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  Speaker 1: Can I stop and ask you from a consumer's defense perspective,
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  Speaker 1: is that too big of a swing the first time out,
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: or does it need to be incremental.
• 10:21
  Speaker 2: Well, some would argue that we have tried incremental or
• 10:27
  Speaker 2: tried glide path approaches in the past via the homestead exemption,
• 10:33
  Speaker 2: growth and whatnot, So you know, I don't know. I
• 10:37
  Speaker 2: think the swing at eliminating for all. Maybe it's definitely
• 10:45
  Speaker 2: a heavy lift. My guess is that if there is
• 10:50
  Speaker 2: a win that gets on the ballot, because this will
• 10:53
  Speaker 2: have to go before voters in November, would likely be
• 10:59
  Speaker 2: where it applies to homesteaded properties in the state. And
• 11:03
  Speaker 2: so if you're a resident and you live in your
• 11:07
  Speaker 2: property in the same way that you now get a
• 11:09
  Speaker 2: twenty five or fifty thousand dollars homestead exemption, that exemption
• 11:12
  Speaker 2: would be for the entirety of your property, and property
• 11:16
  Speaker 2: taxes would remain in some way, shape or form, for
• 11:19
  Speaker 2: if you have investment properties, or you're a snowbird and
• 11:22
  Speaker 2: you don't claim Florida as your residence, and that's how
• 11:24
  Speaker 2: it would function.
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: Do you see it being something that would only be
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: offered to, say, homes that have paid off mortgages.
• 11:31
  Speaker 2: It's certainly a possibility, but I think there is a
• 11:36
  Speaker 2: political implication there that, while it may not be true,
• 11:43
  Speaker 2: it could be implied that the uber wealthy are the
• 11:46
  Speaker 2: ones that own their homes outright. It's not true, but
• 11:48
  Speaker 2: that's a It opens up a political message, and I'm
• 11:51
  Speaker 2: not sure they'd want to go down.
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: Okay, when you look at the overall campaign window, we
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: are about to walk because let's remind everybody, the session
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: comes early because it's going to be campaign season.
• 12:04
  Speaker 2: Yeah, we've got session this year January February March. The
• 12:08
  Speaker 2: committee weeks begin in October, so we're quickly entering the
• 12:14
  Speaker 2: window for the sixty day period where there's no campaigning
• 12:20
  Speaker 2: or fundraising. But once that finishes, it's going to be,
• 12:23
  Speaker 2: you know, right out of the gate, all cylinders firing.
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: What is the what is this the best floating solution
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: out there to make cities and counties whole from a
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: revenue standpoint?
• 12:34
  Speaker 2: Which is an interesting way to frame this because ever
• 12:39
  Speaker 2: since this whole dialogue began early on, I kept saying,
• 12:44
  Speaker 2: we're the question is the wrong question to ask first,
• 12:51
  Speaker 2: we're trying to operate that or answer that question with
• 12:55
  Speaker 2: a baseline of existing local government reces and revenues. And
• 13:01
  Speaker 2: I'm arguing that really the first question that needs to
• 13:05
  Speaker 2: be asked, and this is a commendation to Blaze and
• 13:08
  Speaker 2: his team at the cfo's office, is the first question
• 13:11
  Speaker 2: to ask is exactly how much does a local government
• 13:14
  Speaker 2: need in order to provide the essential services that its
• 13:18
  Speaker 2: residents want and vote for. That then begs the definition
• 13:23
  Speaker 2: of essential services exactly. So the local governments are screaming
• 13:28
  Speaker 2: now saying, well, we won't be able to do anything. Now,
• 13:31
  Speaker 2: we're going to have to make up five billion dollars
• 13:34
  Speaker 2: or one billion dollars or whatever the budget that they
• 13:36
  Speaker 2: have is. And really the first question is or should be, well,
• 13:40
  Speaker 2: your budget is two billion dollars, does it really need
• 13:43
  Speaker 2: to be that? What are the essential services? And then
• 13:46
  Speaker 2: you back into exactly how do we finance and pay
• 13:51
  Speaker 2: for those essential services? And there are a number of
• 13:55
  Speaker 2: ways to slice this out, and you even have one
• 13:59
  Speaker 2: House member now with a proposal that'll turn into a
• 14:02
  Speaker 2: piece of legislation very soon.
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: How much does that collide with hometown rule?
• 14:08
  Speaker 2: You know, at one level it may, but ultimately it
• 14:13
  Speaker 2: is not outside of the purview of state government to
• 14:19
  Speaker 2: ensure that municipal governments are performing the services that they
• 14:24
  Speaker 2: attest to that are doing so in the most efficient
• 14:27
  Speaker 2: and effective manner possible, and if they are not, then
• 14:30
  Speaker 2: figuring out ways that those things can be streamlined. And
• 14:35
  Speaker 2: that could take the form of statute, it could take
• 14:37
  Speaker 2: the form of a ballot initiative. A number of different
• 14:40
  Speaker 2: mechanisms are there.
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: So what is the most productive use of our time here?
• 14:44
  Speaker 1: What do you think?
• 14:45
  Speaker 2: Well? I did want to revisit one thing on the
• 14:47
  Speaker 2: property tax proposal because I kind of teased it out
• 14:49
  Speaker 2: that one House member in particular has got an idea
• 14:52
  Speaker 2: that'll turn into legislation. Ryan Chamberlain. I believe it's a
• 14:56
  Speaker 2: second full term in the House his propose, and he
• 15:00
  Speaker 2: acknowledges that it is a starting point. Someone needed to
• 15:04
  Speaker 2: be the guinea pig to put something forward where we
• 15:07
  Speaker 2: can all then work off of that kind of the
• 15:10
  Speaker 2: discussion ahead. He proposed a five percent for a five
• 15:15
  Speaker 2: percentage point tax on tourists to take the form of
• 15:19
  Speaker 2: like bed tax, car rentals. It would be kind of
• 15:23
  Speaker 2: deployed in that manner, and then a three percent charge
• 15:27
  Speaker 2: available to the school districts if they so choose that
• 15:33
  Speaker 2: would be it would be a three percent, almost like
• 15:35
  Speaker 2: a dock stamp fee on the sale price of a
• 15:37
  Speaker 2: home that would be going toward school district funding. So
• 15:42
  Speaker 2: instead of paying your property taxes every year, basically you
• 15:47
  Speaker 2: would be levied a three percent assessment on the sale
• 15:51
  Speaker 2: price of your home and you would lump that into
• 15:54
  Speaker 2: your mortgage and it would be one payment. And that's
• 15:56
  Speaker 2: how they would go about a potential there. And like
• 16:01
  Speaker 2: I said, he recognizes that this is a very rough
• 16:05
  Speaker 2: starting point.
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: Well, yeah, because obviously there are districts, school districts in
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: counties that are not selling a lot of homes and
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: they still got to run a.
• 16:14
  Speaker 2: School district exactly. And so this is going to be
• 16:18
  Speaker 2: the first shot at bringing folks together, because don't forget,
• 16:23
  Speaker 2: I believe the House has got or maybe a joint
• 16:26
  Speaker 2: committee of the House and Senate on property taxes. It
• 16:29
  Speaker 2: may be a House Select committee, but they're going to
• 16:33
  Speaker 2: be vetting ideas and proposals, and when this gets filed,
• 16:36
  Speaker 2: I would expect it would come before that committee. They
• 16:38
  Speaker 2: would be working up amendments and further putting meat on
• 16:42
  Speaker 2: the bones. And so that's something where I wanted to
• 16:45
  Speaker 2: make sure that we're not just going from nowhere to
• 16:50
  Speaker 2: no taxes at all. It's definitely a work in progress.
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: What do you think are the issues out there that
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: are the biggest, lack of a better word, threat to
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: the state of Florida.
• 17:02
  Speaker 2: Yeah, a couple of things in particular. One is healthcare
• 17:06
  Speaker 2: and the other is housing. Okay, on the healthcare front,
• 17:10
  Speaker 2: we are not only short thousands of providers, doctors, nurses,
• 17:17
  Speaker 2: and specialists and what have you. We're falling further behind
• 17:21
  Speaker 2: because we're not graduating enough out of Florida schools. We
• 17:25
  Speaker 2: do not have enough residency slots. And so I would
• 17:28
  Speaker 2: expect both the House and the Senate to continue hearing
• 17:32
  Speaker 2: bills on things like license your compacts to try and
• 17:35
  Speaker 2: get people from other states where we say, well, you're
• 17:38
  Speaker 2: licensed in North Carolina, will recognize that license, just come
• 17:42
  Speaker 2: to Florida and work as opposed to having to get
• 17:44
  Speaker 2: a new license. A number of things like dental therapy
• 17:49
  Speaker 2: is going to come back up. It was a priority
• 17:50
  Speaker 2: of the speaker when he was a freshman legislator. Expanding
• 17:54
  Speaker 2: the scope of practice continues to kind of be debated,
• 17:59
  Speaker 2: and discussion on vaccine mandates this is a new one
• 18:04
  Speaker 2: to me, so I'm kind of trying to start to
• 18:07
  Speaker 2: pay attention to where both sides in this debate are
• 18:10
  Speaker 2: coming from and what some of their arguments are going
• 18:13
  Speaker 2: to be in there. On the housing front, the other threat,
• 18:18
  Speaker 2: and this is going to be a continuation of what
• 18:20
  Speaker 2: we've been talking about with respect to property taxes, but
• 18:23
  Speaker 2: also the pace at which property insurance rates are either
• 18:29
  Speaker 2: stabilizing or falling. And that's going to be just something
• 18:34
  Speaker 2: that's going to continue to get brought up, because even
• 18:39
  Speaker 2: in the party itself, you've got a faction of folks
• 18:43
  Speaker 2: that don't necessarily believe that what was done two sessions
• 18:47
  Speaker 2: ago was really the right thing, and we should dial
• 18:50
  Speaker 2: back on the tort reforms. And then I would suggest
• 18:53
  Speaker 2: a handful of bills to come to try and further
• 18:56
  Speaker 2: insulate Florida from foreign influence in our technology from the
• 19:02
  Speaker 2: Chinese Communist Party.
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: How about not letting anyone from China by land in
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: Florida period.
• 19:07
  Speaker 2: Well, and that's one where they would have to go
• 19:11
  Speaker 2: back and redo well, and a number of other states
• 19:14
  Speaker 2: are taking the lead on that and expanding it not
• 19:16
  Speaker 2: just too sensitive areas, but statewide. So that is going
• 19:20
  Speaker 2: to be I think or Bill Gates, Yeah, well, you
• 19:25
  Speaker 2: gotta worry because when he buys up the farmland, he
• 19:28
  Speaker 2: takes it out of production.
• 19:29
  Speaker 1: Absolutely does. All right, thank you sir. We'll talk again
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: next month.
• 19:32
  Speaker 2: Always good to be with you.
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: Salnoozo Consumers Defense dot Com I guest forty past the
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: Hour