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Florida Election Primer · Conversations: Special Guests with Preston Scott

0:03
Speaker 1: Here we go. Third hour radio program. Busy day. Busy Thursday.
0:07
Speaker 1: Show 5702 of the morning show with Preston Scott. It
0:13
Speaker 1: is so good to be with you this morning. Producer
0:15
Speaker 1: to be named later in there in Studio 1A along
0:18
Speaker 1: with Jared. And here in Studio 1B is my guest.
0:22
Speaker 1: And it just feels so weird to have you here
0:24
Speaker 1: on a Thursday. Sal Nuzzo. of consumer's defense. I know
0:28
Speaker 1: it's so odd.
0:29
Speaker 2: And I went after Steve Stewart, like I'm not going
0:32
Speaker 2: to call him my opening act, but you know, you
0:35
Speaker 2: may draw that conclusion.
0:37
Speaker 1: Just kidding, Steve. It's just, it's so different, but this
0:40
Speaker 1: was the time we could find. It's odd.
0:43
Speaker 2: November is kind of a little squirrely because you've got elections.
0:47
Speaker 2: The work that I do is And my travel and
0:50
Speaker 2: what you've got going on in the football season and
0:53
Speaker 2: everything here is just a little bit more crazy.
0:56
Speaker 1: So here I am Thursday. For those of you that
0:59
Speaker 1: are new to the program, you've not been initiated into
1:02
Speaker 1: all things Sal Nuzzo. Just a quick little elevator snapshot
1:06
Speaker 1: of your initial reason for knowing as much as you
1:11
Speaker 1: do about Florida's legislature goes back to your time. Sure.
1:16
Speaker 2: So I spent about a decade with the James Madison Institute,
1:20
Speaker 2: which is one of the nation's premier state level policy
1:24
Speaker 2: think tanks. I was very fortunate to serve on the
1:27
Speaker 2: policy team there with Bob McClure, Logan Padgett and a
1:31
Speaker 2: number of other folks. last almost three years now, was
1:36
Speaker 2: asked to kickstart what is called a 501c4, which does
1:40
Speaker 2: a lot of policy work, but around the country called
1:43
Speaker 2: Consumers Defense. It is a partner to the nation's oldest
1:46
Speaker 2: consumer protection nonprofit, Consumers Research. And the last several years,
1:51
Speaker 2: it's been kind of a mess fighting the left on ESG,
1:56
Speaker 2: on all of the things that they're trying to do
1:58
Speaker 2: with the Green New Deal, the woke social agenda. So
2:01
Speaker 2: All of those things have consumer-related impacts, and so we've
2:04
Speaker 2: been working around the country. I'm still living in Tallahassee.
2:07
Speaker 1: Love it here. So, I mean, you tell me if
2:11
Speaker 1: I'm portraying this incorrectly. You're a policy nerd. You love
2:15
Speaker 1: this stuff. You got that part correct. You live in Florida,
2:18
Speaker 1: so it matters to you. You got that part correct.
2:20
Speaker 1: But also, it connects to consumer's defense because Florida is
2:26
Speaker 1: a harbinger state. In a lot of regards, it's one
2:29
Speaker 1: of the largest economies in the world, and what happens
2:32
Speaker 1: here matters and reverberates nationally. Is that fair? Absolutely.
2:36
Speaker 2: And for probably the last 12 to, one could argue,
2:41
Speaker 2: 25 years, we have been the bellwether for what it
2:45
Speaker 2: means to govern a state in a very fiscally conservative and,
2:50
Speaker 2: over the last eight, largely socially conservative manner.
2:53
Speaker 1: Mm-hmm.
2:54
Speaker 2: It has become this check on other states to be
2:58
Speaker 2: able to see, all right, what happens to Florida's economy,
3:02
Speaker 2: which you mentioned is, I want to say it's like
3:04
Speaker 2: the 12th largest in the world. What happens to the electorate?
3:08
Speaker 2: What happens politically? And so all of this has like
3:13
Speaker 2: national ripple effects, which is why I've been kind of
3:17
Speaker 2: blessed to be able to stay in Florida, even though
3:19
Speaker 2: I'm doing less work within the state of Florida.
3:22
Speaker 1: Let's unpack the national scene real quickly and what we're
3:26
Speaker 1: facing with the November election. What's at stake? Sure.
3:29
Speaker 2: So federally, every single one of the United States House
3:34
Speaker 2: of Representatives seats is open for election. On the Senate side,
3:38
Speaker 2: the U.S. Senate, I think they have staggered for a
3:41
Speaker 2: third of the Senate. Right now, the balance on the
3:44
Speaker 2: House side, 218 Republicans, 214 Democrats. Democrats, one independent caucuses
3:50
Speaker 2: with the Republicans, but you also have two vacancies. Every
3:54
Speaker 2: single one of those is going to be up for election.
3:56
Speaker 2: It is the president's midterm cycle historically that does not
4:00
Speaker 2: usually pretend well for the party in power. We have
4:04
Speaker 2: also seen kind of this going on 10 years now
4:08
Speaker 2: of Trump within kind of the sphere of influence. And
4:12
Speaker 2: so you've got that. On the Senate side, in the U.S. Senate, 53-45,
4:17
Speaker 2: the two independents, Sanders and King, they caucus with the Dems.
4:21
Speaker 2: So it's effectively a 53-47 margin there.
4:25
Speaker 1: When we come back, we're going to pivot to statewide races.
4:27
Speaker 1: We're going to look at some of the key races
4:29
Speaker 1: in Florida. We're going to also start to unpack some
4:32
Speaker 1: of the amendments that you're going to be voting on.
4:34
Speaker 1: I've got my ballot right here. There are things that matter.
4:38
Speaker 1: There are of great consequence in the Florida ballot, and
4:43
Speaker 1: you need to know about them. We're going to talk
4:45
Speaker 1: about them next over these next few segments here with
4:47
Speaker 1: Sal Nuzzo of Consumers Defense on The Morning Show with
4:50
Speaker 1: Preston Scott. Before we segue to the state, do you
4:54
Speaker 1: want to share that?
4:56
Speaker 2: Oh, what we were talking about in terms of prediction?
4:59
Speaker 2: I had a section for predictions down the road in
5:02
Speaker 2: one of the later segments, but I think we actually,
5:05
Speaker 2: if we're going to talk predictions on the House and Senate,
5:08
Speaker 2: my prediction is that Republicans do lose the House. They
5:11
Speaker 2: do not lose it as badly as the media and
5:15
Speaker 2: what we're seeing from polls would otherwise suggest. My number
5:20
Speaker 2: on the U.S. House, I'm predicting it's going to land
5:23
Speaker 2: at 222. For the Democrats, 213. For the Republicans, we
5:30
Speaker 2: would be likely seeing Speaker Hakeem Jeffries as a result
5:35
Speaker 2: of that. And I think what you were referencing, though,
5:37
Speaker 2: was the folks who would be the happiest of this
5:41
Speaker 2: are all of the $ 800 an hour and $ 1, 000 an
5:43
Speaker 2: hour attorneys in the D.C.
5:45
Speaker 1: The lawfare will be dizzying.
5:46
Speaker 2: Yeah, so any time a political appointee is going to
5:50
Speaker 2: be brought before the U.S. Congress in an investigation, they're
5:54
Speaker 2: going to have to lawyer up. That does not come cheaply,
5:58
Speaker 2: and I don't believe the federal government covers that, so
6:02
Speaker 2: they will be on their own for that. It's a
6:04
Speaker 2: challenge that I think hurts in a way that it
6:08
Speaker 2: pushes good people out of public service because there's no way.
6:11
Speaker 1: In the world they would be willing to— Yeah, you
6:13
Speaker 1: have no stomach for it. Yeah, exactly. We talked earlier
6:15
Speaker 1: about the discredited polling that's out there. You've got agencies
6:19
Speaker 1: that might be running cover for themselves. They might be
6:22
Speaker 1: simply telling the truth. We don't know. But polling groups
6:25
Speaker 1: out there saying, yeah, we did this for basically giggles.
6:28
Speaker 1: Polling's not accurate and the media doesn't care.
6:31
Speaker 2: Wedgwood polling. Yes, they announced this. It was yesterday, the
6:34
Speaker 2: other day. They're claiming that they did this as a
6:38
Speaker 2: social exercise to show how shoddy polling or really not
6:43
Speaker 2: polling at all, made up polling is. can make it
6:46
Speaker 2: into the mainstream. And to their credit, they did. They
6:49
Speaker 2: got into not only mainstream media outlets, but then into
6:54
Speaker 2: the collected polls where they do the trend polling. So
6:59
Speaker 2: what they're exposing with receipts is something that a lot
7:04
Speaker 2: of folks like us have been kind of questioning over
7:08
Speaker 2: the last probably eight or 10 years. And that is,
7:11
Speaker 2: What is the state of modern polling and how is
7:14
Speaker 2: it accurate when they're using models? Many are using models
7:18
Speaker 2: based on the old landlines, based on the old style
7:21
Speaker 2: of political discourse. And I think there have been inflection
7:26
Speaker 2: points that have made polling difficult. very off over the
7:32
Speaker 2: last 10 years or so. I think that Donald Trump
7:34
Speaker 2: won election in 2016 was one of those inflection points.
7:38
Speaker 2: I think the Democrat tsunami that did not happen in,
7:43
Speaker 2: I think it was maybe 2020, that was another one.
7:47
Speaker 2: I think we're at another one now with the use
7:50
Speaker 2: of AI and how push polling and text polling are
7:54
Speaker 2: being used, I would argue, likely very ineffectively.
7:58
Speaker 1: Well, that's why I question whether or not the Democrats
8:01
Speaker 1: are going to take control of the House, because they're
8:04
Speaker 1: running not just against Republicans, but against their own party
8:07
Speaker 1: with the socialist wave that's hurting them.
8:10
Speaker 2: I think that's what tempers what I would predict is
8:15
Speaker 2: the down majority from being 230 or 240. I mean,
8:19
Speaker 2: if you look at some of the wave elections, I
8:21
Speaker 2: was looking back. the 20, uh, it was the Barack
8:25
Speaker 2: Obama midterm. I think it was 2010 Republicans won 60
8:29
Speaker 2: plus seats in the U S house, you know, that flipped.
8:33
Speaker 2: And so I, I think if it not were for the,
8:38
Speaker 2: the Dems being their own worst enemy on a lot
8:41
Speaker 2: of these issues, I think we could be seeing, uh,
8:44
Speaker 2: we would otherwise be seeing a much bigger backlash.
8:47
Speaker 1: You mentioned the polling. Is there accurate polling that tells
8:50
Speaker 1: us what's going on inside the Sunshine State? There used
8:53
Speaker 1: to be. The Florida Chamber used to roll out really
8:56
Speaker 1: good polling. I don't know if they're still doing it.
8:58
Speaker 1: JMI would do good polling. But I don't, for the
9:02
Speaker 1: life of me, believe that David Jolly is within a
9:04
Speaker 1: half a point or a point of Byron Donalds.
9:06
Speaker 2: Well, in the most recent JMI polling, it does count.
9:10
Speaker 2: concur with your assessment. I think they had Byron up
9:14
Speaker 2: nine points, maybe eight points, something like that.
9:16
Speaker 1: That makes more sense to me.
9:17
Speaker 2: That does make more sense, which is also what they
9:19
Speaker 2: had their margin at for Senator Ashley Moody, as well
9:23
Speaker 2: as A.G.
9:25
Speaker 1: Upmeyer.
9:26
Speaker 2: The weird quirk in JMI's poll, though, was the result
9:30
Speaker 2: that they had on the CFO's race, which had Blaze
9:33
Speaker 2: in a neck-and-neck battle with Annette Taddeo, which it it
9:38
Speaker 2: was quirky to me, but then it became more quirky
9:41
Speaker 2: when their number for the amendment three, which we'll talk
9:45
Speaker 2: about later, the polling on that was over 60%, which
9:51
Speaker 2: I just couldn't reconcile CFO and Golia neck and neck
9:55
Speaker 2: with today.
9:56
Speaker 1: Oh, and amendment three being at 60%. Those, two.
10:00
Speaker 2: And I'm not faulting JMI. I think it's something underlying
10:04
Speaker 2: in the electorate that isn't making it into the polling
10:07
Speaker 2: models that are being.
10:09
Speaker 1: Not connecting dots. Yeah.
10:11
Speaker 2: And so the answer to your question is, I don't
10:13
Speaker 2: know if there's accurate polling because there's polling that's kind
10:16
Speaker 2: of all over the place with these races.
10:19
Speaker 1: So do we fall back then and just look at
10:21
Speaker 1: D's and R's and I's and registration numbers?
10:24
Speaker 2: Yeah, and so I'm a numbers guy. I did look
10:27
Speaker 2: at the registration numbers by party. And so the Republicans
10:33
Speaker 2: have a 1.6, I think it is, million registration advantage
10:38
Speaker 2: over Dems. But you also have, I think it's like
10:42
Speaker 2: 3 million or something, NPAs, whatever that number is. And
10:47
Speaker 2: so the only way that I could see mathematically a
10:52
Speaker 2: David Jolly win, which would also likely be a down
10:57
Speaker 2: ticket as well, the Dems go, is you would have
11:01
Speaker 2: to have very weak Republican turnout, very heavy Democrat turnout,
11:07
Speaker 2: and the NPAs would have to break two to one
11:11
Speaker 2: for David Jolly in order to just make up the 1.6
11:15
Speaker 2: million registration.
11:17
Speaker 1: I don't understand.
11:18
Speaker 2: And let me just say, if that were to happen,
11:21
Speaker 2: we would be looking at likely nationally one of the
11:25
Speaker 2: single biggest Democrat sweeps or really any party switch in U.S.
11:30
Speaker 1: History. If we're even discussing that, where does the fault lie?
11:39
Speaker 1: I point to messaging. That's been my mantra for 24 years,
11:42
Speaker 1: that the Republican messaging machine is from a national and
11:46
Speaker 1: state level, and local level, is broken.
11:49
Speaker 2: Well, and I thought you were meaning where does the
11:52
Speaker 2: fault lie and why the polling is so all over
11:54
Speaker 2: the place. I think largely Republicans have two things going
12:01
Speaker 2: against them in this. One is, for the left, Government
12:06
Speaker 2: is their religion. And so they wake up every single
12:09
Speaker 2: day trying to figure out how they can grow government,
12:12
Speaker 2: whereas Republicans are just like, we want to be left alone.
12:15
Speaker 2: We want government out of our lives. And so that,
12:19
Speaker 2: by necessity, creates a gap that they have to overcome,
12:23
Speaker 2: which they do not do or we do not do
12:26
Speaker 2: ourselves any favors in the messaging department because we In
12:30
Speaker 2: my estimation, and I am guilty of this as much
12:33
Speaker 2: as anybody and probably more, we rely far too frequently
12:38
Speaker 2: on the crutch of statistics. And we do less about
12:41
Speaker 2: telling the human interest stories that result from the policies.
12:45
Speaker 2: And case in point— All of the fraud and abuse
12:49
Speaker 2: and everything that's going on with Medicare and Medicaid in
12:53
Speaker 2: Minnesota and in other states, when you hear Republicans talk
12:56
Speaker 2: about it, they talk about the dollars. What they're not
12:58
Speaker 2: talking about, and this I'm going to get on my soapbox,
13:01
Speaker 2: what they're not talking about is every dollar that's abused.
13:04
Speaker 2: that's corrupted, that's wasted, that's fraudulently going out of the
13:08
Speaker 2: system are kids who are in need, not getting meals.
13:12
Speaker 1: Yes.
13:12
Speaker 2: Are single moms not getting childcare that are by programmatically
13:17
Speaker 2: statute are, are supposed to get it. And we're not
13:21
Speaker 2: telling those stories. We're relying on statistics and we do
13:25
Speaker 2: that to our detriment.
13:27
Speaker 1: Got to personalize it. I've been using the phrase win
13:30
Speaker 1: hearts and minds, and we're terrible at it. The way
13:33
Speaker 1: I've always framed it is... Sorry, they're terrible at it.
13:36
Speaker 1: I'm really good at it.
13:37
Speaker 2: Facts tell stories sell. You have to have facts as
13:43
Speaker 2: your foundation.
13:43
Speaker 1: You have to have data.
13:45
Speaker 2: But ultimately, what you want to present is the emotional
13:48
Speaker 2: hook and show the results of the policy reform.
13:52
Speaker 1: Back with Sal Nuzzo of Consumers Defense. We're talking now
13:56
Speaker 1: about the ballot. And here in Florida, there are three
14:01
Speaker 1: constitutional amendments. Thankfully, one of them is not legalization of weed.
14:07
Speaker 1: The first one, budget stabilization fund. Yes.
14:12
Speaker 2: We like budgets. We like stabilization. We like funds. Why
14:17
Speaker 2: is my ballot saying no? What could possibly go wrong?
14:21
Speaker 2: First off, I think it's important to note, to your point,
14:25
Speaker 2: there are no citizen initiatives on the ballot this cycle.
14:29
Speaker 2: Florida has done some work over the last several years
14:33
Speaker 2: tightening up the process to make it more difficult to
14:36
Speaker 2: get on the ballot. And I agree with this. It
14:39
Speaker 2: should be difficult. So, um, so yeah, so there is
14:43
Speaker 2: a fund in the Florida budget or in the accounts, uh,
14:47
Speaker 2: that is kind of, uh, almost like a rainy day fund.
14:50
Speaker 2: And currently that fund can, uh, has a cap on
14:55
Speaker 2: it of 10% of the net general revenue. Uh, and
15:00
Speaker 2: what the amendment would do is lift that cap to
15:03
Speaker 2: 25% of net general revenue. It doesn't mean that the
15:07
Speaker 2: money automatically goes into it. What it does is it
15:10
Speaker 2: allows the legislature to put more money aside. Now, the
15:15
Speaker 2: interesting thing of this is it makes for strange bedfellows,
15:18
Speaker 2: and I don't understand... fully why people are so adamant
15:23
Speaker 2: about this, but it's gotten vocal.
15:26
Speaker 1: So you've got basically the legislature and David Jolly support
15:32
Speaker 1: this amendment. I can explain it all.
15:35
Speaker 2: And then on the other side, you've got loads of
15:38
Speaker 2: Democrats and Governor DeSantis opposing it. So please help me
15:43
Speaker 2: out here.
15:44
Speaker 1: I'm with the governor 100%. Any excess money beyond what
15:49
Speaker 1: is already in there, which we're doing great with the budget,
15:51
Speaker 1: we're paying down debt, we are a wonderful economy here
15:55
Speaker 1: in Florida, needs to go back to taxpayers. And that's
15:58
Speaker 1: his point.
15:59
Speaker 2: And legislatures hold the purse strings, so if there's more
16:03
Speaker 2: money to be had, there's a case to be made
16:05
Speaker 2: that they would like it.
16:06
Speaker 1: And they'll spend it. They always do. I do get this.
16:10
Speaker 2: Now, this money is for a budget stabilization fund, so
16:14
Speaker 2: it's meant to be If we have some kind of,
16:17
Speaker 2: you know, a housing crisis again or a great recession.
16:22
Speaker 1: But we have money there already. There is money already there.
16:27
Speaker 1: They are trying to make. And I'm probably a no
16:30
Speaker 1: on this one as well, because I agree with the
16:32
Speaker 1: governor's argument that, you know, the cap is there for for.
16:36
Speaker 1: making it available for tax relief. And as for the
16:39
Speaker 1: Dems being on board with it, I will just chalk
16:41
Speaker 1: it up as even blind squirrels find acorns.
16:44
Speaker 2: Or they make the case that Florida's budget is already
16:48
Speaker 2: the leanest in the country. We need to begin beefing
16:51
Speaker 2: it up to address specific problems. They would like the
16:54
Speaker 2: money for other reasons. So then we get to Amendment 2.
16:58
Speaker 1: Exemption of tangible personal property on agricultural land from taxation. Yes.
17:04
Speaker 2: Now, Danny Alvarez, a house member down in South Florida,
17:09
Speaker 2: a great guy, work with him a lot, wonderfully astute.
17:15
Speaker 2: He's actually come out and said he recognizes that he
17:18
Speaker 2: got this through before the special session that led to
17:22
Speaker 2: the property tax amendment. So he's recognizing and commenting out
17:26
Speaker 2: and saying he doesn't even know if he should vote
17:29
Speaker 2: one way or another on this because of the legislature
17:33
Speaker 2: and what Amendment 3 does.
17:35
Speaker 1: Which would kind of supersede a lot of this. On
17:39
Speaker 1: its surface, though, it appears to me like, okay, this
17:43
Speaker 1: might be useful for the ag business in Florida. Yes.
17:46
Speaker 1: Yes or no? Absolutely. So if that's the case, wouldn't
17:49
Speaker 1: it be a hedge to vote in favor of it
17:53
Speaker 1: Assuming three's going down. Your emphasis on the word assume.
17:59
Speaker 1: I know.
17:59
Speaker 2: I am a yes on this one because I love
18:02
Speaker 2: any tax cut. That's where I basically come from. And
18:06
Speaker 2: I couple that with the fact that the agriculture industry
18:10
Speaker 2: as a whole is has been hammered in the last
18:12
Speaker 2: two decades. And that's nationally, and we feel it in
18:16
Speaker 2: an acute sense in Florida because of how heavy our
18:20
Speaker 2: ag industry is.
18:22
Speaker 1: And people don't know it. It's one of the three
18:24
Speaker 1: major economic drivers to the state. People don't know how
18:27
Speaker 1: big agriculture is in the Sunshine State. They just don't know.
18:30
Speaker 2: I mean, you referenced the Florida Chamber. The Florida Chamber
18:35
Speaker 2: originally started as the Florida Cattle Something Association. We had,
18:41
Speaker 2: at one point, more cattle in Florida than Texas.
18:45
Speaker 1: Time flies when we're talking policy and taxes and politics
18:49
Speaker 1: and polling. Come on. Love it. Joining me, Sal Nuzzo,
18:53
Speaker 1: one more segment here. Amendment 3. I am personally shocked
18:58
Speaker 1: because there almost is literally nobody advocating for this. But it's,
19:06
Speaker 1: depending on the polling... It's past 50%, but it's either
19:12
Speaker 1: just past 60 or not. I've heard the polling shows
19:16
Speaker 1: it past 60, but the bottom line is, what is
19:19
Speaker 1: this amendment? What's it about? Sure.
19:22
Speaker 2: So Amendment 3 would gradually, over a two-year period, increase
19:27
Speaker 2: the homestead exemption to $ 250, 000 on your primary residence. That
19:34
Speaker 2: is shielded from property taxes with the exception of the
19:39
Speaker 2: school funding silo. So your property tax bill will likely
19:44
Speaker 2: go down significantly over a two-year period, and then it's
19:48
Speaker 2: tied to inflation. But it will not go away completely
19:53
Speaker 2: because the school system funding portion will.
19:56
Speaker 1: Still be there. My argument has been all along for
20:00
Speaker 1: 24 years of doing this show, I was maybe one
20:03
Speaker 1: of the first people to publicly advocate for the abolition
20:06
Speaker 1: of property tax here in Florida for a long time.
20:09
Speaker 1: under the guise of I want to be able to
20:12
Speaker 1: own my own property, period, end. When I pay my note,
20:15
Speaker 1: it should be mine. I shouldn't have to face any
20:17
Speaker 1: other issue. Now, there are a lot of ways to
20:19
Speaker 1: tackle that. The governor wanted to go with the property
20:23
Speaker 1: tax thing, and I've then said it's not a perfect amendment.
20:26
Speaker 1: The governor said as much. But it's a step in
20:30
Speaker 1: the right direction, and the shortcomings, many of them, though
20:34
Speaker 1: not all, could be addressed by the legislature in the
20:36
Speaker 1: implementation of it. Is that a fair assessment?
20:40
Speaker 2: It's definitely a fair assessment, including the way you frame
20:42
Speaker 2: it being exactly how the governor framed it when he
20:46
Speaker 2: came out with his desire to eliminate property taxes. That
20:50
Speaker 2: was the reasoning. The reasoning that Blazing Golia then took
20:58
Speaker 2: and ran with is the reality that over a five-year period,
21:04
Speaker 2: six-year period between 2020 and present, local governments in the
21:09
Speaker 2: state had their budgets balloon to levels that were in
21:14
Speaker 2: some cases 60, 70% increases.
21:18
Speaker 1: Far beyond CPI, far beyond population.
21:20
Speaker 2: Far beyond the combination of those two. And yes, you
21:25
Speaker 2: do have rural counties that did not experience that same
21:28
Speaker 2: degree of growth, but those two cases, have kind of
21:35
Speaker 2: resulted in this weird winding path of this amendment, which
21:41
Speaker 2: I am tending to believe the polls that have it
21:44
Speaker 2: above 50, but not quite at close to 60 because
21:49
Speaker 2: I think it's getting squeezed from both sides.
21:52
Speaker 1: Well, you've got Ben Albritton coming out yesterday agreeing with
21:55
Speaker 1: the Florida Sheriff's Association because they're falling for the trap. Now,
21:58
Speaker 1: I'll set aside Ben being part of, well, you were
22:01
Speaker 1: part of putting this thing together the way it is.
22:04
Speaker 1: I'll set that aside because I think he's a decent guy.
22:06
Speaker 1: But the sheriffs are using scare tactics. If they don't
22:09
Speaker 1: get the money, it's because counties and cities don't give
22:12
Speaker 1: them money. You're correct. And.
22:16
Speaker 2: There is language both in the amendment, but which will also,
22:21
Speaker 2: to your prior point, need to be codified and clarified
22:25
Speaker 2: statutorily that provide for the very services that public safety
22:31
Speaker 2: officials provide are able to be revenues coming from the
22:38
Speaker 2: state or whatnot. are able to be used.
22:41
Speaker 1: In that fashion.
22:43
Speaker 2: They are going with a line of attack that kind
22:48
Speaker 2: of points to, again, to your credit, the amendment is
22:52
Speaker 2: very imperfect. And it was cobbled together post-session because the
22:59
Speaker 2: governor wanted one thing, the legislature, the House passed a
23:04
Speaker 2: number of different things, and the Senate didn't take anything up.
23:07
Speaker 2: And it all got put into a melting pot that
23:11
Speaker 2: we called the special session.
23:13
Speaker 1: I'm going to smile as you say that because I
23:16
Speaker 1: know that a lot of the reason why we didn't
23:18
Speaker 1: get further on this and get a better amendment is
23:21
Speaker 1: because Danny Perez, the Speaker of the House, and Matt Ball,
23:25
Speaker 1: his Chief of Staff, did everything possible to submarine our governor.
23:30
Speaker 2: What I would point to is the fact that I
23:34
Speaker 2: think we have, though, a unique opportunity regardless.
23:38
Speaker 1: I agree.
23:39
Speaker 2: Because should the amendment pass, the legislature then comes in
23:43
Speaker 2: and has the ability to kind of develop the.
23:46
Speaker 1: Framework for this. Implementation language. Yes.
23:49
Speaker 2: If the amendment does not get to 60%, we have,
23:54
Speaker 2: I think it's next year, the presiding officers and the
23:59
Speaker 2: governor will appoint the Taxation and Budget Reform Commission, which
24:02
Speaker 2: meets every 20 years, which, similar to the Constitutional Revision Commission,
24:07
Speaker 2: can put taxation questions right on the ballot. They have
24:11
Speaker 2: an opportunity to meet and confer over a year period.
24:14
Speaker 2: and get the train going in the right direction if
24:18
Speaker 2: it fails.
24:18
Speaker 1: As always, thank you. Always good to be with you.
24:21
Speaker 1: Appreciate it. Sal Nuzzo, Consumers Defense. My last word on this,
24:25
Speaker 1: when you pay off your mortgage, you should be able
24:27
Speaker 1: to own your own land and home. You should be
24:31
Speaker 1: able to own it and not fear of losing it. Period, end.
24:35
Speaker 1: That's my position.