Latest / Conversations: Special Guests with Preston Scott / The 2026 Florida Session Preview

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The 2026 Florida Session Preview · Conversations: Special Guests with Preston Scott

• 0:02
  Speaker 1: Boy, talk about the old, good old days. Here program.
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: Not only do we have Salnuzo with us from consumer's defense,
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: but in there in sartorial splendor is none other than
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: Grant Allen, the producer emeritus.
• 0:17
  Speaker 2: Who you call an old you said, the good old days?
• 0:21
  Speaker 2: Like who you calling old the days?
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: Okay, that's fine, dude, i entered old territory years ago,
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: and I've just accepted it. It's all good. It's all good.
• 0:31
  Speaker 2: I will not go gently into that good night.
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: I can tell. I can tell there's there's a little
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: resistance in your voice. How are yeah, I'm doing good.
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: Merry Christmas. We say that around here.
• 0:41
  Speaker 2: Merry Christmas. It is the start of Hanako. So happy
• 0:44
  Speaker 2: Hanikah out to many of my Jewish friends are celebrating, so.
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: Yes, and sadly not yeah with what happened in Australia.
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: What a train wreck that is. But let's just get
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: going the session. Let's remind everybody this is an election year, which.
• 1:01
  Speaker 2: Means January thirteenth, January February March. It begins the first
• 1:06
  Speaker 2: Tuesday after the first Monday or something second Tuesday, I
• 1:10
  Speaker 2: can't remember. January thirteenth is when it starts sixty days.
• 1:15
  Speaker 2: They have one constitutionally mandated requirement, that's pass a balanced
• 1:19
  Speaker 2: budget and send it to the governor. They will come
• 1:22
  Speaker 2: and do a whole lot more than that, and then some.
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: I mentioned last hour. The governor's running through the tape. Yep.
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: He's not taking time off. He's not coasting into the
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: final year of his governor's office responsibility. He's running through
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: the tape. And to that end, back to the constitutional
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: mandated requirement, he's submitted a budget. Yep.
• 1:45
  Speaker 2: He will also not go gently into that good night.
• 1:48
  Speaker 2: He did submit a proposed budget last week asking for
• 1:53
  Speaker 2: one hundred and seventeen billion dollars total, which is about
• 1:56
  Speaker 2: a two billion dollar increase over the prior year. A
• 2:01
  Speaker 2: bit of a reminder in table setting. When you look
• 2:03
  Speaker 2: at Florida's budget per capita compared to other states, we
• 2:06
  Speaker 2: are the leanest state operation in the United States. We're
• 2:11
  Speaker 2: also a heavy growth state anywhere, depending on the year,
• 2:14
  Speaker 2: from six hundred to one thousand new Floridians every day.
• 2:18
  Speaker 2: By nature, that budget number is going to have to
• 2:21
  Speaker 2: increase unless you're doing some incredible austerity, which we had
• 2:26
  Speaker 2: that time, is just not now. We've got to invest
• 2:29
  Speaker 2: in some things, and so two billion dollars more, you've
• 2:32
  Speaker 2: got fifty three billion dollars in the governor's proposal, which
• 2:36
  Speaker 2: would be general revenue. That's the portion of the budget
• 2:40
  Speaker 2: that is not line itemed for either a particular federal program.
• 2:44
  Speaker 2: It's not a pass through, it's not a trust fund
• 2:46
  Speaker 2: some designated revenue stream. The fifty three billion is what
• 2:50
  Speaker 2: the legislature will use policy and appropriations to put into
• 2:56
  Speaker 2: the various silos. So the balance of the budget. For
• 2:59
  Speaker 2: people's understand, it's fifty three billion in general revenue, but
• 3:02
  Speaker 2: we're asking for from the governor one seventeen.
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: Where's the difference.
• 3:06
  Speaker 2: So the biggest difference is going to be federal pass
• 3:09
  Speaker 2: through dollars for medicaid. About thirty percent, thirty one thirty
• 3:13
  Speaker 2: two percent of the entire one hundred and seventeen billion
• 3:16
  Speaker 2: dollars is going to be just tax dollars coming from Washington,
• 3:20
  Speaker 2: DC to pay for medicaid for Floridians. The half of
• 3:24
  Speaker 2: the ninety percent, depending which population is.
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: It over simplified to say that's just some of Florida's
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: money coming back.
• 3:31
  Speaker 2: Oh, absolutely the case. That's that's a lot of Florida's
• 3:33
  Speaker 2: money coming back. There are also other federal programs that
• 3:38
  Speaker 2: some have winded down, but there are still other federal
• 3:41
  Speaker 2: revenue sources. You've also got trust funds and things that
• 3:45
  Speaker 2: go toward designated uses like the doc stamfees and other
• 3:49
  Speaker 2: things like that.
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: What else stands out in terms of the numbers inside
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: the governor's budget A.
• 3:54
  Speaker 2: Couple of things. On the tax relief side. You've got
• 3:56
  Speaker 2: two and a half billion dollars in tax relief just
• 4:00
  Speaker 2: from the elimination of the commercial rent tax. That's something
• 4:03
  Speaker 2: that Florida been the only state to do that for
• 4:05
  Speaker 2: many years. It is a sales tax if you rent
• 4:09
  Speaker 2: your business space, and we finally got that glide path
• 4:13
  Speaker 2: down and out. He's also proposing a couple of percent
• 4:17
  Speaker 2: across the board for state workers for increases. However, if
• 4:20
  Speaker 2: you're in a special risk category, I think, what does
• 4:23
  Speaker 2: that police law enforcement Florida Department Law Enforcement that you
• 4:28
  Speaker 2: got five percent? Few numbers on the K twelve side,
• 4:32
  Speaker 2: just over thirty billion dollars in that silo. Another six
• 4:36
  Speaker 2: billion for higher education. You've got a billion and a
• 4:40
  Speaker 2: half just for salary increases in this budget for instructional
• 4:46
  Speaker 2: staff and things like, you know, twenty billion dollars in
• 4:49
  Speaker 2: the transportation silo that's going towards roads improvements, expansions, things
• 4:54
  Speaker 2: along those lines. And it's important to remember this is
• 4:57
  Speaker 2: just a proposal, right The legislat mature probably won't even
• 5:01
  Speaker 2: take this in and tweak it. They will develop their
• 5:06
  Speaker 2: own budget proposal submitted to him, and then he has
• 5:09
  Speaker 2: the ability to use light one veto to nix out
• 5:12
  Speaker 2: any lines that he does not like or that he
• 5:15
  Speaker 2: isn't comfortable with.
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: This is just providing maybe some guidance to the two
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: bodies on what he is looking for in a budget.
• 5:22
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's a designation of his priorities for the coming year.
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: The Attorney General, the CFO, what should we know? Yeah,
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: cabinet members still active and engaged. The AGE recently announced
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: a suit against Starbucks, going after them for their hiring practices,
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: which because they are stalwart defenders and champions of DEI
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: hiring and have all kinds of quotas and whatnot. Because
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: Starbucks is a publicly traded company, the AG is rightly
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: pursuing that open store YEP. In terms of whether or
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: not Starbucks is pursuing its fiduciary principles to generate a
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: return on there for investors. There cfo showing local governments
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: for and exposing them for the rates of increase in
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: local budgets just over the last six years. And it
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: should be fair to point out Republican and Democrat run
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: communities in Florida. Yeah, he does not care.
• 6:25
  Speaker 2: This is an issue that is if you're a fan
• 6:29
  Speaker 2: of Scripture, I would call him kind of John the
• 6:31
  Speaker 2: Baptist paving the way for property tax proposals that are
• 6:35
  Speaker 2: going to be coming down the pike. But I mean,
• 6:38
  Speaker 2: his points are incredibly valid. If you look at just
• 6:41
  Speaker 2: the inflation rates plus population increases within counties, the budget
• 6:47
  Speaker 2: increases that these counties have seen are just off the charts,
• 6:51
  Speaker 2: and there is not any case to be made that
• 6:54
  Speaker 2: services have gone up the same. Therefore, there is there
• 6:58
  Speaker 2: is room for the governor proposals.
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: We got about two and a half minutes left in
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: this segment, unfortunately, So let me ask you this, regardless
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: of the wrestling match that is going on with Obamacare
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: and what comes out of the wash or doesn't, what
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: options does the state of Florida have to address healthcare?
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: Well a lot.
• 7:18
  Speaker 2: And that's the thing is that there are a substantial
• 7:21
  Speaker 2: amount of regulations that are kind of dictated by state
• 7:25
  Speaker 2: governments versus the fence. Now they've got to work within
• 7:28
  Speaker 2: the framework of the ACA and where there is abilities
• 7:32
  Speaker 2: to get issues waived or carved down. But Florida is
• 7:37
  Speaker 2: a massive growth state, and as I mentioned in the
• 7:40
  Speaker 2: prior segments, up to has been up to one thousand
• 7:43
  Speaker 2: people a day moving to the state net. You also
• 7:47
  Speaker 2: have two thirds of our population growth over time and
• 7:51
  Speaker 2: projected into the next ten years, is going to be
• 7:53
  Speaker 2: over the age of sixty. What that means is that
• 7:55
  Speaker 2: there is going to be a far more dramatic increase
• 7:59
  Speaker 2: in the need for health care services, just because that
• 8:02
  Speaker 2: cohort of the population is who consumes more healthcare And
• 8:07
  Speaker 2: you've got state level regulations governing the supply of practitioners,
• 8:14
  Speaker 2: and there's a lot of room for the state to
• 8:16
  Speaker 2: make reforms that address that supply. And so what we
• 8:20
  Speaker 2: see at least from the House right now is Speaker
• 8:23
  Speaker 2: Danny Perez, and this has been something that he has
• 8:26
  Speaker 2: talked about since probably is freshman term in the legislature,
• 8:31
  Speaker 2: the need for Florida to address the healthcare challenges that
• 8:34
  Speaker 2: we have. We've done a lot. He's proposing even more
• 8:39
  Speaker 2: to come in the twenty twenty six session.
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: Do states have the flexibility to say, allow for more
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: competition even across state lines if they work, let's say,
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: with Georgia or Alabama.
• 8:50
  Speaker 2: In some cases yes, and in some cases no. But
• 8:53
  Speaker 2: it requires a lot of work on the part of
• 8:55
  Speaker 2: the states. So you have things like you can do
• 8:58
  Speaker 2: license your compacts, which is, if you're a doctor, a
• 9:02
  Speaker 2: primary care physician in the state of Georgia, you know
• 9:05
  Speaker 2: human beings are the same in Georgia as they are
• 9:07
  Speaker 2: in Florida. You shouldn't have to go through a ton
• 9:10
  Speaker 2: of hoops and barriers to be able to practice in
• 9:13
  Speaker 2: the state of Florida. You also have things like recognizing
• 9:18
  Speaker 2: specific licenses on specialists and things along those lines. You
• 9:24
  Speaker 2: have the ability of states to, if they do it correctly,
• 9:28
  Speaker 2: join with other states for association health plans and the
• 9:31
  Speaker 2: way that you can pool insurance. That all requires a
• 9:35
  Speaker 2: direct effort on the part of policy makers and people
• 9:39
  Speaker 2: in the agencies to push in that direction.
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: Back talking about the legislative session that is four weeks away,
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: I mean, wow, yep, it's crazy to get your mind around,
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: but it is an election here.
• 9:58
  Speaker 2: Yeah, And it's also important to remember that last legislative
• 10:01
  Speaker 2: session carried over way way late, so we're ordinarily on
• 10:07
  Speaker 2: a short time frame, and then it was even shorter,
• 10:09
  Speaker 2: so it's yeah, it's all fresh.
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: Before we continue with healthcare. Do you expect any of
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: the animosity from the last session, because the last session
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: was plagued with a lot of bitterness. Is it going
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: to carry over?
• 10:22
  Speaker 2: I think is the I would have wanted to say, no,
• 10:27
  Speaker 2: it's not going to carry over, and everybody came to
• 10:30
  Speaker 2: their senses. Unfortunately. What I'm seeing is kind of a
• 10:33
  Speaker 2: continuation of a lot of the back and forth on
• 10:37
  Speaker 2: specific issues completely unrelated to policy, and having a whole
• 10:42
  Speaker 2: lot to do with other things. And so will it
• 10:46
  Speaker 2: be as bad as bad in quotes as last session.
• 10:51
  Speaker 2: Probably not, But I don't see them all getting together
• 10:55
  Speaker 2: for smores around a campfire. Let's put it that way.
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: Back to healthcare. What reform you expect bubbling up into
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: the session? Sure?
• 11:02
  Speaker 2: Well, Speaker Perez has kind of taken on healthcare. Affordability
• 11:06
  Speaker 2: is probably is his big priority for the final year
• 11:10
  Speaker 2: of his term as speaker. There are two major bills
• 11:13
  Speaker 2: in the House HB six ninety three and six ninety seven.
• 11:18
  Speaker 2: So one of them you've got six ninety three, I
• 11:20
  Speaker 2: believe it is, you've got reforms to the public programs
• 11:24
  Speaker 2: Medicaid snap CHIP. They're going to align with what was
• 11:28
  Speaker 2: in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act about eighty hour
• 11:31
  Speaker 2: per month work requirements for Medicaid to push in that direction,
• 11:36
  Speaker 2: sort of tightening up of regulations on coverage. But then
• 11:41
  Speaker 2: it goes into the supply side of the challenge, which
• 11:45
  Speaker 2: really is where a state can have a whole lot
• 11:48
  Speaker 2: more impact. So we have healthcare provider shortages. We need
• 11:53
  Speaker 2: far a far greater number of doctors, nurses, specialists, everything
• 11:59
  Speaker 2: across the board. So what are we gonna do. So
• 12:03
  Speaker 2: first out is cutting out the remaining certificate of need
• 12:07
  Speaker 2: laws on nursing homes and hospices to greater expand the
• 12:12
  Speaker 2: ability of new facilities to get online. You're gonna see
• 12:16
  Speaker 2: an expansion of what we call the scope of practice
• 12:21
  Speaker 2: rules for nurses and estheticians and what have you, allowing
• 12:25
  Speaker 2: them to not only get training to do new things
• 12:28
  Speaker 2: or to do things, but to be able to perform
• 12:31
  Speaker 2: the things that they are trained on, which because of
• 12:35
  Speaker 2: the way that state laws work isn't always the case.
• 12:39
  Speaker 2: We talked about it in the last session. Licenser compacts.
• 12:42
  Speaker 2: If you're a if you're an anesthesiologist in Mississippi or
• 12:47
  Speaker 2: Alabama and we want to recruit you in what are
• 12:50
  Speaker 2: the requirements for you to get license in the state
• 12:53
  Speaker 2: of Florida. How do we make that easiest? And those
• 12:56
  Speaker 2: are things that go to that solution. Transparency, requirements on
• 13:03
  Speaker 2: coverage networks, and how deductibility functions. They're going to go after.
• 13:08
  Speaker 2: The pharmacy benefit managers, which are the middlemen between drug
• 13:11
  Speaker 2: manufacturers and the insurance.
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: Expect playing that for just a quick second and its
• 13:15
  Speaker 1: impact on a consumer.
• 13:16
  Speaker 2: So, if you're a drug manufacturer and you make tailand all,
• 13:20
  Speaker 2: let's just say it's a patented drug. Now you want
• 13:22
  Speaker 2: tailand all to be covered by all of the different
• 13:25
  Speaker 2: insurance networks. You have a pharmacy benefit manager which is
• 13:30
  Speaker 2: a role in between the manufacturer and they make sure
• 13:35
  Speaker 2: that the drug then gets placed on all of the
• 13:38
  Speaker 2: insurance networks. Now, that's a very stripped down version of it.
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: But why is it necessary.
• 13:44
  Speaker 2: Well, you know, at one time it's in the same
• 13:48
  Speaker 2: way that any distribution network is potentially necessary. I'm not
• 13:52
  Speaker 2: necessarily arguing it's unnecessary. What many critics have discussed is
• 13:57
  Speaker 2: they've taken that role in leverage to manipulate rebates and
• 14:02
  Speaker 2: incentives so that consumers are not getting the cost savings
• 14:08
  Speaker 2: all of the time there. So they're gonna do some
• 14:10
  Speaker 2: things there in transparency and removing what's called spread pricing
• 14:15
  Speaker 2: and some other things there. There's one provision in there
• 14:19
  Speaker 2: I'm not as sure about, which is benchmarking drug prices
• 14:22
  Speaker 2: in Florida to the European country networks, which could be
• 14:27
  Speaker 2: tantamount to a price control and I'm not sure. I'd
• 14:30
  Speaker 2: have to see. I got to see the wording and
• 14:33
  Speaker 2: that before I'm on board there.
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: And that's where your work with Consumers Defense really devetails nicely.
• 14:38
  Speaker 2: Yeah, we do a lot of work in the healthcare
• 14:41
  Speaker 2: space with respect to drug pricing. But then also this
• 14:46
  Speaker 2: federal program called three point forty B which has been
• 14:49
  Speaker 2: manipulated by a lot of nonprofit hospitals. It's a federal
• 14:52
  Speaker 2: program that then passes through the states, and those two
• 14:56
  Speaker 2: areas are ones where we could do deep dives whenever
• 14:59
  Speaker 2: you want on all of the specific provisions in there
• 15:03
  Speaker 2: that then either do or don't trickle down to consumers.
• 15:07
  Speaker 1: The one topic with sal Nuzzo here of consumers defense
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: that truly has the possibility of impacting everybody, whether they
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: own property or not, because everybody is impacted by property
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: taxes in some way, shape or form. Renters as well.
• 15:23
  Speaker 1: What are we likely to see? What are the proposals
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: out there?
• 15:27
  Speaker 2: Yeah, so a reminder, the governor wants the elimination of
• 15:31
  Speaker 2: all property taxes for at a bare minimum, homesteaded residence
• 15:34
  Speaker 2: in the state of Florida. He's called on the legislature
• 15:36
  Speaker 2: to put something forward for the ballot. The House has
• 15:42
  Speaker 2: several proposals that they have submitted. I believe the last
• 15:45
  Speaker 2: time I checked was eight. Of those eight, none go
• 15:50
  Speaker 2: as far as what the governor has called for. Right now,
• 15:56
  Speaker 2: you have about four of them that have moved through
• 16:01
  Speaker 2: committees in the Precession committee weeks and so. One of
• 16:05
  Speaker 2: those proposals would eliminate all but the school funding portion
• 16:10
  Speaker 2: of the property taxes for homesteaded properties. One would lift
• 16:15
  Speaker 2: the cap entirely on Save our Homes portability. So if
• 16:19
  Speaker 2: you have two hundred thousand dollars in Save our Home savings,
• 16:24
  Speaker 2: you could port that and if you were to buy
• 16:27
  Speaker 2: a home that was two hundred thousand dollars or less,
• 16:29
  Speaker 2: you would effectively reduce your property tax rate to zero
• 16:32
  Speaker 2: or something along those lines. One would eliminate all taxes
• 16:36
  Speaker 2: for seniors, and one would provide a new two hundred
• 16:41
  Speaker 2: thousand dollars homestead exemption which would cover a good sizable
• 16:47
  Speaker 2: portion of the homesteaded properties in the state.
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: Is anybody talking about what I think is the lowest
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: of the hanging fruit, and that is simply while you're
• 16:57
  Speaker 1: figuring this out, just make it so that you cannot
• 17:02
  Speaker 1: take someone's home or property for not paying it.
• 17:06
  Speaker 2: There have been proposals in the past that would shield
• 17:09
  Speaker 2: your homestead from specific pieces of that. Now I don't
• 17:14
  Speaker 2: know if any of the bills that have been put
• 17:16
  Speaker 2: forward in the House get at that where it shields
• 17:20
  Speaker 2: you where and it could be something where it shields
• 17:24
  Speaker 2: you as long as you're alive, but it doesn't pass
• 17:26
  Speaker 2: on to your heirs or things along those lines. The
• 17:30
  Speaker 2: challenge with this is that whenever you get into things
• 17:33
  Speaker 2: like real estate, you also have various tax vehicles and
• 17:37
  Speaker 2: things that happen that lawyers can do to kind of
• 17:42
  Speaker 2: get around certain of those provisions. So I think the Governor,
• 17:46
  Speaker 2: to his credit, is saying, let's keep this simple. And granted,
• 17:52
  Speaker 2: there is going to be a lot of weeping and
• 17:56
  Speaker 2: gnashing of teeth on the part of cities and counties
• 17:58
  Speaker 2: as they go through this trying to say, and it.
• 18:00
  Speaker 1: Ties to what the CFO is trying to accomplish in
• 18:03
  Speaker 1: determining how they've responsibly or irresponsibly handled their budgets exactly,
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: and to both of their credit, one of the things
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: that I've said previously is before you ask the question
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: how are we going to provide for all of these services,
• 18:18
  Speaker 1: you actually have to ask the question what are the
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: basket of services that our local government should be providing
• 18:25
  Speaker 1: that's first, and what does that then cost? And so
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: we're going to have to see as this debate continues on,
• 18:34
  Speaker 1: there's talk about the governor is stipulated because the Senate
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: hasn't really moved in either direction heavily, they may want
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: to consider coming back in a special session. The House
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: is saying they do not want to do that. Same
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: kind of holds on redistricting, you have these kind of
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: varying debates where you get into triangulation. You have three parties,
• 18:57
  Speaker 1: you have to house the Senate and the Governor and
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: where they align. Generally, when two come together, that's what
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: moves the policy forward. All right, the x lax portion
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: of the conversation here with news of consumers defense. So
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: what's moving? Oh my gosh, we'll frame that. You're welcome.
• 19:19
  Speaker 2: So a number of kind of policy issues that are
• 19:21
  Speaker 2: bubbling up. Bill filing has a deadline to it, so
• 19:25
  Speaker 2: and it's usually in the first week of session, so
• 19:29
  Speaker 2: a lot of things are being put forward, submitted, filed,
• 19:32
  Speaker 2: and then heard in various committees to team up for
• 19:34
  Speaker 2: that first week of session. One thing that I think
• 19:38
  Speaker 2: is going to be a theme of the session is
• 19:41
  Speaker 2: going to be fighting hostile government actors in Florida and
• 19:45
  Speaker 2: things like the way that the Chinese Communist Party is
• 19:49
  Speaker 2: infiltrated and leveraged technology in a number of different respects,
• 19:54
  Speaker 2: whether it's drone use or routers, medical technology. You see
• 19:59
  Speaker 2: a photos everything. You see the Attorney General, you see
• 20:03
  Speaker 2: the CFO, you see the Agriculture Commissioner Wilton Simpson actually
• 20:07
  Speaker 2: having the foresight to put some stuff in his agency
• 20:10
  Speaker 2: bill last year that's now bearing fruit. A lot of
• 20:13
  Speaker 2: this is going to be an ongoing theme and narrative
• 20:18
  Speaker 2: as the state tries to set itself up as a
• 20:21
  Speaker 2: kind of a national leader in fighting hostile actors. Then
• 20:26
  Speaker 2: you've got a number of different bills that have just
• 20:28
  Speaker 2: kind of gotten some movement, and we'll see where they go.
• 20:31
  Speaker 2: HB three to eighteen from Senator Don Gates is more
• 20:37
  Speaker 2: SB three eighteen, more controls in place for school choice money.
• 20:41
  Speaker 2: A report came out from the Auditor General's office kind
• 20:44
  Speaker 2: of indicating that the controls needed to be increased in
• 20:49
  Speaker 2: how individuals are distributed scholarship funds and where they go
• 20:53
  Speaker 2: and what they're used on. So they're going to be
• 20:54
  Speaker 2: doing some overhauling there. HB one ninety seven from Representatives
• 21:00
  Speaker 2: expanding e verify to all employers.
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: But not back employers.
• 21:05
  Speaker 2: The language as I read it did not cover the
• 21:08
  Speaker 2: grandfathered in employees. But the other thing is is that
• 21:12
  Speaker 2: it does not have a Senate's co sponsor or companion
• 21:16
  Speaker 2: bill yet, so it would need to get one in
• 21:18
  Speaker 2: order to move forward. HB one three from Repsorroy moving
• 21:24
  Speaker 2: the gun purchase age to eighteen. Considering we're now an
• 21:28
  Speaker 2: open carry state, this would seem like some low hanging
• 21:31
  Speaker 2: fruit to me. But as we've come to discover with
• 21:34
  Speaker 2: our friends in the Senate they aren't always as open
• 21:37
  Speaker 2: on expanding gun rights as the houses. The Senate President
• 21:43
  Speaker 2: last year had a big package called the Rural Renaissance Package,
• 21:47
  Speaker 2: and they're reintroducing it in this year. From Senator Corey Simon,
• 21:51
  Speaker 2: our senator, it would kind of create some opportunities for
• 21:56
  Speaker 2: those within the county system that are not getting population
• 22:01
  Speaker 2: growth yor losing revenue, what have you, to be able
• 22:04
  Speaker 2: to tap into, whether it's federal or state dollars to
• 22:08
  Speaker 2: address various challenges there. Senate Bill one twenty six, I'm
• 22:13
  Speaker 2: watching this one carefully. It would reform the ways in
• 22:17
  Speaker 2: which the Public Service Commission, which the PSC is what
• 22:20
  Speaker 2: governs utility rates for all of Florida. It would govern
• 22:26
  Speaker 2: how they approve of rate increases. So the bill itself,
• 22:30
  Speaker 2: it's long, it's real in the weeds, but the intent
• 22:32
  Speaker 2: is they want to provide some additional visibility and transparency
• 22:36
  Speaker 2: to how rate increases are arrived at, what data are
• 22:40
  Speaker 2: used to support specific increases, and such one we talked
• 22:44
  Speaker 2: about a couple of months back. I think HB five
• 22:48
  Speaker 2: twenty seven from Representative Cassels requiring a human to review
• 22:52
  Speaker 2: all insurance claims before any denials are made, and there's
• 22:57
  Speaker 2: a fear that insurance providers could be using AI just
• 23:01
  Speaker 2: to come blanket claim blanket deny claims. We've talked about this, right,
• 23:07
  Speaker 2: Can I just ask you please?
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: Doesn't that start to then butt up against Donald Trump
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: forbidding states from addressing AI?
• 23:14
  Speaker 2: Well, and you talked about this kind of before I
• 23:16
  Speaker 2: came on. In terms of what the federal government does
• 23:20
  Speaker 2: as a kind of floor or benchmark for AI regulations.
• 23:25
  Speaker 2: There was a provision that had been in the One
• 23:28
  Speaker 2: Big Beautiful Bill Act, but it got pulled out at
• 23:31
  Speaker 2: the last minute that would have preempted any state or
• 23:35
  Speaker 2: local government from regulating AI in any form for ten years.
• 23:38
  Speaker 2: That's not in there. So what we're going to see
• 23:41
  Speaker 2: now is states beginning to pass what they view is
• 23:46
  Speaker 2: as effective.
• 23:47
  Speaker 1: Right, he was going to try to stop it.
• 23:49
  Speaker 2: It may come back, and if so, there's going to
• 23:52
  Speaker 2: be a tug.
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: Of war on really fight. Okay.
• 23:55
  Speaker 2: Lastly, a couple of other ones hb one from McFarlane
• 23:59
  Speaker 2: raising the caps on suits brought against the government to
• 24:02
  Speaker 2: five hundred thousand dollars, which has been long an issue
• 24:07
  Speaker 2: with folks because then they have to file claims bills,
• 24:10
  Speaker 2: and then HJR. Twenty seven they're going to try for
• 24:14
  Speaker 2: local term limits again twelve years, and then you'd have
• 24:17
  Speaker 2: to sit out for four years. That would be for city,
• 24:20
  Speaker 2: county and school board races.
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: All right, good stuff as always, Merry Christmas, Merry Christmas.
• 24:26
  Speaker 2: So you cannot wait to kick this off in January,
• 24:29
  Speaker 2: we go weekly fifth, the fifth.
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: One week before the session starts. We'll get everybody ready.
• 24:34
  Speaker 2: We will have our running shoes on. It's going to
• 24:38
  Speaker 2: be an interesting one.
• 24:40
  Speaker 1: Do we need our headgear though? Will we be seeing
• 24:42
  Speaker 1: a boxing match? Likely? Yeah, I can't wait. Thanks, always
• 24:46
  Speaker 1: a pleasure. Saldouzoh Consumers Defense dot com