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Florida's Legislative Session Has Come Off The Rails ... Now What? · Conversations: Special Guests with Preston Scott

0:02
Speaker 1: And here we go. It's the third hour already of
0:05
Speaker 1: the Morning show with Preston Scott Monday. It's gonna get better, folks.
0:09
Speaker 1: A lot of rain and we're gonna keep getting a
0:11
Speaker 1: little bit of rain. But they're playing golf as of now,
0:14
Speaker 1: allegedly out at Seminal Legacies. So the NCAA Tallahassee Regional
0:20
Speaker 1: four Men's Golf is underway. But here in Studio one
0:24
Speaker 1: B I am joined for the first time since taking
0:27
Speaker 1: the vows. Taking the vows, Sal Nuso Consumer's Defense, congratulations.
0:32
Speaker 2: Thank you so much. I am a happily married man
0:35
Speaker 2: for going on twenty three days.
0:36
Speaker 1: Yeah, they said it wouldn't last. They said it wuld last.
0:39
Speaker 2: The locks have not been changed, although ten of those
0:42
Speaker 2: were a honeymoon, so you.
0:43
Speaker 1: Know it's Sal was kind enough to invite me to
0:45
Speaker 1: the ceremony. I attended. It was it was beautiful, and
0:49
Speaker 1: I commented on many aspects of it, and very happy
0:54
Speaker 1: for you.
0:54
Speaker 2: I appreciate it. I definitely married up and am thrilled.
1:00
Speaker 2: Got now two wonderful step kids in addition to my
1:04
Speaker 2: two daughters, and they all, as you saw, all get
1:07
Speaker 2: along really well. They have a lot of fun together
1:10
Speaker 2: and so it's a beautiful thing.
1:12
Speaker 1: Nice, thank you now that we've got that out of here.
1:16
Speaker 1: I said before the half hour. I have been merciless
1:20
Speaker 1: on this legislative session, and I think I'm fair when
1:23
Speaker 1: I say this has been a disaster. And it has
1:26
Speaker 1: been a disaster strictly because through the lens of a
1:30
Speaker 1: super Republican majority and perhaps the single most conservative governor
1:38
Speaker 1: this state has ever had, who is delivered on one
1:42
Speaker 1: after another after another conservative legislative accomplishment. How did we
1:50
Speaker 1: get where we are right now, where it's so dysfunctional.
1:53
Speaker 2: It really is a good question, and I think it's
1:56
Speaker 2: kind of part of the dialogue on trying to figure
1:59
Speaker 2: out how to move forward because at its core, politics
2:03
Speaker 2: and policy are ultimately relational in relationship minded engagements, You've
2:09
Speaker 2: got to have trust between parties, regardless if you're talking
2:12
Speaker 2: about Republicans or Republicans, or Republicans and Democrats. And in Florida,
2:17
Speaker 2: we really don't have an opposition party. I mean, as
2:22
Speaker 2: Jason Pizzo said as he was exiting stage left, he said,
2:24
Speaker 2: or stage right, actually he said, the Democrat Party in
2:28
Speaker 2: Florida is dead. So I think it may be helpful
2:31
Speaker 2: to kind of unpack how we got from where we
2:34
Speaker 2: are to here, because I think it may help us
2:37
Speaker 2: understand how we might get out. But level setting one
2:42
Speaker 2: constitutional requirement pass the balance budget.
2:44
Speaker 1: There is no budget.
2:45
Speaker 2: We are now about a month or and a half
2:49
Speaker 2: away from the fiscal year ending, and the legislature siginneed
2:55
Speaker 2: died at the end of it's sixty day term on
2:58
Speaker 2: May whatever it was, without a budget, and so they
3:02
Speaker 2: were going to extend. They had an agreement in principle
3:07
Speaker 2: to come back in a couple of weeks and pass
3:09
Speaker 2: the budget, and I believe it was on Friday, late
3:12
Speaker 2: Thursday Friday. The entire situation blew up, and I mean
3:16
Speaker 2: by three four days ago, and so we've got a
3:20
Speaker 2: lot of egg on our face collectively. I think it
3:23
Speaker 2: is a byproduct of things that have been going on
3:27
Speaker 2: for a couple of years now, and happy to kind
3:31
Speaker 2: of dive in and unpack and talk about kind of
3:33
Speaker 2: the sequencing of that and maybe see where it takes us.
3:39
Speaker 1: Well. I was going to say, when you say we,
3:44
Speaker 1: are you really referring today, because I feel as though
3:49
Speaker 1: that the lawmakers are broken up into a few levels here.
3:53
Speaker 1: We've got the governor, we've got the legislature, and then
3:56
Speaker 1: we've got the leaders of the legislature.
3:58
Speaker 2: Yeah. And when I say we, I mean the collective
4:00
Speaker 2: universal We I mean we as a state, but really
4:03
Speaker 2: we as a party in a governing supermajority. And so
4:07
Speaker 2: let's take us back to twenty twenty two. So the
4:10
Speaker 2: governor won his re election in twenty twenty two, and
4:15
Speaker 2: he went from the twenty eighteen race of thirty four
4:18
Speaker 2: thousand vote victory to a one point five million votes
4:21
Speaker 2: huge in a victory, and that put in place a
4:26
Speaker 2: massive mandate to govern as a strict conservative, and that
4:31
Speaker 2: is what he did. So you saw the twenty twenty
4:34
Speaker 2: three and twenty twenty four legislative sessions, which were presided
4:38
Speaker 2: over by two very constitutionally conservative leaders. You had the governor,
4:43
Speaker 2: but then you had Speaker Paul Renner and Senate President
4:46
Speaker 2: Kathleen Pasadomo. And the governor wanted it to become the
4:51
Speaker 2: single most conservative term of legislative action that maybe even
4:59
Speaker 2: Florida's history he had seen. And that's pretty much what
5:02
Speaker 2: he got. I was going to say, that's what was delivered,
5:04
Speaker 2: all right, that's where we are. We got we got
5:06
Speaker 2: lots of time, and this, to me is vitally important
5:09
Speaker 2: for all of you to understand how we ended up
5:12
Speaker 2: where we are right now. All right, we're back with
5:16
Speaker 2: Salnuzzo of Consumer's Defense, and we're going through because honestly,
5:22
Speaker 2: all of the other legislative things that did and did
5:24
Speaker 2: not get done take a backseat to the only thing
5:27
Speaker 2: that is constitutionally mandated. The boys and girls have to
5:31
Speaker 2: get in the sandbox and they have to play nicely
5:33
Speaker 2: and get a budget done, and they didn't do that. Yep,
5:36
Speaker 2: you are correct, and so here we are. So let's
5:40
Speaker 2: kind of continue to cast back and walk us walk
5:42
Speaker 2: ourselves up to the present day. So, back in twenty
5:45
Speaker 2: twenty three and twenty four, you had Speaker Paul Renner
5:49
Speaker 2: his and Senate Presiding Pasadomo's principles and policy goals aligned
5:56
Speaker 2: with the governor almost if not one hundred percent, and
6:00
Speaker 2: Speaker Renner really wanted his legacy as well to be
6:04
Speaker 2: one where conservative policy, both economic and social, was the
6:08
Speaker 2: hallmark of those two years that he was a presiding officer.
6:12
Speaker 1: Well, it's interesting because your colleague, doctor Bob McClure famously
6:18
Speaker 1: says good policy is good politics.
6:21
Speaker 2: Exactly, and so you delivered on that or they delivered
6:26
Speaker 2: on that policy agenda for two years. And at JMI,
6:30
Speaker 2: we published an article calling twenty twenty three the most
6:34
Speaker 2: accomplished legislative session of any state in the last one
6:38
Speaker 2: hundred years, and we rattled off all of the policy wins.
6:42
Speaker 2: And what happened as a result of that, twenty twenty
6:46
Speaker 2: four happens and they in the election cycle, the Republicans
6:50
Speaker 2: increased their super majority. So but now a couple of
6:55
Speaker 2: those were a couple of legislators flip parties, but they
6:58
Speaker 2: maintained an advance as on the conservative agenda. They maintained
7:02
Speaker 2: and advanced in their political successes.
7:05
Speaker 1: And this is on the wave of Dessanus upping his
7:08
Speaker 1: win margin by more than one million votes yep, which
7:12
Speaker 1: is staggering in Florida politics.
7:14
Speaker 2: It's unbelievable because when I was a JMI, we used
7:17
Speaker 2: to do these analyzes of you know, as we had
7:21
Speaker 2: such massive in migration from the Midwestern states and New
7:24
Speaker 2: England states of kind of political refugees what we called them.
7:28
Speaker 2: The big fear was would those individuals come down and
7:31
Speaker 2: then vote the way they voted to turn their own states?
7:35
Speaker 2: You know, in terrible directions, and they didn't. They came down,
7:38
Speaker 2: they recognized what they were are refugees exactly, and so
7:42
Speaker 2: they they voted for more Republicans. Now, you know, did
7:48
Speaker 2: the governor pull some you know kind of factions of
7:52
Speaker 2: the legislature along in specific votes? Did some of the
7:57
Speaker 2: more moderate Republicans from maybe some of those swing districts
8:02
Speaker 2: have to be you know, persuaded in certain ways to
8:06
Speaker 2: vote certain ways?
8:07
Speaker 1: Sure, you know.
8:09
Speaker 2: And what I have you know heard over time and
8:12
Speaker 2: have come to know the governor a little bit, is
8:15
Speaker 2: you know, is he the most touchy feely relationship minded
8:19
Speaker 2: governor politician out there? No, that's his strength is in policy. Yes,
8:25
Speaker 2: details his he's a wonk.
8:26
Speaker 1: He is a wonk.
8:27
Speaker 2: Now as a fellow nerd and wonk, I love this
8:31
Speaker 2: and I would rather have that. But you have a
8:35
Speaker 2: dynamic between the legislature and the governor where relationships do matter,
8:41
Speaker 2: and so relationship building is something that you know, the
8:45
Speaker 2: many would argue in the House that did not occur
8:47
Speaker 2: over the term.
8:48
Speaker 1: There's always going to be a need for a relationship
8:53
Speaker 1: between the executive branch, whether it's federal or whether it's
8:56
Speaker 1: state and the legislative branch. And there's no doubt that
9:01
Speaker 1: Governor DeSantis's biggest shortcoming is that that's not his skill set,
9:06
Speaker 1: is those relational types of parallels.
9:08
Speaker 2: Yep. Absolutely, And yet and yet I still come back
9:12
Speaker 2: to he pulled them along on policy, He got the
9:16
Speaker 2: agenda that everybody was just kind of in awe of,
9:20
Speaker 2: and then went out and the legislature increased their margin.
9:25
Speaker 2: And so you have that, and with that, Speaker Renner
9:31
Speaker 2: and Senate President Pasadomo kind of turnout of their time. However,
9:37
Speaker 2: I think it may be helpful as we come back
9:39
Speaker 2: on to talk about the way that Florida designates their
9:42
Speaker 2: presiding officers, because it's very, very unique.
9:48
Speaker 1: Back with sal Nouso of Consumer's Defense, He's been a
9:52
Speaker 1: student and I would argue, even a teacher in and
9:57
Speaker 1: around legislative things in the state Florida for a very
10:00
Speaker 1: long time. So explain to listeners that may not understand
10:04
Speaker 1: how the process works in the House and the Senate
10:08
Speaker 1: and the Republican Party and how they choose their leadership.
10:10
Speaker 2: Yeah, this is a very important thing to dissect because
10:13
Speaker 2: Florida does it in a way that I've been to
10:15
Speaker 2: almost every state in the country and talk with political
10:19
Speaker 2: leaders and advocates. Florida designates their leaders in a way
10:24
Speaker 2: unlike any other state. Now, part of this is a
10:27
Speaker 2: byproduct of term limits, because you only get eight years
10:31
Speaker 2: in the House and eight years in the Senate.
10:32
Speaker 1: Juxtapose that, what do most states do well? Some states
10:37
Speaker 1: who do not have term limits, they will have a
10:39
Speaker 1: speaker until that speaker is voted out by his colleagues
10:44
Speaker 1: or whatnot. Other states with term limits will designate a
10:49
Speaker 1: speaker for a period of four years in some cases,
10:52
Speaker 1: or a House or a Senate president. Others will elect
10:56
Speaker 1: a speaker at the last moment of an individual's term.
11:02
Speaker 1: So the way that Florida does this is when the
11:06
Speaker 1: freshman class is a senior class, they have the ability
11:12
Speaker 1: to designate as the class who they want the speaker
11:16
Speaker 1: to be. Now that sounds in theory reasonable. One of
11:20
Speaker 1: the challenges is when they do this. They do this
11:23
Speaker 1: when that freshman class are freshmen, so before they even
11:28
Speaker 1: really know each other precisely.
11:32
Speaker 2: And so we now know the lineup of speakers for
11:36
Speaker 2: the next eight years. So after Danny Perez, it is
11:39
Speaker 2: going to be Sam Garrison. After Sam Garrison, it will
11:42
Speaker 2: be Jennifer Kennedy, and after Jennifer Kennedy, we just learned
11:46
Speaker 2: last week looks like Mike Rodondo will be the speaker. Designant, designant, designant,
11:52
Speaker 2: And so, as you can imagine, this presents a series
11:56
Speaker 2: of potential problems that have borne out over the twenty
12:02
Speaker 2: some years that Republicans have been in charge. Ray Sansum,
12:05
Speaker 2: prior to becoming speaker, was indicted and had to leave
12:08
Speaker 2: the legislature. Although important to note the charges were dropped,
12:12
Speaker 2: but they had to designate somebody else. A number of
12:15
Speaker 2: years back, Chris Doorworth lost his election right before becoming speaker,
12:19
Speaker 2: and so they had to designate somebody else. I believe
12:21
Speaker 2: it was Steve Christal Folly. So Danny Perez was designated
12:26
Speaker 2: the speaker. He actually was what they call a red
12:30
Speaker 2: shirt freshman, which means he had one year of additional
12:34
Speaker 2: service on the front end because it may have been
12:37
Speaker 2: a special election or an open seat or something along
12:40
Speaker 2: those lines. So he had one additional year.
12:43
Speaker 1: He filled out a term somehow.
12:44
Speaker 2: Yes, and because of that and then generating goodwill in
12:49
Speaker 2: whatever the process is for cultivating your classmates, was designated
12:54
Speaker 2: speaker long before he became speaker. Does the Senate do
12:58
Speaker 2: it the same way largely? Yeah, it's a little less
13:02
Speaker 2: formal in terms of I don't know that they have
13:06
Speaker 2: actual pledge cards in the way that the House does it.
13:10
Speaker 2: But there have been some back and forth battles, the
13:13
Speaker 2: most notable one being Jack latt Vala and the guy
13:18
Speaker 2: that ended up becoming Senate President that I cannot even remember.
13:25
Speaker 1: That is how how my brain wasn't. John Thrasher was no.
13:30
Speaker 2: No, John Thrasher was the House Speaker back in the
13:33
Speaker 2: early two thousands or late nineteen nineties. I cannot remember
13:37
Speaker 2: the man's name who was a Senate president back then,
13:40
Speaker 2: but his leadership priority was the reservoir for the Lake Okuchobee.
13:46
Speaker 2: And so Danny Perez has been in line to be
13:49
Speaker 2: speaker for a number of years, and over that time
13:54
Speaker 2: you begin to learn the protocols and processes, You become
13:58
Speaker 2: part of the leadership track, You begin to take over
14:00
Speaker 2: specific committee chairs and learn how the process kind of
14:05
Speaker 2: works itself out enough prior to becoming your designated speaker term.
14:11
Speaker 1: Of two years, we may not have time to peel
14:15
Speaker 1: this apple completely, but the House Speaker, Danny Perez rolled
14:19
Speaker 1: out a videotape where he highlighted previous speakers, but he
14:23
Speaker 1: left the speaker out. What was that about it?
14:26
Speaker 2: This was a pretty bold snub in my opinion. So
14:30
Speaker 2: we have had Republican Speakers of the House for twenty
14:34
Speaker 2: five years, and so in kind of celebrating that, the
14:39
Speaker 2: Speaker had the House Communications Office prepared as really really
14:44
Speaker 2: wonderful video celebrating twenty five years of House leadership, and
14:48
Speaker 2: he had segments for each speaker over that time, and
14:53
Speaker 2: it featured them in the video, their name, the years
14:56
Speaker 2: they served, really really touching. Interestingly enough, he went from
15:03
Speaker 2: Richard Corkoran to Chris Sprows and left out the two
15:07
Speaker 2: year term of Speaker Josea Leva, And there was no
15:12
Speaker 2: way that that was not deliberate. There was some contentiousness
15:16
Speaker 2: between the two. Speaker Aliva had been vocal in his
15:23
Speaker 2: concerns about whether or not Speaker Perez was actually conservative,
15:27
Speaker 2: and in a reply actually on x SO It's Public
15:32
Speaker 2: actually called him a wolf in sheep's clothing.
15:36
Speaker 1: Back with Salnuzo consumer's defense. And we're kind of talking
15:41
Speaker 1: through how we are where we are, and we now
15:45
Speaker 1: come to I mean, quite frankly, I have pointed out that,
15:50
Speaker 1: you know, the indicator is that the House Speaker with
15:55
Speaker 1: the tax proposal really scuttled everything in the budget process. Yeah,
16:00
Speaker 1: and that's a good Well, I'm sorry. And you pointed
16:03
Speaker 1: out that there seemingly was an axe to grind in
16:07
Speaker 1: that little video that they rolled out that didn't include
16:10
Speaker 1: if one speaker one. Yeah, and so, but that's not
16:14
Speaker 1: all that's happening. No, And I think it's important to
16:17
Speaker 1: point out. So Speaker Perez comes in and he really
16:21
Speaker 1: wants to, in his mind, re establish the legislature's identity
16:26
Speaker 1: is a coequal branch of government. And there may have
16:29
Speaker 1: been some in the caucus that felt like the governor
16:32
Speaker 1: just rolled over them, and that may be a point
16:35
Speaker 1: of contention in there may or may not be truth
16:38
Speaker 1: to that. However, he comes in and he's younger, he's
16:43
Speaker 1: from Miami, he's Cuban, a little bit more aggressive than
16:47
Speaker 1: prior speakers might have been, comes out guns blazing. Immediately.
16:51
Speaker 2: The governor called this for the special session to deal
16:54
Speaker 2: with immigration policy, the Condo safety issue, ballot initiatives. The
16:59
Speaker 2: Speaker and the Senate President immediately said, no, we do
17:05
Speaker 2: not need this special session. We can tackle these issues
17:08
Speaker 2: in regular session.
17:09
Speaker 1: But it's not as if the governor blindsided them. He
17:11
Speaker 1: met with them privately before this was ever even an
17:15
Speaker 1: issue publicly.
17:15
Speaker 2: That is correct, and so but then it's telling what
17:20
Speaker 2: they did do. So they're required to come in because
17:23
Speaker 2: the governor did call the special session, so they gabble in,
17:27
Speaker 2: immediately gabble out, and then they gabbled back in their
17:32
Speaker 2: own special session, which to me indicates as an observer
17:37
Speaker 2: to this, it's all theater. It's all theatrics designed to
17:41
Speaker 2: set a tone, and that tone took us all the
17:45
Speaker 2: way through the remainder of the session.
17:47
Speaker 1: And that's the way a policy guy like yourself would
17:50
Speaker 1: look at it. I more of a people or lay
17:54
Speaker 1: person view of this, looked at it and said, this
17:57
Speaker 1: is childish. You say theatric. I called it childish, and
18:02
Speaker 1: I maintained that it's childish, and it was indicative of
18:05
Speaker 1: where they were coming from. You know, it's telling to me,
18:08
Speaker 1: sal that for the first time. I mean, is there
18:11
Speaker 1: a more conservative person on radio in Florida than me?
18:15
Speaker 1: I don't know of one. Maybe there is, but the
18:18
Speaker 1: fact of the matter is I'm in Florida State Capitol
18:20
Speaker 1: and this is the first time I can remember where
18:23
Speaker 1: I didn't have one single lawmaker agree to come on
18:26
Speaker 1: this program.
18:27
Speaker 2: That to me is is shocking. I will say, because
18:31
Speaker 2: I've been with you for many years. You have always
18:35
Speaker 2: had members who have come on and talked through their bills,
18:39
Speaker 2: their committee chairmanships, the speakers and so forth. So yeah,
18:43
Speaker 2: it's a let me tell.
18:45
Speaker 1: Me, let me let me run this observation by you
18:47
Speaker 1: and get your position, your thought on this. If I'm
18:51
Speaker 1: just someone advising the House and the Senate, I would
18:54
Speaker 1: remind them ever so gently, or maybe not so much.
18:58
Speaker 1: Each of you were elected by a very sliver of
19:02
Speaker 1: this state, and the governor was elected by the entire
19:05
Speaker 1: state and represents the will of the people of this
19:08
Speaker 1: state far more than an individual lawmaker. Yep.
19:12
Speaker 2: And you would not be the first to make that claim,
19:16
Speaker 2: and I don't discount it at all.
19:19
Speaker 1: I would say.
19:20
Speaker 2: That there is an assessment by many in the legislative
19:27
Speaker 2: chamber that they have not been viewed as a coequal
19:32
Speaker 2: branch as they are designed to be, and therefore this
19:37
Speaker 2: is all a part of their strategy to become one.
19:41
Speaker 2: I disagree with it, and I think from a policy side,
19:46
Speaker 2: we have suffered because of yes.
19:48
Speaker 1: So yeah, And that's the bottom line. It doesn't matter
19:52
Speaker 1: whether you like the person or don't like the person.
19:54
Speaker 1: Is the idea good and is it in keeping with
19:58
Speaker 1: conservative i e. Republic Can Party ideals? You got it.
20:02
Speaker 1: That's all that should matter. Yep.
20:04
Speaker 2: Not who the inventor of it is. You are, in
20:06
Speaker 2: my opinion, one hundred percent correct.
20:08
Speaker 1: Someone once said great things can happen if no one
20:10
Speaker 1: cares who gets the credit. Maybe that's something some lawmakers
20:13
Speaker 1: need to think about. Forty minutes past the hour, more
20:15
Speaker 1: to come. So we're at a budget stalemate between the
20:18
Speaker 1: House and the Senate. Yes, and then we've got the
20:21
Speaker 1: governor sitting out there where We're not sure where they are,
20:24
Speaker 1: but as of right now, the Senate is closer, it
20:27
Speaker 1: would seem to the governor. Well.
20:30
Speaker 2: At one point, about a week or two ago, we
20:33
Speaker 2: had an agreement in principle between the House and the
20:37
Speaker 2: Senate to finalize a compromise budget that would cut the
20:41
Speaker 2: sales tax rate that would include some things from the Senate.
20:44
Speaker 2: It wasn't as robust as this as the House had
20:48
Speaker 2: initially proposed, and they would appoint a special task force
20:52
Speaker 2: to study property tax relief for twenty twenty six. The
20:57
Speaker 2: Governor began holding some round table I believe, last week,
21:02
Speaker 2: and in his very first one, he said that he
21:06
Speaker 2: considered the sales tax cut Florida last policy, and any
21:11
Speaker 2: Florida last policy would be da upon arrival, which means
21:16
Speaker 2: he would veto the budget when it got to him.
21:20
Speaker 2: And that now I'm going to speculate at this point,
21:24
Speaker 2: because I don't know. My thought is is that the
21:26
Speaker 2: House probably had enough votes to override that I don't
21:30
Speaker 2: know that the Senate did, and it could very well
21:32
Speaker 2: be the case that the Senate president pulled his members,
21:35
Speaker 2: discovered that they did not have the votes to override
21:38
Speaker 2: the veto, and therefore realized, all right, well we've got
21:41
Speaker 2: to do something different. And so now it looks like
21:45
Speaker 2: the Governor and the Senate are at least temporarily aligned
21:52
Speaker 2: against and I say against, but against the House on
21:57
Speaker 2: the specifics of the tax part of budget.
22:01
Speaker 1: What kind of time frame that we're looking at before
22:03
Speaker 1: they sit down and actually figure it out.
22:06
Speaker 2: And this is very important because the fiscal year ends
22:10
Speaker 2: June thirty, the new fiscal year begins July one, they
22:13
Speaker 2: have to have a budget set and approved and signed
22:17
Speaker 2: and enacted by then, or we have a Florida version
22:21
Speaker 2: of a government shutdown, and I that would be so
22:24
Speaker 2: embarrassing and I don't know how that would even look,
22:27
Speaker 2: but I have no doubt there will be a number
22:30
Speaker 2: of articles coming out in the next week or two
22:34
Speaker 2: talking about what to expect should this happen, because they
22:38
Speaker 2: have they're going to vote on an extension of the
22:41
Speaker 2: session to June thirty just to be able to come
22:44
Speaker 2: back whenever they need to. And then what they're going
22:47
Speaker 2: to do is somehow negotiate something that will end up
22:52
Speaker 2: being what they land on.
22:54
Speaker 1: Now.
22:55
Speaker 2: I did read somewhere or hear that the Republican Party
22:58
Speaker 2: of Florida in the chair Heavan Power are kind of
23:02
Speaker 2: inviting all of the leadership in the Governor's office to
23:05
Speaker 2: come together for a kind of negotiation strategy session to
23:10
Speaker 2: figure out the exit ramp for this. We're definitely in
23:13
Speaker 2: our uncharted territory. I mean, we've had delays on the budget,
23:17
Speaker 2: they'd have to come back a week later or something
23:19
Speaker 2: like that. We have not had something like this in
23:23
Speaker 2: my time in Florida policy, which is coming up on
23:25
Speaker 2: thirty years and quite possibly in modern history.
23:29
Speaker 1: If you were to make an educated guess on where
23:32
Speaker 1: you think this lands. Where does it land?
23:35
Speaker 2: My guess is that they will arrive at a budget
23:41
Speaker 2: that is closer to where the governor wants it to be.
23:47
Speaker 2: If there is a sales tax cut, I do not
23:50
Speaker 2: see it being anything that the House Speaker would be
23:54
Speaker 2: able to claim success on my government.
23:57
Speaker 1: Sales tax cut is not smart.
24:00
Speaker 2: I don't believe it to be the smartest use of
24:03
Speaker 2: a tax cut, given Florida's specifics, the fact that we
24:07
Speaker 2: are a heavy tourism state, that we are a state
24:12
Speaker 2: that I believe it somewhere between twenty five and thirty
24:14
Speaker 2: percent of the sales tax revenues are paid for by
24:18
Speaker 2: people who are not residents, and we don't have a
24:21
Speaker 2: personal income tax, and we buy stuff yep, and we
24:25
Speaker 2: don't have a personal income tax. So my guess is
24:28
Speaker 2: is that we do not get anything in this budget
24:32
Speaker 2: that is going to be a monumental or transformational shift. Ye,
24:36
Speaker 2: but that it may tee up something very big for
24:40
Speaker 2: twenty twenty six, which I've been arguing for a while.
24:44
Speaker 2: If you're going to do a big tax cut, you
24:46
Speaker 2: might want to consider doing it in an election year
24:49
Speaker 2: cycle anyway. And so that would be my educated guess.
24:53
Speaker 2: But as I have come to find out this year,
24:57
Speaker 2: educated guesses are heavy on the guests.
25:00
Speaker 1: And light on the educated. Thanks for the time, always
25:04
Speaker 1: a pleasure, my friend sal news Oh with Consumers Defense
25:07
Speaker 1: my guest on the Morning Show with Preston Scott. I'm
25:11
Speaker 1: gonna take the lead here. You're putting it off, so
25:14
Speaker 1: someone's got to nudge you just a little bit, and
25:17
Speaker 1: by golly, I'll be the