Latest / Conversations: Special Guests with Preston Scott / Florida's Legislative Session Is Over ... Sort Of

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Florida's Legislative Session Is Over ... Sort Of · Conversations: Special Guests with Preston Scott

• 0:04
  Speaker 1: Well, let's go ahead. It's it's the third hour of
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: the Morning Show with Preston Scott. I was sound nw SO,
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: executive director of Consumers Defense, and we're gonna we're gonna,
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: as we do from time to time, we're gonna make
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: some time in the coming months to just have you
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: in to talk about Consumers Defense. Absolutely, because you you
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: are so kind and and I get it. I mean
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: there's there's some overlap of what happens in the Florida
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: session and what you do with with Consumers Defense.
• 0:33
  Speaker 2: Yeah, in fact, we had several of our initiatives have
• 0:38
  Speaker 2: been adopted by the legislature, a couple didn't, and couple
• 0:40
  Speaker 2: didn't make it into final bills, and so there's always
• 0:43
  Speaker 2: gonna be more to do. But definitely would welcome the
• 0:48
  Speaker 2: opportunity and the off season to kind of dive in
• 0:50
  Speaker 2: on some of the specific topics because the environment and
• 0:53
  Speaker 2: landscape of what we do specifically with ESG has changed
• 0:57
  Speaker 2: a lot from these broad based kind of bills and
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: anti ESG packages to really surgical strikes that most people
• 1:05
  Speaker 2: are impacted by but don't understand. And so yeah, I
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: would love to love to be able to get back
• 1:11
  Speaker 2: in and chat there is it too simple to say
• 1:16
  Speaker 2: they shut down the session and they're going to come
• 1:18
  Speaker 2: back in a couple of weeks. I mean, that's the did.
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: They signy die?
• 1:22
  Speaker 2: They did they?
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: How did they sign and die without fulfilling their constitutional responsibility?
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: That's a question from a listener, It's a great question.
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: And the action of signe die simply means without day
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: they adjourned, without a day that they are designated to
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: come back. So yes, they did finish without I guess,
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: finishing quotation marks. They did conclude without their one constitutional requirement,
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: passing a balance budget. They will come back sometime after
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: I think the Easter holiday, and in the interim who knows,
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: to try and work out the differences, bridge the gap somehow.
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: I've been able to discern a few specifics and some
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: others that are still up in the air on how
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: that gap is looking. But yeah, it's it's it's all
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: up for grabs now. Since as best you know, since
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: Jeb Bush took office, and since Republicans have held the
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: majority in the House in the Senate, have we seen
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: two consecutive sessions where they didn't patch a pass budget.
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: And it's in the regular session.
• 2:28
  Speaker 2: Not too consecutive. I do believe this is the first
• 2:31
  Speaker 2: time where an entire cycle of leadership both the Senate
• 2:37
  Speaker 2: President and the House Speaker concluded the concluded the session
• 2:42
  Speaker 2: regular session without without the budget.
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: Yet Yeah, I like my word failed anyway. So so
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: where are we now on the budget? Where so we've
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: we've we're not putting a period on the sentence. We're
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: putting a comma or maybe a semi col Yeah. So
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: right now, the sides are the two chain are about
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: one point four billion dollars apart. Now, when you take
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: that into account relative to the size of the actual budget,
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: initially it does not appear like it should be that
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: big of a deal. It's around one point two percent
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: of the entire budget. And I you know, it may
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: make individuals who are not paying attention wonder why can't
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: they just figure out meet in the middle somehow do
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: something that bridges the gap. It does seem silly.
• 3:29
  Speaker 2: Yeah, well, and this is not for me. I did
• 3:33
  Speaker 2: get this from some reporting of folks that I follow
• 3:36
  Speaker 2: a lot who are really kind of into the weeds.
• 3:40
  Speaker 2: It looks like, based on some reporting, one billion dollars
• 3:43
  Speaker 2: of that one point four billion dollar gap was solely
• 3:46
  Speaker 2: a disagreement between the Senate, which wanted that billion dollars
• 3:50
  Speaker 2: as what they call a sprinkle list at the tail
• 3:53
  Speaker 2: end of the conferencing, they'll start dropping money on projects
• 3:56
  Speaker 2: in order to you know, not necessarily twist arms to votes,
• 4:00
  Speaker 2: but to bring folks into the tent on the full
• 4:03
  Speaker 2: budget vote, and so.
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: For twist arms to get for however you want to
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: describe it.
• 4:10
  Speaker 2: And so a billion of that gap was a disagreement,
• 4:14
  Speaker 2: potentially a disagreement between the Senate, which wanted it for
• 4:16
  Speaker 2: sprinkle lists for the Senate President's rural county projects, which
• 4:21
  Speaker 2: he did not get his priority, the rural Renaissance Cory
• 4:27
  Speaker 2: Simon's bill. Part of it was there were some other
• 4:30
  Speaker 2: bills that you know, kind of kind of corresponded to it,
• 4:34
  Speaker 2: and the House the Speaker just flat out refusing to
• 4:37
  Speaker 2: budget and they dug in their heels on that billion
• 4:39
  Speaker 2: dollars and that led to or in my kind of predicting,
• 4:45
  Speaker 2: that likely led to some volleying back and forth, well
• 4:49
  Speaker 2: we're not going to take up this, and then we're
• 4:51
  Speaker 2: in the Domino's just cascade, and in the end we
• 4:54
  Speaker 2: are where we are.
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: Is there something that is big on the Speaker's list
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: that didn't get done. That you could say, Okay, we're
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: going to probably see this happen. We're going to get
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: that done in return for that getting done.
• 5:06
  Speaker 2: Well, the interesting thing is the Speaker's healthcare priorities did
• 5:09
  Speaker 2: not make it through. The Senate did not take it up.
• 5:12
  Speaker 2: But unless they designate that as a part of a
• 5:15
  Speaker 2: special session, I don't believe they would be able to
• 5:18
  Speaker 2: take that up because it's a new Yeah, it is
• 5:21
  Speaker 2: not the regular session.
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: All right, So we've got the one constitutionally mandated item
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: undone what got done? So I did look and each
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: week we've kind of walked through because it was such
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: an anomaly and how few bills had passed the full legislature.
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: So at sine die, they had passed a total of
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: one hundred and seven general bills, and the final week
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: was definitely the biggest push. How does that compare it
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: to an average year.
• 5:50
  Speaker 2: It's maybe a third of what they would normally do,
• 5:53
  Speaker 2: and I think it was over three, maybe close to
• 5:56
  Speaker 2: four hundred bills in some of the early years of
• 6:00
  Speaker 2: the governor's term. In twenty twenty three, it was I
• 6:03
  Speaker 2: believe more than three hundred.
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: What would you say to the people out there that
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: are the limited government folks out there that say, Okay,
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: then that's good. A third two thirds less than normal,
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: less damage done.
• 6:16
  Speaker 2: I would suggest that two things. One is, there is,
• 6:19
  Speaker 2: as we have articulated in many, many weeks, as we've
• 6:22
  Speaker 2: gone through this, there's a lot of low hanging fruit
• 6:25
  Speaker 2: of conservative, limited government policies that can and should be
• 6:29
  Speaker 2: enacted by the legislature where they didn't. Secondly, Florida evolves.
• 6:35
  Speaker 2: We are a high growth state as a function of
• 6:39
  Speaker 2: that massive in migration that we've experienced over the last
• 6:43
  Speaker 2: four years. We have to put things in place that
• 6:48
  Speaker 2: allow the state to adapt and evolve and continue to
• 6:53
  Speaker 2: grow and flourish and prosper economically. That does not happen
• 6:57
  Speaker 2: when the legislature is not addressing things like affordable housing,
• 7:04
  Speaker 2: the property insurance and property tax issues, all of those things.
• 7:08
  Speaker 2: We had probably five years of really great, sound conservative
• 7:14
  Speaker 2: policy and then just this cliff. And that's where I
• 7:18
  Speaker 2: think I appreciate that argument, and in most states I
• 7:22
  Speaker 2: would absolutely agree. I just think there was too much
• 7:25
  Speaker 2: low hanging fruit here because there's more to get done.
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: Exactly all right, last week you really did a wonderful
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: job breaking down the items that are dead, the ones
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: that are hanging in there, and the ones that got
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: across the finish line. What the items that are dead,
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: dead or dead dead.
• 7:42
  Speaker 2: Almost all of them. So on the ones that I
• 7:44
  Speaker 2: classified last week as dead. Of the major ones, you
• 7:47
  Speaker 2: got property tax reform at least for the regular session,
• 7:50
  Speaker 2: dead e Verify, loophole, closing dead AI Bill of Rights,
• 7:54
  Speaker 2: firearm purchases for eighteen nineteen twenty year olds, the training wage,
• 7:59
  Speaker 2: advanced Nuclear EA actors, the vaccine exemption reform, the Medicaid
• 8:03
  Speaker 2: work requirements, and the Personhood amendments. All of those continue
• 8:06
  Speaker 2: to be dead. We did have one that I would
• 8:09
  Speaker 2: call the Lazarus Bill. It got raised from the dead,
• 8:12
  Speaker 2: uh cent It Bill eleven thirty four. I'd classified it
• 8:15
  Speaker 2: as dead. It bans all DEI programs in local governments.
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: But how are they gonna We've already seen We've We've
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: had guys that do investigative reporting on college campuses in
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: Florida saying they're just using different words. They are.
• 8:31
  Speaker 2: And the bill, as I read it, goes at specific
• 8:35
  Speaker 2: definitions and actions. So there no matter how you no
• 8:39
  Speaker 2: matter how you do it. Yeah, no matter how you
• 8:41
  Speaker 2: title it. You cannot get grants for certain things, you
• 8:44
  Speaker 2: can't use state funds for certain things. You you know,
• 8:46
  Speaker 2: there are enforcement mechanisms in place. I think that as
• 8:50
  Speaker 2: this bill rolls out and locals adapt, it's going to
• 8:54
  Speaker 2: have some teeth to it.
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: We we spent some time talking about the bills that
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: are basically dead. I mean, and we're not talking about
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: anything that's coming up in special session, but the rest
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: what's on life support?
• 9:05
  Speaker 2: So life support, that list that we had, it was
• 9:08
  Speaker 2: kind of a mixed bag in terms of where they
• 9:09
  Speaker 2: landed at the end. So the Blue Ribbon Projects Bill,
• 9:13
  Speaker 2: which was one of I believe the Senate President wanted it,
• 9:16
  Speaker 2: that would have allowed for sort of mixed use and
• 9:22
  Speaker 2: high density development if more land was carved out in
• 9:26
  Speaker 2: specific areas for conservation.
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: That died.
• 9:29
  Speaker 2: One carlos Porus's bill on HOA reform, which would have
• 9:33
  Speaker 2: radically changed the transparency and disclosure of hoas and the
• 9:38
  Speaker 2: ability of individuals to jettison their hoas that died, And
• 9:43
  Speaker 2: as I mentioned in the prior segment, the healthcare bills
• 9:46
  Speaker 2: from the Speaker's Priority Agenda, the ones that expanded scope
• 9:50
  Speaker 2: of practice on specific nurse practitioners. The dental therapy bill died.
• 9:55
  Speaker 2: A number of other kind of educational and training p
• 10:00
  Speaker 2: in healthcare that all died, but there were two from
• 10:03
  Speaker 2: that list that last.
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: Week that did make it okay.
• 10:06
  Speaker 2: HB fourteen fifty one Municipal Utilities Rep. Demi Bisada. It
• 10:10
  Speaker 2: passed on the final day. Now, there were some amendments
• 10:13
  Speaker 2: to it, and I'm examining a little bit to trying
• 10:15
  Speaker 2: to discern the final impact what it might be on
• 10:18
  Speaker 2: a city like Tallahassee. One thing in particular, I did
• 10:21
  Speaker 2: find it lowers. Apparently there is a service charge that
• 10:26
  Speaker 2: if you are not in the incorporated area but you're
• 10:28
  Speaker 2: receiving water and sewer, they charge like a fifty percent
• 10:31
  Speaker 2: tax or something. They're going to lower that immediately to
• 10:34
  Speaker 2: twenty five percent. There's also some designations on how much
• 10:38
  Speaker 2: they can send from the utility revenue into the general
• 10:42
  Speaker 2: fund of the municipal government. I'm just going to finalize
• 10:45
  Speaker 2: what that specific number is and try it.
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: If they reduce the task, can they offset that by
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: changing the rate.
• 10:50
  Speaker 2: It's entirely possible, and without a tax reform proposal that's
• 10:54
  Speaker 2: going on the ballot, we really don't know how this
• 10:56
  Speaker 2: would interplay with that. Okay, The other big one that
• 10:59
  Speaker 2: is really worth mentioning is the data center bill they
• 11:02
  Speaker 2: passed SB forty four from Brian Novola. It is kind
• 11:07
  Speaker 2: of a mixed bag, and as I mentioned to you
• 11:08
  Speaker 2: kind of offline, this is one that's dividing groups that
• 11:12
  Speaker 2: are normally within the traditional conservative Republican ecosphere. You've got
• 11:17
  Speaker 2: so a data center can be permitted to be built
• 11:21
  Speaker 2: in the state, so permits are allowed, but it will
• 11:24
  Speaker 2: require the use of reclaimed water whenever available, and if
• 11:27
  Speaker 2: it's not available, they will have to prove I believe
• 11:30
  Speaker 2: scientifically that their operations will not impact negatively the existing
• 11:36
  Speaker 2: water supply in that area. Non disclosures, which was a
• 11:40
  Speaker 2: big sticking point in this bill. Non disclosures are permitted
• 11:45
  Speaker 2: currently in the bill, so they can force the people
• 11:49
  Speaker 2: who are building it, who are working it, who are
• 11:51
  Speaker 2: developing it, the government officials that are negotiating it to
• 11:54
  Speaker 2: sign non disclosures. But they may come back and tighten
• 11:57
  Speaker 2: this language, is what I'm hearing, because there could be
• 12:00
  Speaker 2: some concerns on the constitutionality in it. There is no
• 12:04
  Speaker 2: buffer in terms of how far away from a school
• 12:08
  Speaker 2: a sensitive property or something like that, that they can
• 12:11
  Speaker 2: be built, but rate payers have to be held harmless
• 12:14
  Speaker 2: on the energy cost. So as these things come online,
• 12:16
  Speaker 2: they're going to use a whole lot more water, a
• 12:18
  Speaker 2: whole lot more energy.
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: And that use can't cause demand issues for everybody else exactly.
• 12:24
  Speaker 2: And to remind everybody, Florida is a regulated monopoly on utilities.
• 12:29
  Speaker 2: So if the utility wants to increase their rates, they
• 12:33
  Speaker 2: got to go before the Public Service Commission and make
• 12:35
  Speaker 2: a case for that. They will not be able to
• 12:37
  Speaker 2: do that if it is related to the impact of
• 12:42
  Speaker 2: a data center. So you've got that in place. Like
• 12:46
  Speaker 2: I said, it was one where it was a mixed bag.
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: Does the data center thing have beyond the utility issue?
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: Does it have any practical impact on consumers? On people
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: listening right now? Oh gosh. Yeah.
• 13:00
  Speaker 2: And this goes to you know, data centers have to
• 13:05
  Speaker 2: be built somewhere, and I understand everybody's fear behind it,
• 13:10
  Speaker 2: but when you start talking about the things we use
• 13:14
  Speaker 2: the cloud for every single day, there is going to
• 13:18
  Speaker 2: be a need for these large scale I think they
• 13:21
  Speaker 2: call them hyper scale data centers. They're just going to
• 13:24
  Speaker 2: need to be built. Now where they get built and
• 13:26
  Speaker 2: where that footprint is is very important.
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: I'm not sure.
• 13:30
  Speaker 2: South Florida is the best spot for this, but you know,
• 13:34
  Speaker 2: and as we've talked, I'm on the fence on how
• 13:38
  Speaker 2: much of a bubble AI is to this. But there
• 13:42
  Speaker 2: are a thousand different things that I would make the
• 13:44
  Speaker 2: case we do need data centers. I'm just I'm I'm
• 13:49
  Speaker 2: with some of the folks on this that I need
• 13:51
  Speaker 2: to see a little bit more before I'm really comfortable
• 13:54
  Speaker 2: with Florida in some spots doing them.
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: I've got two words for anybody out there that thinks
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: we need a bunch of data centers and we got
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: to rely on the cloud. You know. Those two words
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: are memory sticks. Yeah, the morning show band, all the genres,
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: all the styles. They are the best in the business.
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: Back with Salnuzo speaking of best in the business, keeping
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: us as informed as can be at this train wreck
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: known as the legislative Session. My words, not his. We
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: were talking about bills that are dead. We're talking about
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: bills that survived. Now we're talking about the jump balls.
• 14:35
  Speaker 2: Sure, and last week we didn't get to a lot
• 14:37
  Speaker 2: of these. There was a long list of things that
• 14:39
  Speaker 2: were kind of still in play. They had momentum, they
• 14:43
  Speaker 2: weren't necessarily on life support, but anything could happen in
• 14:46
  Speaker 2: that final week, and so kind of ran through them,
• 14:50
  Speaker 2: looked over all of the bills, paid attention and here
• 14:53
  Speaker 2: are some that I think are you know, on the
• 14:55
  Speaker 2: list of impactful. Maybe not the most impactful in your life,
• 14:58
  Speaker 2: but things that would be worth mentioning. So nine to
• 15:03
  Speaker 2: fifty one from Fiona McFarlane. We will now have rules
• 15:07
  Speaker 2: for how to round up or down on if a
• 15:11
  Speaker 2: if a charge comes in not on the nickel, so
• 15:15
  Speaker 2: penny rounding rules are going to be in place. Basically,
• 15:18
  Speaker 2: if it's three cent, if it's on the three, it
• 15:20
  Speaker 2: goes up. If it's below the three, it goes down.
• 15:23
  Speaker 2: HB Three ninety nine from David Barrero. This one's one.
• 15:27
  Speaker 2: I paid attention to land use restrictions. It had a
• 15:29
  Speaker 2: lot of amendments in there that stripped out some various
• 15:32
  Speaker 2: pieces of the bill. What remains are provisions that are
• 15:35
  Speaker 2: going to force the municipal governments to prove some type
• 15:39
  Speaker 2: of reasonable standard when they enact or implement things like
• 15:43
  Speaker 2: a permitting fee or a user fee or a use fee,
• 15:46
  Speaker 2: along with requiring those local comprehensive plans in the land
• 15:50
  Speaker 2: development rags. They've got to include objective criteria for determining
• 15:55
  Speaker 2: whether residential uses are compatible with surrounding neighborhoods. So if
• 16:00
  Speaker 2: you want to build a twenty story skyrise condo in
• 16:05
  Speaker 2: the middle of a suburban bedroom community, that's not going
• 16:10
  Speaker 2: to be kosher. But they've got to do some standardization
• 16:13
  Speaker 2: of what rejection looks like versus not. Okay, a big one,
• 16:17
  Speaker 2: and I'm gonna mention Jenna Persons three times. She gets
• 16:20
  Speaker 2: the hat trick for probably the most valuable legislator in
• 16:25
  Speaker 2: Tallahassee this session. So nine oh five Foreign Influence. This
• 16:31
  Speaker 2: is a major bill. We were a not a big
• 16:34
  Speaker 2: part of the bill. We were a big supporter of
• 16:37
  Speaker 2: many of the provisions in this It is going after
• 16:41
  Speaker 2: the degree to which foreign bad actors, namely the CCP,
• 16:45
  Speaker 2: but some others are kind of infiltrating the state. It
• 16:50
  Speaker 2: would prohibit public officials, government employees and candidates, and local
• 16:53
  Speaker 2: government attorneys from soliciting or accepting gifts from entities that
• 16:57
  Speaker 2: represent foreign countries who are on that designated list of
• 17:02
  Speaker 2: seven Countries of concern. It would expand training requirements for
• 17:06
  Speaker 2: public officials through the Florida Commission on Ethics and they'll
• 17:09
  Speaker 2: develop some additional coursework along those lines. It would authorize
• 17:14
  Speaker 2: the tax collectors and the local governments to revoke or
• 17:17
  Speaker 2: refuse any business tax receipts for companies that are doing
• 17:21
  Speaker 2: business with Cuba and violation of federal law. And it
• 17:25
  Speaker 2: prohibits state agencies, local governments, and public schools from entering
• 17:30
  Speaker 2: into they used to call them sister city agreements or
• 17:33
  Speaker 2: sister groups, from accepting grants from foreign countries of concern
• 17:36
  Speaker 2: or entities controlled by them. So there were a handful
• 17:40
  Speaker 2: of things that were amended out, in particular a registration
• 17:44
  Speaker 2: requirement at the federal government. If you were representing, say Venezuela,
• 17:49
  Speaker 2: you have to register as a foreign agent, and the
• 17:53
  Speaker 2: designation is different if it's on that list of seven countries.
• 17:57
  Speaker 2: The countries of concernop poll has always been. There is
• 18:01
  Speaker 2: no state what they call afara far registration, and some
• 18:07
  Speaker 2: states are adopting them. Florida has not yet. That was
• 18:10
  Speaker 2: amended out there, but so that's the Foreign Influence Bill.
• 18:13
  Speaker 2: She also had the Big Elections Package nine ninety one
• 18:17
  Speaker 2: citizenship proof. The current system will compare with the Department
• 18:22
  Speaker 2: of highway safety records for citizenship status. The big change
• 18:28
  Speaker 2: on IDs is no more will student IDs be accepted
• 18:31
  Speaker 2: at the polls as a valid form of identification.
• 18:34
  Speaker 1: I have real ID in some form, right yep.
• 18:37
  Speaker 2: It has to be a driver's license, a passport or something.
• 18:40
  Speaker 2: There's a list of things that'll work. They did roll
• 18:44
  Speaker 2: in the language from another bill on the party flip flopping.
• 18:47
  Speaker 2: You have to be a member of the party in
• 18:49
  Speaker 2: good standing for three hundred and sixty five days. That's
• 18:51
  Speaker 2: in there, and starting in twenty seven new licenses will
• 18:55
  Speaker 2: display a citizenship designation. So that is on the horizon.
• 19:02
  Speaker 2: And the last big one was the Union Reform Bill
• 19:04
  Speaker 2: twelve ninety six and nine ninety five. The sixty percent
• 19:07
  Speaker 2: threshold to retain certifications still there. If you're decertified, you
• 19:11
  Speaker 2: have to get fifty percent of the available members to
• 19:15
  Speaker 2: turn out and vote and then get a majority of that.
• 19:19
  Speaker 2: Now you've mentioned in the past and it's a great
• 19:21
  Speaker 2: concern that the teachers who are not in the bargaining
• 19:25
  Speaker 2: unit are bound by you know, the unions that are
• 19:28
  Speaker 2: acting poorly. This pairs with HB twelve seventy nine from
• 19:32
  Speaker 2: King Car Johnson. It allows school districts to for go
• 19:35
  Speaker 2: collective bargaining and give raises to teachers immediately, especially appointed
• 19:42
  Speaker 2: in the cases like Leon County where the union was
• 19:44
  Speaker 2: holding up negotiations and teachers never saw the raises that
• 19:47
  Speaker 2: the legislature had enacted.
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: Is that available to non union members.
• 19:51
  Speaker 2: It's available to everybody, Okay, does not matter. So it
• 19:55
  Speaker 2: provides another avenue. Now it's not the brass ring, which
• 19:59
  Speaker 2: is where as an individual teacher, I can go to
• 20:01
  Speaker 2: my principal, look at the schedule on the salary range
• 20:05
  Speaker 2: and say I've got this negotiation, yeah, and negotiate individually.
• 20:09
  Speaker 2: But it is definitely a great step in the right direction.
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: We've been talking about some things that were a fifty
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: to fifty kind of a jump ball. Jump ball, and
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: I'll just keep running through. You got one eighty two
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: in the education space. It was a teacher training and
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: mentor program. I mention it because it kind of became
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: a little bit of an omnibus what they call a
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: train bill. Included in it was the bill from Toby
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: Orverdorf which requires cursive writing instruction in schools. Now, I
• 20:32
  Speaker 1: got to find out how long that's going to take
• 20:35
  Speaker 1: to get up and running. You've got fifteen sixty eight
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: from Nick de Segley stable coin payment framework, So we're
• 20:43
  Speaker 1: going to begin discussing the framework for if government wants
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: to use stable coin, which are crypto but tied to
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: actual physical assets from Kaylee Tuck eleven thirteen Marcy's Law Tweaks,
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: which is the amendment to the Constitution that shields crime
• 21:01
  Speaker 1: victims and in some cases law enforcement officers from having
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: their identities revealed. One ninety nine Veterans Treatment Court expansion
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: from Judge Maney that got through, three eighty two from
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: Keith True now the e bike regulations. So it's more
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: of a task force at this point, they're going to
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: figure out, kind of in an ad hoc manner, how
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: they can move forward with this in a in a
• 21:24
  Speaker 1: productive way. Chev Jones This one I love. I've mentioned
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: it a few weeks back. One seventy eight allows high
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: school coaches to pay for some limited needs for student athletes.
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: We're talking if they go out to McDonald's or something,
• 21:39
  Speaker 1: they need an uber to get somewhere, the coach can
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: do that. There's some transparency and disclosure requirements, there's limitations
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: behind it. There's guardrails. I just think this is common
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: sense and so forth. Thirteen sixty two from Gail Harrold
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: the verteportz bill. We love it. We're going to do
• 21:55
  Speaker 1: a Q and A on that on Friday. We're going
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: to talk about who would take in air taxi.
• 22:00
  Speaker 2: Fantastic I would I would be one of the first
• 22:03
  Speaker 2: on that one, you know, and look if it crashes
• 22:06
  Speaker 2: and burns, what a way to go. Ten twenty eight
• 22:11
  Speaker 2: from Joe Gruder's further shrinking the Citizens Property Insurance Court.
• 22:15
  Speaker 2: This would allow what they call surplus lines. There's a
• 22:18
  Speaker 2: specialty insurance companies to take out policies from citizens and
• 22:23
  Speaker 2: continue to draw down that, which is a reminder that
• 22:26
  Speaker 2: is a state taxpayer funded and supported insurance organization of
• 22:32
  Speaker 2: last resort. Jen Bradley nine sixty two. Some tweaks on
• 22:36
  Speaker 2: the Live Local Act, which restricts how local governments can
• 22:40
  Speaker 2: restrict housing and development. Tom Leak brought back from last
• 22:44
  Speaker 2: year it died the Jason Rayner Act, which would increase
• 22:47
  Speaker 2: penalties if you kill a law enforcement officer while resisting arrest.
• 22:51
  Speaker 2: You've got an increase in the immunity of the sovereign
• 22:54
  Speaker 2: immunity caps. This has been a debate for several years.
• 22:57
  Speaker 2: They finally got the increase from I believe it was
• 23:00
  Speaker 2: two hundred thousand or one hundred and two hundred thousand
• 23:02
  Speaker 2: to three hundred and fifty thousand dollars per person five
• 23:04
  Speaker 2: hundred thousand dollars per incident. If you go more than that,
• 23:07
  Speaker 2: if you're if the jury awards you more, you've got
• 23:10
  Speaker 2: to get a relief bill or a claims bill through
• 23:11
  Speaker 2: the legislature. HB forty seven from Robin Bartleman. It changes
• 23:16
  Speaker 2: how DCF reports potential abuse. If the child has a
• 23:21
  Speaker 2: diagnosed medical condition that can mirror abuse symptoms. So in
• 23:26
  Speaker 2: some cases kids can have a blood disorder that causes bruising,
• 23:30
  Speaker 2: and there was a number of instances here in Georgia. Yeah,
• 23:33
  Speaker 2: so they're going at that. That kind of sums up
• 23:37
  Speaker 2: the big ones. Some other notable ones that died, the
• 23:40
  Speaker 2: tweaks on accountability to the school choice dollars, the Big
• 23:44
  Speaker 2: Transportation Bill, which included dropping the yellow sticker and increasing
• 23:49
  Speaker 2: the speed limit to eighty miles per hour on interstates.
• 23:52
  Speaker 2: That is eighty Yeah, that died. The Senate President's Rule
• 23:56
  Speaker 2: Renaissance program requiring air conditioning in prisons. All of those
• 24:01
  Speaker 2: they'll have to, you know, take up in a future session.
• 24:04
  Speaker 1: All right, we're gonna take a break on these segments
• 24:07
  Speaker 1: and come back when they come back.
• 24:08
  Speaker 2: Yeah, we'll come back. Once they pass the budget. We
• 24:10
  Speaker 2: can kind of unpack where it's going and what holds
• 24:14
  Speaker 2: for the year to come. There's a lot that they'll
• 24:17
  Speaker 2: be kind of maneuvering and navigating between the campaign and
• 24:20
  Speaker 2: then into new leadership and a lot of low hanging
• 24:23
  Speaker 2: fruits still.
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: And I can take and you know, one of these segments,
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: not a segment, but a show or two on a
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: Monday to just complain to you.
• 24:33
  Speaker 2: I welcome your complaints.
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: Sounds good, which serves as fuel for lawmakers and aids listening.
• 24:41
  Speaker 1: Those are good ideas. I call them complaints. They're good
• 24:45
  Speaker 1: ideas for you. Just write them down, save yourself a
• 24:48
  Speaker 1: lot of trouble. Thank you, so always a pleasure. Sell news,
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: oh with consumers defense. My guest forty seven pass