March 20, 2026 • 24 mins
Sal Nuzzo, Executive Director of Consumers Defense, told us what passed, what didn't wnad what is, unbelievably, left to get done.
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Speaker 1 (00:04):
Well, let's go ahead. It's it's the third hour of
the Morning Show with Preston Scott. I was sound nw SO,
executive director of Consumers Defense, and we're gonna we're gonna,
as we do from time to time, we're gonna make
some time in the coming months to just have you
in to talk about Consumers Defense. Absolutely, because you you
(00:25):
are so kind and and I get it. I mean
there's there's some overlap of what happens in the Florida
session and what you do with with Consumers Defense.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
Yeah, in fact, we had several of our initiatives have
been adopted by the legislature, a couple didn't, and couple
didn't make it into final bills, and so there's always
gonna be more to do. But definitely would welcome the
opportunity and the off season to kind of dive in
on some of the specific topics because the environment and
landscape of what we do specifically with ESG has changed
(00:57):
a lot from these broad based kind of bills and
anti ESG packages to really surgical strikes that most people
are impacted by but don't understand. And so yeah, I
would love to love to be able to get back
in and chat there is it too simple to say
they shut down the session and they're going to come
(01:18):
back in a couple of weeks. I mean, that's the did.
Speaker 1 (01:21):
They signy die?
Speaker 2 (01:22):
They did they?
Speaker 1 (01:23):
How did they sign and die without fulfilling their constitutional responsibility?
That's a question from a listener, It's a great question.
And the action of signe die simply means without day
they adjourned, without a day that they are designated to
come back. So yes, they did finish without I guess,
finishing quotation marks. They did conclude without their one constitutional requirement,
(01:48):
passing a balance budget. They will come back sometime after
I think the Easter holiday, and in the interim who knows,
to try and work out the differences, bridge the gap somehow.
I've been able to discern a few specifics and some
others that are still up in the air on how
(02:08):
that gap is looking. But yeah, it's it's it's all
up for grabs now. Since as best you know, since
Jeb Bush took office, and since Republicans have held the
majority in the House in the Senate, have we seen
two consecutive sessions where they didn't patch a pass budget.
And it's in the regular session.
Speaker 2 (02:28):
Not too consecutive. I do believe this is the first
time where an entire cycle of leadership both the Senate
President and the House Speaker concluded the concluded the session
regular session without without the budget.
Speaker 1 (02:44):
Yet Yeah, I like my word failed anyway. So so
where are we now on the budget? Where so we've
we've we're not putting a period on the sentence. We're
putting a comma or maybe a semi col Yeah. So
right now, the sides are the two chain are about
one point four billion dollars apart. Now, when you take
(03:06):
that into account relative to the size of the actual budget,
initially it does not appear like it should be that
big of a deal. It's around one point two percent
of the entire budget. And I you know, it may
make individuals who are not paying attention wonder why can't
they just figure out meet in the middle somehow do
(03:26):
something that bridges the gap. It does seem silly.
Speaker 2 (03:29):
Yeah, well, and this is not for me. I did
get this from some reporting of folks that I follow
a lot who are really kind of into the weeds.
It looks like, based on some reporting, one billion dollars
of that one point four billion dollar gap was solely
a disagreement between the Senate, which wanted that billion dollars
(03:50):
as what they call a sprinkle list at the tail
end of the conferencing, they'll start dropping money on projects
in order to you know, not necessarily twist arms to votes,
but to bring folks into the tent on the full
budget vote, and so.
Speaker 1 (04:05):
For twist arms to get for however you want to
describe it.
Speaker 2 (04:10):
And so a billion of that gap was a disagreement,
potentially a disagreement between the Senate, which wanted it for
sprinkle lists for the Senate President's rural county projects, which
he did not get his priority, the rural Renaissance Cory
Simon's bill. Part of it was there were some other
(04:30):
bills that you know, kind of kind of corresponded to it,
and the House the Speaker just flat out refusing to
budget and they dug in their heels on that billion
dollars and that led to or in my kind of predicting,
that likely led to some volleying back and forth, well
we're not going to take up this, and then we're
(04:51):
in the Domino's just cascade, and in the end we
are where we are.
Speaker 1 (04:56):
Is there something that is big on the Speaker's list
that didn't get done. That you could say, Okay, we're
going to probably see this happen. We're going to get
that done in return for that getting done.
Speaker 2 (05:06):
Well, the interesting thing is the Speaker's healthcare priorities did
not make it through. The Senate did not take it up.
But unless they designate that as a part of a
special session, I don't believe they would be able to
take that up because it's a new Yeah, it is
not the regular session.
Speaker 1 (05:23):
All right, So we've got the one constitutionally mandated item
undone what got done? So I did look and each
week we've kind of walked through because it was such
an anomaly and how few bills had passed the full legislature.
So at sine die, they had passed a total of
(05:43):
one hundred and seven general bills, and the final week
was definitely the biggest push. How does that compare it
to an average year.
Speaker 2 (05:50):
It's maybe a third of what they would normally do,
and I think it was over three, maybe close to
four hundred bills in some of the early years of
the governor's term. In twenty twenty three, it was I
believe more than three hundred.
Speaker 1 (06:05):
What would you say to the people out there that
are the limited government folks out there that say, Okay,
then that's good. A third two thirds less than normal,
less damage done.
Speaker 2 (06:16):
I would suggest that two things. One is, there is,
as we have articulated in many, many weeks, as we've
gone through this, there's a lot of low hanging fruit
of conservative, limited government policies that can and should be
enacted by the legislature where they didn't. Secondly, Florida evolves.
We are a high growth state as a function of
(06:39):
that massive in migration that we've experienced over the last
four years. We have to put things in place that
allow the state to adapt and evolve and continue to
grow and flourish and prosper economically. That does not happen
when the legislature is not addressing things like affordable housing,
(07:04):
the property insurance and property tax issues, all of those things.
We had probably five years of really great, sound conservative
policy and then just this cliff. And that's where I
think I appreciate that argument, and in most states I
would absolutely agree. I just think there was too much
(07:25):
low hanging fruit here because there's more to get done.
Speaker 1 (07:28):
Exactly all right, last week you really did a wonderful
job breaking down the items that are dead, the ones
that are hanging in there, and the ones that got
across the finish line. What the items that are dead,
dead or dead dead.
Speaker 2 (07:42):
Almost all of them. So on the ones that I
classified last week as dead. Of the major ones, you
got property tax reform at least for the regular session,
dead e Verify, loophole, closing dead AI Bill of Rights,
firearm purchases for eighteen nineteen twenty year olds, the training wage,
advanced Nuclear EA actors, the vaccine exemption reform, the Medicaid
(08:03):
work requirements, and the Personhood amendments. All of those continue
to be dead. We did have one that I would
call the Lazarus Bill. It got raised from the dead,
uh cent It Bill eleven thirty four. I'd classified it
as dead. It bans all DEI programs in local governments.
Speaker 1 (08:20):
But how are they gonna We've already seen We've We've
had guys that do investigative reporting on college campuses in
Florida saying they're just using different words. They are.
Speaker 2 (08:31):
And the bill, as I read it, goes at specific
definitions and actions. So there no matter how you no
matter how you do it. Yeah, no matter how you
title it. You cannot get grants for certain things, you
can't use state funds for certain things. You you know,
there are enforcement mechanisms in place. I think that as
this bill rolls out and locals adapt, it's going to
(08:54):
have some teeth to it.
Speaker 1 (08:55):
We we spent some time talking about the bills that
are basically dead. I mean, and we're not talking about
anything that's coming up in special session, but the rest
what's on life support?
Speaker 2 (09:05):
So life support, that list that we had, it was
kind of a mixed bag in terms of where they
landed at the end. So the Blue Ribbon Projects Bill,
which was one of I believe the Senate President wanted it,
that would have allowed for sort of mixed use and
high density development if more land was carved out in
(09:26):
specific areas for conservation.
Speaker 1 (09:27):
That died.
Speaker 2 (09:29):
One carlos Porus's bill on HOA reform, which would have
radically changed the transparency and disclosure of hoas and the
ability of individuals to jettison their hoas that died, And
as I mentioned in the prior segment, the healthcare bills
from the Speaker's Priority Agenda, the ones that expanded scope
(09:50):
of practice on specific nurse practitioners. The dental therapy bill died.
A number of other kind of educational and training p
in healthcare that all died, but there were two from
that list that last.
Speaker 1 (10:04):
Week that did make it okay.
Speaker 2 (10:06):
HB fourteen fifty one Municipal Utilities Rep. Demi Bisada. It
passed on the final day. Now, there were some amendments
to it, and I'm examining a little bit to trying
to discern the final impact what it might be on
a city like Tallahassee. One thing in particular, I did
find it lowers. Apparently there is a service charge that
if you are not in the incorporated area but you're
(10:28):
receiving water and sewer, they charge like a fifty percent
tax or something. They're going to lower that immediately to
twenty five percent. There's also some designations on how much
they can send from the utility revenue into the general
fund of the municipal government. I'm just going to finalize
what that specific number is and try it.
Speaker 1 (10:47):
If they reduce the task, can they offset that by
changing the rate.
Speaker 2 (10:50):
It's entirely possible, and without a tax reform proposal that's
going on the ballot, we really don't know how this
would interplay with that. Okay, The other big one that
is really worth mentioning is the data center bill they
passed SB forty four from Brian Novola. It is kind
of a mixed bag, and as I mentioned to you
kind of offline, this is one that's dividing groups that
(11:12):
are normally within the traditional conservative Republican ecosphere. You've got
so a data center can be permitted to be built
in the state, so permits are allowed, but it will
require the use of reclaimed water whenever available, and if
it's not available, they will have to prove I believe
scientifically that their operations will not impact negatively the existing
(11:36):
water supply in that area. Non disclosures, which was a
big sticking point in this bill. Non disclosures are permitted
currently in the bill, so they can force the people
who are building it, who are working it, who are
developing it, the government officials that are negotiating it to
sign non disclosures. But they may come back and tighten
(11:57):
this language, is what I'm hearing, because there could be
some concerns on the constitutionality in it. There is no
buffer in terms of how far away from a school
a sensitive property or something like that, that they can
be built, but rate payers have to be held harmless
on the energy cost. So as these things come online,
they're going to use a whole lot more water, a
(12:18):
whole lot more energy.
Speaker 1 (12:20):
And that use can't cause demand issues for everybody else exactly.
Speaker 2 (12:24):
And to remind everybody, Florida is a regulated monopoly on utilities.
So if the utility wants to increase their rates, they
got to go before the Public Service Commission and make
a case for that. They will not be able to
do that if it is related to the impact of
a data center. So you've got that in place. Like
(12:46):
I said, it was one where it was a mixed bag.
Speaker 1 (12:50):
Does the data center thing have beyond the utility issue?
Does it have any practical impact on consumers? On people
listening right now? Oh gosh. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (13:00):
And this goes to you know, data centers have to
be built somewhere, and I understand everybody's fear behind it,
but when you start talking about the things we use
the cloud for every single day, there is going to
be a need for these large scale I think they
(13:21):
call them hyper scale data centers. They're just going to
need to be built. Now where they get built and
where that footprint is is very important.
Speaker 1 (13:29):
I'm not sure.
Speaker 2 (13:30):
South Florida is the best spot for this, but you know,
and as we've talked, I'm on the fence on how
much of a bubble AI is to this. But there
are a thousand different things that I would make the
case we do need data centers. I'm just I'm I'm
with some of the folks on this that I need
(13:51):
to see a little bit more before I'm really comfortable
with Florida in some spots doing them.
Speaker 1 (13:58):
I've got two words for anybody out there that thinks
we need a bunch of data centers and we got
to rely on the cloud. You know. Those two words
are memory sticks. Yeah, the morning show band, all the genres,
all the styles. They are the best in the business.
(14:19):
Back with Salnuzo speaking of best in the business, keeping
us as informed as can be at this train wreck
known as the legislative Session. My words, not his. We
were talking about bills that are dead. We're talking about
bills that survived. Now we're talking about the jump balls.
Speaker 2 (14:35):
Sure, and last week we didn't get to a lot
of these. There was a long list of things that
were kind of still in play. They had momentum, they
weren't necessarily on life support, but anything could happen in
that final week, and so kind of ran through them,
looked over all of the bills, paid attention and here
are some that I think are you know, on the
(14:55):
list of impactful. Maybe not the most impactful in your life,
but things that would be worth mentioning. So nine to
fifty one from Fiona McFarlane. We will now have rules
for how to round up or down on if a
if a charge comes in not on the nickel, so
penny rounding rules are going to be in place. Basically,
(15:18):
if it's three cent, if it's on the three, it
goes up. If it's below the three, it goes down.
HB Three ninety nine from David Barrero. This one's one.
I paid attention to land use restrictions. It had a
lot of amendments in there that stripped out some various
pieces of the bill. What remains are provisions that are
going to force the municipal governments to prove some type
(15:39):
of reasonable standard when they enact or implement things like
a permitting fee or a user fee or a use fee,
along with requiring those local comprehensive plans in the land
development rags. They've got to include objective criteria for determining
whether residential uses are compatible with surrounding neighborhoods. So if
(16:00):
you want to build a twenty story skyrise condo in
the middle of a suburban bedroom community, that's not going
to be kosher. But they've got to do some standardization
of what rejection looks like versus not. Okay, a big one,
and I'm gonna mention Jenna Persons three times. She gets
(16:20):
the hat trick for probably the most valuable legislator in
Tallahassee this session. So nine oh five Foreign Influence. This
is a major bill. We were a not a big
part of the bill. We were a big supporter of
many of the provisions in this It is going after
(16:41):
the degree to which foreign bad actors, namely the CCP,
but some others are kind of infiltrating the state. It
would prohibit public officials, government employees and candidates, and local
government attorneys from soliciting or accepting gifts from entities that
represent foreign countries who are on that designated list of
(17:02):
seven Countries of concern. It would expand training requirements for
public officials through the Florida Commission on Ethics and they'll
develop some additional coursework along those lines. It would authorize
the tax collectors and the local governments to revoke or
refuse any business tax receipts for companies that are doing
business with Cuba and violation of federal law. And it
(17:25):
prohibits state agencies, local governments, and public schools from entering
into they used to call them sister city agreements or
sister groups, from accepting grants from foreign countries of concern
or entities controlled by them. So there were a handful
of things that were amended out, in particular a registration
requirement at the federal government. If you were representing, say Venezuela,
(17:49):
you have to register as a foreign agent, and the
designation is different if it's on that list of seven countries.
The countries of concernop poll has always been. There is
no state what they call afara far registration, and some
states are adopting them. Florida has not yet. That was
(18:10):
amended out there, but so that's the Foreign Influence Bill.
She also had the Big Elections Package nine ninety one
citizenship proof. The current system will compare with the Department
of highway safety records for citizenship status. The big change
on IDs is no more will student IDs be accepted
(18:31):
at the polls as a valid form of identification.
Speaker 1 (18:34):
I have real ID in some form, right yep.
Speaker 2 (18:37):
It has to be a driver's license, a passport or something.
There's a list of things that'll work. They did roll
in the language from another bill on the party flip flopping.
You have to be a member of the party in
good standing for three hundred and sixty five days. That's
in there, and starting in twenty seven new licenses will
display a citizenship designation. So that is on the horizon.
(19:02):
And the last big one was the Union Reform Bill
twelve ninety six and nine ninety five. The sixty percent
threshold to retain certifications still there. If you're decertified, you
have to get fifty percent of the available members to
turn out and vote and then get a majority of that.
Now you've mentioned in the past and it's a great
concern that the teachers who are not in the bargaining
(19:25):
unit are bound by you know, the unions that are
acting poorly. This pairs with HB twelve seventy nine from
King Car Johnson. It allows school districts to for go
collective bargaining and give raises to teachers immediately, especially appointed
in the cases like Leon County where the union was
holding up negotiations and teachers never saw the raises that
(19:47):
the legislature had enacted.
Speaker 1 (19:49):
Is that available to non union members.
Speaker 2 (19:51):
It's available to everybody, Okay, does not matter. So it
provides another avenue. Now it's not the brass ring, which
is where as an individual teacher, I can go to
my principal, look at the schedule on the salary range
and say I've got this negotiation, yeah, and negotiate individually.
But it is definitely a great step in the right direction.
Speaker 1 (20:12):
We've been talking about some things that were a fifty
to fifty kind of a jump ball. Jump ball, and
I'll just keep running through. You got one eighty two
in the education space. It was a teacher training and
mentor program. I mention it because it kind of became
a little bit of an omnibus what they call a
train bill. Included in it was the bill from Toby
Orverdorf which requires cursive writing instruction in schools. Now, I
(20:32):
got to find out how long that's going to take
to get up and running. You've got fifteen sixty eight
from Nick de Segley stable coin payment framework, So we're
going to begin discussing the framework for if government wants
to use stable coin, which are crypto but tied to
actual physical assets from Kaylee Tuck eleven thirteen Marcy's Law Tweaks,
(20:56):
which is the amendment to the Constitution that shields crime
victims and in some cases law enforcement officers from having
their identities revealed. One ninety nine Veterans Treatment Court expansion
from Judge Maney that got through, three eighty two from
Keith True now the e bike regulations. So it's more
(21:17):
of a task force at this point, they're going to
figure out, kind of in an ad hoc manner, how
they can move forward with this in a in a
productive way. Chev Jones This one I love. I've mentioned
it a few weeks back. One seventy eight allows high
school coaches to pay for some limited needs for student athletes.
We're talking if they go out to McDonald's or something,
(21:39):
they need an uber to get somewhere, the coach can
do that. There's some transparency and disclosure requirements, there's limitations
behind it. There's guardrails. I just think this is common
sense and so forth. Thirteen sixty two from Gail Harrold
the verteportz bill. We love it. We're going to do
a Q and A on that on Friday. We're going
to talk about who would take in air taxi.
Speaker 2 (22:00):
Fantastic I would I would be one of the first
on that one, you know, and look if it crashes
and burns, what a way to go. Ten twenty eight
from Joe Gruder's further shrinking the Citizens Property Insurance Court.
This would allow what they call surplus lines. There's a
specialty insurance companies to take out policies from citizens and
(22:23):
continue to draw down that, which is a reminder that
is a state taxpayer funded and supported insurance organization of
last resort. Jen Bradley nine sixty two. Some tweaks on
the Live Local Act, which restricts how local governments can
restrict housing and development. Tom Leak brought back from last
(22:44):
year it died the Jason Rayner Act, which would increase
penalties if you kill a law enforcement officer while resisting arrest.
You've got an increase in the immunity of the sovereign
immunity caps. This has been a debate for several years.
They finally got the increase from I believe it was
two hundred thousand or one hundred and two hundred thousand
to three hundred and fifty thousand dollars per person five
(23:04):
hundred thousand dollars per incident. If you go more than that,
if you're if the jury awards you more, you've got
to get a relief bill or a claims bill through
the legislature. HB forty seven from Robin Bartleman. It changes
how DCF reports potential abuse. If the child has a
diagnosed medical condition that can mirror abuse symptoms. So in
(23:26):
some cases kids can have a blood disorder that causes bruising,
and there was a number of instances here in Georgia. Yeah,
so they're going at that. That kind of sums up
the big ones. Some other notable ones that died, the
tweaks on accountability to the school choice dollars, the Big
Transportation Bill, which included dropping the yellow sticker and increasing
(23:49):
the speed limit to eighty miles per hour on interstates.
That is eighty Yeah, that died. The Senate President's Rule
Renaissance program requiring air conditioning in prisons. All of those
they'll have to, you know, take up in a future session.
Speaker 1 (24:04):
All right, we're gonna take a break on these segments
and come back when they come back.
Speaker 2 (24:08):
Yeah, we'll come back. Once they pass the budget. We
can kind of unpack where it's going and what holds
for the year to come. There's a lot that they'll
be kind of maneuvering and navigating between the campaign and
then into new leadership and a lot of low hanging
fruits still.
Speaker 1 (24:24):
And I can take and you know, one of these segments,
not a segment, but a show or two on a
Monday to just complain to you.
Speaker 2 (24:33):
I welcome your complaints.
Speaker 1 (24:35):
Sounds good, which serves as fuel for lawmakers and aids listening.
Those are good ideas. I call them complaints. They're good
ideas for you. Just write them down, save yourself a
lot of trouble. Thank you, so always a pleasure. Sell news,
oh with consumers defense. My guest forty seven pass
Well, let's go ahead. It's it's the third hour of
the Morning Show with Preston Scott. I was sound nw SO,
executive director of Consumers Defense, and we're gonna we're gonna,
as we do from time to time, we're gonna make
some time in the coming months to just have you
in to talk about Consumers Defense. Absolutely, because you you
(00:25):
are so kind and and I get it. I mean
there's there's some overlap of what happens in the Florida
session and what you do with with Consumers Defense.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
Yeah, in fact, we had several of our initiatives have
been adopted by the legislature, a couple didn't, and couple
didn't make it into final bills, and so there's always
gonna be more to do. But definitely would welcome the
opportunity and the off season to kind of dive in
on some of the specific topics because the environment and
landscape of what we do specifically with ESG has changed
(00:57):
a lot from these broad based kind of bills and
anti ESG packages to really surgical strikes that most people
are impacted by but don't understand. And so yeah, I
would love to love to be able to get back
in and chat there is it too simple to say
they shut down the session and they're going to come
(01:18):
back in a couple of weeks. I mean, that's the did.
Speaker 1 (01:21):
They signy die?
Speaker 2 (01:22):
They did they?
Speaker 1 (01:23):
How did they sign and die without fulfilling their constitutional responsibility?
That's a question from a listener, It's a great question.
And the action of signe die simply means without day
they adjourned, without a day that they are designated to
come back. So yes, they did finish without I guess,
finishing quotation marks. They did conclude without their one constitutional requirement,
(01:48):
passing a balance budget. They will come back sometime after
I think the Easter holiday, and in the interim who knows,
to try and work out the differences, bridge the gap somehow.
I've been able to discern a few specifics and some
others that are still up in the air on how
(02:08):
that gap is looking. But yeah, it's it's it's all
up for grabs now. Since as best you know, since
Jeb Bush took office, and since Republicans have held the
majority in the House in the Senate, have we seen
two consecutive sessions where they didn't patch a pass budget.
And it's in the regular session.
Speaker 2 (02:28):
Not too consecutive. I do believe this is the first
time where an entire cycle of leadership both the Senate
President and the House Speaker concluded the concluded the session
regular session without without the budget.
Speaker 1 (02:44):
Yet Yeah, I like my word failed anyway. So so
where are we now on the budget? Where so we've
we've we're not putting a period on the sentence. We're
putting a comma or maybe a semi col Yeah. So
right now, the sides are the two chain are about
one point four billion dollars apart. Now, when you take
(03:06):
that into account relative to the size of the actual budget,
initially it does not appear like it should be that
big of a deal. It's around one point two percent
of the entire budget. And I you know, it may
make individuals who are not paying attention wonder why can't
they just figure out meet in the middle somehow do
(03:26):
something that bridges the gap. It does seem silly.
Speaker 2 (03:29):
Yeah, well, and this is not for me. I did
get this from some reporting of folks that I follow
a lot who are really kind of into the weeds.
It looks like, based on some reporting, one billion dollars
of that one point four billion dollar gap was solely
a disagreement between the Senate, which wanted that billion dollars
(03:50):
as what they call a sprinkle list at the tail
end of the conferencing, they'll start dropping money on projects
in order to you know, not necessarily twist arms to votes,
but to bring folks into the tent on the full
budget vote, and so.
Speaker 1 (04:05):
For twist arms to get for however you want to
describe it.
Speaker 2 (04:10):
And so a billion of that gap was a disagreement,
potentially a disagreement between the Senate, which wanted it for
sprinkle lists for the Senate President's rural county projects, which
he did not get his priority, the rural Renaissance Cory
Simon's bill. Part of it was there were some other
(04:30):
bills that you know, kind of kind of corresponded to it,
and the House the Speaker just flat out refusing to
budget and they dug in their heels on that billion
dollars and that led to or in my kind of predicting,
that likely led to some volleying back and forth, well
we're not going to take up this, and then we're
(04:51):
in the Domino's just cascade, and in the end we
are where we are.
Speaker 1 (04:56):
Is there something that is big on the Speaker's list
that didn't get done. That you could say, Okay, we're
going to probably see this happen. We're going to get
that done in return for that getting done.
Speaker 2 (05:06):
Well, the interesting thing is the Speaker's healthcare priorities did
not make it through. The Senate did not take it up.
But unless they designate that as a part of a
special session, I don't believe they would be able to
take that up because it's a new Yeah, it is
not the regular session.
Speaker 1 (05:23):
All right, So we've got the one constitutionally mandated item
undone what got done? So I did look and each
week we've kind of walked through because it was such
an anomaly and how few bills had passed the full legislature.
So at sine die, they had passed a total of
(05:43):
one hundred and seven general bills, and the final week
was definitely the biggest push. How does that compare it
to an average year.
Speaker 2 (05:50):
It's maybe a third of what they would normally do,
and I think it was over three, maybe close to
four hundred bills in some of the early years of
the governor's term. In twenty twenty three, it was I
believe more than three hundred.
Speaker 1 (06:05):
What would you say to the people out there that
are the limited government folks out there that say, Okay,
then that's good. A third two thirds less than normal,
less damage done.
Speaker 2 (06:16):
I would suggest that two things. One is, there is,
as we have articulated in many, many weeks, as we've
gone through this, there's a lot of low hanging fruit
of conservative, limited government policies that can and should be
enacted by the legislature where they didn't. Secondly, Florida evolves.
We are a high growth state as a function of
(06:39):
that massive in migration that we've experienced over the last
four years. We have to put things in place that
allow the state to adapt and evolve and continue to
grow and flourish and prosper economically. That does not happen
when the legislature is not addressing things like affordable housing,
(07:04):
the property insurance and property tax issues, all of those things.
We had probably five years of really great, sound conservative
policy and then just this cliff. And that's where I
think I appreciate that argument, and in most states I
would absolutely agree. I just think there was too much
(07:25):
low hanging fruit here because there's more to get done.
Speaker 1 (07:28):
Exactly all right, last week you really did a wonderful
job breaking down the items that are dead, the ones
that are hanging in there, and the ones that got
across the finish line. What the items that are dead,
dead or dead dead.
Speaker 2 (07:42):
Almost all of them. So on the ones that I
classified last week as dead. Of the major ones, you
got property tax reform at least for the regular session,
dead e Verify, loophole, closing dead AI Bill of Rights,
firearm purchases for eighteen nineteen twenty year olds, the training wage,
advanced Nuclear EA actors, the vaccine exemption reform, the Medicaid
(08:03):
work requirements, and the Personhood amendments. All of those continue
to be dead. We did have one that I would
call the Lazarus Bill. It got raised from the dead,
uh cent It Bill eleven thirty four. I'd classified it
as dead. It bans all DEI programs in local governments.
Speaker 1 (08:20):
But how are they gonna We've already seen We've We've
had guys that do investigative reporting on college campuses in
Florida saying they're just using different words. They are.
Speaker 2 (08:31):
And the bill, as I read it, goes at specific
definitions and actions. So there no matter how you no
matter how you do it. Yeah, no matter how you
title it. You cannot get grants for certain things, you
can't use state funds for certain things. You you know,
there are enforcement mechanisms in place. I think that as
this bill rolls out and locals adapt, it's going to
(08:54):
have some teeth to it.
Speaker 1 (08:55):
We we spent some time talking about the bills that
are basically dead. I mean, and we're not talking about
anything that's coming up in special session, but the rest
what's on life support?
Speaker 2 (09:05):
So life support, that list that we had, it was
kind of a mixed bag in terms of where they
landed at the end. So the Blue Ribbon Projects Bill,
which was one of I believe the Senate President wanted it,
that would have allowed for sort of mixed use and
high density development if more land was carved out in
(09:26):
specific areas for conservation.
Speaker 1 (09:27):
That died.
Speaker 2 (09:29):
One carlos Porus's bill on HOA reform, which would have
radically changed the transparency and disclosure of hoas and the
ability of individuals to jettison their hoas that died, And
as I mentioned in the prior segment, the healthcare bills
from the Speaker's Priority Agenda, the ones that expanded scope
(09:50):
of practice on specific nurse practitioners. The dental therapy bill died.
A number of other kind of educational and training p
in healthcare that all died, but there were two from
that list that last.
Speaker 1 (10:04):
Week that did make it okay.
Speaker 2 (10:06):
HB fourteen fifty one Municipal Utilities Rep. Demi Bisada. It
passed on the final day. Now, there were some amendments
to it, and I'm examining a little bit to trying
to discern the final impact what it might be on
a city like Tallahassee. One thing in particular, I did
find it lowers. Apparently there is a service charge that
if you are not in the incorporated area but you're
(10:28):
receiving water and sewer, they charge like a fifty percent
tax or something. They're going to lower that immediately to
twenty five percent. There's also some designations on how much
they can send from the utility revenue into the general
fund of the municipal government. I'm just going to finalize
what that specific number is and try it.
Speaker 1 (10:47):
If they reduce the task, can they offset that by
changing the rate.
Speaker 2 (10:50):
It's entirely possible, and without a tax reform proposal that's
going on the ballot, we really don't know how this
would interplay with that. Okay, The other big one that
is really worth mentioning is the data center bill they
passed SB forty four from Brian Novola. It is kind
of a mixed bag, and as I mentioned to you
kind of offline, this is one that's dividing groups that
(11:12):
are normally within the traditional conservative Republican ecosphere. You've got
so a data center can be permitted to be built
in the state, so permits are allowed, but it will
require the use of reclaimed water whenever available, and if
it's not available, they will have to prove I believe
scientifically that their operations will not impact negatively the existing
(11:36):
water supply in that area. Non disclosures, which was a
big sticking point in this bill. Non disclosures are permitted
currently in the bill, so they can force the people
who are building it, who are working it, who are
developing it, the government officials that are negotiating it to
sign non disclosures. But they may come back and tighten
(11:57):
this language, is what I'm hearing, because there could be
some concerns on the constitutionality in it. There is no
buffer in terms of how far away from a school
a sensitive property or something like that, that they can
be built, but rate payers have to be held harmless
on the energy cost. So as these things come online,
they're going to use a whole lot more water, a
(12:18):
whole lot more energy.
Speaker 1 (12:20):
And that use can't cause demand issues for everybody else exactly.
Speaker 2 (12:24):
And to remind everybody, Florida is a regulated monopoly on utilities.
So if the utility wants to increase their rates, they
got to go before the Public Service Commission and make
a case for that. They will not be able to
do that if it is related to the impact of
a data center. So you've got that in place. Like
(12:46):
I said, it was one where it was a mixed bag.
Speaker 1 (12:50):
Does the data center thing have beyond the utility issue?
Does it have any practical impact on consumers? On people
listening right now? Oh gosh. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (13:00):
And this goes to you know, data centers have to
be built somewhere, and I understand everybody's fear behind it,
but when you start talking about the things we use
the cloud for every single day, there is going to
be a need for these large scale I think they
(13:21):
call them hyper scale data centers. They're just going to
need to be built. Now where they get built and
where that footprint is is very important.
Speaker 1 (13:29):
I'm not sure.
Speaker 2 (13:30):
South Florida is the best spot for this, but you know,
and as we've talked, I'm on the fence on how
much of a bubble AI is to this. But there
are a thousand different things that I would make the
case we do need data centers. I'm just I'm I'm
with some of the folks on this that I need
(13:51):
to see a little bit more before I'm really comfortable
with Florida in some spots doing them.
Speaker 1 (13:58):
I've got two words for anybody out there that thinks
we need a bunch of data centers and we got
to rely on the cloud. You know. Those two words
are memory sticks. Yeah, the morning show band, all the genres,
all the styles. They are the best in the business.
(14:19):
Back with Salnuzo speaking of best in the business, keeping
us as informed as can be at this train wreck
known as the legislative Session. My words, not his. We
were talking about bills that are dead. We're talking about
bills that survived. Now we're talking about the jump balls.
Speaker 2 (14:35):
Sure, and last week we didn't get to a lot
of these. There was a long list of things that
were kind of still in play. They had momentum, they
weren't necessarily on life support, but anything could happen in
that final week, and so kind of ran through them,
looked over all of the bills, paid attention and here
are some that I think are you know, on the
(14:55):
list of impactful. Maybe not the most impactful in your life,
but things that would be worth mentioning. So nine to
fifty one from Fiona McFarlane. We will now have rules
for how to round up or down on if a
if a charge comes in not on the nickel, so
penny rounding rules are going to be in place. Basically,
(15:18):
if it's three cent, if it's on the three, it
goes up. If it's below the three, it goes down.
HB Three ninety nine from David Barrero. This one's one.
I paid attention to land use restrictions. It had a
lot of amendments in there that stripped out some various
pieces of the bill. What remains are provisions that are
going to force the municipal governments to prove some type
(15:39):
of reasonable standard when they enact or implement things like
a permitting fee or a user fee or a use fee,
along with requiring those local comprehensive plans in the land
development rags. They've got to include objective criteria for determining
whether residential uses are compatible with surrounding neighborhoods. So if
(16:00):
you want to build a twenty story skyrise condo in
the middle of a suburban bedroom community, that's not going
to be kosher. But they've got to do some standardization
of what rejection looks like versus not. Okay, a big one,
and I'm gonna mention Jenna Persons three times. She gets
(16:20):
the hat trick for probably the most valuable legislator in
Tallahassee this session. So nine oh five Foreign Influence. This
is a major bill. We were a not a big
part of the bill. We were a big supporter of
many of the provisions in this It is going after
(16:41):
the degree to which foreign bad actors, namely the CCP,
but some others are kind of infiltrating the state. It
would prohibit public officials, government employees and candidates, and local
government attorneys from soliciting or accepting gifts from entities that
represent foreign countries who are on that designated list of
(17:02):
seven Countries of concern. It would expand training requirements for
public officials through the Florida Commission on Ethics and they'll
develop some additional coursework along those lines. It would authorize
the tax collectors and the local governments to revoke or
refuse any business tax receipts for companies that are doing
business with Cuba and violation of federal law. And it
(17:25):
prohibits state agencies, local governments, and public schools from entering
into they used to call them sister city agreements or
sister groups, from accepting grants from foreign countries of concern
or entities controlled by them. So there were a handful
of things that were amended out, in particular a registration
requirement at the federal government. If you were representing, say Venezuela,
(17:49):
you have to register as a foreign agent, and the
designation is different if it's on that list of seven countries.
The countries of concernop poll has always been. There is
no state what they call afara far registration, and some
states are adopting them. Florida has not yet. That was
(18:10):
amended out there, but so that's the Foreign Influence Bill.
She also had the Big Elections Package nine ninety one
citizenship proof. The current system will compare with the Department
of highway safety records for citizenship status. The big change
on IDs is no more will student IDs be accepted
(18:31):
at the polls as a valid form of identification.
Speaker 1 (18:34):
I have real ID in some form, right yep.
Speaker 2 (18:37):
It has to be a driver's license, a passport or something.
There's a list of things that'll work. They did roll
in the language from another bill on the party flip flopping.
You have to be a member of the party in
good standing for three hundred and sixty five days. That's
in there, and starting in twenty seven new licenses will
display a citizenship designation. So that is on the horizon.
(19:02):
And the last big one was the Union Reform Bill
twelve ninety six and nine ninety five. The sixty percent
threshold to retain certifications still there. If you're decertified, you
have to get fifty percent of the available members to
turn out and vote and then get a majority of that.
Now you've mentioned in the past and it's a great
concern that the teachers who are not in the bargaining
(19:25):
unit are bound by you know, the unions that are
acting poorly. This pairs with HB twelve seventy nine from
King Car Johnson. It allows school districts to for go
collective bargaining and give raises to teachers immediately, especially appointed
in the cases like Leon County where the union was
holding up negotiations and teachers never saw the raises that
(19:47):
the legislature had enacted.
Speaker 1 (19:49):
Is that available to non union members.
Speaker 2 (19:51):
It's available to everybody, Okay, does not matter. So it
provides another avenue. Now it's not the brass ring, which
is where as an individual teacher, I can go to
my principal, look at the schedule on the salary range
and say I've got this negotiation, yeah, and negotiate individually.
But it is definitely a great step in the right direction.
Speaker 1 (20:12):
We've been talking about some things that were a fifty
to fifty kind of a jump ball. Jump ball, and
I'll just keep running through. You got one eighty two
in the education space. It was a teacher training and
mentor program. I mention it because it kind of became
a little bit of an omnibus what they call a
train bill. Included in it was the bill from Toby
Orverdorf which requires cursive writing instruction in schools. Now, I
(20:32):
got to find out how long that's going to take
to get up and running. You've got fifteen sixty eight
from Nick de Segley stable coin payment framework, So we're
going to begin discussing the framework for if government wants
to use stable coin, which are crypto but tied to
actual physical assets from Kaylee Tuck eleven thirteen Marcy's Law Tweaks,
(20:56):
which is the amendment to the Constitution that shields crime
victims and in some cases law enforcement officers from having
their identities revealed. One ninety nine Veterans Treatment Court expansion
from Judge Maney that got through, three eighty two from
Keith True now the e bike regulations. So it's more
(21:17):
of a task force at this point, they're going to
figure out, kind of in an ad hoc manner, how
they can move forward with this in a in a
productive way. Chev Jones This one I love. I've mentioned
it a few weeks back. One seventy eight allows high
school coaches to pay for some limited needs for student athletes.
We're talking if they go out to McDonald's or something,
(21:39):
they need an uber to get somewhere, the coach can
do that. There's some transparency and disclosure requirements, there's limitations
behind it. There's guardrails. I just think this is common
sense and so forth. Thirteen sixty two from Gail Harrold
the verteportz bill. We love it. We're going to do
a Q and A on that on Friday. We're going
to talk about who would take in air taxi.
Speaker 2 (22:00):
Fantastic I would I would be one of the first
on that one, you know, and look if it crashes
and burns, what a way to go. Ten twenty eight
from Joe Gruder's further shrinking the Citizens Property Insurance Court.
This would allow what they call surplus lines. There's a
specialty insurance companies to take out policies from citizens and
(22:23):
continue to draw down that, which is a reminder that
is a state taxpayer funded and supported insurance organization of
last resort. Jen Bradley nine sixty two. Some tweaks on
the Live Local Act, which restricts how local governments can
restrict housing and development. Tom Leak brought back from last
(22:44):
year it died the Jason Rayner Act, which would increase
penalties if you kill a law enforcement officer while resisting arrest.
You've got an increase in the immunity of the sovereign
immunity caps. This has been a debate for several years.
They finally got the increase from I believe it was
two hundred thousand or one hundred and two hundred thousand
to three hundred and fifty thousand dollars per person five
(23:04):
hundred thousand dollars per incident. If you go more than that,
if you're if the jury awards you more, you've got
to get a relief bill or a claims bill through
the legislature. HB forty seven from Robin Bartleman. It changes
how DCF reports potential abuse. If the child has a
diagnosed medical condition that can mirror abuse symptoms. So in
(23:26):
some cases kids can have a blood disorder that causes bruising,
and there was a number of instances here in Georgia. Yeah,
so they're going at that. That kind of sums up
the big ones. Some other notable ones that died, the
tweaks on accountability to the school choice dollars, the Big
Transportation Bill, which included dropping the yellow sticker and increasing
(23:49):
the speed limit to eighty miles per hour on interstates.
That is eighty Yeah, that died. The Senate President's Rule
Renaissance program requiring air conditioning in prisons. All of those
they'll have to, you know, take up in a future session.
Speaker 1 (24:04):
All right, we're gonna take a break on these segments
and come back when they come back.
Speaker 2 (24:08):
Yeah, we'll come back. Once they pass the budget. We
can kind of unpack where it's going and what holds
for the year to come. There's a lot that they'll
be kind of maneuvering and navigating between the campaign and
then into new leadership and a lot of low hanging
fruits still.
Speaker 1 (24:24):
And I can take and you know, one of these segments,
not a segment, but a show or two on a
Monday to just complain to you.
Speaker 2 (24:33):
I welcome your complaints.
Speaker 1 (24:35):
Sounds good, which serves as fuel for lawmakers and aids listening.
Those are good ideas. I call them complaints. They're good
ideas for you. Just write them down, save yourself a
lot of trouble. Thank you, so always a pleasure. Sell news,
oh with consumers defense. My guest forty seven pass
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