April 7, 2026 • 14 mins
Poverty in the Sunshine State is a thing and people do suffer in it. But what is to be done? The Florida Chamber of Commerce is part of the effort to tackle the issue in a meaningful, results oriented way and Chamber President Mark Wilson discussed it.
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Speaker 1 (00:05):
All right, kiddos, welcome to the third and final hour,
at least for today, The Morning Show with Preston, Scott
and Preston. He's ose great to be with you. It
is Tuesday, and it's April seventh, Show fifty five seventy seven.
Good to have with us this morning. The President of
the Florida Chamber of Commerce, Mark Wilson. Morning, Mark, how
are you?
Speaker 2 (00:25):
Hey, Good morning, Preston. It's great to be back with
you again.
Speaker 1 (00:28):
Tell us before we kind of roll into the topic here,
what is the Florida Prosperity Initiative? What gave birth to that?
What is it? What is it all about?
Speaker 2 (00:39):
Yeah, hey, thanks again for having me back. So when
we think about Florida right like last hour, you were
talking about Jim Lovell and this incredible mission to the moon,
the other side of the moon and back, and the
world's talking about Florida right now. And so when we
think of prosperity, we think of free enterprise, and when
we think of job creation, Preston, Florida creates about one
(01:01):
out of every fifteen new jobs in the country. However,
to your question, we discovered a decade or so ago
that Florida back then had over a million kids in poverty.
And so on one hand, we have this wealth moving
to our state, but on the other hand, we have
pockets of poverty throughout our state. And what better than
(01:24):
free enterprise, not government? Right, we have too much government
dependency in our country. But who better than the business
community championing free enterprise to go into these zip codes,
into these schools and work to break the cycle of
generational poverty. So we've been at it about a decade
raising awareness and over the last year we've actually doubled
(01:47):
down and our goal now is to cut childhood poverty
in half in Florida by twenty thirty. And this is
all about breaking the cycle of generational poverty. These are
our future workers. It's very clear at the federal levels
not going to do this. Poverty is a neighborhood, zip
code level issue. And so that's why we're investing so
(02:08):
much and raising so much awareness and have a new
report out on the topic.
Speaker 1 (02:12):
I suppose and correct me if I'm wrong that before
you can define how to best solve these issues, you
have to define poverty. So what is the working definition
we're using here?
Speaker 2 (02:26):
Yeah, there's multiple definitions Preston. And obviously you've you've studied
this issue before. So the federal government for as long
back as we can remember, has had a federal definition
of poverty for a single person, it's extreme poverty. It's
about twelve thousand dollars a year. And by the way,
(02:47):
that is whether you're in Alaska or Hawaii, or Miami
or Gadsden County where I live. The federal government thinks
that the poverty levels the same no matter where you are,
and of course one Congress thinks that that's the case.
And our partners that United Way nationally and Melissa Nelson
(03:08):
here in Florida, have come up with a much better approach.
It's called ALICE. It stands for Asset limited, income, Constrained
and Employed. And you know, we see in some communities
a third to half of people who work are choosing
between childcare and rent and the power bill or the
(03:30):
car bill. And so we have again somewhere around half
of the people in Florida are in this category of
either poverty, which is better termed as extreme poverty, or
in the ALICE population. And so both matter, and our
Prosperity initiative again is zip code by zip code, looking
(03:51):
at ten root causes so that we can literally change
the path that some of these kids were born into
based on the zip code that they were born in.
Speaker 1 (04:01):
And it's not an overnight fix. And I suppose that's
one of the challenges in frustrations of trying to get
your arms around the problem. You can't just make it
go away.
Speaker 2 (04:12):
Preston, That's exactly the challenge. This is a forever issue.
As our statewide Prosperity Initiative Director Heather Kogar always reminds us,
she grew up in foster care and in poverty and
she went on to break the cycle. And as she
always says, we're always going to have poverty. But if
we can get about putting goals in place, and we
(04:32):
can raise awareness to the business community throughout Florida that
we actually have poverty right here in our community, then
business leaders can start to redirect their philanthropy, their volunteer hours,
and we can start to work with Senator Simon and
Representatives Hant and others to say, hey, this is you know,
(04:53):
kindergarten readiness matters, third grade reading matters. You know, if
a third of our kids don't know where their meals
are coming from. That's something we can do. Churches play
a huge role in this, Preston, and we're trying to
get the faith community back at the center of this,
together with businesses so that we can literally break the
(05:14):
cycle and change this for the future. We think Florida
could be the first state in America. We know we're
the free state, but we think we can be the
first state to cut childhood poverty in half. And we're
actually on that trajectory over the next several years.
Speaker 1 (05:30):
Mark, Let's tackle the obstacles here. What are the biggest,
maybe two or three obstacles for breaking this cycle that
you're trying to address.
Speaker 2 (05:45):
Yeah, Preston, I would put them in a couple categories.
One is awareness raising, and I think it's the single
biggest obstacle that we have. I meet with politicians, I
meet with business leaders, parents, and they don't know that
we have poverty right here in our community. So just
just big picture when we put our report out, Preston,
and this is the best way I can answer your question.
(06:06):
In Florida, we have over seven hundred and eleven thousand
kids in poverty statewide. Florida has nine hundred and eighty
three zip codes, And the first thing I would say is,
you know, that's a big number, but when it's not
ubiquitous all over the state. Over half of our kids
in poverty live in only fifteen percent of our zip codes.
(06:27):
So one hundred and fifty two zip codes out of
nine hundred and eighty three's where half our kids in
poverty live. And if we just look right here in
the Big Bend area, if we just look at Leon
County alone as an example, we have over nine thousand
kids in poverty, nine thousand, three hundred and ninety four.
Leon County has ten zip codes, and half of our
kids in poverty live in only three zip codes. In fact,
(06:50):
I have to give a shout out to our Tallahasse
State College President Jim Murdau and Karen Moore from the
More Agency. They've both worked together three two three hoo
has more people in poverty than any other zip code
in the entire state. And what they're doing to wrap
around the ten root causes to provide meals to go
(07:11):
into the schools. If you look at Sable Palm and
that's a community health school or a community impact school.
You know from an f school to an A school.
So raising awareness of what's going on and where the
next issue is. We worked with the Federal Reserve early
on in the United Way and our research, said Preston,
(07:32):
there's actually ten root causes that can send any one
of us into poverty. For example, we could lose our
health and we can end up in poverty. The same
ten root causes that can send you into poverty make
it very difficult to get out of poverty. So you know,
food and security, unaffordability, housing, think of safer homes and communities,
(07:55):
which is why we have a statewide partnership with the
Florida Sheriff's Association. Matt Done again and the team over
there are second to none, and they understand that we
can't get kids and families out of poverty if the
kids aren't safe in the first place. Lack of a
good job, right, So think about how many people are
trying to work their way out of poverty. Yeah, they
(08:16):
need skills, they need those opportunities. Transportation. Maybe I'm a
nurse and I live fifteen miles from the hospital, but
my transmission went out, So what can we do? Are
there church services available? Can businesses jump in? So I
think the biggest issue Preston is you know, when we're
in a state that is the fifteenth largest economy in
(08:38):
the world. Our economy is bigger than Spain, and the
rest of the country wants to be like Florida. We're
trying to raise awareness that we need to make sure
that we're bringing economic opportunity and better education to every
single zip code of Florida. That's what we're trying to
work on.
Speaker 1 (08:53):
In the break, I was sharing a story of a
young lady who called this program many years ago named Courtney,
and Steve Sutherland was in Congress at the time, and
she pointed out, as someone who was receiving government benefits
that the program is set up in such a way
that if you earn one dollar too much, you hit
this point where all of the help goes away. And
(09:14):
she said it encourages cheating, it encourages people to be dishonest,
and it also discourages success and achievement because if I
do better, I have this gap in my assistance until
I can get fully off it. In tackling this issue
of poverty inside Florida, Mark, I have to believe that
(09:36):
has been an issue that you've been confronted with.
Speaker 2 (09:39):
Yeah, Preston. I'm so glad you brought this up because
when I testified in Congress when we originally excuse me,
when we originally started this, that was my message to
Congress that at the time, I asked the question, if
you're a single mom with two kids under five, would
you rather make nine dollars an hour or twenty five
dollars an hour? And only in America would it make
(10:01):
more sense for you to make nine dollars an hour?
And the reason we pick nine and twenty five questen
Those are called fiscal cliffs. And we actually wrote a
paper on that. The Federal Reserves now talking about it,
and it's real. We have some of the dumbest policy
on the planet when it relates to economic opportunity. What
(10:22):
we tell people is, hey, if you're making nine or
ten dollars an hour and you make an extra dollar,
don't worry. You'll lose your childcare assistant. If you make
a little more, you'll lose your food stamps. If you
make a little more, you'll lose you know, and you
get the point. What I told Congress is America should
be the best place in the world for people who
want to work, and we should honor people working their
(10:44):
way out of poverty, and we should let people keep
as a bridge to opportunity and prosperity. The way to
break government dependency and poverty is to encourage people to
get those job skills. Make an extra dollar, an extra five,
and extra ten, become a manager, work your way up,
live that American dream, and once you get beyond twenty
(11:06):
five dollars an hour, the smart policy would be to
start working your way off of government assistance. But we're
literally keeping people in poverty by having these backwards policies
that say, if you better yourself and you get an education,
and you work harder and you get a promotion, you're
actually going to lose these benefits. So Preston, you've nailed it.
(11:29):
Courtney nailed it. They're called fiscal cliffs. It's a huge
problem in our country, and we're working at the state level.
The state of Florida has been a national leader in
getting rid of these fiscal cliffs that the state can control.
Now we're onto the federal bureaucracy and the federal handcuffs,
if you will, and getting Congress to move on. This
(11:50):
is a wholly different deal, which is why we're not
only working on Congress, but we're working with the private sector,
one zip code at a time. To go in and say,
while we're on Congress to act, what can we do
locally to get these kids out of poverty and to
get these parents the job training and the job opportunities
(12:10):
that they need.
Speaker 1 (12:11):
Is it overly simplified knowing the ridiculous dysfunction of Congress?
Is it overly simplified mark to say, okay, well, Florida
then needs to be that bridge when they hit that
mark of losing their federal benefits completely. Florida needs to
(12:32):
step up and provide that glide.
Speaker 2 (12:34):
Slope, and not only I don't think that's oversimplified. I
think Florida literally needs to be the national leader in
this regard and some of the challenge with that. Preston
Florida has done an amazing job. Well, Governor de Santis
has done, and Rick Scott before him, we really started
the pathway of what can Florida do to eliminate these barriers,
(12:58):
these cliffs if you will, now the federal government, you
know these are these are expensive, right, It's billions and
billions of dollars of entitlements and for Florida to step
in the gap there. We need to do it one
step at a time. I have to tell you, I'm
like I'm in the Milton Friedman camp. You know, government
(13:18):
can't always be the first solution. We have to what
can the private sector do? What can businesses do by
redirecting their philanthropy, their volunteer hours. What can nonprofits do?
You know, Think of the United Way locally, they do
a great job. Think of what happens with financial literacy.
(13:39):
Think of our food banks, Think of chs and the
community partnership schools. There's a lot of private sector focus
that can move the needle here while we're waiting on
government to do the right thing.
Speaker 1 (13:52):
Mark is always I appreciate the intel that the Florida
Chamber pushes out if you get get a handle of
what's going on in our state. Ed Her, and thanks
for making time for us.
Speaker 2 (14:03):
Preston, as always, thanks for having me, Thanks for helping
us raise awareness to such an important issue.
Speaker 1 (14:07):
Absolutely, Mark Wilson, President of the Florida Chamber of Commerce.
My guests twenty seven passed the hour
All right, kiddos, welcome to the third and final hour,
at least for today, The Morning Show with Preston, Scott
and Preston. He's ose great to be with you. It
is Tuesday, and it's April seventh, Show fifty five seventy seven.
Good to have with us this morning. The President of
the Florida Chamber of Commerce, Mark Wilson. Morning, Mark, how
are you?
Speaker 2 (00:25):
Hey, Good morning, Preston. It's great to be back with
you again.
Speaker 1 (00:28):
Tell us before we kind of roll into the topic here,
what is the Florida Prosperity Initiative? What gave birth to that?
What is it? What is it all about?
Speaker 2 (00:39):
Yeah, hey, thanks again for having me back. So when
we think about Florida right like last hour, you were
talking about Jim Lovell and this incredible mission to the moon,
the other side of the moon and back, and the
world's talking about Florida right now. And so when we
think of prosperity, we think of free enterprise, and when
we think of job creation, Preston, Florida creates about one
(01:01):
out of every fifteen new jobs in the country. However,
to your question, we discovered a decade or so ago
that Florida back then had over a million kids in poverty.
And so on one hand, we have this wealth moving
to our state, but on the other hand, we have
pockets of poverty throughout our state. And what better than
(01:24):
free enterprise, not government? Right, we have too much government
dependency in our country. But who better than the business
community championing free enterprise to go into these zip codes,
into these schools and work to break the cycle of
generational poverty. So we've been at it about a decade
raising awareness and over the last year we've actually doubled
(01:47):
down and our goal now is to cut childhood poverty
in half in Florida by twenty thirty. And this is
all about breaking the cycle of generational poverty. These are
our future workers. It's very clear at the federal levels
not going to do this. Poverty is a neighborhood, zip
code level issue. And so that's why we're investing so
(02:08):
much and raising so much awareness and have a new
report out on the topic.
Speaker 1 (02:12):
I suppose and correct me if I'm wrong that before
you can define how to best solve these issues, you
have to define poverty. So what is the working definition
we're using here?
Speaker 2 (02:26):
Yeah, there's multiple definitions Preston. And obviously you've you've studied
this issue before. So the federal government for as long
back as we can remember, has had a federal definition
of poverty for a single person, it's extreme poverty. It's
about twelve thousand dollars a year. And by the way,
(02:47):
that is whether you're in Alaska or Hawaii, or Miami
or Gadsden County where I live. The federal government thinks
that the poverty levels the same no matter where you are,
and of course one Congress thinks that that's the case.
And our partners that United Way nationally and Melissa Nelson
(03:08):
here in Florida, have come up with a much better approach.
It's called ALICE. It stands for Asset limited, income, Constrained
and Employed. And you know, we see in some communities
a third to half of people who work are choosing
between childcare and rent and the power bill or the
(03:30):
car bill. And so we have again somewhere around half
of the people in Florida are in this category of
either poverty, which is better termed as extreme poverty, or
in the ALICE population. And so both matter, and our
Prosperity initiative again is zip code by zip code, looking
(03:51):
at ten root causes so that we can literally change
the path that some of these kids were born into
based on the zip code that they were born in.
Speaker 1 (04:01):
And it's not an overnight fix. And I suppose that's
one of the challenges in frustrations of trying to get
your arms around the problem. You can't just make it
go away.
Speaker 2 (04:12):
Preston, That's exactly the challenge. This is a forever issue.
As our statewide Prosperity Initiative Director Heather Kogar always reminds us,
she grew up in foster care and in poverty and
she went on to break the cycle. And as she
always says, we're always going to have poverty. But if
we can get about putting goals in place, and we
(04:32):
can raise awareness to the business community throughout Florida that
we actually have poverty right here in our community, then
business leaders can start to redirect their philanthropy, their volunteer hours,
and we can start to work with Senator Simon and
Representatives Hant and others to say, hey, this is you know,
(04:53):
kindergarten readiness matters, third grade reading matters. You know, if
a third of our kids don't know where their meals
are coming from. That's something we can do. Churches play
a huge role in this, Preston, and we're trying to
get the faith community back at the center of this,
together with businesses so that we can literally break the
(05:14):
cycle and change this for the future. We think Florida
could be the first state in America. We know we're
the free state, but we think we can be the
first state to cut childhood poverty in half. And we're
actually on that trajectory over the next several years.
Speaker 1 (05:30):
Mark, Let's tackle the obstacles here. What are the biggest,
maybe two or three obstacles for breaking this cycle that
you're trying to address.
Speaker 2 (05:45):
Yeah, Preston, I would put them in a couple categories.
One is awareness raising, and I think it's the single
biggest obstacle that we have. I meet with politicians, I
meet with business leaders, parents, and they don't know that
we have poverty right here in our community. So just
just big picture when we put our report out, Preston,
and this is the best way I can answer your question.
(06:06):
In Florida, we have over seven hundred and eleven thousand
kids in poverty statewide. Florida has nine hundred and eighty
three zip codes, And the first thing I would say is,
you know, that's a big number, but when it's not
ubiquitous all over the state. Over half of our kids
in poverty live in only fifteen percent of our zip codes.
(06:27):
So one hundred and fifty two zip codes out of
nine hundred and eighty three's where half our kids in
poverty live. And if we just look right here in
the Big Bend area, if we just look at Leon
County alone as an example, we have over nine thousand
kids in poverty, nine thousand, three hundred and ninety four.
Leon County has ten zip codes, and half of our
kids in poverty live in only three zip codes. In fact,
(06:50):
I have to give a shout out to our Tallahasse
State College President Jim Murdau and Karen Moore from the
More Agency. They've both worked together three two three hoo
has more people in poverty than any other zip code
in the entire state. And what they're doing to wrap
around the ten root causes to provide meals to go
(07:11):
into the schools. If you look at Sable Palm and
that's a community health school or a community impact school.
You know from an f school to an A school.
So raising awareness of what's going on and where the
next issue is. We worked with the Federal Reserve early
on in the United Way and our research, said Preston,
(07:32):
there's actually ten root causes that can send any one
of us into poverty. For example, we could lose our
health and we can end up in poverty. The same
ten root causes that can send you into poverty make
it very difficult to get out of poverty. So you know,
food and security, unaffordability, housing, think of safer homes and communities,
(07:55):
which is why we have a statewide partnership with the
Florida Sheriff's Association. Matt Done again and the team over
there are second to none, and they understand that we
can't get kids and families out of poverty if the
kids aren't safe in the first place. Lack of a
good job, right, So think about how many people are
trying to work their way out of poverty. Yeah, they
(08:16):
need skills, they need those opportunities. Transportation. Maybe I'm a
nurse and I live fifteen miles from the hospital, but
my transmission went out, So what can we do? Are
there church services available? Can businesses jump in? So I
think the biggest issue Preston is you know, when we're
in a state that is the fifteenth largest economy in
(08:38):
the world. Our economy is bigger than Spain, and the
rest of the country wants to be like Florida. We're
trying to raise awareness that we need to make sure
that we're bringing economic opportunity and better education to every
single zip code of Florida. That's what we're trying to
work on.
Speaker 1 (08:53):
In the break, I was sharing a story of a
young lady who called this program many years ago named Courtney,
and Steve Sutherland was in Congress at the time, and
she pointed out, as someone who was receiving government benefits
that the program is set up in such a way
that if you earn one dollar too much, you hit
this point where all of the help goes away. And
(09:14):
she said it encourages cheating, it encourages people to be dishonest,
and it also discourages success and achievement because if I
do better, I have this gap in my assistance until
I can get fully off it. In tackling this issue
of poverty inside Florida, Mark, I have to believe that
(09:36):
has been an issue that you've been confronted with.
Speaker 2 (09:39):
Yeah, Preston. I'm so glad you brought this up because
when I testified in Congress when we originally excuse me,
when we originally started this, that was my message to
Congress that at the time, I asked the question, if
you're a single mom with two kids under five, would
you rather make nine dollars an hour or twenty five
dollars an hour? And only in America would it make
(10:01):
more sense for you to make nine dollars an hour?
And the reason we pick nine and twenty five questen
Those are called fiscal cliffs. And we actually wrote a
paper on that. The Federal Reserves now talking about it,
and it's real. We have some of the dumbest policy
on the planet when it relates to economic opportunity. What
(10:22):
we tell people is, hey, if you're making nine or
ten dollars an hour and you make an extra dollar,
don't worry. You'll lose your childcare assistant. If you make
a little more, you'll lose your food stamps. If you
make a little more, you'll lose you know, and you
get the point. What I told Congress is America should
be the best place in the world for people who
want to work, and we should honor people working their
(10:44):
way out of poverty, and we should let people keep
as a bridge to opportunity and prosperity. The way to
break government dependency and poverty is to encourage people to
get those job skills. Make an extra dollar, an extra five,
and extra ten, become a manager, work your way up,
live that American dream, and once you get beyond twenty
(11:06):
five dollars an hour, the smart policy would be to
start working your way off of government assistance. But we're
literally keeping people in poverty by having these backwards policies
that say, if you better yourself and you get an education,
and you work harder and you get a promotion, you're
actually going to lose these benefits. So Preston, you've nailed it.
(11:29):
Courtney nailed it. They're called fiscal cliffs. It's a huge
problem in our country, and we're working at the state level.
The state of Florida has been a national leader in
getting rid of these fiscal cliffs that the state can control.
Now we're onto the federal bureaucracy and the federal handcuffs,
if you will, and getting Congress to move on. This
(11:50):
is a wholly different deal, which is why we're not
only working on Congress, but we're working with the private sector,
one zip code at a time. To go in and say,
while we're on Congress to act, what can we do
locally to get these kids out of poverty and to
get these parents the job training and the job opportunities
(12:10):
that they need.
Speaker 1 (12:11):
Is it overly simplified knowing the ridiculous dysfunction of Congress?
Is it overly simplified mark to say, okay, well, Florida
then needs to be that bridge when they hit that
mark of losing their federal benefits completely. Florida needs to
(12:32):
step up and provide that glide.
Speaker 2 (12:34):
Slope, and not only I don't think that's oversimplified. I
think Florida literally needs to be the national leader in
this regard and some of the challenge with that. Preston
Florida has done an amazing job. Well, Governor de Santis
has done, and Rick Scott before him, we really started
the pathway of what can Florida do to eliminate these barriers,
(12:58):
these cliffs if you will, now the federal government, you
know these are these are expensive, right, It's billions and
billions of dollars of entitlements and for Florida to step
in the gap there. We need to do it one
step at a time. I have to tell you, I'm
like I'm in the Milton Friedman camp. You know, government
(13:18):
can't always be the first solution. We have to what
can the private sector do? What can businesses do by
redirecting their philanthropy, their volunteer hours. What can nonprofits do?
You know, Think of the United Way locally, they do
a great job. Think of what happens with financial literacy.
(13:39):
Think of our food banks, Think of chs and the
community partnership schools. There's a lot of private sector focus
that can move the needle here while we're waiting on
government to do the right thing.
Speaker 1 (13:52):
Mark is always I appreciate the intel that the Florida
Chamber pushes out if you get get a handle of
what's going on in our state. Ed Her, and thanks
for making time for us.
Speaker 2 (14:03):
Preston, as always, thanks for having me, Thanks for helping
us raise awareness to such an important issue.
Speaker 1 (14:07):
Absolutely, Mark Wilson, President of the Florida Chamber of Commerce.
My guests twenty seven passed the hour
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