May 18, 2026 • 23 mins
Sal Nuzzo, of ConsumersDefense.com, joined Preston and offered an update.
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Showing Secretariat footage from the from the Preakness to Salnuzoh,
he's a horse buff just like I am. And here
we are together again. It's the Morning Show with Preston Scott,
third hour of the program Show five six hundred and
five and uh and we are joined by the Executive
director of Consumers Defense, Sal Nuzzo.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
Hello, five six and five shows. Yeah, you got you
got some staying power. You might want to think of
a career in this field.
Speaker 1 (00:28):
I you know, a few have suggested, But then I'd
have to get good about it. I'd have to become good. Yeah,
and I'm not good. No one's ever accused me of that,
so yeah, see I'm I'm just not good enough for that.
So I don't think I'm going to do it. But anyway,
how would you describe where we are in the special session?
Speaker 2 (00:48):
We're about the midway point of the process, solely with
respect to the budget. And so is it that we
know we're at the midway point. We think so roughly
in the mid range, because what has happened is last
week you had the Conference Committee's meeting, and you had
(01:09):
all of the things that they could tackle, they got done,
and then what they couldn't. Whereas they had disagreements on
either the level of funding for a particular line item
or whether or not that line item should have any
money attached to it at all. You had those issues
that then get what they call bumped up to leadership.
(01:30):
So the committee, the budget chairs ed Hooper and oh gosh,
name is escaping me already, then work on it with
the House Speaker and the Senate President and their staff,
and they ultimately come to a decision on where they're
going to get to.
Speaker 1 (01:47):
It could be split in the baby. It could be you.
Speaker 2 (01:49):
Take twenty percent on this one and I take twenty
percent on the next one. It could be half and half.
It could be we're sticking to our guns. But that's
where when they talk about in reference a little bit
of the secretive nature of the budget negotiations, this is
the part that we're entering into now.
Speaker 1 (02:07):
In your opinion, are we We're gonna have to have
for them to adjourn by the end of the week,
which is Memorial Day weekend coming up right, Yes. In
order for that to happen, they have to have a
budget out to members by the end of the day tomorrow.
Speaker 2 (02:23):
Yeah, and they're gonna What they're gonna do is likely
land the budget, so to speak, on the desk late
this week. They will all travel back home for the
Memorial Day weekend and remember the special sessions through the
twenty ninth, and so.
Speaker 1 (02:39):
They can hold the vote.
Speaker 2 (02:40):
They will come back, They will hold a quick vote
and then come back probably on the twenty six, twenty
seven to twenty eight, depending on when that budget lands.
Speaker 1 (02:48):
So sometime after Memorial Days when the voting's gonna happen.
Speaker 2 (02:51):
Yeah, but it won't be anything like you typically see
where they're all coming in and there's a lot of
fanfare and all of this stuff like a normal even
regular or special session. This will be they come in,
they will be in for the vote, and it's only
because they are prohibited from casting the vote remotely. If
there were a provision in the constitution for them to
do that, they would they would absolutely vote remotely.
Speaker 1 (03:15):
What's the Governor's posturing in all of this is he
kind of taking the approach of, look, I've laid my
priorities out. They know I have a pen, and whatever
they do they do, it'll land on my desk and
I'll take it from there.
Speaker 2 (03:28):
Yeah, And that's pretty much where he's tacked in terms
of the nuts and bolts of the majority of the budget,
apart from his desire to enact property tax reform and
a big way for homesteaded properties. There hasn't been much
from the Governor's office that I've seen in terms of
prioritization in any of the silos, whether it be in
(03:50):
the education front or criminal justice or healthcare. We've seen
a lot of the priorities and the dialogue happening within
the chambers versus coming down from on high or from
the plaza level at the Governor's office.
Speaker 1 (04:06):
On that salnwzo with me and you can find out
more about the work he does. A Consumer's defense by
going to their website, Consumers Defense dot com. It's a
dot com, right, not a dot org.
Speaker 2 (04:16):
It is a dot com now our C three Consumers
Research is a dot org, but our website is a
dot com.
Speaker 1 (04:24):
Nice the maps, the Supreme Court's made it clear you
cannot put congressional maps together with any regard to race.
I think it's long overdue. I thought affirmative action congressional
maps needed to be challenged decades ago, but some sensibility
has come. Maps have been done here in Florida. They're
(04:44):
gonna survive the test. More is happening. So what's left
to happen here in Florida as it relates to the mapping, Well,
there is some litigation.
Speaker 2 (04:53):
Mark Elias in a host of other groups have filed
suit against the congressional maps in Florida, and so that
will have to play out. I don't believe it will
play out in time for this cycle. In this election,
so the maps that were passed will be the maps
that Floridians vote on in twenty twenty six. We are
(05:14):
likely to go from a twenty to eight Republican majority
in the state to something probably along the lines of
a twenty four to four Republican majority. Based on my
read and some stuff that I've read, it does look
like the biggest, so to speak, losers. The folks that
(05:35):
would have to figure out what their future looks like
are going to be Kathy Caster, Jared Moskowitz, Darren Sodo,
and Wi Watser Minschaltz. Now, those four Democrats are already
kind of figuring out where they're going to run. I
think Debbie is running in another district that kind of
has some of our old district in there. Jared moskowitz
Is I think he shifted to one of the new districts.
(05:58):
Kathy castor Is got a Republican challenger and may have more.
Darren Soto, I mean, he's fighting tooth and nail, but
he isn't going to survive in my book based on
where his district is. But at the same time as
Florida's doing this, you have other states. Because it was
a US Supreme Court ruling, some are stepping up and
(06:20):
some were finding are They started to step up. Now
they're walking back a bit. You had Mississippi and Alabama.
So Alabama's likely only going to pick up one seat
based on the new map that they drew, and they
probably could have done a little bit better. Mississippi decided
they're going to redistrict, but they're gonna do it for
the twenty twenty eight cycle. The South Carolina case, the
(06:43):
Senate voted to not redistrict. They had a majority, but
they need to Apparently in the state they need a
two thirds majority to do the redistricting ahead of when
it's required by the constitution. Now, why does this matter?
And it for a couple of reasons. One because the
House Republican majority is razor thin in the margin. And
(07:06):
then you've got again this sense of Florida kind of
taking their swords out and charging the field and saying,
you know, come on everybody, and you get states that
are kind of, well, we don't really know how aggressive
we want to be. And you have the whole political
dynamic in Florida with the governor's race, because there is
(07:26):
a press announcement coming today from Lieutenant Governor j Collins.
He's in Tampa at two thirty pm. I heard some
wild speculation that he may consider or is been considering,
dropping his bid for governor and maybe jumping into one
of those new congressional districts, particularly in the Tampa area,
(07:46):
because they carved it up pretty aggressively, and that Kathy
Castor seat could you know, be one that he is
able to mount a challenge on. Now, then it kind
of unpacks the what happens from here, what happens with
the governor, with Paul Renner, with Byron Donald's, what happens
with you know, the relationships and the dynamic with Trump,
(08:10):
And there's a whole host of dominoes and things that
could potentially happen as a result of you know what
the lieutenant governor decides and how far he takes his campaign.
Speaker 1 (08:20):
What's your hunch?
Speaker 2 (08:22):
You know, my hunch would have been, yes, he drops
the bid for governor. He is just not able to
get off of the launchpad really well, and he would
stand a reasonably good chance to pick up one of
those congressional seats. However, he has been adamant in every
(08:43):
single press statement he has given or interview he has
given he is in the governor's race until the end.
He is seeing it through. So I would I be shocked,
know would I be surprised a little bit?
Speaker 1 (08:56):
Just based on that sal Newzo with us we're doing
a bit of a post mortem still on the legislative session,
because the governor just explained a little procedure here to us.
The governor gets bills a little bit out of time.
Speaker 2 (09:11):
Sure, yeah, the governor. The legislature passes bills, the bill
has to be identical in both chambers, and then it
is what they call. There's two phrases. There's enrolled and engrossed,
and I may mix these up. I apologize if I do.
But when the legislature passed it, it's enrolled and then
when the governor signs it, it's engrossed or the other
(09:33):
way around. But they transmit it to the governor and
then the clock starts ticking, and depending on the bill,
he's got a certain number of days to pass it
or veto it or pocket veto it, and it goes
into law. And so they're sending bills. Now there's some
choreography to it. The governor's office may request a batch
of bills that the governor's ready to consider these, they'll
(09:54):
send those over sort of like clearing the desk. Yeah,
and so they want to also maxim the visibility of
certain bills or going to hold signing ceremonies and things
like that, and they got to coordinate with all the
other things that he does.
Speaker 1 (10:07):
So of the bills he has signed, what stands out
to you.
Speaker 2 (10:10):
Yeah, and he has had a lot of action in
signing what is a lighter load from previous sessions. But
I think we're up to just over eighty bills that
he signed and a number of notable ones from the
last week or so that I can go through three
ninety nine so on applications for new development. And these
can be very expensive because it's a big area. The
(10:32):
application fees have to have a pricing component related to
what it actually costs to process the application, So local
governments cannot just implement these kind of arduous application fees
that are just meant to kind of siphon money from
developers which then gets passed onto homeowners. Four twenty eight
(10:53):
expands the swimming voucher program that got started a year
or two ago to older children. It bumps it up
to seven years old. HB four forty five Child exploitation
charges added to the list of crimes where a non
monetary pre trial release is allowed. So I'm surprised that
it took this long to get there. But so judges
cannot release somebody pre trial on their own recognissance or
(11:18):
with what do you call them?
Speaker 1 (11:20):
Those monitors and such. Only two hundred and fifty people
have gone missing in Chicago with them.
Speaker 2 (11:26):
Only two hundred and fifty four fifty three. Two years
of marching band equals one physical education credit. Kids, if
you don't like running the mile, start playing the tuba.
It'll pay off, boy, it will, and you'll get your exercise.
You might die any Yeah, nicely done. Six eighty six
Agricultural enclaves now I've mentioned this one before, but I
(11:48):
wanted to provide some additional context. It allows for agriculture
land to be developed into housing, which we need, but
only when it connext to or is directly adjacent to
existing development. And when I say only, what I mean
is the local government cannot regulate that area out of
use for development. Okay, you get seven fifty seven expanding
(12:11):
the Campus Guardian program to public colleges and universities.
Speaker 1 (12:14):
But that does not allow carry on campus correct.
Speaker 2 (12:17):
I mean, we're talking short steps in the right direction,
and that's as much as you know we could hope
for at this juncture. One thousand and four pet Sales
allowing additional protections for people purchasing a pet from their
pet dealers. School Board Member Bill of Rights ten seventy three.
Given the issues we're facing here, I think I like
(12:39):
this one, and it could be a dark horse on
value members are guaranteed. School Board members are now guaranteed
access to district documents they need. It allows for members
to consult with the district CFO on budget information and
also allows them to request info from staff, and it
allows them to publicly comment on district business. Is where
(13:01):
that may be frowned upon, or where they get into
some hot water locally, or where the Sunshine law butts
up against it. So this kind of helps in that respect.
Speaker 1 (13:11):
This also, I would guess, negates some of the influence
perhaps that we would assign to a superintendent of education,
we would.
Speaker 2 (13:22):
Hope, so we would hope that this puts school board
members in a place where they don't just have to
trust what a superintendent says. They can trust, but verify.
And that's important as we encounter not just Leon County schools,
but districts across the state where they're having, you know,
outflows of students and the funding that goes with them.
Speaker 1 (13:43):
Can I assume then that an individual school board member
could go to say, the budget supervisor, whatever, but two
of them together cannot go together. Is the operative work
because that would violate sunshine? That is correct.
Speaker 2 (13:57):
Okay, you've also got eleven thirty four coming in handy here.
The DEI band I like, we don't need to think
about all the ways local governments are trying to take
national issues and make them local. Well, they're just dropping
the words though, diversity, equity and inclusiveness, but they include definitions. Okay,
those terms that I think would put. I mean, we
(14:20):
can take Leon County and the city of Tallahouse, lord
A and.
Speaker 1 (14:23):
M University is doing it. Yes, they're getting around it,
and they're bragging about getting around it in some areas.
Speaker 2 (14:28):
And that's actually an entirely separate issue because they're a university.
They've got to they've got to deal with the state
Board of Governors. You here, now you've got state law
that that would address what a lot of is a
lot of the things that are happening locally eleven fifty
nine sexual offenses, creating harsher penalties, establishing a new category
(14:50):
for generated child porn.
Speaker 1 (14:55):
Back with Salnwzo of Consumers Defense one two more secon
let's keep talking about the bills that the governor signed
that people ought to be aware of. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (15:06):
Sure, so you got a number of them that we started,
and so to kind of keep the list going. HB
twelve seventeen is one. I hadn't been completely aware of
this one during the session. But no more carbon taxes
in Florida or even studying them for that matter, at
(15:26):
the state or local level. So there is this dynamic
at play where it was popular in conservative circles about
ten years ago to talk about this issue called cap
and trade, yeah, which is basically like, we're going to
tax you based on your carbon emissions and then we're
going to establish kind of trading rights for those and
that's not going to happen in Florida twelve seventy nine.
(15:48):
Teacher funding a big one. Provides a mechanism for districts
to get their high performing teachers, and in particular the
ones who were teaching in lower performing schools. They can
get them immediate salary boosts without going through the collective
bargaining agreement.
Speaker 1 (16:06):
That one is interesting to me. We've seen here locally
in this community that just because the state allocates money
doesn't mean it finds its way to teachers. Does this
bypass that problem?
Speaker 2 (16:19):
In part it does, and it'll now there are some
provisions and some you gotta kind of meet some criteria
to be one of those teachers that is within that program.
But and Leon County is not the only district that
had this issue.
Speaker 1 (16:33):
Sure.
Speaker 2 (16:34):
In fact, the Commissioner of Education called out, I want
to say it was like four or five mens.
Speaker 1 (16:38):
Isn't he about to be the former commissioner?
Speaker 2 (16:40):
Potentially there's some scuttle buddy, maybe the new president of
Polk State College. Yeah, coming up. Great man loves Stacy
to death. He's a phenomenal public servant and it would
be a well deserved and well earned job for him.
But yeah, he called out a number of districts where
they were holding on to legislatively allocated money and under
(17:03):
the guise of, well, we have not reached an agreement
with our union for a new collective bargaining agreement, and
so that in and of itself is a problem for
districts and for teachers. So this would remedy that in part.
Have you heard at all how they would do it?
Would that would a check be issued directly from the state,
because if they're bound by collective bargaining, I would think
(17:25):
that would present a problem for the district issuing a check.
Speaker 1 (17:28):
It would.
Speaker 2 (17:29):
And I've got to look at the bill to find
out what is the protocol because it could be something
where they designate it by school. It could be under
the purview of even the principle where they have to
fill out a form and get that done. I got
to look at the protocols for how that would be interesting. Yeah,
and that's actually a good one. We can dive into
let me read the bill specifics on that portion of it,
(17:51):
and then we can unpack it.
Speaker 1 (17:53):
What about a House Bill fourteen seventy one.
Speaker 2 (17:55):
This has my interest, Yeah, and it's got a lot
of kind of hairs on the back of people's next
standing up, good or bad in both ways. So terrorist organizations,
I do believe this is going to be a bit
contentious as it's deployed. It creates a process by which
the state can designated group as a domestic terrorist organization.
(18:16):
So there are provisions for no religious courts or tribunals
being allowed to enforce anything that violates a person's constitutional rights.
That's that's an easy that's low hanging fruit on the bill.
No state school choice money for private schools that are
owned or funded by a group on the terrorist list. Now,
at first glance, one would assume that is a good
(18:40):
deal and accept that, except that one of the prisms
that I always try to look at a bill through
is how can this be deployed by the other side
if they were to come into power. And I've got
a little thing in my head that's saying, if the
pendulum swing, I would not be surprised to see the
(19:05):
left use this and try to deploy it against the
right as.
Speaker 1 (19:09):
They otherwise known as Christian schools exactly, and because this
is targeting Islamic.
Speaker 2 (19:15):
Schools in a sense, it is, yeah, And so it's
one that's we've got to be mindful of this as
it gets deployed, as rules and REGs get built out,
and I would expect some litigation on this to take hold.
Speaker 1 (19:29):
I can defend it. This just send me to the courtroom.
Speaker 2 (19:32):
Oh, I'm not as concerned on the constitutionality or legal
and I'm not an attorney.
Speaker 1 (19:38):
No, But I mean, I know if the prism flips,
because I'm completely with you, how can this be used
as a cudgel on the other side when it's used
by a lever on this side?
Speaker 2 (19:48):
And far smarter people than me are probably already thinking
of the arguments for that.
Speaker 1 (19:54):
So all right, we got a little fun time left here.
So vaccine mandates are looking at it?
Speaker 2 (20:03):
Are you implying that the first four sessions are not fun?
That's only the fifth second. Now we got through the
meat and now it's kind of like dessert time. Okay,
the main meal. I don't know if I want to
think about vaccine mandates as dessert.
Speaker 1 (20:15):
I've you and I've shared in the break some conversations
I've had with with people in the healthcare industry that
have very strong opinions on this. But how do you
think this is going to unfold?
Speaker 2 (20:26):
Yeah, this is one where so to back up and
set the table in both the regular session as well
as a special because the governor called for this in
writing up the call for the special session. He wanted
to push ahead with allowing for more freedom for parents
to opt out of certain vaccination requirements for their children,
(20:47):
notably in order to be able to attend a public school,
but there are other parts of that as well. The
issue got very much mired in the media narrative. I
believe the Senate passed bill, the House didn't take it
up in the regular session, and then they tried again
in the Senate to proceed forward in the special session,
(21:10):
but the House didn't even file anything in the Speaker's office.
In fact, it may have even been the Speaker in
a press conference had said no member filed a bill,
and he was not convinced that the public was on
the side of this issue. And he's pointing to some
polling that indicates that even among Republican audiences that this
(21:36):
issue is one that divides heavily. There is a large
contingent of the Republican population in the state that believes
in vaccine mandates, that do not want their kids going
to school with kids who were not vaccinated. And so
in kind of the lack of taking this up, the
speaker kind of telegraph that, look, we're gonna we're going
(21:58):
with public opinion on this, and that runs counter to
the governor of the Senate and the Surgeon General, who
has been out front on this issue from the moment
he was brought on.
Speaker 1 (22:10):
Is there any discussion, Is there any polling? Is there
any research done on whether or not vaccine mandates are
fueling the departure from the public school system.
Speaker 2 (22:21):
It's a great question, and I'm unaware of any polling
on that specific part of it, but you know, that
would be one that I would be very intrigued to know.
As the public school exodus continues and as school choice
options become more robust, are parents choosing either a charter,
(22:42):
a magnet, a private school, or at a homeschool based
solely or as a top tier reason the either mandating
of vaccines or the lack of a mandate.
Speaker 1 (22:54):
I'll be also curious if the ongoing Senate investigation in
the US Senate on COVID vaccines and the pharmaceutical handling
of all of it starts to then unpack the issue
of these government vaccines period.
Speaker 2 (23:08):
This to me is a very big issue because the
biggest fallout politically and from a governance standpoint has been
the tanking of trust in the FDA as a result
of the COVID issue and the CDC and the CDC
both of them. So everything that they put out now
is coming under that cloud, and it just makes the
(23:30):
entire debate very murky because you do not trust the
public officials who are telling you what they're telling you anymore.
Speaker 1 (23:38):
We're gonna have to stop there. Thanks, always a pleasure
to be with you. Salnuzoh with Consumers Defense, my guest
here on the Morning Show with Preston Scott
Showing Secretariat footage from the from the Preakness to Salnuzoh,
he's a horse buff just like I am. And here
we are together again. It's the Morning Show with Preston Scott,
third hour of the program Show five six hundred and
five and uh and we are joined by the Executive
director of Consumers Defense, Sal Nuzzo.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
Hello, five six and five shows. Yeah, you got you
got some staying power. You might want to think of
a career in this field.
Speaker 1 (00:28):
I you know, a few have suggested, But then I'd
have to get good about it. I'd have to become good. Yeah,
and I'm not good. No one's ever accused me of that,
so yeah, see I'm I'm just not good enough for that.
So I don't think I'm going to do it. But anyway,
how would you describe where we are in the special session?
Speaker 2 (00:48):
We're about the midway point of the process, solely with
respect to the budget. And so is it that we
know we're at the midway point. We think so roughly
in the mid range, because what has happened is last
week you had the Conference Committee's meeting, and you had
(01:09):
all of the things that they could tackle, they got done,
and then what they couldn't. Whereas they had disagreements on
either the level of funding for a particular line item
or whether or not that line item should have any
money attached to it at all. You had those issues
that then get what they call bumped up to leadership.
(01:30):
So the committee, the budget chairs ed Hooper and oh gosh,
name is escaping me already, then work on it with
the House Speaker and the Senate President and their staff,
and they ultimately come to a decision on where they're
going to get to.
Speaker 1 (01:47):
It could be split in the baby. It could be you.
Speaker 2 (01:49):
Take twenty percent on this one and I take twenty
percent on the next one. It could be half and half.
It could be we're sticking to our guns. But that's
where when they talk about in reference a little bit
of the secretive nature of the budget negotiations, this is
the part that we're entering into now.
Speaker 1 (02:07):
In your opinion, are we We're gonna have to have
for them to adjourn by the end of the week,
which is Memorial Day weekend coming up right, Yes. In
order for that to happen, they have to have a
budget out to members by the end of the day tomorrow.
Speaker 2 (02:23):
Yeah, and they're gonna What they're gonna do is likely
land the budget, so to speak, on the desk late
this week. They will all travel back home for the
Memorial Day weekend and remember the special sessions through the
twenty ninth, and so.
Speaker 1 (02:39):
They can hold the vote.
Speaker 2 (02:40):
They will come back, They will hold a quick vote
and then come back probably on the twenty six, twenty
seven to twenty eight, depending on when that budget lands.
Speaker 1 (02:48):
So sometime after Memorial Days when the voting's gonna happen.
Speaker 2 (02:51):
Yeah, but it won't be anything like you typically see
where they're all coming in and there's a lot of
fanfare and all of this stuff like a normal even
regular or special session. This will be they come in,
they will be in for the vote, and it's only
because they are prohibited from casting the vote remotely. If
there were a provision in the constitution for them to
do that, they would they would absolutely vote remotely.
Speaker 1 (03:15):
What's the Governor's posturing in all of this is he
kind of taking the approach of, look, I've laid my
priorities out. They know I have a pen, and whatever
they do they do, it'll land on my desk and
I'll take it from there.
Speaker 2 (03:28):
Yeah, And that's pretty much where he's tacked in terms
of the nuts and bolts of the majority of the budget,
apart from his desire to enact property tax reform and
a big way for homesteaded properties. There hasn't been much
from the Governor's office that I've seen in terms of
prioritization in any of the silos, whether it be in
(03:50):
the education front or criminal justice or healthcare. We've seen
a lot of the priorities and the dialogue happening within
the chambers versus coming down from on high or from
the plaza level at the Governor's office.
Speaker 1 (04:06):
On that salnwzo with me and you can find out
more about the work he does. A Consumer's defense by
going to their website, Consumers Defense dot com. It's a
dot com, right, not a dot org.
Speaker 2 (04:16):
It is a dot com now our C three Consumers
Research is a dot org, but our website is a
dot com.
Speaker 1 (04:24):
Nice the maps, the Supreme Court's made it clear you
cannot put congressional maps together with any regard to race.
I think it's long overdue. I thought affirmative action congressional
maps needed to be challenged decades ago, but some sensibility
has come. Maps have been done here in Florida. They're
(04:44):
gonna survive the test. More is happening. So what's left
to happen here in Florida as it relates to the mapping, Well,
there is some litigation.
Speaker 2 (04:53):
Mark Elias in a host of other groups have filed
suit against the congressional maps in Florida, and so that
will have to play out. I don't believe it will
play out in time for this cycle. In this election,
so the maps that were passed will be the maps
that Floridians vote on in twenty twenty six. We are
(05:14):
likely to go from a twenty to eight Republican majority
in the state to something probably along the lines of
a twenty four to four Republican majority. Based on my
read and some stuff that I've read, it does look
like the biggest, so to speak, losers. The folks that
(05:35):
would have to figure out what their future looks like
are going to be Kathy Caster, Jared Moskowitz, Darren Sodo,
and Wi Watser Minschaltz. Now, those four Democrats are already
kind of figuring out where they're going to run. I
think Debbie is running in another district that kind of
has some of our old district in there. Jared moskowitz
Is I think he shifted to one of the new districts.
(05:58):
Kathy castor Is got a Republican challenger and may have more.
Darren Soto, I mean, he's fighting tooth and nail, but
he isn't going to survive in my book based on
where his district is. But at the same time as
Florida's doing this, you have other states. Because it was
a US Supreme Court ruling, some are stepping up and
(06:20):
some were finding are They started to step up. Now
they're walking back a bit. You had Mississippi and Alabama.
So Alabama's likely only going to pick up one seat
based on the new map that they drew, and they
probably could have done a little bit better. Mississippi decided
they're going to redistrict, but they're gonna do it for
the twenty twenty eight cycle. The South Carolina case, the
(06:43):
Senate voted to not redistrict. They had a majority, but
they need to Apparently in the state they need a
two thirds majority to do the redistricting ahead of when
it's required by the constitution. Now, why does this matter?
And it for a couple of reasons. One because the
House Republican majority is razor thin in the margin. And
(07:06):
then you've got again this sense of Florida kind of
taking their swords out and charging the field and saying,
you know, come on everybody, and you get states that
are kind of, well, we don't really know how aggressive
we want to be. And you have the whole political
dynamic in Florida with the governor's race, because there is
(07:26):
a press announcement coming today from Lieutenant Governor j Collins.
He's in Tampa at two thirty pm. I heard some
wild speculation that he may consider or is been considering,
dropping his bid for governor and maybe jumping into one
of those new congressional districts, particularly in the Tampa area,
(07:46):
because they carved it up pretty aggressively, and that Kathy
Castor seat could you know, be one that he is
able to mount a challenge on. Now, then it kind
of unpacks the what happens from here, what happens with
the governor, with Paul Renner, with Byron Donald's, what happens
with you know, the relationships and the dynamic with Trump,
(08:10):
And there's a whole host of dominoes and things that
could potentially happen as a result of you know what
the lieutenant governor decides and how far he takes his campaign.
Speaker 1 (08:20):
What's your hunch?
Speaker 2 (08:22):
You know, my hunch would have been, yes, he drops
the bid for governor. He is just not able to
get off of the launchpad really well, and he would
stand a reasonably good chance to pick up one of
those congressional seats. However, he has been adamant in every
(08:43):
single press statement he has given or interview he has
given he is in the governor's race until the end.
He is seeing it through. So I would I be shocked,
know would I be surprised a little bit?
Speaker 1 (08:56):
Just based on that sal Newzo with us we're doing
a bit of a post mortem still on the legislative session,
because the governor just explained a little procedure here to us.
The governor gets bills a little bit out of time.
Speaker 2 (09:11):
Sure, yeah, the governor. The legislature passes bills, the bill
has to be identical in both chambers, and then it
is what they call. There's two phrases. There's enrolled and engrossed,
and I may mix these up. I apologize if I do.
But when the legislature passed it, it's enrolled and then
when the governor signs it, it's engrossed or the other
(09:33):
way around. But they transmit it to the governor and
then the clock starts ticking, and depending on the bill,
he's got a certain number of days to pass it
or veto it or pocket veto it, and it goes
into law. And so they're sending bills. Now there's some
choreography to it. The governor's office may request a batch
of bills that the governor's ready to consider these, they'll
(09:54):
send those over sort of like clearing the desk. Yeah,
and so they want to also maxim the visibility of
certain bills or going to hold signing ceremonies and things
like that, and they got to coordinate with all the
other things that he does.
Speaker 1 (10:07):
So of the bills he has signed, what stands out
to you.
Speaker 2 (10:10):
Yeah, and he has had a lot of action in
signing what is a lighter load from previous sessions. But
I think we're up to just over eighty bills that
he signed and a number of notable ones from the
last week or so that I can go through three
ninety nine so on applications for new development. And these
can be very expensive because it's a big area. The
(10:32):
application fees have to have a pricing component related to
what it actually costs to process the application, So local
governments cannot just implement these kind of arduous application fees
that are just meant to kind of siphon money from
developers which then gets passed onto homeowners. Four twenty eight
(10:53):
expands the swimming voucher program that got started a year
or two ago to older children. It bumps it up
to seven years old. HB four forty five Child exploitation
charges added to the list of crimes where a non
monetary pre trial release is allowed. So I'm surprised that
it took this long to get there. But so judges
cannot release somebody pre trial on their own recognissance or
(11:18):
with what do you call them?
Speaker 1 (11:20):
Those monitors and such. Only two hundred and fifty people
have gone missing in Chicago with them.
Speaker 2 (11:26):
Only two hundred and fifty four fifty three. Two years
of marching band equals one physical education credit. Kids, if
you don't like running the mile, start playing the tuba.
It'll pay off, boy, it will, and you'll get your exercise.
You might die any Yeah, nicely done. Six eighty six
Agricultural enclaves now I've mentioned this one before, but I
(11:48):
wanted to provide some additional context. It allows for agriculture
land to be developed into housing, which we need, but
only when it connext to or is directly adjacent to
existing development. And when I say only, what I mean
is the local government cannot regulate that area out of
use for development. Okay, you get seven fifty seven expanding
(12:11):
the Campus Guardian program to public colleges and universities.
Speaker 1 (12:14):
But that does not allow carry on campus correct.
Speaker 2 (12:17):
I mean, we're talking short steps in the right direction,
and that's as much as you know we could hope
for at this juncture. One thousand and four pet Sales
allowing additional protections for people purchasing a pet from their
pet dealers. School Board Member Bill of Rights ten seventy three.
Given the issues we're facing here, I think I like
(12:39):
this one, and it could be a dark horse on
value members are guaranteed. School Board members are now guaranteed
access to district documents they need. It allows for members
to consult with the district CFO on budget information and
also allows them to request info from staff, and it
allows them to publicly comment on district business. Is where
(13:01):
that may be frowned upon, or where they get into
some hot water locally, or where the Sunshine law butts
up against it. So this kind of helps in that respect.
Speaker 1 (13:11):
This also, I would guess, negates some of the influence
perhaps that we would assign to a superintendent of education,
we would.
Speaker 2 (13:22):
Hope, so we would hope that this puts school board
members in a place where they don't just have to
trust what a superintendent says. They can trust, but verify.
And that's important as we encounter not just Leon County schools,
but districts across the state where they're having, you know,
outflows of students and the funding that goes with them.
Speaker 1 (13:43):
Can I assume then that an individual school board member
could go to say, the budget supervisor, whatever, but two
of them together cannot go together. Is the operative work
because that would violate sunshine? That is correct.
Speaker 2 (13:57):
Okay, you've also got eleven thirty four coming in handy here.
The DEI band I like, we don't need to think
about all the ways local governments are trying to take
national issues and make them local. Well, they're just dropping
the words though, diversity, equity and inclusiveness, but they include definitions. Okay,
those terms that I think would put. I mean, we
(14:20):
can take Leon County and the city of Tallahouse, lord
A and.
Speaker 1 (14:23):
M University is doing it. Yes, they're getting around it,
and they're bragging about getting around it in some areas.
Speaker 2 (14:28):
And that's actually an entirely separate issue because they're a university.
They've got to they've got to deal with the state
Board of Governors. You here, now you've got state law
that that would address what a lot of is a
lot of the things that are happening locally eleven fifty
nine sexual offenses, creating harsher penalties, establishing a new category
(14:50):
for generated child porn.
Speaker 1 (14:55):
Back with Salnwzo of Consumers Defense one two more secon
let's keep talking about the bills that the governor signed
that people ought to be aware of. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (15:06):
Sure, so you got a number of them that we started,
and so to kind of keep the list going. HB
twelve seventeen is one. I hadn't been completely aware of
this one during the session. But no more carbon taxes
in Florida or even studying them for that matter, at
(15:26):
the state or local level. So there is this dynamic
at play where it was popular in conservative circles about
ten years ago to talk about this issue called cap
and trade, yeah, which is basically like, we're going to
tax you based on your carbon emissions and then we're
going to establish kind of trading rights for those and
that's not going to happen in Florida twelve seventy nine.
(15:48):
Teacher funding a big one. Provides a mechanism for districts
to get their high performing teachers, and in particular the
ones who were teaching in lower performing schools. They can
get them immediate salary boosts without going through the collective
bargaining agreement.
Speaker 1 (16:06):
That one is interesting to me. We've seen here locally
in this community that just because the state allocates money
doesn't mean it finds its way to teachers. Does this
bypass that problem?
Speaker 2 (16:19):
In part it does, and it'll now there are some
provisions and some you gotta kind of meet some criteria
to be one of those teachers that is within that program.
But and Leon County is not the only district that
had this issue.
Speaker 1 (16:33):
Sure.
Speaker 2 (16:34):
In fact, the Commissioner of Education called out, I want
to say it was like four or five mens.
Speaker 1 (16:38):
Isn't he about to be the former commissioner?
Speaker 2 (16:40):
Potentially there's some scuttle buddy, maybe the new president of
Polk State College. Yeah, coming up. Great man loves Stacy
to death. He's a phenomenal public servant and it would
be a well deserved and well earned job for him.
But yeah, he called out a number of districts where
they were holding on to legislatively allocated money and under
(17:03):
the guise of, well, we have not reached an agreement
with our union for a new collective bargaining agreement, and
so that in and of itself is a problem for
districts and for teachers. So this would remedy that in part.
Have you heard at all how they would do it?
Would that would a check be issued directly from the state,
because if they're bound by collective bargaining, I would think
(17:25):
that would present a problem for the district issuing a check.
Speaker 1 (17:28):
It would.
Speaker 2 (17:29):
And I've got to look at the bill to find
out what is the protocol because it could be something
where they designate it by school. It could be under
the purview of even the principle where they have to
fill out a form and get that done. I got
to look at the protocols for how that would be interesting. Yeah,
and that's actually a good one. We can dive into
let me read the bill specifics on that portion of it,
(17:51):
and then we can unpack it.
Speaker 1 (17:53):
What about a House Bill fourteen seventy one.
Speaker 2 (17:55):
This has my interest, Yeah, and it's got a lot
of kind of hairs on the back of people's next
standing up, good or bad in both ways. So terrorist organizations,
I do believe this is going to be a bit
contentious as it's deployed. It creates a process by which
the state can designated group as a domestic terrorist organization.
(18:16):
So there are provisions for no religious courts or tribunals
being allowed to enforce anything that violates a person's constitutional rights.
That's that's an easy that's low hanging fruit on the bill.
No state school choice money for private schools that are
owned or funded by a group on the terrorist list. Now,
at first glance, one would assume that is a good
(18:40):
deal and accept that, except that one of the prisms
that I always try to look at a bill through
is how can this be deployed by the other side
if they were to come into power. And I've got
a little thing in my head that's saying, if the
pendulum swing, I would not be surprised to see the
(19:05):
left use this and try to deploy it against the
right as.
Speaker 1 (19:09):
They otherwise known as Christian schools exactly, and because this
is targeting Islamic.
Speaker 2 (19:15):
Schools in a sense, it is, yeah, And so it's
one that's we've got to be mindful of this as
it gets deployed, as rules and REGs get built out,
and I would expect some litigation on this to take hold.
Speaker 1 (19:29):
I can defend it. This just send me to the courtroom.
Speaker 2 (19:32):
Oh, I'm not as concerned on the constitutionality or legal
and I'm not an attorney.
Speaker 1 (19:38):
No, But I mean, I know if the prism flips,
because I'm completely with you, how can this be used
as a cudgel on the other side when it's used
by a lever on this side?
Speaker 2 (19:48):
And far smarter people than me are probably already thinking
of the arguments for that.
Speaker 1 (19:54):
So all right, we got a little fun time left here.
So vaccine mandates are looking at it?
Speaker 2 (20:03):
Are you implying that the first four sessions are not fun?
That's only the fifth second. Now we got through the
meat and now it's kind of like dessert time. Okay,
the main meal. I don't know if I want to
think about vaccine mandates as dessert.
Speaker 1 (20:15):
I've you and I've shared in the break some conversations
I've had with with people in the healthcare industry that
have very strong opinions on this. But how do you
think this is going to unfold?
Speaker 2 (20:26):
Yeah, this is one where so to back up and
set the table in both the regular session as well
as a special because the governor called for this in
writing up the call for the special session. He wanted
to push ahead with allowing for more freedom for parents
to opt out of certain vaccination requirements for their children,
(20:47):
notably in order to be able to attend a public school,
but there are other parts of that as well. The
issue got very much mired in the media narrative. I
believe the Senate passed bill, the House didn't take it
up in the regular session, and then they tried again
in the Senate to proceed forward in the special session,
(21:10):
but the House didn't even file anything in the Speaker's office.
In fact, it may have even been the Speaker in
a press conference had said no member filed a bill,
and he was not convinced that the public was on
the side of this issue. And he's pointing to some
polling that indicates that even among Republican audiences that this
(21:36):
issue is one that divides heavily. There is a large
contingent of the Republican population in the state that believes
in vaccine mandates, that do not want their kids going
to school with kids who were not vaccinated. And so
in kind of the lack of taking this up, the
speaker kind of telegraph that, look, we're gonna we're going
(21:58):
with public opinion on this, and that runs counter to
the governor of the Senate and the Surgeon General, who
has been out front on this issue from the moment
he was brought on.
Speaker 1 (22:10):
Is there any discussion, Is there any polling? Is there
any research done on whether or not vaccine mandates are
fueling the departure from the public school system.
Speaker 2 (22:21):
It's a great question, and I'm unaware of any polling
on that specific part of it, but you know, that
would be one that I would be very intrigued to know.
As the public school exodus continues and as school choice
options become more robust, are parents choosing either a charter,
(22:42):
a magnet, a private school, or at a homeschool based
solely or as a top tier reason the either mandating
of vaccines or the lack of a mandate.
Speaker 1 (22:54):
I'll be also curious if the ongoing Senate investigation in
the US Senate on COVID vaccines and the pharmaceutical handling
of all of it starts to then unpack the issue
of these government vaccines period.
Speaker 2 (23:08):
This to me is a very big issue because the
biggest fallout politically and from a governance standpoint has been
the tanking of trust in the FDA as a result
of the COVID issue and the CDC and the CDC
both of them. So everything that they put out now
is coming under that cloud, and it just makes the
(23:30):
entire debate very murky because you do not trust the
public officials who are telling you what they're telling you anymore.
Speaker 1 (23:38):
We're gonna have to stop there. Thanks, always a pleasure
to be with you. Salnuzoh with Consumers Defense, my guest
here on the Morning Show with Preston Scott
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