December 15, 2025 • 8 mins
Southeast Politics Publisher Janelle Irwin-Taylor checks in with the latest on the Hope Florida scandal and how a budget battle is looming between Governor DeSantis and state lawmakers ahead of the 2026 legislative session.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Back now here on The Ryan Gorman Show, and let's
go to the hotline and bring in the publisher of
Southeast Politics, Janelle Irwin Taylor. You can find all of
her working a whole lot more at southeastpolitics dot com
and you can follow her on x and Janelle Irwin
fl So Janelle, our final time talking here in twenty
(00:20):
twenty five. Boy, isn't it amazing how quickly the year
has gone by and there has been so much that
we've covered. When it comes to Florida politics.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
It's pretty crazy. I sort of got it gets faster
every year.
Speaker 1 (00:36):
It really does. And next year is going to be
nuts too, with the race for governor here in this state,
you know, the session, all of that, so it's going
to be a busy twenty twenty six. Let's start with
an update on a story that we covered quite a
bit throughout twenty twenty five, this Hope, Florida scandal. So
you had some new reporting from Tampa Bay Times and
(00:57):
the Miami Herald. What are the big developments here?
Speaker 2 (01:03):
I mean, the biggest thing from this investigation is that
the amount of money that was diverted from taxpayer dollars
stemming from a Medicaid settlement was more than three times
higher than we had initially thought. So initially it was
ten million dollars. Thoughts had been diverted into political campaigns,
basically for two ballot initiatives in twenty twenty four, one
(01:28):
that would have legalized marijuana for adults twenty one and older,
regardless of medical need. The other would have enshrined abortion
protections into Florida's constitution. Both exceeded fifty percent support at
the ballot box, but failed to pack because they didn't
reach the sixty percent plus one threshold that those were
the two issues that these funds went to combat. It
(01:53):
was actually thirty five million, not ten million, But this
investigation found so that alone, the fact that it's more
than three times higher, when the DeSantis administration has said
over and over and over again it was ten million.
They've paid back funds to the federal government. It's I mean,
it just keeps getting worse for the governor and of
(02:13):
course his life as well, because the first lady came
Sy DeSantis, Hope Porta was with her sort of her
sort of project. So I'm just not looking good for
the Desantai And.
Speaker 1 (02:25):
Look, regardless of what side of the political aisle you're on.
And I think we've seen this with some state lawmakers
who have taken this whole thing seriously. You can't be
diverting money that was intended for vulnerable Meridians to use
to push back on ballot initiatives in an election like
(02:49):
that can't happen. That's yeah. Again, I don't care if
you're a Republican Democrat. I don't care who it is
who's doing this. It's pretty clear cut.
Speaker 2 (03:00):
Not great well, and there's and and the fact that
there's politicking happening with funds that were meant for you know,
the most needy children in our states. It's it's terrible,
terrible optics for sure, but it's also you know, a
questionable use. I mean, they dubbed all of these advertisements
(03:22):
that just blanketed airwaves as public service announcements, and that's
something that happens all the time. You have states pay
for things like you know, public service announcements reminding people
to wear bike helmets, rults or whatever, but they steer
clear of politics. These were actively saying, you know, don't
vote for these amendments because our state's gonna smell like
(03:47):
stinky weed, like they were a little they were a
little ridiculous.
Speaker 1 (03:51):
Yeah, yeah, they were definitely they You could tell the
message they were trying to get across, even if if
technically they were trying to avoid running a few of
any laws with those pssays. We're joined by Southeast Politics
publisher Janelle Irwin Taylor. Again, you can find all over
work at Southeast politics dot com. Let's talk about the
governor's budget proposal. There's obviously a ton in it, but
(04:15):
you've been talking to stay lawmakers. What are you hearing
about their response to it and their plans for the
twenty twenty sixth legislative session.
Speaker 2 (04:26):
So I did. I spoke with the budget chiefs and
both the House and the Senate, Representative Lawrence McClure in
the House and Senator Ed Hooper and then also House
Speaker Daniel Perett. I spoke to all three of them
last week for a couple of exciting the little projects
that are going to be coming out Florida politics that
I don't want to give too much away on, but
(04:48):
you know, I spoke with them before the Governor's proposed
budget came out. But what's interesting about talking to them
was the overarching mess was making sure that the budget
was lean, and what DeSantis has proposed is much higher
(05:09):
than what it sounds like the House and the Senate
are contemplating in terms of an overall number. To put
that into perspective, you know, last year's budget was about
one hundred and fifteen billion dollars. We're talking about, you know,
these individuals are talking about slash map by anywhere from
one to four billion dollars higher, exactly exactly. So there,
(05:34):
you're definitely going to see a push to really kind
of tighten up the purse strings, with the reasoning being
you know, during the COVID years there was a windfall
of federal funding coming down from Washington that allowed the
budget to be really robust. Those dollars have sense dried up.
That money is not coming in, so while the state
(05:57):
still has you know, a strong, strong revenue stream for itself,
you know, these one hundred and seventeen billion dollar budgets
aren't going to fly. They're looking to go back to
more like twenty eighteen levels. So you know, you can
probably expect to see some contention there with the House
and Senate looking to trim some of the fat from
(06:18):
the Disantis proposed budget.
Speaker 1 (06:20):
And then last thing. I also thought it was interesting
governors still wanting to enact property tax reform. But he
to this point as an outlined what his preferred strategy
would be, including with this rollout of the budget. When
(06:41):
are we going to see that from the governor?
Speaker 2 (06:45):
Well, who knows, you know, I guess when I know,
you'll know. But like that's why we have, especially in
the House, a push for these constitutional amendments. For so
far it started at eight or so far, have been
moving through the committee process, you know, giving voters various
(07:06):
options on cutting the non school related portion of property tax,
whether it's for seniors, whether you know it's by increasing
homestead exemptions, things like that. There's various different proposals floating
around out there that, if approved in the legislature, would
go on the twenty twenty sixth ballot for voters to
(07:27):
decide the Daniel Perez told me that his reasoning, and
he's been saying this all along, his reasoning for this
is because because the Santus hasn't come out with a proposal.
He said, you know, we agree with him that something
needs to happen, and we applaud him for starting the conversation.
But you know, we're just putting options out there because
nothing else has been floated the Senate meanwhile, and here's
(07:49):
where some you know, some more contention could potentially be
set up. The Senate's not really looking at any options
right now. They're saying, Hey, the governor wants to have
a special session after the regular session, so maybe we
should just you know, focus on it then, so you know,
we'll see, we'll see how the issue moves in the
legislative session starting here the second week of January. But
(08:10):
you know, it looks like there could potentially be some
headbutting over this.
Speaker 1 (08:14):
Issue, all right. Southeast Politics publisher Janelle Irwin Taylor with
us this morning. You can find all of her work
and a whole lot more at Southeast politics dot com,
and you can follow her on x and Janel Irwin
fl Janelle, thanks so much. We'll talk to you soon.
Speaker 2 (08:28):
Thanks for having me.
Back now here on The Ryan Gorman Show, and let's
go to the hotline and bring in the publisher of
Southeast Politics, Janelle Irwin Taylor. You can find all of
her working a whole lot more at southeastpolitics dot com
and you can follow her on x and Janelle Irwin
fl So Janelle, our final time talking here in twenty
(00:20):
twenty five. Boy, isn't it amazing how quickly the year
has gone by and there has been so much that
we've covered. When it comes to Florida politics.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
It's pretty crazy. I sort of got it gets faster
every year.
Speaker 1 (00:36):
It really does. And next year is going to be
nuts too, with the race for governor here in this state,
you know, the session, all of that, so it's going
to be a busy twenty twenty six. Let's start with
an update on a story that we covered quite a
bit throughout twenty twenty five, this Hope, Florida scandal. So
you had some new reporting from Tampa Bay Times and
(00:57):
the Miami Herald. What are the big developments here?
Speaker 2 (01:03):
I mean, the biggest thing from this investigation is that
the amount of money that was diverted from taxpayer dollars
stemming from a Medicaid settlement was more than three times
higher than we had initially thought. So initially it was
ten million dollars. Thoughts had been diverted into political campaigns,
basically for two ballot initiatives in twenty twenty four, one
(01:28):
that would have legalized marijuana for adults twenty one and older,
regardless of medical need. The other would have enshrined abortion
protections into Florida's constitution. Both exceeded fifty percent support at
the ballot box, but failed to pack because they didn't
reach the sixty percent plus one threshold that those were
the two issues that these funds went to combat. It
(01:53):
was actually thirty five million, not ten million, But this
investigation found so that alone, the fact that it's more
than three times higher, when the DeSantis administration has said
over and over and over again it was ten million.
They've paid back funds to the federal government. It's I mean,
it just keeps getting worse for the governor and of
(02:13):
course his life as well, because the first lady came
Sy DeSantis, Hope Porta was with her sort of her
sort of project. So I'm just not looking good for
the Desantai And.
Speaker 1 (02:25):
Look, regardless of what side of the political aisle you're on.
And I think we've seen this with some state lawmakers
who have taken this whole thing seriously. You can't be
diverting money that was intended for vulnerable Meridians to use
to push back on ballot initiatives in an election like
(02:49):
that can't happen. That's yeah. Again, I don't care if
you're a Republican Democrat. I don't care who it is
who's doing this. It's pretty clear cut.
Speaker 2 (03:00):
Not great well, and there's and and the fact that
there's politicking happening with funds that were meant for you know,
the most needy children in our states. It's it's terrible,
terrible optics for sure, but it's also you know, a
questionable use. I mean, they dubbed all of these advertisements
(03:22):
that just blanketed airwaves as public service announcements, and that's
something that happens all the time. You have states pay
for things like you know, public service announcements reminding people
to wear bike helmets, rults or whatever, but they steer
clear of politics. These were actively saying, you know, don't
vote for these amendments because our state's gonna smell like
(03:47):
stinky weed, like they were a little they were a
little ridiculous.
Speaker 1 (03:51):
Yeah, yeah, they were definitely they You could tell the
message they were trying to get across, even if if
technically they were trying to avoid running a few of
any laws with those pssays. We're joined by Southeast Politics
publisher Janelle Irwin Taylor. Again, you can find all over
work at Southeast politics dot com. Let's talk about the
governor's budget proposal. There's obviously a ton in it, but
(04:15):
you've been talking to stay lawmakers. What are you hearing
about their response to it and their plans for the
twenty twenty sixth legislative session.
Speaker 2 (04:26):
So I did. I spoke with the budget chiefs and
both the House and the Senate, Representative Lawrence McClure in
the House and Senator Ed Hooper and then also House
Speaker Daniel Perett. I spoke to all three of them
last week for a couple of exciting the little projects
that are going to be coming out Florida politics that
I don't want to give too much away on, but
(04:48):
you know, I spoke with them before the Governor's proposed
budget came out. But what's interesting about talking to them
was the overarching mess was making sure that the budget
was lean, and what DeSantis has proposed is much higher
(05:09):
than what it sounds like the House and the Senate
are contemplating in terms of an overall number. To put
that into perspective, you know, last year's budget was about
one hundred and fifteen billion dollars. We're talking about, you know,
these individuals are talking about slash map by anywhere from
one to four billion dollars higher, exactly exactly. So there,
(05:34):
you're definitely going to see a push to really kind
of tighten up the purse strings, with the reasoning being
you know, during the COVID years there was a windfall
of federal funding coming down from Washington that allowed the
budget to be really robust. Those dollars have sense dried up.
That money is not coming in, so while the state
(05:57):
still has you know, a strong, strong revenue stream for itself,
you know, these one hundred and seventeen billion dollar budgets
aren't going to fly. They're looking to go back to
more like twenty eighteen levels. So you know, you can
probably expect to see some contention there with the House
and Senate looking to trim some of the fat from
(06:18):
the Disantis proposed budget.
Speaker 1 (06:20):
And then last thing. I also thought it was interesting
governors still wanting to enact property tax reform. But he
to this point as an outlined what his preferred strategy
would be, including with this rollout of the budget. When
(06:41):
are we going to see that from the governor?
Speaker 2 (06:45):
Well, who knows, you know, I guess when I know,
you'll know. But like that's why we have, especially in
the House, a push for these constitutional amendments. For so
far it started at eight or so far, have been
moving through the committee process, you know, giving voters various
(07:06):
options on cutting the non school related portion of property tax,
whether it's for seniors, whether you know it's by increasing
homestead exemptions, things like that. There's various different proposals floating
around out there that, if approved in the legislature, would
go on the twenty twenty sixth ballot for voters to
(07:27):
decide the Daniel Perez told me that his reasoning, and
he's been saying this all along, his reasoning for this
is because because the Santus hasn't come out with a proposal.
He said, you know, we agree with him that something
needs to happen, and we applaud him for starting the conversation.
But you know, we're just putting options out there because
nothing else has been floated the Senate meanwhile, and here's
(07:49):
where some you know, some more contention could potentially be
set up. The Senate's not really looking at any options
right now. They're saying, Hey, the governor wants to have
a special session after the regular session, so maybe we
should just you know, focus on it then, so you know,
we'll see, we'll see how the issue moves in the
legislative session starting here the second week of January. But
(08:10):
you know, it looks like there could potentially be some
headbutting over this.
Speaker 1 (08:14):
Issue, all right. Southeast Politics publisher Janelle Irwin Taylor with
us this morning. You can find all of her work
and a whole lot more at Southeast politics dot com,
and you can follow her on x and Janel Irwin
fl Janelle, thanks so much. We'll talk to you soon.
Speaker 2 (08:28):
Thanks for having me.
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