October 8, 2025 • 15 mins
Orlando Sentinel columnist Scott Maxwell discusses his latest articles, first, about how Florida theme parks escape ride regulation thanks to political donations, as well as from swing state to MAGA central, Florida gets redder, but grows slower.
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Speaker 1 (00:04):
Welcome back to the Jim Colber Show. We're all Radio
one four point one. Thanks for joining us this afternoon.
We appreciate that. Got a lot of choices out there,
picking us is awesome. Tell some friends if you love
the show. It is unique live radio, something that doesn't
really happen across the nation all that much. And it's
an open forum. You're always welcome to call and say
whatever you like. Give us a heads up on something
(00:25):
that you find interesting. We'll jump in and provide as
much entertainment and information as we can while we do that.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
Welcome back. I'm Jim, There's deb Hello, Jack is here
as well. Hi. There.
Speaker 1 (00:36):
Every single Wednesday around this time, this gentleman joins us
from the Orlando Sentinel. He writes there you can read
his columns Wednesdays, Thursdays and Sundays. He's a legend in Orlando.
You guys, give it up for the for the awesome
Scott Maxwell.
Speaker 3 (00:48):
Yeah, a lot of other choices. What else is somebody
going to listen to from three to seven? Smooth jazz?
Speaker 2 (00:57):
Yeah? I hope not. I hope it's this to be honest,
with Noprah still on and I don't think I think.
Speaker 3 (01:02):
He's done Destination Radio.
Speaker 2 (01:04):
Yeah it is, buddy. How you doing, man, I'm.
Speaker 3 (01:07):
Hanging in there. It's another weird week.
Speaker 2 (01:10):
What's so weird?
Speaker 3 (01:11):
Hold on? You know, I think I've told you. Let
me look out my street. Oh it turns out I'm
now living on Charlie Kirk Cove.
Speaker 1 (01:19):
Yeah, I read that today and uh, you know again,
it's so funny we mentioned the Charlie Kirk thing. You know,
we have a lot of listeners that are pro Trumpers.
We get it all the time from these guys. They
stick around and listen to us though, and I mean
we get into you know, lively conversations via the texting
service all the time.
Speaker 2 (01:33):
Try to be as respectful as possible.
Speaker 1 (01:35):
Sometimes it slips into other worlds, but they always come back,
and we always have those conversations. When I mentioned the
Charlie Kirk thing earlier, especially the campus thing, uh, when
you're you know, when you're holding you know, money hostage
from education facilities, you know, for this particular thing is
a bit egregious and literally to the time, every single
one of my Trump supporters text in and said, that's ridiculous,
(01:58):
completely ridiculous.
Speaker 3 (02:00):
Jack and I were talking about it. And when I
first saw the headline, and the headline was something like
new law would require that every university in the state
name a road after Charlie Kirk, I was like, that's
the kind of thing the onion.
Speaker 2 (02:14):
Yeah, yeah, right right, one hundred percent.
Speaker 3 (02:16):
Now, it's just it seems too stupid to be true.
Speaker 1 (02:19):
Look, how it should have been none of this, Like
if you wanted, if you felt like that Charlie Curtin
motivated people in this state so much that he should
have name a road name for himself at campuses, offer
up the funding for it to colleges who want to
invite that.
Speaker 2 (02:35):
You know, if you if you want the government.
Speaker 1 (02:37):
To be involved with it, you go, hey, I tell
you what, if you put this on there, we'll send
a we'll pay for the signs or whatever. But don't
don't threaten a withhold funding. That's that seems to be
like a thing now with Republican lawmakers, and they were
withhold funding if they don't get their way, and it's
all the way up to the federal federal branch as well.
Speaker 2 (02:53):
It's a little odd to me.
Speaker 3 (02:55):
Well, I think I tried to be a person who
thinks a little bit about precedent and big picturism, and
I think, like, this is the first time I've ever
heard of a proposed law that would requires universities. So
think about all the people throughout the course of human history.
We've not done this for whether it's Mother and Theresa Washington.
Speaker 2 (03:20):
You don't have to go into the national scene.
Speaker 1 (03:22):
You can find people right here from Florida that are
Floridians that have affected people enough Martin, Yeah, whatever you
want to do, for sure.
Speaker 3 (03:29):
Yeah. So anyway, it's a it's a little bit of
a weird.
Speaker 1 (03:33):
State we live in, so yeah, for sure. I did
read your piece today and found it great, though.
Speaker 3 (03:39):
Thank you. Which one are we talking about?
Speaker 1 (03:41):
The theme right safety thing? The theme park ride safety thing?
I thought it was a great piece.
Speaker 3 (03:46):
Well, you know, it gets at one of the I
actually thought of you because there's one aspect of this
that I know takes you off and I'm sort of
skipping to the punchline here though. The short version is
that theme parks rides are not regulated in Florida the
way virtually everything else is regulated. And uh, the argument,
(04:07):
I mean, like even like amusement parks like uh, county
fairs and state fairs rides. There are regulated theme park
rides in California are regulated, but in Florida, Uh, it's
primarily self regulation for safety and more concerning in my mind,
self reporting. And what that means is theme parks are
able to describe, decide on their own how to describe
(04:30):
what has happened. And as we've written about before, that
means that, for instance, some kid who got their foot
crushed and mangled on a ride at Universal the report
the report Universal File described it as leg pain.
Speaker 2 (04:43):
Yeah, now you real quick.
Speaker 1 (04:47):
Now, want to make something clear because when you say regulation,
so what you're saying is in in Orlando, in Florida, right,
we have a Disney, we have University, we have Cero,
we have bush guards. All of these parks have you know,
a high voloc high action rides. The roller coasters go
very fast, uh, and they can be you know, and
they can be very very kind of uh you know again,
(05:08):
if you're not used to that thing, it could be
it could be traumatic.
Speaker 2 (05:11):
Right.
Speaker 1 (05:11):
So with that said, so there's no state institution that
goes from park to park and inspects these rides to
make sure they're up to snuff.
Speaker 2 (05:19):
That's all handled within.
Speaker 3 (05:22):
Almost all I think there are some minor things, but yes,
that that's that is generally correct. And if and if
you want to think about like an example, and I
should have put this in the column. I just thought
about it talking to you now. Elevators like the state,
those are inspected, right because we've decided those, but we're
not doing the roller coasters. And let me say here,
(05:43):
I'm not scared of a roller coaster. I think they're
generally safe. I think history has shown they're generally safe.
But airplanes are generally safe, and we regulate the piss
out of those.
Speaker 2 (05:53):
Sure.
Speaker 3 (05:53):
Yeah, the cars are are are regulated for safety of
everything from airbags to seatbelts to to the crash the
way they crash. And the argument, the theme parks have
always given give is well, it's in our best interest
to have safe rides, so you don't need to regulate
us because it's going to be good for consumers. And
(06:14):
that might sound good if you say it fast, but
it's pretty damn dumb if you think about it, because
every company would say that. Pharmaceutical companies right now, see you.
Speaker 1 (06:24):
But I think you could probably make an argument Scott
that you know, the inspection thing could be handled internally,
Like I'll make the argument here, I'll be the bad
guy here, right, Like, what good does it do for
any of these parks to have situations like this? It
doesn't do any good for somebody to die on their ride.
So I would think all of these people are going
to be, I mean, exponentially.
Speaker 2 (06:46):
Careful when it comes.
Speaker 1 (06:48):
To how their rides run so that nobody gets hurt,
because that's terrible for business. The reporting thing, though, is
the part that I find a little sketchy, Like if
there is a legitimate report and that just gets brushed
under the rug, is like you always had a hangnail,
but you lost a finger. You know, that's a little
different to me.
Speaker 3 (07:05):
Yeah, well, first of all, I would say that, like
I think all companies would make the argument that you
just made. Like I was starting to say, a pharmaceutical
company would say, our drugs, you don't need to be
right checking them for side effects. It's bad for our
business if somebody takes our pills and ends up getting
sick or dying. But the government, going all the way
back to Upton Sinclair's the jungle, like what was theirs?
And the meat packing the meat packing industry said no, no, no,
(07:28):
we're gonna be healthy, We're gonna be safe. It's it's
good for our business. They went and said, oh my god,
it's disgusting, both the working conditions and sickness. That said,
I agree with you. I'm not as worried about the
regulation as I am the disclosure if somebody gets seriously ill.
Another example they had I think it was it was
a Disney ride. It might have even been Tower of
(07:50):
Terror or something where the person like passed out and
needed brain surgery. Yes, and the report was felt ill.
Speaker 2 (07:59):
Yeah, Yeah, I do, I remember that. Yeah, I do.
Speaker 3 (08:03):
Generally, I think what should happen is they should have
to report exactly what happened and then people can make
their own informed decision for themselves. And and by the way,
that's not that's not a radical idea. That's the way
it works. But not only in both industries, most industries,
but like I said, in other states that have theme parks. However,
Florida it is not. And the main reason it doesn't
is because the theme parks big tourism sort of control
(08:25):
the legislature. And that was a lot of yapping by me.
But the part of the story that made me think
about you is. The reason is because the theme parks
not only cut big checks, but they give these guys
gifts every year. And one of the most ridiculous loopholes
that exists in Florida politics because technically, you know, lobbyists
are not allowed to give state legislators anything, but the
(08:49):
theme parks give them free rooms, free meals, free VIP tours,
free behind the scenes stuff. They give them all all
of this stuff. And the way they do it is
by giving the money to the Democratic and Republican parties
and then the parties turn around and give it to
the legislators. And they are not shy about this or
(09:10):
are secretive most of the times when they do it,
like the Republicans, they do it like the week or
two before the legislative session begins, so they hold every
Republican at Universal and Disney hosts a lot of the Democrats.
Both parties do it for I mean both companies, for
both teams. They do it right before they decide whether
they're going to pass these bills. So if someone does
(09:30):
file a bill that says, hey, we think maybe Disney
and Universal should have to provide better disclosure on their
right industries, they say, well, you know what, come, spend
a week at our park. We're going to take care
of everything, and we're going to discuss with you our
concerns about that.
Speaker 2 (09:43):
We'll show you just how safe it is with the
VIP tour. Yeah yeah.
Speaker 1 (09:47):
And then of course with the battle that DeSantis got
into with Disney over the LGBTQ stuff, you know that
turn kind of ugly, because didn't I think that's when,
you know, when the money stopped flowing, is when you know,
politicians started getting a little weird about it, going, hey, look, well,
you know, if you're going to do that, well maybe
we should start looking at a relationship a little bit
closer and make sure that that's up to snuff. None
of that happened before they started threatening to withhold money.
(10:10):
And then of course as soon as that all blew over,
and it did, it was just like you and I said,
it was just a big show.
Speaker 2 (10:15):
Once it blew over, it was right back to norm right,
And I.
Speaker 3 (10:19):
Thought that was actually an oopsie moment for dissandus. I
remember the moment he was, he was, he was. It
was a press conference, I think it was here in Florida,
and he was throwing a little bit of a tantrum,
and he basically said, well, Disney, you know if you're
if you're gonna piss me off, then you know what
we're gonna do is we're going to regulate your rides.
We're gonna send our inspectors to the monorail. And then
he said, and we're only going to do it for you,
(10:40):
And I thought, good, a minute, you're talking out loud, because.
Speaker 2 (10:45):
A minute, you're not supposed to say stuff like that, dude.
Speaker 3 (10:47):
Because first of all, what you're threatening them with is
reasonable ride safety regulations. And you're saying that only them,
the company that has stopped cutting checks, is going to
be subjected to you.
Speaker 2 (10:58):
That's a weird.
Speaker 3 (10:59):
Look. Yeah, they resumed cutting their checks and that threat
has ever since disappeared.
Speaker 1 (11:03):
Yeah, that's wild. How quickly that thing came and went.
I remember you and I have many of the conversations
about that. We were both kind of laughing out loud
to ourselves on how long this was going to last
because they need each other so much. There's no way
possible a fight could last that long, you know, no
way possible at all.
Speaker 3 (11:17):
Right, And that's one of the things I've said through
very consistently and I think you agreed. When all these
people were like, especially Democrats that are like, I'm on
team Disney, I was like, Disney is not on your team.
But there is no team here except for their corporate
interests and their cutting checks to both sides of the aisle.
And they'll continue to cut checks to probably every politician
you hate, as long as that politician is in a
(11:39):
position to do them.
Speaker 1 (11:40):
Yeah, and more than likely they're going to you know,
the ones that are getting spoken to are the ones
in position to do that thing, whatever that thing may be.
Speaker 2 (11:47):
For sure.
Speaker 3 (11:48):
I checked. Don't hold me to this, but I checked
the donations just yesterday, and this is approximate. I think
it was. Disney was giving about two hundred thousand dollars
of in kind gifts that that's like this, wheats and
the you know, the hotel rooms and things to the Republicans,
and I think it was about twenty five thousand to
the Democrats. So basically it's enough to like, here, kid,
(12:09):
go busy yourself to the Democrats who don't have any control, and.
Speaker 2 (12:12):
Take this to the arcade. Son. Yeah right, don't leave there, mom,
And I gotta go to the bar.
Speaker 3 (12:18):
Yeah, but you know, what it's usually enough to shut
them up.
Speaker 1 (12:22):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, for sure. Hey that's the only piece
I read today. I know you usually post two on Wednesday.
What was the other piece about?
Speaker 2 (12:26):
Real quickly?
Speaker 3 (12:27):
The other one is a really interesting one about why
Florida has turned so red and these why we are
so Republican because, as you all know, and you know
not too long ago, we were a swing state. We
were the swingiest state in America, right the two thousand
recount showed, you know, we were the most purple state.
Now we are hardcore read and a bunch of three researchers,
(12:47):
including one University of Florida, did a fifty page paper
on this to say why. And the thing that they
discovered that I thought was most interesting is it's not
Floridians who are here becoming Republican. It's that Republicans are
now flocking to Florida. And they got some really interesting
data and for instance, if you're born in Florida, Floridians
(13:08):
are like six points more likely to be Democrats. Florida
born people, I think it was thirty seven to thirty one.
But the people moving here are like forty percent Republican,
thirty percent Democrat and it does not take long. That's
a big difference.
Speaker 2 (13:25):
Yeah, we may.
Speaker 1 (13:26):
I think that started happening during the pandemic, where people
like that's when they were saying, all right.
Speaker 2 (13:32):
We're going to Florida. Yeah. I agree that one hundred percent.
Speaker 1 (13:34):
When DeSantis did his COVID thing and made it to
you know, the old free state of Florida thing, Yeah,
I think people were like, well, I don't want to
deal with my thing here.
Speaker 2 (13:41):
I've always wanted to go to Florida anyway, so why
not now? Yeah, And that's exactly what happened.
Speaker 3 (13:46):
It's actually happened, not just to SAANDUS. It's been a
pretty steady incline over the past decade. Rick Scott helped
move us all hard, right. But the flip side of
that coin is that Florida's growth is slowing. We're still
like one of the fastest growth that growth states in
the nation, but for the past ten years, our growth
has never gotten above two point five percent, and it
(14:06):
used to always be four to six percent something a
lot higher. And the other thing the report found is
that twenty to thirty somethings are leaving Florida and drove
by significant and it was interesting because the Florida Chamber
of Commerce, pretty conservative organization, they put out a report
and they're like, this is a problem if we don't
if everybody, if we're educating people in college and then
(14:28):
they're leaving because and this has to do final note,
and then I know, we got to wrap things up.
What you and I always talk about. If you're young
and you're starting a family, you care a lot more
about whether you can afford a house or whether you
can afford rent than you can watch in politicians dunk
on each other. That's right, And twenty somethings are fine.
They can't do that, and all they see is them
screaming about these culture wars, and they're like, I'm getting
the hell out of here because wages are not nearly
(14:51):
keeping up to what housing is going.
Speaker 1 (14:52):
And that's why and that's why states like Carolina's are
doing really well, even North Georgia seeing explosions in population
because it's you know, it just doesn't have that you
know again.
Speaker 3 (15:03):
And they see a lot more prospects for upward economic mobility.
Speaker 1 (15:07):
Absolutely, you guys give it upod Lafe for Scott Maxwell. Yeah, Wednesday,
Thursdays and Sundays. You can read them right there in
the pages of the Orlando Sentinel. You can also get
it online get your subscription at Orlando Sentinel dot com.
Speaker 2 (15:19):
Scott good seeing anybody take care guys now, got a
man all right?
Speaker 1 (15:22):
Four seven nine one six four one, text us seven
seven zero three one or four o'clock.
Speaker 2 (15:26):
Keyword is win wi in.
Speaker 1 (15:28):
Got a few minutes to get over to Real ready
or do FM and send that away for your chance
at one thousand dollars back in one sec.
Welcome back to the Jim Colber Show. We're all Radio
one four point one. Thanks for joining us this afternoon.
We appreciate that. Got a lot of choices out there,
picking us is awesome. Tell some friends if you love
the show. It is unique live radio, something that doesn't
really happen across the nation all that much. And it's
an open forum. You're always welcome to call and say
whatever you like. Give us a heads up on something
(00:25):
that you find interesting. We'll jump in and provide as
much entertainment and information as we can while we do that.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
Welcome back. I'm Jim, There's deb Hello, Jack is here
as well. Hi. There.
Speaker 1 (00:36):
Every single Wednesday around this time, this gentleman joins us
from the Orlando Sentinel. He writes there you can read
his columns Wednesdays, Thursdays and Sundays. He's a legend in Orlando.
You guys, give it up for the for the awesome
Scott Maxwell.
Speaker 3 (00:48):
Yeah, a lot of other choices. What else is somebody
going to listen to from three to seven? Smooth jazz?
Speaker 2 (00:57):
Yeah? I hope not. I hope it's this to be honest,
with Noprah still on and I don't think I think.
Speaker 3 (01:02):
He's done Destination Radio.
Speaker 2 (01:04):
Yeah it is, buddy. How you doing, man, I'm.
Speaker 3 (01:07):
Hanging in there. It's another weird week.
Speaker 2 (01:10):
What's so weird?
Speaker 3 (01:11):
Hold on? You know, I think I've told you. Let
me look out my street. Oh it turns out I'm
now living on Charlie Kirk Cove.
Speaker 1 (01:19):
Yeah, I read that today and uh, you know again,
it's so funny we mentioned the Charlie Kirk thing. You know,
we have a lot of listeners that are pro Trumpers.
We get it all the time from these guys. They
stick around and listen to us though, and I mean
we get into you know, lively conversations via the texting
service all the time.
Speaker 2 (01:33):
Try to be as respectful as possible.
Speaker 1 (01:35):
Sometimes it slips into other worlds, but they always come back,
and we always have those conversations. When I mentioned the
Charlie Kirk thing earlier, especially the campus thing, uh, when
you're you know, when you're holding you know, money hostage
from education facilities, you know, for this particular thing is
a bit egregious and literally to the time, every single
one of my Trump supporters text in and said, that's ridiculous,
(01:58):
completely ridiculous.
Speaker 3 (02:00):
Jack and I were talking about it. And when I
first saw the headline, and the headline was something like
new law would require that every university in the state
name a road after Charlie Kirk, I was like, that's
the kind of thing the onion.
Speaker 2 (02:14):
Yeah, yeah, right right, one hundred percent.
Speaker 3 (02:16):
Now, it's just it seems too stupid to be true.
Speaker 1 (02:19):
Look, how it should have been none of this, Like
if you wanted, if you felt like that Charlie Curtin
motivated people in this state so much that he should
have name a road name for himself at campuses, offer
up the funding for it to colleges who want to
invite that.
Speaker 2 (02:35):
You know, if you if you want the government.
Speaker 1 (02:37):
To be involved with it, you go, hey, I tell
you what, if you put this on there, we'll send
a we'll pay for the signs or whatever. But don't
don't threaten a withhold funding. That's that seems to be
like a thing now with Republican lawmakers, and they were
withhold funding if they don't get their way, and it's
all the way up to the federal federal branch as well.
Speaker 2 (02:53):
It's a little odd to me.
Speaker 3 (02:55):
Well, I think I tried to be a person who
thinks a little bit about precedent and big picturism, and
I think, like, this is the first time I've ever
heard of a proposed law that would requires universities. So
think about all the people throughout the course of human history.
We've not done this for whether it's Mother and Theresa Washington.
Speaker 2 (03:20):
You don't have to go into the national scene.
Speaker 1 (03:22):
You can find people right here from Florida that are
Floridians that have affected people enough Martin, Yeah, whatever you
want to do, for sure.
Speaker 3 (03:29):
Yeah. So anyway, it's a it's a little bit of
a weird.
Speaker 1 (03:33):
State we live in, so yeah, for sure. I did
read your piece today and found it great, though.
Speaker 3 (03:39):
Thank you. Which one are we talking about?
Speaker 1 (03:41):
The theme right safety thing? The theme park ride safety thing?
I thought it was a great piece.
Speaker 3 (03:46):
Well, you know, it gets at one of the I
actually thought of you because there's one aspect of this
that I know takes you off and I'm sort of
skipping to the punchline here though. The short version is
that theme parks rides are not regulated in Florida the
way virtually everything else is regulated. And uh, the argument,
(04:07):
I mean, like even like amusement parks like uh, county
fairs and state fairs rides. There are regulated theme park
rides in California are regulated, but in Florida, Uh, it's
primarily self regulation for safety and more concerning in my mind,
self reporting. And what that means is theme parks are
able to describe, decide on their own how to describe
(04:30):
what has happened. And as we've written about before, that
means that, for instance, some kid who got their foot
crushed and mangled on a ride at Universal the report
the report Universal File described it as leg pain.
Speaker 2 (04:43):
Yeah, now you real quick.
Speaker 1 (04:47):
Now, want to make something clear because when you say regulation,
so what you're saying is in in Orlando, in Florida, right,
we have a Disney, we have University, we have Cero,
we have bush guards. All of these parks have you know,
a high voloc high action rides. The roller coasters go
very fast, uh, and they can be you know, and
they can be very very kind of uh you know again,
(05:08):
if you're not used to that thing, it could be
it could be traumatic.
Speaker 2 (05:11):
Right.
Speaker 1 (05:11):
So with that said, so there's no state institution that
goes from park to park and inspects these rides to
make sure they're up to snuff.
Speaker 2 (05:19):
That's all handled within.
Speaker 3 (05:22):
Almost all I think there are some minor things, but yes,
that that's that is generally correct. And if and if
you want to think about like an example, and I
should have put this in the column. I just thought
about it talking to you now. Elevators like the state,
those are inspected, right because we've decided those, but we're
not doing the roller coasters. And let me say here,
(05:43):
I'm not scared of a roller coaster. I think they're
generally safe. I think history has shown they're generally safe.
But airplanes are generally safe, and we regulate the piss
out of those.
Speaker 2 (05:53):
Sure.
Speaker 3 (05:53):
Yeah, the cars are are are regulated for safety of
everything from airbags to seatbelts to to the crash the
way they crash. And the argument, the theme parks have
always given give is well, it's in our best interest
to have safe rides, so you don't need to regulate
us because it's going to be good for consumers. And
(06:14):
that might sound good if you say it fast, but
it's pretty damn dumb if you think about it, because
every company would say that. Pharmaceutical companies right now, see you.
Speaker 1 (06:24):
But I think you could probably make an argument Scott
that you know, the inspection thing could be handled internally,
Like I'll make the argument here, I'll be the bad
guy here, right, Like, what good does it do for
any of these parks to have situations like this? It
doesn't do any good for somebody to die on their ride.
So I would think all of these people are going
to be, I mean, exponentially.
Speaker 2 (06:46):
Careful when it comes.
Speaker 1 (06:48):
To how their rides run so that nobody gets hurt,
because that's terrible for business. The reporting thing, though, is
the part that I find a little sketchy, Like if
there is a legitimate report and that just gets brushed
under the rug, is like you always had a hangnail,
but you lost a finger. You know, that's a little
different to me.
Speaker 3 (07:05):
Yeah, well, first of all, I would say that, like
I think all companies would make the argument that you
just made. Like I was starting to say, a pharmaceutical
company would say, our drugs, you don't need to be
right checking them for side effects. It's bad for our
business if somebody takes our pills and ends up getting
sick or dying. But the government, going all the way
back to Upton Sinclair's the jungle, like what was theirs?
And the meat packing the meat packing industry said no, no, no,
(07:28):
we're gonna be healthy, We're gonna be safe. It's it's
good for our business. They went and said, oh my god,
it's disgusting, both the working conditions and sickness. That said,
I agree with you. I'm not as worried about the
regulation as I am the disclosure if somebody gets seriously ill.
Another example they had I think it was it was
a Disney ride. It might have even been Tower of
(07:50):
Terror or something where the person like passed out and
needed brain surgery. Yes, and the report was felt ill.
Speaker 2 (07:59):
Yeah, Yeah, I do, I remember that. Yeah, I do.
Speaker 3 (08:03):
Generally, I think what should happen is they should have
to report exactly what happened and then people can make
their own informed decision for themselves. And and by the way,
that's not that's not a radical idea. That's the way
it works. But not only in both industries, most industries,
but like I said, in other states that have theme parks. However,
Florida it is not. And the main reason it doesn't
is because the theme parks big tourism sort of control
(08:25):
the legislature. And that was a lot of yapping by me.
But the part of the story that made me think
about you is. The reason is because the theme parks
not only cut big checks, but they give these guys
gifts every year. And one of the most ridiculous loopholes
that exists in Florida politics because technically, you know, lobbyists
are not allowed to give state legislators anything, but the
(08:49):
theme parks give them free rooms, free meals, free VIP tours,
free behind the scenes stuff. They give them all all
of this stuff. And the way they do it is
by giving the money to the Democratic and Republican parties
and then the parties turn around and give it to
the legislators. And they are not shy about this or
(09:10):
are secretive most of the times when they do it,
like the Republicans, they do it like the week or
two before the legislative session begins, so they hold every
Republican at Universal and Disney hosts a lot of the Democrats.
Both parties do it for I mean both companies, for
both teams. They do it right before they decide whether
they're going to pass these bills. So if someone does
(09:30):
file a bill that says, hey, we think maybe Disney
and Universal should have to provide better disclosure on their
right industries, they say, well, you know what, come, spend
a week at our park. We're going to take care
of everything, and we're going to discuss with you our
concerns about that.
Speaker 2 (09:43):
We'll show you just how safe it is with the
VIP tour. Yeah yeah.
Speaker 1 (09:47):
And then of course with the battle that DeSantis got
into with Disney over the LGBTQ stuff, you know that
turn kind of ugly, because didn't I think that's when,
you know, when the money stopped flowing, is when you know,
politicians started getting a little weird about it, going, hey, look, well,
you know, if you're going to do that, well maybe
we should start looking at a relationship a little bit
closer and make sure that that's up to snuff. None
of that happened before they started threatening to withhold money.
(10:10):
And then of course as soon as that all blew over,
and it did, it was just like you and I said,
it was just a big show.
Speaker 2 (10:15):
Once it blew over, it was right back to norm right,
And I.
Speaker 3 (10:19):
Thought that was actually an oopsie moment for dissandus. I
remember the moment he was, he was, he was. It
was a press conference, I think it was here in Florida,
and he was throwing a little bit of a tantrum,
and he basically said, well, Disney, you know if you're
if you're gonna piss me off, then you know what
we're gonna do is we're going to regulate your rides.
We're gonna send our inspectors to the monorail. And then
he said, and we're only going to do it for you,
(10:40):
And I thought, good, a minute, you're talking out loud, because.
Speaker 2 (10:45):
A minute, you're not supposed to say stuff like that, dude.
Speaker 3 (10:47):
Because first of all, what you're threatening them with is
reasonable ride safety regulations. And you're saying that only them,
the company that has stopped cutting checks, is going to
be subjected to you.
Speaker 2 (10:58):
That's a weird.
Speaker 3 (10:59):
Look. Yeah, they resumed cutting their checks and that threat
has ever since disappeared.
Speaker 1 (11:03):
Yeah, that's wild. How quickly that thing came and went.
I remember you and I have many of the conversations
about that. We were both kind of laughing out loud
to ourselves on how long this was going to last
because they need each other so much. There's no way
possible a fight could last that long, you know, no
way possible at all.
Speaker 3 (11:17):
Right, And that's one of the things I've said through
very consistently and I think you agreed. When all these
people were like, especially Democrats that are like, I'm on
team Disney, I was like, Disney is not on your team.
But there is no team here except for their corporate
interests and their cutting checks to both sides of the aisle.
And they'll continue to cut checks to probably every politician
you hate, as long as that politician is in a
(11:39):
position to do them.
Speaker 1 (11:40):
Yeah, and more than likely they're going to you know,
the ones that are getting spoken to are the ones
in position to do that thing, whatever that thing may be.
Speaker 2 (11:47):
For sure.
Speaker 3 (11:48):
I checked. Don't hold me to this, but I checked
the donations just yesterday, and this is approximate. I think
it was. Disney was giving about two hundred thousand dollars
of in kind gifts that that's like this, wheats and
the you know, the hotel rooms and things to the Republicans,
and I think it was about twenty five thousand to
the Democrats. So basically it's enough to like, here, kid,
(12:09):
go busy yourself to the Democrats who don't have any control, and.
Speaker 2 (12:12):
Take this to the arcade. Son. Yeah right, don't leave there, mom,
And I gotta go to the bar.
Speaker 3 (12:18):
Yeah, but you know, what it's usually enough to shut
them up.
Speaker 1 (12:22):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, for sure. Hey that's the only piece
I read today. I know you usually post two on Wednesday.
What was the other piece about?
Speaker 2 (12:26):
Real quickly?
Speaker 3 (12:27):
The other one is a really interesting one about why
Florida has turned so red and these why we are
so Republican because, as you all know, and you know
not too long ago, we were a swing state. We
were the swingiest state in America, right the two thousand
recount showed, you know, we were the most purple state.
Now we are hardcore read and a bunch of three researchers,
(12:47):
including one University of Florida, did a fifty page paper
on this to say why. And the thing that they
discovered that I thought was most interesting is it's not
Floridians who are here becoming Republican. It's that Republicans are
now flocking to Florida. And they got some really interesting
data and for instance, if you're born in Florida, Floridians
(13:08):
are like six points more likely to be Democrats. Florida
born people, I think it was thirty seven to thirty one.
But the people moving here are like forty percent Republican,
thirty percent Democrat and it does not take long. That's
a big difference.
Speaker 2 (13:25):
Yeah, we may.
Speaker 1 (13:26):
I think that started happening during the pandemic, where people
like that's when they were saying, all right.
Speaker 2 (13:32):
We're going to Florida. Yeah. I agree that one hundred percent.
Speaker 1 (13:34):
When DeSantis did his COVID thing and made it to
you know, the old free state of Florida thing, Yeah,
I think people were like, well, I don't want to
deal with my thing here.
Speaker 2 (13:41):
I've always wanted to go to Florida anyway, so why
not now? Yeah, And that's exactly what happened.
Speaker 3 (13:46):
It's actually happened, not just to SAANDUS. It's been a
pretty steady incline over the past decade. Rick Scott helped
move us all hard, right. But the flip side of
that coin is that Florida's growth is slowing. We're still
like one of the fastest growth that growth states in
the nation, but for the past ten years, our growth
has never gotten above two point five percent, and it
(14:06):
used to always be four to six percent something a
lot higher. And the other thing the report found is
that twenty to thirty somethings are leaving Florida and drove
by significant and it was interesting because the Florida Chamber
of Commerce, pretty conservative organization, they put out a report
and they're like, this is a problem if we don't
if everybody, if we're educating people in college and then
(14:28):
they're leaving because and this has to do final note,
and then I know, we got to wrap things up.
What you and I always talk about. If you're young
and you're starting a family, you care a lot more
about whether you can afford a house or whether you
can afford rent than you can watch in politicians dunk
on each other. That's right, And twenty somethings are fine.
They can't do that, and all they see is them
screaming about these culture wars, and they're like, I'm getting
the hell out of here because wages are not nearly
(14:51):
keeping up to what housing is going.
Speaker 1 (14:52):
And that's why and that's why states like Carolina's are
doing really well, even North Georgia seeing explosions in population
because it's you know, it just doesn't have that you
know again.
Speaker 3 (15:03):
And they see a lot more prospects for upward economic mobility.
Speaker 1 (15:07):
Absolutely, you guys give it upod Lafe for Scott Maxwell. Yeah, Wednesday,
Thursdays and Sundays. You can read them right there in
the pages of the Orlando Sentinel. You can also get
it online get your subscription at Orlando Sentinel dot com.
Speaker 2 (15:19):
Scott good seeing anybody take care guys now, got a
man all right?
Speaker 1 (15:22):
Four seven nine one six four one, text us seven
seven zero three one or four o'clock.
Speaker 2 (15:26):
Keyword is win wi in.
Speaker 1 (15:28):
Got a few minutes to get over to Real ready
or do FM and send that away for your chance
at one thousand dollars back in one sec.
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