The Florida 2023 Session Was One For The Ages

Consensus is Florida's session was the most impactful single session in U.S. history. Sal Nuzzo, of the James Madison Institute, makes the case.

Episode Transcript

(00:13):
It is the third hour of themorning show with Preston Scott. I am
literally turning the page on the radioprogram Grant Allen over there in Studio one.
Am here in Studio one B,and I am joined by Salt News
of the James Madison Institute, VicePresident of Policy. But more importantly,

(00:34):
he is our our governmental guru.He is the sense of all things legislative.
How are you? I'm doing great. How are you sir? You
were delayed one week by jury juryduty, Yes, indeed, and you
didn't even get to serve. Youjust had to go through the hoop jump.
Yeah. I got picked into apool, sat in the gallery for

(00:55):
a couple of hours as they didwhat did you even get to answer any
questions? Yeah? They raise handquestions. But then they had a group
of folks in the box and soit was a jury of only six with
two alternates. And so the kindof case wasn't I don't know if I'm
at liberty, I guess I couldsay it was a sexual battery on a

(01:15):
minor. Yeah it was. Itwas a rough one. Yeah. Well
but you didn't you didn't get chosen. Didn't didn't get chosen. So you've
had a week now to kind ofdigest everything. Um, well, we'll
have time to go through some ofthese bills in depth in the coming months,
as well as talk about things thatmaybe ought to be on the radar

(01:36):
of the legislature come fall for committeeweeks. But as you look at this
session, what stands out the mostto you from a legislative perspective. Gosh,
I would stipulate, and we've gota piece in town Hall, the
media publication that calls this the singlemost transformational legislative session in a hundred years

(01:57):
in any state. So to answerthe question, yeah, to answer the
question, I think the totality ofwhat this legislature accomplished in sixty days is
unlike anything that we, our partnersare coalition members across the country have ever
seen in any state in the lastcentury. Why. It's a great question,

(02:21):
and I think there's two things tothis. There's a why and a
how. Okay, So the whyis you had voters sending not a Republican
majority, but a Republican supermajority toboth chambers. So the traditional roadblocks on
some of the more assertive or aggressiveconservative policies, which would either get extremely

(02:43):
watered down or just hit a roadblockin one chamber or another were lifted.
So with twenty eight Republicans in theFlorida State Senate, you have the ability
to lose six or seven and stillget a bill passed. Same holds crew
in the House, you had eightyfive down to eighty four Republicans, you

(03:07):
could afford to lose some of thosecenter moderate Republicans from South Florida districts or
other parts of the state where theywere representing a center to in some cases
center left constituency. Those things put, you know, kind of put aside
and allowed this legislature to just runthe table on conservative policy such as such

(03:30):
as HB one, universal school choicefor every single one of Florida's three point
something million students, sweeping tort reform, permitless carry of firearms. Now that's
an incremental one, but permitless carrywas not even thought of. Let me
just ask you on tort reform.Yeah, a little more meat on the

(03:52):
bone, a good bit of meaton the bone, or a lot of
meat still left on the bone onthat one. Oh, very little meat
on the bone, very little.That bill was a unheard of in a
year a year ago, prior.Okay, yeah, without question, the
anti ESG package, full paycheck protectionfor public sector employees, the Teacher's Bill

(04:16):
of Rights, rooting out diversity,equity, inclusion from the state university system,
rooting in stock. Do you believeit's rooted out? It is getting
rooted out because I think, likethe Parental Bill of Rights in general,
there needed to be and there stillneeds to be mechanisms to enforce it.
And I feel the same thing aboutthat, absolutely. But the legislature's role

(04:39):
is to create the glide path.Okay, it is the job of regulators
and the governors and over and allof that charter school funding, allowing the
classic learning tests, were bright futuresand state university admissions, banning Central Bank
digital currency, social media education forkids, a backdown on aiding and employing

(05:00):
illegal immigrants, broadband expansion. Ihear the music, and my list is,
oh, I know, And that'swhy we're going to continue to go
through this list. Let me justask you. Yep. You might have
heard my discussion Simon Hankinson from theHeritage Foundation about the role employers play.
Correct, Are we talking about someserious crackdown on employers hiring illegals. Yes,

(05:21):
e verify at the twenty five employeeor more level is a big crackdown.
Yes, we could go to oneemployer more. But politics and policy
are the art of the possible,So this is this is a good move.
In the morning show at Preston ScottBy News Radio one hundred point seven

(05:42):
WFLA, he's vice president of policywith the James Madison Institute, and our
guests sound news with us, we'retalking about the legislative wins and how remarkable
transformational the twenty twenty three session wasYour list continues, Yeah, the list
continues. I mean we left offat the break at I think it was

(06:06):
broadband expansion, and it's important tonote that the legislature's path on this was
to do so without increasing or incentivizinggovernment regulations or government ownership of broadband network.
So that's a big win. Anadditional telemedicine expansion protecting physicians who have

(06:27):
religious objections to some medical procedures.A massive affordable housing package that includes a
preemption on rent control at the locallevel. How does that work at the
local level. So a local developerwho might want to build a new development
in an area of a county canif they allocate a certain percentage depending on

(06:51):
the size of the development to houses, and the building of houses that fall
a certain level of affordability below themedian level can get some tax incentives on
that. So the tax incentives onlyhappen if they build houses that are less
expensive than or workforce housing needs inthose communities. Okay, preempting living wage

(07:15):
ordinances. This is a big dealbecause you have these counties that are saying,
if you want to operate a businessand contract with our municipality, you
have to pay your workers twenty fivethirty dollars an hour. That's gone away.
Abortion ban at six weeks one ofthe more contentious ones. Banning gender
quote unquote care for minors, gendertransitions, and things like that. Public

(07:39):
restroom facilities according to sex at birth. Now, does that mean that,
for example, Leon County is onethat has allowed people to use whatever bathroom
they want, They're going to haveto change public facilities. They will have
to change or have single use facilities. An expansion of the parents' rights in
education film prevention of compelled speech onuniversity campuses. You cannot be required to

(08:03):
sign an oath of some sort toget a job on campus to teach to
be a speaker on that campus.That is a big deal as well.
No TikTok on government devices. TheData Privacy Bill had passed on the last
day, and while it's certainly nota perfect bill from the standpoint of small
businesses, it has a lot ofgood in their school board term limits to

(08:26):
eight years, additional financial disclosure requirementsfor local elected officials. They're going to
be at the state level of requirementsfor financial disclosure, further election security transparency,
and reforms to pharmacy benefit managers.The list is just insane. Banning
ownership of land near secure facilities byChinese nationals just enough. That's one that

(08:50):
I think there's still meet up.There's still there's still a lot of meat
on the bone. A great firststep. There no driving golf carts without
a license anymore. You know oneI followed, not that my kids drive
golf carts. I don't even ownone. Changes to the criminal justice system
child rape and non unanimous capital verdicts, so the death penalty can be opposed
on child rapists, which is goingto go to the Supreme Court because it

(09:13):
counters a existing Supreme Court presidency reformto permanent alimony, a permanent ban on
mask and vaccine mandates including private businesses, elimination of enterprise full orda, and
expansion of Kidcare, which is asafety net insurance program for children in the
state. I mean that list isundisputed. There is nothing like it in

(09:39):
this country at a state legislative chambersession, and we would argue one hundred
years twenty one minutes after the oursald news oh JMI with us the list
of wins for conservatism, for doingthings the right way, so volumeous.

(10:01):
It took a segment and a half, and we still didn't get it all
in. No, I had skippedover one kind of allowing small businesses,
protecting them by allowing them to challengelocal ordinances at the county or city level
that impact their business by a certainpercentage. What brought this up? I'm
always fascinated by the things that stimulatesome of these bills. Sure, this

(10:22):
one was one that last session.It was a priority of then Senate President
now Agriculture Commissioner Wilton Simpson, andit didn't make it across the finish line.
I didn't hear anything about it untilabout two thirds of the way through
session and it had been filed,it had gotten a little bit attraction,

(10:43):
but not very much, and thenall of a sudden it picked up steam
and went full bore. What arethe issues that are going to head to
the ballot that voters are going tosettle in twenty four? Sure, you've
got a couple of good ones.Is it twenty four that they'll vote on
it? Okay? Yeah, it'sin the presidential cycle, so part of
the school board races. So makingit such that the school board races,

(11:05):
which are already very party driven inthe sense like you know who, if
you're paying attention, who is theconservative candidate? Who is the more progressive
or liberal candidate? That is onewhere we're now going to attach a party
to that to allow the folks whoaren't paying as much attention the ability to
know kind of where a person stands. So that's got to get a sixty

(11:26):
percent threshold. But yeah, doesthat offer strategic advantages to either side based
on the makeup of the community versusa quote nonpartisan race. Yeah, I
think in your heavily partisan counties,liberal or a Republican or Democrat, I
think it's going to kind of reinforcesome of the wins there that that team

(11:48):
gets. So that is something where, you know, harder for a Democrat
to win in some areas, harderfor a Republican win or none other.
Yeah, exactly, And I thinkit'll probably come out in a wall,
but voters will know a little bitmore than they might otherwise. Another one
is upping the threshold on constitutional amendmentsfrom sixty percent to sixty six percent two

(12:11):
thirds majority. Anything, in myopinion, anything we can do that would
make it harder to amend the Constitution. I'm in favor for now. Whether
this actually gets to sixty percent,I don't know. It's going to have
an uphill climb in my opinions,simply because I think the Left is going
to pour a lot of money intoit. What about the hunting and fishing

(12:33):
rights. Yeah, this is one, you know, it's kind of like
a It's definitely a feel good onebecause I don't know that there's any kind
of implication other than it being inthe Constitution. I'd be interested to know
as a function of this, shouldit pass, and I would probably expect
it to pass whether or not.Regulators then make changes to the laws governing

(12:54):
getting a hunting or fishing license,maybe the costs or things along those lines
that might enable people to do somore inexpensively. Okay, budget wise,
where are we the budget? Imean, we've gotten through two and a
half segments and they only have thatrequirement. But they did pass a one
hundred and seventeen billion dollar budget.Now that is a roughly seven point something

(13:20):
billion dollars increase over less than halfof what California is, less than half
of what New York is. Ye, and New York has fewer residents.
So the you know, the numbersin the efficiency put Florida at either forty
ninth or fiftieth in the amount ofbudgeting per capita that happens in the state.
So a very good, very fiscallyconservative budget. A few of the

(13:43):
numbers. Forty seven billion for healthand Human services, A portion of that
is flow through from the federal governmentfrom DC for medicaid in their portion.
Twenty six point eight billion for Ktwelve, which is a more than two
billion dollars increase, which this oneincludes what the governor is starting to call
a categorical it's a line item forteacher pay increases separate and apart from the

(14:07):
main education bill, and that's animportant thing because of what was transpiring with
the teachers unions in prior sessions.Twenty one billion for transportation, a little
more than eleven billion for agriculture,six point seven billion for criminal justice,
and five billion for the Department ofEnvironmental Protection. It includes a five percent

(14:28):
bump for state worker pay, anotherninety six million for agency targeted raises,
a billion three in tax cuts,and eleven billion set aside in reserves,
which is just phenomenal considering the factthat we do not have an income tax.
The large kind of portion of ourrevenue comes from sales and use taxes,

(14:48):
a lot of tourism, and we'vegot an economy that produces eleven billion
dollars to be able to set asidein reserve. Just another reason to support
a consumption tax over a general incometax. Oh yeah, absolutely, And
I thought you were going to gowith the property tax bit on that that

(15:09):
will upcome another day. Yeah,yeah, And I'm philosophically, I'm with
you. The way it works outand how to practically enact that is just
a bit of a challenge, ButI think there is something that can be
said for fiscal conservatism at the statelevel produces exponentially more value than what progressive

(15:33):
leftism does at the state level.If you look at states like New York
and Illinois, we get far morefor our money governing and far more for
our economy and our economic output thananything that you could you could put up
from the left. This is theMorning Show with Preston Scott's. Yeah,

(15:54):
I'm Preston Scott. That's Grant Allen, and this is sal News with the
James Madison Institute my guest. Andso who lost? What didn't make the
cut? Oh? What lost?And who lost? Our different questions?
Okay, fair enough, what didn'tmake the cut? What didn't make the
cut? What lost? A verylittle? There was not a whole lot.
And when I looked at the percentagesof the bills that went through,

(16:17):
it was like eighteen hundred and eighteenhundred and seventy three bills were filed and
three hundred and fifty six made itacross the finish line. Now, ordinarily
a traditional session will have around threethousand bills, so the batting average was
much higher this session than others.So not a whole lot didn't make it.
That was substantive is that because goinginto it, there's kind of an

(16:40):
understanding. Okay, the GOP's gotthe supermajority, and they kind of know
going in what's gonna get entertained andwhat's not. Yeah. That, plus,
I think they recognize that there wasa lot of oxygen that had to
be spent on big bills, andso a number of these other smaller bills
just either got rolled into a biggerpackage or just didn't get filed. And

(17:03):
I think it's important to note thatbig bills can be defined a couple of
ways. It can be attention gettersthat might be good for political campaign but
also bills that are very consequential.And I would argue that we have very
consequential bills that have been passed that, oh, by the way, will
provide some fodder. Yeah. Absolutely. And to give you an example of

(17:23):
data Privacy bill, it didn't geta whole lot of press. It wasn't
contentious in the normal stretch, Itwas not a social issue that you'd see
kind of a lot of ink beingpoured out on because it's abortion or trans
issues and things like that. Butyet it is incredibly consequential. It involves
a whole lot of work to getthe policy as right as it could be,

(17:45):
to get passage and things along thoselines. But so what didn't make
it the defamation reform that we hadkind of talked about a number of had
my remarks ready, you had yourtwo minutes of testimony ready to go,
and the temporarily postponed. They heardI was coming down there and they said
we will table the bill versus lettinghim to dick. They pulled it immediately

(18:07):
upon you entering the committee room.That's almost literal. It really did happen
that way. That's you sat downand the chair said we are temporarily postponing
the following bills, and yours wasone of them. Thank you very much.
Yeah, so that didn't make it. I have a feeling that they're
going to try to retool this,and I don't know if they'll be able
to retool it in a way thatmakes conservatives happy in the media especially,

(18:30):
But I think this is going tocome back driving too slow in the left
lane. I was really upset thatthis one did not make the cut.
But were you Yeah, Yeah,I gotta let foot my friend. Yeah,
but we don't need a law.Let just do the right. Yeah,
just get over, get and moved. Get get over. The bill
on vacation reynals, it got waydown in negotiation between a couple of committees.

(18:52):
This is one to your point aboutit's not going to get a lot
of press, but it is veryconsequential because what you're trying to do,
or what they're trying to do,is balanced property rights. The property rights
of an individual who has a homeand who might want to rent it out,
versus the property right of a neighborwho doesn't want you know, who

(19:14):
moved into a neighborhood and may notyou know, want their nighttime you know
activities, you know, kind ofall of the loudness and all the cars
and everything along those lines, andwho didn't sign up for a tourism spot
in their neighborhood. So the CFObill on IRS regulation that got held up,
I think if more in the Congressis done with the eighty million dollars

(19:40):
and all the IRS agents, you'llsee that when you come back. The
sorry chip Lamarca removing the restrictions onwine containers. He fought the good fight.
The senator, as he called it, the senators a bunch of communists
and so you know that was thatwas his comment. I don't know.
It might have been off the record, it was, it was, and
jest they try to put it ontoan agency bill, but he's been he's

(20:03):
been trying for a number of years. I'm with him in that battle.
I'd like to buy a five gallonjugo wine myself. Do they not know
that that the eighteen to twenty onelaw for gun purchases is they're going to
lose that eventually? Eventually I thinkthey are. But I mean just the
Supreme Court is going to just hammerthat. Yeah, at this Supreme Court
especially, I think once that caseor once it's litigated up at that level.

(20:30):
Sal Neuzzo with us one more segmentbefore we go to monthly meetings.
Ye here in the Morning Show withPreston Scott tomorrow, I'm gonna ask my
listeners, okay, not will heor won't he? But should he or
should he not? Run for president? Governor Rond de Santas. And I
only say that not because he's nota quality candidate. I say that because,

(20:53):
in my opinion, Donald Trump isstarting to suck the air out of
the room. I think, ifso, are you asking me the same
question. I'm going to ask thatquestion tomorrow, so I figure, why
not ask you that today? AndI'll tell you this. I think if
you were to have asked me thatquestion three weeks ago, I would concur
Donald Trump is sucking the oxygen outof the room, and DeSantis he took

(21:17):
an unforced error, you know,a little bit here or there. But
I see a lot of parallels betweentwenty eighteen and now, and I think
that Donald Trump's ability to suck theoxygen out of the room, particularly this
past weekend, was kind of reduced. If you saw what happened in Iowa.

(21:38):
They had a very sparse audience forthe Trump rally and he canceled it
blaming the tornado watch. And thenyou have the governor in the blue button
down with the Khaki's flipping pork chopsat the Iowa Festival. And I don't
know if this is a turning point, bearing in mind he has not even

(22:03):
officially announced his running I think fora candidate who is not actually a candidate
yet officially, for him to bewithin that kind of a distance from the
former president, with the level ofkind of cult of personality he has,
I think I'm on the he shouldat this point, okay, and it's

(22:25):
pretty much a foregone conclusion that hewill. I don't think there's any anybody
that thinks he won't at that he'snot testing the water at this point anymore.
No, And in fact, therewas a report that he was going
to in May announce an exploratory committee, and then that report kind of got
retracted or pulled back because they eitherchange their mind or decided in lieu of
that that he was going to announcefully. At some point we talked ever

(22:48):
so briefly about the fact that youcan govern remotely in this day and age
the way that you know, muchthe same way that a traveling president governs
remotely. Absolutely, that said,I would, are you on behalf of
the governor that governing Florida actively whilecampaigning is his best campaign Oh? Probably,
Yeah. Absolutely. I think whenyou look at what his strengths are

(23:11):
going to be in terms of howhe would project his viability for president of
the United States, it's going tobe his governing of the state of Florida.
The policy wins, the stories fromthe Hurricane Ian recovery, all of
those things are going to be hishis selling point. What else should we

(23:33):
know about the governor's travels. He'sbeginning to get kind of his I think
he would. He's beginning to gethis sea legs on a lot of these
trips, where in prior ones you'dsee him behind a podium with the suit
and tie and the boots. Nowhe's in the genes, he's in Khaki's,
he's doing a lot more rope lines, he's he's smiling a lot more,

(23:57):
which I mean is something you've gotto learn as a as a political
candidate. It's a it's a differentgame in Iowa and in New Hampshire.
Um, they're not your constituent shoe, No they are not. They're interviewing
you. And if you know anythingabout the Iowa caucuses, it is it
is like a WWE Battle Royale whenit happens. So, um, yeah,

(24:18):
those are those are some you know, those are the things he's going
to learn. And look, we'restill a year out, so we're in
good shape. And he can nowresign or not resign and run. Oh
yeah he can. He can runthe table as the governor of Florida,
go through the entire campaign and upuntil the election, up until the election.

(24:41):
Yeah, and if things don't turnout, he still has a year
and a half or two years ofof being governor of Florida. Would your
analysis be at this point that whoeverthe Republican nominee is, as long as
it's not Donald Trump, can winor only specific one or two including Trump.
Do you think Trump can beat Biden? I think Trump can beat Biden.

(25:04):
I don't think he will beat Biden. Him beating Biden would require changes
to him that I don't think he'scapable of. I think Ronda Santis precapable
or willing. Willing, Yeah,willing and capable. I think de Santis
has the best chance of beating Biden, especially in the three or four swing

(25:25):
states that are going to ultimately decidethe election. We'll have lots to talk
about, it to tons to talkabout. As always, thanks for all
your work. It's always a pleasure. My friend sal news Oh with us
throughout the legislative session. Now withthe recap our guests on the Morning Show
with Preston Scott