>>This week on New Night, Governor DeSantis signs a bill supporters say will crack down on frau in the citizen led constitutiona amendment process.

But the critics claim will make it too hard to get initiative on the ballot.

Plus, lawmakers passed measures to try to ease the cost burden for condominium owners.

NewsNight starts now.

[MUSIC] Hello, I'm Steve Mort welcome to NewsNight where we take an in-depth look at the top storie and issues in Central Florida and how they shap our community.

First, tonight a look at some of the bills that passed and failed in the legislative session.

Lawmakers are set to return to Tallahassee, of course, to try to work out a budget and tax relief deal.

More on that a bit later.

But several key bills passe the regularly scheduled session.

Among them, a measure quickl signed into law by the governor.

Shaking up the process of getting citizen led constitutional amendments initiatives on the ballot.

Among other things, it restricts who can collect ballot petitions and requires more personal information from those who fill out petitions.

Supporters say it's neede to tackle fraud in the process and cut back on out of state influence.

NewsNight spoke this week with a Republica and a Democrat about the issue.

First, here' Republican State Representative, Monique Miller from Brevard County.

>>I absolutely think that's necessary.

I am so delighte that this went through.

We have outside influence that are coming into Florida and literall buying their way onto ballots.

And that's a dangerous that's a dangerous situation.

If you can if you can buy your way onto a ballot, then you know that the biggest money outside the state will come in and and they will have their wa where Floridians really don't.

I think it should be hard when you change your constitution.

That's a big deal.

It should be hard.

A lot of this stuff should be done legislatively.

And so that's that's where most of this process should be happening.

>>Representative Monique Miller.

Among the leading critics of the new law is Orlando Democratic Stat Senator Carlos Guillermo Smith.

>>They passed legislatio that really was a response to the fact that amendments three and amendmen four to legalize cannabis and to overturn the extreme six week abortion ban we have in the state.

It was too close to call for Republicans.

They had to crack down on people's constitutional right to engage in direct democracy, rather than trying to come up with policy responses to that very clea majority of Floridians who voted yes on amendments three and four, they just decided they wanted to do everything they could to silence the voices of those everyday Floridians and make it harder for future generations to put any constitutional amendment on the ballot.

>>Senator Carlos Guillermo Smith from Orlando, let's bring in our panel now to break it all down.

And joining us in the studio this week, Jeff Allen coming back to us from Spectrum News 13 covers politics at Spectrum News.

Thanks so much for coming in, Jeff.

>>Good to be here.

>>Good to see you today.

Matthew Peddie, the host of Florida Matters at WUSF in Tampa.

Good to see you today, Matt.

>>You too.

>>And Skyler Swisher just got back from Tallahasse covering a rambunctious session writing for the Orlando Sentinel.

Good to see you, Skyler.

>>Thanks for having me on.

>>Thanks so much for coming in today, guys.

Skyler, let me start with you and let's talk briefly about what the piece of legislation we were just hearing about.

What does it do?

>>It is going to impose some some new hurdles on citize led ballot initiatives.

One provision would b if you do not register as a signature gatherer, if you have more than 25 signed petitions other than your own and immediate family members, you could b you could face a felony offense.

There's going to be tighter deadlines to return those signed petitions and if you miss those deadlines, there could be, additional penalties.

>>Yeah.

Let's talk a little bit about those Republicans concerns over fraud and outside influence.

I talked with the chair of the Republican Party of Florida, Evan Power, this week, and asked him why he thought changes to the amendment process were needed.

>>Well, you saw that the Governor' Office of Election Integrity arreste people for petition fraud.

What these companies are doin these they're out of stat dark money companies.

They're bringing people in from outside the state of Florida to collect petitions.

And what this bill simply does is say they need to be Florida residents.

They need to be, non felons to collect petitions.

And it sends the message that our Constitution isn't for sale by out of state dark money.

>>Well, Democrats say that simply the way that it's writte makes it too hard for citizens to, add to the Constitutio or to change the Constitution.

Are you worried, that that it simply takes away a voice, from the citizens when it comes to their ability to change the Constitution?

>>Well, people outside the state of Florida are not citizens, and people who are felons aren't able to vote here in Florida.

So asking for regular citizens, voting age citizens to collec petitions is not a restriction.

It should be the way it was from the very beginning.

>>Evan Power there.

Matt, obviously, we heard from Senator Smith just now.

The Democrats push back on those changes that Evan Power was defending there.

It's already drawn a lawsuit as well.

>>Yeah.

And the signatories to that lawsuit, there's a bunch of people signing onto - a bunch of groups I should say.

One of them is, calle Florida Decides Health Care now, and they are trying to get, and ballo initiative on the ballot, and then the next electio to expand Medicaid in Florida.

And the executive director of that organization, Mitch Emerson, basicall pushing back and saying, look, this isn't really about, you know, fixing something that's wrong.

This is really a hurdle to Floridians being able to participate in the, you know, the democratic process.

So some concerns there.

And essentially they're saying it's it's really kind of a almost like a scare tactic.

It's going to make people worrie and confused about what they can and can't do to gather those signatures.

>>One of the things tha I thought was really interesting about this legislation, though, was that it does include, a prohibition on the use of public funds right to pay for political ads that sort of support or oppose, I guess, proposed amendments that have been a lot of controversy about that last year.

>>Yeah, last year there were estimates that the governor's office, Governor Ron DeSantis, along with the then attorney general, Ashley Moody, spent anywhere between 2 to $100 million in a campaign to basically, defeat the, amendments the recreational marijuana, as well as the abortio amendments, of course, neither neither made it so, you know, campaigns, all kinds of ads, airtime, so that, you know would actually be illegal now.

It would spell it out in this law.

But you have to wonder, for people, critics of thi saying that this might prevent any future amendment from even getting on the ballot, if that will even really factor in, they may not have anything to oppose.

>>Let's tal about some of the other bills, that passed in some of the final days and hours of the regular session that you covered.

Skyler let's start with the the effort to tackle the spiraling costs for condo owners.

Governo DeSantis had wanted that passed in a special sessio where they tackled immigration.

But lawmakers, didn't agree to do that.

Did he get what he wante this time?

Do we think?

>>Yeah.

He was asked about this.

He did approve of the bill that ultimately passed, and he sai he's going to sign it into law.

But he did, kind of add the comment that he wishes the legislature had acted on this in the special session that he called in January.

So, he was arguing that this relief should have come sooner to condo owners.

>>The lawmakers also approved, right, Matt, restrictions on on the development of state parks, that followed that outcry last year of course, about the development of some sites, including, in your area.

The governor distanced himself from those plans at the time, before they were shelved.

What are the new guard rails in this bill?

And is the governor going to sign it?

>>Yeah.

I mean, you remember that that huge outcry, as you say, there were massive protests kind of at some of those state parks, you know, Hillsborough State Park was one of those.

I mean, when you think about a state park and think about the kind of activities you might be doing there, it could be, you know, grilling s'mores or taking your kids on a walk on a boardwalk or, you know, kayaking.

But what that initial proposal was to open it up to things like pickleball courts and golf courses and kind of high end, resorts.

What' really interesting about this, I think, is it's a rare momen of, of bilateral kind of unity.

>>It was bipartisan.

>>Lawmakers were saying like, this is a terrible idea.

Let's not do this.

And as you say, Governor DeSantis after that outcry last year, distanced himself from from that proposal.

And just this week he said he will sign this bill.

>>We should mention some of the governor's priorities that that didn't get over the finish line codifying Hope Florida, into law's one of them, another, a repeal of the post Parkland gun restriction that includes the red flag law.

What's behind that push, Jeff, from from Republicans.

And why did that issue stall out in the session?

>>Well, DeSantis in particular, he has really pushed up more repeals of those those things that were put in place after that Parkland High School shooting back in 2018.

This would, reinstate, allow, you know, 18 year olds and up to, to purchase those guns.

Now it's back up to, to 21.

He has really stood behind this.

And basically he's saying it's a defense of the Second Amendment.

He feels like that that goes against that.

Of course, that's been upheld, in court cases.

And a lot of Republicans especially, after the Florida State shooting right in middle of this session.

It would be extremely unpopular for many of the, you know, Republicans to support that effort.

So they simply said, actually, Kathleen Passidomo who was the Senate president last year, very powerful Republican in Tallahassee.

She wouldn't le it even get past her committee.

So this kind of was just dead in the tracks there.

>>And those post Parkland laws were passed during, Republican Governo Rick Scott's tenure of course.

It's been an interesting session for sure.

You can find the rest of my discussions with Democratic Senator Carlos Guillermo Smith and Florida GOP Chair Evan Power on our website, we talked about many of the issues emanating from the legislative session.

You'll also find links to the bills passed on condos and ballot initiatives.

It's all at wucf.org/newsnight.

We wanted to drill down on another of the headline-making bills that failed to make it to th governor's desk in the session.

A proposal to allow 1 and 17 year olds to work longer even during the school year, passed the House but failed to gain traction in the Senate.

Similar moves are afoot in other states and with significant support in the legislature, the idea could come up again in the future.

Krystel Knowles filed this report.

>>In 2017, Alex Flore made a bold move by opening up a coffee shop in Vier fittingly named Bold Cup Coffee.

He credits his success to developing a strong work ethic from a young age, working at a dry cleaners.

>>I was 15 years ol and I would, clean, like, scuff up, like, suits and shirts to take out, you know, some of the grime and dirt.

And that was a tough job.

So at 15, I needed to work.

I needed to help my dad.

I needed to help them, like, you know, pay the bills.

Flores now employs a diverse team spanning various age groups all earning the same base pay.

However, they have the opportunity to increase their earnings through tips.

One of the things he say he enjoys the most is witnessing some employees receive their very first paycheck.

Flores says a young employee and their employer should be able to decide for themselves what works best for them.

>>I think a lot of it is, giving them the opportunity to try their first job.

They're enthusiastic about their new job.

So I think hiring new students, especially for their first job, you get to see a passion and a love for trying their best.

>>Barista Alli Hypes is a high school senior.

She says she's been on the jo for a year and a half, learning real world skills that can't be taught in a classroom.

>>I love working here.

Like this is part of my everyday.

I talk to other customers.

I feel like I've learne a lot of customer service skills and just how to talk to people.

I feel like I'm learnin how to be more self efficient, just working on my own and working more often.

So I can afford more stuff for myself.

>>During Florida' 2025 legislative session, lawmakers were considering loosening up some rule to allow school aged employees 17 and 16 year olds, to wor longer during the school year, and also loosening up some restrictions for a certain category of 14 and 15 year olds.

Other state are considering similar moves.

>>You know, we really think it's it's going to do a lot of damage to teen workers.

We heard Governor DeSantis say that that one of the reasons that he they want to expand teen wor is because of immigrant.

The immigrant workforce is becoming more problematic.

And, you know, the reason it' becoming problematic is because the Trum administration has decided to, you know, to g after the immigrant workforce.

You know, admittedly, some of that is undocumented workers and, but, you know, I, we we don't think that, you know, that that it's very prudent, it's not a prudent path to replace immigrant workers with teenage workers.

>>But Republican Representative Monique Miller, who sponsored the Florida bill, says she only wants to give young people more autonomy.

I can talk about my legislative aide, he just share with me as we were preparing, for one of the committee hearings he said, you know, I couldn't get a job when I was 1 and I wanted to work.

So I worked for somebody under the table.

Well, there's nothing governing how you're treated in those circumstances, and that's a bad thing for everybody.

We want legal working environments that are healthy working environments.

Although the bill passed i the House with a 78 to 30 vote, it failed to advance in the Senate.

Representative Miller says she plans to reintroduce a similar proposa in the next legislative session.

Krystel Knowles there.

Skyler, let me start with you on this one.

Why is this a policy point for Republicans particularly Governor DeSantis?

>>Well, there's a couple o different perspectives on this.

You know in terms of like on the record and debate, a lot of the comments are, hey, this is about, you know, empowering families and letting them decide you know, how many hours, yeah, a teenager should work-- >>W heard that there from-- >>Right.

But what critics are saying this is really about is just plugging these holes that could be created when you, deport people who are in the country illegally.

And governor DeSantis did make a comment along those lines like, hey, why don't we get, teenagers to do some of these jobs?

You know, why are we having to impor people of foreigners to do them when we have teenagers who might be willing?

>>He did suggest that, right?

>>He absolutely did.

Yeah, yeah.

>>The Orlando Weekly first reported this, Jeff, that the governor's office had been instrumental in pushing this effort in the legislature.

What do we know about th governor's office's involvement?

Yeah, we know that there's there's evidence that he had actually sent emails to Republican lawmakers, basically with, sampl legislation to basically enact, measure that would reduce those limits, basically take it down to eve maybe, kids like 14 and older, being able to work unlimited hours in a week, maybe overnights, just really loosened up those restrictions.

And a couple of a Republican legislators, they actually proposed these bills, but they just didn't didn't get through.

>>Yeah.

What's the critique, Matt, from Democrats, we heard, that the child labor coalition there and their opposition, does it broadly mirror what we heard in that piece from Krystel?

>>Yeah.

I mean, there's a few concerns there.

I mean, one of the things is they're worried that it could open things up to child exploitation.

Right.

And not only that, like, you know, if you're employing kids and you're giving them more and more hours throughout the school week, it may just be taken away from their their study time.

I mean, we have heard people, people have told us at WUSF that, you know, there is this kind of balance because some kids d want to work more than they need to to kind of help support their families.

But the trying to find a balance between giving them the education they need and allowing them that flexibility to work.

>>Yeah, and that's certainly why we saw so much tension over when this could happen during school year and so on.

This effor at changing the rules on youth employment it's kind of part of a broader shake up of the labor market that was discussed during the session.

>>Yeah there are a couple of employment related bills that did not ge to the finish line this session.

One would, expan the requirement that employers check new hires through thi E-Verify immigration database, to small businesses.

Right now, it's businesse that employ 25 or more people.

There was also a bill that would kind of create a carve out on the minimum wage law and allow employers to pay less than minimum wage for, like, internships and kind of work based, study opportunities.

E-Verify, just to be clear is is a federal program, right.

That that... >>Yes, it's a federal program.

And it basically allows employers to check the immigration status of of new hires.

>>Are other states looking to make similar moves in the labor market, particularly when it comes to, youth employment.

>>There are.

This is not a thing that's happening in Florida.

You have actually Illinois, Washington state, believe it or not, are actually relaxing, pushing to relax some of those restrictions as well as Arkansas, Alabama.

So there's there's other states that are doing this.

And this is all while the Trump administration is looking to make cuts to the agency that oversees and enforces those child labor laws.

>>Interesting.

Well, we'll see how that pans out in the next session.

And whether indeed this issue comes back before lawmakers again, you'll find a text of HB 1225 on our websit to read for yourself at wucf.org/newsnight.

Meanwhile, be sure to find us on social media, we're at WUCF T on Facebook and Instagram.

You'll also find us @NewsNightWUCF on X.

Okay, finally tonight, lawmakers are set to return to Tallahassee, as mentioned before, to pick up their work on the budget to be ironed out, spending and allocations, and a tax relief package.

House and Senate leader say they have the outline of a budget deal to work with including billions in tax cuts.

I asked Tristan Wood, reporter at WFSU Public Media in Tallahassee, why an agreement on a budget wasn't reached durin the regularly scheduled session.

>>There's two main issue that are kind of the hang ups.

First is the final numbe for the budget, and the other is different disagreement about whether there should be, whether there should be at all or to what degree there should be tax reductions with the budget proposal.

So on the first bit, an important thing to keep in mind is over the past several years, the state of Florida has gotten a lot of money from the federal governmen related to the various packages passed to deal with the Covid 19 pandemic.

Over the next year or so that money is going to begin to run out and the state's no longer going to be getting that money.

So the main topics of conversation, whether from the House or the Senate, is how are we going to reduce spending in the state to deal with no longer receiving those funds?

Additionally there's also national concerns, financial concerns about whether the country will enter a recession, you know, in a couple over the next couple of years.

So those concerns have bled into the conversation about reducing taxes.

You have some people, like House Speaker Daniel Perez who want to reduce state, sales tax by three quarters of a cent, where Senate President Ben Albritton is really hesitant to do that because of that economic uncertainty.

So, going back and fort about where to make those cuts that are needed for the state to have a balanced budget as well as to what degree the state should cut taxes are kind of the two main factors why we don't have a, have a budget passed yet.

>>Tristan Wood from WFS talking to me earlier this week.

Skyler, let me start with you on this one.

And given the recent agreement on a budget framework that I mentioned before, I mean, where do you think lawmakers are still furthest apart from your reporting?

Is it spending?

Is it taxes?

>>Well, when it comes to passing a budget, we have issues both with spending and taxes.

>>They're not in agreement on either.

>>Right.

Well, the legislative leaders, they have reached kind of a, as it was mentioned, an outline of a budget deal, and they did reach an agreemen on, on taxes, and that would be a $1.

billion, sales tax cut.

It would lower the sales tax rate from 6% to 5.75%.

Now that doesn't go as far as the House would want it.

But what's kind of complicating this, this budget deal is that Governo DeSantis is threatening to veto.

>>Yeah >>That sales tax cut because he wants a property tax relief.

He wants $1,000 check mailed out to, to, property owners with homestead exemptions.

>>Well, I want to talk a little bit about this.

The governor again this week attacked those, proposals, from the House to prioritize sales taxes, as Skyler mentioned, and establish a select committee to investigate his priority, which is property tax relief.

The House is looking to take up property tax relief next session and put it on the ballot in 2026.

The governor had wanted relief quickly.

Here's the governor on Tuesday in Miami.

>>If you have a legislative body that is creating a 37 member committee, they're not doing tha because they want to give you property tax relief.

They're doing that to try to kill property tax relief.

So this is a total dog and pony show.

This is not anything that is credible.

The fact that you would wait until the last day of the legislative session, that just shows your cards, it shows you know what you're trying to do.

That's not what the voters sen any of these guys there to do.

>>Governor DeSantis.

As Skyler mentioned DeSantis threatened this week, that, at a propert tax roundtable in Tampa to veto a budget deal that prioritizes a sales tax cut.

Jeff.

Republica Representative Monique Miller, who we heard from, in Krystel's piece just now, said she was honored to be named to that select committee, that the governor just called a dog and pony show.

From what the governor said thi week, does the feud over taxes between DeSantis and the Hous leadership seem to be deepening?

>>Definitely.

They are drawing their lines in the sand here and they are not really looking to budge, which is going to be ver interesting when we talk about how they're going to figure out this budget.

In fact, this week, you know, after the governor's remarks there, House Speaker Danny Perez, the two of them have really, have been at odd and on for the sales tax versus the propert tax being the priorities here.

And even House Speaker Perez says maybe the truth is that he, governor DeSantis, just wants to spend all of it and be the only one who decides how.

So, he's really not budging.

His priority is the sales tax.

The he wants the property tax.

But the governor says the property tax break must come first.

So-- >>Well let's delve into it a little bit Matt.

You know, one of the proposals the committee is likely to discuss is the redirection of tourist development tax or bed tax dollars to property tax relief.

We talked a little bit about that on the show last week.

It's a it's a huge issue here, of course, but it's also a huge issue down there on the Gulf Coast.

>>Yeah.

Tourism is a big kind of economic driver for you know, the Tampa Bay region.

>>Yeah.

>>That took a big hit last yea during the hurricane.

So when you talk about like carving out that property tax like the TDT, I should say the tourism development tax, you know, portion of which is has to be set aside for promotion.

They're saying this proposal would say, well, look, we'll take some of that back and kind of give it to counties to spend as they see fit.

And people on the in the tourism side of sayin this would be a terrible idea, especially when you have a hurricane and it devastates the area, you really need to be promoting it and saying, look we're still open for business.

So there's a lot of concern and consternation about, you know, what impact this would have on the local economy, because it is, you know, the Hillsborough County alone, for example, they generated last year more than $1 billion in taxable hotel revenue.

So there's a huge pot of money there at stake.

And TDT is a big part of that.

>>I mean, we talked a little bit about this last week, Skyler, I don't I don't want to belabor the point, but, you know it was a session really marked by deep internal Republican divisions.

This tax and spending issue just being one of them.

You were in Tallahassee, of course, last week.

What what were you hearing from Republicans on why things seem to be so divided?

>>Yeah I mean, it is pretty astounding to watch what's happened in terms of the feud between Governor DeSantis and House Speak - Speaker Perez.

You know, some of it I think it's just, you know, the legislature i a co-equal branch of government.

In the past, they've been, very compliant with, with DeSantis' desires.

So I think there is just a bit of it kind of returning to their, their natural duty, you know, to b a co-equal branch of government.

But I also think there's a political ambition at play.

You know, there's, speculation that Casey DeSantis might run for governor.

Of course, President Trump has endorsed by US Rep Byron Donald.

So I think there's a bit of those dynamics going on.

>>Yeah.

>>So and Trump is now the dominant force in the Republican Party in Florida.

So I think there's a maybe a feeling that there's more allegiance to him than there is to, to Governor DeSantis at this point.

>>It could be some of that.

But, you know, Frank Orlando from Saint Leo University told me last week that he thinks part of it is, you know, familiarity breeds contempt.

And I wonder what you guys think.

>>Yeah.

I mean I think just kind of backing up what Skyler was saying, a lot of it goes back to that that failed presidential campaign, that that DeSantis launched and the kind of the animosity between those two camps there.

And you see it sort of playing out like, supporters of Trump, you know, will sort of come out and, and kind of criticize the governor.

And some of that is kind of, I guess, kind of messing up that messing up the gears of, of, of the way the legislativ session would normally operate.

>>Well, it' going to be really interesting to see how those budget negotiations go over the coming days and weeks.

Before we go I wanted to mentio that next week on the program, we'll be talking about President Trump's proposed cuts to NASA's budget and what it will mean for the Space Launch System, Orion, the Artemis missions, and the Space Coast.

That's next Friday night here on the show.

But that is all the time we have for this week.

My thanks to Jeff Allen, Spectrum News 13.

Matthew Peddie from WUSF Public Media, Skyler Swisher from the Orlando Sentinel.

Thank you guys so much for coming in.

Really appreciate your time today.

We'll see you next Friday night at 8:30 here on WUCF.

In the meantime for all of us here at NewsNight, take care and have a great week.