(lively music) - [Announcer] This is a production of WEDU PBS.

Tampa, St. Petersburg, Sarasota, - [Narrator] Right now on WEDU.

With the election over and a new legislature voted in, we'll meet some members of the next legislature and ask them about their priorities for 2025.

What will they do to address inflation?

The high cost of insurance?

And other top issues for Florida voters.

And the Hillsborough legislator makes a surprise move to switch political parties.

All this and more next, on Florida This Week.

(dramatic music) - Welcome back.

The state legislature has a lot to say about education, roads, taxes, protecting the environment, and many of the cultural issues that we all care about.

This coming march just a few months away, the legislature will open its annual two-month session.

We're going to talk with several legislators about their plans for the upcoming session on this program.

And our guests are Representative Karen Gonzalez Pittman, who represents parts of Hillsborough County and is a Republican.

Representative Lindsay Cross's district is in Pinellas County and she's a democrat.

Senator Nick DiCeglie is from Pinellas County and is a Republican.

And Senator Darryl Rouson represents parts of Hillsborough and Pinellas County and is a Democrat.

It's wonderful to have you all here.

Thank you for doing the program.

- Thanks.

- Thanks for having us.

- Well work has already begun to get ready for this session.

I'd like to ask each of you, what are your top priorities for the session?

And Lindsay, let me start with you.

When legislature meets in March, what do you hope to accomplish from your angle?

- Yeah, so I think hurricane recovery is for my district in District 60 in St. Petersburg, Pinellas Park, one of the top things that we're gonna be continuing to battle with over the coming months and years.

And so a lot of what I'm gonna be focused on is how we can make our communities more resilient, how we can help our residents recover from the storms, ways that we can be more proactive and empower our local governments to make good decisions before the storms, and ways that we can get resources into the pockets of residents to make their home safer.

- I was surprised at the slow recovery from the hurricane, driving through Pinellas County.

And seeing those piles and piles of people's personal effects and housing materials and all that on the road and debris from trees and branches.

It took a long time to pick that up.

- Yeah, and the recovery is still ongoing.

The city of St. Petersburg has committed to having all of the debris removed within 90 days, and that would qualify them to have full reimbursement from FEMA.

And so, you know, I'm gonna continue to make sure that they're adhering to that deadline.

It feels really slow, and I know for people who are experiencing it, like they wanted the debris gone, you know, the day after the hurricane happened.

But when you hear examples of what's happened in other communities, like in Fort Myers area, their recovery took close to nine months.

And so we'd like to see it go faster, but I don't think that any of our municipalities are fully prepared for the, you know, just the mass quantities of debris and some of them that require special removal and, you know, demolition processes.

It's a significant effort.

- And when you talk about resilience.

I mean, you're talking about infrastructure.

The infrastructure wasn't enough to handle the storm surge.

- Well, we have a lot of vulnerable places in the State of Florida, you know.

Areas in my district include places like Shore Acres and Snell Isle which were created communities in a time where we didn't have the sea level rise that we're having now.

We also have our beach communities that are experiencing a significant impact and also beach erosion.

And so, as our climate changes, we need to look differently at how we're planning for future growth, redeveloping our areas to make sure that we're keeping our residents and our businesses safe.

Because we have to prepare for more of these disastrous storms and hurricanes in the future.

And I don't think any of our communities, frankly, are doing a good enough job in being proactive.

- Nick DiCeglie, let me turn to you.

What are your top priorities for the session?

- Well, it's good to be with you today.

It's gonna be hurricane recovery.

Obviously, I represent Pinellas County from Gulf to Bay South.

The areas that the representative just mentioned are in my district as well.

I live in Indian Rocks Beach.

So really from Sand Key all the way down through Gulfport.

All the barrier islands were significantly impacted with storm surge.

You know, tens of thousands of homes have been dealing with, you know, three, four feet of water in their homes after Hurricane Helene.

Now, they're unfortunately going through the process of trying to get a permit, you know, to get back into their homes, to start the rebuilding process.

And that unfortunately, in some areas in this county has not been going very well.

You know, I think some of these local governments, the smaller it seems, the more challenges that they have.

They're having a very difficult time, you know, getting these permits processed, permits approved.

And so I think that there are ways that the legislature can create a uniform set of standards so that there's some predictability, there's accountability for local governments.

And so I think that as we look to future storms, and it's not if it happens, it's when it happens, I think we can go a long way and making sure that going through this recovery, which is gonna be very difficult no matter what we do in the legislature, it's gonna take time.

But I think we can streamline some of these things to make this process painful than it has been.

I have the great opportunity and privilege of serving as chairman of the Transportation and Tourism Economic Development Appropriations Committee.

We're gonna be looking at ways to improve our infrastructure in Pinellas County.

We want to give some relief to various municipalities, whether it's city halls, whether it's, you know, sump pumps.

We've got an opportunity here in Pinellas County with this delegation to be laser focused on hurricane relief.

And it's something that I'm gonna be continuing to work on, probably well past this session.

But we have an opportunity to do some really effective things so that the future when it comes dealing with these storms is a lot smoother than it's been these last couple months here in Pinellas county.

- Why do you think that permitting process has been so slow?

Or is it an effort to protect the environment or is it something else?

- Well, look, I think, you know, when these local governments, they all have different processes in place.

Many of them have a lack of resources.

They're having a tough time getting their department staff to process the significant amount of permits that are being applied in these, in these areas.

They're also very concerned about FEMA.

They're worried if they make wrong decisions.

FEMA's gonna come in and remove, you know, their flood insurance rating, which is gonna drive up the costs.

We have an opportunity to clarify a lot of those things and really define what it is that local governments can do.

So they're not paralyzed and worried about, you know, FEMA coming in a couple years and doing those audits.

And then, you know, again, removing those ratings which could potentially drive up costs.

We've seen that in Fort Myers Beach, Cape Coral after Hurricane Ian.

There's a lot of lessons that we can learn from to really make this process easier than it's been.

And I've been in constant communication with various mayors and city managers.

And, you know, there's some opportunities again, for us to I think really have some meaningful conversations in Tallahassee through our committee process, and then translate that into sound policy so that when this does happen again, it's a lot less painful than what's happening right now.

- Let's go to Senator Rouson.

Senator, what are your priorities for the coming session?

- Well, first of all, I need to thank Rubenstein Law for supporting me in my public service and allowing me the opportunity to serve the constituents of District 16 and the entire state of Florida.

It's an honor, once again, to serve as vice chairman of the Full Appropriations committee.

And that means I'll be concentrating much of my effort on the budget, on all the things that my colleagues have just talked about.

And I'll be working closely with Senator DiCeglie as chair of Tourism, Transportation and Economic Development.

I'm gonna look at budget, I'm gonna look at arts, I'm gonna look at mental health.

I serve on a commission, a Behavioral Mental Health Commission statewide.

And we've come up with 30 recommendations.

That final report will be published on January 1.

And I hope to bring at least 10 to 15 of those actionable recommendations before the legislature working closely with Representative Christine Hunschofsky in the House.

- What's the quality of our mental health services here in Florida?

Are they adequate?

Do we spend enough money providing mental health services here in Florida?

- It's not adequate.

And these hurricanes and storms have proven the point even more.

People are suffering and struggling through this aftermath.

And that's why resiliency, preparation, and prudent patience must be practiced.

- And you mentioned the arts.

The governor vetoed arts funding this year.

What was your take on veto?

- Well, I don't think it made a lot of sense.

People were shocked that that happened.

We're gonna take another look at it and hopefully, it won't happen again.

- Representative Gonzalez Pittman, what are your priorities?

- My priorities this year.

First of all, thank you for having me.

It's a pleasure to be here.

My priorities this year will be insurance policies and bringing down the rates for the constituents.

Also making homes more affordable and creating more affordable homes for people in Florida.

Right now, they're being priced out of their homes.

And I'm also looking at the teacher shortage crisis.

And I'd like to reduce the compression of teacher salaries by giving the counties the flexibility to do what they need to meet the needs of their teachers and their specific and unique issues in their each county.

For instance, Hillsborough County's issues are not the same as Hardy County, so they know that the needs of their own teachers.

And I'd like to give that flexibility.

And I also want to deal with, as Senator Rouson said, the most vulnerable people.

The seniors, as well as disabled populations.

- I think we've been talking on this program about the teacher shortage for years.

And this year, I think it was in the 5,000s or so statewide.

I don't have the number in front of me, but why do we have a chronic teacher shortage in the state of Florida?

- I believe that teachers don't feel like they've been given the respect.

It's not all about money.

No one goes into teaching for the money.

However, with the policies that we have now with the teacher compression, a beginning teacher makes the same amount as a teacher who's been teaching for 10 years.

How does that make that 10-year teacher feel?

- So there's a ceiling on the upper income for teachers?

- Yes.

And in the salary schedule.

So I'd like to open that up for districts in order to meet, have a pay schedule that meets the needs of their district.

Giving teachers that ability to know what they're going to be making.

- [Host] Should teachers be paid more if they've been there for 25 or 30 years?

- You know, I'm looking at that and that's the yin and the yang.

Should teachers be paid more because they've been here longer than someone 10 years?

I think we should also look at different outcomes.

Student achievement, the gains, and there are algorithms that you can use to see if a teacher is making the gains with your students.

I think that should be come into play as to what a teacher makes.

- Okay.

Now you covered some of the issues I wanna bring up next.

Earlier this year, Associated Industries of Florida, which is one of the most powerful big business groups in Tallahassee through its Center for Political Strategy, released the initial findings from their 2024 statewide general election poll.

- [Reporter] It found the top issues among Florida voters are inflation and lowering the cost of living were at the top at 23%.

Fixing the insurance crisis came in next to 21%.

Combating illegal immigration was third at 14%, followed by lowering housing costs and safeguarding access to abortion, which both received about 10% support.

In an additional poll, the group found that a plurality of voters, 44% believes neither party is doing an effective job lowering property insurance costs, which is the top issue in the state.

- And Nick DiCeglie, I wanna start with you.

There have been several special sessions in the legislature to make changes in the way Florida handles the homeowners insurance situation.

I wanna ask you, were those sessions enough and have we done enough as a state to keep costs down and keep the pressure off rising homeowner's insurance costs?

- Yeah, I think that we took a big large bite of the apple a couple years ago when it comes to property insurance reform, obviously dealing with things like one way attorney fees.

We've seen some indication that the market is stabilizing citizens finally is under a million policy holders, which is incredibly important for all Floridians.

You know, we've seen rates stabilize, we've even seen some filings that some rates are gonna begin to go down.

So I think we've, we've done a lot.

I think that we've created the beginning of a stabilization of this market.

I think that this legislature, because this is such a top issue for our constituents, it's an affordability issue and it has a wide impact across the economy.

I think it's something we need to continue to look at.

I've been paying very close attention to the payouts of these claims after hurricanes Helene and Milton.

You know, I have not heard of widespread low balling of the payment of these claims, so that's good.

But I do think there needs to be a level of accountability for these insurance companies to ensure that there's some teeth behind the enforcement of them paying out these claims in a responsible way.

Because we've all heard it before.

And we all experience it ourselves.

We pay a lot of money to these insurance companies every year.

Years and years, we'll go by without filing a claim.

And then when it's time to, you know, take advantage of insurance, that's why we have it, we file a claim, every resident has a reasonable expectation to make sure that those claims are paid, that they paid accurately, and that there are no games played by the insurance company.

So I think that's something that we will always need to take a look at.

But I do think that we're moving in the right direction.

And I think once the folks feel that in their pocketbook with some cheaper rates, they're always gonna feel like the legislature hasn't done enough.

So I think as time goes on, we're gonna continue seeing some benefits, but I also think that we need to continue to beat that drum because it's certainly one of the top, if not the top issue for all Floridians.

- Darryl Rouson, do you think that over time, people are gonna feel the benefits of the past couple of special sessions on insurance?

Or do you think there needs to be more done by the legislature?

- Well, there can always be more done, but I think people will start to feel the effects of the legislation we've already passed.

And the Senate President of Britain, to his credit, in his installation speech, indicated that we will be watching.

And that means if the companies begin to deny, delay payment of claims or back adjusters change what field adjusters put in the claim report, then we're gonna take some stronger action.

We need to hold them accountable.

- And Karen Gonzalez Pittman, what would you say?

I mean, does the legislature need to take further action?

- Absolutely.

- Or just watch and wait and see what happens?

- No, the policies that we did and the laws that we passed two years ago are starting to take effect.

It is like a battleship, you don't turn it quickly.

And if you think about it like that, and it's never gonna be fast enough for us.

For me too, I'm a policy owner.

But we have over eight companies that have wanted to come into the state.

- New companies?

- Since passing.

Eight new companies.

So that creates that competitiveness and supply and demand.

So if we have more supply, hopefully, the prices go down.

We've also had over 10 companies request to decrease their rates, and some of them have been double digits.

So we're starting to see the effects of the laws that we passed two years ago.

We definitely need to do more.

We can do things to help bring down insurance and the effects by maybe looking at the roofs.

Do you need a new roof in 15 years before you can get your new policy?

Things like that, that we can do for the homeowners.

- Lindsay Cross, has enough been done?

- Certainly not.

You know, that's the thing that's probably the most expensive part of many people's mortgage now is their insurance.

You know, people have had double, triple, quadruple rate increases.

And so we need to do more, you know, the idea of looking at potentially a sliding scale for the age of roofs for people who have invested in a metal roof, for example, but are still on that 15-year roofing track.

I think there's things that we can do to provide a little bit of flexibility so that people don't have to make that 10 or $20,000 investment when they still have a roof that has a lot of functionality in it.

And I also think that we need to be looking at some of our vulnerabilities and what is causing those insurance rates to go up.

You know, are we making our areas more resilient?

Are we providing homeowners with incentives to harden their homes against storms and hurricanes?

You know, we had some more investments in the My Safe Florida Home program and a new pilot program in the My Safe Condo program, which I think are really important steps forward.

But I had a bill last year that I'll bring forward again this year that looks at including flood mitigation so that homeowners could get up to $10,000 from the state to make improvements to their homes to reduce their risk of flooding whether it's sunny day flooding or something associated with the storm or a hurricane.

When you reduce your risk, the insurance company I think will respond accordingly, that there's less burden for them to take on.

And I think that could help to stabilize or reduce prices in the long run.

- Now we're running out of time for the program and I wanna just quickly try to go through the issue of affordability, but tie in one other issue and that is immigration.

President Trump, Incoming President Trump says he wants to deport people who are here illegally.

He wants to start with the hardened criminals and maybe deport 12 million people.

Here in Florida, a lot of people that work in the agricultural industry are undocumented immigrants.

And I'm wondering, and Senator Rouson, let me start with you.

What's the impact on Florida agriculture and Florida food prices if we round up and deport undocumented workers in Florida's fields and farms?

- Well, first of all, let me say that no one who's here legally wants illegals coming behind them, invading our country.

But having said that, we know that there's certain undocumented immigrants working in the farm industry.

And it would be hurt mightily if we just did mass deportations of them.

I'm worried about what that looks like.

I'm worried about the families that will impact and I'm worried about the economy that it might impact.

- Let me ask the same question to Karen Gonzalez Pittman.

Will it impact Florida's agriculture if we round up and deport millions of undocumented immigrants?

- Well, I believe it would, but I believe that President Trump has the right idea of deporting people who are criminals.

They entered our country illegally.

They're here illegally.

So- - [Host] Does it make all 12 million criminals?

- No, it doesn't.

Well, they did enter illegally.

However, I think that the federal government needs to come up with an immigration plan.

I do believe, I love immigration.

I come from immigrants.

I'm a third generation Tampanian.

And so my family are immigrants and we contributed a great deal to Tampa, however we came over legally.

And I do believe that the federal government needs to come up with some sort of a work program.

- Okay, and I'm gonna skip ahead to our next topic.

There's so much more we can discuss on those topics but in a surprise move, democratic state representative Susan Valdes who won a reelection November has now changed her party affiliation to Republican.

- [Reporter] The West Tampa-based representative announced the switch on Monday in a post on X, saying, "I will not waste my final two years in the Florida legislature being ignored in a caucus whose leadership expects me to ignore the needs of my community.

I'm tired of being the party of protesting when I got into politics to be part of the Party of Progress."

Just last week, Valdes lost a campaign to be the chair of the Hillsborough County Democratic Executive Committee.

The Tampa Bay Times report she's been an active Democrat attending a Kamala Harris debate watch party in September.

She's also posted numerous times on X about the dangers of Donald Trump's policy platform, especially on immigration.

Valdes is a Cuban American lawmaker who was raised by her immigrant parents in New York.

- Representative Cross, I'm gonna ask you, there are some calls from Hillsborough County Democrats for reelection.

They don't want Valdes to serve her term, they want her to undergo a new election 'cause she ran as as a Democrat.

She's now a Republican.

What are the chances that there's a new election and what does it do?

What does Valdes's party switch do to the Republican super majority in Tallahassee?

- Well, I think it's unlikely that there's gonna be a reelection.

I think it's ingenious for Representative Valdes to switch parties.

I think at her heart, she is a Democrat.

And I think, you know, it erodes trust in government.

I know that people on, regardless of your party affiliation, a lot of people don't trust government.

And to have someone that you've elected, that you believe shares certain values that are consistent with the party, then go and change that.

I think that doesn't do anything for the future of our democracy and our state.

You know, I think that, you know, there's examples like Senator Rosen of someone who's in the minority party worked incredibly effectively across the aisle in getting appropriations and policies passed.

There are ways to get things done without pulling a bait and switch on the people who elected you.

- Senator DiCeglie, I've talked to many democrats in Tallahassee who say, "Look, if I want my bill passed, I can't get a pass 'cause I'm in the minor party and we have no power."

What do you say to somebody like Valdes who changes parties to have a little bit of power?

I mean, should the Republicans kind of extend the hand and allow some Democrats to get their legislation passed?

- Well, a couple things here.

So number one, I welcome Representative Valdes to the Republican party.

It's gonna be interesting to see, you know, how her voting record is gonna change overnight.

I served with her for four years and she was very vocal against many of the core principles that Republicans hold dear.

I'll say that there are some Democrats in the legislature, in both the House and the Senate who go out of their way to build relationships with folks on the other side of the aisle.

In this case, Republicans.

Those members, I think, have a really good success rate in the legislature.

Everybody's different, every member is different, but there's always an opportunity, regardless of the super majority, for Democrats to be effective.

It's just a matter of an approach and it's a matter of learning how to navigate through the system.

But, you know, at the end of the day, I, you know, welcome, in addition to the super majority and I wish the representative all the best.

- Thank you, all, for great discussions.

Great to have you on the program.

I wish we had more time.

(lively music) Thanks to our guests, Representative Karen Gonzalez Pittman and Lindsay Cross and State Senators Nick DiCeglie and Darryl Rouson.

If you have comments about this program, please send them to us at ftwwedu.org.

Please like us on our Facebook page.

Our show is now available as a podcast.

And from all of us here at WEDU, have a great weekend.

(lively music)