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(upbeat music) - Coming up next in WEDU, we'll look at the new competitiveness report comparing Tampa Bay to other metropolitan areas of similar size when it comes to things like household income, education levels, and the quality of life.

Is the war on woke over for the state legislature?

We'll look at what's happening to some of the newest anti woke bills.

It's been six years since the Parkland Gun Massacre and some in the legislature say it's time to ease gun laws.

And giant corporations are buying up houses in the Tampa Bay area, we'll look at how that affects the ability to purchase a home.

All this and more, next on "Florida This Week."

(upbeat music continues) Welcome back.

For the last seven years, the Tampa Bay Partnership and its partners, United Way Suncoast and the Community Foundation of Tampa Bay have sponsored a study on the economy of the Tampa Bay area, including Hillsborough, Pinellas, Sarasota, Pasco, Polk, Manatee, Hernando, and Citrus Counties.

It's called the Regional Competitiveness Report, and compares how this area is doing compared to similar size communities across the nation.

What the study found was that in the last year, Tampa Bay ranks first in net in migration with a significant jump of 2.8% over the year before.

This region is in the top five for attracting people ages 25 to 34, and there's a strong business start rate putting us in the top five among similar sized communities.

Average wages grew by nearly $3,500 or close to 6%, that exceeds the US average.

The region is seeing decreases in overall poverty rates.

High school graduation rates are up and attending college in Tampa Bay is a bargain.

Students graduate with some of the lowest debt and graduate tuition is the most budget friendly option among metro areas of similar size.

But housing costs are high with the average household spending almost 43% of their income on rent or mortgages.

That's far above the recommended 30% of a household budget that should be spent on housing.

When you add in transportation, the average household spends 57% of their income on just these two items.

Overall, the average salary is $60,800 in Tampa Bay, the national average is much higher, $70,300.

That average puts Tampa Bay near the bottom of the list of 20 metro areas at number 18.

Kindergarten readiness is improving, but only about half of Tampa based students are prepared for kindergarten.

Third grade reading its satisfactory levels decreased to 47.7% last year.

That's more than seven percentage points behind Jacksonville, which is the leader in Florida.

And Bemetra Simmons is the president and CEO of the Tampa Bay Partnership, and she joins us now.

Hi Bemetra, thanks for coming back to the program.

- Thank you so much for having me.

- Is there a number in this study that particularly concerns you or should concern all policy makers here in the Bay Area?

- Well, as you just saw in the opening, the report basically more or less shows a mixed bag.

But I think the thing that's most concerning that continues to be for our region is the affordability issues.

Although we saw some improvement in our salaries and we saw some decrease in our housing costs, the amount that our residents are having to spend on housing and transportation before they've even bought a bite of food continues to be a challenge for us here in Tampa Bay.

- That number is shocking, 57% of a household budget.

So what does this mean for policy makers?

How do you hope this study is used by policy makers?

- So obviously advocacy is a big deal and we're hoping that our local elected officials and our state elected officials will use the data to help create some new policies that can give us some relief, some things that can help us, you know, get more higher wage jobs, more advanced wage jobs so we can get our wages up to take some of that pressure off of our residents.

From a housing and transportation perspective.

- One number that jumped out at me is third grade reading levels.

They're low, especially compared to places like Jacksonville.

How important is it that people read efficiently at the third grade level?

- It's a really key metrics.

So from kindergarten to third grade is when you learn to read.

And then beginning and fourth grade you read to learn.

And so there's a strong correlation between high school graduation rates and your third grade reading levels.

What we have seen is that when you have students that are enrolled in school as three and four year olds, you see stronger kindergarten readiness numbers and therefore you see stronger third grade reading levels.

So hopefully we're gonna see some policies that will make it a little bit easier for our families to get those kids enrolled in school at an earlier rate and we can start to see some incremental progress in our third grade reading levels and ultimately in our talent pipeline long term.

- So the good news is poverty rates are down in your study, but also the people who are working poor and living below poverty, that's still a pretty high number.

50% of the people in this area.

- Yeah, that's almost 50% of our residents, but we did see some improvement.

What we saw in the study though, is the other markets improved at a faster rate than we did, so we still have some work to do there.

So our overall poverty rate did come down and we also closed the gap between black and white households from a poverty perspective, but we still have some work to do with our full-time worker poverty rates here in Tampa Bay.

- And you also looked at quality of life numbers, things like walkable communities, broadband internet access, commute times, safety for bicyclists and pedestrians.

How did we do when it came to those quality of life issues?

- I think we did pretty well, to be honest with you.

You know, as the of the indicators that you mentioned, we saw increase in our cultural and recreational establishment attractions.

Our air quality remains excellent, our crime is really down.

But from a walkability standpoint, we still have some work to do.

So less than 10% of our residents live in a walkable neighborhood.

And some of that compared to the markets that we compare ourselves against, you know, we have better weather so people are outside more and longer throughout the year.

So it's really important that we have better trails for pedestrian and cyclists so we can get those pedestrian and cyclists fatality numbers down.

We want that number to be zero, obviously.

- It's a fascinating study, people should read it.

Bemetra, thanks a lot for coming on the program.

- Thank you so much for having me.

(upbeat music) - Joining us now on our panel, Aakash Patel is the founder and CEO of Elevate Incorporated and a Republican.

Kathryn Varn is the Tampa Bay reporter for Axios.

Mitch Perry is a political reporter for the Florida Phoenix, and Jennifer Griffith is the chair of the Pinellas County Democratic Party.

Thank you all for being here, nice to see you.

- Thank you Rob.

- Nice, thank you.

- Well, for most of his time in office, governor Ron DeSantis has conducted a war on what he calls woke.

He says, this is the state where woke comes to die, but as the legislature in Tallahassee enters its final week, some anti woke bills may be in trouble.

As the Tallahassee Democrat reports Florida Senate President Kathleen Passidomo a Republican, may be putting Florida's war on woke to bed.

She was asked this week about several bills that appear to be stalled in the legislature.

The measures include prohibitions on the display of pride and rainbow flags in government buildings, bans on taking down Confederate monuments, and regulations on the use of pronouns.

Passidomo said the bills in question were effectively dead.

A related bill, a total ban on abortions has not been heard in the House committee and has no Senate companion.

So Kathryn, is this is the end of the war on woke?

Has it run outta steam?

- You know, I think it's a little too soon to say that.

I think there's still quite a bit of quote unquote woke policy that is worth watching.

There's a bill and a rule that came out from the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles last week, affecting the ability of transgender people to change the gender marker on their driver's license.

You know, we're still waiting on the Supreme Court to rule on the legality of the 15 week abortion ban, which could trigger the six week abortion ban to go into effect.

And we're also waiting on them to rule on the legality of the ballot amendment to protect abortion rights in the Florida Constitution.

So there's still quite a bit of things to keep an eye on, but it's certainly the momentum for some of those bills has slowed down, which is definitely an interesting development.

- Aakash from the base of the Republican party, do you sense that there's still room for more legislation to be passed?

The governor's had a lot of success on these culture war issues.

He's got a lot of victories that he's racked up.

Do you think there's more room for other anti woke bills?

- Yeah, I think there is, but I think Passidomo has always been clear on her messaging.

I mean, she's been her popular president, she's more about state priorities over party lines, and that's her message to the public.

And I think as you go into conferencing in the next two weeks when four session ends, you'll see some concessions.

- Mitch, what's it like up there in Tallahassee where you are?

- You know, well you mentioned about the flag bill and the monument bill and actually there was some timing involved with that, maybe could have gone a different way.

A week ago, Tuesday, Jonathan Martin, senator, Republican senator from the Fort Myers area, he was carrying both those bills and they were up at the same time in committee, he decided to temporary postpone the flag bill.

So that is definitely dead.

Then you had the monument bill, which had a wild hearing in a committee last week, a term white power was invoked.

And so Senator Passidomo, when she spoke to the press this week, she actually called the historical monument bill benign, but she felt it had been weaponized by both sides.

I think people have very strong feelings about that.

I think that will come back next year as a good chance of still getting through.

This is a big issue.

Jacksonville just, you know, got rid of a monument back in December that has a lot of conservative people, very upset.

But yeah, the way it's flowing right now, you're not gonna get some of those big bills that we saw in the 23 legislation.

- And Jennifer, how do Democrats see this?

I mean, the governor has a lot of victories over the last three or four years when it comes to culture war issues.

What's your take on, you know, the fact that some of the new ones this year don't appear to be moving forward?

- I think that the chickens are coming home to roost.

You've unleashed in the last two years some of the most extreme bills that have ever been written into legislation.

That motivates a lot of angry people to come and push for even more harsh bills and say things like white hate and say racist things in the Senate.

And it becomes very apparent who and what type of people in the population they have activated to come be proponents of this legislation.

It's a culture war, and people who want legislation passed that actually helps the citizens of this state aren't into culture wars.

So I think the chickens are coming home to roost.

- Mitch, that goes to back to what you said earlier at the hearing over whether or not a monument should be protected or confederate monuments should be allowed to be taken down.

Some of the Democrats said that some of the testimony was really extreme at that hearing.

- Yeah, they walked out actually, they didn't take a vote.

It upset Senator Martin very much so.

And it was a really crazy meeting.

Senator Pizo actually, somebody supposedly called him an epithet and he, you know, so it got really pretty intense.

And so it's not gonna happen.

I should say that both those bills, by the way were filed last year and kind of didn't get as much attention there were so many other things going on they didn't happen last year either.

So, and we weren't talking last year about, you know, the war on woke fading out.

So they're not maybe as potent in terms of people really care about.

I know that they were on that message of the GOP, what they'd like to see this year.

But again, I think the historical monument bill will come back definitely next year.

- All right, well this week marks the sixth anniversary of the gunning down of students and staff at Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida.

Following that incident, the Florida legislature took some measures to try to protect students and teachers.

It increased school security and raised the state's legal gun buying age from 18 to 21.

In the Florida House, state representatives now are proposing legislation that would restore permission for 18 year olds to purchase a rifle from a licensed gun dealer.

Under the provision, those 18 and older would be able to buy rifles and other long guns in Florida.

This would include most shotguns and assault style rifles.

The bill is making its way through the House, but Senate President Passidomo says it will not be heard in the Senate.

So Mitch, there are several local sponsors of this legislation to roll back some of the increased regulation of guns?

Mike Beltran and Bernie Jacques are both co-sponsors of this legislation.

Why is this being presented at this time?

Why roll back some of the post Parkland regulations?

- Some folks have been wanting to do this for years actually.

And in fact, the bill you're talking about to lower the age from 21 to 18 to buy long guns.

It did pass the House of Representatives last year, but just like this year it didn't have a Senate sponsor.

So again, it's really not going anywhere.

There was another provision of those Parkland law about three day waiting periods, right now it actually can go beyond that depending on how long it takes the FDLE to do a background check this year.

They're trying to, again, get rid of that, make it a firm three days.

Governor DeSantis has weighed in on that during the campaign trail when he is running for President, saying, he's saying there should not be any wait, but that has really slowed up as well.

You mentioned Mike Beltran from Hillsborough County.

He actually proposed a bill for open carry that a lot of the Second Amendment folks have been wanting the last couple of years.

I believe the Florida Sheriff's Association, which is very powerful up here in Tallahassee, does not want that.

So Republican leadership isn't really into that as well.

But on the other side, Democrats and Eskamoni has a bill to try to ban assault weapons and high capacity magazines.

That's not going anywhere either.

So it's kind of the same status quo right now.

- So Jennifer, it appears that Senate President Passidomo is against bringing up these gun bills or this gun bill in the Senate.

So what does that say about Senator Passidomo to you?

- It says that I appreciate her efforts and I also say that it seems that she's looking at the voting population and seeing what people are going to be in support of and not going to be in support of.

I think after Parkland, the entire state was really behind stricter gun laws, the whole state, including governor at that point, Rick Scott.

So he signed all this legislation into place knowing the damage that not having it caused.

So to see this kind of return to maybe a little bit more moderate, I'm very appreciative.

- And what do you make of the timing of this?

I mean now we're six years after Parkland, people's memories are fading.

Is this the time to?

- We're six years after Parkland and on Parkland's anniversary we had three massive mass shootings across this country.

If it's fading from anybody's mind, I think they need to turn on a TV and watch that we have more daily mass shootings than we have days in this year.

It's good that she's putting the brakes on this.

It's necessary.

- Aakash, you know, I'm wondering within the party, is there, do you feel that we're at the right level of regulation?

Do Republicans feel that we're at the right level of regulation?

Do they want more liberal regulation when it comes to guns or they want more restrictions?

- I think when it comes to the age, I think they want, they know if you can vote at 18, they want you to have a gun at 18.

That's the amendment, that's the hard line.

But I think president Passidomo, to your point, Jennifer is she wants to focus on critical issues that are impacting the priorities of the state that are every day.

She knows that once you go down this rabbit hole, it's gonna take up the whole of the session and whatever we have left of it and she's got power.

She said, don't bring it to me.

And she's literally, well, that's why Mitch said no senator to sponsor yet.

- Yeah, Democrats came out with a statement on Friday saying the Republicans aren't dealing with the real issues that Floridians are facing.

And they mentioned, once again, homeowners insurance.

So they're pointing to the culture war issues and the gun issues and saying what the Democrats are saying.

Yeah, why don't you deal with some real issues?

What do you say?

- No, I mean, I think that's true.

Focus on what you can get done and not focus on things that you're gonna just argue about.

Because this is gonna be an emotional topic, it's gonna hit home for a lot of different districts.

And we're in election year, so remember people have to win elections.

That's why the session is early.

- Yeah.

All right.

Well, in an investigative series, the Tampa Bay Times is reporting that a handful of large real estate investment companies have been buying up thousands of single family homes in the Bay Area and turning them into rentals.

Experts tell the times the trend makes it harder for individuals to break into Tampa Bay's already high cost housing market by driving up prices and driving down supply.

Locals who rent from one of the private companies told the Times that the large property owner had failed to fix broken toilets, remove mold, or repair air conditioners in a timely manner, subjecting the tenants to unsanitary conditions harmful to their health.

Democrats have introduced legislation in both houses of Congress that would ban hedge funds from owning single family homes.

If that legislation passes, the companies would be required to sell all their homes within 10 years.

Industry groups like the National Rental Home Council have opposed the bill, saying it would reduce the availability of rental housing and discouraged new construction.

So Jennifer, 27,000 homes in the Pasco, Pinellas, and Hillsborough County areas have been bought up by these private equity firms.

And I saw one study that said, but that by the year 2030, 40% of us single family rental homes will be owned by these private equity companies.

- With absolutely no transparency.

So we can't see into what they're doing.

We can't see into their books.

We can't see into how they maneuver.

And they're also artificially inflating property values.

They're making it impossible pretty much for people to get into home buying.

And they have a monopoly in essence.

So it's definitely taken over as a St. Pete native and watching what has changed in Pinellas County, and seeing people I know, young couples, very young in their mid twenties, early thirties, being excited that they got their starter home for $425,000.

That's heartbreaking to me and it's untenable.

But you cannot, we cannot, my 19 and 20-year-old will not be able to purchase their first home for 425,000.

- Well, Kathryn, that is the issue.

Young people who are just starting their families are finding it increasingly impossible to buy a starter home.

- Yeah, no, definitely.

It's, I'm a millennial.

I'm 31 and it's definitely been a topic among my group of friends for years now.

I own a house, but I'll, you know, admit it that I had help from my parents, you know, that was the key thing for me, being able to own a house as a journalist, you know, and I've also been, I bought my house south of Central in Lake McGorry shores and I have been one of these homeowners who gets letters like this trying to buy my house from these private equity companies.

So it's been, you know, I feel for homeowners having to deal with all this junk mail too.

I'm one of them.

And it really puts the pressure on and makes you think, you know, should I consider this?

But I don't wanna add to this, you know, issue either.

- Kathryn, this is a nationwide thing that's going on.

It's not just in the Tampa Bay area, but all over the country.

These private equity firms are buying up houses.

- Yeah, yeah, making it increasingly competitive.

In Tampa Bay we were talking before we went on air that Tampa Bay still relatively has a lower cost of living relatively to other similar metros, still has lower housing costs.

But I mean, if you live here, it doesn't feel that way.

- Yeah, Aakash, is there a public policy, is there something that the politicians need to do?

Or what's your take on this?

- I'm millennial, I'm a little older a little bit than you, but Kathryn, but I rented for 14 years in South Tampa and then waited the pandemic, or waited till the time where I could save and bought my first house in South Tampa during 2020.

And I think the thing what it's doing for young folks and people that are moving here, it's allowing them the opportunity to rent the renter markets, it's there, and then other developers are going to develop more homes 'cause there's a need for it.

So I think you look at the county commission and local elected officials here, which is controlled by the Republicans here, in Hillsborough County at least.

And they're seeing developers come and build as many homes as can because there's a demand for it.

So the problem is we don't like is traffic, but it's good for the community, right?

So, I mean, in the sense that this is a problem we didn't have 14 years ago when I moved here.

- So what's your take of congress in acts of law that says that these private equity firms are no longer able to buy up single family homes around the country and phase out that ability in 10 years?

What's your take on a proposed law like that?

- I think by then we'll be developed in full.

So I mean, I think, I don't know if it's gonna pass in Congress, I really don't.

I think it's gonna be really hard to come to all these city like ours and change that.

- Mitch, is there anything going on in Tallahassee that addresses the housing affordability issue?

Are you seeing anything like, for instance, the Sadowski Housing Trust Fund, which had been rounded up and used for other purposes over the last 20 years, is there any move to create more affordable housing in this legislative session?

- Well last year you had the big live local act by, Passidomo actually was behind that.

There's actually talked to folks from Pasco County, think they have a lot of problems with that big major proposal.

I would say going to this issue though, Rob, whether it's hedge funds or real estate trust companies, it's really the country basically.

I would dare say, I mean, I'm renting, I'm here in Tallahassee renting an Airbnb from a property management company that has very little interaction I have with them.

There's not a human being I can basically talk to immediately.

So the fact that these companies buying up all these homes, it does drive up the price, reduces the supply, and you know, maybe Aakash is right in the future, this will be great, but right now it's a problem and it's leading to this affordable housing crisis in Florida and around the country.

- All right, before we go, what other news stories should we be paying attention to and Aakash, let's start with you.

What's up, what else is out there in the news?

- Well I think, you know, you're gonna talk about this regional report, say the region, the partnership put out.

I went there Monday and as it's really interesting to see the kindergarten readiness scores are low.

We are below in Tampa Bay, below Jacksonville, I the chair of the Early Learning Coalition in Hillsborough County.

And I'll be in Tallahassee next week hoping that we can change some legislation and hoping our superintendent and reminding everyone that school board elections matter.

- And those third grade reading levels are not very good in the Tampa Bay area.

- They've gotten worse, do we have a lot of work to do here.

- Yeah, all right, Kathryn, your other big story of the week?

- Yeah, I mentioned this earlier, but I think it's really worth paying attention to the Florida Department of Highway and Safety Motor Vehicles rule affecting transgender people's ability to change the gender marker on their driver's license.

There's also a bill in the legislature that would essentially codify that policy and law and I covered last week a a die-in protest at the Hillsborough tax collector's office.

S I think it's just keeping our eyes on that and what, you know, protest movements arise from that.

- Would you expect that companion legislation in Tallahassee to pass?

- It's moving, so yeah, I mean as far as it falls into that category of anti woke bills.

So maybe it'll, you know, hit the brakes in the Senate but it has been progressing so far.

- All right, Mitch, you're other big story of the week?

- Yeah, artificial intelligence as we all keep on reading about AI is to take over everything, well there's concern that it might in political advertising.

So there are a bill or actually bills, one of the Senate sponsored by Pinellas County Republican, Nick Desley that would ensure that there would be disclaimers put on any ad that used AI in whether it's digital ad, video, what have you, certain size font to make sure everybody sees that.

Some states are actually outright banning AI.

They're not going that far in this legislation but states around the country are all looking at similar legislation.

- All right, and Jennifer, your other big story of the week?

- I could have about 10, but biggest story for me is that we have March municipal elections on March 19th and I hope everybody in every county that can hear gets out to vote for your municipal electeds.

That is your government that's closest to home.

That's where your biggest change can happen, where you can have the biggest impact.

So make sure if you've got your vote by mail ballot, get it back.

If not, get out on March 19th.

- All right, that's always good advice.

Big election in Clearwater.

- Big election in Clearwater.

- All right, hey, thank you all for great show.

Thanks to Aakash Patel, Kathryn Varn, Mitch Perry and Jennifer Griffith for being on our panel today.

And thank you for watching.

Please send your comments to us at ftwwedu.org and like us on Facebook, you can view this and past shows online at wedu.org or on the PBS app.

Florida This Week is now available as a podcast.

You can get it wherever you download your podcast.

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

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