- [Narrator] This is a production of WEDU PBS, Tampa St. Petersburg, Sarasota.

(upbeat music) Next on WEDU Florida Mayors, try to stop another power grab by Tallahassee will taxpayers be on the hook for the governor's move against Disney?

Housing in Florida is the least affordable in the nation and the governor vetos a bill that would make Solar Customers pay more, all this and more next on Florida This Week.

(upbeat music) Welcome back 21, Florida mayors including nine from the Tampa Bay Central Florida area are asking governor DeSantis.

The veto legislation that they say will have a chilling effect on their ability to pass laws favored by their constituents.

The bill in question is SB 620 also called The Local Business Protection Act.

It would allow businesses to seek damages from local governments if they can prove any newly passed local ordinance caused the business to lose 15% or more in income in one year.

The legislature passed the bill March 9th it awaits the governor's signature.

In their letter the group of mayors contend the bill will prevent local governments from passing responsible and popular local laws affecting an array of issues, including protecting the environment and making housing more affordable to public health and vacation rental rules.

- Ida Eskamani is a Political Advocate and Organizer.

And she's here on behalf of 20 community religious and labor groups that are also asking the governor to veto the bill SB 620 and Ida thanks for joining us.

- Thank you for having me.

- So, you represent about 20 environmental groups and civic groups that are opposed to this.

What's the worst that could happen if this bill goes into effect?

- Absolutely.

So the letter that we signed alongside so many different community organizations really echoes what the mayors have already noted you know, this is an extreme policy that hands over the keys of our cities and counties to corporate lawyers and to your question of what the worst that can happen?

A long list of popular, important local laws that are passed by local taxpayers are at risk and taxpayers like us with the bill.

The way this bill is written is that a business can Sue for damages.

If a local law impacts 15% of their profit and that there's no limit to what type of local, all that is.

And ultimately it would chill the key job of local government, which is to serve the people.

- So we're talking about businesses, let's say for instance, bar hours, if a bar is forced to close earlier because of a noise ordinance, or because people don't want bars open later, and the bar claims of 15% of its business is lost because of the earlier closing time that bar can Sue.

- Absolutely.

Well and that is part, that is one area that you could argue this bill would impact, but ultimately these local laws, are past in collaboration with the business community and nowhere in this bill it does limit the impact of the build to small businesses, for example, so large out of state, global corporations can come in and Sue under this law.

And we actually had amendments their lawmakers introduced amendments to limit the scope to small businesses for example, those amendments were rejected by leadership.

And so you know, we all love and support small businesses, but it's important to note that these type of local laws are passing collaboration with the local business community.

And with everyday people, we all wanna support local businesses, but profits should not be the motivating factor for government and local in public service.

We have to find a balance that also protects people, protects the environment, the things that we love and the scope of this bill it's noise ordinances, it's light pollution.

When it comes to sea turtles, any local animal protections, such as regulations on puppy mill would be impacted, affordable housing as already noted local policies, protecting LGBTQ youth would be impact.

And it really protects some of the worst actors.

This policy is written in a way that incentivizes bad business practices and punishes those businesses that are doing the right thing.

- The sponsor of the bill says that it will impel governments to more carefully consider how the new rules they pass will affect local industry.

And what do you say to that?

- Yeah, I would look at the lobbyist registration behind this bill.

It's been supported by some of the biggest corporations in the state.

This is designed to chill local governments from doing what's best for local taxpayers and charging local tax payers.

You know, the governor just passed another tax increase on the residents of Orange county.

This is another tax increase.

And that's why groups like Tax Watch, which are conservative leaning, actually oppose this legislation too.

This is an extreme idea that is costing, that will cost taxpayers even more money to defend law, laws that local taxpayers support.

- So here in the Tampa Bay area, among the mayors have signed onto the letter opposing this law, the Lakeland mayor, the Dunedin mayor, the Pinellas Park mayor is signed on, but I'm wondering hasn't Tallahassee already done a lot of local preemption when it comes to labor laws.

When it comes to gun laws, when it comes to environmental laws, they've already preempted local government from enacting local ordinances.

How is this different from what they've already done?

- It's an excellent point.

There are countless state mandates that Tallahassee has enforced on flirt ins.

Our hands are already tied in numerous ways when it comes to passing local laws that fit unique needs of our communities.

We know that the panhandle is so unique and special and different compared to Miami beach, for example.

And so our community should have the power to pass those local laws.

So these state mandates have been coming through and they continue to, and you know, the irony is supporters of this bill said, this is the bill to end old preemptions.

When we pass this, the state legislature no longer has to pass preemption.

Well, I'm sure it can comes to no surprise to anybody that leadership also put forward several preemption bills, this session as well.

It seems like Tallahassee wants to center everything in Tallahassee and they think they know best.

And we would argue that everyday people they know best what's.

They know what's best for their towns and their cities.

And we should put the power back into people's hands.

- In your letter you say that this is an unprecedented attempt to undercut constitutional rights.

What's left for local government to do if there there's already a prohibition on some local ordinances mandated by Tallahassee, and now there's lawsuits involved in local ordinances, what's left for local government to do?

And we only have 30 seconds.

- It's an excellent question and local governments are fighting right now to make sure that they can serve the folks that elected them, you know, at Tallahassee should trust their constituents to do what's right, we have elections for a reason.

If your local government is not serving your needs, you can reelect people that do and Tallahassee politicians should embrace that idea as well and or constituents decide what's best for them.

- Well, Ida Eskamani thanks for coming on Florida this week.

- Thank you for having me.

(upbeat music) - Joining us now on our panel this week, Sean Shaw is an attorney former candidate for Florida Attorney General and a Democrat Deborah Tamargo is the immediate past president of the Florida Federation of Republican Women and Rosemary Goudreau O'Hara is the former Editorial Page Editor for the South Florida Sun Sentinel.

Great to have you all here.

Well, last week, during the special session, the Republican Controlled State Legislature brushed a bill through that repeals the special district that governs Walt Disney world as punishment for the company's opposition to the parental rights, or don't say gay law and legislators may have left taxpayers on the hook for hundreds of millions of dollars.

- [Narrator] Back in 1967, as Disney was planning to build its theme park near Orlando, the state agreed that the special taxing district created to give the Disney corporation the right to self-governance could not be abolished unless the district's bond debt plus interest was paid off.

Tax experts and local government officials say this means that theoretically Orange and Osceola County residents will now be forced to take on about a billion dollars in bond debt currently held by the company.

So far the governor has not said how he plans to fix the problem.

The governor did some campaigning earlier this week, helping a senatorial candidate out west in the early presidential primary state of Nevada.

- I bring a lot of greetings.

(crowd cheering) I bring greetings from the Sunshine State, (crowd cheering) The Freedom State (crowd cheering) And the state that has done more than any other state to stand up to Joe Biden (crowd cheering) and will strengthen administration.

(crowd cheering) - And the Democrats running to challenge DeSantis.

This November all appeared at a forum in Brandon last weekend, sponsored by the Manatee county Democrats, where they were asked what they think about the governor.

- Who goes after Mick mouse - Nothing (indistinct) - It's unconscionable.

I mean this in what Disney world is an institution, a revered institution in Florida and in America, is he that antibusiness?

Or Rob is he that anti-free speech?

(crowd murmuring) That they can't voice their opinion on an issue or a piece of legislation.

- [Lady] Yes.

- It's shocking.

- I was the first person who actually called him a dictator in this, after the special session, after session in 2020, everybody thought I was out of my mind, oh my God, you just called the governor a dictator?

Well, look, what's now happened in the last two years, he's living up to the name that we've all called him.

And I saw it the first time saw it the first time when I had to walk out of a cabinet meeting in 2019, when he'd refused to have a public hearing for an appointment into the cabinet.

And I thought that they were breaking Sunshine.

- He must protest and stand up and say, no, no, no we will not watch our democracy go down.

We will not delete seats when our constitution and the voters spoke overwhelmingly to say what we needed to do to draw those maps.

So we, this race is about something so much bigger.

It is about democracy.

- So Shaw, let's talk about Disney for a second.

Did the governor and the legislature, did they think this through and our tax payers in Osceola and orange county on the hook for perhaps a billion dollars in Disney Bond Debt?

- That's a great question, Rob, 'cause if they did think it through, then, it's even worse than if they did not think it through, right?

So as we get further away from this special session, I think it's become clear that the legislature does not have the authority to do what they attempted to do.

They have not figured out how they're gonna pay off this bond prior to abolishing the special district.

And as you said, you've gotta, you've gotta pay off the bond money before you can abolish the special district, which means they've got to do something before what they did in special session even matters.

And so what I think this shows is the performative art that has become politics up in Tallahassee.

We make a big show with doing something.

We do something and then we can't do it and nothing really happens.

And so, but until they figure out how to pay off this bond money, that those taxpayers are at risk for thousands and thousands of increase in taxes.

And it's scary to, like I said, I don't know what's worse that they thought it through or that the legislature allowed the governor to bully them and to doing something that was not thought through.

- Deborah, are those taxpayers in orange and Osceola on the hook?

- Absolutely not.

In fact, no one has decided anything.

The only thing the legislature didn't do, okay.

And it's right in here in the bill is call for a review and the legislature voted on a bill that the governor signed to provide for Reedy Creek, which is Disney and five or six other independent districts who have not met their review requirements to give them additional time.

They missed several review dates with 2004 was one, 2005.

And they have now given them to 2023 to meet the review requirements.

So that's all this bill did and no decisions have been made firmly.

No one's on the hook for anything.

The review will come prior to the next session and decisions will be made at that time.

So it's a very methodical process and nothing has been firmly decided.

- Well Rosemary, this law does not go into effect until 2023 is, as Deborah just said.

But does that, I mean, does that, do you think the governor has thought this through and might then governor and legislature have second thoughts before we get around to next year?

- I think it would be hard for him to roll back the position that he's taken and that some kind of change will happen, whether that transfers some of this bond or tax obligation to pay for roads and sewer and firefighters in the district, whether that goes to Lake Buena Vista or not.

I think in though Deborah's right, that it doesn't take effect till 2023.

The governor's been very clear about what his intentions are and that, and the legislature as well and that is that Disney will pay a price for going against what he wanted and that they passed this bill without understanding the consequence, without digging into the details and asking the questions of how does this work exactly?

Just shows how the legislature is this go along acquiescent body to have, the strongest governor Florida has ever seen, who really listens to his own counsel.

- Let me ask you about the two views of freedom that we saw there.

We saw the governors say that he represents the Freedom state, the free state of Florida.

And we also saw Nikki Fried call the governor a dictator and Shaw.

Shaw I wanna start with you, this idea that Florida has a tremendous amount of freedom that could be exported to other parts of the country.

If Ron DeSantis becomes present, I think that's what he's gonna campaign for president on.

How do you view what, you know, when the governor says, we're the Freedom state.

How do you view that.

- We're not the freedom state if you're a woman and you want the right to choose, we're not a freedom state if you're a local government and you want to do things that you think are best for your locality, when the legislature tells you can't do it, we're not the freedom state if you're a school board and the legislature shoves down your throat, what they think is best for curriculum, as opposed to what you might think as a school board member, certain segments of this state, I think would very much have a problem with being, being called that they, the freedom state and that they live in it.

And so I think it really depends on who you're talking to and what you're talking about, but this session was not about freedom.

It was about retribution.

It was about revenge and it was about punishment.

That's what this session represented, not freedom.

- All right, Deborah, what would you say?

Freedom versus dictatorship or the governor acting it like a dictator?

- Well, I think that Nikki Fried her choice of words are not professional.

It certainly doesn't set her up to be a governor of Florida.

What I believe is that the taxpayers, they are the bosses.

We owe them a review, the review within the original documents.

And it's time that we review all of the independent districts, which are in the bill that have not been properly reviewed we owe it to the tax payers.

And that's what this year is about.

There have been no decisions.

All they, the bill says is that the review will take place during this next year of all of those independent districts that have missed their deadlines.

- Okay, well, let's move on to another topic.

CBS News reported this week that Florida has become the lest affordable place to live in the US.

And it's all because of the high cost of housing.

- [Narrator] Rents which are rising by double digits nationwide are ballooning even more here in Florida, fueled by a surge of people who relocated to the state during the pandemic.

Florida's population is growing faster than in any state, but Texas in the one year between 2020 and 2021, 300,000 people move to the Sunshine State, Miami, Orlando, and Tampa have the fastest growing rents in the country over the past year, the weather Florida's environment and low taxes are drawing more and more people to the state.

Tampa is a strong draw, especially for people moving from New York city and Washington DC.

Although Florida is increasingly attractive as a place to live for many Americans.

The influx is squeezing many long time resident, especially low paid service industry workers and older residents on a fixed income.

The state explicitly prohibits rent control, which could put a cap on skyrocketing rents.

- I wanna ask all three of you, but Deborah, let's start with you.

Why are, why do we have this affordability crisis and what can be done about it?

- Yeah, it definitely is a crisis.

And we may soon be in a hard landing on this crisis if we do not get inflation under control.

And during the last year has been especially difficult with the inflation, the price of lumber and materials and so forth and so on.

And then just the acceptance of these in increases.

I think, you know, the public needs to be a little bit more offended and voice, you know, make their voices heard the contraction.

That's really, hurting us now there's a contraction going on.

Mortgage rates have gone up 2% and just the last couple of months, the supply and demand the people moving into Florida, another big issue.

But I think one of the issues people overlook and this has been going on for, I would say maybe up to 10 years is that there are certain companies like BlackRock that have really inflated the values over the last 10 years.

They come in particular state like Florida, they buy up for cash they bid up the prices.

So they are above the actual values of a home.

And so you have this in there, the largest owner of single family properties in the United States.

Now the new, the good news is Sadowski Fund fully funded this year.

You have ship, you have sale to help with rents.

You have housing and there, oh gosh, a thousand different programs and grants you can apply for.

- That's what helps Rosemary.

Why do you think we've got this crisis?

- Well, you know, I would say put it this way, Tallahassee has said what it won't do about the housing crisis.

It won't Institute rent controls.

It said that it wouldn't raid the Affordable Housing Trust Fund, but they did it's here they rated it of a hundred million dollars.

And, but they won't say what they will do.

You know, our housing crisis is not just about Northern transplants coming here and paying cash.

It also has to do, as Deborah said, with investors and corporations coming in and buying up all these single family homes for businesses that rent housing and in south Florida, 14% of last year's real estate housing sales were to foreign investors.

- Mm.

- Now in Canada, they just imposed a two year pause on foreigners being able to come in and buy houses.

What has Florida done to address the housing?

The forces that play in the housing market?

Nothing.

- Let me ask Shaw, Shaw, why do we have this crisis and what could be done about it?

And we only have a minute.

- I agree with a lot of what I heard, but what I'll say is this Florida is attractive because we are a low tax state.

But as a result of that, certain decisions have to be made, which means you gotta pay for these low taxes.

You pay for tax cuts and for a very long time, tax cuts have been paid for by Sadowski Funds.

Sadowski has been rated billions of dollars over the years.

Those raids are what lead to us being a low tax state.

So while we are attractive because we're low tax state, it results in problems like this low, no affordable housing.

We rate the tax and other sorts of problems.

This is the trade off.

- All right, well this week, governor Ron DeSantis, veto to bill that would've allowed Florida electric utilities to impose steep fees on businesses and homeowners who install solar panels.

- [Narrator] DeSantis said that because of rising inflation, the state of Florida should not contribute to the financial crunch that citizens are already experiencing.

The governor said that because the measure HB 741 allowed public utilities to impose on solar customers, additional charges to recover, lost revenues, exceeding the public utilities own estimates.

He concluded the amount was speculative and would be born by all customers, solar and non-solar.

The bill would've require that solar customers pay all fixed costs of having access to transmission lines and backup energy generation as determined by the Public Service Commission.

On the other hand, the solar customers would not receive any benefits for reducing the utility companies electricity demand.

It was a rare victory for the Solar Industry in Florida and a defeat for Florida power and light, the state's largest electric utility whose lobbyist wrote the first version of the bill.

- So Rosemary, let me ask you, this seems to be something outside the governor's usual modus operandi.

- It was a brilliant political move that surprised a lot of people, but the governor knows how popular solar is.

And in this election year, he stood up to Florida power and light the, you know, biggest power company in Florida, but this bill will be back next year.

It was one little provision that he objected to about in the two year phase out program and with the power companies being the biggest campaign contributors in Florida, the power companies generally get what the power companies want.

- All right, well, before we go, what other news stories should we be paying attention to and Deborah we just have 30 seconds for you.

The other big story.

- Okay, well, I'm watching in school board racists throughout the state of Florida, really excited, you know, kind of tired of seeing school board members cut off parents when they're trying to discuss an issue, bring it to the attention, the school boards.

And we made Fox News in Sarasota last week with one case and applauding Brandon Ziegler for taking a lead and saying, no, you, we will not talk to parents in that manner.

And so thank you, Brandon.

- All right, Rosemary, you're all the big story.

- Three people on Thursday filed a federal human trafficking lawsuit against Scientology leader David Miscavige in five affiliated corporations and they allege forced labor abuse sleep deprivation.

And that told that if they tried to leave, they would, could face terrible consequences, including death.

You know, it's just a mystery that parents who embrace Scientology will allow their children to be treated this way.

But you know, people get seduced by these cults and kudos to these three people for standing up and fighting Scientology.

And it's gonna be a case to watch.

- All right and Shaw, you're all the big story.

- Yeah, I'm honored to be on the panel with Rosemary, 'cause she used to work for the paper that I think covered this topic the best and that's Property Insurance.

So there's gonna be a special session on Property Insurance.

And while I agree there ought to be that we've got a lot of problems.

I don't have any confidence that the legislature and the governor can do anything right on the Property Insurance.

So I'm scared to death that they're gonna try to tackle it, but we need to do something about it.

- Well, Shaw, Rosemary, and Deborah, thank you so much for a great program.

- Thank you.

- Happy to be here.

- And thank you for joining us.

Send us to your comments at ftwweedu.org.

You can view this in past shows online@wedu.org or on the PBS app and Florida This Week is now available as a podcast.

You can find it on our website or wherever you download your podcast.

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

(upbeat music) - [ Narrator] Florida This Week, is a production of WEDU who is solely responsible for its content.

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