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- Coming up next, Tampa basks in the glow of an historic Super Bowl victory.

The second Trump impeachment trial gets underway with both the Florida's US Senators indicating they will vote not to convict.

And we'll take a look at some of the far reaching legislative proposals being made for next month's session.

Our guests are former top Republican adviser Mac Stipanovich Republican state Senator Jeff Brandes from Pinellas County, Democratic state Representative Fentrice Driskell from Hillsborough County, and veteran reporter Steve Bousquet, next on Florida This Week.

(upbeat music) - Welcome back.

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers defied the odds makers and rolled over Kansas City in Super Bowl 55, played for the first time in a winning team's home stadium.

The Bucs defense stopped Kansas as much vaunted offense.

Quarterback Tom Brady helped lift the team to its second Super Bowl championship, his seventh.

Although it was a subdued event compared to years past because of the COVID pandemic, celebrations broke out across the area, as the football team joined with the lightning in bringing home a trophy.

(people cheer) After Sunday, the nation's attention quickly turned to the opening of Donald Trump's second impeachment trial in the U.S. Senate.

Democrats presented chilling new video of the day when President Trump urged his supporters to fight, to be angry, and to March on the Capitol.

The video shows Trump's supporters broke into the Capitol Building hunting for Vice President Mike Pence and other members of the government.

The Democrats say the new evidence proves just how much danger members of Congress were in during the assault by the mob.

Florida's two U.S.

Senators, both Republicans, have already indicated that they will not vote to convict with Rick Scott calling the trial a complete waste of time.

And a confrontation of another kind could be on the horizon.

The Biden administration is considering whether to impose domestic travel restrictions including on Florida, fearful that the new Coronavirus mutations are threatening to reverse hard won progress on the pandemic.

Well, for more than 30 years, lawyer Mac Stipanovich has been a major figure in the Republican Party.

He was the Florida executive director for the Reagan-Bush campaign in 1984, chief of staff for Governor Bob Martinez, and senior advisor to Jeb Bush in 1994, and he joins us again.

Mac Stipanovich, welcome back.

- Well, thank you for having me.

- My first question is about the impeachment trial.

The defense on Friday says that it's a matter of free speech.

That president Trump urge people to fight, yes, but it's okay because that's his free speech right and he didn't tell people to, you know, invade the Capitol.

What do you think about the defense?

- Well, I think it's bogus.

Free speech just like any other right is not unqualified.

You know, to trot out a cliche, you can't yell fire in a crowded theater.

I promise you if you go online and start promoting terrorism the FBI is going to be kicking down your door in a little while.

So it depends on the judgment of the United States Senate in this case.

This is not a legal trial, it's a political trial about weather and to the extent that Donald Trump incited the violence that took place on January the sixth and to try to interpose free speech is, you know, touching a totem that everybody likes to touch and would like to hide behind but it's a bit of a dodge.

- Both our U.S. senators, Rick Scott and Marco Rubio have indicated that they're not going to vote to convict Donald Trump.

Is there any political damage for them by taking that position?

- Well, I'm not sure there is in Florida right now.

I mean, both men are, in my judgment, an embarrassment to the state.

I mean, you know, you find both of our state senators standing in a group, literally and metaphorically, with people like Tommy Tuberville, who's dumb as a box of rocks.

They are, you know, they're hollowed out men.

Their ambition and their desire for higher office and their fear of a primary has acted like an acid and it's eaten out anything inside of them.

Remember Marco Rubio in 2010?

A young guy, with a great backstory, Hispanic, eloquent, the future of the Republican Party, Time magazine cover.

He's a shell of that now.

He is a Trump toady.

- So what do you see as the damage to our democracy, if President Trump is not convicted in this trial and that, you know, we move on?

Is there long-term danger here?

- The damages, this trial is a symptom of something deeper.

It is important to have this trial in my judgment so that the people of the United States can hear the evidence, see the evidence.

But many of us saw it when it happened.

We're witnesses, but the damage has been done was done by the big lie that Trump began to promote long before election day, that if he did not win, the election would be stolen.

Democracy in America and everywhere depends on the public's confidence in the integrity of the electoral process.

If you believe the government is illegitimate then there are no rules.

All the gloves are off.

And so the damage, most of the damage has been done here.

To the extent that it can be repaired it will take years and it's quite possible that, at least in my lifetime, maybe yours, it'll never all be repaired.

- So, what so you think the future is of the Republican Party?

I mean, is the Republican Party now embracing the kind of radicals that invaded the U.S. Capitol?

Are they part of the Republican Party and what is the future of the Party?

- Yes, they are.

Those folks used to be, there's always been about a third of the Republican Party that was crazy as run over dogs.

I mean, whether it was the John Birch Society or, you know the Tea Partiers or movement conservatives, and I bear some responsibility for this, at least in Florida, we exploited them.

We use their votes to get elected, and then we ignored them after election day because they were so extreme.

Now that 30% is 70% of the Republican Party and if it continues on the path that it's on now, the Republican Party will eventually, and I think sooner than later, become a ethnic, primarily rural minority party.

- Well, Mac Stipanovich, thanks for coming back on Florida This Week.

Always great to see you.

- Good seeing you again, buddy.

(upbeat futuristic music) - State legislators are already hard at work, discussing in committees a wide variety of bills including funding for new toll roads and proposed changes in voting and election laws.

Steve Bousquet is a columnist, a reporter for the South Florida Sun Sentinel.

He spent more than three decades covering Florida politics for the Tampa Bay Times and the Miami Herald and Steve, welcome back.

- Hey, Rob.

Good to be with you.

- Let's start with voting and voting law changes.

What's being proposed in Tallahassee?

- The mischief has begun.

There's going to be a hearing next week on a bill that I just wrote a column about for the Sun Sentinel, listen to this.

We had record vote by mail participation in 2020 and who cast most of those mail ballots?

Answer: Democrats.

When you ask for a vote by mail ballot in Florida, it is good, the request is good through two election cycles.

The Republicans have a bill they're going to tee up next week that says you have to make that request every calendar year.

Every year, you have to make many more requests for a mail ballot.

It's sponsored by Republican Senator Dennis Baxley.

Guess what?

Because Democrats made so many more requests for mail ballots last year, they've got pending requests in the queue for next year.

And Ron DeSantis, Republican governor, is going to be on the ballot.

So a fight is ensuing over a Republican attempt to make it harder to get a mail ballot.

- And Steve, this is something that's going on nationally.

I mean, I think Republicans are looking for ways to curtail the number of Democratic votes nationally too, right?

- That's true, you know, think back to what happened in 2020.

There's no denying it.

Republicans had a banner year in the elections, even though Democrats outperformed Republicans in voting by mail, Republicans did much better in the other two forms of voting, voting early and voting on election day.

But we know now that because of the pandemic, we know that voting by mail is here to stay.

And from the Republican point of view, it's a little too popular with Democrats.

- All right, so that's one.

Is there a house companion to the bill?

- No, there isn't.

Not that I've seen.

It is Senate bill 90, nine, zero, and it's being heard next Tuesday afternoon for the first time.

There's going to be a lot of controversy over this bill.

Supervisors of election, including your guy in Tampa, Craig Latimer do not like this bill.

- Steve, I want to ask you about toll roads.

There've been a series of hearings across the state about the so-called M-CORES, these new proposed three toll roads across the state.

The public, at least, the public did not like the idea of building these massive projects.

The governor though included the toll roads in his proposed budget.

Where does that stand?

- These toll roads are still on the drawing board unless the legislature now, affirmatively, pulls them out of the DOT work plan.

I'm not sure that's going to happen.

There is a Democratic bill that would do that.

Democrats don't have the votes to pass much of anything in Tallahassee, as everyone knows.

It's hard to fathom because as you said the public opposition to all three of these roads was overwhelming at these taskforce hearings held last year.

Yet, this idea still hangs on even though, by the way, the DOT budget is in trouble because of the pandemic, the economic downturn, there's less total revenue, there's less gas tax money.

- So, in the governor's budget, he said $700 million for toll roads, the M-CORES project.

Are we heading into a tight budget year or do we have nothing to worry about in the coming fiscal year?

- Yeah, that's interesting.

It is a tight budget year, but if people noticed Ron DeSantis' proposed budget is about $4 billion above what it is now.

So you ask how can this possibly be?

The answer is a federal surge of CARES act money, money coming from Washington that's part of these stimulus bills that they've passed in response to COVID-19.

Without that federal influx of money, Florida would be in really, really tough shape.

- It's interesting to hear, at least Senator Scott has been complaining about federal money going to States like New York but we get a lot of federal money here in Florida.

- That's true and you know, there's still, nothing has changed.

There's still an attitude in Florida, strongly held attitude by Republicans in Tallahassee, they do not want to raise taxes.

In fact, even a tax that's not even a tax, it's a collection of an existing tax and that is internet sales.

When you buy stuff on the internet, you're supposed to pay sales tax on it.

A lot of retailers and sellers don't collect the tax because Florida doesn't make them collect the tax.

Even that is a big lift here this session.

- All right, well, Steve Bousquet thanks for coming on Florida This Week and we'll check in with you again during the session.

- Okay, great, Rob.

Thanks very much.

(upbeat futuristic music) - Well, Floridians passed Amendment Two last November which will raise the state's minimum wage to $10 per hour this September and then raises it a dollar more each year until it reaches $15 per hour in 2026.

A new proposal, however, calls for a new amendment to limit who gets the minimum wage.

The limits would apply to people under the age of 21, ex-felons, and hard to hire employees.

Senator Jeff Brandes of St. Petersburg filed the proposed amendment and he joins us now.

Senator Brandes, happy birthday.

Welcome back.

- It's great to be with you.

- Why are you proposing this new amendment about the minimum wage?

- Sure, so the bulk of the research really shows that as the minimum wage rises, teens and other groups that are considered hard to hire will be disproportionately affected.

In fact, as the minimum wage rises every 10%, the minimum wage rises specifically for teens that we see about a three to 7% increase in unemployment and that makes sense because employers are going to look for more skilled employees.

So what our proposal is is to create a temporary training wage for those groups.

Specifically, for teens, student workers, and for the recently incarcerated, that's totally voluntary for them and totally voluntary for the employers.

We see this as a scalable way to incentivize employers to look at applications they would otherwise not consider.

About 30 States offer some form of temporary training wage and the federal government recognizes a temporary training wage.

- So there's a lot of people who have a high school education that are going into the workforce.

So they might be single parents and they take a job in a fast food place and, you know, it's hard to get by on $10 an hour which the wage will be in September.

You know, you can't rent an apartment for that.

So what about those folks who are parents and who are trying to raise kids on that amount of money?

- Again, it's really completely voluntary for both the employer and the employee.

So, if they could find a wage that's higher, that's not part of a temporary training wage, they should take that and so the important thing to realize is what we're talking about is individuals in these groups that are really considered hard to hire that are having a difficult time finding a job and that employers would be incentivized to offer a temporary training wage specifically looking at groups that are hard to hire.

- So, and if somebody just got out of prison and they're faced with making less than the statewide minimum wage, are we creating a a situation where it's hard for them to become full members of society and they become part of a permanent underclass?

- No, the fundamental question we have to ask is is it better to be long-term unemployed with a $15 hour minimum wage, or to be employed with a temporary training wage with the ability to move up to that higher wage at the end of that period.

So, most States that offer some type of temporary training wage, offer it for a 90 day, 180 day period and so that's what we would be proposing.

What we're trying to do is add an extra rung to the ladder because for some that first step to that $15 an hour, especially after being incarcerated or being 16 or 17 years old and having low skills, this allows an employer to be incentivized to look at that individual that they would otherwise potentially put at the bottom of the pile as they look for more experienced employees' applications.

- Senator, I remember the debate in 2004, when a Floridians were faced with possibly raising the minimum wage by about 20% and Floridians voted to do that in 2004.

The predictions at that time by opponents were that we were going to see a higher unemployment rate and we saw unemployment boom after the 2004 minimum wage raise.

- What we're talking about today is a 70% raise in the minimum wage and so the bulk of the research, which is what I looked at, identifies that teens and other hard to hire groups, specifically recently incarcerated, will be disproportionately impacted as the minimum wage rises.

- So, Senator, you have several proposals up there in Tallahassee, one of the others is to do away with the Tampa Bay Regional Transit Authority and there's some pushback, Pinellas County Commissioner Janet Long says that it's the wrong idea.

So tell us why you want to do away with the Authority.

- Sure, we have multiple organizations today that do planning and can do research and so why not let the MPO district seven of FDOT, any of the HART or PSTA, Forward Pinellas.

I mean, these are all groups that do research and so TBRTA is really duplicative in a lot of ways and so what we're saying is we're not saying that research can't be done, let's save the money that's being spent on staffing TBRTA up and spend that resources, if we're going to do research, do it but do it through another entity so we don't have to pay salaries and office space and everything else that we're doing for this extra layer of government that frankly doesn't really have any authority or ability to do any real projects.

So it's existed for about, you know, over a decade now and nobody could really point to a project, at least that I've spoken to, TBRTA has initiated or led on that wasn't first initiated by some other group or some other entity.

They are really the appendix of the transportation planning organization that we have in Tampa Bay and my contention is nobody really knows what the appendix does anyways and you're perfectly fine to live a long life without it.

- Well, Senator Brandes, thanks a lot.

Thanks for coming on Florida This Week and, again, happy birthday.

- Thank you so much.

(upbeat futuristic music) - Well, some state lawmakers have concerns about the proposal to limit who gets the new minimum wage and one of those is state Representative Fentrice Driskell of Tampa, and she joins us now.

Representative, thanks for coming back.

- Thank you for having me, Rob.

- Senator Brandes tells us that this proposal to limit the minimum wage is his way to reduce unemployment among people who are under 21 and ex-felons, what do you say about that?

- Well, what I say is that this is yet another example in a long history, a long list of examples rather, of the legislature attempting to subvert the will of the voters and so while my colleagues Senator Brandes may be well-intended, I think that when the voters speak with such overwhelming support for a constitutional initiative, it is incumbent upon us to listen and as I understand this piece of legislation, it actually would hurt those employees who are under the age of 21, it would hurt returning citizens or those who were formerly convicted of felons and having the opposite effect of what the voters were trying to do.

- He says that would reduce unemployment among let's say teenagers and returning citizens.

Do you agree with that?

- I disagree with that and particularly with respect to returning citizens.

Look, it's hard enough for returning citizens to find employment, to get back on their feet.

We're talking about people who have paid their time.

They've done their time, they've paid their dues, and they deserve to have that second chance in life.

That's what the law affords them.

So what this legislation would do, it appears to me, is to further hamper their ability to build a life and to become productive members of society.

- Last summer, after the Black Lives Matter protests, Governor DeSantis suggested that there should be higher penalties on protests that turned violent or protests that blocked streets, that legislation is up there in Tallahassee.

What are your thoughts about it?

- Well, thank you even for the way that you phrased that question so artfully, because I think a lot of people miss that this legislation, house bill one, was first teased back in August or September when we were still having those protests after all of the civil unrest and the killings of unarmed black people, including George Floyd, Brianna Taylor, and Ahmaud Arbery.

Not, it was filed after the Capitol riots in Washington, DC on January 6th, but it was teased way back then and so we know that there is a nexus between the Black Lives Matters protest and HB one and so it's problematic to me on that level because it says to people and their allies who were out there protesting against the historic injustices against blacks in America, you know, we don't care.

To me it's the legislative equivalent of a knee on the neck.

I think this bill is unconstitutional for many reasons.

We already have a constitutional right under the First Amendment to gather and have peaceful protests, and we also have many laws on the books that would take care of some of the problems, the alleged problems, that they say this bill is trying to address.

- The Legislative Black Caucus this week came out with several proposals to reform the criminal justice system or reform the police.

You were part of that press conference.

Tell us what the main ideas of this are.

- Yes, and so last year in the wake of all the protests and the unrest, the Florida Legislative Black Caucus sprang into action and we started meeting to start thinking about what we could introduce, in terms of policy, because we know that, even though protests subside, there's still work to be done and so I'm honored to have helped try to lead our efforts on fair and just policing.

A few of the items that we want to tackle: building more accountability and transparency by having a database that would track use of force incidents against officers, and also track if an officer had been terminated more than twice for cause, making it so that those officers can't hop around from agency to agency.

We know that there are so many great law enforcement officers and they put their lives on the line every day.

We just want to make sure that we're able to capture and intervene when there are those bad actors, those bad apples, if you will, who might get in there and try to spoil the culture and spoil the bunch.

We're also looking at establishing minimum standards for policies and procedures across all law enforcement agencies.

So, really just like I said, trying to build in that accountability and transparency, which hopefully will build more trust between the law enforcement community and communities of color.

- Well, Representative Driskell, thanks for coming back on Florida This Week and great to see you.

- Thanks for having me.

(upbeat futuristic music) - Well, finally, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers defeated the Kansas City Chiefs on Sunday to become the Super Bowl champs.

The celebrations have been going on all week, including a boat parade in downtown Tampa, where Tom Brady threw one last pass to his teammate Cameron Brate.

Stay safe, we'll see you next week.

(people cheer) (indistinct conversation) (people cheer) (upbeat music) - [Announcer] Florida This week is a production of WEDU who was solely responsible for its content.