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(gentle music) - Coming up next: The state legislature begins its annual session with far reaching proposals from the governor and the majority party.

How far will the legislature go in an election year?

Our guests are former State Senate President Tom Lee, the Times-Herald Tallahassee bureau chief Mary Ellen Klas, and Damien Filer with Progress Florida.

Political insights next on "Florida This Week."

(exciting music) Welcome back.

In Tallahassee this week, the state legislature began its annual two month session with some culture war issues high on the governor's agenda.

It's an important year with an election coming in November to select a governor and most of the legislature.

The results of the session could have a big impact on who wins in November.

The session opened with a state of the state speech by the governor where he touted the fact that Florida stayed open through much of the last year without state masks or vaccine mandates.

- They are grounded more in blind adherence to Fauci and declarations than they are in the constitutional traditions that are the foundation of free nations.

Florida is a free state.

- [Rob] The governor also said the budget picture looks good for the coming fiscal year.

- Now, fortunately, we're gonna be able to confront our challenges with an incredibly favorable budget outlook and with strong economic performance that has withstood unfavorable national headwinds.

- [Rob] And, at the same time, he criticized the federal government for adding to the national debt.

- The federal government has borrowed and printed unprecedented sums of money and the bill is coming due.

Inflation is an invisible tax on Floridians.

It represents a pay cut for individuals and for families alike.

- [Rob] What he didn't say is that Florida's budget is benefiting this year from federal spending, including the COVID rescue packages, a point made by Democrat Nikki Fried, who's running for governor in the Democratic primary.

- And for him to take that money and to use it for other things and to not even recognize where that money is coming from, the reason why we're gonna have infrastructure money is because of Democrats.

The reason why we're gonna get through inflation is because of Democrats.

- [Rob] One of the governor's initiatives is to create a new law enforcement agency to police elections and voting laws.

- And, to ensure that elections are conducted in accordance with the rule of law, I've proposed an Election Integrity Unit, whose sole focus will be the enforcement of Florida's election laws.

This will facilitate the faithful enforcement of election laws and will provide Floridians with the confidence that their vote will matter.

- [Rob] The governor's making the proposal even though election fraud is rare in the state.

Democrats issued their own state of the state message with Senate Democratic leader Lauren Book.

- Florida Republicans have been running the show for 20 years, but where has it gotten us?

Out of touch policies focused on culture wars instead of real issues facing real Floridians, like unmet healthcare needs, a public education system that ranks amongst the lowest in the country, low paying jobs, environmental disasters, and violence in our schools and on our streets.

- [Rob] And, Democratic State Senators followed up with a call for freedom.

Their definition is different, though, from the governor's.

- The freedom to keep our kids and family safe.

- The freedom to run your business.

- The freedom to stay healthy.

- The freedom to be safe in your community.

- The freedom to protect our natural resources.

- The freedom to determine specific care for their child's wellbeing.

- The freedom to grow a competitive economy.

- Mary Ellen Klas is the co-bureau chief of the Miami Herald/Tampa Bay Times capital bureau.

She's been covering the opening week of the Florida legislature and, Mary Ellen, welcome back to "Florida This Week."

- Good to be here.

Thank you.

- Let me ask you.

Before the session, I think the Democrats were concerned that the governor would focus primarily on culture war issues going into the session.

When the governor finally made his speech, did he deal with culture war issues or did he go beyond?

- Well, he didn't talk about too many policy issues that are sort of broad and deep seated.

There was no talk of housing, no talk of the the auto and property insurance issues that a lot of Floridians are facing, no talk of the labor shortages and those kinds of things.

He did use his speech to really kind of repeat a lot of the themes that he spent the last several months talking about and you lined up a lot of them in your opening.

Others that he addressed are how he wants to use $8 million to remove unauthorized aliens from Florida.

He wants a ban on so-called critical race theory in schools and businesses.

Those are the things that are intended to really make a lot of his base and to appeal to sort of the most emotional issues that divide a lot of Floridians.

- If you were to look at the Governor, the Speaker of the House, and the Senate President, and look at the top of each of their agendas, do they share an agenda?

Is there one thing that they're all aiming to accomplish this session?

- Well, it's really remarkable because this session, more than any, you really didn't hear the presiding officers outline much of an agenda at all.

Senate President Wilton Simpson did bring up some of his priorities.

He wants to put some money and focus into environmental issues.

He reminded people that he's concerned about adding money into foster care.

But, those issues are all budget related and so neither have produced any new initiatives.

So, they're really sort of drafting behind the governor and his agenda and I think the only thing we can conclude is that the most important thing for all of them is this election that's ahead and they really wanna appeal to people with issues that they think people want to pay attention to right now.

They're not gonna be difficult heavy lifting.

It's really gonna be a lot of emotional proposals.

- One of the proposals is to limit abortions so that, if a woman is pregnant, she can get an abortion only up to 15 weeks and there's no exception for rape or incest.

Usually, I always thought that the legislature tried to avoid controversial issues during an election year.

It seems like there are a lot of controversial issues on the plate this time.

- Yeah, well, when it comes to abortion, that is a very controversial issue.

But, you've got to remember that because the US Supreme Court has a decision in front of it and it's likely to be decided between now and June, the legislature wants Florida to get on the ballot or, I'm sorry, get its proposal out there and the interesting thing is it's not taking the tactics of states like Texas.

It's moving toward a little bit more middle ground with a proposal that's, as you mentioned, 15 weeks, abortion limited at 15 weeks.

They could be more aggressive and they have chosen not to.

But, that is one thing that I think, because these are such controversial issues and divisive issues, it's a signal to me that the governor's audience is not Florida.

His audience is national and he wants people to see that he is leading.

He wants Republicans and the base of Republicans to see that he is taking Florida the direction that he believes the base wants to see.

- And does it also show the governor's very confident about his reelection chances in November?

He doesn't think that he's going to have much of a race.

He's just moved on to the national questions.

- Yeah, I think there's no doubt about that.

He has almost leapfrogged over his own reelection and is already appealing to a national audience.

- Mary Ellen, I got to ask you.

Behind the scenes there in the state Capitol, do they practice a social distancing or mask wearing?

I mean, what are the procedures to protect people from COVID now that the business is underway at the state capitol?

- Well, not much.

You really wouldn't know that there was a COVID pandemic goin' on if you were in the capitol.

There are some people who are making the individual choice of wearing masks, but it's fascinating.

Democrats, Republicans, staff members, are all sort of walking around without masks on.

There is a little bit of social distancing in, really, the large committee meeting rooms where they've asked people to only sit in every couple seats.

So, they're doing a little distancing in the seating.

But, for the most part, there's really no precautions being taken at all.

There's no testing and there's no requirement that people be vaccinated, of course.

So, it's an interesting thing and I think they're taking their lead from the governor in many ways and lobbyists are just following.

- One last question.

We only have a minute.

But, there is going to be a new bill that would further preemption by the state government over local and county ordinances.

It would allow businesses to sue if they've been injured by a city or county ordinance.

What are the chances that that bill, while you're not in the prediction business, but how much support does that bill have in the state legislature?

- This is another example of an issue that is being motivated and pushed by some big industries and, actually, small local businesses, as well.

They just don't want to deal with local regulations and so, because of that, I think it's got a lot of support there.

It's moving on the fast track in both the House and Senate and that one looks like that could be something that will be a big policy change that has not come from dealing with a crisis.

There's really no crisis it's attempting to fix.

- So, many interesting issues at this time in the session.

Mary Ellen, thank you for coming on "Florida This Week."

- You're welcome.

Good to be here.

(gentle music) - Republican Tom Lee represented parts of the Tampa Bay area in the Florida Senate from 1996 to 2006 and again from 2012 to 2020.

He was President of the Florida Senate from 2004 to 2006.

He's the vice president and director for Sabal Homes of Florida and he joins us now.

And, Tom Lee, welcome back.

- Thank you, Rob.

It's good to be with you.

Good to see you.

- So, how do you think the governor did in his state of the state speech?

Did he hit all the highlights that you would like him to mention?

- Well, the governor did fine.

I think he's a very articulate guy and he's a very driven and focused governor, a high energy guy, and he's got a pretty aggressive agenda.

I personally probably would be a little bit more focused on managing the economy and the growth in our state.

The state has sort of backed away from that in many respects and turned it back over to local governments and, in some respects, has turned it back over strings attached and preemption issues have developed.

So, I'm concerned that the quality of the growth in the state of Florida isn't as good as the quantity and we have to be careful because the bills will lag all of that growth if we don't draw the right kind of jobs to our state and I'd like to see a little bit more management on those issues.

But, all in all, I think he did just fine for a guy that is moving on in his political life it looks like to run for President of the United States.

- As you know, the governor said in that speech, the economy is doing good, that he's gonna have a surplus in the budget.

He's gonna add more money to the reserves and I think he would say, "Well, he's managed it well."

I think Democrats might say, "Well, you had a little help from the federal government."

But, if you would focus on the economy and growth, what would you do about growth, for instance?

Do you think we're growing in the wrong way and, if so- - I think we're growin' too fast, Rob.

I think the state's gonna look a lot more like California 25 years from now than any of the conservatives in the Florida legislature would like to admit and I think they're gonna reflect on that over time.

I don't think we're, there's quality and then there's quantity and we're growing very fast and, in many respects, it's eroding the quality of life in a lot of suburban areas of our state because we don't have the resources to invest in infrastructure to keep track and infrastructure's sort of the goose that lays the golden egg for sustainable economic development.

So, for me, that taking the long-term view on growth and slowin' down a little bit and catchin' our breath would be something I would be very interested in if I was still in the Senate.

- The Democrats complained about the speech saying it dealt too much with culture war issues.

What do you think about that?

Critical race theory, for instance, setting up this new police squad that would look at election law violations, those kinds of issues, that's the Democrats complaint.

- Yeah, I mean, in fairness to the governor, he's got his own agenda.

Clearly he has becoming a national standard bearer for conservatives in the United States and, if he chooses to do so, I think he's on a trajectory to be a very qualified and successful candidate for President of United States.

And so, in many regards, he's speaking to the Republicans in Iowa, I think, as much as he's speaking to the Florida legislature right now and, so far, he's making really good decisions on the issues he's picking.

I don't think sometimes that the issues that drive Republican and Democratic primary politics are really the issues that are most important to any population in this country.

But, nonetheless, that's the reality of politics here in the 21st century.

So, I hear you and I hear the criticism.

But, I think the governor is a very popular governor right now and it's given him a lot of power to take some editorial license with issues.

- So, does that mean that he's so confident that he's looking ahead to Iowa in the presidential primary in 2024?

He thinks he's got a lock on re-election and will anybody in Tallahassee stand up to him?

Might he gets most of his agenda through this session?

- Well, I think he's gonna get a lot of his agenda through this session.

It's a deep question.

But, the governor's clearly powerful.

He, like all politicians and political pundits, saw what happened in New Jersey and Virginia recently and I think there's a feeling that, going into the midterms, traditionally, the party in power doesn't do very well.

So, I think there's a lot of confidence out there, not to discount the fact that the governor's raised more money than any governor in history going into his reelection.

So, he's situated very well right now.

He's very popular.

His job approval numbers, right direction.

(indistinct) numbers and polling is going very well for him relative to other elected officials and so with that goes a tremendous amount of power and I suspect he's gonna be very successful getting his agenda accomplished.

- You mentioned quality of life and Florida turning into a state like California, which has problems when it comes to things like transportation and housing.

Our housing costs are going up.

The average price of a home is sky high.

Homeowner's insurance has gone way up this year.

You're in the home business.

How would you fix that?

How would you address affordable housing in Florida?

- Well, there's not much you can do except fully fund the Sadowski Trust Fund and try to make sure you're pumping as much money into housing as you can.

This isn't the first time we've had this problem.

When Governor Bush was governor and I was President of Senate, was '05, '06, we had had eight storms in 15 months, $30 billion worth of damage, re-insurance rates, which are unregulated, were spiking and, of course, housing costs were going up.

That was the days of the housing flippers and so there was a tremendous amount of consumption and a lot of inflation in housing and, for the first time in my memory, people were actually frustrated despite the fact that their home had gone up in value.

They couldn't afford the annual operating costs of the home between insurance and their mortgage payments.

So, we know how that movie ended.

There's not a lot the legislature can do about that though.

We're kind of the victim of our own success with the inflation that's been created by the federal government through all the stimulus that has been provided into the economy.

- Former State Senator Tom Lee, I wish we had more time.

Great to see you.

Thank you for coming on the program and I hope you come back.

- I appreciate you, Rob.

Best of luck to you.

Thank you.

- Thank you.

(gentle music) - Democrat Damian Filers, a political strategist, ballot initiative expert, and campaign veteran.

He's run successful statewide campaigns in Florida and is with Progress Florida and, Damian, welcome back to "Florida This Week."

- Thank you for having me.

- What did you think of the governor's state of the state address as he opened up the session of the legislature?

- Well, I think if you were a lobbyist for the utility industry or maybe a Republican caucus goer in Iowa, it was a great speech.

If you're one of the 20 million people living here in Florida, I think it left a lot to be desired.

- What do you think the governor left out of it?

- Well, the thing that I just couldn't believe that was left out of it entirely was the housing crisis that we're facing here in Florida.

Rents are going absolutely through the roof across the state, although, as I'm sure you know, there was a report that came out recently that showed that rents have increased more in the Tampa area than anywhere in the country.

But, to add to that, it's not just the rent component of things, but also property insurance rates are also going through the roof and I think that the state of the state was a clear illustration that this governor and this legislative leadership are in the pockets of big developers and the utility industry because we didn't hear a word about it.

- Leading up to the state of the state address and then in the state of the state address, the governor mentioned several cultural issues.

Some people call them culture war issues, things like critical race theory.

He wants to see an Office of Elections Crimes and spend about $6 million to do it and he wants school board races to be partisan.

When you said that he was aiming towards the primary voter in Iowa, I mean, these are the kinds of issues that get you attention on Fox News.

Is there a clamor in Florida for these kinds of reforms, these kinds of changes to happen?

- Absolutely not.

I mean, this is a perfect example, the three kind of culture war issues that you brought up, are perfect examples of him putting out bait and basically red meat for Republican primary voters and he seems to be more concerned about those Republican primary voters in places like Iowa, because it's clear that that's where his focus is.

He's running for president.

He has left Florida behind.

We can see it in his COVID response.

We can see it in his lack of addressing things like the housing crisis, that his personal ambition is his priority and appeasing the corporate donors that are gonna fund his campaign is his priority and, if you ask real people living in communities across the state and, I don't care, Democrat, Republican, independent, none of them are going to tell you that they're more concerned with critical race theory than they are with the cost of living in the state and I think that that is as clear and indication as anything that, like I say, he's more concerned with his own ambition than he is with doing the job that he was elected to do here in Florida.

- The governor kept saying during that speech that this is the free state of Florida, and he touted the fact that Florida remained open.

The economy is healthy.

He was against vaccine mandates and mask mandates and he's taking credit for that.

How would you rate his handling of COVID?

- Well, I mean, it's just completely hypocritical to start with.

He spends his time on Fox News bashing vaccines and yet he's vaccinated and he talks about it from the standpoint of being concerned about keeping schools open and keeping businesses open.

But, the truth of the matter is that, if we don't have common sense mitigation efforts in place, things like the CDC and public health experts are recommending in terms of encouraging vaccines and wearing masks when appropriate, than we're never gonna get back to a sense of normalcy and business as usual in the state and it's just really tragic that this has become a political football because public health really shouldn't be and, like I said, I mean, if you look at it, Ron DeSantis is vaccinated.

Donald Trump is vaccinated.

They get out there and they rile up their base with conspiracy theories.

But, the truth of the matter is that, when the rubber hits the road, they're vaccinated and they should be encouraging everyone else to be too.

This shouldn't be a political issue.

- On another issue, abortion, the governor says he hasn't made up his mind yet.

But, several state legislators have introduced legislation that would ban all abortions after 15 weeks with no exception for rape or incest.

Do you think that that's likely to pass the session?

- Well, I think it's certainly another example of the hypocrisy of a governor who talks a good game about freedom and I have seen him on the record saying that he does support this legislation and, what it will represent if this bill passes and we truly do ban abortion in the state of Florida, it will be the freedom for anyone in the state who can get pregnant and who is in need of abortion care, they'll have the freedom to spend the money to travel about a thousand miles or more to North Carolina to have access to abortion care, which is outrageous.

This is something that, Roe v. Wade has broad popular support across the country, here in Florida.

It always has.

It remains so today and it's really tragic.

I mean, another thing I would point out that we're looking at with regard to this bill is we're about to have with Senator Passidomo from Southwest Florida, she's the incoming Senate President, only the third woman to hold that leadership post in our state's history, it would be a tragic legacy for her to have three men currently in power in the state of Florida, the Speaker, the Senate president, and this Governor pull her strings and have it be that it's on her watch that we truly allow politicians to get in between patients and their doctors to make these kind of personal and private decisions.

- Well, it's gonna be an interesting session.

Damian Filer, thanks a lot for coming on "Florida This Week."

- Thanks for having me, Rob.

Good to see you.

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Please send your comments to us at ftw@wedu.org.

You can view this and past shows online at 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 podcasts and, from all of us here at WEDU, have a great weekend and happy Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

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