- This is a production of WEDU PBS, Tampa, St.

Petersburg, Sarasota.

[music] - Florida lawmakers are running out of time in Tallahassee.

The House and the Senate still have not agreed on a state budget.

Leaders say they will continue negotiations past March 13th in special session if needed.

At the same time, efforts to address affordability appear stalled.

Property taxes, insurance reform and rising utility costs remain.

Top concerns for Floridians, and the state's authority over local government is in the spotlight.

Florida's Attorney General James Uthmeier, taking aim at Tampa City Mayor Jane Castor.

He warns Castor could be removed if city policies violate state immigration laws.

Plus, legislators look to limit local DEI programs.

Stay tuned for a breakdown of the biggest issues from the final week of the legislative session.

Plus, on this National Women's History Month, we take a look at the women of the Titanic in a global exhibit now in Tampa that's bringing their stories to new generations.

It's all next on Florida This Week.

[music] Welcome back everybody.

I'm Lissette Campos.

Joining us on the panel is Michael Van Sickler, political editor of the Tampa Bay Times.

Jake Hoffman, legislative chair of the Hillsborough County Republican Party and the former president of the Tampa Bay Young Republicans.

And Victor DeMaio, president of the Hillsborough County Democratic Hispanic Caucus.

Florida's regular legislative session was supposed to end by the end of this weekend, but the biggest task in Tallahassee remains unfinished, passing a state budget.

Right now, the House and the Senate remain divided on how much Florida should spend during the next fiscal year.

That's July the 1st, 2026 to June 30th, 2027.

Lawmakers failing to reach a consensus on how much and where that money should go.

The Florida legislature's only constitutional duty each year is to pass a state budget, but at this point, lawmakers are still very far apart.

The Florida House has proposed a spending plan of about $113.6 billion.

The Senate's version comes in higher, around $115 billion.

The gap may seem small in a budget of this size, but inside those numbers are big policy differences.

One of the biggest disputes centers on an emergency spending fund supported by Governor Ron DeSantis.

The fund was originally set aside to respond to hurricanes and other disasters and emergencies.

DeSantis used it to pay for immigration enforcement.

Nearly half $1 billion was spent during the last fiscal year, according to Florida's Department of Emergency Management costs that included the controversial alligator Alcatraz in the Florida Everglades.

Now, lawmakers want to clearly define what constitutes an emergency, limiting how that emergency fund is used.

Lawmakers are also debating education spending.

The Senate plan includes billions of dollars for public schools and raises for state employees.

The House version focuses on pay increases and specific priorities for school funding.

After six weeks in regular session, these unresolved differences mean that lawmakers and staff stay in Tallahassee longer.

While they don't receive extra salary for extending session, their expenses on travel, lodging, and meals are reimbursed by taxpayers.

Experts say that can amount to approximately $48,000 per day.

While lawmakers and key staff remain in the overtime period of session.

Mike, I'd like to start with you.

The Tampa Bay Times has had a number of reporters covering all different aspects of the legislative session.

You've been there as well.

What seems to be the major sticking point here?

Why is there not more progress?

- Well, um, there's about, you know, um, maybe a couple billion dollars separating the two, which sounds like a lot, but, um, really on principle, the main sticking point is this the emergency spending that has really come under a lot of scrutiny, especially with the immigration with Alligator Alcatraz.

It was created in 2022.

Really more to deal with nature, uh, natural disasters like hurricanes.

And, uh, the governor has spent about $6 billion of that, so far.

But the 600 million for immigration just raises the question of, does the governor have too much leeway in identifying what to spend money?

- And the governor had said that he was declaring that an emergency, the immigration situation in Florida, an emergency.

And that's why he was tapping into those funds.

- And that leeway the governor has to determine what to spend money on is extraordinary.

So, yes, he spent about 600 million on the immigration, and we don't know how that money was spent.

But he's also spent a few million on the No Kings protests, which were largely peaceful, and he was able to identify that as an emergency.

- Jake, how do you see this?

Because so many folks are expecting more to come out of the legislature, and yet the personalities seem so big that that may be getting in the way.

- Yeah.

I think that this whole legislative session is kind of democracy in action.

You're watching people with strong personalities, big egos.

They don't agree and it's messy and it's not always super clean and they're not going to be on time.

But like you said before, it is a constitutional requirement that they will pass a budget.

They will get there.

It might take a couple extra days, a couple extra weeks, whatever it is.

The substance of what they got done during session is a discussion.

People do want big reform.

They want property tax reform and elimination.

They want things done with their utility bills and their their insurance especially.

And none of those big questions seem to have been answered during that session.

So that's really where we're at.

- Victor, how do you see all of this?

You're smiling as these gentlemen are speaking.

- As someone who lobbies up there.

I can tell you these guys waste more time doing absolutely nothing.

They talk around issues they'll have.

They'll recognize people from their hometowns.

You know, they just they've had farewells, speeches that have lasted for hours.

I mean, and the only thing they're charged with is coming up with a budget.

They've had two months, 60 days to do it well by this, by Friday.

This weekend is supposed to be done and they're not done.

They have to be called back for another special session to finish the budget.

- And so let's talk about that because the special session, the legislators do not get extra pay if they have to go back.

However, taxpayers do have to reimburse the expenses of the hotel and the stipend for meals and things like that.

If we have already a special session that's designated for the congressional redistricting issue in April, do we think that there's going to be the possibility of a separate special session for the property taxes?

Jake, I'll start with you.

- Well, we're definitely going to see another special session regarding the congressional congressional redistricting.

And you might see another one with the property taxes, but I wouldn't even bother thinking about the fact that they're getting reimbursed stipends for for being up there, to be honest.

These legislators are paid so little, it's like $39,000 a year.

- It's less than that.

It's actually 29, $29,000.

- Sorry.

So you know what?

We probably should pay them a living wage and have them focus on their jobs.

So maybe they could actually get the budget passed so they don't have to worry about all the other things they have to go do.

You know, these, these are guys that spend $4 million on a campaign.

I don't think that we need to worry too much about, you know, $200 reimbursing a poor college student staffer who needs the money to stay in the apartment that day.

- Well, the polling I've seen is all about insurance, insurance, insurance, and they've had multiple special sessions to tackle insurance.

- And we'll talk about that in the next segment.

I haven't done were you going to say before we run out of time.

- On what Jake said?

I couldn't agree more.

We have a citizen's legislature, which means we've de professionalized what it is to be a lawmaker, and we have it pretty much defined as a part time job.

So the people that go up there have to have another job.

So I think there are a lot more susceptible to lobbying, and I don't quibble with putting them in Tallahassee to discuss things for a longer period of time.

They only have two months to figure out all the issues facing the state.

What's the harm in giving them more time?

- And with that, we're going to move on to our next segment.

The biggest concern for many Floridians this session was not about politics.

It was about affordability.

Now, with session coming to an end, critics say that lawmakers fail to address the cost of living rising homeowners insurance, property taxes, utility bills.

They're all putting pressure on household budgets across the state.

New polls show that 50%, five zero 50% of voters cited affordability and the cost of living as their biggest concern.

That's according to a University of North Florida survey that was released last week.

However, in Tallahassee, lawmakers bills to lower the costs, including insurance reform and lower property taxes, appear to have stalled.

Jake, I'd like to ask you, when you all the Tampa Bay young Republicans and the, the the local party went up to Tallahassee and went with a proposal for property taxes.

Where where did that land?

- Well, our group, the Young Republicans, have called for the elimination of property taxes.

We knew that up there, when it goes to Tallahassee, that there's going to be a lot of different competing ideas for or against all of that.

And so if we stand at the point of let's just get rid of them, you guys figure it out.

Maybe we shouldn't trust them to figure it out, because obviously they haven't come to a consensus on on coming to something, coming to the voters with something in November.

But ultimately it is going to turn into hopefully a proposal on the ballot where people will be able to make the decision themselves on what to do with property taxes.

I think that my best hope is that maybe we increase the homestead exemption, and everyone can kind of come to a sort of a compromise.

Instead of being $50,000, maybe we get 150, $250,000, and that would make a huge difference in a lot of people's bills at the end of the year.

And then we talk about utility bills.

That's something that they actually could affect up there.

They have the ability to expand options for people, whether it may be in the home solar realm or the batteries.

And now with AI data centers and all these different things that they're kind of discussing, these things could actually lower people's utility bills if they took the time to go and do it.

But it's kind of complicated.

People get confused.

They just want their tech bill to be less at the end of the day.

Insurance is much more difficult.

They would probably tell you that we have addressed it in past sessions, and now you're starting to see it actually be lowered, or at least not raised in the state of Florida over the past few years.

- Mike, so many folks were hoping also the condo crisis that there would be some, uh, some relief for condo owners.

What happened with that?

- Definitely.

I think the expectations, just like last year with property insurance, were very high that they would tackle affordability.

Condo owners over the last few years have really incurred a lot of expenses.

And this year, the really the only legislation that passed that affects them is something that would require.

If a private insurer comes within 15% of the cost of the Citizen's Insurance, then they would be mandated to go to that private insurer.

Now, there's an argument that that's going to encourage a lot of competition, which should lower costs, but they could also be in a situation where they'll have to pay 15% more than what they're currently paying.

- So what you're seeing here now, though, is it's the eighth year of a very strong governor, Ron DeSantis.

And the Republicans I've spoken to privately say they're just tired of getting pushed around and told what to do.

Rubber stamp everything he says.

So you're saying, and then you have a house that's pushing back, flexing their muscles and what's going on in Tallahassee.

There's no agreement.

That's why this thing is supposed to end this weekend, is it not?

So that's why this big property tax proposal that was supposed to be DeSantis signature thing to run for president on, that's, you know, the House is passing bills that the Senate doesn't want to hear, the Senate's passing bills that the House is want to hear.

I think I've heard they've only passed like 50 bills.

I mean, it's one of the worst, least productive sessions in the history of the legislature because they are not agreeing on any last count.

- Um, there were 69 bills passed so far at this point, maybe a few more.

Um, that was versus 262 bills in the 25 session and 313 bills in the, you know, in the prior year.

- That's out of like 2000 bills that are.

- A lot of Republicans.

- Would tell you that maybe we don't need to pass that many new laws and that that the more laws when we pass 300 bills, that's not necessarily a good thing.

And there are a lot of legislators out there that feel that way, that maybe we don't need to pass so many laws because every time we add another regulation to something or we add some more, we run the chance of messing it up.

- Great perspective.

- Right?

And by the way, the property tax bill, if they don't, if they don't come to this agreement, they get rid of property taxes all together.

It'll be an $800 million hole in Hillsborough County alone.

- And we're definitely going to keep talking about that.

Um, we're going to move on to our next segment for today.

Another issue the session is centered on is how much authority that the state should have over local governments and public institutions.

Florida lawmakers already restricted diversity, equity and inclusion programs at public university, but a bill passed this session extended those limits to cities and counties.

It prohibits local governments from funding or promoting DEI initiatives at the same time.

Other measures were approved that would block local governments from adopting net zero climate policies.

Those aim to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

The state is also coming down on local leaders around immigration enforcement.

Just this week, Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier warned Tampa Mayor Jane Castor that the state could seek her removal from office.

Uthmeier claims that Tampa city policies may conflict with state immigration law.

Mike, I'd like to start with you.

This was a real big surprise to many, including they said at City Hall they were not expecting this.

They did not see this coming.

- They didn't expect it because they are participating with a 287 G. Agreement with the federal agencies.

And they had up to this point felt that they were cooperating.

But Othmar flagged them on some, uh, you know, department policies where if they're trying to figure out who committed a crime, they get to talk to witnesses and those identities are protected.

And a lot of times those witnesses help solve crimes involving Americans.

- Right.

The letter that Othmar said cited two different policies.

It said that officers are barred from sharing immigration information on crime victims or witnesses with federal immigration officials.

And then the second thing that he cited in his letter was that the police department is limiting the participation of what he called broad based immigration enforcement actions.

Um, the victim's releasing the victims or the witnesses Information is something that the police department has said that may be counterproductive to advancing investigations, to completing and and solving these crimes.

Victor, how do you think that this will play out within the Hispanic community?

- Well, right now, the Hispanics that I deal with every day, day in and day out throughout the county and the state or wherever they're scared to death that this is they're not even leaving their homes.

They're scared to take their kids to school.

They're, they're scared to take the kids to, to, to, uh, you know, to the doctor or do grocery shopping.

So the police rely on people to help them identify crimes or victims of crimes.

And they don't want to cooperate with the with the police.

You know, they're already scared as it is because according to this, they could if, you know, if they have to turn that information over.

Next thing you know, they're going to knock on the door from Ice.

And that's the last thing they want to deal with even.

And that's what's sad.

I mean, the Republicans really overreached on this issue, and it's becoming a big liability for them.

And I think Altmire, thanks to the great work of the Tampa Bay times and just exposing his, uh, the 10 million or $30 million scam that he pulled, this is just a deflection to put, uh, you know.

- And you're referring to the Hope Florida.

- The Hope Florida scandal.

I mean, it was huge.

And he's and he's, he's front and center.

The top guy that did all that mess for the whole state.

- And it is important to say that not all Republicans are in favor of this.

Would agree that the mayor, Tampa Mayor Jane Castor, is participating in anything that even resembles, uh, a sanctuary city.

How how is this going to play out?

- Well.

- One, I don't think that the mayor is going to get removed.

I think she's got she's got a year left.

And I think that this is a great headline to maybe intimidate other cities, other counties that may not be cooperating with the federal agencies.

And I do think that, you know, when we start talking about ice, when we start talking about deportations, this invokes such emotion for a lot of people that they get up in arms over it.

But if in any other case, you said to somebody, well, the city's not giving the names to the federal agents.

Oh, we're not cooperating with the FBI.

We're not cooperating with them.

You would say, why is the city not cooperating?

But in this case, because it's deportations, because it's emotional.

Now people are saying, well, maybe you shouldn't cooperate them, but there's a picking and choosing.

And if we're either going to cooperate with the federal agencies or we're not, and right now that's our federal policy, we should be cooperating with Ice and we should be.

And if people are scared to leave their homes, I'm sorry, they're probably not here legally.

And which means that then it's a problem.

If you're here legally, you don't have anything to worry about.

People are not.

I know that, I know what sometimes people read in the news and online everything, but people are not being deported because they are here legally.

They're being deported.

- Because they are.

I have to disagree with you.

There are so many people that get caught in that web.

Well, that's why this whole issue.

Look, they kill two Americans and one guy who was lying on the street.

- They killed.

- They killed a man in cold blood on the street.

Ten bullets.

And they took his gun away from him, and they killed him.

All right, this is what's turned the entire United States.

- I think your concern is if a crime is committed, you want to encourage witnesses to come forward, right?

And this does, you know, you talk to any investigator and this does.

Um.

- But this has always been this has always been an issue.

I don't think this is new with ice.

I mean, I remember seeing Law & Order episodes about this from 20 years ago.

People are not here legally.

They don't cooperate.

If people are also, you know, doing something illegal, maybe it's not just their citizenship.

They don't cooperate with the police.

So I think it's an ongoing issue.

And I think that it's hard to say the city shouldn't participate with what federal agencies are asking for.

They should be in full cooperation, regardless of your political opinions.

- But this dragnet that Ice puts on, they they're getting a lot of really, people that are citizens have these people I'm talking to their citizens.

They have their papers.

They're they're naturalized citizens and they're still scared to death.

If you look Hispanic, since the courts agreed it, the guy looks.

If he speaks Spanish, he looks a little Hispanic.

I can still stop him there.

- They are afraid because people come onto TV and they say, you need to be afraid and we're going to put you in jail or we're going to deport you when that's just not the case.

And if people would stop saying like, if you're, you know, you should be scared, stay in your home, then they wouldn't be.

I think that we do a lot of fear mongering.

And look, if you are illegal or you're, you know, harboring someone in your home who's here illegally, like you probably do have something to be afraid of.

- So many, they have this big quota they have to fill.

So that's what this is.

This is this is not fake.

This is real.

This is going on right here, right now in our community.

And people around the country are scared to death.

So yes, the Hispanics are scared because we're the ones being targeted.

- Well, there are there are passions on all sides of this.

I want to thank all of you for being so open and for coming to the show.

Thanks to your participation, we're able to help viewers with that.

So thank you for to you for having me.

And thank you to our panelists, Michael Van Sickler, Jake Hoffman, and Victor DeMaio.

Remember that our conversations don't end when the cameras are turned off.

You can find extended bonus content on our YouTube channel.

Just visit YouTube.com/PBS.

And if you'd like to watch this episode again, share it with someone.

You'll find our full archive of Florida This Week on our website at WEDU.org.

For National Women's History Month, we are talking to the executive producer of a Titanic exhibit that captures the stories of women who were on the Titanic.

We are joined by Mr.

John Zoller, who is the executive producer of Exhibition Hub.

Also of this exhibit, "The Titanic An Immersive Voyage."

Thank you so much for coming in.

- Thanks, Lissette.

Pleasure to be here.

Talking about the women of Titanic with you.

- This exhibit has been all over the world, across the US, and you all are treating the stories of women in a way that I've never seen done in any other exhibit.

Tell us about some of these incredible women.

- So we wanted to highlight the passengers on board the ship, particularly the women who were so instrumental to the ship's story.

And also were some of the survivors who really helped us learn the Titanic's story.

Had they not survived, we wouldn't know anything about what happened that night in April 1912.

So what we've done is we've given everybody we've created several boarding passes, a lot of them having women on board the ship.

This one I have for you is Ida Strauss.

- The spouse of the owner of Macy's.

- Correct.

And they were they had been on a long holiday in Europe, and they switched to Titanic at the last minute, thinking that they were so lucky to be on the newest, most luxurious ship.

And then they experienced the worst maritime disaster in modern history.

- And her story is is so famous because she refused to get on any of the lifeboats.

She said, I think her last words were to her husband, where you go, I go, that's correct.

And she stayed with Isidore on the Titanic as it.

- Was a very moving story and there's so many stories like that.

You know, we tell the story of Molly Brown.

We were talking about Edith Russell, a fashion journalist who was covering the new fashions in Paris, and again, had switched to Titanic at the last minute.

She survived.

And in the lifeboat that night, she had her lucky mechanical pig with her that she went back to her cabin to get.

And the stewards were all upset.

They were trying to get her into a lifeboat, but she then had that her lucky pig, which for her helped her survive.

But she used it to entertain the kids on board the lifeboat.

So there was a little bit of distraction during that incredibly long night that they experienced before they were rescued by the Carpathia.

- You all have captured the reactions of women and how they stepped up to do things during that moment of crisis that often history overlooks.

- So we tell, you know, for example, Molly Brown, she was key to that entire night in her lifeboat.

She's the one who really kept the morale up.

Everybody was freezing cold.

She made everybody row in in rotation so they could stay warm, generate body heat.

And she also was adamant that they go back and look for survivors in the water.

When everybody else on board the ship onboard that lifeboat was afraid that if they went into that field, that they would get swamped by potential survivors.

- Coming from other areas, other cities and places, countries that have seen this.

What has been the the feedback from guests specifically on on these women's stories?

- So the there's a real connection that is created between people who come to the experience and the passengers aboard the ship.

Part of it is the boarding pass that we talked about.

But another another way is that we put you in the lifeboat in the immersive gallery, and you experience those final moments of Titanic through 360 projection as if you're in the lifeboat.

And again, the stories go to the women who survived, the women who were forced to be separated from their husbands.

You know, there was the rule of the sea women and children first.

But these were also very brave people who made that decision to save their children, to step away from their husbands and then carry on their lives.

- You brought some artifacts for us to look at.

- I did bring some artifacts.

So this these artifacts have to do with the band that was on board the ship.

And they famously played while the ship went down.

They were in a tough position because they weren't passengers and they weren't crew.

So they really didn't have an option to get in a lifeboat, but they really had a stiff upper lip and played the entire time.

It's famously quoted that Wallace Hartley's, "Nearer My God to Thee," was the last thing heard going across the silent waters as Titanic went down.

- In the limited time that we have.

You said something that I. That I've never heard before the.

The tie in between Tampa and our maritime industry and the area of the Titanic.

Tell our viewers about that.

- So obviously, Tampa's got a long maritime history as a port city.

Shortly after, almost immediately after the Titanic sank, an international ice patrol was set up that has patrolled the waters for the.

For the last 114 years since Titanic sank.

And the Coast Guard cutter Tampa was one of the first ships commissioned to go patrol those waters of the North Atlantic.

And since that time that the International Ice Patrol was set up, there has not been another collision with an iceberg in the North Atlantic.

- Well, congratulations, and thank you so much for putting your talents to this wonderful exhibition that tells the stories of women aboard the Titanic and their contribution to that moment in history.

- Thank you, Lissette.

And as we were saying earlier, I feel like I have the luckiest job in the world.

- And we would agree in the studio.

Thanks for coming in.

For more information, you can go on the website you see on your screen to see and experience for yourself.

The Titanic an immersive voyage.

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