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

(bright upbeat music) - Coming up next, in his new campaign ads, Senator Rick Scott is claiming that teachers are teaching socialism and not math or English.

This November, taxpayers will be asked to pay more to improve teacher pay in several Bay Area counties, lights on the Sunshine Skyway Bridge will not celebrate Pride Month as they have for the past three years, and an airman who was legally armed is shot and killed by a deputy as he answers his front door.

All this and more coming up next on "Florida This Week."

(soaring instrumental music) Welcome back.

This week, our panelists are Janelle Irwin Taylor is a journalist and publisher for "Southeast Politics."

Stanley Gray is a retired businessman, the former president and CEO of the Hillsborough County Urban League, and is not currently affiliated with a political party.

Barry Edwards is a political commentator and pollster who has worked for both Democrats and Republicans and is currently a registered Republican, and Patrick Manteiga is the editor and publisher of the "La Gaceta" newspaper and a Democrat.

Thank you all for coming to the show.

Nice to see you.

Okay, well, Florida's junior US Senator Rick Scott is running for reelection.

And in a series of ads he's been running for more than a month, he claims that we "send our kids to school where some radical socialist teacher does not teach them math or English," and, "They're taught that men can have babies and become women and that we should worship the God of government, not the God who created us."

In another ad, he says, "President Joe Biden is moving America towards socialism."

(slow dramatic music) (people shout indistinctly) - So Stanley, doesn't really describe what he means by socialism, but what what's your take on the effectiveness of that ad?

- Well, unfortunately, I believe that there will be a population where it is effective, but the real big issue is that I just believe it's not only dangerous but irresponsible of him to be quoting things that can't, one, be measured, can't be validated or invalidated.

This is kind of a sophomoric comment, but why don't we just like have a Night of the Broken Glass?

Because that's exactly what he's doing.

He's not given any truth, and it's just, he's really tugging on people's emotions, and this is a very dangerous thing for a person in his position.

- Barry, the governor grew up in public, I mean, sorry, I'm sorry.

The senator grew up in public housing, made his money off Medicare.

Some say that- - Off of healthcare.

- Well, off Medicare and Medicaid.

Some say it was one of the biggest frauds in Medicaid and Medicare history.

His company was fined $1.7 billion.

So he made money off socialism.

He lived off what I think he would consider socialism, and now he's criticizing it.

- Well, I don't know if that's socialism, but I think this is good politics.

- [Rob] But what does he mean by socialism?

- Well, I think he means socialism, and what we've seen, there's policy in his politics, and we're in the campaign season.

I just listened to Joe Biden on his press conference today about education, and he said, "No Republican voted for this."

So both sides are using draconian hyperbolic language to try to get their points across.

But we know this is good politics because he's bought 3/4 of a million dollars of TV in Hispanic TV the last six weeks, and now he leads by real clear politics average of 12 points across the state, and he leads in every single district, legislative district with Hispanics.

So he's working, and I predict on your show two years ago that Ron DeSantis would win by 12.

Rick Scott's gonna win by 15.

So this is great politics.

Is it hyperbole?

Absolutely, but it's great politics when you're into the five-month and three-week season, and that's what you're gonna get.

- Patrick, you see great politics?

- You know, of course it is, but, you know, Hitler had great politics to get to where he was.

Oh.

- It's bad for the country.

Don't "oh" me.

I mean, he is talking about stuff that is bad for this country.

Why are we making teachers look like they're evil?

Who is the teacher out there who's teaching kids that boys have babies and not to worship their God?

Why are we talking about God in school at all?

But the reality is that, you know, if I was a teacher, I'd be mad as hell at this.

This is ridiculous, and he's spending millions of dollars to make that profession hurt.

We're not paying teachers enough now, and he feeds into that that public education's worthless.

- So Janelle, he says that teachers are not teaching math and English.

They're teaching socialism.

I don't know what the footnote to that is.

I don't know what the data is, as Stanley would say.

Where does he get that from?

- I'm gonna take my journalist hat off for a second, and I'm gonna put on my teacher wife hat because my husband is a teacher.

He teaches US history in high school.

He has a PhD in US history.

He is the first person that Rick Scott would label, you know, a socialist teaching all of these things, and no, he's not teaching math or English because he is not a math or an English teacher, and so that's totally okay.

To use an underpaid and exploited profession that just, we just came out that Florida was 50th in the nation, second to last for teacher pay overall, and you're gonna sit here and demonize them in one fell swoop?

I mean, that might be good politics, and I know that it is, and I know that it will work, sadly, but it doesn't make it right.

- Just to clarify, your husband is a history teacher.

Does he teach history or does he teach socialism?

- He absolutely teaches history.

(laughs) - I had to ask.

- (laughs) And he's a darn good teacher.

(laughs) - Stanley.

- I just think it's really bad that, and again, that we can mitigate the truth with something that's gonna help us get elected.

This is a problem, and I've been saying this for like the last four or five years.

This country is in the midst of redefining what's right, what's wrong, what's honorable, what's unhonorable, and, at some point, if we don't figure this out, we are gonna have the Night of the Broken Glass.

We will, and I'm predicting it, and I predicted it and shared this for like the last two or three years.

We are going the wrong way.

- I mean, if Scott has this much money this early in the campaign, does it show that, you know, all you need is a lot of money?

Spend it early in the campaign and solidify your lead and there's no race.

- Look at how he is gotten into positions of power in the first place, you know?

Both of his bids for governors were largely self funded.

So this is a man where money has never been an issue.

So, you know, I think that does play a huge role, and, you know, for Democrats, I think they're putting all of their eggs into one basket, and that is the abortion issue, and the socialism card that he's playing, right or wrong, that's gonna play a lot stronger than abortion is gonna play, and I think Democrats would be wise to start heeding that.

- Oh, absolutely.

Every poll I've seen, in fact in Hillsborough County, abortion is only a four-point advantage for the Democrats over the Republicans, four points, and it doesn't appear to have any increase with turnout, and neither does the marijuana.

Just like two years ago, they're gonna be bust.

Socialism, though, inflames Hispanic voters, especially first and second generation Hispanics down in Miami and South Florida, Cubans, and Venezuelans.

It resonates with 'em, so it's successful.

So he's gonna do it.

- So Patrick, is that the key to winning Florida is lock up the Spanish speaking vote, the Latino and Hispanics, and you win the race?

- It certainly helps, and the Republicans, by pushing this socialism issue, have been hurting or have been helping themselves with Hispanics, and the Democrats have been ignoring, trying to deal with that.

You know, they have ignored going back and labeling Republican leaders as being dictators and showing images of Scott and Fidel Castro and our governor and Hugo Chavez, and really, this is a kind of silly kindergarten game we're playing now, and the Democrats are failing to get in the mud and wallow in it, and they need to.

- But Scott has never sat alongside Hugo Chavez or anybody else, but you're saying that Scott acts like a dictator?

Is that what you're saying?

- He's supporting people who wanna be dictators.

You know, Donald Trump doesn't want to foster democracy here.

He just wants to win.

- Stanley.

- I think that we really need to numerate the differences between communism and socialism 'cause there are some stark differences.

We have a real problem, and that is that we have an extreme right and extreme left that are getting a lot of play.

The bottom line, if you're either one of those, you are not for democracy.

- Okay.

Well, both Pinellas and Hillsborough counties will ask voters this November whether to approve taxes for education.

The Pinellas School Board unanimously agreed to put a referendum on the November ballot that would increase property taxes countywide.

Voters will be asked to increase the property tax by a half mil.

That means that, for a home valued at $400,000 for tax purposes, the education portion of the property tax, which is now $200, would increase to $400 a year.

The money would expand technology, arts, and literacy programs for students, provide extra annual pay of close to $3,000 for support employees, increase teacher pay by just over $11,000 a year.

Over in Hillsborough County, there are two education-related tax issues on the upcoming ballot.

One is a renewal of the community investment sales tax.

This time, the portion of that tax that goes to help build new schools would drop from 25% to just 5%.

The other tax is one put on the ballot by the Hillsborough School Board.

It would increase property taxes to the same level being considered in Pinellas.

The tax would raise an estimated 177 million, of which 26 and a half million would go to charter schools, which are publicly funded but operated independently.

Of the remaining, 138 million would boost employee pay, teachers would get a $6,000 raise, administrators would get $6,000 raises, and bus drivers, aides, and cafeteria workers and other support staff would get $3,000 raises, and there would be more funding for nature's classroom, college and career counseling, and expanded sports options.

Patrick, are the proposed tax increases justified in Pinellas and Hillsborough County?

- I don't think either school board wanted to do this.

I think they're having to respond to the state's failure to fund schools.

While the state keeps talking about it providing more money every year, the state of Florida grows, as our governor likes to tell us, and so the new money doesn't ever catch up.

We're also one of the states that best fund private education, and so a lot of our money is not going to our public schools.

You know, this is necessary.

We're 50th in teacher pay in the nation, and we're going down, not up.

The teacher's union, they've taken all the teeth out of the teacher's union and really set them in a bad position, and so these districts know that, if they don't get this money, they're not gonna be successful.

Hillsborough County's bleeding teachers every day to Pasco and Polk County where they're getting paid more.

Pasco passed this tax last year or last election season.

Hillsborough wants it this year, and so does Pinellas, and like I said, this is necessary.

You're gonna see all the districts around the state have to do these kind of taxes to bandaid their teacher pay.

- Is it likely that, in Hillsborough County, both the CIT tax passes and the increase in property taxes for schools passes in Hillsborough?

- You know, the people are talking about, you know, if you put two taxes on there, they're not gonna pass or, you know, if somebody's gonna favor one or the other.

You know, I just think it's gonna be the electorate.

You know, if they come out and they feel like the district's made a good argument that it needs to pay its teachers more, and I think it can make that argument, that tax should pass, and the CIT tax has been a very successful tax.

I don't think anybody criticized that after it passed, and so, you know, I think that we have needs here for fire stations throughout the county.

We have needs for roads and filling potholes.

So I believe they will pass, but I believe it'll be very close.

- Barry, what do you think about the issue in Pinellas County, for instance?

- Pinellas passed it under the leadership of the old chancellor of USF, but I think that was a different time.

I think with the economy, and I've been studying it all around the country, taxes have been going down.

In our own area, you had the transit tax here that passed, what, 57 to 43, and then it failed.

So there's been a movement, especially with inflation, by voters, especially black voters, to vote against these things, so- - You're saying that tax questions on the ballot have been going down?

- Going down.

I think that in Hillsborough, the problem with it is these $6,000 for administrators.

In fact, I did some polling on this.

When you have it just for teachers, it was passing, not by much, but passing.

As soon as you bring up that it's for administrators, too, it fails by 20 points.

I think they have a real problem by putting administrators on there, and I think it's gonna go down.

- Stanley?

- Well, I kind of agree with you.

First off, I think it's very much a socialist act to give everybody $6,000 across the board.

I think that there should be some kind of criteria for performance for teachers, and I also do not believe that administrators should get any of the funds, and the reason why is administrators aren't leaving.

And the other thing that I think that they're gonna do, if they're insisting upon giving these funds to the charter schools, which I disagree with, but you're gonna do what you wanna do, I think that there needs to be some kind of performance criteria for their teachers as well as their administrators.

- And that's not happening.

- It's not, it's just- - But we are losing principals and assistant principals to other counties.

You know, those are administrators also.

So we are losing talent on all levels.

- You know, I think there's a lot of really great points that have been made here today on this, but I think what it really boils down to is not a trajectory of tax initiatives or anything like that.

I think it boils down to what people are feeling in their pocketbooks right now, and we're at a time where even if, you know, on paper it doesn't bear it out, people feel like the economy is going in the wrong direction.

They're overextended on paying their bills.

My own family is, you know, struggling right now with homeowners insurance issues.

So, you know, when you're asking people to pay more, even if it's nominal, that's still something that people really think about.

Now, obviously, I just said that I have a husband who's a teacher, so this is something that I'm like, "Yeah," because $200 for $11,000, but not everybody's husband is a teacher.

So I think you're gonna have a lot of people saying, "I just can't afford this right now.

Like, yes, we know there's a need.

Yes, we think teachers need to make more, but, you know, we gotta put food on our table."

I think that's the fundamental question, and that transcends partisanship.

- Unlike issues on statewide ballots, this only needs 50% plus one to pass.

- Correct.

- in both counties, okay.

Well, the lights on Tampa Bay's iconic Sunshine Skyway Bridge have long been used to memorialize different special events and causes such as GLBTQ Pride, Juneteenth, and support for Israel and Ukraine, but not this summer.

Because of a complaint from a Manatee County commissioner, neither the June Pride celebration nor the Annual Gun Violence Awareness Day, which is on the first Friday of June, will be recognized with special lights on the bridge.

According to the "Tampa Bay Times," the objection came from Manatee County Commission Chairman Mike Rahn.

Instead, the agency announced that, for this year, the Skyway will have a special display of red, white, and blue lights on bridges that will run all summer from Memorial Day to Labor Day, and it's not just the Skyway.

All Florida bridges will be draped in patriotic colors for the summer, so no Pride bridge lighting elsewhere in Florida.

Because the Skyway touches Manatee, Hillsborough, and Pinellas Counties, the FDT's policy is that light displays have to be approved by all three county commissions.

They wanna be assured that any display has broad community support.

So Janelle, what do you think of this decision by the Department of Transportation?

- Well, you know, I guess they're consistent, so at least there's that, but it just, (sighs) I think what troubles a lot of people is this idea that one guy, they didn't even follow their own rules, one guy said, "Nope, I don't like this."

You know, so we're gonna turn the Skyway into, you know, a star-spangled, awesome piece of infrastructure for the whole summer, and you know, that's great.

Let's be patriotic, sure, but to ignore all of these other causes because one guy asked for it to throw out all of your procedures because one guy said so, and then to ignore when somebody calls you out on it, the LBTQ liaison for the city of St. Petersburg had brought this up, you know, that I think that people view this as just doing Governor Ron DeSantis's bidding, and their celebrating his tax break for summer outdoor activities.

- Well, the governor says this is a celebration of freedom summer, and he says that Florida is the freest state in the nation.

- That's free for some people.

It's not free for everybody.

- Barry?

- Well, I agree with my colleague here.

I think that, first of all, if we're gonna have a process, have a process.

One person doesn't say that you don't have broad consensus.

We have extreme kooks on the both the right and the left, and they're not the mainstream consensus.

Two, I do think that, as Janelle pointed out, consistency, if we're gonna have things that are offensive, there's a lot people that think aid to Israel's offensive, yet we lit them up with white and blue.

I support Israel aid.

I was fine with that.

I would support the LGBT Pride stuff, too.

But if just have a policy and be consistent, but don't allow one person to be the arbiter of what's a community consensus.

I think that's ridiculous.

- Stanley?

- Again, and I'm not trying to be alarmist, this is just another example of how we are etching away democracy, okay?

Instead of like it being all sides, interests being condoned or even listened to, we're just letting the extremes do, and I tell you this is a not a good path, and this is becoming normal.

- Well, and on that, too, Stanley, you know, it's one thing to be patriotic.

I don't think anybody would argue that there's anything wrong with being patriotic and showing our nation's colors, but there's also a line where you start teetering towards nationalism, and that's when you start getting, you know, close to some dangerous territory there.

So I think there's some concern there, too.

- I would also say it's a bad use of taxpayer money.

Why do we put all these colored lights on the bridge?

Why do we have 'em that can change?

We did it because there was a promise basically when we spent this kind of money that for, you know, St Patrick's Day, we'd do it green, and for Breast Cancer Awareness week, we'd make it pink.

And so, you know, if they didn't wanna do this, then don't spend the money down the road on it.

You know, just buy red and blue lights and leave it at that.

So, you know, we're continuing to do this where you just see politicians wanting to poke the other side in the eye no matter what.

This week, the vote on Hillsborough County Commission about the Israeli bonds just to poke the other side in the eye.

- The governor says we're the freest state in the nation, and that's why he wants to celebrate all summer with red, white, and blue on the bridges across the state.

- You know, - That's a scam, - that is very subjective, okay?

And I'll tell you, I've lived as a black male, if y'all can't figure this out, all over this country.

This state has more harms to individuals than any other state that I've lived in.

This state is by far very concerning, very concerning, our trends and where we're going.

- Barry?

Freest state in the nation.

- Well, I think in some ways it is, but in other ways, it isn't, and I think that's why we have to have consistent policies because if it's free if I get to decide but it's not free if I don't get to decide, in St. Petersburg, there's controversy when Rick Kriseman would fly different flags and they wouldn't fly other flags.

Just have it consistent, and here's where I think that we have a problem.

It's actually free?

We just passed a bill that allows chaplains into schools or private chaplains into schools.

Well now there's a group.

There's literally a satanic group that wants to bring the Satanic chaplains in.

Well, if you're gonna allow my Methodist chaplain in, you gotta allow in America the Satanic chaplain in.

So that's a little too free for me.

- That's their shtick though.

They did that back in the day with a coloring book.

The Satanic temple came.

A church brought a coloring book.

So the Satanic temple said, "Well, we're gonna do it, too."

So they got rid of both.

- Yeah.

All right.

Well, questions are being raised about why a member of the Air Force was shot and killed this month in his own home by a sheriff's deputy.

Body cam video released by the Okaloosa County Sheriff's Office shows the moment the airman was fatally shot.

The incident happened May 3rd.

23-year-old senior airman Robert Fortson was killed.

The deputy was responding to a disturbance call in the building.

Fortson's family says the deputy came to the wrong apartment and that for was legally armed and answering to a suspicious knock on his front door.

The deputy, who has not been identified, was placed on administrative leave.

Fortson was a special missions aviator based at the Special Operations Wing at Hurlburt Field in the Florida Panhandle.

Body cam footage seems to indicate the victim came to the door with a gun in his right hand.

An attorney for the victim's family said that Airman Fortson was within his rights because Florida is a right to carry state.

The video appears to show the deputy did not tell Fortson to drop his gun until after he had already shot him.

So Barry does a gun owner has the gun legally, do they have the right to come to their door and answer it with a gun in their hand?

- Absolutely.

I'm a former NRA instructor, safe hunter instructor for the Fish and Game Commission, and this is outrageous.

We have these laws, and I wanna appeal to all my conservative friends.

If you believe in the Second Amendment and you believe you have the right to defend yourself, then when you come to your door legally, and my friends wanna defund the FBI because they're going after Donald Trump or whatever.

I don't wanna defund the Okaloosa Police Department, but most cops are good cops.

99% of the cops I've ever met are great, but you do have 1% that are either bad actors or act inappropriately.

This cop acted inappropriately.

The guy was legally, they need to settle, but you're never gonna bring him back to his family.

This is outrageous behavior, and if we're gonna have the laws, then you need to allow them to operate that way, or you need to change the law.

If you don't believe he's had the right to come to his door with the gun, then change the darn law.

- Stanley, studies show that black people make up about 12% of the US population, but they account for about 25% of police killings in the country.

- I think the statistics speak for themselves, pure, plain, simple.

There are a couple things that we don't know about this, okay?

We don't know who made the phone call.

We don't know what the lady said as she was escorting the policeman up there, but I will tell you this.

I could very much have been that young man.

If you come to my house and you knock on my door very loudly at 10 o'clock at night, I'm gonna tell you right now, you will be greeted by Stanley plus.

(panelists chuckle) - Patrick, what do you make of this?

I mean- - You know, what I love of the fact is that you have police departments that say it was a good shooting.

Then they say, "We're investigating."

You're seeing this all over the place.

They weren't gonna release the footage of this 'cause they were gonna investigate.

The family started to get a lot of good press, a lot of press on this issue, and the public started to move towards the family's way of presenting this, so the police then released some redacted coverage on this.

And so, you know, I think as we start to look at this, we have to standardize how we release information, how we do these investigations.

There's these sheriff's officers and police chiefs that immediately say, "It was a good shooting, and now we're gonna investigate."

Well, you're not investigating that.

- And Marsy's Law does not protect the officer shot.

He is not a victim, and his identity needs to become public, and we need to look at does he have a history of this?

Because this was- - As we started taping, the officer's identity has not been revealed yet.

- This is an outrageous incident.

- Well, before we go, what other news stories should we be paying attention to?

And Janelle, let's start with you, your other big story.

- So the economy is gonna play a huge role in this year's election up and down the ballot.

So I'm watching the latest jobs numbers.

Unemployment has gone up in Florida for the first time in weeks, and nationwide, you've also seen consumer spending drop down, and that could have some big effects on races, whether it's at the top of the ticket or all the way down to like city council races.

- [Rob] All right, Stanley.

Your other big story.

- I think the inequities that we practice in following our rules.

This week we had a shooting, a tragic shooting in SoHo.

The officer that- - In Hyde Park in Tampa.

- Well, and the officer said, "Well, one of the reasons why is 'cause we have diversity, more diversity."

Well, at the same time we talk about this diversity, he said it, I heard it, why don't we like get rid of the 1% motorcycle gangs out, clubhouses in East Tampa, specifically the outlaws and the one that begins with Bs?

Let's be consistent about this.

- All right, Barry, your other big story.

- Well, first of all, I wanna show off for my Republican friends.

This is the Rush Limbaugh tie that Rush Limbaugh, the Rush Bow gave me at his house 25 years ago.

So I just wanted to show that off.

Hadn't had it out of the box for a while, but the great news, if you're a homeowner- - [Rob] And it's signed by Rush Limbaugh.

- And it's signed by Rush Limbaugh, too, on the back.

So you could be a Dittohead like Barry Edwards.

I'm just kidding.

Great news.

The Office of Insurance Regulation for the State of Florida, Kathleen Passidomo, the Senate president, released a memo yesterday that, for the first time in decades, we actually had 10 companies in Florida submitted their rate request for next year for homeowners insurance have zero increases, and eight, actually, major carriers wanna go down.

- Okay, Patrick, we have 10 seconds.

Sorry about that.

- Streets in Tampa are unsafe.

May 3rd, two people shot and killed in the streets.

May 4th, one person found dead on the street, Columbus and 34th.

May 12th, the people shot at SoHo, and then May 14th, three people shot in downtown.

- Not in Ybor City though.

- On the edges.

- Okay.

All right, thanks for a great show, everybody.

Our panelists were Janelle Irwin Taylor, Stanley Gray, Barry Edwards, and Patrick Manteiga.

If you have comments about this program, please send them to ftwwedu.org.

The show is available at wedu.org or on YouTube.

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

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