The Florida Roundup - Childcare and Florida’s economy; government shutdown; sports stories

Episode Date: September 22, 2023

This week on The Florida Roundup, we discussed childcare and its impact on the state’s economy. With pandemic-era federal funding for child care centers set to run out by the end of the month, we look at how those funds have been used at child care centers (01:02) and then speak with the the Florida Chamber Foundation’s Kyle Baltuch (06:18) as well as Chabeli Carrazana, economic reporter for The 19th (14:08). Plus, we also talk about the looming federal government shutdown and what it means for Florida with U.S. Rep. Kathy Castor, D-FL (22:26) District, U.S. Rep. Mike Waltz, R-FL (28:00), and Politico’s Kimberly Leonard (34:40). And later, how a South Florida hockey team is fostering a generation of women players (38:00), the Tampa Bay Rays new stadium (45:42), and a tribute to an icon in Florida journalism (47:51).

Today on the Florida Roundup. I think when you look at the cost of child care, the parents have to choose. Grandma, help me out, or auntie, or do I just not work at all? The high cost of child care and the expense to the Florida economy. Federal money supporting child care centers is due to run out at the end of this month. It may mean higher costs and fewer children as preschools scale back. So what's your story of working and caring for kids? Email us radio at the Florida Roundup dot o r g.

Plus, the financial and political fight over the federal budget goes through Florida. So what's at stake? And Florida is a hockey powerhouse. Yeah, Florida. I'm Tom Hudson in Miami. What you're talking about across the state this week is next here on the Florida Roundup. Welcome to the Florida Roundup. I'm Tom Hudson. Thanks for listening this week. What's that ape make?

Ah! These four-year-olds were learning to read and write at the One World Learning Center in Miami this week. They were gathered around two tables as Antoinette Patterson stood at a dry erase board, leading them through their lesson. They're among the 40 children coming to this child care center every weekday. It costs $185 a week for these four-year-olds.

It can be about $8,000 a year in a zip code where the median income is a little over $50,000. I think when you look at the cost of child care, the parents have to choose. Grandma, help me out, or auntie, or do I just not work at all? Patterson doesn't just teach the four-year-olds. She's an accountant and owns the preschool. It's one of more than 8,600 in Florida that have received federal money called child care stabilization grants approved during the height of the pandemic. More than $24 billion has gone to tens of thousands of licensed child care providers nationwide, and that money goes away at the end of this month. It helped us with our operating costs, rent, light, water, those kind of expenses.

It helped us buy supplies, toilet paper, paper towels, gloves. It gave teachers bonuses. A child care center in Florida could have received tens of thousands of dollars in grant money over the past two years based upon how many children were enrolled, how old they were, and where it was located. A center could get additional dollars if it promised to spend at least 25 percent of the grant money on raises or bonuses for staff. Mostly to help a lot of our teachers because a lot of them are not making as much as I think they should make, but only because our revenue is not as high to give them what they deserve. should make, but only because our revenue is not as high to give them what they deserve.

The four-year-olds had gone outside by this time, not to play though, but for story time. A teacher reads a story on the playground. Thanks, Grandma. Clara hugs her. You see it's nap time for the infants down the hall, so it helps quiet the center. Starting pay at Patterson's Daycare is $16 an hour. She offers vacation, sick, and personal days, but can't afford to pay for health insurance or offer a retirement savings plan. She has plenty of demand for child care, but has trouble competing for workers.

I do get a lot of calls for parents wanting to enroll their daughter or son here. The problem is I can't get teachers. So I've had to turn children away because I don't have teachers. Hello, look at you! These four-year-olds were at the Creative Learning Center in Miami-Dade County. It's his birthday! It's your birthday! The school director, Emily Alvarez, had just walked into the room. The students were sitting down for a midday snack of fruit.

They are among the 250 students at the preschool, ranging in ages from 2 to 6, plus after-school care for older children. This year, I have three empty classrooms because I can't find quality staff. And now with less money and less really workforce retention, it's going to be harder to find. Alvarez used to have a sheet of acronyms she used to keep up with all the different government grant programs. On that sheet that she hung in the employee lounge,

she would pencil in how much money each grant was worth. The stabilization grants totaled $210,000 for her school, money that will not return unless there's an agreement by Congress and the White House. I had a mom last week that asked me, she had read the news about the September 30th cutoff, and she came to me and she asked me, is this going to affect me? What do you think is going to happen? How am I going to pay you? She's a single mom. She has twins.

Alvarez used the money to increase salaries, pay small bonuses, like $25 on a Publix gift card, and fix up the school, fill potholes in the parking lot, rehab the bathrooms, and put up gutters. It also helped keep down tuition increases. She charges about $170 a week depending on the age of the child. We will have to raise tuition and we will have to, we may not be able to do the salary increases like we did before. So that's definitely going to affect some teachers and some people. So what's your story of working and caring for kids? How

are you balancing work and child care? If you are a caregiver, grandparent, aunt, uncle, neighbor, share your story. Email us radio at thefloridaroundup.org, radio at thefloridaroundup.org, or call us 305-995-1800, 305-995-1800. This is a challenge for Florida families and for the state's economy. The Florida Chamber of Commerce's research arm estimates the state loses more than $5 billion a year because of the challenges parents have with child care. Kyle Baltick is the Senior Vice President of Economic Opportunity and Early Learning for the Florida Chamber Foundation. Kyle, welcome to the program. Thanks for your time.

Does the Chamber Foundation support extending the federal child care stabilization grants that are due to expire in September? I think we're open to a lot of different solutions, whether it's federal policy, state policy, or business investments within their community. What we understand is that right now it is a stressor for families. And not just in the sense that it may inhibit a child's ability to learn long-term, which it absolutely does. But right now it is a stressor on our economy. For parents with children under the age of six, it is the number one reason they have left the job force or the workforce, I should say, within the past six months. We've seen 15% of parents with children under the age of six.

And if you think about the demographic that that captures in terms of the age of that worker, those are workers likely in their mid-20s to early 30s. Those are the meat of the workforce. Those millennials in the workforce, absolutely. We estimate that it could be upwards of more than 200,000 parents across the state of Florida. And if you look right now at our gap between open jobs and those looking for work, it's about 200,000. So look, it's never gonna be a perfect one-to-one, but this is a way to support individuals getting back into our economy, back into our workforce, and allowing them to work. A report from your group found that access to childcare costs the state economy over $5 billion a year. How does that cost the Florida economy

that much money? And I'll tell you what, that's probably a relatively conservative investment still. So what we looked at was we looked at a direct investment or a direct effect from both a time loss standpoint, those being out of work and those missing time with work. So out of work being that they have left the workforce or they're not looking for a job or those being that they might be missing time due to childcare issues. We saw that 64% of parents have had to miss at least a day of work in the past three months due to childcare issues. That made up about $4 billion, a little more than $4 billion of that impact. The other $900 million to a billion was actually in fiscal impact. And that is a loss of tax revenue collected from those individuals

working, or I should say lack thereof in this case. Again, that's about $5.4 billion, but that's just looking at direct effects. If we went into indirect and induced, you're likely at tens of billions of dollars. If there's such high demand for child care, why isn't there more supply of child care? So look, that's the question I ask all the time. And I go around the state asking, what do you hear back? Yeah, I've learned a lot of different things. What I'll tell you is that it's a really, really difficult industry. When you look at just the cost breakdown, there are regulations in place, rightfully so, that you can only have so many teacher or so many students per teacher when the students are very, very young. And that makes it extraordinarily costly to run a center. While it can be extraordinarily costly, the margins are

still razor thin. At least that's what we hear back from our people in the field. On top of that, again, you have individuals that are working within these facilities that are not making salaries competitive to what they could maybe get in the marketplace elsewhere. Certainly not competitive to the K-12 space, but not even competitive to maybe working at a retail shop or a fast food place. It is an extremely difficult industry, and there probably does need to be more support to help those facilities and industry run more effectively. 200,000 Florida families estimated could be impacted as daycare centers either have to lay off workers, right, because they no longer have that revenue, or somehow reduce the number of children that they are caring for. So should those subsidies continue? How would the chamber like to go after this? This is not a cop-out, but working for the chamber foundation side, I actually don't speak to policy. Our lobbying team does all of that effort. I speak to the research side. Well, what does the research show you about the effect that these subsidies have had

over the past three years versus no subsidy? Right. So what it does show is that obviously it grants access to more individuals. But here's the challenge when you try to fix something like this exclusively with a policy situation. We know policy is very fickle. Policy changes with who's elected, who's in place. It changes over time. It changes at a state level with governors. It changes at a federal level with presidents. And so if we try to fix this issue exclusively with policy, we will be having the same conversation in a few years saying, should we extend this? Should we extend that? I am not saying policy doesn't play a role. We're actually working on some great measures here within the state of Florida. And I think the federal government needs to do some work to

make sure at the end of the day that we are allowing parents to participate in the workforce. But what this research does show is that the business community needs to step up. And whether it's through fringe benefits, whether through its investments within their community, whether it's through investments directly in their workers themselves, they need to play an active role because it may impact their bottom line. Kyle, I appreciate the thoughts. Thanks for sharing them with us. No, I appreciate it. Thank you so much. Have a good one. There is a bill in Congress that would fund $16 billion of grants for daycare centers over the next five years, but there has been no Republican support, which makes passage unlikely. A different bill, the U.S. Farm Bill, also is waiting action,

and this one impacts millions of Floridians who rely on government help to buy food. Adrian Andrews reports from our partner station WFSU in Tallahassee. The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, formerly known as SNAP or food stamps, provides money to low-income households facing food insecurity. The federal government provides families with vouchers that can then be used to purchase things like fruits and vegetables or even seeds to grow crops. SNAP is the largest federal assistance program in the country, and according to World Population Review, Florida ranks fourth among all states with households receiving food stamps. Most of the recipients are living below the poverty line. That's where Skye Beard, the director of No Kid Hungry Florida, says the problem lies.

About one in seven kiddos living in homes where they're not sure where that next meal is coming from. And so when we look at where we are in the Florida landscape, when we look at where we are across the country in a post-pandemic type world, we know that the needs continue to be incredibly great. When the Congressional Budget Office rolled out its estimates for the bill in February, nutrition programs took up more than 80% of funding. That equates to more than $1.2 trillion over the next 10 years. During a time, Republican policymakers have already condemned the federal government for spending too much money. Despite this, Beard says her organization wants the government to put kids first.

SNAP is really one of the most important tools in the toolbox when it comes to fighting hunger across the country. It's been shown time and time again to be so important for addressing food insecurity. SNAP has gotten ensnared in a broader fight over federal spending. With only weeks left for lawmakers to iron out a plan, the program and those it supports are left waiting. I'm Adrian Andrews. So how are you making ends meet with child care and food costs here in Florida? Let us know now. Radio at thefloridaroundup.org-1800. 305-995-1800. Chibelli Carranza is with us now, the economy reporter for the independent nonprofit digital news organization, The 19th.

Chibelli, welcome back to Florida Public Radio. Give us a sense of the impact between the expiration of these child care stabilization grants and food nutrition funding that is due to expire at the end of this month next week. Well, Tom, it's great to be back on. Thanks for having me. You know, so in terms of the child care cliff, right, we're talking about the September 30 deadline as a child care cliff, but it's really not going to be a cliff. What we're going to see is sort of this gradual increase likely in cost for parents. That's going to affect parents who are largely low income the most. Those are those parents on SNAP benefits that are relying on those benefits

too. So those low income families are really going to feel a huge, huge squeeze in the next couple of months, in the next year. Because what we're hearing from child care providers is that they are increasing costs for parents. It's the only way they're able to mitigate what is coming down the pike for them in the next week with this money going away. And so really, it's families that are going to be feeling it the most. And what happens there is who gets access to child care? What kids? What families? It's people of color. It's low-income families that don't. Yeah.

What happens when a community, a neighborhood, loses a child care center? Either it has to close because of expenses or reduces enrollment. The daycare providers I spoke to said they're not going to cut salaries. They're just going to have to cap off enrollment. They're not going to be able to accept any new students, any new children. Yeah, exactly. So we spoke to a center in Wisconsin, actually, that was in this process during the month of August closing. And for them, you know, it's a small town. There's only two other centers. Those centers are booked. Those kids, 30 kids in this small center have nowhere to go now. And so these parents are scrambling.

They're trying to figure out if they have to take their kids to the next town over, if they can even stay at work, if they have to reduce their hours. Those are real questions that are happening right now in communities across the entire country. And those kids are the ones really affected the most. How have other states responded to this elimination or the expiration of this child care stabilization money that came through during the pandemic? Well, what's interesting is this summer, we've seen a lot of states and more red states than ever reacting to the end of this money,

right? And so Alabama approved the largest year-over-year increase, $42 million for early education. North Dakota invested $65 million in new childcare funding. That's money in particular to incentivize providers to take on more infants and toddlers. That's the most costly piece of the puzzle. And then we have other states like Washington, $400 million into early learning, the largest investment in the state's history. So states are moving on this. It's the federal government that has been just completely stalled. We are talking about child care costs. How are you making ends meet with the child care? Or maybe you find yourself as a caregiver for a grandchild or

even a neighbor child. 305-995-1800, radio at thefloridaroundup.org. Let's hear from Emma, who's been listening in in Miami-Dade County. Emma, you are on the radio. Go ahead. Hi, thank you. And thank you for having me, the opportunity to allow me to weigh in my comment. One thing I want to note is that I've noticed this generation is taking longer in their lives to their children. So one of the things that perhaps also needs to be a topic of discussion, families wait later in life to have children,

and they are dependent or looking for assistance in that support family unit, that perhaps that aunt or that, you know, grandmother who would be in a position that could assist in this are much older. Yeah, and a good point. Chabeli, how about that, right? Good point. Chabeli, how about that, right? A number of us rely on family members sometimes for child care, and as folks wait longer in their life, older parents and those grandparents get older, of course, too. Thank you for that comment, Emma.

I mean, that's a fantastic point. And we cover child care really, really closely. I talk to families about this every single week. I have talked to families who have said, we are not going to have another kid because we just cannot afford it. Or we waited really late to have another child because that is the only option we had in this center in Wisconsin that I was mentioning to you. One of these families has a child with autism and she has a 69 year old father who now is probably their best, most likely care person for this child, a person who's not equipped to do it. She's worried whether her dad can even do it, right? And so that's what we're turning to.

Yeah. Let me squeeze in one other quick call. Jeff is listening in from Jackson County. Jeff, I have just a handful of seconds, but we want to hear from you. Go ahead. I just wanted to mention, as I'm listening to this conversation, I think that in an environment right now where, you know, employers everywhere are desperate for employees, my own employer, which is the Florida Department of Corrections, has hired people, anybody who will show up for $22 an hour. I think maybe the employment, perhaps better employment, is as much of a part of the equation as funding. Yeah, Jeff, definitely. We heard that from the daycare center providers as well. Chibelli Carranza, economic reporter for the 19th. Chibelli, thanks for sharing your reporting with us. Thanks, Tom. More to come here on the Florida Roundup from your Florida Public Radio station.

Welcome back to the Florida Roundup. I'm Tom Hudson. Thanks for listening. Next week on this program, we'll be talking about your paycheck. Minimum wage is due to go up to $12 an hour in Florida at the end of this month. Voters okayed steady hikes to eventually bring the minimum pay in the state up to $15 an hour. Still, Florida is home, obviously, to lower than average wages. And we all know what's been happening with the cost of living here. So what does raising the minimum wage mean for Floridians at the bottom of the pay scale? How does Florida attract higher paying work?

And how does all of this impact the cost of life here? Share your story of your paycheck now. Radio at thefloridaroundup.org. We may share your story next week on the program. Our email always open. Radio at thefloridaroundup.org. Like a stuck clock, it's late September and Congress is arguing over the federal budget again. That argument threatens to shut down the government if there's no deal by midnight a week from Saturday.

A new federal fiscal year is set to begin on October 1st. a week from Saturday. A new federal fiscal year is set to begin on October 1st, but as of now, Congress has failed to pass any of the appropriation bills that are necessary to keep the government running. Without any agreement on how to fund the government, we could be headed toward the fourth government shutdown in the past decade. This week began with one Florida Republican congressman going after another Florida Republican congressman for his efforts to forge a short-term stopgap spending bill to keep the government open come October 1st. Byron Donalds represents the Fort Myers area. He's among those leading negotiations for what's called a continuing resolution.

It failed to get enough support on Monday, including opposition from Panhandle representative Matt Gaetz, who took to the floor of the House on Monday. I'm not voting for a continuing resolution. I'm not voting to continue the failure and the floor of the House on Monday. I'm not voting for a continuing resolution. I'm not voting to continue the failure and the waste and the corruption and the election interference and in some cases the efforts that could lead this country into World War III. I oppose the CR authored by my friend and colleague from Florida, Byron Donalds. Now a day later in the hallways of Capitol Hill, Donalds was asked about this continuing dissension among Republicans over the budget talks. I would challenge my colleague from Florida to create a coalition that tries to actually get

a victory for the American people. If he wants to have a personal thing with me going back and forth, he's entitled to, but I don't care about that foolishness. I want to win. House members were sent home Thursday night, no budget votes scheduled, and a government shutdown looming in about a week. Kathy Castor is with us here on the floor to round up Democrat representing the Tampa Bay area. Congresswoman, welcome to the program. Would you support a continuing resolution that keeps federal spending at current levels beginning October 1st? Yes, Tom, thank you for having me on. You know, Democrats in Congress, we're really focused on lowering costs. I hear it every day from my neighbors, the cost of living is really pinching them.

So here we are at the end of the fiscal year where we really should be focused on lowering costs and solving problems. But Republicans are charging towards another U.S. government shutdown. It's it was very chaotic over the past couple of weeks. The MAGA element, the most extreme element in the Republican conference, they are calling the shots right now. For example, we had two votes, one this week, one last week, on a simple measure just to proceed to debate on defense appropriations. And the Republicans killed that. That has not happened since 2002. Yeah. Congresswoman, let me ask you, are you interested in working with Republicans like Congressman Donalds on a continuing resolution that would keep the

government open beyond midnight October 1st? Yes. In fact, if there's any good news happening now, it's that some of the Republicans in districts where President Biden won those districts, they are working on a bipartisan way forward, because it certainly appears that Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene and Representative Matt Gaetz, they're just not going to be amenable to passing anything. So the message has not arrived, though, to Speaker McCarthy that the bipartisan path is the way to go. So do you count yourself a member of that bipartisan path? Are you discussing this with Republicans? Is there area of compromise that you have given on? Yes. And remember, we had settled this during the debate over the debt ceiling, where in May, we hammered out a bipartisan agreement between President Biden and Republicans in Congress to hammer out restrained spending levels. That was supposed

to set the parameters for our appropriations bills. But the problem is that Speaker McCarthy went back on his word on that agreement, and that has empowered the MAGA wing of the party. Where do you put the odds of a government shutdown come midnight, October 1st? Well, we're going to do everything in our power to avoid it. It's really up to the speaker. Is he going to choose that bipartisan pathway? Is he going to get back to the restrained spending level deal out of the debt ceiling? Or is he going to proceed and try to cater to the extreme right wing? As of now, it appears that they are going to cater to the chaos caucus, as we're calling them, the folks that simply want to continue to slash and burn.

Now, why do you say that, Congresswoman Castor? What points you to think that the speaker, whose own position has been threatened by the House Freedom Caucus, his longevity as leader of the House seems to be in play? Why do you think that the House Speaker is not interested in a bipartisan compromise? Because yesterday, when we were expected to stay through the weekend and work, what the Speaker did is he sent everyone back to their districts, except for the Rules Committee, which now is going to consider a number of the appropriations bills under the Matt Gaetz plan, which is again to renege on the restrained spending levels we agreed to in May and go farther, much farther in cutting things like public

education, medical research, defense, taking out any support for the brave Ukrainian people in their fight against Putin. So that's the track he's chosen. Let me ask you one quick question around Florida here, Congresswoman. What sense do you have about how a government shutdown might affect Edelia recovery efforts after the hurricane? Yeah, we're digging into that right now because here in Pinellas County, we've recently opened disaster recovery centers. We're helping a lot

of the neighbors who were flooded out get that emergency aid from FEMA. Would those have to close on October 1st if there's no deal? Some of the emergency aid will continue to flow to people, but it will complicate efforts. Part of the bipartisan budget agreement was to ensure we had enough disaster aid that we replenish the disaster recovery trust funds so that we're able to respond to catastrophes under the MAGA plan now that's moving forward, they would really hamstring disaster recovery in the long term, especially. Congresswoman Kathy Castor, Democrat representing the Tampa Bay area. Congresswoman, thanks for your time today. Thank you very much, Tom. Michael Waltz is with us now, Republican representing the St. Augustine Beach area

on the Atlantic coast of Florida. Representative, welcome back to Florida Public Radio. Nice to have you again. Yeah, good to be with you. Thank you. Would you support a continuing resolution to keep federal spending at current levels beginning October 1st? Well, there's, to my knowledge, there's no continuing resolution to keep it at current levels on the table. What we've been discussing would actually be around an 8 percent cut to current levels, coupled with a bill to get our border under control. We just hit new record levels. It's a complete crisis of migrants coming across. complete crisis of migrants coming across. And when you have the mayors of Chicago and New York declaring an emergency, even though they've only received a fraction of what the border states have received, I think that's absolutely responsible policy. Oh, by the way, I mean, I heard

Representative Castor beforehand, there are no cuts to defense on the table. We've already passed the VA appropriations, and there are certainly no cuts. In on the table we've already passed the va appropriations and there are certainly no cuts in fact it would enhance what we're doing to to protect our border and stop the humanitarian crisis that's going on down there so the continuing resolution the continuing right fair enough the continuing resolution that is on the table is that something that that would have your vote well i want to see the final package, but I certainly think we have to do everything we can to avoid a shutdown. And if we're looking at meaningful cuts, plus supporting our troops, securing our border and supporting our veterans,

that's something I'll likely get behind. Is an 8% cut and continuing resolution. So a short term gap is an 8% cut, a meaningful cut for you. Well, it's it's a meaningful cut. Again, this is what we're looking at just a month. What we need to do is get our appropriations process complete. And then we're looking at much more substantial cuts. I do want to remind folks, though, what we're really debating over here is about 10% of our overall federal budget. By the time you have border, VA, defense, and of course, all of the mandatory spending, that's 90% there. Well, I think that- Yeah, Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, that type of spending. Are you interested, by the way, Congressman, in working with Democrats on a short-term spending bill to keep the government open? Are you working with Democrats today?

veterans and getting our debt, at least taking a step to getting it under control, which, by the way, I don't know if everyone realizes the interest on our debt alone is now approaching the size of our defense budget. It's not this is not sustainable. And for people to come on and to say status quo is OK is not OK. The looming deadline, of course, is midnight, October 1st. Republicans, congressmen have not fared well after previous government shutdowns in terms of elections. Are you concerned about Florida voters in 2024 maybe holding the GOP responsible if there is a shutdown next weekend? Well, I think, look, the difference here, to be candid, is that the Biden administration can determine who is exempted,

right, who is critical and who isn't. And I have no doubt that they would continue to pay ICE. I have no doubt that they would continue to pay Customs and Border Patrol. I think they I think the administration would make it as painful politically as they possibly could. And that's not good for the country. I don't think that's the right approach from the administration, but it is an election year. I do think they'd make it very painful and they would blame us. I mean, it's really rich to see Democrats coming on and already starting the talking points of blaming Republicans in the House for the out of control border when we know who is responsible?

Well, the border is one particular issue in this budget, of course, as you just mentioned, right? Maybe it's 10% of the overall total spend of the federal government that has led to this loggerhead again in September, but yet we're still talking about hundreds of billions of dollars. Congressman, let me ask you this. Looking forward to 2024 and beyond and your own political aspirations what are they regarding state office florida governor well look right now it's to get re-elected i represent the the northeast portion of florida north central florida proudly um but you know we'll see uh we're taking a hard look at it. I know others are are as well. You know, steel sharpens steel, as we say in the military competitions healthy. But I'll tell you what, right now we're focused on 2024. We have to keep the House, flip the Senate, continue to support our great legislature in Tallahassee. And we have to get we have to get the White House back.

What would lead you to to making a decision in the affirmative to run for governor either in 2026 or perhaps earlier, depending on Governor DeSantis's political fate? Well, you know, one way or another, we'll make the decision based on what we're hearing back from from our constituents, what we're hearing from the voters and where we think we could best have impact. You know, as someone who's led a small business, who's led the men and women in combat and understands how government works,

I think we could be effective. But look, it's a humbling thing to even talk about. Florida is the 17th largest economy in the world, obviously the third largest in in the country. But we need someone who has real experience under their under their fingertips and and can lead. And we'll see what the environment looks like and what we're hearing back from 2025. But I think we've got a long way to go. We're going to have a very, very competitive, contentious presidential election. So we'll see. We'll see how it goes. It's not a no for Congressman Waltz. It's let's wait and see. Congressman Waltz, nice to have you back. Appreciate your time on this Friday.

Hey, thanks, guys. Michael Waltz, Republican representing St. Augustine Beach area for Florida in Congress. You're listening to the Florida Roundup from your Florida Public Radio station. Kimberly Leonard has been listening in to all of this, reporter for Politico, author of the Florida Playbook. What did you hear there, Kimberly? What's the takeaway for voters? I mean, to me, it doesn't seem as though they are anywhere close to a deal. You know, you heard a lot of divisions there about some major points in policy. And we are running up against a very tight deadline here. Still seems like talking at each other as opposed to with.

Yes, exactly. Exactly. You know, blaming the other side, a lot of that. And, you know, it's all it's all political. a lot of that. And, you know, it's all it's all political. So, you know, you heard Congressman Castor's answer to how this could affect Hurricane Adelia recovery efforts. What else is at stake with the federal government shutdown for Florida? You know, there's a lot at stake and people sort of forget, you know, we went through that very long shutdown more than 30 days back in 2019. And the thing to keep in mind is that our federal government

affects us in so many ways that we might not even realize. And in terms of Floridians in particular, we have 90,000 people in this state who work for the federal government who would not get paid. Many of them would not go into work. Now, there are what you call, you know, essential workers, essentially, who keep, you know, going in, but then they don't get that paycheck. So you have employees at NASA. You have employees at the Small Business Administration. National parks, especially. We love our national parks in our state, and they're a big part of our tourism industry.

You have people who do inspections of various farms and so forth. And so that could hurt the agriculture industry. You have National Weather Service workers. And just sort of taking a step back, a shutdown on top of a lot of the other issues that we're facing in the state in terms of high costs, not enough workers apparently to work on various crops because of the immigration law. And we're still not out of hurricane season. So it could compound an already difficult situation. Let me ask about the politics of this, Kimberly. Governor DeSantis obviously running for president. He's criticized the House Speaker McCarthy over the handling of all of this. Why is the governor,

the House Speaker McCarthy over the handling of all of this. Why is the governor, who yes, was on Capitol Hill before he was in state politics, but why is the governor inserting himself into this? Well, because he's running for president. And, you know, the main reason and what we kind of found in our reporting at Politico is that, first of all, he is sort of trying to portray himself a certain way. So he's a trying to remind people, yes, I used to be a congressman be that he is against this massive spending that the government is doing. And he's really blaming it for the inflation issues that we have. And see, he's portraying himself as an outsider. McCarthy is supposed to represent, you know, the establishment. And he's also supposed to represent Trump, because even though he hasn't, you know, the establishment. And he's also supposed to represent Trump because even though he hasn't, you know, fully endorsed in the presidential race that, you know, has been

who he's been aligned with. And DeSantis is trying to beat Trump. My understanding as well is that the campaign is unhappy with the way that California ended up changing some of its electoral laws. Fascinating. You can read about it every weekday. The Florida Playbook, the author, reporter, Kimberly Leonard, along with us from Politico. Thank you, Kimberly. Appreciate it. Thanks for having me. Still to come on our program, sports. Yes, hockey. Florida is becoming a hockey powerhouse, believe it or not. You're listening to the Florida Roundup from your Florida Public Radio station. We're back on the Florida Roundupup i'm tom hudson thanks for listening this week florida is becoming a hockey powerhouse yeah florida a hockey powerhouse the tampa bay lightning brought the stanley cup to the sunshine state two years in a row a couple of years back and went to the

finals three years in a row then last year the florida panthers from south florida made the championship series so that's four years in a row that a Florida hockey team has skated for Lord Stanley's trophy. Here's Cherilyn Cabrera and Alyssa Ramos from our partner station WLRN. Ice hockey is having a moment in South Florida. This past June, the Florida Panthers advanced to the Stanley Cup finals for the first time in 27 years. And there's another team that has scored some big wins alongside them. The Lucky Pucks. It's an ice hockey club based in Fort Lauderdale for girls and women of all ages.

And the Lucky Pucks swept the state championships on every level this past year. The Division for Women Over 40 won the national championship for the U.S. Their biggest legacy is not the trophies or titles. It's the generation to continue to pass on their love of the sport. And it all started with one woman. Lacing up my skates. Not too tight, not too loose. How do you walk from here to the ice? Yeah, it's just like walking on double high heels. Karen Oda O'Brien is 58. She lives in Coconut Creek, and during business hours, she sells office furniture.

But on the ice, she's KO. How she got to Florida was an accident. I just thought it was alligator swamps and just didn't really appeal to me, really. She had a vacation planned to St. Thomas with her boyfriend and a friend. And they didn't get their act together and I did it. And so I had one plane ticket and I remember being in the Vancouver airport crying, thinking, what am I doing? I'm going to St. Thomas. Those five days in the Caribbean turned into a nine-month stint as a stewardess on a private yacht.

Me and this other stewardess said, why don't we go to Florida and be freelance stewardesses? So that was in 1989, and I'm still here. Although she grew up skating on frozen hayfields in British Columbia, it wasn't until she lived in hot, sunny Florida that she got hooked on the ice. Almost 30 years ago. I was playing in the men's leagues.

And because there was no women's program here, I started one. And slowly started with two to three women. So she founded a club for women. First, it was the Fort Lauderdale Freeze. Then the beaches for a bit. And eventually, the Lucky Pucks. But after a while, a for a bit, and eventually the lucky pucks. But after a while, a team wasn't enough. She needed a whole league. And like many good ideas, it started with some friends and a few drinks at a bar.

Then I wrote a bunch of notes on a bar napkin and from there we contacted other cities, said, hey, we're thinking, do you have a hockey team you want to play in? And that's how that started in the early 2000s. At the Panthers' ice den, a skating rink in Coral Springs, there's a carousel of players going on and off the ice. Players bang their sticks against the walls. No one was keeping score. After the scrimmage, the lucky pucks strip off layers of padding,

held together by lots of Velcro and tape. I used to leave my gear all the time in my bag now for some reason or another. It's all hockey pucks. Ventilated, you know. Yeah, let her fester in the car. It's much better. Maria Law was one of the first people to join the team at 19. That's when she turned over her inline rollerblades for ice skates and never looked back. Elaine, it's gotten to the point at my house where I leave this at the entrance when I get home, and my daughter opens the bag, and she's like, Mommy, yuck!

opens the bag and she's like, mommy, yuck. Now she's 36 and the mother of two kids who also share her love of the sport. And I love how we've been able to support each other through the years. And we've all been able to be around them and see them weekly and really just create a sisterhood, a bond that you can't really replicate anywhere else. It's just such a unique thing. Then someone offers me a paper bag of mangoes. This is definitely a South Florida locker room. She says that hockey has become popular in the Sunshine State because of all the transplants. We're not like a typical hockey market down here,

so most of the people that are here are from all over. We've got friends that are from Canada, friends that are from Switzerland, from, you know, just all over the states. And of course, everyone comes here for our nice warm weather, right? Madison Eckler and I sat on the bleachers after the game, watching the Zamboni circle on the ice. So last season, I decided I want to play girls league. And the closest one to me was in Orlando. So that was a three and a half hour drive. Maddie's 15, so it was her parents making that drive.

But soon, they won't have to. Next season, the Lucky Pucks plan to establish a junior national team. So girls between the ages of 14 and 16. It was Maddie's idea. But there's kind of like an absence of hockey for teenage girls, especially in South Florida. And so I got a couple girls together. We realized we had nowhere to play with Karen's help kind of spread from there. We had an idea and Karen helped me make that happen. I have a twin brother. He played hockey and I did figure skating and I quickly got bored of figure skating and decided that hockey was what I wanted

to do. Now she plans to play in college. I'm going to have to take this so fast. I'm surprised that she wants to play with the big girls. Jeff Javik's daughter, Hannah, zips across the ice. There she goes. Go, go, Hannah! She's one of the youngest on the team. Hannah started playing hockey when she was six. A long time ago, I went to a party with my friend, and I got good at skating so I started playing. 44. Oh my god she's so small. She's 11. You know there's no reason

in today's day and age to hold her back from anything whatever she wants to do. Number 44. That's Karen Oda O'Brien's jersey. K.O. founded this team and this league so girls like Hannah could focus on their favorite part. Just to like skate and have fun. We all just have that same passion for just chasing that black puck around for an hour. And your worries and concerns and your bad days that you might have had that day, you forget about it. In Coral Springs, I'm Alyssa Ramos.

And I'm Sherri Lynn Cabrera. You're listening to the Florida Roundup from your Florida Public Radio station. From the ice to the infield, the Tampa Bay Rays will stay in St. Petersburg to play baseball. There was a time when the Rays had a plan to play part-time in Florida and part-time in Montreal, Canada. Think of it as snowbird baseball. Well, the team has been wanting a new stadium in St. Petersburg, and this week, it got it. From our partner station, WUSF in Tampa, Sky LeBron reports. More than half of the $1.3 billion stadium construction costs will come from the raise, while St. Petersburg and Pinellas County will split the remaining $600 million that's needed. City officials say their half of

that will be covered by bonds and other revenue streams, but not property taxes. City Administrator Rob Gerdes says the city expects whatever money they spend to come back to them down the road. Through this 20 to 30 year development, we anticipate that it'll be $200 million to Pinellas County schools. This is going to help local school children. $55 million to PSTA. This is going to help bus riders in our city. And hundreds of millions of dollars to the city and the county in new ad valorem taxes. So this isn't giving money away with no return. The new development includes 6,000 housing units with 20% being affordable and workforce housing, an event venue, a hotel, retail, and office space, along with more. If approved by the city and county, the stadium is expected to be complete by 2028.

I'm Sky LeBron in Tampa. Next week on the program, let's talk about your paycheck. A constitutionally mandated pay raise is coming for some Florida workers at the end of this month. Minimum wage is due to go up to $12 an hour, thanks to a voter-approved constitutional amendment that will eventually bring the minimum pay in the state to $15 an hour. But that's not for a few more years. So what does raising the minimum wage mean for Floridians at the bottom of the pay scale? And how does that impact the cost of life here? Share your story about your paycheck now. Radio at thefloridaroundup.org.

Our inbox is always open for your thoughts. Radio at thefloridaroundup.org. Finally, on the Roundup this week, Florida journalism lost someone significant. This program's director of live programming from our partner station, WLRN in Miami, Katie Munoz, shares a remembrance of the life of Lucy Morgan. Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist Lucy Morgan died earlier this week. She was known for her persistence to get the information she needed. In 1985, she reported on Pasco County Sheriff John Short, revealing the corruption in the agency led to his removal from office by voters and her Pulitzer. She went on to investigate other county sheriff departments around Florida. She served as the Tampa Bay Times longtime bureau

chief in Tallahassee. And if you look closely at the press gallery for the Florida Senate, it's named after Lucy. She taught several new generations of journalists how she did it all. Even shortly before COVID hit, Lucy was leading public records trainings for journalists through the Florida Bar Association's annual reporter workshop. I was lucky enough to be there while she told stories of actually having to sit in offices waiting for paper records, something unfathomable these days in the age of the internet. She was not one for flattery. Frankly, she knew she was a firecracker. Lucy Morgan, the Tampa Bay and Tallahassee journalist who was unafraid of any

politician, died Wednesday at the age of 82. The Florida First Amendment Foundation annually honors a journalist around the state with the Lucy Morgan Award for Open Government Reporting, someone who serves the public interest. Nominations for this year are now open. And that's our program for today. The Florida Roundup is produced by WLRN Public Media in Miami and WUSF Public Media in Tampa. Bridget O'Brien produced the program. WLRN's Vice President of Radio is Peter J. Merz.

Our Technical Director is Richard Ives. We get engineering help each and every week from Doug Peterson and Charles Michaels. Amy Sanchez answers the phones. Our theme music is provided by Miami jazz guitarist Aaron Libos at aaronlibos.com. Thanks for calling, emailing, listening, and supporting Public Radio in Florida. I'm Tom Hudson. Have a terrific weekend.