The Florida Roundup - Condo and home prices fall in Florida, paying college athletes, lawmakers closer to state budget vote and weekly news briefing.

Episode Date: June 13, 2025

This week on The Florida Roundup, we looked at the residential housing market across the state with a collection of business journalists (00:00). Plus, we explored the new era of collegiate athletics now that student athletes can get paid directly (19:22). Then, lawmakers are closer to reaching a budget agreement, we checked in with WUSF’s Douglas Soule for the latest on negotiations (29:06). And later, we bring you a roundup of news from the week including an update on the families of the victims of the deadly mass shooting at Pulse Nightclub (37:20), reactions to the Trump administration’s revoking of a humanitarian parole program (40:26), and an update on a famed flamingo (45:32).

This is the Florida Roundup. I'm Tom Hudson. Great to have you with us this week. April was a month with a double-digit drop in the pace of condominium sales across the state. But it was not unusual over the past year. Condo sales have been dropping fast since last summer. Juan Adias is the director of market analytics at real estate data firm CoStar. He's based in Fort Lauderdale. I think we are beginning

to see the real pain in the condo market right now. We're just at the beginning of that. Condo sales were down 20% in April in Hillsborough County, down 21% in Miami Dade, down 15.5% in Southwest Florida, down 27% in the Panama City area. So is it a crash? Brad O'Connor is the chief economist with Florida Realtors. Condos continue to face all of the demand-weakening factors that have impacted the single-family home market, like high mortgage and insurance rates. But on top of that, they have been affected by association fees rising

to meet the new reserve requirements, and they have been more difficult to secure financing for. Medium prices also are falling with fewer buyers and a tougher market to get a mortgage and a mortgage with higher interest rates. The sales slowdown also is in the single-family home market, although not nearly as bad as it is in the single family home market, although not nearly as bad as it is in the condo market. Statewide, the pace of sales of existing homes compared

to a year earlier has been falling since February and the median prices dropped by 4% in April. We remain over 50% higher than where we were at this time in 2020. Still, 4% is the largest year-over-year percentage decline we've observed for Florida's single-family home prices going all the way back to October 2011. So it's worthy of our attention. Real estate, the home and condo market, is vital to Florida. The modern story of our state is the story of real estate after all. And anyone who was here 18 years ago does not need to be reminded of how the Sunshine State was ground zero in the housing crash. So is it different this time?

The slowdown comes after the pandemic powered a mad rush on Florida real estate, pushing prices way up, up, up, up, out of reach for a lot of residents fueling today's affordability crisis across the state. Affordability continues to be the number one issue impeding sales growth around the state. Are you a buyer or a seller in this real estate market? Are you seeing more for sale signs up in your neighborhood or condominium building and maybe getting a little bit nervous about the value of your home or condo call us 305-995-1800 we're live across the state on this Friday and we want to hear from you 305-995-1800

or send us a quick email radio at the floridaroundup.org. How is the debate over property taxes here in Florida and the cost of property insurance impacting your appetite to own a piece of paradise 305-995-1800 or email radio at the floridaroundup.org. Now we're going to start with a roundup from around the state beginning in the Fort Myers area with Karen P. Moore. She's the publisher of Southwest Florida Business Today. Karen, welcome to the program. I'll we'll talk about today's environment in a second. But how does this compare to the bad old

days of the housing crash back, you know, 18 years ago? It's not the same for several reasons. Number one, they fixed a lot of things in terms of how the Fed addresses these flags when they go up. And it's a different set of factors that are out there that are influencing the economy in 2006 when the bubble burst. So I really think we're not in the same situation.

And I do think there's more safeguards in place for that. There are some of those same red flags, but it's not the same situation, I don't think, Tom. The worst of the worst in the housing crash was in your neck of the woods in Southwest Florida was an awful shape, but Southwest, Florida Particularly was hit really hard Yes. Yes, I remember when

President Obama came down here I think in 2008 shortly after he was elected and Said yes Fort Myers is the epicenter of the mortgage meltdown. And I remember saying, oh, thank you, President Obama. That's really going to help our recovery. Oh my gosh. But you know, it was the truth. So what could you do?

What I see that's similar is the fluctuation in the home market, which is what everybody looks at first. And we got hit by these two hurricanes. You got Ian in 2022 and then back to back, we got Helene and then Milton last fall. I talked to a local realtor a couple of months ago and what she was saying is, you know, there were deals on the tables during Ian residential deals on the table. So, and they went away after Ian, there were deals on the table during EIN, residential deals on the tail.

So, and they went away after EIN. The property owners fixed everything, got everything up to code, did what they were supposed to put it back on the market. And then when you have the back to back hurricanes and that damage is occurring to those same geographically located homes, they did lose deals. You did have some skittish buyers inland as well. Let me ask you about the condominium market, Karen, because we are seeing some pretty significant

drops in the pace of sales and in the pricing. And I suspect, just like the rest of Florida, Southwest Florida is feeling the winds of the post-surfside reforms, right? Yes, yes. The condo market, yes, is definitely still recovering from Ian. And then you add in some of these homeowner association insurance issues, where the homeowner associations were

not prepared. And the whole association, the whole development was not prepared for that kind of recovery. So I think, especially in the coastal condo properties, those are going to take the longest to recover here. They are the ones that are lagging the most in Southwest Florida. And they're the factors just don't seem to be lining up to help them recover any faster. It's going to be a slow recovery for the condo market. Karen P. Moore is the publisher of Southwest Florida Business

today. And thank you for your time. Thanks for including me. I hope it was a benefit. Let's go up the coast a bit and check in on the Tampa area with Rebecca Liebsen, who covers real estate for the Tampa Bay Times. Rebecca, welcome back to the program. So the pandemic pop is over, kind of all over Florida, but certainly in Tampa Bay. Why why is it over?

The thing that really boosted sales during the pandemic were these historically low interest rates that people were getting sometimes three even 2%. So when you're offered a loan for so little, you really can't turn that down and influenced a lot of people to kind of jump into the housing market. And now as rates have kind of returned to about 7%, even 8%, people are hesitant to buy a house, especially considering that prices have gone up, too,

since that peak pandemic era. So financially, it's just not making as much sense for a lot of people. I've had a few agents down here in South Florida say they don't expect activity to really pick up until there's a five on the front of a 30 year mortgage, right? So even a low 6% may not be low enough to get buyers into the market. But how does this compare to say 15, 20 years ago with the housing collapse? Is today different, this slowdown?

Obviously what happened with the 2008 housing market that was kind of an anomaly because it was built on this flawed system of people who really shouldn't have been getting loans getting them and we're not seeing that today obviously so there's not that force at play. I know I've heard some chatter about people worried about a crash. I think it's really too soon to say anything about that quite yet. I mean, if I could predict a housing market crash, I'd be a billionaire. But things have slowed, but people are still buying. It's just,

no one is going to be buying a home unless they really need to at this point. They're really like itching to get out or they have to move. Versus during the pandemic, people were buying just to buy because it was a great deal. What are we less? Not even a year out from hurricanes Helene and Milton, right? It'll be a year this summer and fall.

So any impact of that still on the market? Yeah, so it's interesting, and I'm actually working on a story about this that will be out soon. We saw a decent bump in homes that we're selling in the months after the storm, just kind of gut job sort of houses that were going to flippers,

but really not as many homes as you might expect were selling. And I think that's because, again, it's as a very niche buyer that's gonna be looking at these homes. It's more often than not flippers and investors versus actual normal individuals like you and I who would be buying.

We're entering next hurricane season now and many of these homes work is still not able to move forward on them because people aren't getting the permits they need. So I think it is tough for people that have storm damaged homes, I think we'll probably continue to see more sales, but it definitely wasn't like a rush flood of those houses on the market. Rebecca Leibson with the view from the Tampa Bay area. She

writes about real estate for the Tampa Bay Times. Always a pleasure, Rebecca. Thanks so much. Thank you for having me. Real estate's all about location, so let us know what your neighborhood looks like. Call us 305-995-1800. Email radio at thefloridaroundup.org.

Stuart Corfidge is with us now with the Jacksonville Business Journal. So Northeast Florida, Stuart. Some smaller decreases in the pace Stuart, some smaller decreases in the pace of sales, smaller decreases in median prices, but decreases none the same. We're still seeing some arrows pointing down in the year over year statistics. Exactly. And when I was talking to agents, what they're really describing is more of a correction. You know, nothing's falling off the cliff here. It's not like people don't still want to move here.

It's just that things are not at the peak anymore. Is it a buyer's market? Is it a seller's market? Is it more balanced as the industry calls it? Well, I would say we're getting pretty close to a balanced market. What agents are telling me is that buyers are still thinking that it's become a buyer's market and sellers are still thinking

that it's still a seller's market. And really one of the reasons why things have slowed a little bit is they're having a hard time meeting in the middle, which is the only way you get a sale, of course, in real estate or anything. One real estate agent put it to me best, I think she said, there's a correction and we're in the midst of it right the second. What do you think is fueling the slower market? Well, I think part of it is things got inflated really

fast. You know, we had a lot of people moving from other places. For them, moving to Northeast Florida was a real bargain. But if you've been here for 20 years or your whole life or whatever, those numbers don't look so good if you're on the buying side, right? You don't have those situations where 20 people are making an offer in the same week and, you know, we're gonna, we'll waive the inspections and it's all cash and all those kind of things. So you're seeing a lot less of that and people are doing their due diligence. It's just slowing things down and not necessarily in a bad way. You know, you can look at the numbers and they're not catastrophic. They're just edging off the peak.

So let me ask you this question, which we've asked all the reporters. Compared to 18 years ago, the housing crash, the early days, the early weeks and months of that housing collapse, is this time different. There's nothing suggesting that that's there. But of course, none of us are fortune tellers, and neither are the agents that we've been talking to. People are still kind of wrapping their minds around the fact that things aren't going up at a double digit pace anymore. People are having trouble coming to grips with the fact that interest rates aren't going to suddenly go back down to three percent. And there's some other factors too. I mean insurance rates are going up and one thing if you if you've had to buy or sell a house in the

last year or two you might figure out that age of roofs is a huge factor right now and so all of a sudden the sale of the good doesn't necessarily look as good because your insurance company won't insure you because that houses roof is 15 years older, maybe even 10 years old. And suddenly you have to throw in a $20,000 expense, which changes the dynamics of the transaction as well. Stuart Corfidge is with the Jacksonville Business Journal. Thanks Stuart. No problem. Pam emails us I'm selling a condo in Coral

Springs and I've lowered the price three times since February. Pam says too many looking not enough buyers. Edwin has been listening impatient in Maitland in central Florida. Edwin, you are on the radio. Thanks for calling. Thank you, Tom. Yeah, I just wanted to share. honestly, it's had a major impact, the current housing market on my everyday life. The increase in insurance premiums alone has been tough to manage. What I used to pay $1,200 yearly, it's doubled. So we're at $2,400. On top of that, the property taxes has gone up, so it's just making

homeownership a lot more stressful. So what we decided to do was list our house. Luckily, I had anticipated the current shift in the housing market, and my wife and I decided to list our home back in April. We sold on May 1st of this year, and we decided to rent for the first time in our lives after owning four different homes and we couldn't be happier. If something goes wrong now it's not on us. We call the property management company and they take care of it. We also moved because of the budget cuts for the schools. We have small children. That's something that we had saw in the news and we said, hey, this is a time to hold our money in reserve

instead of in the house and wait it out and see how everything goes before you go into a new house. Yeah, so it sounds like you had no trouble finding a buyer for your home, being able to close within a standard 30 days, for instance. Is that accurate, Edwin? Yes, so we had an offer within four days. Wow. It was springtime, for your home being able to close within the standard thirty days for instance is that accurate when that i guess so we had an offer within four days mom it was springtime but we also had our kitchen remodeled okay uh... it was a designer kitchen though it's very fancy and nice everything was pretty much now that i was only twenty uh... years old

the roof was replaced with uh... the last three years and you don't have to sell me on the house you already already got a buyer. You're all good. No. But we were fortunate enough to have thought of those things when we first moved into the house. I can understand it's tough for someone that really hasn't remodeled or updated their house yet. They're going to be sitting on the market for a while. Yeah. Edwin has gone from owner to renter there in Maitland. Edwin, thanks for sharing your story with us. Elizabeth has been patient and listening from Wesley Chappell. Elizabeth, go ahead. You're on the radio now. Yeah, hi. Nice to talk to you. Where we live, there's a lot of condos and there's

signs going up all over the place to sell. And the big problem that we have is that the infrastructure hasn't kept up with the pace of the building and all these contractors who uh... felt the thing basically in the middle of the night but like that twenty thousand different uh... department building tent car washers and hospitals all around a very small radius with to lane ha um... i'm not even highway to a broken up and we're being bombarded by a all fit

the people are telling me hope that they're not getting what and then add the homeowners insurance on top of that and then they're also the property taxes going up and we just feel like we've been totally obliterated out there. And it's a really nice area so that's my grievance and I feel like we don't have any way of protecting ourselves from it. We just have to kind of watch it all play out while they keep on adding, adding, adding. Yeah. Elizabeth, how long have you lived in Florida?

I've been here since about 1983. Okay, yeah. I've lived in Wesley Chapel for the last maybe 10 years, five years in this brand new condo area. See, you probably recognize that euphemism of growth management. That's the phrase, right? In Florida, that's used in trying to manage the population growth and the real estate growth and the boom for roads and the demands for those car washes or fast food restaurants

or even schools. And you're experiencing it, it sounds like firsthand this time around in Wesley Chapel. Yeah, pretty much. It turned into a big city from a little Mayberry kind of a place, which was kind of adorable. Now it's like, get the hell out of my way kind of a thing. Everyone's really awesome. Well, I hope, even if there's more people, hopefully they don't lose their humanity and their patience with one another.

The patience for sure. Elizabeth, thanks for listening and sharing your story there from Wesley Chapel. Kathy in Jacksonville has been listening and she wrote us, I'm a good candidate to purchase a condo in Florida. Kathy, we ought to introduce you to Pam there in Coral Springs who's looking to sell her condo. But Kathy continued saying, I'm retired and considering downsizing and spending more time traveling, making a condominium an appealing homeowner option. And then she asks what solutions are being considered to address the issue of condominium reserves. Kathy says this is a huge single issue keeping me from purchasing. You bet

you Kathy, it really is a significant piece of the reforms that were put into place after the tragedy in Surfside. And the Florida legislature did pass some reforms to those reforms, particularly when it comes to condominium reserves. This legislative cycle, that bill is awaiting a signature or a decision from Governor DeSantis. And of course, we'll talk about that more in future episodes here on the Florida Roundup. We got plenty more to come come including paying athletes on campus. If you're a former college athlete, we'd love to hear from you 305-995-1800 on the Florida Roundup from your Florida Public Radio Station. This is the Florida Roundup. I'm Tom Hudson. Great to have you

along. The college football season is just two and a half months away from kickoff, and it will be a very different season this year in Florida. You see college athletes scored a big win this month. A lawsuit that began back in 2020 had thousands of current and former college athletes suing the NCAA over restrictions on their ability to be paid. For decades, the hallmark of college athletics was their amateur status, the so-called student-athlete, with student purposefully coming first in that phrase. College swimmers and football players and

golfers could earn scholarships, but they could not profit off of their performance or popularity. Well, Florida has allowed student-athletes to make money off their name, image, and likeness for the past four years using collectives. These are independent from universities. Now colleges and universities can directly pay their athletes for their fame. And former student athletes will share 2.6 billion dollars in back damages nationwide. Florida college athletes will get a share of that because the Sunshine State after all is a powerhouse for college athletics. So what do you think about UF, FSU, UCF, FIU, UM, and other universities here paying athletes

about time or the end of the college game day spirit? If you were a college athlete, how about today's players getting a paycheck when you didn't? Call us 305-995-1800. 305-995-1800. Send us a quick email radio at the floordaroundup.org. Miji Suarez has been working with college athletes and marketing deals since Florida became one of the first states allowing the deals. She's the head of talent at sports agency Raymond representation. She's based in Orlando. This is all really the Wild West. We've been saying this for four years and I don't know how you can emphasize it's even more Wild West than it was before it was the Wild West. It's not a wild wild wild west.

Under the settlement this month, schools will be limited to splitting no more than $20 million a year with their athletes. Suarez expects most of those dollars to flow to players or the marquee sports on campus. It will be very much revenue generating sports, so football, women's basketball, and then unfortunately the rest of the athletic programs will be left with whatever's left over. Florida's Board of Governors, which oversees the state's public universities, will consider allowing schools to shift $22.5 million a year from housing, parking and bookstores to athletics. The proposal says it's to help Florida universities remain

competitive in the new age of revenue sharing with athletes. Now there is an effort to stop the entire deal with the NCAA from going forward. A group of female college athletes have filed a lawsuit arguing the back pay settlement violates Title IX. That's a federal law banning sex discrimination in education. Suarez also thinks the settlement space. They're very thorough, they're very detail oriented, you know, don't have to chase them to get their content done. And they're willing to put in the work and the effort because they know the payout is going to be worth it at the end. How about the development of the athletes outside of those marquee sports, the training ground for the next Summer Olympics, Some of those paths run through Florida schools, track and field, swimming, gymnastics. We've got a few, you know, Olympian girls out of UF that were training for the Olympics this year. When it comes to those non revenue generating Olympic sports, I do believe it really comes down to the to the coaches and the development of that athlete in that space and at that school. And because they're not so focused on the money, because they know that this is

kind of what is needed to be done there. Unfortunately, there just isn't that much money in gymnastics, swimming, track and field, it's not a deciding factor for them. So they're really able to hone in on, is this a good coach for me? Is this a good strength and conditioning coach for me? Is this where I feel like I'm going to grow as an athlete for the next four years to get myself to the next level? How would you describe the NIL market in Florida today?

I think it depends on where you are, honestly. Geographically or what? School wise. I think if you're in an SEC school, if you're in an ACC school, you're, you're far more likely to, to get better compensated on the marketing ends. It's a little bit more difficult, you know, those smaller schools, but it sounds to be said that there aren't people who are doing that, you know? It's really what kind of brand have you built for yourself as an athlete.

And what kind of dollar figures are we talking about for student athletes these days? I mean, what's happened in this market in the four years it's existed? Oh, I mean, you've got people that are being paid hundreds of thousands of dollars for year-long deals. You've got them being paid. It just kind of depends. How long are the deals for? Are they year-long deals? Are they three-month deals? Are they one-offs? I think initially at the beginning of NIL, it was kind of like, how do we make a name for ourselves as a brand? They're going to go out and spend the most amount of money because they want to make the biggest splash. They want to make the biggest mess out there in the marketing world and see kind of like how do we make a name for ourselves as a brand? They're gonna go out and spend the most amount of money because they want to make the biggest splash They want to make the biggest mess out there in the marketing world and see kind of what audience they can get to react to that

So in four years, I've seen things kind of I don't want to say die down But they kind of calm down a little bit It's they're not the marketing dollars aren't being spent as egregiously as they were initially Brands are starting to want to see an ROI. They're wanting to understand the analytics behind what athletes are posting, how are they performing, what's the engagements. There's a lot more data behind it now

than there was initially. Now, purists may decry the progression of college athletics to something that more resembles professional sports, with player payments and the transfer portal allowing student athletes to more freely switch schools. But college teams have always had rosters that change year to year. That's the nature of having only four, maybe five years of eligibility.

And Suarez is not worried that this new revenue sharing with college players will hurt the ultimate source of that money, the fan base. I don't think that the loyalty is going to change fan wise. You see these people bleeding blue and green. You see them bleeding gold and garnet. So I don't know. I don't see that changing much. So fan loyalty maybe is not in the offing here, but how about it here? The payment of student athletes on college campuses for all kinds of sports. 305-995-1800. Rose has been listening from Gainesville. Rose, thanks for calling. You're on the radio.

Hi there. Yeah, go ahead. Your thoughts on this? Well, I think it's great that they're going to get paid, but I think that having been in the college sports arena myself, there's a lot of perks that go along with those scholarships, you know. The students, the athletes are not suffering in any way, shape or form, but if you're going to give them money, and rightfully so, if they're bringing in money for that college, you should restrict the scholarships to actual students who want to learn and are not capable of going to a college like the University of Florida or FSU or

any of the other very good Florida colleges because they don't have the money or they don't have the ability to apply for those scholarships. So yes, pay them. Give them all the money that they earned or deserve, but leave the scholarships for the actual students then. Yeah, interesting, Rose, kind of maybe offset that athletic, what had been the athletic scholarship money and shift that then into more maybe an academic deserving student, for instance, there. Absolutely. We need a lot more people that are well educated and well informed. So college education is a must. Absolutely. We need a lot more people that are well-educated and well-informed. So college education is a must. Absolutely.

Rose, thanks for lending your voice to the conversation. And Trinity, Neal has been listening. Neal, you are on the radio. Go ahead. Yeah, I agree with that last caller that anybody that is going to get paid to be a college athlete should have to pay their own tuition don't like she said use the uh... the money for scholarships uh... education instead of sports yeah i think that's a great idea and it uh...

it basically tax dollars that go for these scholarships. Well, yeah, that's true, I suppose, Neil, certainly at a public university. And the argument would be, I guess, that student-athlete, particularly at the marquee sports level, is generating even more revenue than the state tax dollars that are going to offset their tuition costs, for instance. Right. Yeah. But I still agree that if they're going to get paid, and I think that's a good idea because

they're out there working and suffering, and make them pay their own tuition. Yeah. And buy their own books and pay for their own housing. Yeah. Yeah. That would be a much different type of scenario than we've seen certainly at the highest level of college athletics over the past many years. Neil, thanks for lending your voice to the conversation there in Trinity.

There's lots of different models about how the money may be allocated within a university. But I tell you, you look at the total name and image likeness market in the United States for college sports, it has grown to almost $2 billion. And there's a patchwork of rules around it, their school policies, the NC two way state laws. So it is certainly a place to watch and one that will continue to see some big paydays for athletes and schools. Well, Florida lawmakers may vote as soon as Monday on a new state budget, but it's not a sure thing. Not yet. A new budget year begins July 1st. That is a sure thing. And the spending plan has to be in place for the state government to stay fully open.

That's a sure thing as well. This is the Senate Appropriations Chairman Ed Hooper earlier this week. stay fully open. That's a sure thing as well. This is the Senate Appropriations Chairman Ed Hooper earlier this week. I think we're extremely fairly close to maybe seeing that little light at the end of this tunnel. Hopefully it's not a train. They're not there yet here because the House and Senate budget negotiators continue to talk. Now they did agree on some items this week about how to spend your money, including pay hikes for state employees,

pay hikes for state police and firefighters as well, not as much as the governor proposed, but increases in those paychecks nonetheless. Now on public education, which is an enormous part of the state spending budget, part of the K through 12 budget was settled this week, it would spend about $9,100 per student in Florida, That is an increase of $143 over this year's spending level. School spending also includes money for AP and other so-called academic acceleration options. Those had been threatened with funding cuts earlier in this budget process. Now overall, the state budget is expected to trim spending compared to recent years. Lawrence McClure is the chair of the House Budget Committee.

What this budget represents is a recalibration of spending practices to a place that we believe is sustainable for the long the long haul in the future success of the state. The financial outlook for the state has changed over the past couple of years. I'm Tom Hudson, you're listening to The Florida Roundup from your Florida Public Radio Station. Douglas Soll is with us, state government reporter for our partner station WUSF and the Your Florida Reporting Project. Here we are, Douglas, the clock continues to tick down, another Friday with no budget plan.

But let's take a step back and talk about the big picture here, because the state has been forecasting a budget deficit, red ink, beginning in one year. So how do the budget lawmakers who are negotiating all this now hope to avoid that in 12 or 14 months? Yeah, so state economists are projecting billions of dollars in potential budget deficits in the years to come. One of the ways leadership wants to address that

is to create a culture in the capital of spending less. I know the final spending plan is likely going to wipe out a long list of vacant job positions, for example. House Speaker Daniel Perez also isn't going to get as big of a permanent tax cut reduction this year, as big as he wanted at least, with those concerns of shortfalls in mind. Those concerns have also have lawmakers planning to put a lot more money in the rainy day fund.

I want to ask you about the rainy day fund coming up in a minute because there are very real as well as threatened cuts on federal spending, which is an enormous part of the overall spending plan. You know, we talk about what over $100 billion is what the state budget is, Douglas, but that's not all state money that includes all the federal funds that come down to Florida as well, right? Yeah, so a third of the budget is federal funding. In a good

chunk of federal money Florida receives is for Medicaid, Medicaid pays for more than half of those residing in nursing homes here and a large number of births as well. And the impacts I could enumerate could go on and on and on. So how are the lawmakers, state lawmakers, considering the impact from, say, the big beautiful bill in Congress and the efforts to cut federal spending,

including real significant efforts to cut back on Medicaid spending, the dollars that the federal government transfers to states like Florida. Yeah, there's of course a lot of uncertainty of how the so-called big, beautiful bill would exactly impact Florida, not only because it's so big, but also because the Senate hasn't passed it and thus hasn't made potential changes to it yet. But general concerns about funding, especially from Senate President Ben Albritton, have certainly shaped negotiations this year. Albritton didn't get his priority rural renaissance legislation,

for example, and House Speaker Daniel Perez didn't get his across the board sales tax cut. Yeah, so they're obviously aware about what's happening in Washington and the Doge movement, right, the movement to cut back on federal spending. There's lots of other federal spending programs though that appear to be vulnerable here, or at least uncertain. One particularly important to Florida is FEMA, of course, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which President Trump this week kind of alluded to that he may wind down that agency after the hurricane season this year.

But how are state lawmakers eyeing this potential around, you know, the elimination of FEMA and the difference about how it allocates money and how it approaches back to that rainy day fund, literally and figuratively that rainy day fund? Yeah, yeah. So, you know, as referenced earlier, the legislature wants to increase the cash in this budget stabilization fund, also known as the rainy day fund. It can be used to when the state is experiencing shortfalls like the 08 recession. There's actually some Democrats in opposition to that saying it's already raining and the state has current needs it needs to fund. But of course, there's a Republican super majority and it looks like that is going to happen in terms of increased funding.

Any idea what they're looking to set aside? How much money they want to set aside? So, not only are they wanting to set aside money, they're also wanting to be able in future years to put in more money. When they vote for the budget, whenever that is, I think fingers crossed Monday, they're going to vote on a proposal to put a proposed constitutional amendment in the 26th ballot to increase the amount of funding that fund could get. So that would put it in front of voters and 60% of voters who turn out for that question would have to approve it for it to actually wind up in the state constitution.

All right, let's talk about the timeline here in chronology. Maybe Monday is a vote. Governor DeSantis will not be in Tallahassee. He won't be in Florida. He won't be in the United States on Monday. He's going to be in a trade mission to Paris through Wednesday. So what does the timeline the TikTok here look like in order to have this spending plan signed sealed deliver by what 1201 am July 1? Yeah, yeah. So I'm hearing from my sources and I think every journalist in the Capitol was hearing from theirs that there were staffers up All night last night and I I think everyone is holding their breath breath to see if the budget drops today So it can be voted on Monday as there is a required 72 hour cooling off period

When the governor's what the governor's office gets it that budget it's gonna want to look through it You see what it likes and doesn't like governor de Santisantis has the ability to veto parts of it while approving it overall, and he's notorious for making cuts to it. But he's going to need to approve it by the end of the month though, or there will be significant consequences. So the timeline here is the House and Senate have to approve the plan once and then there's the 72 hour, three day cooling off period. It winds up eventually to Governor DeSantis' desk, who then can go through it, go through the spreadsheet line by line, and cross things out. Right? Yeah. Yeah. And like I said, last year he made a lot of cuts, and the year before as well. He likes to tout them. So I certainly anticipate those cuts.

But- So any serious talk about what happens on July 1st if there is no spending plan? Yeah. Oh, you know, we'd be talking about a government shutdown of most services. That's something no one wants, and that's something that's never happened before in the state of Florida. Fortunately, those working on the budget right now aren't currently floating that happening as a huge concern. They're, as noted, wanting to drop the budget even even later today but negotiations have fallen apart in the past. That's how we got to this

point in the first place. So we have to watch and see. And that's especially the case when you consider the governor's veto ability. Yeah, well deadlines can be awfully big motivators to get something done and forging compromise. Douglas Soll watching the state government with our partner station WUSF. Stay close plenty more to come here on the Florida Roundup from your Florida Public Radio station. This is the Florida Roundup. I'm Tom Hudson. Thanks for being here. This week marked nine years since the deadliest mass shooting in Florida and the second deadliest in the United States. It was June 12, 2016, when a gunman killed 49 people and hurt 53 others at the Pulse Nightclub in Orlando.

Survivors and family members of those killed have been visiting the building this week for the first time since the tragedy. Joe Burns from our partner Central Florida Public Media reports. Orlando outreach coordinator Donna Weich says many of the families want to visit the former LGBTQ plus nightclub before it's demolished and the city builds a permanent memorial. In the nine years since the shooting, families did not have the chance to go inside. We've heard them, we've listened to them, and they've said very clearly, we want to see it for one last time before it's gone. We want to be in that sacred place one more time where our loved ones took their last breath. And it is part of the journey of grief.

Family members of the 49 people killed by the gunman will be able to stand in the very spot where their loved one died and see the bullet holes in the walls. They can bring people with them for emotional support. And White says the city has counselors on the bus that transports him to and from the building. Joe Burns, Central Florida Public Media. It only seems appropriate that the highest paid CEO in Florida runs a company making air conditioners. Carrier Global CEO David Gitlin received $65 million in total compensation last year, making him the highest paid Chief Executive Officer among publicly traded companies headquartered here in Florida, carriers based in Palm Beach Gardens. Gitlin's pay package includes his base paycheck, stock award, stock options, and other financial incentives.

Public companies are required to disclose executive pay packages once a year. Public company CEO Pay hit another record overall last year. Median Pay for the top executive at S&P 500 firms rose about 5.5% to $16.6 million. This is according to executive pay data firm C-suite Comp. And it's kind of remarkable. This is Dave Eikenberry. He's an advisor to C-suite Comp

and a finance professor at the University of Colorado. Not only are the levels high, for a lot of us who aren't compensated in those levels, not only are the levels kind of high, but the rate of changes in this particular year is pretty high too. Gitlin's total pay at Carrier topped the list. The total return for Carrier Global shareholders last year was 20.3% including dividends. The second highest paid Florida based CEO was former California US representative Devin Nunes. He's the CEO of Trump Media. That's the owner of Truth Social.

It's based in Sarasota. Now President Donald Trump is the majority owner of the company. He transferred his stock to a trust controlled by his son Donald Trump Jr. a month before being sworn in as president. Nunes is compensation totaled $47 million last year, more than 90% of it made up of stock awards. And Trump media was not profitable last year, but the stock benefited from its namesakes successful reelection campaign shares trade under the

ticker symbol matching the president's initials, and the stock price doubled in 2024. Protests in Los Angeles this week and dozens of marches scheduled across the state Saturday as part of what organizers call a national day of defiance have been sparked by President Trump's enforcement and changes to immigration practices and policies. Among the Floridians impacted by the fast moving shifts is Peter.

It's like someone is taking my heart out from my chest. He's a delivery driver in Broward County. He asked us not to use his full name to protect his identity. He's authorized to be in the United States. He arrived in Florida from Haiti on humanitarian parole. But President Trump has canceled that program, leaving hundreds of thousands of people who came to the country facing deportation unless they get another legal status to stay. But that wasn't the deal when Peter decided to come and escape gang violence in his neighborhood in Port-au-Prince. We were promised to stay for two years.

We just have some time to breathe. And then they told you, you're going back in the same situation. President Joe Biden put the humanitarian parole program in place for people from four countries. President Trump ended it, and the Supreme Court ruled this month the federal government may revoke the parole even as legal challenges continue. Here's Tim Patchett, America's editor at our partner station WLRN in South Florida. That Supreme Court ruling is not the final word. It said litigation against Trump's efforts to cancel humanitarian parole for more than half a million Haitian, Venezuelan, Cuban and Nicaraguan migrant beneficiaries can still play out in the lower federal courts. And as it does, expect to hear a

lot of that word Peter just used. Promise. As in? What it's boiled down to is a broken contract. Laura Flores-Pedilla is an attorney with the nonprofit Justice Action Center headquartered in Los Angeles. It's one of the plaintiffs challenging Trump on humanitarian parole in federal district court in Boston. Although Flores-Pedia says the broken contract may not be the exact legal argument the litigants are making in this case, they believe it helps explain why Trump's action is unlawful. The beneficiaries followed all the steps that the government required of them. The government now is pulling the rug from under them and

breaking that promise. Other immigration lawyers, especially here in South Florida where most of those parole beneficiaries reside, argue the case involves a legal principle known as promissory estoppel. Franley Julien is a Haitian-American attorney in North Miami. If the previous administration made a promise to the beneficiaries, the next one needs to abide by the promise, otherwise there's no value in signing international treaties. Legal experts warn it may be a stretch to apply promissory estoppel to

international law in that way, even if the people the U.S. government made the promise to are from foreign countries. Pablo Rueda-Sáez is an international law expert at the University of Miami who watches immigration closely. The problem is that for it is binding on a state internationally, the person who grants the promise needs to be someone who has full powers to represent the state internationally. And former Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, who granted the humanitarian parole, is not one of those persons. Even so, Rueda Seisfield's promissory estoppel could still apply in this case in a domestic

sense. Trump may have executive prerogative to stop parole for future recipients, he says, but not current ones. There I do think that an argument can be made that there was a specific obligation made by the federal government domestically that needs to be honored. If the Trump administration wants

to end the humanitarian parole, they can do so, but they have to respect the conditions of the people to whom it has already been granted. The Trump administration argues the Biden administration's humanitarian parole is itself unlawful. But last year, a federal court upheld it. Trump is also trying to revoke other immigration programs such as temporary protected status or TPS and asylum. But those have long been

ruled lawful as well. Immigration attorneys who've never considered the breach of promise argument before, like John de la Vega of Miami, are listening now. If you let them in and over now you tell them listen, no, now you're gonna be deported from the US after they follow the rules on argument in federal courts. I think it makes a lot of sense. Humanitarian parole beneficiaries themselves also say it makes a lot of sense. Junior is a Venezuelan migrant living in Broward County who came to escape regime persecution back home. His parole isn't supposed to end until next year. He's in the process of applying for asylum and he feels the U.S. government's word is

at issue in this case. My goal was to get my two years, figure out what I do to make my status legal permanently, become a U.S. citizen, and do it the right way. So when he cuts you short, you feel like it's not fair. It gets me angry. But as much as you want to see it as a legal binding contract, politicians can do whatever they want.

Humanitarian parole plaintiffs insist cases like this are about making sure politicians like Trump cannot do whatever they want on immigration, especially break U.S. government promises. I'm Tim Padgett in Miami. And I'm Tom Hudson. You're listening to The Florida Roundup from your Florida Public Radio station. Last week, we featured the story of Sean and Michelle, a couple from Venezuela, and their journey through the immigration process.

We got plenty of emails, including this one from Sylvia and Doral. I'm sick of what's happening in this country. Thousands of people who are trying to make it in this country the legal way have been stripped of their immigration status. These are not criminals. I never thought the country I adopted as my own more than 60 years ago would turn into this hell we're living in now. Lauren St. Pete wrote, the obvious solution to the quote problem of undocumented residents is to document him. Lauren continues, if the MAGA faction actually managed to banish all of the brown people, our grocery prices would skyrocket, our houses would be

repaired and built at a far higher costs. childcare would be even less available restaurants would be out of luck, agriculture would flounder and our economy would be in deep trouble. Our friend Terry in Melbourne piped in writing, it's clear that our system is inefficient and ineffective. History will hold us accountable for our inhumane policies. Thanks to the Florida Roundup for giving us the real flavor of these issues in a family. And then this note from Lisa, we've lived in Florida since 1968, my husband since 1959, and have seen a lot of changes. Both our fathers were stationed in Florida from the Air Force and

Navy. Military families aren't from one state individually, we're from the United States. We personally don't mind immigrants and anybody black, white living here in Florida. We grew up with immigrants from Cuba, Puerto Rico, Haitian, South and Central Americans we've assimilated. We personally do mind the state being paved over with development. If you know Florida, you know it's an upscale high end suburban assault. Lisa finishes I'm

sorry I kind of got off subject. Thank you for your time and the opportunity to speak. Anytime Lisa inbox is always open for you and everybody radio at the Florida roundup.org. And finally on the roundup this week, peaches the flamingo peaches was blown here to Florida on the winds of Hurricane Adalia two years ago and it was hurt. This flamingo that was affectionately named peaches seems like the feathers were getting waterlogged and the bird was exhausted probably from

having to fly a very long distance. This is Frank Ridgely in 2023. He's the head of conservation and research at Zoo Miami. Now, Peaches was patched up in Tampa and given a solar-powered satellite tracker. If Peaches returns wherever they came from, if they remember how to get home, that'll be exciting, because then we'll know and we'll

be able to follow the adventures of peaches and where it goes. But the tracker went silent, almost as soon as peaches left Florida. Even though we put this tracking device on it, after the first five days we had no idea where the bird was. Jerry Lorenz is the director of research in Florida for the Audubon Society, and this week, despite not hearing from peaches for almost two years, he had an update. Thankfully, because we put the identification badge on it our colleagues in the Yucatan were able to identify it they have the bird under surveillance now too which is really neat. Yeah peaches found its way back to what's believed to

be its home in Mexico. Oh and flamingo is a father so yeah happy father's day. So yeah, happy Father's Day. That's our program for today. The Florida Roundup is produced by WLRN Public Media in Miami and WUSF in Tampa by Bridgette O'Brien and Grayson Docter with assistance from Denise Royal. WLRN's Vice President of Radio and the program's technical director is Peter Merz. Engineering and Help Each and Every Week from Doug Peterson, Ernesto J, and Jackson Hart. Our theme music is provided by Miami Jazz guitarist Aaron Leibos at AaronLeibos.com. Thanks for calling, emailing, and of course supporting public media in your corner of the Sunshine State. I'm Tom Hudson. Have a terrific weekend!