The Florida Roundup - Condo safety reforms, Florida’s swing state status and arts funding slashed

Episode Date: June 28, 2024

This week on The Florida Roundup, we look at new regulations for condominiums that were passed following the tragic collapse of the Champlain Towers in Surfside. First, we spoke with Rep. Vicki Lopez (03:13) and then were joined by Tampa Bay Times’ reporter Rebecca Liebson (13:00). And later, what are Florida Democrats saying following this week’s presidential debate, with Politico’s Kimberly Leonard (30:48). Plus, we look at how arts institutions across the state are managing following budget cuts to grants funding (37:20).

This is the Florida Roundup. I'm Tom Hudson. Thanks for being here this week. A huge rumble, like a military plane passing really low overhead. That's how Ann Citron from Tampa described the sound early in the morning three years ago this past Monday. She had driven from Tampa to spend a few days at the beach in South Florida. They were staying in Surfside right next door to the Champlain Towers South condominium building. And you go outside and fire trucks pulling up and there's people outside and people saying they were trapped. Alberto Aguero was inside the building on vacation

with his wife and kids visiting from New Jersey. When we stepped outside of the apartment, I looked to the left and the roof was completely caved in on the apartment to our left. Looked forward, which is where the elevators are, and it was just a shaft and a hole. And then luckily the exit sign, because we lost power, luckily the exit sign for the stairwell was working. We got into the stairwell. They made it to the stairs.

Now it's just race downstairs because we don't know if the rest of the building is going to collapse. They were on the 11th floor. The stairs were dusty and dark. Start racing down in the dark and just calling to each other, you're still there, you're still there, because it's a race against time. They made it outside, where they had to crawl up some rubble, then run away from the building to the beach.

98 people did not make it outside that early morning. They died. It was one of the deadliest structural failures in the United States. The collapse of the building three years ago this week led to several changes aiming to make Florida's condominium buildings safer, both structurally and financially. And the clock is ticking now for buildings and condo owner associations to meet some of those new requirements. Among those, having their buildings inspected if they're more than 30 years old, and having enough money set aside to fix any problems.

The deadline is just six months away. There are more than 1.5 million condominium units here in Florida. That's more than any other state. Most of them were built more than 30 years ago. From retirees in Sarasota, snowbirds in the Panhandle, first-time buyers in South Florida, investors in Orlando, condos in Florida go together like sun and sand. There's a lot at stake for condominium owners, investors, and the housing market overall as the deadline approaches for these new regulations. If you live in or own a condo, have you had it inspected?

What do the finances of your building look like? Have your association fees changed since the tragedy in Surfside three years ago? Call now, 305-995-1800. We want to hear your stories. 305-995-1800. You can also email us. The inbox is open. The address is radio at thefloridaroundup.org, radio at thefloridaroundup.org.

Your calls and emails coming up in a few minutes. Representative Vicky Lopez is a Republican representing downtown Miami and Key Biscayne. Representative Lopez, thanks for joining us. Your district has dozens, at least dozens, of condominium buildings. How prepared are they for these requirements that come into force at the end of this calendar year? So I have 667 condo associations just in House District 113. And I'm finding that maybe a handful, 30%, have completed their structural integrity reserve study. Many others have been making an attempt to find a company in which to do it by the deadline. And unfortunately, many of the companies now cannot meet that deadline and are giving people dates

somewhere in the early 2025. So what options do those associations have if they simply can't find an engineer to do the structural study as required by state law now? So I've said to them that in order to ensure that they are complying, I think the best thing that they can do is document in their minutes and execute a contract, right? I mean, the state's not going to fault you if someone can't get it done. It will fault you if you're trying to do nothing or you completely ignore the requirements. So I've said, look, do your best, document it in your minutes that you went out, you've talked to three companies, this is what they can do for you, and then enter into a contract. that will show your fiscal integrity. Getting that structural inspection is important. The

fiscal integrity piece is looking at the financial reserves. What does it mean for a condominium association to be fully funded with its reserves at the end of this calendar year? So there's been some confusion about the term fully funded. And I like to give the example, if your roof, which is one of the eight structural integrity components, has a useful life of 10 years and is estimated to be a million dollars at the end of those 10 years to either repair or replace it, you have to start reserving for your budget approved on or after January 1st of 2025. You would be responsible for reserving $100,000. And by the time the 10 years is done, you would be fully funded at a million.

So that is a clarity that I've been trying to ensure people understand. It doesn't mean you have to have the million dollars reserved today. I've been trying to ensure people understand it doesn't mean you have to have the million dollars reserved today. But even $100,000 in the next year can be a pretty big pill to swallow for many of these associations. I'll tell you why it's a big pill. And it's kind of like the stars have aligned here. They are already being assessed for the increase in property insurance. They will be obviously assessed for what's known as the regular deferred repairs and maintenance. That means your carpet, your lighting,

etc. Then you will be hit with potentially a special assessment for your milestone inspection. And then lastly, you'll be hit with the structural integrity reserve study assessment. And then lastly, you'll be hit with the structural integrity reserve study assessment. It's all coming to a head. And obviously for many condominiums across the state, because they were still required to reserve but could waive those reserves, most everyone was waiving reserves as if to say, I'll just kick this can down the road. When Surfside happens, when this terrible tragedy happens, the legislature realizes we can't allow that anymore. We will never allow a building to collapse the way it did in surfside. So it's

almost as if the poison pill has come to roost right now with all things leading to these types of assessments that ensure not only the structural integrity of your building, but that you have the financial reserves because that was the problem with Champlain Towers. They didn't have the money to make any of the repairs. Sounds like you're pretty concerned about those 600 plus condominium associations in your district about their viability of even continuing. Well, and I'll tell you why, because remember the condominiums in Florida were really created for retirees, people who were moving from up north, coming down here, you know, selling their homes in their hometown and then moving into a condominium.

And for many of them, they thought that their monthly assessments was going to probably be, you know, maybe increased a little bit here and there. But they were under an illusion because it was going to require a whole lot more in order to keep the building structurally sound over a number of years. We've come to a head here on having to ensure it that now the problem I see is that retirees cannot afford this. I know of one condominium where the assessment for just the structural integrity reserve study was one hundred and thirty four thousand per unit. Yes, these are big, big numbers. What I'm hoping to do is gather data in 2025 to see just where we are. Is this a crisis that's statewide or is it a crisis in certain geographical areas of our state? But a crisis it is. Representative, let me share you some sales statistics for condominium sales in the month of May. So just the most recent month.

for condominium sales in the month of May, so just the most recent month. In Miami-Dade County, the number of condos sold fell 5%. It was down 12% in Broward County from a year ago, down almost 4% in Hillsborough and Sarasota counties, down 8% statewide. So 8% fewer condominiums were sold in May of this year compared to May of last year. What role do you think that these reforms may be playing with the slowdown in the pace of condo sales? I think it's playing a huge role. So two things. We know that banks and mortgage brokers are not giving mortgages to buildings who don't have reserves, adequate reserves. They just don't want to take the risk. The other side is that

people are trying to dump their condos because they can't afford the assessments. By dump, you mean sell, right? Yes. They're trying to sell them. It's almost like a very quick response to, I'm getting this assessment. I cannot pay it. Let's put the condominium on the market. Here's what happened in one of the condominiums when they did that.

That very condo that I referenced that had $134,000, they started to put the condos on the market for $434,000 and one of them sold for $187,000. A big discount. A big discount. And it's almost like a fire sale, right? Because owners are also asking the question because now the law is that you have to give the structural integrity reserve assessments to any prospective buyer. Imagine if you're a prospective buyer of a condominium and you're told it's going to be $134,000. Chances are you're not going to purchase that condo. Representative Lopez, if you had a constituent who was considering a condominium or a single family home in your district, what would be your recommendation? I'm telling people not to buy a condominium now.

Wait for things to settle down. Wait for the assessments to be clarified. Wait till you have more information. And I believe that by 2026, everyone will know what they're buying. And I think that that is probably sound advice because you don't know. And we don't have a handle yet as to what the structural integrity reserve studies assessments will be. Because remember, they're not due until the end of the year, December 31st of 2024. I'm a person who likes to see a lot of transparency and clarity, especially in business transactions. And that's why I'm recommending wait till we know what the

assessments really are. Might I add, Representative, it's quite the declaration from an elected representative in the state of Florida to tell Floridians, don't buy a condominium right now. Well, I would say, don't you want to have all the facts before you do? And I certainly would. I would want to wait until the building has its structural integrity reserve study done so that one, I know the health of the building and two, I know what it's going to cost me if I move into that building. Vicki Lopez, a Republican member of the Florida House of Representatives from Miami. Representative, thanks for your time. Thank you so much, Tom. Are you trying to buy or maybe sell a condominium?

What are your experiences? Phone lines are open now as we're live on this Friday, 305-995-1800. 305-995-1800. 305-995-1800. You can send us a quick note via email. The inbox is radio at thefloridaroundup.org. Debbie sent us this note writing, We moved to a condo a few years ago, then the Champlain Tower collapsed.

With the new changes that the state has put in place, I do feel safer. I like that the buildings have to be inspected for structural safety. It's unfortunate that those before us did not have the foresight or commitment to put more funds away to fund the building's reserves. Debbie says, now we are strapped with assessments. It also doesn't help that prices for everything keep rising. Juan in Miami works as an owner's representative working with condominium associations. He sent us this voicemail.

I am very unhappy with condominiums association. I think three out of four are a nightmare to deal with. mayor to deal with. And this is from the point of view of the architect, the structural engineer, the contractor, the owner's rep. Basically, my advice is sit down, think, get your organization online, and then go out to find out what are you facing. Maybe you serve on a board of a condominium association. Share your experiences 305-995-1800 as the reforms after the tragic Surfside collapse three years ago this week will come in force at the end of this calendar year. Rebecca Leibson is with us now. She covers real estate for the Tampa Bay Times. Rebecca, thanks for coming on the program here. What do you make of a member

of the Florida House of Representatives there telling folks not to buy a condominium in Florida right now? I mean, I think it seems like a lot of people had come to that conclusion on their own already. Even before this legislation had passed, there was a lot of skepticism around condos just because of increasing costs with insurance. Of course, negative perceptions of building safety after surfside. So I mean, I think even before this legislation had passed, people were already sort of moving away from condos. How are associations preparing for this deadline coming up in December? Yeah. So, I mean, one of the major issues here is just that there's so few engineers who are capable of undertaking this kind of work in the state and so many condominium associations. So really, if they haven't gotten a move on this process already,

the clock is really ticking here. It can take months even to just put out a request for a proposal and get responses. And with so many condo associations competing for this small number of engineers, I mean, it can take a really long time to even get the ball rolling on starting to get the structural integrity assessment done and then start the work. Yeah. And in the meantime, perhaps they're looking at those budgets, right? Those condominium association budgets, and understanding, as a number of associations have seen, that they had been kicking the can down the road, right, as the cliche goes, and looking at what the savings account looks like.

Yeah, for sure. I mean, as was mentioned before, so many buildings had just put off funding these reserves because they didn't want to have to raise assessments. And now instead of doing a small raise of assessment each year, they're going to be hit with these massive assessments, some of them. I mean, some buildings have been better with routine maintenance than others. It really does come down to the internal governance. But I mean, there are certainly associations like the Champlain Towers that had been aware of these really massive structural problems and didn't have the money to pay for it. You've reported, others have reported some assessments going up by maybe a few dozen, a few hundred dollars a month, maybe even a few thousand, several thousand dollars even a year just for regular assessments. The Tampa Bay Times real estate reporter Rebecca

Leipson is along with us. We're talking about condominium reforms three years after the tragic collapse of the Champlain Towers condominium building in Surfside. Jake and Dunn-Eden has been listening in. Jake, go ahead. You are on the radio. Yeah, hey, thanks for taking my call. I work as a realtor here in the Tampa Bay market. We service Pinellas, Pasco, Hillsborough area, and we have seen some substantial impact to what's happening in the condo market. We've been tracking the numbers pretty close for our area, and I've had a lot of our clients that we sold condos to many years ago now looking to sell their condo and absolutely not getting any interest whatsoever on these condos. The days on market for the condo market, especially in Pinellas County, has skyrocketed. I mean, there's some communities that are pulling anywhere from a 7 to an 11-month supply of inventory,

which was kind of what we were seeing during the recession era of the real estate market. The single-family home market is kind of carrying the burden of sale here, and yet we are definitely seeing a large impact on our clients and the condo market here. Jake, let me ask you, what are your clients citing as their reasons to sell, and are they planning to stay in Florida? Are they looking to rent? You know, that's a good question. A lot of the clients we work with are moving due to life circumstances. You know, life happens and, you know, people get married, they get divorced, they have babies, you know, people get older. And as you get up in years,

if you're in a 55 plus condo community and you now are needing to make a transition into the next stage of life, that condo is all of your savings. And, you know, you've been there, you've had a fixed income, maybe you're on Social Security or something like that, and your finance has been pretty well fixed over the past decade or so. And now we're seeing association dues go from, say, $500 a month to $1,200 a month. And I've had clients crying at their kitchen tables, like, what are we going to do? How are we going to get through this? And we don't really have a solution for them at this time. Jake, thanks for sharing your perspective from Dunedin. Rebecca, we've got about 30 seconds before I just need to take a quick break. But what are you hearing there from Jake? And is

it resonating with your reporting? Yeah, for sure. I mean, statewide, as you mentioned, the number of the condo sales numbers are down, but also the number of listings is way up. It's about 90% up year over year. So tons of people are listing their condos right now. And we're just not seeing that interest. Yeah.

More supply, less demand. That means prices are likely to go down as condominium buildings in Florida, 30 years old or older, face some new restrictions, new reforms put in place three years after the Surfside building collapse here in South Florida. But how is it affecting your community if you live in or are invested in a condominium? Share your stories with us. 305-995-1800 on the Florida Roundup. This is the Florida Roundup. I'm Tom Hudson. Thanks for being with us this week. More than a million Floridians live in condominium buildings across the Panhandle and Peninsula, and if those buildings are now more than 30 years old, they need to be inspected by the end of this year. They also need to have their financial house in order to be able to cover the cost of any needed repairs.

These are just two of the reforms that were put in place after the tragic collapse of the Champlain Tower South Condominium Building in Surfside three years ago this week. 98 people died when part of that building fell in the middle of the night. The pace of condominium sales in many areas has slowed lots of condominiums for sale as this end-of-year deadline approaches for older buildings. Tampa Bay Times real estate reporter Rebecca Leibson is still with us. Rebecca, we had a listener question about these reforms. If your condominium building recently passed a 40- or 50-year inspection, do those buildings still need to be further inspected? So I believe with the most recent legislation that was passed, it was slightly updated to give people that had recent inspections the ability to use those inspections. But I think it just depends on the age of the building and exactly when the inspection was completed.

And as you mentioned, one of the tightest troubles right now is just the lack of structural engineering folks to be able to do these kinds of inspections. What are buildings and associations facing as they look at this deadline in six months? And perhaps they're just now putting out to bid an inspection under the reform legislation. Right. As I said, I mean, if you're if you're just getting the ball rolling now with this process, you likely won't have a report done in time by the deadline. And as Representative Lopez said before, I mean, I think the state is giving people some leeway to show that if they've made a good faith effort to get this done, then they won't be penalized. But I mean, there's also the risk that comes with um having a condo association that has no experience in doing this and uh putting out these bed to engineers and not knowing exactly

what they're dealing with or what they're getting i mean the engineer has a lot of leeway to decide uh what they consider to be safe or unsafe and And if you don't have someone guiding you through this process, you could also be at risk of being taken advantage of by these engineering firms. Yeah, that's been another critique that I've seen in our inbox about these visual structural inspections. One emailer essentially called them arbitrary. I don't know that they're arbitrary. And there is a follow-up to the inspection. I mean, you need to take into consideration a number of different factors. One thing that I think is important for people to know is that you can't really

understand the true health of the building until you get into the actual concrete and start looking at what's needed to be done. And so you could take an initial visual glance, but I mean, these engineers will be doing their due diligence to really get in there. And truthfully, the problem can't really be told and you can't really come up with a price tag for how much this sort of thing will cost until you've gone through everything. And so the initial estimate that these buildings are getting could balloon over time as these inspections unfold. Yeah, we got lots of folks calling and emailing here. Rebecca Clarissa has been listening to the conversation from Pembroke Pines in South Florida. Clarissa, you're on the radio. Go ahead. Hi. This really touches home because right now we're pretty much going through the

same thing. I had to move out of my condo last year in November because our condo building is in Pembroke Pines. The city of Pembroke Pines closed six out of 19 buildings for lack of structural integrity. The president of the board that ran the association at that time owns over 119 buildings. He's an investor, and he was patching up the buildings over the years and not really addressing the termite damage to the point where the buildings are structurally unsafe. He's no longer on the board. He's no longer on the board. But right now, because the issue is so severe, my husband and I made the decision to move out because there were squatters breaking into the buildings. My upstairs neighbor got broken into in the middle of the night while

they were sleeping. I thought it was unsafe. So right now I am paying my mortgage. I am paying the association and I'm paying for rent. And there is no telling of right now the condo is on a receivership, which I'm really happy because now we have transparency, right? Now we know, you know, we're going to have to figure out how much it's going to take to fix these buildings. Is it affordable to even fix them or to sell it at God knows what price to a developer? Clarissa, let me ask you, are you interested in moving back into your condominium if these problems are addressed? I'll be extremely honest with you.

I have been so traumatized by this entire experience. I think that if I were to have it fixed, I would either sell it or rent it out. I cannot see myself living there anymore. It has been a very, very, very traumatizing experience. I mean, I pay over, I pay close to $5,000 a month in housing between my mortgage, my association, and rent. It's not sustainable. It's not fair. Clarissa, thank you for your honesty and sharing your story there from Pembroke Pines. Arlene has been listening to all the conversation in Miami. Arlene, go ahead. You're on the radio. Hi. I'm a property manager, and I've been doing this for almost 20 years, a lot of the problems that everyone is facing in these older buildings

was kind of self-inflicted. A lot of people move into these communities, like you say, retired or on fixed income. Sometimes that's not always the case. You have a lot of low-income families that buy these condos because at once upon a time, condos were very affordable. You could buy a condo for less than $100,000. You could get a two-bedroom, two-bath condo in a relatively decent area. So you have people that moved in, and these were affordable starter for people.

And the board looked at keeping the monthly low as a popularity factor. And the state allowed the board with 75% of the ownership agreed to defer reserves. So Arlene, let me ask you, as a property manager now, what are you encountering in terms of association board members and just residents of the buildings as they're facing this uncertainty? Okay, so with the new legislation, that's what's giving us the power to get things done the right way. Unfortunately, they're still trying to find ways to wiggle out in some communities. How so? You have to put reserves now. But the one gray area that they left is once upon a time, you had to do straight line. It was kind of clear whether you had to do straight line or pool. And the pool method allows you to just put all the money into one big pot.

Right. And as you need the money, you pull it. Straight line requires you to put more money into reserves because it's earmarked specifically for the roof or elevator. I foresee that if that's not tightened, you can still have problems later on down the road. But at least we're getting the buildings inspected. Yes, it's driving the cost up, and it's not just on the 30-year-old building.

I have a community that's only 19 years old. They have no amenities at all, and they're paying $700 plus in HOA fee, in condo fee. Arlene, property manager in Miami, listening in and sharing her perspective. Thanks, Arlene. Rebecca, let me bring it back to you here. As you heard Clarissa's story in Pembroke Pines, you heard Arlene's professional perspective there in Miami. Earlier, we heard from a realtor in Dunedin about the supply of condominiums in this market.

So many places in Florida, Tampa Bay, South Florida, Orlando, so many places have been wrestling with affordability issues when it comes to the housing market with large demand, but not enough homes. How do you think some of these changes in these condominium regulations and what the condominium market is experiencing is going to impact the overall housing market in these locations? Right. So in some cases, I think people still will be able to sell their condos at a profit or at least break even just because property values in certain local markets like the Tampa Bay area have increased so much in recent years, but they're likely not going to be able to buy with that money anything that's comparable to what they had before. One option that I think a lot of developers are eyeing is condo termination trying to get some of these condo associations

who are strapped with major uh major repairs to to vote to terminate their association so that the buildings can be demolished and basically have something new built on the land the problem with that is it's you need overwhelming approval from everyone in the building. I think it's 95% of condo owners have to approve that. So I have seen some people advocating for the legislature to step in and lower that threshold to give some of these buildings where people are really hurting the opportunity to get out and hopefully make a profit and make enough money to be able to move elsewhere. Yeah, Rebecca, for my own reporting, I expect some legislators may put something on the table for the next legislative session regarding just that issue. Rebecca Leibson is a real estate reporter with the Tampa Bay Times. Rebecca, thanks for sharing your reporting with us. Much appreciated.

Thank you for having me. times. Rebecca, thanks for sharing your reporting with us. Much appreciated. Thank you for having me. President Joe Biden was in Florida just two months ago in late April. He was in Tampa and told supporters this. I think Florida is in play nationally. He put the Sunshine State on the table for the Democrats. Now, just two months later the chair of joe biden's re-election campaign contradicted her boss jen o'malley dylan appeared on a puck news podcast discussing which states were battlegrounds north carolina's battleground state yes florida no thank you um i was afraid you were gonna lie um don't do it we're really going on our time in Florida. I'm like, OK.

And then Thursday night's debate this week, the president's performance against former President Donald Trump has raised the volume on calls this Friday for Joe Biden to step aside in his effort to keep the White House in Democratic hands and has fueled worries about down ticket races from Congress to county halls here in Florida. and has fueled worries about down ticket races from Congress to county halls here in Florida. Kimberly Leonard watches all of it for Politico here in the Sunshine State. Kimberly, welcome back to the program. Thanks so much for having me. You attended a debate party that was organized, a debate watch party that was organized by Florida Democrats. What was the expectation going in to Thursday night's debate, and what was the reality about 90 minutes later? to Thursday night's debate? And what was the reality about 90 minutes later? Well, I think there was this sense, and not just in Florida, but especially in Florida,

given, you know, what Jen O'Malley Dillon said this week, was just getting people more energized, showing that President Biden, you know, had the energy and the stamina to do the job. And, and, you know, that Florida was in play, potentially, they were hoping to hear him go after Trump over certain policies that might also affect Florida a lot harder on abortion rights, for example. But we didn't really see that the mood from the very beginning of the event, as soon as President Biden started speaking because he got the first question, was pretty gloomy. And I think there was a recognition that the president's age was showing as much as, and obviously these are voters who are not going to abandon President Biden. They're Democrats. They're going to vote for him if he's on the ballot. But there was definitely a disappointment, I would say, in the air. You are listening to the Florida Roundup from your Florida Public

Radio station. Kimberly, what are Democratic Party leaders here in the state and donors saying here 12, 18 hours after the debate? Well, there's what they're willing to say publicly and what they're kind of willing to say privately. Right. I think we're seeing that. And I don't know what the at what point we'll start hearing people go public, if at all, because I I can tell you that the Biden campaign, you know, as far as Florida Democrats go, they have they have been completely in sync. Florida Democrats rarely say anything negative about the Biden administration, even though there are a lot of policy differences, you know, that affect especially South Florida, particularly regarding Latin America. So the message they're kind of going with is, look, don't look at one debate, look at the last three and a half years, look at how Trump was lying. That is the message they're kind of going with is, look, don't look at one debate. Look at the last three and a half years.

Look at how Trump was lying. That is the message they're going with. There was one committee member in Florida from the Democratic Party that said it was time for President Biden to step aside. And then there's also a lot of quiet. You know, I'm not hearing from the Debbie Mercosel Powell campaign who's running for Senate, for example. I'm not hearing from a lot of congressional candidates who are running for the U.S. House. I think I think they're kind of waiting to see how it plays out. And, you know, as obviously you and I are people who watch all of this very closely, probably to a level that's pretty abnormal for the average voter. I'm guilty of that, yes. Well, listen, I still get people asking me who don't follow politics, who are the Democrats going to put up in November?

They don't recognize yet that Biden is the nominee or going to be the nominee. And so, you know, so I do have a recognition for that. But, you know, there has been a lot of pushback from the Biden campaign that we're reporting too much on the president's age. But that really is coming from voter concerns. And it was amplified by last night's debate performance. How might some of these other races I mean, you mentioned we haven't heard really a chorus of voices coming from Florida Democrats after the debate, you know, one barometer just being social media, some retweets from top Democratic officials and Democratic candidates, but no real big full throated, you know, applause for the current president after his performance.

But how might some of these other down ticket races, even the U.S. Senate race between Rick Scott and W. Mercosur Powell shape up here in the coming weeks before the second debate? up here in the coming weeks before the second debate? You know, sometimes people decide to take the tact of more hoping that there'll be a split ticket. So I don't know if we'll start to see that more. I haven't so much seen it. There's a couple of House candidates who will be more open about that once the primary is done in August.

But that could be a way to go about it because in other states, Democrats are outperforming President Biden. I do think it's a difficult atmosphere for Democrats in Florida. They haven't seen a surge in voter registration as much as they keep saying it's in play. Me as a journalist, I have to look at objective data and I have to look at, OK, how much is the Biden campaign actually spending here? Not a lot. And it's an expensive state to campaign in if it's competitive. And then I have to look at, you know, are they really running ads? Not just something on Twitter, but on television. Are they registering voters? Not really. So, you know, until there's that shift, it's hard to argue that it's going to be in play. And, you know, Florida Democrats are working very hard. They've hired a lot of people

in the state. They're doing all the right events. They're doing, you know, seniors for Biden and Hispanics for Biden and all that. But the Trump campaign has a very deep foothold here, too. They're doing work much more quietly. They show up at the grassroots events. They're registering voters. They're doing the hard, boring work. Yeah, I was going to say, we've seen the results in that and just voter registration trends over the past several months. Yeah, exactly. And, you know, the difference between the way Republicans are operating and Democrats are operating is that Democrats do a lot of splashy events, but Republicans, I mean, I follow both around a lot. Sometimes I'm welcome, sometimes I'm not. We got to run, Kimberly, but thank you very

much for sharing your time with us. Kimberly Leonard, the political reporter for Politico here in Florida. More to come on the Florida Roundup. This is the Florida Roundup. I'm Tom Hudson. Thanks for being with us. Nonprofit arts and cultural organizations across the state are scrambling to fill a financial void following historic cuts to state grant money in the state budget that begins on Monday next week. Governor Ron DeSantis vetoed $32 million that lawmakers had allocated for the state's arts and culture budget. Now, on Thursday, he explained why you have your tax dollars being given in grants to things like the Fringe Festival which is like a sexual Festival where they're doing all this stuff and it's like how many of you think your tax dollars should go to fund that there are Fringe festivals in Orlando and in Tampa

the Orlando Fest requested 150 000 in state money. The one in Tampa asked for a little less than $16,000. Now, the total amount vetoed, $32 million, that amounts to three one-hundredths of a percent of the state budget of over $116 billion, or 30 cents out of every $1,000. From our partner station, WLRN in Miami, Wilkin Brutus reports. It's the first time anyone can remember that there was no money for arts organizations in the state budget. In 2019, the grant program was cut down to about $2 million for the entire state, and that was one of our lowest funding for the grant program. But I don't think historically

they have ever been cut down to zero. Jennifer Sullivan is senior vice president at the Cultural Council for Palm Beach County. It was definitely a surprise for us in the industry. The state's Division of Arts and Culture usually issues money through four grant categories. One category typically helps organizations with things like salaries, utilities, and rent. Sullivan says organizations often use these critical state dollars to match individual contributions from private donors. The other thing about these grants is they're a dollar for dollar match. So a lot of organizations will use their state dollars to leverage the private side to get that match. So if an organization was to, say, get $150,000 from the state, that actually has a $300,000 impact on the organization because they would have had to have matching dollars.

And now they won't have those dollars to leverage with some of their donors and other funders. And now big and small organizations are reeling from the cuts, which range from $10,000 to $70,000 from each organization. A spokesman for Governor Ron DeSantis explained the cuts by saying it's in the state's best interest to reduce overall government spending. best interest to reduce overall government spending the 32 million dollars de santis vetoed from arts programs was among nearly 1 billion dollars in cuts overall the total budget is about 116 billion arts leaders though argue cutting funding for their organizations hurts florida's economy a national study from the advocacy group Americans for the Arts found that in Florida, arts and culture organizations generate nearly $6 billion a year in economic activity. When people don't go to restaurants to eat out before a show because theaters had to cancel programming or stay a few nights in a hotel because a museum had to change its days open because it couldn't support staffing. And this is ultimately taking away jobs from the tax-paying Florida artists.

Margaret Ledford is artistic director of the City Theater in Miami, which is known for short plays and mentorship programs for emerging playwrights. The theater's funding was cut by more than $40,000. Ledford says that's about 6% of their budget. Governor removes things he doesn't like, like the term climate change in state statutes or things he considers woke. And this is another one of those removals, which in the end will only hurt the state's tourist dollars. The Florida Cultural Alliance, a statewide arts advocacy group, surveyed arts organizations across the state about the impact of their programming.

More than 100 organizations responded. Jennifer Jones is president and CEO. Five percent of the respondents are going to have to cease operations. That's important. It means they're going to go away. About eight percent are going to have to cancel the expansion of a facility because of those facility grants that were vetoed and 18% are going to have to cancel repairs to their facility. So that's about what 30% of the respondents are basically going to stop doing what they were going to do. The other 70 odd percent are having to make adjustments, whether it's canceling programs for seniors or children or reduce the staff, eliminate positions or cancel public events. You know, they will do those things to make adjustments to make their budgets work

without this funding. that's the sound of a latin jazz band performing at the arts garage in delray beach it's a small venue with music theater and comedy shows it was expecting more than 70 000 in state funding it's going to potentially impact the quality of our programming. It's going to impact the quantity of our programming. Marjorie Waldo is president and CEO. It's going to impact what we're able to do for our sister community organizations that we work together to provide opportunities. I think we gave out over a thousand free tickets in the

last year. We'll have to look at every dollar differently as a result of this. One of those sister organizations is the Spady Cultural Heritage Museum in Delray Beach, a nonprofit museum preserving and sharing Black history for the past two decades. It suffered a cut of nearly $30,000. Charlene Farrington is executive director. She says the sudden removal of state funding feels like an existential threat towards the arts and culture community. So yeah, this was very shocking. I never in my wildest dreams anticipated this. but the removal of funding indicates a removal of support. That's what that says to me, that we no longer think you are important and therefore we're going to remove all support. If that is the thinking, then the state of Florida is in trouble.

Some organizations will be able to weather the financial storm with their reserves and strong donor community. Bonnie Clearwater is director and chief curator at Nova Southeastern University's Art Museum in Fort Lauderdale. She says after lessons from major economic downturns like that of the Great Recession and COVID pandemic, she's optimistic about bouncing back and plans to double down on marketing efforts. One of the things that people learn from COVID was that because the staff base had been reduced, it became very hard to then fill those positions afterwards. We've invested so much in the development of our staff. They're creative. They're amazing. They will help find the solutions to our current situation.

Jennifer Jones from the Florida Cultural Alliance says arts and culture organizations plan to work more closely with state legislators and the governor's office. state legislators, and the governor's office. We're going to have to engage, become friends with the person who thought it was the best interest of the state to totally wipe us out and come to some good understanding and appreciation for each other's position and hopes that it doesn't happen again and demonstrate that we're good partners and that we really all have the best interests of Florida. I'm Wilkin Brutus in Palm Beach County. And I'm Tom Hudson. You're listening to the Florida Roundup from your Florida Public Radio station.

David Jenkins is the producing artistic director and co-founder of Jobsite Theater. That's an independent resident professional theater of the Strauss Center in downtown Tampa. While speaking earlier this week with our partner station WUSF in Tampa, he expressed concerns about the withering effect state budget cuts could have on local government. Maybe the canary in the coal mine that's really scary is that, you know, when the state signals something like this, it does trickle down to regular people that have donor advised funding. Our own Board of County Commissioners here in Hillsborough County have now voted twice on defunding the Arts Council.

They're literally one vote away from being able to do that, and this is disturbing. And for those arts fans and arts groups looking to support their local arts communities, Jenkins had this advice. The best way that people can help any arts organization is to be involved in that arts organization. Don't just like the post on Facebook, buy a ticket. Finally, on the roundup, the championship week that was here in Florida and the one

that almost was. First, 12 seconds to go. Florida. Yes, the Lords of the Ice are from sunny Florida. Three seconds to go. The Florida Panthers have won the Stanley Cup. The Florida Panthers may play with inside of the Everglades, but the team brought hockey's Lord Stanley's Cup back to the Sunshine State. It is the Panthers' first NHL title. It's the fourth for a team in Florida. The Tampa Bay Lightning have won it three times. While the Panthers had six guys on the ice trying to slap

a puck into a six-by-four-foot net, Cheyenne Bubenheim from Plant City was tossing a small bag 27 feet, aiming for a hole just six inches in diameter. Bubenheim is a professional cornhole player. You know, cornhole, when you pitch bags into a slanted board with a hole in it. Well, Bubenheim has been playing since she was a teenager. After she graduated high school, she turned pro. That was five years ago. Last weekend, she was playing for the American Cornhole League's gender-neutral pro singles division. She would have been the first woman to win. Cheyenne Bubenheim took the number two player in the world, which, you know, at the end of the year could be number one, and was absolutely

taking him to school. That's Trey Ryder on the Around the Cornhole podcast. Bubenheim was leading 14 to 0. If she won, she would then go on to play for the championship. The game paused for a TV timeout. Yeah, the Cornhole League is on ESPN+. When the tossing resumed, her opponent went on a run and she lost the match. Still, she came in third, winning $2,600. Her opponent went on to win the title.

He's 13 years old. That's it for our program today. The Florida Roundup is produced by WLRN Public Media in Miami and WUSF Public Media in Tampa by Bridget O'Brien and Grayson Docter. WLRN's Vice President of Radio and the program's Technical Director is Peter Mertz. Engineering help each and every week from Doug Peterson, Charles Michaels, and Jackson Hart. Richard Ives answers our phones. Our theme music is provided by Miami jazz guitarist Aaron Leibos at aaronleibos.com. If you missed any of today's program, you can download it, listen to past programs, share programs with others by going to WLRN.org slash podcasts.

Thanks for calling, emailing, listening, and above all, supporting public media in your neighborhood. I'm Tom Hudson. Have a terrific weekend.