The Florida Roundup - Florida Supreme Court allows recreational marijuana, abortion on November ballot

Episode Date: April 5, 2024

This week on The Florida Roundup, we talk about the three high-profile decisions from the state’s highest court on abortion access and recreational marijuana use with Florida House Speaker Paul Renner (03:32), South Florida-based family physician Dr. Chelsea Daniels (19:33) and Mark Wilson, president and CEO of the Florida Chamber of Commerce (31:45). Plus, Colorado State releases its annual forecast for the 2024 Atlantic Hurricane Season (37:00) as Lee County prepares to sue FEMA over its loss of flood insurance discount (38:27). And later, a look at why home buyers are getting priced out in the Tampa Bay area (39:57). Also, why online gambling could provide millions to save land and fight sea rise in Florida (43:48) and the rise in calls to the state's gambling hotline (45:30).

This is the Florida Roundup. I'm Tom Hudson. Thanks for being here. The big news this week came Monday, precisely at 4 o'clock. We knew two newsworthy decisions were coming from the state Supreme Court. It released three. Florida will soon ban most abortions after six weeks. It will also be the largest state with abortion access on the November ballot, and voters will decide if recreational marijuana is legal. So both abortion and marijuana will be on the ballot this fall.

Now, before voters can decide the fate of abortion, new restrictions will be put in place. The Supreme Court decided the state's 15-week abortion ban is constitutional. Opponents argued abortion was protected under the Privacy Clause, which was added to the state's constitution in 1980. In 1989, different justices on the state Supreme Court ruled that privacy included the right to an abortion. But this week, the high court threw out that precedent. We conclude there is no basis under the Privacy Clause to invalidate the statute. This is the majority decision by the court as read by text-to-speech audio.

In doing so, we recede from our prior decisions in which relying on reasoning the U.S. Supreme Court has rejected we held that the Privacy Clause guaranteed the right to receive an abortion through the end of the second trimester. The decision to uphold the 15-week ban triggers a timeline for the current law, which restricts abortions to six weeks. That goes into effect May 1st. Seven months later, voters will decide if abortion access will be added to the state constitution. The Supreme Court decided this will be on the November ballot. No law shall prohibit, penalize, delay,

or restrict abortion before viability or when necessary to protect the patient's health, as determined by the patient's health care provider. And a separate measure asks voters to okay recreational marijuana use. Allows adults 21 years or older to possess, purchase, or use marijuana products and marijuana accessories for non-medical personal consumption by smoking, ingestion. This is the ballot summary that was okayed this week by the Supreme Court. Now, a couple of days after the decisions were released, Governor Ron DeSantis squared up against both ballot initiatives. Once voters figure out how radical both of those are, they're going to fail.

They are very, very extreme. Washington Hill is an OBGYN in Sarasota. He has spent his career caring for women with high-risk pregnancies and delivering babies. And I really don't think it's the legislature's job or the government's job to determine what a woman can do with her body. He says bans like the soon-to-be six-week ban in Florida on abortion especially affect certain communities. Women who are vulnerable, Black women, women of color, Hispanic women, these women, although there are resources available to them, they don't have all the resources that they really need

to go out of state. They may have a job. They may have children. So how does the question of abortion impact your vote this fall? 305-995-1800 is our phone number. 305-995-1800. You can also email your thoughts, radio at thefloridaroundup.org. Your emails and calls coming up. We will hear from a Florida abortion doctor later on in this program. First, we spoke with Paul Renner, the Speaker of the Florida House of Representatives. Speaker Renner, welcome to the program and thanks for your time. The state Supreme Court ruled that the state's privacy protections in the Constitution do not include abortion. Do you believe abortion regulations belong in the state Constitution?

No, I think this is something that should be legislatively determined. You know, most things that are in the Constitution, if you look at the U.S. Constitution, it is very small. And it's things that are structural, like term limits, which I believe in, and a balanced budget, which most of us also believe in, you know here where they've placed petitions in front of the front of the voters. And so we'll have a we'll have a discussion this fall. Indeed, we will regarding abortion and recreational marijuana. Both of those will appear on the ballot. Let's start with the abortion amendment question.

You this week called it extreme in its scope. How so? Well, look, the it has two big issues. One is that it is ill-defined, meaning it's not defined. So when they look at viability, it doesn't tell you what does that mean. Is that 20 weeks? Is that 25 weeks? I've got a two-year-old, and you could argue that he's not viable. He can't dress himself. He can't feed himself, et cetera. So it's wholly undefined as to what viability is. But viability is defined in the state law elsewhere, however. Well, but right after that, then it has a health exception,

also undefined. And then who gets to make that determination is also undefined. It's called a healthcare provider. It's not a physician. And the proponent struggled in front of the Supreme Court to answer the question of whether that could include the receptionist at a Planned Parenthood clinic. And so even if you're pro-choice in Florida, this particular amendment is poorly drafted, ill-defined, perhaps on purpose, because what that health exception brings you is really abortion up until the time of birth, which means late-term abortion, obliterating any kind of parental consent, these types of things that even most Floridians who consider themselves pro-choice would disagree with and say that goes too far. On the viability definition, it is defined in state law as meaning the stage of

fetal development when life of a fetus is sustainable outside the womb through standard medical measures. So there already is a definition in Florida state law. Why is that not sufficient in your opinion in this case? Well, for a couple of reasons. One is I've seen in the past where these amendments pass and then the proponents say, no, no, no, that's not what we meant. Because keep in mind, a constitutional amendment will trump all state laws past and present and future. You can't legislate against a constitutional amendment and the proponents I've seen in other contexts will come in and say, no, no, no, that's not what we meant. It can't be that. It's got to be this. So I think that's also in play. But beyond that is this

health exception that follows it, which is not well-defined. It's in the hands of a healthcare provider that's not defined. Is that a receptionist at the abortion clinic? Is that a tattoo artist? It doesn't say. It's certainly not a physician, as other amendments in other states have provided. So you're not even talking to a doctor to make that determination on what could be something that's risky to the mother at a late stage in pregnancy. A healthcare provider is not defined in this amendment, as you said. It is defined, again, in other state laws in Florida, such as the state's Patients Bill of Rights. So why isn't that definition sufficient? that included all terms of sentence, that you had to pay your restitution. And that was very, very clear. And yet when we came in to do that in the implementing bill, they complained that that's not what the amendment was intended to do because they wanted a much more expansive

definition. And again, once it's in the constitution, it's out of the hands of the people's elected representatives entirely, unless you can pass another amendment by over 60%. And so I believe that it's ill-defined for a reason. And I don't think any existing statutes are going to hold up because the Constitution trumps all those statutes. So just so I'm clear, Speaker Renner, you're saying that the definition, these terms would have to be defined in the Constitution in order for them to have clarity? I think on an issue this important, the proponent should have defined it in the bill, it's in the amendment itself. The critical terms in this amendment are completely undefined. And I think that's very problematic and will give a lot of

doubt and uncertainty to members that are looking on whether they're going to vote on this, even if they are or do consider themselves pro-choice to a point, this would take us all the way to the point of birth, and most Floridians are not in that place. How might the legislature work with any implementation that you and your colleagues deem is necessary if the abortion amendment is approved by more than 60% of voters this fall? Yeah, I really don't know the answer to that question because anything we're going to do is going to be objected to. It was ill-defined in front of the voters, but I can guarantee you if it does pass, the proponents will tell us exactly what it was supposed to mean and what we can and can't do. And I just think there's very little for the legislature to do at that point that will not then land us again in endless litigation.

And that's the problem when you have undefined terms. We would be litigating this thing then for another five or six years because they failed, not the legislature, but the abortion activists who put this on the ballot have put this extreme amendment up that is ill-defined, and then they're going to litigate as to what can and can't be regulated. I would argue that the way it's rafted, nothing can be regulated. You don't even have the benefit of a licensed physician to make some of these determinations like what is a health exception to go beyond viability, i.e. to the point of birth. Are you saying as the leader of the Florida House that you would

shy away from implementation if this amendment passes for fear of litigation? No, not at all. We would have to do something. And because the proponents have to make up for what the proponents have failed to do, what I am saying is that I guarantee you, whatever we do will not be sufficient in their view. And they will demand a very specific definition on all of these terms that was not in front of the voters. I've seen this happen before, and it will happen again, because keep in mind, it's the proponents that get to draft the summary, the proponents that get to then come back and say, no, no, no, that's not what we meant. Well, how do we know that? Because it wasn't in front of the voters. It wasn't defined for them to make that determination.

And that's one of the big, big flaws in this amendment. The state Supreme Court, at least four members of the state Supreme Court, thought that the language was plain enough to put in front of Florida voters. Yeah, look, and I think that criteria, what the Supreme Court has to determine is more narrow than what we're talking about in this conversation, which is how it's going to operate in practice. They're looking at a narrow legal consideration and legal analysis. in practice. They're looking at a narrow legal consideration and legal analysis. And so obviously three of the seven didn't think it was clear even under that narrow analysis. But I think what is clear is the unclearness of these definitions and how ill-defined they are. But, and then beyond that, if you read it, just the fact that it goes well beyond even where most

pro-choice Floridians would say they are, because once you start getting into late term abortion, parental consent, they would say, wait a minute, that's a little bit a bridge too far. And yet this amendment would not only prevent us from regulating in that area, it would require that those things all be allowed. And so Florida would become the haven for importation of abortion throughout the Southeast because it was that before we passed our recent bill, but it would become even more so if we have laws that go well beyond the nations of Europe and look more like a China or some other states that countries that have very, very open-ended abortion laws. The recent bill you're referring to, I think, is the six-week abortion ban, which will come into effect May 1st after this week's other abortion decision by the state Supreme Court upholding the 15-week ban. We're speaking with Paul Renner. He is the Speaker of the Florida House of Representatives. We'll take your phone calls and emails coming up.

Call now, 305-995-1800. 305-995-1800. How is the question about abortion access on the November ballot impacting your vote? What about the issue of recreational marijuana? That also will appear on your ballot this fall. 305-995-1800. Or email radio at thefloridaroundup.org. Radio at thefloridaroundup.org.

Let's move on to the recreational marijuana question that will be in front of voters in the fall speaker. Voters will decide the fate of recreational marijuana for people 21 years old and older. You've called this overly broad as well. How so? Can you smoke on a kid's playground? Can you smoke in the elevator? Can you smoke in a restaurant? You know, we had a constitutional amendment on cigarette smoking that said you can't smoke in public places. That is entirely absent in this recreational marijuana amendment. And interestingly enough, it's funded by the medical marijuana growers. And today in Florida, if you want it, you can get it and you can get it in smokable form by going through the process of going to a doctor to get permission to do that. They came in saying,

no, no, no, we have no intention of supporting recreational marijuana. This is just to help people in need that have medical issues. And I have been and we have been broadly supportive of that in our implementing laws. We allowed for smokable marijuana in the case of medical conditions. But now that there's a lot of dollars in front of them, they are funding a multimillion dollar effort to push recreational marijuana that does not have the kind of restrictions that I believe most voters would want, which is, hey, if you're going to smoke it, smoke it at home. Don't smoke it in front of my kids, in front of my family, in front of me, and have that smell all over the

place. We've also seen problems that states like Colorado and others have had that I think draw some law enforcement concerns that just don't put us in a real good spot. Regarding where one can consume marijuana recreationally if voters approve of it, are there implementation rules that you think that the legislature would again have the ability to put into place, or do you think it is trumped by this language? I don't know that it's trumped by the language, but I'll tell you, as I've been in the legislature long enough to see it,

is the proponents of these amendments make them intentionally vague. They focus group them, they poll them, they do whatever they need to do to get to a 60% and then they immediately pivot. And all of a sudden it's become very much, they know all the right answers in what the legislature can and can't do to fill in gaps that were not in front of the voters, that the voters did not decide on.

And so when you refer to implementing language, that's what you're talking about. And that's what we would need to do in that circumstance. I certainly would support, you know, no smoking in public places. I have heard from at least one of the proponents that they thought we could in fact do that. Well, why didn't they put that in there? I mean, you know, if they want to legislate through the Constitution, which was what both of these amendments effectively do, then at least give the voters the respect to define what you want and not try to poll test it so that they give you their vote and then turn around and tell you exactly what it now means when you weren't specific enough at the ballot box. The state legislative analysis of the recreational medical marijuana amendment

points out that a new regulatory structure for both medical and non-medical or recreational use of marijuana will be needed in the state of Florida. As you look across the landscape of options about what that regulatory structure could look like, you mentioned Colorado, which has recreational marijuana, California, Illinois. Many states have versions of recreational marijuana. What types of models, Speaker Renner, do you anticipate looking at and considering as you look for a new regulatory structure if voters approve of this? Well, I'll be termed out of the legislature, so that'll be the next legislature's issue. Someone else's problem or challenge then,

right, Speaker? But look, it's going to be difficult. And what people do need to know is that this is not your Cheech and Chong 1970s version of marijuana. The THC potency, which is what gets you high, is far, far more concentrated today. And it can be supercharged and is being supercharged by growers. And so, you know, look, in the hands of an adult and the privacy of their own home, that's one thing. Being introduced to younger people where, you know, you've had reports that it can cause some psychological issues.

It's just not good for a young developing brain, even in their early 20s. Human development happens later into our teen years, even into our 20s, that many people feel is risky when it comes to marijuana. But what we're not talking about is something that's really narrowly tailored to say, look, private use only, home use only, this much. And it leaves that open-ended. And I don't think it's availing again to say, well, the proponents are okay with some time and or place restrictions on public use. You know, that particular amendment at least goes on for a page or two. They had every ability, just like in the case of abortion, to be specific about these very, very important issues that lead to unintended consequences. But they've done it purposely

because once they pass it, then they're going to tell us exactly what it means. And if we don't do exactly what they, the proponents, want, as opposed to those voters that had varying reasons for supporting it, then they're going to litigate. And we're going to be, again, stuck in litigation on these types of amendments that really belong with Republicans, Democrats, people from all walks of life and opinions, people's elected representatives kind of going through and hearing from the public, hearing from experts, hearing from everybody about how to craft this. That's what we did in medical marijuana leading up to the amendment where we were introducing the Charlotte's Web and others for some serious conditions where some of the non-neophoric, the CBD side

of marijuana might be helpful and some people believe might be helpful in a medical condition. It's much better if there's that much support behind it, the legislature will eventually get to passing it and doing so in a way that is really well thought out on the front end, not dealing with unintended consequences on the back end, which both of these amendments would create. Paul Renner is the Speaker of the Florida House of Representatives. Speaker Renner, thanks for your time today and your comments. Appreciate it. Yeah, you bet. Take care. Still to come, how one Florida abortion doctor is working overtime before the state's six-week abortion ban takes effect.

You're listening to the Florida Roundup from your Florida Public Radio station. This is the Florida Roundup. I'm Tom Hudson. Florida abortion providers are working with a deadline. Actually, two. The first is at the beginning of next month. On May 1st, Florida law will ban most abortions after six weeks of pregnancy. And in seven months, voters will decide if abortion access will be added to the state constitution. So how will the question of abortion impact your vote this year? Are you undecided on the ballot question?

305-995-1800 or radio at thefloridaroundup.org. Dr. Chelsea Daniels is a family medicine doctor with Planned Parenthood of Southeast and North Florida, which provides abortions. Some patients are aware that there's a ban. Some patients are not aware that there's a ban. Some patients are maybe aware that there's a ban but are not sure when it will go into effect. And all of these kind of different layers have created chaos and confusion and terror and fear among patients. So since the decision came out Monday night, I have since worked two full days in my clinic and I am fielding questions

and just about every patient encounter from really, really scared people who are scared about whether or not they're going to be able to receive this care, are scared about what it means if they can't receive the care. And it just goes to show how laws and judicial decisions affect the lives of individuals in really, really tangible kind of life altering ways. What are you expecting before May 1st, before the six week ban comes in force? Yeah. So, I mean, at this point we are hustling for lack of a better word. We are expanding hours. We are changing our scheduling templates. We are doing everything we can to see as many patients as we can under the wire of May 1st, because we know that this is important healthcare. And this is important healthcare that we will provide until we are no longer legally able to provide.

I would say one of the most important things for us to do at this point is to kind of triage how far along in pregnancy people are. So making sure that we're able to appropriately date their pregnancies. You practice at Planned Parenthood clinics in Jacksonville and in South Florida. Have you seen an increase in scheduled abortion procedures before May 1st? Good question. I don't have numbers for you on that. I'm actually not sure. I can tell you what I'm seeing on the ground in the room with patients, and it is fear and terror. And it's not just from patients, it's from their families and people who are accompanying them to their appointments. How will the new ban, the new law, change how you speak to your patients and what you can tell your patients? I think it's honestly kind of difficult at this point for any of us to totally imagine what it's going to feel like on May 1st,

because it's just such a like dystopian reality for so many of us. One thing I think that we're emphasizing and that I was doing actually just before this call was working for the communications department about how we can communicate with our patients between now and May 1st as much as possible about how to figure out if you're pregnant. The reason for that being that at six weeks of pregnancy, which is when this ban would be, most folks don't know they're pregnant. And so our messaging right now needs to be about how to make sure that we can get folks as aware as possible of their pregnancy as early as possible so that they not only are aware of their pregnancy, but have time to get an appointment. Come May 1st, I think what my day-to-day will look like and what my time with patients

will look like is I think it's going to be, we're going to be turning away the vast majority of patients. I would say that the average pregnant patient who I see currently is 8 to 11 weeks, which is still very, very early in pregnancy. So I'm seeing a minority of patients less than six weeks. And any given clinic day, I'm probably seeing two patients. So we're going to be turning the vast majority of patients away. And so I think the conversations are going to be about where they can go. And luckily, we have a really, really robust network of patient advocates and navigators

who can direct folks to care in other states. Abortion will be on the ballot this fall for Florida voters. We spoke with Florida's House Speaker Paul Renner earlier in this program, who opposes the abortion amendment. And he says the way that it's written, he describes several terms are included that he thinks are undefined. He takes issue, for instance, with the lack of definition with the term viability. He also says that the term health care provider is undefined in the ballot language, saying it opens the door to virtually anybody. In his words, even a tattoo artist could make

a decision about a termination for a pregnancy. What do you make of that criticism? I mean, my gut reaction, I'm sitting here furrowing my brow and feeling quite insulted. myself as a physician, my colleagues as physicians, my colleagues who are nurses. We've not just dedicated our lives to this, but I have spent 15 years in school and in residency training to do this, training to know how to take care of my patients. And with all due respect, politicians have not. They have a different set of scope and skills. People in other fields are not having to run their medical decisions by non-medical providers the way that I'm having to on a daily basis. I think that perhaps the speaker was implying that I would take the medical recommendation of a massage therapist or tattoo artist or whoever it is if a patient comes to me and says well my tattoo artist says that an abortion would be a medical necessity for my health um i take my

medical recommendations from the scientific evidence and from literature and from other medical professionals and from my years of study and training about what a health care provider is about what a healthcare provider is. I'll speak just to Florida. It is physicians, it's doctors with MD or DO degrees who are performing abortions. So when we say healthcare provider in the state of Florida, healthcare provider can be a broader term to include healthcare allies, such as nurses and physical therapists. But in the state of Florida, only MDs and DOs, so physicians, board-certified physicians, are performing abortions. The notion that something like a tattoo artist, I've also heard massage therapist, would or could provide an abortion

is just frankly so offensive and absolutely baseless. I think the opposition is not necessarily the medical procedure, but rather the recommendation that a pregnant patient has the medical procedure. But I guess to that, I would say that when a patient comes to me seeking an abortion, seeking an abortion, whatever thought processes, conversations, soul searching, journal writing, you know, they have done that has led them to sit in the chair before me is their own. And it is not, it is just simply not my business to ask, right? And so if they have come to this decision, and are taking the steps to get an appointment with me after conversations with family and loved ones and other professionals in their life, other family in their life, then it simply it does not matter. And it is my job. It's my job to do what they are asking in a safe and scientific and medical way.

As a physician. Dr. Chelsea Daniels is with Planned Parenthood Miami and in Jacksonville. Dr. Daniels, thank you so much. Thank you so much for having me. Your phone call is now. Christina has been listening in to all of this in Sarasota. Christina, go ahead. You're on the radio.

Hi there. Thanks for taking my call. I am just appalled by everything that's going on in Florida. I have five children, and in each pregnancy, I had negative pregnancy tests, and then finally they would turn positive, and it would be weeks later. And finally they would turn positive and it would be weeks later. And not only that, but I had an abortion at the age of 16 in the 80s. And that was my decision. I feel like these politicians are trying to, you know, barge into women's lives again. It's just nonstop. It's so frustrating. And with four girls, it makes my husband and I worry. Our youngest is 16, and our oldest girl is 27. We also have an oldest son. It's frustrating.

Christina, thanks for sharing your stories from Sarasota. We've got plenty more folks we want to hear from as well on this issue. Also in the email inbox, Julie in Atlantic Beach wrote us, I've been a Florida resident for over 33 years years and I'm in favor of abortion across the board and legalized marijuana. Norma in Woodville wrote abortion. Yes, we should have a vote on this matter. And I approve that a woman has a right to choose her own health care and decision to have a child. Kristen writing, I will be voting yes on the abortion amendment this fall. Voting yes on the abortion amendment this fall, the speaker and other Republicans in the House and Senate had no problem passing, quote, ill-defined, unspecific legislation when it came to their don't say gay laws in our schools and removing books from classrooms and school libraries. Kristen continues, where was their deep concern about unintended consequences then?

Nina is listening in on line five. Nina, you are on the radio. Go ahead. Yes. Well, you are on the radio. Go ahead. Yes. Well, I'm 80 years old. I thought we fought this battle 50 years ago. And it's come back where men are telling women that we are second class citizens and have nothing to say about our own health and body. Thank you very much. Nina, thank you for adding your voice to our conversation here on the Florida Roundup. Carol writes us in our email inbox, the legislature is already planning the way they will disable the amendment when it's passed,

as they have done with every other amendment legally passed in this state. Carol continues and says this is the same legislature that can't find their way, can't find any way to support mothers and born kids. Let's hear from David, who's been listening in in Fort Pierce. David, you are on the radio. Go ahead. On the abortion subject, first of all, Kansas, Ohio, big red states, they didn't stop the constitutional vote. As far as the legislature being run by a few men,

they've left a vague description of what an abortion ban is, and now they want to complain that the Constitution will be vague. That's a woman's choice. That's not for old, pale men to make that decision. On the idea of marijuana, all these states that have gone recreational, they haven't had a huge crime spree. And I'm a retired state trooper. I never, ever arrested anyone for being impaired on marijuana, yet I arrested thousands of drunk drivers for being impaired on alcohol. And it's just a bunch of smoke and mirrors, and they're not even treating the fentanyl issue the way they are treating the marijuana issue. David, I appreciate you giving us the thoughts there as a retired state trooper, and thank you for your service keeping us safe on the roads.

Lauren is listening in Gainesville, Line 8. Lauren, go ahead. You're on the radio. Good morning. Thank you. 8. Lauren, go ahead. You're on the radio. Good morning. Thank you. I'm a practicing physician, and it is my opinion that the legislature is practicing medicine without any certification or medical training by interfering in the health care of women who need abortions. They don't know the details. They don't know the complexities, but they're pretty sure they know what they ought to tell us to do.

So I would suggest they get medical training and a state license before they start making medical decisions. Lauren, thanks for sharing your voice to our conversation here from Gainesville on these topics. You are listening to the Florida Roundup from your Florida Public Radio station. to the Florida Roundup from your Florida Public Radio station. The state's top business lobbying group does not want a new multi-billion dollar industry in Florida. The Florida Chamber of Commerce is against the proposed constitutional amendment that would legalize marijuana for recreational use, but the group's leader says it's about principle, not necessarily pot. Mark Wilson is the CEO of the Florida Chamber of Commerce.

Mark, thanks for joining us today for the conversation. We appreciate it. As the chief voice of business in the state of Florida, why do you oppose an amendment that would legalize business that other states have legalized? So the Florida Chamber of Commerce for decades has had a policy position that says, you know, if special interests and even out-of-state funders want to put something in the Florida Constitution, oftentimes that's just not the right place. The Florida legislature is the place we believe that should be looking at drugs. Our concern, very specifically over the years, has been when people try to go around the legislature and go straight to the Constitution,

we generally automatically oppose that just on principle. So I want to ask you about that principle in a moment. You say drugs. This amendment is about marijuana. It's not about all drugs, right? It's about a specific drug, about marijuana. Is there anything specifically that the Chamber of Commerce opposes regarding recreational marijuana as opposed to the principle of having this kind of issue in the Constitution? Our opposition is based on the fact that this whole conversation could be achieved via the legislative process by people working with their elected officials. Back in 2002, an out-of-state group wanted to protect the rights of pregnant pigs. And so they put that in the state constitution.

And that's what really woke up a lot of people that, hey, wait a minute. Some of these issues like trains and pigs and drugs, these are things that our elected officials should be working on. The marijuana side of the drug industry has invested at least $65 million in this issue in Florida to try to buy their way into the Florida Constitution. It's really the process and the method, we take exception. So there is a process in Florida for voter-led petitions to have a question on the statewide ballot. That's what led to the issue of the recreational marijuana, which will appear on the ballot. Do you oppose that type of process for

petition signatures to be gathered and for it to go through the Supreme Court review that this particular question has gone through? Yeah, it's a really great question. I'm an expert on how you amend Florida's constitution. There's actually five ways that Florida's Constitution can be amended. It's one of the easiest constitutions in the nation to amend. In 1968, the framers of the modern Constitution came up with an initiative process they called the Citizens Initiative Process, which I believe is what you're referring to. Correct. The Citizens Initiative Process, we will champion to the death. We believe that neighbors and families and friends and different groups, Kiwanis clubs and others,

they should absolutely be able to do grassroots initiatives if, in fact, they want to collect the signatures on something that rises the constitutional muster. But that's not what this is. I think we're kidding ourselves to say that this was a grassroots-led group. I mean, my goodness, $65 million, most of which was literally using paid signature gathering. Which is not illegal, and you're not claiming that there's something illegal about that. Oh, of course not. Should that citizens amendment process be changed? Would you advocate for that? Of course. And we have. We've been improving that process. What you want to do is there's a fine line. You want to protect the voters and you want to protect the Constitution from these special interest groups that are either one industry or

are outside Florida. Things like drugs, whether it's marijuana or any other drug, the Constitution is not the place. The Constitution is supposed to be about telling government what they can do and protecting the rights of people. It's not a place for pigs. It's not a place for drugs. And it wasn't in place for medical marijuana either, according to the chamber. The chamber opposed the medical marijuana ballot amendment. That did pass with 71% of voters. It is now a legal regulated industry, medical marijuana in the state of Florida, 29,000 jobs contributing about $2 billion to the state economy. Does the chamber still oppose the industry or just the process in which the

industry became legitimized? Oh, no. In fact, the industry has largely reached out to the Florida chamber and many of our legitimate businesses. They want to support our efforts to cut childhood poverty in half. They support our efforts to protect our water sources in Florida. These are legitimate businesses. Mark Wilson is the head of the Florida Chamber of Commerce. Mark, we appreciate your time. Thanks for the conversation. Thank you. And look forward to a continued conversation on this important topic. And still to come, gambling and protecting Florida's environment. You're listening to the Florida Roundup from your Florida Public Radio station. This is the Florida Roundup. I'm Tom Hudson. Thanks for being along with us this week.

Well, here we are. It's April. Now only about two months away from the start of hurricane season. But this week, Floridians got a glimpse into what many meteorologists are expecting to be an extremely active storm season. Colorado State University released its first outlook for the 2024 Atlantic hurricane season. The prediction? 23 named storms, 11 hurricanes, 5 growing into major hurricanes. That forecast shouldn't be a surprise. If you heard our program last week, we had a conversation about how the warm waters, the record warm water temperature in the Atlantic can lead to an increase in the frequency and intensity of storms. Another is El Nino, which will likely turn into La Nina, creating favorable conditions to brew up hurricanes.

While these conditions were a factor in Hurricane Ian, that deadly and destructive Category 4 storm ripped through southwest Florida back in September 2022. Recovery efforts are still underway more than a year later. And now some folks in Lee County are grappling with the threat of rising flood insurance rates. The Federal Emergency Management Agency wants to hike flood insurance premiums for some residents by 25 percent. The feds say the county did not follow its rules when rebuilding and fixing thousands of buildings destroyed or damaged by Ian. Well, Lee County now is gearing up to fight back. Michael Braun reports from WGCU in Fort Myers. The binding decision to downgrade came out in

phone calls between FEMA and officials of Lee, Cape Coral, Bonita Springs, and Estero. But Tuesday, Lee's Board of County Commissioners voted to take any steps needed to reverse the decision. Here's Commissioner Brian Hammond. I've heard the comment a couple times that there's no appeal available to us. I just don't accept that. FEMA cited unpermitted work and a lack of documentation, among other post-Hurricane Ian actions, for the downgrade. Lee maintains it provided FEMA with all it needed in a long list of emails seeking documentation and clarification dating to February 2023. Here's County Manager Dave Harner saying, despite a back and forth, Lee was never warned it was in danger of losing the community rating system standing that it's held for 17 years. No time did we get an email that said you need to do A, B, and C in order not to lose that CRS rating.

Ratings for Sanibel Island and Fort Myers were not downgraded, and policyholders in those cities will keep getting discounts. The FEMA move starts a process that could throw Lee and the other municipalities completely out of the National Flood Insurance Program, a devastating action if another catastrophic hurricane hits here. This is Mike Braun. Affordability continues to challenge many folks across the state when it comes to buying a home. Buyers oftentimes are competing not with another person, but with corporate investors.

Here's Gabriela Paul with our partner station WUSF in Tampa. Troy Balicki works for the Stormwater Division in Pinellas County. He puts in long hours for modest pay, filling potholes and servicing storm drains. He's a 25 year old father with a second kid on the way, so he picks up extra hours when he can. He's also a new homeowner. He says finding a home in his price range wasn't easy. Yeah, it definitely felt very, very intimidating at first. His budget was $200,000, but the homes he was seeing were double that. When you really get sticker shock, you're thinking, wow, how am I really going to buy that? I don't have that in cash in hand. It was 2022, and Balicki was searching in Pinellas County. Home prices had shot up to an average of $410,000. Balicki started looking

farther away from where he grew up in St. Petersburg, and he also considered homes that needed work. He and his wife had their hearts set on one in Largo. We both saw it. We both really wanted it. It had a little bit of a smaller backyard, but, you know, it's a good starter home for a family. They got down payment assistance from a program for first-time homebuyers, and they made a full-price offer on-site after touring the home. The next day, they got a call from their agent. I get the phone call, and they made a full-price offer on-site after touring the home. The next day, they got a call from their agent. I get the phone call, and it's like, oh, hey, they edged you out. I'm like, what? Well, who bought it? Well, I can't tell you that. It's an LLC. Oh, okay. Corporate investors had swooped in, and it wouldn't be the last time for Balicki and his wife. They think they lost several homes to investors over their year-long search.

Realtor Kristen Washington says cash buyers have the upper hand. There's a pecking order. If you're in that lower register, you can't compete with cash. So buyers were experiencing multiple offers and multiple rejections. She says these bidding wars with cash buyers caused many home seekers to give up altogether. Researchers at the University of Florida have been investigating how corporate investors have affected the market for single-family homes in the state. Over the past few years, they've seen an influx of corporate investors in markets throughout Florida, including the Tampa Bay area. Renz Torres is a researcher with the

Schimberg Center for Housing Studies at UF. They developed a map that shows what percent of homes are owned by investors in Hillsborough, Pinellas, Pasco, Polk, and Hernando counties. It can go as low as zero and as high as about 18%. Torres says corporate ownership of single-family homes has climbed steadily alongside home prices. There's also pockets of neighborhoods with more investors. The hotbeds are in South St. Petersburg, the Ybor City area,

and parts of West Pasco and South Hillsborough counties. Torres says this added competition from investors can drive up prices and force people to live farther from where they work. Corporate investors compete with home buyers for the housing stock, which may lead to people getting displaced from the metro, getting displaced further out to outlying Pasco or Hernando counties.

That was the case for Balicki. He eventually found a home in Pasco County, which made his commute about an hour. Still, he feels lucky he bought a house when he did. Sitting at his kitchen table, he pulls up a map of the available homes he could afford today in Largo. Wow, there's not a single thing in that whole area for under $250 where I was looking, and that was only two years ago. Once in a while, Balicki says he drives by the house he wanted in Largo. It has a fresh coat of white paint and different cars that rotate through the driveway every few months. His best guess is that renters are living in the house he hoped to raise his

family in. I'm Gabriella Paul in Tampa. It's a Final Four weekend for men's and women's college basketball. Now, no Florida team will be playing, but some of our neighbors will. Alabama is in the men's tournament. South Carolina is playing in the women's bracket. It's a big weekend for sports betting. This is the first final four weekend with legal online sports betting in Florida. Legal gambling brings in hundreds of millions of dollars a year to the state government thanks to a contract between Florida and the Seminole Tribe. This week, Governor Ron DeSantis signed a bill that could use some of that online gambling money to help fight sea level rise and save undeveloped land. There's just one hurdle,

though. A lawsuit. Jenny Stoletovich is the environmental editor at our partner station WLRN in Miami. At least $100 million would go towards securing land for a wildlife corridor up and down Florida. Another $100 million would control invasive species and help manage state land. Another $100 million would be used to fight flooding and state land. Another 100 million would be used to fight flooding and sea level rise, and the rest would be used to improve polluted water. Here's DeSantis. So we are looking at about 750 million dollars a year to the state just from the Seminole Tribe Gaming Compact. I mean, that's a lot of resources. The governor noted legal challenges

by the owners of Magic City Casino in Miami. Like most of this stuff, you know, we weren't even a party to it, but it was a DC thing. But nevertheless, got a negative outcome in the district court and then have won on appeal. However, Magic City has taken their fight to the U.S. Supreme Court. They want justices to decide whether the Interior Department gave the Seminole Tribe a monopoly for lucrative online gambling and whether the compact violated the

state constitution, which limits gambling to tribal lands. Justices have given the sides until April 12th to make their case for why the court should take up the matter. I'm Jenny Stiletovich in Miami. Well, regardless of any legal challenges, online gambling is now here in Florida, and there's been an increase in calls to Florida's gambling hotline since it began. As Kyla Kissel shares from our partner station WUSF in Tampa. The Central Florida Council on Compulsive Gambling reports a 100% increase in calls, texts, and emails since the app went statewide in December. Richard Pinsky is the council's government relations representative. He says that while more than two percent of Floridians suffer from a gambling behavioral

disorder, he thinks the impact goes far deeper, particularly for younger people, since they could just bet on their phones. There's horrific stories of items from the household being removed and turned into cash, money being lifted from mom's purse and dad's wallet, and you've got spillover into petty crime. Pinsky hopes that Florida lawmakers address online gambling as a serious problem during their next legislative session. I'm Kayla Kissel in Tampa. And I'm Tom Hudson. This is the Florida Roundup from your Florida Public Radio station. Finally in the Roundup this week, a Florida story that started in the year 1742. The HMS Tiger, spelled with a Y instead of an I, ran aground in what today is the Dry Tortugas National Park. It's about 70 miles offshore from Key West.

Now, the HMS Tiger was a British warship. The British and the Spanish at this time were fighting over the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean. If anyone is a fan of Master and Commander, this is the same kind of time period, same kind of things that they were dealing with. Joshua Morano is a maritime archaeologist with South Florida National Parks. He spoke with WGCU in Fort Myers. The HMS Tiger was 130 feet long, had 50 cannons, and a crew of about 300. It was an old ship, already 95 years old back in 1742, when it came to rest on that coral reef. The crew abandoned ship, spent 66 days on Garden Key. That's where Fort Jefferson would be built a century later. They literally made sails from their clothes and worked to fashion several small vessels, mostly from the remains of HMS Tiger, what was left of it,

as well as some of the other vessels that were wrecked in the tortugas. They got off the island eventually, but their ship and cannons remained. Well, this week, 281 years later, archaeologists with the National Park Service report they matched five cannons on the seafloor to the tiger. The discovery was first published in the International Journal of Nautical Archaeology. When you actually can see one of these guns or you know see a timber you really get a chance to understand you know how big some of these things were, or it's just, it's a meaningful

connection. A connection almost three centuries in the making. That'll do it for the Roundup this week. It 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 Meritz. We get 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. Thanks for calling, emailing, listening, and supporting public radio in your community. I'm Tom Hudson. Have a terrific weekend.