The Florida Roundup - Immigration in Trump’s first year, Lawmakers tackle housing affordability, and more

Episode Date: January 24, 2026

This week on The Florida Roundup, we look at immigration policy a year into the second Trump administration (00:00). Then, we looked at Florida's affordable housing problem with FSU professor Sam Staley (20:26) and bills aimed to address the issue with Douglas Soule, ‘Your Florida’ state government reporter (34:02). And later, news from the week from across the state including an update on the state’s DOGE task force (37:32) and public school closures in Broward and Brevard counties (43:36). Plus, an effort to eliminate pennies moves forward in the Florida Senate (47:12).

Support for Florida Roundup comes from the Everglades Foundation, working to restore and protect Florida's $1 trillion asset that helps to bring clean water to Floridians. Learn more at Everglades Foundation.org. This is the Florida Roundup. I'm Tom Hudson. Great to have you this week with us. In June, we introduced you on this program to Sean and Michelle. Hello. Tom, how are you? Good. Nice to meet you. Yes to me to do. Yeah, thanks so much for creating the time for your schedule and invite me into your home. I appreciate it. Hey, how are you? I'm Tom.

Nice to see you. Good to see there, too. We put so light here. Beautiful home. Thank you. They're both from Venezuela and came to the United States more than a decade ago. They have a business and a young daughter who was born in America. They've had shifting immigration statuses through the years and when we first visited their home about eight months ago, they were legally in the United States under temporary protected status,

for Venezuelans, though the clock was ticking after the Trump administration announced it was canceling the protection. Sean and Michelle are not their real names, by the way. I returned to their home this week, about one year into President Donald Trump's immigration enforcement crackdown. Sean made some espresso before we sat down on their back patio to catch up. They were excited to share an update on their immigration journey. We really have great news.

She's now a full beneficiary of a H-1B visa, and soon enough we will be able to apply for our residents. Michelle was granted one of the 65,000 H-1B special occupations visas handed out each year. They got the news in a phone call from their lawyer. When I receive a call from the law firm, okay, what is this? They never call. you got a proof of the one's a V-B-B-Zah.

Oh wow, they start jumping, holding as each other, crying. It was like, wow, wow. So God has been so good with us that even in the darkest moments, you know, when we feel that we're lost, that everything is just so hard, then we have that drop of, uh, hope that give us fuel to keep going one more day or two more days or, you know,

like we were feeling really overwhelmed, no long ago, and then we received the news that soon enough we will be able to, to apply for our residents. The H-1B visa lasts up to three years. It can be extended as well, but they have no doubts they want to become American citizens. A hundred percent.

By all means. By all means. Yeah. 100%. Yes. We love this country. We will be honored to be an American citizen. But not only that, we don't have any other option.

That's right. You see, Sean served in the Venezuelan Army before coming to Florida. He was accused of participating in a plot to shake up the government when Nicholas Maduro first became the country's leader. Sean feared for his life and left. And even though Maduro now sits in a New York jail awaiting trial on drug and terrorism charges, Sean and Michelle do not see their future back in Venezuela. We cannot come back to Venezuela, at least not as now. It's the same regime, same gangsters. And even if the transition happened, I don't think it's safe for him to go back. It's been one year since President Trump returned to the White House and began his immigration enforcement.

Thousands have been detained in Florida. The state passed its own immigration cooperation laws. Two detention centers have been put up. Tens of thousands of Floridians have been impacted by the administration's swift changes to immigration policies, such as canceling humanitarian parole and ending temporary protected status that gave hundreds of thousands of people nationwide legal status. So what do you make of how immigration enforcement has been carried out? here in Florida. How has your neighborhood, community, school, or business been affected? Call us now 305-995-1800.

305-9-9-8100 or send us a quick email, radio at theflordoroundup.org. Radio at the Florida Roundup.org. Your calls and emails coming up. Now, Sean and Michelle have her immigration visa and they're pursuing permanent residency in the United States. They want to become citizens. But even with their visa and lawful status, they say they still feel vulnerable and faithful at the same time. We don't go anymore to Home Depot. Yeah. I'm afraid of a go to day.

We just do certainly what we must do. We go work and then go back home. We never went again to Disney, for example. We don't want to drive long. We don't want to risk to be maybe hit. by another car or something and be involved in that kind of situation. Even having a lawful study, we're so scared. We don't want to be exposed.

I used to sometimes, oh, let me stop by the tropical, let me stop by Chipotle. I don't go to those places anymore because those places are more exposed for eyes to go and take people. It has been disrupted, you know, it has been stressful, a lot of tension, a lot of uncertainty, We know of many people that they have decided just to live and, you know, gave up, you know, the fear in the community is real. It is very obvious that there is a label for brown-skinned people like us.

And we don't want to risk being in that situation. I'm not that naive, but we are not that naive to believe that policies or politics will change. will change. But the essential pilot of democracy is the due process. The process are in place and you got to follow the process. Even if you want to change the rules, you got to go through the established canals and change them. But it got to be done in an orderly way and following the procedures in place. That's what I believe is not happening anymore, especially in immigration. So all our confidence is in God, which is the only force that had brought us over here. We don't like to share our situation with other parents because somehow we feel like in a different layer of the society even more now.

That is like very tough the difference between being or not being a permanent resident or a citizen. And this is something that is going to have an impact. This whole momentum is going to have an impact in the society. I don't know who explains this. It's something that makes us a shame, which it shouldn't be. Difficult times require a lot of patience. Faith overall. If I have to define one thing that has been pivotal in our process is faith.

That's all that has given. us the strength to go through all these difficult process. It's hard to explain but you know the process takes time, you know it's slow, but somehow you know someone is going to review your file and it's going to go through, you know you did everything right, the paperwork, everything, the lawyers, and you know it's going to happen. So we still, we still, know that is happening. The institutions here are solid, because institutions are formed by people, by the society, right?

And those public servants that are making those institutions work are not for the politics of the moment. They are the ones holding that institution together, and they will make always the right call, even when politics change from one side or the other. And that's the strength. of a country. Shana Michelle are just two Floridians

who've been navigating their immigration journey over the past year as enforcement, detentions, and deportations have been reshaped under President Trump. Darles is another Venezuelan who has made her life here in Florida. She lives in Gainesville and has a work visa. She was spending a few hours a week learning

English until she had to stop a few months ago to take care of her mother. Reporter Sophia Zaran tagged along with her last summer. In Gainesville, at a local church, a couple times a week, Dorlis gets to class early. For privacy reasons, we're only using her first name. Good. That was a trick question.

On these days, she's not just a Venezuelan immigrant awaiting citizenship. She's a student, forging a future, starting with the language of her new home. I'm a kid with you. I don't want to leave, but here we are. Torlais says she is here legally. She is here legally. She arrived in Gainesville with her daughter two years ago. In class, her teacher is Nicole Lunsford. There's been a lot fewer students who have been able to come to class, people who don't really feel safe going to class, and I think that it's awful. People should be given more help.

Dorlis has been in these classes for a little over a year. She says she sees the improvement in her English. Now I listen and understand more of what they say in English. these evening classes, language isn't seen as a barrier. It's a bridge. For Dorles, that bridge is to a new dream, to build a home. Our future here is to keep working as hard as we can to achieve our goals. Like anyone else, we have our dreams to have a home again. We had that in our country, but we lost it because of everything that was happening. And while that's one of our hopes to have a more stable home so we can continue. offspring. Dorley says in spite of all the changes, she tries to stay positive. The phrase she keeps

close. God puts everything in your path. I'm Sophia Saran in Gainesville. Well, you just heard from three immigrants making their way through the complex immigration system hoping to stay here in Florida. You heard their faith and their worries. We want to hear from you, regardless of your political persuasion, conservative, liberal, Republican, Democrat, independent, same phone number for everybody here on the South, the Florida round up. It is 305-995-1800. Jason has been patient listening in Miami. Jason, you are on the radio. Go ahead. Yes, Jason, Miami by the way of Jamaica, and I'll still try and keep it concise, so I'm going to do my best. We'll do. I'm responding to your question. Number one, ridiculously stupid for the USA. First of all, number one, number one,

One, these people, which is in hundreds of thousands, close to a million that you're removing legal states for, pay taxes and they buy merchandise. So that's the economy. That's easily trillions of dollars that's going to disappear from the economy. That's one. Two, you're creating a state of complete fear because green cardholders now, because we see people who are being arrested, detained, so on, who have done nothing. And they're being thrown into detention just because of the colorist's been, their skin, or their accent. Right now there's a Jamaican who was a U.S. veteran. He has been in ICE detention for four months, about to be deported.

He has a green card. What did he do? He drove without a driver's license. Wow. And then, of course, atop of it, it's cruel. You're tearing families apart. You are removing people who have been a country. Few contributors to this country.

By the way, they don't get benefits because they're not citizens. all they do is put into the system and you're sending them back to countries where the things are horrible. In Haiti, the prime minister was just removed and fired. Jason, I know you got a lot to say and I'm happy to hear it.

We've got a lot more folks in Floridians we want to hear from as well. To that final point, though, there are those that support the enforcement effort that will say folks use health care, for instance, and we'll use other public services

that they may not be necessarily providing funding for as they operate without legal status. Joe Mario Pedersen is our reporting colleague in Central Florida Public Media in Orlando. He joins us now. Joe Mario, this week, it was reported that ICE officials were in the Orlando area earlier this month. What can you share with us? Yeah, that's correct. They reportedly were touring different facilities here in the Central Florida area, a particular warehouse that they were looking into to see if it could be a possible detainment center site.

There was a leaked memo earlier in December, pretty much stating the same thing, that they were looking into Orlando as a possible detainment center site. If that were to actually happen, it would be the first time that a center of this nature had been opened in central Florida. What's been the reaction by local officials on the ground, local Orange County or city of Orlando folks? A lot of outrage, I would say. People condemning this, we've heard from, you know, state congressman Maxwell Frost, who of course, you know, has spoken out against this. We've heard from probably one of the most vocal people on this has been District 1, Commissioner of Orange County, Nicole Wilson, who's been pretty horrified at the idea that a center

like this would be opened here in Orlando. She was very quick to point out that the facility that they were touring is a warehouse, and it's not really built to store human beings. And, you know, one of the first things that she pointed out, one of the big factors of why this wouldn't really be able to work is the warehouse is not built to accommodate human waste or transport human waste away from the center. So a lot of outrage being pointed at right now at ICE.

Representative Ana Escamani had a press conference earlier this week and demanded more clarity, more, more work in the light, rather, accusing the ICE organization of working in the shadows away from government workers. We shall see what the reaction continues to build there in Orlando. Joe Mario Peterson, a reporting colleague with Central Florida public media here on the roundup. Joe Mario, thanks for sharing your reporting. Absolutely. Bruce is patient in Bradenton.

Bruce, we want to hear from you. You're on the radio. Go ahead. Thanks very much. This is an issue to me that really has its genesis in a level. legislative problem, a legislative drop the ball federally and statewide. I mean, to me, this is where the problem comes from. Explain that further. What do you mean by that? The lack of immigration reform at the federal level? Exactly. I see. I mean, had this been, there's so many people involved in the

problem, the problem got too big, and the federal government, the Congress had not dealt with it, and because it's political. And that numbers grew, and each side had an agenda. And as a result of that agenda, they couldn't come to a compromise. They couldn't come to a reasonable political solution. Yeah, Bruce. And as a result, go ahead. I apologize for interrupting. We want to hear from other Floridians, Bruce, but I appreciate that point. It's, you know, to note, right, there has been no new federal immigration law since President Trump was sworn back into office enforcing the law in the books is what supporters will point to. Sarah and Miramar, I've got just a few seconds, but we want to hear from you. Go ahead.

Well, my opinion is what's going on in this country today, it's not alicism. This is just purely ethnic cleansing. This is a racist agenda. Yeah. That is a severe charge, Sarah, certainly, and one that you put voice to here. My goodness, I can imagine folks want to react to that accusation. And if you do, we'll certainly listen to you. Our inbox is open. It's radio at the Florida Roundup.org.

Radio at the Florida Roundup.org. Coming up on our program here in just a few moments, we're going to talk about housing affordability here in the Sunshine State. How has your neighborhood changed in affordability? How are you making your monthly housing payments? You can call us now at 305-995-800. 305-9-9-5-1800. You're listening to the Florida.

Florida Roundup from your Florida Public Radio Station. Support for Florida Roundup comes from the Everglades Foundation, working to restore and protect Florida's $1 trillion asset that helps to bring clean water to Floridians. Learn more at Everglades Foundation.org. This is the Florida Roundup. I'm Tom Hudson. Next week on our program, have you heard of Yigbee? You've probably heard of NIMBY, not in my backyard.

That's the idea of you don't want something built in your neighborhood, an apartment building or affordable housing. Yigby is yes in God's backyard. It's the idea of churches and other faith organizations opening up their vacant land to build affordable housing. St. Petersburg is the first in the state

to approve an ordinance designed to speed up the process allowing religious organizations to use land for housing. The city of Miami is considering something similar. So are you a NIMBY or a Yigby or someplace in between? What could your community

do to help make housing more affordable while protecting the investment bade by existing homeowners. Email us Radio at the Florida Roundup.org. Radio at the Florida Roundup.org. That's next week. This week, we want to explore what's happening at the state level to address the cost of housing here in the Sunshine State. You can join our conversation live on this Friday at 305-995-1800.

305-9-9-8-100. Are you buying or selling a home? in this market? How does Florida build more homes as the population grows while protecting neighborhoods and the environment? How has your neighborhood changed as Florida's population has grown? 305-995-800. Sam Staley is the director of the DeVoe More Center at Florida State University's College of Social Sciences and Public Policy. Sam, thanks for joining us today. First describe the state of housing affordability in Florida broadly. We have gone from a state, which was one of the most affordable in the nation.

And in fact, when I was looking at the data back in the mid-2000s, we were very much entrending toward more affordability. And then really beginning in the late 2000s and then into the 2010s and then just accelerating after COVID-19, we've become increasingly unaffordable. If we go back to the last part of the first decade of the century, you have the, the great housing collapse, the great recession. And Florida was the epicenter of that, certainly. And then we saw the recovery. And then we saw the economy recover. And then we saw, of course, the pandemic push to move to Florida.

All of that adding to the demand for housing. And supply, the number of housing units simply did not keep pace. Is that an accurate, although simplistic description of where we're at? It is simplistic and accurate. Housing affordability is a function of demand in the state. supply. In the United States, a lot of people don't seem to understand this. We can't prevent people from moving to Florida. We have a federal constitutional prohibition on preventing other people from moving to among the states. So that's not going to go away. We're adding hundreds of thousands of

people to Florida every year. And so we have to take the demand as given. There's nothing we can do about that as a state. So the problem is on the supply side. And the reality is we have not been building enough housing. And I think a lot of people have been focusing on the top number, which is how many units are we adding. But it's a lot more complicated than that because we need to have the right housing for the right people in the right place. It's not just about adding the number of units, although I think that definitely helps, but we also have to be thinking about making sure that we are accommodating the different kinds of housing for the different segments. And what we've seen, particularly in Florida is that there's been a big squeeze in what we call workforce housing. That for that,

that household of $60,000 a year, $70,000 dollars a year, $80,000 a year, we're just not building enough housing in those categories because we're not allowing that housing to be built. We're not getting filtering of the old housing down to the segments they use. And that's typically where our affordable units come from. What are the forces at play that are preventing the right kind of housing to be built? A lot of it comes down to local planning and zoning. Is it intentional by local planning and zoning? Or are these unintended consequences of decisions that have been made by local planning

and zoning boards? They're both. So we have this phenomenon called not in my backyard. What happens when someone comes in and says, I want to put 300 units of housing. And then what happens is people look at that and say, that's going to change the way my city or neighborhood looks. I don't want that. So when people go into the local planning approval board and the hearing,

often what they're doing is they're saying, I want to keep my neighborhood the same. And so there's a stasis that builds into it. And then we have a very conservative process for making these decisions that tends to default to the people, the citizens in the room. So part of it's intentional, don't want it in my backyard, part of its process. And then there's a third element to it, which I think is very underappreciated. We don't hold our local communities accountable for the housing elements of the comprehensive plan. They may talk about adding housing, but if they fall short of that, there are no consequences.

Meaning they don't lose elections, no one's fired. No one's held accountable for that. I suppose it's hard to vote out those local officials that aren't increasing housing because those people who would live in those houses aren't going to be voters. next election cycle around in that municipality. Absolutely. And here's the paradox of local development control. The only interest in that public hearing that is really thinking about the future residents is the builder and the land developer because they have to sell the units. In Florida, lawmakers have passed a series of laws and are working on some new legislation, this legislative cycle,

that supporters say encourages the building of more housing in local communities. And critics point out, that the result is less control over zoning and density by local communities. These are the Live Local Act or Live Local Acts. Is this a strategy that has proven to provide housing supply while not hurting maybe the housing value of the existing stock? So it's unclear at this point with these kinds of reforms, whether we're looking at California, Florida, Montana, or wherever these reforms have been enacted, what the actual consequences are going to be. I've actually been a long-time skeptic of the state coming in and telling locals what to do. I think in the long run, that's where you get sustainable solutions, policy solutions at any rate. But the legislator is acting because,

in my view, in this purely my opinion, local governments have not stepped up to the plate to address these serious problems. Real estate is one of the founding industries of modern Florida. How does the state or even local governments, how do they approach providing more housing, increasing supply, making it more affordable without harming the value of the largest investment of most of their voters, which is going to be their homes? One is you don't want a shock of new units to come in. Unfortunately, we are so far behind on our housing supply, there's going to be a lot of pressure to just approve units in large chunks. And that's essentially what's happening up in the state legislature. They're saying, we've got to get a handle on this. The locals, the counties, and the cities aren't dealing with this.

We're just going to try to open this up so we can get more units. And it's not much more complicated than that because most of those legislators in the House in the Senate really don't want to be messing with this, but they feel like they have to some public policy crisis at this point. And so the question is, how do you do that? I think we need to focus on the impacts of the development. not on conformance to rules or plans or the zoning code. So the question when you have someone proposing a unit is how's that going to impact my community?

That's going to impact me. Most of the times those impacts can be narrowed down to pretty tangible things. What's happening to stormwater runoff? What's happening to road congestion? What's happening to all of these public facilities that we are providing through our tax dollars? These are actually measurable. So if we focused on that, I think, would make a lot more headway rather than if it conformed to the comprehensive land use

plan. We can debate about when the affordability crisis began in Florida, but let's date it about 15 years or so ago, and it's just been growing, starting in pockets 15 years ago, and certainly it's statewide now. With a variety of options in front of lawmakers, city council members, zoning boards, at what point do potentially this market find a more affordable equilibrium? I don't have a good answer for that because the political process is so entrenched at this point. It's hard to know where that equilibrium will do. We actually have forecasted housing shortages in every county in Florida. And this is an endemic problem.

We know there's a shortage. We know where we need to go to get back into balance. The problem we have now is we don't know how to get there. And the state legislature is moving in a kind of ham-fisted way to try and do it. But at the end of the day, we need locals, counties and cities to step up to the plate and say, we need to do things differently and we need to prioritize housing. And let's focus on what is really important to our communities and then try to get rid of the white noise as part of the process. And I think there's some good things coming out of the legislature that I think locals can pick up on.

But I think we need to recognize that the local governments that have not been. and stepping up to the plate, which has primed the pump for the state legislature to become part of this. Sam, I appreciate you sharing your time with us. Thanks so much for your expertise. Oh, thank you for the opportunity. This has been a lot of fun. Let me know if I can be of any help in the future. You certainly will be. Sam Staley is the director of the DeVoe Moore Center at Florida State University in Tallahassee. Terry has been listening in Melbourne. Our friend Terry writes, my insurance costs have gone from $900 to $2,200 over the past five years. She writes, I already have a house, a mortgage less than 3%, and I'm feeling no pain.

New residents should not come here if they can't afford our housing. Now, I'll let folks know. Terry and I hail from the same stretch in the Midwest along the Mississippi River. Terry, where you and I are from, it is negative four degrees today as we're speaking. The wind chill on this Friday is minus 12. 20, Terry. Yes, we are relishing in the sunshine that is here in the Shunstein state and you in Melbourne and me in Miami. Terry, great to have you along for the ride this week. Let's hear from Allison in Palm Harbor. Allison, you've been patient. You're on the radio. We want to hear from you. Yeah, I was calling because basically in our community, we live in a small, unincorporated community where entire streets have been taken over by VRBO and Airbnb. And those are small houses that used to be inhabited by families who went to the local elementary school, who were part of the community. And now entire parts of our community are being converted into hotels, basically. And as an unincorporated community, we have no control over what's happening.

And I do, you know, you have to wonder how much of this state is being taken up by short-term rentals and how much that's impacting the housing crisis. Alison, any idea who the owners are of those properties that have been turned into short-term rentals? A lot of them are big institutions. They're not people who live in the community. Yeah. Like Wall Street firms as President Trump has targeted in an executive order? Do you know? I don't know.

I just know that it's not good for the community. It's not good for what we're trying to do, what we want for our community. It sounds like it is. And there's nothing we can do about it. Yeah. Well, there's got to be some kind of zoning board or something there, Allison, even if it's unincorporated. But, boy, yeah, I can imagine that has changed the character of that street there in Palm Harbor. Thank you for sharing your story with us here on the Roundup, Allison.

Janice is in Orlando. Janice, go ahead. We want to hear from you. Janice, you're up. Oh, thank what we want for our community. It sounds like you. Turn your radio. Janice, we're going to get back to you here in one second.

I want to read an email here from Valerie and Orlando. She writes, the problem in Florida and many other states is the influx of investors and investment firms buying house is a top dollar, which makes real estate values go up and makes housing less affordable. President Trump signed an executive order just recently banning so-called Wall Street firms from buying single-family homes. Economists, I will tell you, that I've spoken to about this, really debate the impact of that long-term or even short-term on the price and affordability of homes. All right, Janice and Orlando, let's see if you're up. Go ahead. Well, okay, what's happened recently, and it's pretty shocking, and this apparently is due to increases from the county taxes, so I was stunned. I thought I had a 30-year fixed mortgage.

Well, yes, what's fixed is the interest. So I have gone from when I first bought the house from $719 a month. I only get $2,200 at my Social Security, so this is pretty scary. Now I was thinking, all right, so finally it went to $7.51 last. year. It kept increasing and increasing. Imagine my shop, and just this week I got a notice that it went up to $1,100. That's a big dump. And I'll tell you to find out why, and it's the county taxes. Right. And it's, well, it's the value of your home that has gone up. And of course, the tax rate then is based upon that value. But Janice, that's exactly what lawmakers are trying to address as they're going

after property taxes that likely land on a ballot measure coming up in November that perhaps perhaps you'll get a chance to decide. But thank you for sharing your story from Orlando. Let me remind folks you are listening to the Florida Ronda from your Florida Public Radio Station. Douglas, Douglas, Sol is with us now, the reporter for your Florida Reporting Project with our partner station, WUSF. Douglas, lots of talk, of course, about affordability in the legislature. Janice and Orlando talking about property taxes.

We know that is front and center. Housing affordability is certainly front and center. How are lawmakers approaching efforts to encourage new homes to be built? Yeah, I mean, as we heard today from our call-ins, it's no secret that housing costs are high in Florida, especially in the bigger cities. So lawmakers are certainly feeling the pressure from their constituents to do something this session. And they're considering a number of bills focused on this. We've got approximately a month and a half of session left to see what happens. Yeah.

So in 2023, lawmakers approved this live local act. There has been a lot of support and a lot of opposition to it because it preempts. local zoning rules, in some cases for developers wanting to build certain kinds of housing, affordable housing. What's on the agenda this year? Yeah, so every session since that was made into law, the Live Local Act, there have been additions to it, changes to it, buildings upon it. And legislation this year would continue to build on it. The Live Local Act, as you mentioned, already lets developers override local zoning if they include enough affordable housing. that in large part, of course, speeds up construction.

One of the proposals this year builds on it by saying the same rules would apply to even land areas like school district property. Trying to open up more of the so-called vacant space, even if it's owned by a government agency then. Yeah, it's all about expanding the possibilities of where you can put the housing so you can expand the housing availability. Yeah. Douglas Sol, reporter for the Your Florida Project, watching over Tallahassee and the State House with our partner station WUSF. Louis in Oakland. We wanted to hear from you before we have to move on. Go ahead, Louis. You are on the radio. Well, I moved up from Miami in 1998, and in 99, I found this little town called Oakland, Florida. I bought a wood frame house, 100-year-a house for $58,000. I paid cash. My neighbor hasn't changed a bit, but the town has. The undeveloped property now, I went from 900 residents in my town to $3,600 in that time.

Wow. Yeah. How about the value of that home? I've been offered 400 grand for it, but I'm not moving because I'm never going to be able to buy a neighborhood. The houses going in me now are multi-million dollar houses. It's become like coconut grove or Weston or something. So I'm sitting on a lot of money on paper, but where am I going to go that's as cool as where I'm at? The paper town of Oakland, lots of paper towns, a lot of paper neighborhoods with those housing values that have been experienced in Florida. Louis, thanks so much for sharing that time with us.

I'm sure you got your hands full with some DIY projects with a wood frame home there here in Florida. We will wish you luck over the weekend doing that honey-do list, perhaps, that you've got. All right, we've got plenty more to come. And, of course, the inbox is open for your thoughts. Radio at the Florida Roundup.org. I'm Tom Hudson. Stick with us. You're listening to The Roundup from your Florida Public Radio Station.

Support for Florida Roundup comes from the Everglades Foundation, working to restore and protect Florida's $1 trillion asset that helps to bring clean water to Floridians. Learn more at Everglades Foundation.org. This is the Florida Roundup. I'm Tom Hudson. Terrific to have you on board this week. 11 months ago, Governor Ron DeSantis

announced a program while standing behind a sign on his podium that read, Keeping Florida Efficient. We in the state of Florida take pride in how we run things. I say we were Doge before Doge. was cool. He launched his Department of Government Efficiency effort. It was an executive order creating not a new department as the name suggested, but a task force to quote, identify and report unnecessary spending within county and municipal governments.

That's according to the executive order. The legislature passed a spending bill then last year to fund the effort and on line 3,720 of the law, it requires the group to submit its initial findings by January 13, 13th, 2026. That was almost two weeks ago. This week, the Miami Herald and Tampa Bay Times reported, no report has been turned in to legislative leaders as required. The leader of the effort, Florida Chief Financial Officer Blais Angolia, held a press conference this week in Nassau County. There have been some red counties that have not been very fiscally responsible with your money, and I have called them out. And the media loves to spend the narrative that we are doing

this exercise to only criticize blue counties. He was in Nassau County, a deeply Republican county, to claim the local government there has overspent $53 million. So far across 11 local governments that we have done this exercise with, we have uncovered $1.86 billion in wasteful, excessive spending in just those 11 governments, just in the 2024-2020-25 election cycle. That is not a cumulative total. That is a running total for just one year. Now, critics argue the spending analysis is oversimplified, opaque, and cherry-picks projects to criticize. The statute that's set the January 13th deadline also gives local governments

seven days to give the state Doge task force access to financial information when requested or risk a $1,000 fine each day it's late. Democratic Representative Ana Escamani of Orlando calls the missed Doge deadline hypocritical. When it comes to holding themselves accountable to deadlines, they can't even do it. And so it just further reinforces for me how the entire Doge operation has been all about politics,

no substance. Monday was Martin Luther King Jr. Day. also the day that Florida Attorney General James Uthmeyer released a letter that he was not going to enforce dozens of state laws that call for race to be considered in such things as government contracts, advisory councils, and education. Uthmiers' letter is his opinion as the chief law enforcement officer of the state. He cited the U.S. Supreme Court decision ruling race-based college admissions are unconstitutional for deciding not to enforce various affirmative action state laws. He argued such laws violate the 14th Amendment guaranteeing equal protection.

About two dozen Black Democratic lawmakers gathered in Tallahassee at the Capitol on Thursday, criticizing Uthmires' decision not to enforce laws requiring race considerations. Laws such as one creating small business loan programs, one creating grants to attract minority conventions to Florida, and one that provides money for universities to give to minority students. State Senator Darrell Rusan is from St. Petersburg. He's also the chair of the legislative black caucus. These laws represent decades of bipartisan policy and carefully tailored programs that now with the stroke of a pen are in jeopardy.

Say Senator Mac Bernard is from Palm Beach County. If the Attorney General does not want to follow the laws that we've passed, I'm declaring that I think that the governor should remove him today. Because he needs to be removed. Now, the Attorney General Uthmire was appointed to that position by Governor Ron DeSantis last year. He is running for election this year. You know property taxes are a big issue for lawmakers this year, so here's the latest on that from this week in Tallahassee. A couple of Florida House committees advanced property tax proposals on Thursday that could go before voters later this year. Democrats in the panel's objected.

local government officials worried about less revenue, possibly leading to declining services. But the Republican-dominated House Ways and Means Committee approved a measure that if okayed by voters, would increase the homestead exemption by $100,000 over the next decade. Representative Monique Miller from Palm Bay says her plan is intended to give local government's time to adjust to the eventual elimination of non-school property taxes in 10 years. Over the last several years, property tax burdens have increased sharply at a time when Floridians are struggling with inflation, high insurance costs, and record level government spending. Now across the chambers in the Senate, the president there, Ben Albreton, a Republican, told reporters on Thursday that he continues to get input, but he's not certain what the Senate position will eventually be or if it will need to be addressed in a special session after this regular legislative session. The governor has called, or at least suggested, a special session to deal with property taxes.

The time that we're taking to do the measuring that you've all heard me talk about is yielding good results. And, you know, at some point, I think sooner than later, we're going to have that public conversation about where the Senate is. Of course, any referendum passed by the legislature and signed by the governor would still have to go to voters in November. and then 60% of people who vote would have to approve it for it to become law. A couple of stories about the classroom now. First, some classrooms will close next year in Broward and Brevard counties. We will start the reporting from education reporter Natalie LaRoche Pietri with our partner station WLRN in South Florida,

where the state's second largest school district decided to close a half dozen schools. The boundary changes and school consolidations are estimated to save up to $10 million annually. The board unanimously voted to close one high school, one middle school, and four elementary schools. Some slight boundary changes will affect students in a handful of schools in Fort Lauderdale, Miramar, and Pembroke Pines. Broward Schools faces a roughly $94 million budget whole and 10,000 fewer students enrolled than last year. The changes will go into effect in the 2026 to 27 school year. I'm Natalie LaRoche Pietre in Fort Lauderdale. In Brevard County, the school board there voted unanimously this week to close an elementary school.

The two reasons were too few students and too much money. Central Florida Public Media's education reporter Danielle Pryor reports. With the school board's vote, Kate View will close for the 2026-27 school year and students and teachers will transfer to Roosevelt Elementary. Capeview students will be bused to Roosevelt. School board member Katie Campbell says the decision to close the school was a difficult one, but it was made with the best interests of students throughout the district in mind. She says funding for Cape View. Is funding that could go towards students across our district.

So for a million dollars, BPS can hire 12 people. For $2.5 million, we can hire 30 to support children. in many schools. With this closure, Cape Canaveral's only public elementary school will shudder. This city had asked the school board to reconsider and delay the vote for a year. In Orlando, I'm Danielle Pryor. And I'm Tom Hudson. You're listening to the Florida Roundup from your Florida Public Radio Station.

And then on to university and college campus classrooms. The state has some new mandates on how sociology can be taught, but faculty at one state university are pushing back. Daniel Rivera has the details. In the last days of December, state officials informed faculty at FIU that starting immediately, a new curriculum and textbook for sociology would have to be used. Both were created by a state work group that came about after new laws and policies banned teaching on gender and race issues.

FIU professor Matt Marr has taught the introduction to sociology course for 17 years, but said he decided not to teach it this year, because of the new state mandates. Our goal is the department is to teach introduction to sociology uncensored. At a recent faculty senate meeting, Marr said the state removed mention of race, gender, and systemic inequality issues from its new textbook. Not only are these omissions in incorrect representation of the field,

but they also failed to prepare students for majors and graduate education that require or recommend introduction to sociology. 19 faculty members of FIU's Department of Global Ineastern, and sociocultural studies signed a letter calling the moves an attack on academic freedoms. The Florida State University system did not respond to a request for comment. I'm Danny Rivera in Miami.

Finally, in the roundup this week, how about a nickel for your thoughts? Yeah, it's been inflation, a nickel for your thoughts now. The penny may be in danger of disappearing here in Florida if you pay in cash. Surely you've seen the signs at some cash registers that there's a nationwide penny shortage. So what happens if you pay in cash,

put all your pennies are back at home in a jar? And your owed change, including a couple of pennies. Well, there are no more pennies coming. The U.S. Mint stopped pressing pennies late last year because it just costs quite a bit more than a penny to make a penny. So now Republican Senator Don Gates of Pensacola wants to require Florida cashiers to round your change up or down. If sales end in one or two cents, round down.

If sales end in three to four cents, round up to a nickel. And then if sales end in six or seven cents, round down to a nickel. And if they end in eight or nine cents, round up to a dime. Oh, boy. More math at the cash register. That's our program for today. It is produced by WLRN Public Media in Miami. and WUSF in Tampa by Bridget O'Brien and Denise Royal.

W. Lerins Vice President of Radio is Peter Merritt. Our program's technical director is M.J. Smith. Engineering help each and every week from Doug Peterson, Harvey Brassard, and Ernesto J. Our theme music is by Miami jazz guitarist, Aaron Leibos, at Aaron Leibos.com. Well, your opinion never costs a penny or a nickel or a dime. You don't have to round up or down

when you send us an email with your thoughts. The address is Radio at the Florida Roundup. Radio at the Florida Roundup.org. Thanks for emailing, calling, listening, and above all, supporting public media here in the Sunshine State. I'm Tom Hudson. Have a terrific weekend. Support for Florida Roundup comes from the Everglades Foundation, working to restore and protect Florida's $1 trillion asset

that helps to bring clean water to Floridians. Learn more at evergladesfoundation.org.