The Florida Roundup - Leadership changes at Florida universities, how ‘Big Beautiful Bill’ could impact Floridians, still no state spending plan and weekly news briefing

Episode Date: May 30, 2025

This week on The Florida Roundup, we spoke about leadership changes at Florida’s universities with POLITICO’s Andrew Atterbury (00:00). Then, we looked at how the U.S. House spending bill could impact Floridians with NPR’s Claudia Grisales (19:25). Plus, the latest in state budget negotiations and other legislative news with WUSF’s Douglas Soule (32:56). And later, we heard about ongoing recovery efforts from Hurricane Ian five years on (37:23) and looked at what’s behind recent state executions (42:44).

This is the Florida Roundup. I'm Tom Hudson. Thanks for being here this week. There are a dozen public state universities in Florida. Half of them have or soon will have new presidents. And some of them have close connections to Governor Ron DeSantis, like Manny Diaz. Today, he's the state education commissioner in charge of all public education in Florida. In mid-July, he will become the interim president of the University of West Florida in Pensacola after being approved by the school's Board of Trustees this week. I will speak to some of the comments I heard and questions as to what experience I have. I have in higher ed. I've been on the board of governors now since 2022,

dealing with specific issues pertaining to the entire university system and the institutions that participate in that system, all 12 of them, not just the University of West Florida. At the other end of the state, the interim president at Florida International University in Miami is Jeanette Nunez. Until February, she was the lieutenant governor of Florida. She's the only candidate to be FIU's permanent president. Lobbyist Marva Johnson was chosen to be Florida A&M University's new leader recently. She served on the board overseeing public education and has ties to Governor DeSantis, connections she defended during her interview earlier this month. If the general public perception is that Governor DeSantis likes me,

then wouldn't it stand to reason that he wants me to be successful? The leaders of the state's flagship university chose who they want to be their next leader this week. The University of Florida Board of Trustees voted to nominate Santa Ono to be the president of the school. Now he doesn't have any political connection to the DeSantis administration, but during his final interview this week, he endorsed the governor's efforts to remake higher education in Florida. We have all seen what happens when universities are handed over to political activists and grievance entrepreneurs.

America needs leaders grounded in scholarship, not ideology. Florida Atlantic University's new president, Adam Hasner, was hired back in March. He used to be the majority leader in the Florida House where he served eight years as a Republican and the University of South Florida in Tampa will soon be looking for a new president. So does your alma mater have a new leader? Maybe it's the school your son or daughter grandchild or niece attends. What do you make of the turnover and changes at the top of many of Florida's state universities. Call us now 305-995-1800. 305-995-1800. Or send

us a quick note, the inbox email address is radio at the floridaroundup.org. Candy Olson lives in Tampa. I don't think there's one single factor. I think the politicization is a piece. I think the issues around funding is a huge piece. Nearby in Riverview, that's where Linda Hughes-Kirchabel lives. Right now what we need for the whole system of education are people who are coming in with a record of transparency and that the search committee has a record of transparency so that everybody is on the same page with like who the person is and we can all get behind that. So scholarship, ideology, both, where does it all fit in to lead state universities here

in the Sunshine State? 305-995-1800, 305-995-1800. Andrew Adderberry is with us now covering higher education for Politico in Tallahassee. Andrew, welcome back to the program. Nice to have you again. Hey, thanks for having me. So how should folks judge whether the turnover in these presidential positions is just a natural life cycle of the tenure of these folks or something else is afoot?

It's probably a little bit of both. I think there's, in some of these cases, there's very specific things. Presidents have resigned sometimes or in some cases, it's like they've been kind of pushed out because of certain things that have happened. For example,, UF, you know, just a couple of years ago they thought they had their president when they found former Senator Ben Sasse. They thought, okay, that's it. But you know, he resigned, you know,

shortly after that, about a year or so after that. And here they are searching again. So that doesn't seem very natural, but that's just what happened with them. You know, in FAMU, President Robinson, there was an issue with a donation that fell through that was a public embarrassment for them. So that kind of got him out the door. Is that really natural? No, but higher education is pretty public business. And when something like that happens, that really does lead to turnover. Arguably may be different at West Florida and FIU, where those leaders, presumably,

at least publicly facing, chose to resign. Didn't seem to be kind of led to the exit door or perhaps were they? University of West Florida is a very interesting case because that's the school that Governor Santos has been saying for the last few months. I believe his quote was buckle up. So it seems like that's playing out. And that started a lot with some trustees that he appointed that it seemed almost like a repeat of what happened at New College of Florida a few years ago, where here, here we go, we have a whole new slate

of trustees approved, which is a new majority, which is enough to get a get a new president in there. And then the first thing they did was they looked at programs like gender studies and DEI and got rid of that. So through a new slate of trustees, they really got some new policies passed at that school. Well, at New College, let's just say it's the former House Speaker, Richard Corcoran, who is now the president of New College. Right. It fits right into what you're saying. So it's another one of those. And he's also a former education commissioner. So it kind of tells you a lot. It's like, okay, so we've got a full education. So yeah, so what about the qualifications

of some of these leaders? How do they differ? How are they the same from those who came before? That's the issue that a lot of faculty and students have been raising in some of these public meetings where the presidents have come before them. The public, I think, the communities of these universities, they want someone who has more roots in higher education, someone who has roosted the ranks, perhaps been a professor or provost or in the best case have been like a sitting president in the past, kind of like using a UF. But what trustees when they're picking these candidates, like Nunez at FIU or elsewhere as they say well, they want someone who

Understands Tallahassee and who can who can negotiate for them and fundraise for them and do things because they argue that the higher education Landscape is changing. They're facing pressure from the state to reform, but also the federal government, you know They're losing funds from grants. There's all, there's just seems like it's coming at them from all different angles. So they think, oh, this is the time to pivot. These are what the trustees are saying at least. They think it's time to pivot,

find someone who can really advocate for a university who may be better at getting things done for us financially and lobbying for us. And then you find someone like a strong provost, something like that, who can take care of the things that they're still learning. It really is an evolution in leadership at public universities here in Florida. The university leader, instead of the chief scholar or chief academic, really looking at it as the chief executive or Andrew, as you mentioned, the chief lobbyist.

These presidents have always been chief fundraisers when it comes to public universities and chief cheerleaders certainly. Andre has been listening to this conversation Andrew he is in Miami. Go ahead Andre you're on the radio. This all boils down to money at the end of the day. What it is is that if you are aligned with DeSantis you get funding and it's it's just that simple. You want to be aligned with him even with the in with the new appointees at and you universal for the i personally am a gator

just that simple if you get a line with with the phantoms you get funding everything is much easier if you go against them to go get the food if you go get the system basically it's over for you and it will be difficult and I believe that this is problematic because what we've always had is we've always left the university system to be free and have have a level of ability to move to do what needs to be done and now with if you have to align with somebody

and you have to line with a certain political party, it creates issues. It creates issues. It's simply done. Andre, I appreciate you lending your voice to the conversation. Andrew, how about Andre's point? You're watching higher ed. We're watching the budget as well in that process.

There's always been a connection between public universities and state funding, because they rely on that funding, certainly. But does Andre have a point there that there is a connection between these new political presidents and funding for these institutions? Why these schools are hoping so? They're hoping that this can lead to more funding. The question I keep having is when you have more and more presidents that are all kind of tied to the state in various ways There's still only a limited amount of money to go around So at this point it's like how do you parse that out right and that's something that I've really been fascinated to see is this

Budget process plays out. Unfortunately, we don't have a budget in Florida. It's like one of the biggest hanging over us Yeah, we'll talk about that later on this program Andrew Yeah, I was really curious to see, like, how does FIU fare? How does FIU fare with these new leaders? Because the way that a lot of this funding breaks down for them is they get this, like, huge pot for, like, special projects in the back of the budget. So I was really curious to see how that played out.

Well, the other part of it is, like, where, and any increase in funding, where does it come from? Because Floridians and Florida legislators are proud of the fact that they have kept in-state tuition very, very competitive and historically low and have extended bright future scholars for Florida high school students and others to make a public education, a public higher education in Florida, one of the most affordable in the nation for residents. Yeah.

And there were some really interesting policies that were flying around during session. The Senate, for instance, they were looking at maybe changing out of state tuition. That was a kind of a lever there looking to pull up to some more. But that died on the vine. Some of these bills, the way session kind of blew up, they just evaporated. And we still don't know. I don't think some of those policies are coming back. But I mean, speaking with President Solis- presidential searches, one of the most interesting bills of session was the bill that the House was proposing to really change how public these searches have been, because in a lot of these cases, they only put forward one

candidate. And you don't know who even applied until the very end. It's like, Oh, here we go. We ended up with this person. Yeah, that was a huge bill. And it was very targeted at the governor. It said that the House bill literally said that the governor couldn't or the governor or some of his staffers couldn't discuss presidential vacancies with with people in the universities. And that was something the governor was was just very unhappy with. He called it sabotage. Yeah, we said it was sabotageous education reforms and make universities woke.

That was and that just shows you that the House, at least, was really, really We said it sabotages education reforms and make universities woke. And that just shows you that the House, at least, was really, really taken aback by some of these university moves. Yeah. Well, we have seen this particular House leadership try to exert a bit more independence from the executive branch compared to others. Andrew Atterbury is with us covering higher education for Politico, talking about university presidents here in

the state of Florida, the significant turnover that we've seen and will see in the months ahead. A couple of emails here, Suzanne writes us, I'm a professor at FIU. We had a perfectly capable president until February this year with long experience in higher education administration and a deep commitment to our university's success, which means creating the best conditions to learn for our students and for our faculty to teach and do research. It is clear to everybody, Suzanne writes, who pays attention that the appointment of Jeanette Nunez has not been a process where the best candidate for the job prevailed. It was simply in the governor's interest that she took the job. Can she be an effective president,

Suzanne asks? Maybe, but keep in mind that we already had an effective president. Elizabeth writes us, as a faculty member at FIU, I am deeply concerned about the lack of transparency and democratic process in the selection of our next university president. The appointment of Jeanette Nunez, the former lieutenant governor, appears more predetermined than deliberative, raising serious questions about the integrity of the search process. And Martina writes us, my fear is that the soul of FAMU, Florida A&M University, its culture, legacy, and mission could be stripped away, leaving behind an institution that is no longer recognizable to the generations who

built and were ultimately shaped by it. 305-995-1800. Asia is listening from Belglade. Asia, you're a FAMU student. Thanks for listening. Thanks for calling. What's your experience? What do you think about the change in leadership at your university? As a student, I do believe that... Wait, hello, can you hear me? We can hear you loud and clear, statewide, Asia. Go ahead. Hello, my name is Asia Scott. I am a fourth year public relations scholar, heading from Belgrade, Florida.

And this experience by far has been very confusing, very angry, very disappointing, especially coming from our board of trustees. Looking at the application process, looking at the process of the presidential search, it was a lot of information that was withheld from not only us as students, but the community and alumni. And this process and this lack of transparency has not only left a sour taste in the mouths of the community but in the mouths of students. Whereas the new president, Marla Johnson, has come in and basically infiltrated the culture of FEMU, you know.

Obviously the lack of relevance that she brings to the school and everything is a major major issue especially among students because at an HBCU in this climate and this economic and academic climate we don't know what is being script script away from HBCU you know already with funding with a lot of things that our president has put in place so we always want somebody that is supporting us. Yeah, Asia, I appreciate you. Yeah, some concerns there voiced by a FAMU student. Asia, thank you for lending your voice to the conversation. Andrew, what about Asia's concerns on transparency here? The issue of transparency seems to be a bit of a perennial challenge here in Florida when it comes to the

the selection process for university presidents. What have we seen at FAMU and how is that different in transparency efforts and recruitment efforts in past? Compared to some of these searches, FAMU is more transparent in a lot of ways. They at least had four candidates they put forward. There was some controversy about how they got to four and whether it should have been three and then there people are very alumni especially were very upset with how that search played out. Yeah. And I think like the thing that I always think about now is how do you go forward with that?

How do you deal with donations? There's so many pressing questions and for that especially. But then some of these searches like if FIU, the Santas, the trustees at FIU said that the Santas administration essentially recommended Nunez for that job. They did a search, they said, we have no idea, you know, who are the finalists, how far they searched, how long they searched, but then they she came out as a lone finalist. So is that people really upset with that not being transparent, but then she came out as a lone finalist at the end. So is that people really upset with that not being transparent, but at the same time, some of the trustees at the beginning were like, why even waste the money on a search when it seems like a forebond conclusion,

just like somebody had said. So- When it's more of an appointment than it is a recruitment. Sure. Well, that same thing happened at UWF. So the questions people were raising at UWF were, why would you leave being education commission just the inner interim president over over here you know so that would scare possibly some candidates off from wanting to apply for the job there let me know he's in one more phone call here andrew elizabeth's been patient in miami go ahead elizabeth you're on the radio i think you

but i think i call i mean i guess and you know i i i i think that i think at the end of the week who is is responsible? Is it the, uh, the board of trustees or who is it? Because when you look at universities like university of Miami, one of the things that had foot was he really wanted to us to get to be a better academic place. Yeah. Let me give a quick quick bit of context here, Elizabeth, private university, university of Miami president foot was a long time serving president of that institution and and really helped grow to national prominence

exactly you know that way you want to do you want to grow and every chance he could he would get somebody who is scholarly and had a focus on higher education and how can we continue to grow the university of miami to be a better place yeah and it is that is that the dead to think like it stopping and and most institutions like we're looking more like a cash cow in a way and who at the end of the day is responsible to say our university is

gonna be a place for just money where we're gonna charge students and that's it or is it a place that we want to grow have innovation have the next cancer discovery and so forth and put money into that yeah and maybe it's maybe it's both of those kinds of things right Elizabeth and we saw that at UM with the former president Donna Shalala who obviously has very political ties to the Clinton administration was the Health and Human Services Secretary and then served as the president of the University of Wisconsin a major university and then came to lead the University of Miami.

Elizabeth, thanks so much for calling and lending your voice there, the UM, the private university perspective. Andrew, thanks for sharing all your reporting with us as well. A fascinating look here at higher education and how it is changing, the leadership level is changing at least in real time here in the Sunshine State. Thanks again, Andrew. I'm happy to be here. Andrew Atterbury is a higher education reporter

with us live from Tallahassee. He reports for Politico. Now, as we're talking about higher ed and leaders in Florida, this one note here on Friday about university leaders in the state, the former leader of the Florida State University, President John Thrasher.

He died this week. His family announced Friday that he passed away after a battle with cancer. He came to Florida State University after serving in the Florida legislature, including being president of the state senate. He was the senate leader. Thrasher was 81 when he died this week. Still to come on our program, President Trump's big beautiful bill on federal taxes and spending. So what's in it for Floridians? And what do you want to know about it? Call us now 305-995-1800. You're listening to the Florida Roundup from your Florida Public Radio

Station. This is the Florida Roundup. I'm Tom Hudson. This is the Florida Roundup. I'm Tom Hudson. Buckle up America and put your seat in the upright position because with the passage of this bill, the golden age of America is ready for takeoff. That's Representative Aaron Bean on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives last week. Now, Bean represents the northeast corner of the state.

The bill he was giving his full-throated support for was President Trump's so-called Big Beautiful Bill. It's a massive tax and spending package that passed out of the House by one vote. Every Florida Republican House member voted in favor to send it to the Senate. Miami Republican Carlos Jimenez told the Fox Business Channel he hopes the Senate does not make any changes. It took a long time to get to this point here in the House and if they start tinkering around too much with it then we're going to start from scratch again and I don't think that's a good idea. This is a good bill.

It's not a perfect bill. Every Democrat member of the Florida delegation voted against the bill. They hope to muster support to push back as it goes through the legislative process. Here's Tampa Democrat Kathy Castor on instagram this to action. It's incumbent business owners, all amer this big billionaire tax for your wallets and our

an enormous bill, 1000 pa taxes, spending on medica enforcement, national defense and other programs. Sarasota Republican Representative Greg Stube is a member of the House Ways and Means Committee where the legislation began. Stube was on the Fox Business Channel this week. Huge win for America. This is a huge win for the president. This has all of his priorities in it. It extends, it makes permanent the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act from five years ago that will expire at the end of this year. There's a lot to unpack for Floridians here, so what do you want to know about it?

Tax cuts, health care work requirements, taxes on tips, Social Security benefits? What about adding to the national debt? 305-995-1800. The phones are open now live across the state. 305-995-1800. Send us a quick question, radio at thefloridaroundup.org if you've got your email open. Claudia Grisales is with us now, congressional correspondent for NPR. She's with us from Washington. Claudia, welcome to the program.

Thanks for your time. Thanks for having me. So let's tackle, I guess, the revenue side first, aka taxes here. The median household income in Florida is about $70,000. And that's in the 22% tax bracket currently for federal income taxes. So what does this bill do to income tax brackets? Essentially, what it's going to do

is make all of the current law that we have right now, all those deductions, stay in place. If they don't pass this legislation by the end of the year, it goes away. And a lot of folks will lose those levels of deductions. They'll be paying more in taxes. And this is largely the argument we expect to hear from Republicans as they try to push this through the Senate

in the coming weeks. This is the result of a sunset provision in 2017 during the first Trump administration passing the tax cut bill in order for that tax cut bill to make it under the federal deficit and debt limitations, they had to sunset those, but now they want to make them permanent, right? Well, some provisions they want to make permanent, some are sunsetted. And that's part of where some of the disagreements going to come up in the Senate on how this final version will come out. Because some folks want to see all of these provisions permanent, but

deficit hawks definitely want to see some of them sunsetted. So some could just go on for several years in the end, and some will stay in place. Let me ask about one of those. Most Floridians, like most Americans, take the standard deduction on their Florida, on their, there are no Florida income taxes on their federal income taxes. Pardon me, Claudia. So that standard deduction, what does this bill do to that standard federal tax income tax deduction? So just like the other deductions, and this is the

argument Republicans will be putting out over and over, you get to keep them whatever you saw in your most recent filing since 2017, since this law was put in place, that's going to continue. And that's the concern, is that folks could lose out on benefits if this isn't extended by the end of the year, because it will expire otherwise. And what about for those who do itemize their deductions? That has been limited when it comes

to what's called the salt limit, the state and local tax deduction limit that has been limited to $10,000. How does this bill potentially change that? Right. That is a huge center of debate as well on this bill. We saw House Republicans raise a lot of concerns. There's a salt caucus, if you will, in the House that wanted to see that addressed. It was, but I'm already hearing grumblings from the Senate side. They don't have the same level of a

salt caucus that the House does. They don't have to contend with those kinds of demands when they look at their constituents. And there's an argument they don't want to bail out blue states that have gone off the rails as they would argue with salt. So that's going to be a point of contention. But in the end, there may be a compromise to keep some of that in place. It is an interesting debate to hear at the national level, because here in Florida, thanks to so much COVID migration, we've seen property values just skyrocket. And more and more Florida homeowners have perhaps gotten caught by this salt limit

as their property taxes have gone up, which also fuels a state debate that we're having here in the Sunshine State, Claudia, which is over the future of property taxes. There is a Republican effort led by Governor DeSantis here in Florida to examine the possibility of somehow eliminating potentially property taxes which are levied at the local level and fuel local governments whereas the state government in Florida is not paid for by local property taxes it's paid for primarily through sales taxes and other

types of user taxes like that. We're speaking with Claudia Grisales the congressional correspondent for NPR about the big beautiful bill from President Trump passing out of the US House of Representatives by one vote. It was a party line split vote by the Florida delegation in the House. So we've got several hundred thousand Floridians, Claudia, who work in the hospitality industry, who work in the bar and restaurant industry. This bill would eliminate taxes on tips. How would it work? Right, exactly. It would get rid of those taxes that these workers have paid in the past. No tax on tips, no tax on overtime pay. These are the most popular provisions in this

bill. And it has a really good chance of passing. But at the other end of this, so that would result in a lot of savings for a lot of these workers, but at the other end of the coin here, we do have deficit hawks who wanna find a way to pay for all of these new gains for individuals, these tax gains they could see out of this bill, and that could mean dramatic cuts in other places, such as programs such as Medicaid and title programs.

So it's going to be a tough sell in the end to get this all together in one page, everyone, every member on the same page, if you will. But it does have a pretty good chance, if this passes, for those provisions to stay put and give some gains to these workers in these different circumstances. You mentioned some of the knock-on impact on the spending side on health care, Medicaid, and SNAP, so-called food stamp benefits. William has been listening into the conversation from Pompano Beach here, Claudia. William, thanks for calling in. You are on the radio. Go ahead. Hi. Thank you. I really am worried about this bill in terms of the increasing our debt by $4 trillion.

It's not paid. What we're doing is if we're giving tax cuts, it's got to get paid by something and they're taking it away from SNAP benefits. They're taking it away from Medicaid. It's just the lower end and the middle end is getting screwed. And the upper end of the ones that are benefiting it. I was a school teacher in Florida for 41 years. Believe me, I'm not on the top end. And it's, well, Florida's got the, we're the lowest paid.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I hear you. William, we got to go. What did you teach? Mathematics. All right. Well, there you go. So you're adding up the numbers hear you. William, we got to go. What did you teach? Mathematics. All right. Well, there you go. So you're adding up the numbers as well. William, thank you for calling and listening here. William from Pompano Beach, talking about the Medicaid and the SNAP, the food stamps benefits here, Claudia.

4.3 million people in Florida receive health care through Medicaid. Two thirds of them are already working at least part time. So how would this bill impact that federal portion of Medicaid for states like Florida? Well, if you left it to the house, it would potentially cut millions of folks who rely on these benefits off these roles, they would no longer be able to access the benefits. And this is what has a core group of Senate moderates very alarmed. That's a red line for them. They don't want to see millions of folks taking off these entitlement programs such as Medicaid, SNAP benefits, what have you. And so one argument we're hearing from Senate Republicans and as well as moderates in the House, such as Mario Diaz-Ballard and others in South Florida, is that you can install new provisions

into Medicaid to find new savings, work requirements, for example, making further provisions to make sure that folks who are here without legal status do not access those benefits, as well as addressing fraud, waste, those kind of issues. However, as William is noting, it's going to cost a lot if they don't find enough savings there. And that's the concern at the other end of the coin for deficit talks is they want to

see real cuts. They want to see trillions in savings. And there's just not a way to get there without cutting into those benefits. So that's going to be a real hard balancing act to find enough savings in Medicaid, not to lose moderate Republicans who will not vote for this plan if they avoid, if they get to the point actually where they cut millions off Medicaid. Right. So this is the big, beautiful bill, this is called Nickname from President Trump, a lot of spending, a lot of taxes in there

But there's some other issues as well and Dan has been listening in Claudia from Brevard County and has a comment Dan. You're on the radio Thanks for calling Hi, thanks You know, there's all the talk about the the fiscal implications of this and just the myth of transfer of wealth that's happening But there's also just that one sentence transfer of wealth that's happening but there's also just that one sentence provision and it's talking about how no court of the United States may enforce contempt citation for failure to comply and it goes on to talk about and in my understanding severely limit federal courts and even local courts ability to

enforce contempt against these things and so I just feel like we should be shouting that to the rooftops. And I'd really like to understand more what that implication is all hanging up in a way to reply. Yeah, I appreciate that, Dan. Claudia, are you familiar with this clause? No, I'm not as familiar. I know that it's perhaps like a thousand page document, so we are still digging through it. And lots of this could change. And so what Dan raises there is a reminder of all of the provisions that are also snuck in there. We're caught up in all the ones that will cost trillions

or there's an effort to cut trillions from the deficit. But there's also massive changes to immigration policy, to energy policy and other policies. So I'm not as familiar with contempt, but it's just another, again, reminder that there's a lot that could change. It carries the bulk of President Trump's agenda. So it's worth a lot more reading by others as well. Yeah, I will tell Dan that as this moves through the legislative process, we'll be continuing to talk about it from the perspective from Florida here. So we appreciate you bringing that to light. What are some of the implications here, Claudia, finally for this budget on the fiscal side

for state budgets? Here in Florida, our fiscal year begins in July. We're going to talk in a few minutes about the lack of a state budget plan right now here in Florida. And part of that uncertainty is driven by this federal legislation and what some of the state budget implications may be. Right, there are concerns in terms of the impact that this will ultimately have on state budgets, that they'll lose out

on some critical funds that they need. So it remains to be seen ultimately what happens. But also at the the same time this is not the only bite at the apple. For example, you talk to the dean of the Florida delegation again, representative Diaz Ballard, and he will note that they are now working on, for example, the fiscal year 2026 appropriations that year, fiscal year begins in October. So this is another bite at the apple, where some of these concerns state funding that trickles down from the federal government could be addressed. So there are a lot of implications here, but there's also potentially a lot of opportunity to address this issue through multiple legislative vehicles this year. We appreciate you, Claudia. Thank you for

sharing your insights and reporting with us today. Thank you. Claudia Gasalis, the congressional correspondent for NPR with us from Washington. I'm Tom Hudson and you're listening to the Florida Roundup from your Florida Public Radio Station. So it is one month and counting here. The state of Florida needs to have a budget in place in four weeks. Otherwise, much of the state government would have to shut down.

Lawmakers have yet to agree on how to collect and spend more than $100 billion. Senate President Ben Albrechtin says they still have plenty of time. We're talking about ideas. That's healthy. Even though we have disagreements, that's healthy too. And we get a better result, I think at the end of the day. Well, they've got, I don't know, maybe 30 or so end of days before they have to get the deal done. Douglas Soll is back with us here on the Florida Roundup State Government Reporter for Your Florida.

Douglas, always great to have you here. Let's talk policy first and then process. What are the budget issues that legislative leaders are still negotiating over? Thanks for having me on and despite that clip you just played I would say that legislative leadership has been pretty quiet this week We don't know the minute-by-minute sticking points But we do know a big debate is how far to go with permanent sales tax cuts House Speaker Daniel Perez wants big ones Senate President Ben Albritton is concerned about mixing those with expected budget shortfalls in coming years. A wild card here is Albritton's rural renaissance package, which provides aid and development

opportunities for rural counties. The Senate had passed that, the House didn't. We'll have to see how important a piece it turns out being in budget negotiations. They got to figure out the revenue piece first before they can decide the spending, right? I mean, they need to know how much money they're going to have before they figure out how they're going to spend it, which which argues to figure out that sales tax idea that the house speaker has been pushing. Yeah, Tom, they certainly have a lot to figure

out. And not much time to do it. No, right. So what about the process here? What is the timeline for lawmakers? Yeah, in terms of that timeline, obviously, July 1 is the start of the new fiscal year. And that's when we'd see that government shutdown in the timeline. It's still very much in the air. We'll see if the silence from legislative leadership changes by the end of today before the weekend starts. But we do know that session is supposed to end June 6. Next Friday, the House has voted to extend it to June 30. The Senate has not, at least not yet. Okay, well, let's talk about legislation that they did pass in Tallahassee and is awaiting the governor's signature, particularly the reform to the condominium reforms that were approved after the Surfside tragedy a few years ago. I think it was

last week, Douglas, that the governor came out and was very explicit in his support for these changes. No, yeah, he was explicit in his support and it might not be all too surprising. I mean, he's been calling for the legislature to do something about condos for months even before the session. So it's not a huge surprise, but I mean, his signature would be a huge deal for sure. Yeah, it would. Some bipartisan legislation did make it through

the governor's signature. This particularly is around protections for state parks from certain types of development. I mean, there was an uproar around this about a year or so ago, when some reporting learned that there were plans floated for even golf courses at state parks. Yeah, I'll add that I would view the condo legislation which is aimed at reducing condo costs as also bipartisan. Good point. Good point. But in terms of the parks one, yeah, I mean, it would

this bill will ban building things like pickleball courts, golf courses, and big hotels in state parks. That was viewed as kind of a rebuke to Governor Santus because it was in response to a state that state plan that would have put such developments in state parks and some of them at least. He didn't really comment on why he signed it or why he his support because it was kind of a relatively quiet signing. There was no big press conferences. And he does like

to usually do big press conferences. He didn't march out the table in the pins to a state park and have an event at a state park to sign this development. No, no, no podium pounding for this one. Yeah, fair enough. All right, Douglas Soil, still some weeks ahead for us. We'll talk to you next week. All right, sir.

Thanks for having me on. Douglas Soil, state government reporter for Your Florida and community engagement reporter Megan Bowman contributes to our reporting. You can add your voice to the Your Florida Reporting Project by visiting wusf.org slash your dash Florida. And you're listening to the Florida Roundup from your Florida Public Radio Station. This is the Florida Roundup. I'm Tom Hudson. Great to have your company today.

Hurricane season officially starts Sunday and hopefully that is not news to you. Storm season begins with the marine heat wave. It's been pushing up sea temperatures around the peninsula and out in the Caribbean Sea. Water temps south of Cuba have been higher than their average in July. The National Hurricane Center predicts an above normal season thanks in part to warmer than average ocean temperatures. So another storm season is upon us and many Floridians have not fully recovered from big storms over the past few years. Some in

southwest Florida are still rebuilding nearly three years after a direct hit from Hurricane Ian. Here's Jessica Mazaros from our partner station WUSF. Journalist Charlie Whitehead has lived in the town of Fort Myers Beach for 40 years. We're sitting in my front yard outside of my motorhome on the lot that my grandparents bought in 1966. We're surrounded by water. Out front is a bay that connects to the Gulf and behind us is a man that connects to the Gulf, and behind us is a man-made saltwater canal. Whitehead and his wife were almost finished fixing up

their double-wide manufactured home five years after Hurricane Irma when Ian made landfall in September of 2022. The Category 4 storm brought up to 15 feet of storm surge and moved through the area slowly, beating on it for hours. The home got picked up and moved sideways and dropped. It was a total loss. Nearly every building on Fort Myers Beach was damaged, and 16 people were confirmed dead.

After couch surfing for a while, Whitehead and his wife purchased a motor home. I'm ready now because when a storm comes comes I get in my house and drive away. But that's not really a long-term solution. So what does a long-term solution to surviving stronger storms look like? It looks high. Anita Saracida works on solutions as chair of the Fort Myers Beach Planning Board. It means that almost every building that's built is going to be 15 or 20 feet off the ground to start with. You can see it right now in the homes of businesses

that are going up in Fort Myers Beach. All of my neighbors are 15, 16, 18 feet off the ground. It's a real dramatic difference. It's happening along the Tampa area's coast too after Hurricane Helene flooded areas with storm surge. Some Fort Myers Beach businesses that are staying at ground level have to flood proof their buildings. It's a very expensive endeavor, but it's good for retail because you'll walk up some stairs or go up an elevator for a restaurant, but you probably won't do that to buy a blouse

or a dress. And she says there's all kinds of red tape and zoning issues that go into rebuilding after a hurricane. Many residents in the Tampa Bay region are learning that now. Fort Myers Beach Councilman Scott Safford says this rebuilding process, it takes money and time. After the hurricane, we thought that we could rebuild in three to five years and everything would be back to normal, But that's not the case. More like 10 to 12 years,

he says. Some folks are still trying to get paid out for their insurance claims nearly three years after Ian and many who finally rebuilt. But at the ground level got flooded again and again by hurricanes Helene and Milton last year. There's a lot of people that are just throwing their hands up going, man, I don't know if I can do this. On top of that, residents and tourists, even now, don't have access to necessary goods and services in town. So we don't have the dog groomer. We don't have a doctor.

We don't have a chiropractor. We just had a bank open, our first bank. In some ways, Ian's damage was a worst-case scenario. Helene skirted the coast and Milton broke apart when it came ashore. Stafford says there are lessons our region can learn from their experience with a direct hit. I think the towns need to look, especially in the Tampa area, of how do you get these small businesses back and open as quickly as possible so that your residents and then future guests can have those conveniences. Hurricane Ian has forced residents there to take storms seriously and shown them that

water is their biggest threat. Longtime journalist and Fort Myers Beach resident Charlie Whitehead says there are popular places on the beach that are just gone. And will not be back. Like the beachfront cottages, mother-in-law apartments, and mom and pop businesses, all right on the sand. It's going to be a different place and I will forever miss the old place. I asked him why remaining on this piece of property his grandparents purchased about six decades ago is so important to him.

I remember walking to the dock over there and getting in a flat bottom boat with a kicker and my grandfather taking me out fishing when I was not 10 yet. It doesn't make any sense, but this is still home such as it is. I'm Jessica Mazaros on Fort Myers Beach. As storm season starts, look for the Florida Storms app in your App Store. You'll be able to stay updated on all the severe weather from the Florida Public Radio Emergency Network. Just search Florida Storms in your app store. Well, the state has executed five death row inmates so far this year,

the sixth and seventh are scheduled to die by lethal injection in June if there are no other challenges to the sentences. The state is on pace to execute more people this year than it has in any single year since the death penalty was reinstated back in 1976. All the inmates who have been executed this year or who are scheduled to be executed were convicted of murder.

Some have been condemned since the mid 1990s. Catherine Varn is a reporter at Axios Tampa Bay. Catherine, thank you for joining us on the program. Is there a reason why the pace of executions in Florida has picked up so much this year? The governor really hasn't said much about it. He went through a pretty big ramping up of executions back in 2023, and there was speculation that that was related to his run for president. That is a noticeable increase, right? You mentioned some of the increase we experienced in Florida in executions in 2023.

I think there was just one execution in 2024. There were none during the pandemic years. Give us a sense, Catherine, of putting this in perspective of how much more of an acceleration of executions this is for the state of Florida. The last time we had this number was in 2014 when there were I believe eight. And then the last time before that was all the way back in, gosh, was all the way back in 1984, when there were also eight executions. So if the governor continues at this pace, we could be seeing like a record this year

for the number of executions so far. The rules around setting somebody on a path to death row have been changing over the past several years in Florida. Before 2016, it was a seven to five vote that could send somebody in Florida after a conviction of a capital crime to the death penalty. Judges could then impose the death penalty if they thought that the jury did not do it properly. The Supreme Court said no, that's unconstitutional. So then Florida went back to unanimous jury for

a death penalty and then a state law came in and changed that. So what's the current ruling here in Florida for a jury to impose a death penalty on someone who has been convicted of a capital crime? It's an eight four vote by the jury. And to be clear, that's recommending a death sentence. The judge can still make their own decision. But yes, it's an 8-4 threshold and it's the lowest standard anywhere in the country. Only one other state doesn't require unanimous recommendation,

which is Alabama, and they're 10-2. How else has Governor DeSantis supported expanding crimes eligible for the death penalty here in Florida? Yeah, so in the last few years, we've seen the death penalty expanded, the charges that are eligible for the highest punishment, the death penalty have increased. So now certain sex trafficking offenses is awaiting the governor's signature. And then in February, he signed another bill into law that mandates the death penalty for undocumented immigrants convicted of capital crimes. And then back in 2023, he signed laws that make certain child rape cases eligible for

the death penalty and allow, and then of course the non-unanimous jury law as well. There's some question to their constitutionality as well. The Supreme Court has ruled on a lot of these issues already that the death penalty should not be expanded to instances where the victim's life was not taken. So sex offenses, sex trafficking would not necessarily fall into that unless it resulted in a homicide. And they determined mandatory death sentences are unconstitutional. So that would come into play with the bill signed this year regarding undocumented people.

There's death penalty experts and advocates in the space anticipating that constitutional challenges will result from these laws. And the makeup of the Supreme Court has changed quite a bit since these cases. So, you know, there's a lot of moving parts. I mean, we just saw a few years ago, one of the longest standing precedents we've had overturned. So it's not that it's unheard of. But certainly, I mean, you know, there are other ways to tweak the death penalty statute if these laws don't hold. Yeah. Katherine Varn is a reporter for Axios Tampa Bay. Catherine, thanks for sharing your reporting. Sure. Thanks for having me.

And I'm Tom Hudson. You're listening to the Florida Roundup from your Florida Public Radio Station. Finally on the Roundup this week, Florida has frozen over. It is a hockey dynasty here in the Sunshine State. The Florida Panthers for the third consecutive season are heading to the Stanley Cup final. This call from the NHL on TNT. They defeat the Carolina Hurricanes. Five, three tonight. The Stanley Cup champions will return to defend the Cup.

The Florida Panthers will play in the NHL championships for the third straight year, and it marks the sixth straight year that a hockey team from Florida will be skating for the Stanley Cup. Oh, and in case you think hockey fans in Florida are on thin ice, NHL's annual winter classic game will be played in a stadium with an open roof in January in sunny Miami. Bring your skates and your sunscreen. That is our program for today. The Florida Roundup is produced by WLRN Public Media in Miami and WUSF in Tampa by Bridget

O'Brien and Grayson Docher with assistance from Denise Royall. WLRN's Vice President of Radio is Peter Merz. The program's technical director is MJ Smith. Engineering help each and every week from Doug Peterson, Ernesto Jay, and Jackson Harp. Our theme music is provided by Miami Jazz guitarist Aaron Leibos at aaronleibos.com. Our inbox is always open. You can connect with us by emailing radio at thefloridaroundup.org. And if you missed any of today's program, you can download it or search past programs and share them by searching the Florida Roundup

on the NPR app. Thanks for calling, emailing, listening, and above all supporting public radio in your corner of the Sunshine State. I'm Tom Hudson. Have a terrific weekend.