The Florida Roundup - One family’s immigration story, Jolly enters Florida’s Governor race, State budget negotiations continue, education news

Episode Date: June 6, 2025

This week on The Florida Roundup, we heard from one family living in Florida who have been authorized to be in Florida for more than a decade, waiting and worrying about their immigration case (00:00). Then, we spoke with David Jolly, the former Republican Congressman who has entered Florida’s 2026 gubernatorial race as a Democrat (20:16). Plus, we checked in with WUSF’s Douglas Soule for an update on ongoing state budget negotiations (31:44). And later, education news from around the state including UF’s ongoing presidential search (37:16), the FIU Board approving Jeanette Nuñez as President (46:00), and shake ups at Pasco Hernando State College (46:38).

This is the Florida Roundup. I'm Tom Hudson. Thanks for listening. We're going to start our program in a different way this week because life is a lot different for hundreds of thousands of people living in Florida. They are here legally or they're authorized to be here on a variety of different statuses, visas, humanitarian parole, seeking asylum, temporary protected status. You know, we often hear from politicians and immigration advocates, but today you'll hear from a husband and wife who have been authorized to be in Florida for more than a decade waiting for their immigration claim to work its way through the system.

They are living with the changes, sometimes day to day, to immigration policies. Let us know your experiences with the changes in immigration. Maybe they are affecting you or your family, a neighbor, a friend, a coworker. You can email us radio at thefloridaroundup.org, radio at thefloridaroundup.org, and we may use your comments in the weeks ahead.

This week, I visited Sean and Michelle. Okay, I think we are all set here with the equipment. Rain finally moved away. Nice sunny afternoon here out in a suburb like so many others in Florida. Single-family home, big yards, American flag out front. So let's go meet this couple here. Now these are not their real names because they're worried about their immigration status. They're here in the United States in Florida legally

and have been for more than a decade. Hello, Tom, how are you? Good, nice to meet you. Nice to meet you too. Thanks so much for creating the time schedule and inviting me into your home. I appreciate it. Hello, Tom, how are you? Good. Nice to meet you. Nice to meet you too, Tom. Yeah, thanks so much for creating the time of your schedule and inviting me into your home. I appreciate it. Hey, how are you? I'm Tom.

Very nice to meet you, Tom. It's so nice to see you. Nice to see you too. Let me put some light here. Beautiful home. Oh, thank you. On their living room wall is an enormous painting of a sailboat. It is perched on top of a huge wave of blue and white that appears to be ready to collapse around the boat.

The painting captures that moment, that exact moment of stillness right at the top of a wave. Motion has ceased for a split second as the balance of nature shifts. The painting might as well represent this moment in time for Sean and Michelle and their immigration journey here in America. That journey includes their child who had written their summer plans as a school assignment. Sean and Michelle hung that on the kitchen wall. Is that it? Yeah. Oh my gosh. Holy cow. He has her planner ready. Thank you. Says this summer is going to be amazing. First I will go to summer camp

going to be amazing. First, I will go to summer camp with mom and practice dancing. This could be their last summer in the United States. Next I'm going to the beach with my mom and dad to make sandcastles. I will pretend to be a mermaid. I hope my dad plays. I bet he will. Shawna Michelle's immigration story is unique to them, but there are tens of thousands of Floridians like them this summer. And play Candyland and pop-up pirate. It's going to be fun. Summer is going to be an awesome time.

That sounds like a terrific plan. Shawna Michelle have been careful with their immigration plan, a plan that shows just how complicated, how confusing and how confounding immigration rules can be. President Donald Trump's immigration crackdown and executive orders changing legal immigration programs have overturned years of practice. Florida has taken the unprecedented action of enacting state laws going after immigrants without legal status. These tectonic shifts have shaken households of those with legal status, too. That includes Floridians living here with temporary protected status and tens of thousands more from Cuba, Haiti, Venezuela, Nicaragua,

who had been granted humanitarian parole while their immigration cases made their way through the court system. Last week, the Supreme Court allowed the Trump administration to revoke the humanitarian program. It allows people granted admission into the U.S. under that program to be deported as a lawsuit makes its way through the lower courts. And last month, the high court allowed the Trump administration to cancel immigration protections and work permits for people from Venezuela who had been given temporary protections. And that includes Sean and Michelle. They're among the quarter of a million people from Venezuela living in Florida legally under the temporary protected status. And their status now expires in September. We like animals, so we have two dogs, you know, that's Zeus.

It was late afternoon when we made our way to their patio. A hammock hung next to the pool, their two short-haired German pointers, Zeus and Horace, named for two mythological gods, were nearby. Betty the cat was around somewhere, although you couldn't see her, and Boogie the parrot was just inside. The tranquility was contrary to the chaos of their migration journey to Florida that started just days after Venezuelan dictator

Hugo Chavez was declared dead. I was being accused of being in a plot, conspiracy against government in order to- You were served in the armed forces at the time, is that correct? That's right. That's right. So I was serving in the armed forces that day. New President Nicolas Maduro accused US embassy employees of planning to destabilize the country.

And Sean was caught up in it because he says he was acquaintances with one of the US embassy workers accused. At the time, Michelle was in the United States on a student visa. They were married. So it was of course a lie. They were not conspiracy or anything. But unfortunately I guess, it's my guess, I don't know. Someone saw them together or something like that. And that was like the moment that they started saying that on the news and they got expelled. They got 24 hours to leave the country and that was a clear message that I couldn't stay there any longer.

You have to do the same thing or else he will go to jail. I was here. I came back desperate to convince we gotta go. You cannot stay here. I kind of came back to say, hey, nothing else that you can do here. I mean, that's it. This is, you know, as simple as living or not living. You know, that was one of these situations that you really can't call life or death situation. They got out and came to Florida, landing in Miami. What I remember about that day is that I was, in our mind, we felt that we were traveling to the free world. After all we live in Venezuela, I remember we were holding our hands in the plane. We were saying to each other, we made it, we made it.

We got out, we got out, we finally got out. And we arrived here. It was amazing to me when I when I came to the Miami International Airport, doors open, you know, I felt again, a normal person, you know, normal human being living free. That was my first impression. They started their American lives in Miami Beach. Michelle says their family tried to talk them out of it saying it was too expensive, too much traffic, too many tourists, but they wanted to live somewhere where they knew

they would have to learn English. Sean got a job washing and cleaning yachts and in July of 2013, he filed paperwork asking for political asylum. As any other Venezuelan that I know, As any other Venezuelan that I know, we believe that our cases are undeniable in some way, right? And the reality is that the numbers, the statistics, the data shows that it's really hard to win an asylum case, especially here in the state of Florida. Now being granted asylum is rare, very rare. Only about one out of every eight people seeking asylum were granted it in the last fiscal year, and it's even less in Miami, where more people ask for asylum than any other place in the country. Only one out of every 140 asylum cases in Miami were granted last year. I introduced my petition of asylum five years ago by we have no, you know, like, I mean, that was the interview that I was waiting for a couple weeks after I submit the petition.

It didn't come that year, neither the next one or the next one or the next one. But it only came on, uh, January of 2000, 2018 because you were pregnant. Um, which was a really, really, really harsh moment for us because when the, when the day for the interview came was a couple days after my mother-in-law passed away in Venezuela we were waiting for her to come to stay with you know her daughter to meet her granddaughter and all that unfortunately it never happened we got the call from the lawyer

saying hey you got your interview, but if you want to cancel because they knew that my mother-in-law recently has passed. And I asked her, hey, do you want to postpone this? And she said, no, no, I don't want to postpone this. We were waiting for this for five years. This is the, you know know we got to get through this so we went to the interview and it went really well in my view we were waiting for an answer and you know the answer never came came probably two years later two years later and and the answer wasn't no or yes in a step was that another interview another interview and after that we did and then another interview for that total of four interviews

Which is pretty uncommon. I guess it's yes It was now the summer of 2021 it had been eight years since Sean applied for asylum He and Michelle had become parents both were working Sean started his own business That's when an envelope arrived in the mail. So she got the envelope from immigration, as she said. And before opening. Before opening. I saw her face and it was the right face. I was expecting for a happy face, but it wasn't the face.

It was kind of a sad face and I said, well, let's see what it has. So we opened the envelope and it has multiple pages. It was a big envelope so I knew it wasn't good. A notice of approval will be and then she explained to me why you know a notice of approval will be only one page. Or two but I didn't even want to open it. So you know we opened it the envelope go through the paperwork start calling the lawyers you know, we opened the envelope, go through the paperwork, start calling the lawyers, you know. They had been ordered to face an immigration judge. They had to decide whether or not they wanted to go forward since this notice is the first

step in a deportation process. They had another option, though, because just a few months earlier, President Joe Biden granted temporary protected status for Venezuelans. Sean and Michelle decided to end his asylum claim and receive TPS. They applied for and were granted a travel permit, allowing them to leave the United States and return under the temporary protected status,

allowing them to legally remain and work in the US. So they headed to Texas and the southern border to drive to Mexico and make a quick U.S. So they headed to Texas and the southern border to drive to Mexico and make a quick U-turn. When you were granted reentry in Mexico, which was not guaranteed when you left the United States, tell me about that experience. Well, our first thought was, I hope the TPS stay in place, because this is the only tool that we have to adjust our status, because asylum didn't work, right?

So from here, from the TPS platform, we can seek for another answers, we can seek for another options. But if that is canceled, we're going to have no any other avenues, legal avenues to go through. So, you know, that was our first thought. Actually, I'm wrong because the first thought was, thank you, God. Thanks for being so merciful with us and allow us to come back to our home. Because that's how we feel. This country, this is home for us. We start our family here. They made that U-turn trip in late November 2024, just a few weeks after Donald Trump won reelection

promising to crack down on immigration. We knew something for sure that it was going to be easier to do it before he took office. Yes, I'm agree with my husband, but at the same time, I would say that. We we believe in God. No, of course. So the does the workforce moving everything? The first thing that the reality is that

the current president was already elected. So things were already shaking, shaking, shaking, and everybody was already, you know, tense and, and stuff. But certainly, um, he was not in office yet. And for us was okay, let's do it. It's the right moment. But first of all, as I said, we had in our heart and we have it around until that, you know, the only one, the only commander of

the universe of everything is God. So if we, if our destiny is to keep building our family here and keep having the mercy of God of living in this paradise in this beautiful country that opened the doors for us. The greatest country in the world. Since day one. So then God is going to allow us to re-entry. That's right. After God I will say the country, you know, this is a country that is very, I would say, generous is the way that we feel. Sean and Michelle and tens of thousands of others are on course to lose their temporary protected status on September 10th. They don't know what will happen to their family, their business

or their home. You know, we got into that mood where all we were doing was worrying about it, trying to make plans, trying to make plans. And, you know, in a short time we came to the conclusion that there's no way to make plans like that. We just get away and have faith because that's the only thing that we can do. Unfortunately, we have nothing. We have no power to control what is happening. We just gotta wait, stay informed, and when the time comes, we have to make decisions. But to be honest with you, we don't have any other plans. I mean, we don't have much choices. We don't have choices. We have nowhere to go. We are literally locked in.

The only country that we suppose are able to go with our expired passport is our own country and we cannot go there. So we, as my husband said, we just have to wait to see what happened. But I, at this point, we don't want to think about that because otherwise we're gonna get sick. It's, it's like catch 22. Their Venezuelan passports expired several years ago, and

they've been unable to get them renewed. They've visited the consulates of the Bahamas, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, hoping to get an escape plan if they face deportation in a few months and avoid returning to Venezuela, a place Sean calls enemy territory. But they can't gain entry to another country without a valid passport. You called the country of your birth enemy territory. It is enemy territory for me. I can't come back.

How do you consider yourselves as you've lived here and built your life? In other words, I'll ask it bluntly, do you consider yourselves immigrants? Do you consider yourselves Floridians, New Americans, former Venezuelans? Hard, hard to answer. But if I identify, and this is something that I said so many times to so many people that asked me about where I'm from, and I said, well, I'm originally from Venezuela, but I guess that now I feel that I'm from Miami. This is home for me. Miami is such a special place for me and my family. I do love this country so much.

Yeah, we feel this home. Yeah, we love this country and state so much that, you know, I feel that that is not right, that immigration or immigrants are seen as a danger because that's not the case. Like everything in life, there is good people and bad people and I think the good ones are more. Sean says at this point he has more faith than reason. They have one more option. Michelle has been approved to apply for an H-1B visa.

If that's granted, they'll be able to stay in the United States legally for at least another three years. By that time, their child will be finishing elementary school. There's another immigration enforcement effort by the Trump administration that has impacted Sean and Michelle, the president's efforts to end birthright citizenship. If the president is successful, their child, who was born in the United States and today is a citizen, would not be considered a citizen. Trump wants to deny citizenship to children born to parents in the U.S. without legal status or on temporary visas, like Sean and Michelle.

A legal challenge to the president's executive order is making its way through the courts. In the meantime, Sean and Michelle say they have decided not to try to have another child. At least for now. You can send us your thoughts on the immigration situation by emailing radio at the floridaroundup.org. Radio at the floridaroundup.org. We will share your comments in a later program. Still to come, the first Democrat enters the race for governor in 2026. That's next on the Florida Roundup from your Florida Public Radio station. This is the Florida Roundup. I'm Tom Hudson. Great to have you along this week.

Next week on this program, a crash or a correction. Condominium sales are falling fast across the state and prices are falling too. The number of existing condos sold statewide has fallen 11% so far this year. Median prices are only down about 1% but the price drops have been increasing each month this spring. The median price of single family homes also has fallen statewide. Now there's lots of different markets, of course, real estate is about

location, location, location. So are you a buyer or a seller in this real estate market? Are you seeing more for sale signs up in your location in your neighborhood? Maybe getting nervous about the value of your home or condo. Brokers, agents, buyers, sellers, we want to hear from you. Radio at the floridaroundup.org, radio at the floridaroundup.org, and we may use your comments next week. Now the 2026 race to be the next governor of Florida, David Jolly became the first Democrat in the race this week when he announced his candidacy. Jolly served one term in the U.S. House

as a Republican from Pinellas County. He became a political independent in 2017 and registered as a Democrat just six weeks ago. Now he wants to be the Democratic Party's nominee for governor. He joins a race that already includes former Democrat and now independent state Senator Jason Pizzo and Republican congressman from southwest Florida, Byron Donnells. All three seem to agree on the big issue, affordability.

I spoke with Jolly earlier this week. What led you to this decision to want to run for governor in Florida, David? We have an affordability crisis in the state of Florida that every Florida family understands, including ours. My wife and I live in Pinellas County. We have a six-year-old and a four-year-old. The affordability crisis is real. And as I have traveled the state, it is clear that there is a coalition of Florida voters

who want change in 2026. I believe we can offer a change of direction as a coalition. And I'm afraid as a family, if Republicans continue in power in Tallahassee, that we will get more of the same. Define how you see the affordability challenge faced by Floridians. So the affordability crisis is largely around the cost of housing. That is true for homeowners, that is true for retirees, for condo owners, and it is true for renters. And it is driven largely by a property insurance market that has failed, that Republicans have failed to adequately address.

Property taxes obviously contribute to that as well, and property tax reform would be helpful. I think the affordability crisis is also reflected in auto insurance. It's reflected in utility bills where Republicans have resisted allowing clean and renewable and alternative energies to come in and drive down costs. That is all part of the affordability crisis. But it starts with housing, and I think it starts with the property insurance crisis.

What would you do if governor in 2027 to address the property insurance affordability issue? They want to introduce a state catastrophic fund. I did that in Congress. I introduced a national catastrophic fund. What that does is it allows us to remove hurricanes and natural disaster perils from the private market. It can drive down property insurance costs by 60%

for residential, for commercial, for industrial sites. We move that into a public catastrophic fund. We have to fund that. We have to be honest about math. That requires revenue. Where I think Republicans fail is ultimately when it comes to math around taxes. How would you fund that catastrophic fund in Florida?

We have allowed insurance companies and other corporations to move their profits out of state and keep their losses in Florida. Combined reporting would generate two and a half billion dollars or more in year one. That's available to Republicans in Tallahassee to do today. They won't because they're in bed with industry. Secondly, I think we look at stamp taxes, dock taxes on real estate transactions. That is a normal way to fund something like this. I think we can look at hotel and tourist taxes. We generate TDC taxes and we use those

just to build major convention centers. I think we can use them to provide property insurance relief or we could use it to invest in workforce housing for employees who work at the convention centers. There are a lot of ways to address this. I'm not afraid though to say math is math, right? Revenue is required in our state

to provide for safe communities, for good schools, for quality transportation that aren't all toll roads for families. Math is math, but ultimately there's a way to do this that provides dramatic relief when it comes to the cost of housing for homeowners, for renters, and for retirees. How about the underlying cost of housing in Florida? Not just to purchase a home, but to rent a home. That's not necessarily just an insurability, affordability challenge. Well, property insurance drives up rents,

because rental communities, management communities, owners of those rental communities have to pass on the cost of insurance. So does supply and demand, and we've seen population increases over the last many years. And housing starts not only in Florida, but nationwide, having kept pace for the last 15 or 20 years. And that's right.

And look, growth management is something within reach of both the governor's office and municipalities. When Tallahassee has favored developers over responsible growth management, when in Pasco County, they are taking all of the cow fields, building houses, but they're running out of water, and our schools are oversubscribed in that capacity,

that is irresponsible growth management. And so part of that is because Republican politicians have just been favoring developers over residents and developers over environmental needs of the state. That's just a change of values in Tallahassee. It is not hard to do. Do you support the state efforts to reduce or eliminate property taxes, local property taxes?

I think we're moving to an era where we need dramatic property tax reform. Now, I will tell you, I don't think what we're seeing out of Tallahassee is responsible reform. I think it's populism and it could ultimately lead to an economic crisis in our state. At the end of the day, we have to ensure the revenue

is there for safe communities and good schools. And that's not hard to have that conversation. Ultimately, I think we put that question in front of voters. I just think the question we have to put in front of voters needs to be a responsible one that recognizes the equities and taxing with the needs for revenue. The next governor is likely to inherit a pretty difficult financial house, even for the state of Florida, which has been running financial surpluses for a good number of years. The state financial folks have been forecasting budget deficits in the next coming

years, and local governments are facing budget deficits. Miami-Dade County, the largest county government in the state, is projecting its biggest budget deficit since the great financial crash. What would you do as governor to address those financial shortcomings that are really just a matter of a year or two away?

So we have to responsibly address revenue and spending. That's clear. I think we need to address values as well in our spending. Honestly, some of the favors that our state budget does for corporations are important, but we have to figure out how do we pay for expanding Medicaid to ensure health care for all people? How do we ensure quality education? How do we spend money in a way that invests and celebrates our public goals?

Budgets are values. Budgets are values. That's the bottom line. And we need revenue to address those values. I think the change that people want, greater investment in workforce housing and affordable housing and property insurance relief. That's number one. But then are we a state that's willing to say with the marginal revenue that we have, are we willing to spend it in areas of public

education? Are we willing to spend it in fighting crime but not communities? Are we willing to spend it in greater equity for transportation so you're not getting told every time you try to get to work? We can do the basics. We can do those basics. But look, I'm not here to promise everything's easy. I mean, this is the most important thing. I joke I've been out of politics long enough to tell the truth. We have revenue needs in the state of Florida that Republicans won't recognize.

And then what they do is they try to offer populist tax relief while ignoring the crisis. You just said it. There's a crisis coming within our state budget. Ron DeSantis will be fine to get out of town just in time before it collapses. It's a Republican pattern. You just spoke about fighting crime but not communities.

I'm going to take that as a comment toward immigration enforcement that we've seen here in the state of Florida led by Governor DeSantis. Would you work to reverse that state immigration law that he worked hard to get through the Republican legislature just a couple of months ago? I think we need to be a state that values our immigrant community, that recognizes our contribution

to our economy and our culture. And if you are here and not breaking laws, you're to be celebrated and invested in and lifted up. We can be a party that lifts up and celebrates communities. Look, what Republicans have gotten away with for too long. This is true nationally, this is true within conservative media, and it's certainly true with Governor DeSantis.

They have wrongly conflated immigration with crime. It's gross, it's immoral, it's wrong. Statistically, it's not true either. Do you consider crossing the United States border without a legal status a crime? Not if you're seeking asylum, if you're seeking refuge, if you're asking to immigrate here for opportunity, no. My spirit of immigration is true at the federal level and at the state level. If you're coming here because you want to contribute to our economy, we should have

wide gates for you to come in, wide gates and tall walls. David, let me ask you. You had been a Republican elected to Congress. You were then an independent and just recently declared as a Democrat and now running for governor. Is there any daylight on policy between you and the Democratic Party?

Yeah, there's some. Look, let me start with values. I'm a proud Florida Democrat because I believe in the values of an economy for all people, a government that works for our seniors, our veterans to provide for education, and a party and a state that embraces and lifts up everybody. Those are values. Those are democratic values. Policies flow from there. Now, in many ways, much of my work, even as a Republican, is consistent with Democratic values. As a Republican in Congress, I supported marriage equality, climate change, gun control,

campaign finance reform. Whatever you want to label me, the truth is I was somewhere in the Democratic coalition, the moderate coalition, because there wasn't a Republican coalition for me. My time in the independent space has been very similar for the last six or seven years. Here's probably an area where I'm a little different. I still celebrate independent thought and we need big ideas, big solutions for big problems. So I don't care if that comes on the left or the right. I'm for lower corporate taxes, but more gun violence prevention. Some would say that makes me conservative on tax policy, but progressive on gun policy. That's fine. I don't care. I'm also okay navigating how we apply democratic values to the crisis of the moment. As I mentioned, I think we can be tough on crime. I'm not sure where

Democrats are willing to have that conversation all the time, but I know it reflects our true values. I think in South Florida, we can be a party that condemns the Cuban regime while lifting up the Cuban people. We can be a party that says socialism is wrong, capitalism is creating opportunity, but we want fair capitalism that lifts up everybody and allows everybody the true opportunity. Maybe that's a little different Democrat, maybe that's language that we haven't heard from Democrats in the past, but I believe it's where democratic values ultimately are. And I think it also is what threads together a coalition from South Florida to North Florida

that says, you know what? The governor's race isn't about all these nasty, toxic national issues. This race for governor is not about the president. It's not even about Ron DeSantis. Maybe it's about the direction he's taken us. But this is just about how do we ensure the affordability crisis is attacked. We have an economy for all people, we invest in public education, we keep our communities safe. That's a very rational democratic message to a very rational voter base across the state of Florida that's

ready for change. That's David Jolly. He's running for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination in 2026. As the governor's race is taking shape, the current governor and legislative leaders are still hammering out a state budget. Lawmakers were back in Tallahassee this week working to close the budget gap between Republicans in the House and Senate. House Budget Chairman Lawrence McClure says the two chambers have made significant progress toward a final spending plan. There was just a really sincere debate on what was the best way to slow down the spending and make sure that we put the state in the best position going forward. The House and Senate are expected to vote June 16th on the budget and tax package. It must be signed by the governor by July 1st when the state's next fiscal year begins.

I'm Tom Hudson and you're listening to the Florida Roundup from your Florida Public Radio Station. State government reporter Douglas Soll is with us from Tallahassee. Douglas, it's another Friday here. It is getting awfully close to July 1st. Still no budget, although there has been some significant movement in the past week where lawmakers were actually back in Tallahassee talking. Where is their agreement on tax cuts? So lawmakers started off this week with a framework plan. Now a lot of it, some of that is still being hashed out. But what we do know is that a chunk of it is going to getting rid of the business rent

tax. There's also a tax exemption targeted towards Florida families. The chambers haven't fully landed the plane on that yet, but leadership says it will involve yearly tax holidays like for hurricane supplies and back to school supplies. Is any kind of across the board sales tax cut off the board? That is currently not on the board. House Speaker Daniel Perez was a big, big advocate for that throughout the legislative session, but that kind of

fell out amid the negotiations between the chambers. So that's on the revenue side of the ledger. What about the spending side of the ledger? What kind of compromises are beginning to emerge? They started off this week with more than 2 billion in permanent revenue cuts and about 50 billion general revenue spending plan. Now, a lot of that is still being hashed out, and mostly behind the scenes. So the coming days will be critical in figuring out where all this important revenue is going to specifically go for sure. The big spending in Florida is usually on health care and public education that subsumes a lot of the public dollars that Tallahassee has

to allocate. What about public education spending? Anything getting out from those closed door conversations? Yeah, a lot is being worked out on that front still. The topics, as you know, are numerous in the education sector. A big one is trying to figure out how much money is going to go to teach or pay. Advanced placement instruction is also a big one. Like with all these other topics, a lot more information will be solidified in the coming week. And lawmakers have voted to extend session until June 18th. So hopefully all this is a done deal and the governor Ron DeSantis can get this bill by mid-June. The Senate president, Ben Albritton, had a single priority at the beginning of the regular session. He was very

clear on it with the package of spending that he called a rural renaissance, really targeted at places in Florida that don't have a large population. But he's dropped that as his priority here under this framework for a budget. Why did he drop his singular priority? You know, that got dropped amid the negotiations, just like the across the board sales tax cut on the House side kind of fell through during those talks. That legislation is dead and it was a big priority for the Senate president. It would have provided aid and developmental resources to rural counties. And he of course represents a rural area. The Capitol Press Corps actually asked all Britain about this yesterday. He says he doesn't view the situation as a

failure or a loss since he plans to bring the package back next year. He also says he has other priorities as well. He pointed that out. Yeah. Let me ask you about funding for one particular project that's close to the governor's mansion. It is Hope Florida. This is Hope, Florida. This is the first lady's nonprofit that she founded and is in the crosshairs of prosecutors and was in the crosshairs of legislators about some allocation of dollars toward political advocacy.

But yet lawmakers appear to be prepared to still provide some state funding for this nonprofit, correct? Maybe. That's a big maybe right now. Certainly if it doesn't, Governor Ron DeSantis and First Lady Casey DeSantis, who spearheads Hope Florida, is not going to be happy. Of course, it's also actively in the thick of controversy, it's fallen under financial scrutiny. And a lot of that has been led on the house side of the Capitol building.

The lawmaker who kind of led that investigation is also wary of funding some of the hopeful navigators who connect nonprofit and church services to people in need. The Senate still in its pitch has money for those services. It's a couple million. And they're obviously going to have to work out that difference. Douglas soul watching all the budget to take shape for the your Florida reporting project. Douglas reports on the state government from Tallahassee. Thank you, sir.

Thank you for having me on. We've got more to come. You're listening to The Florida Roundup from your Florida Public Radio station. This is The Florida Roundup. Great to have you along as company. I'm Tom Hudson. The University of Florida, it is still looking for its next president. Just last week, the school's Board of Trustees voted unanimously to recommend hiring former University of Michigan President Santa Ono, but this week the state's Board of Governors, which has the last word, voted no. Chiara Karl reports from our partner station WUFT in Gainesville. The decision was not made lightly.

The board went back and forth debating Ono's fitness to lead the university, talking over one another in a crowded room at the University of Central Florida. You're interrogating him. And that is okay because we are asking someone to lead our flagship university. Even an impassioned speech from Mori Husseini, chairman of the board of trustees at UF, could not sway the majority of the board. Give this man a chance like American did to get President Reagan.

Board of Governor's Chair Brian Lamb seems shocked by the vote. The motion fails. Are you serious? Okay. All right, the motion fails. First time that's really happened, so let me just react to that. It appears the University of Florida will now have to start the search for a new president all over again.

I'm Kira Karl in Gainesville. Garrett Shandley is a reporting intern with the Miami Herald. Welcome back to the Florida Roundup. So this vote against Santa Ono to be the next UF president. It was not even close. This was not down to the wire. It was 10 to 6 against. Why did so many members of the board of governors reject him? It really seemed going into the meeting

like it was up in the air whether Ono would get confirmed, which was odd because the board of governors has never rejected a university's presidential nomination in its 22-year history. But he had faced some pretty intense scrutiny coming in for his past positions on diversity, equity, inclusion, his handling of anti-Semitism and campus encampments under his watch at Michigan. And that all kind of played out during the meeting where he was really litigated for his past statements in history there. I think a pretty striking example at one point, Paul Renner, who was the former Republican House speaker here, came out with a binder full of

printed out statements, emails, things like that. Among the remarkable moments, and there were a lot of them over the last two weeks for Santa Ono, was this meeting compared to a week ago when the board of trustees at the University of Florida grilled him to some degree and seemed to accept that he has changed his opinion about diversity, equity, inclusion, and accepted his defense of his actions

regarding the encampments after the Hamas terrorist attacks and how he behaved as president of the University of Michigan. But the Board of Governors had a whole different rhythm. Why was there such a disconnect, do you think, between these two governing bodies, one for the University of Florida only, the Board of Trustees, and the second the Board of Governors, which oversees all of the state universities and colleges? I don't have a answer.

I can give very definitively as a journalist. I'll say what I've observed and kind of the things I was able to pick out from both the trustees' interview and the board of governors' interview was a short excerpt from Maury Hussaini, who's the chairman of the UF board on Tuesday's meeting with the board of governors. And when he was issuing his defensive ONO, he said, you know, we've unanimously recommended him and we're really the boots on the ground here at UF. We see what's happening. We've seen the day-to-day operations.

We have used that to come to the conclusion that, oh, no, he's the right guy for the job. And the board of governors, they oversee the entire state university system. I think he was trying to get at that they might not have that context, and they should take the board's recommendation. The board of trustees seemed downright gobsmacked that their unanimous recommendation was rejected

by the board of governors. So how do you think this reflects on the board of trustees, that board that is boots on the ground in Gainesville that's supposed to set policy for the university, not the board of governors? I think it calls into question who is really in control of the universities. The trustees at UF are half of them, a good number appointed by the governor directly. Another chunk are appointed by the board of governors themselves, and the other two are

faculty and student representatives. And then the board of governors is mostly direct appointees of the governor. And I think on Tuesday, we really saw a notable clash between them. They've kind of sparred on little issues before, but this was the first time in my two years as a Florida higher ed reporter that I've seen them visibly that at odds. And I think it sets the stage for a rocky landscape for higher ed in Florida moving forward,

where these business leaders and typically former GOP politicians that serve on these boards might be at odds with each other and might be in misalignment about what the priorities are for selecting leaders and how to handle other issues. So the university has to go back and restart this presidential search now for the next leader at the University of Florida. What's the risk to the reputation

as the search has to go out and now find somebody to sit in that president's office? Yeah, I think the immediate question it raises is if the leader of one of the nation's top research institutions isn't welcome leading our flagship here in Florida, who has those credentials and administrative experience, but also is in alignment with the agenda set by the governor and the legislature and has held that position, you know,

entirely there, you know, has historically held that position, you know, who, who is that person? It's not very clear. I think after Tuesday, people seeing Ohno having to sit through this almost four-hour, pretty grueling confirmation hearing, basically, one board of governor who ended up voting in Ohno's favor compared it to an interrogation at one point. That might not be an appealing part of the job, even if UF is offering $3 million a year. They might not want to go through that and risk

tanking their career potentially to take on that job. So in the meantime, the former and interim president, Ken Fox, remains in the presidential office there in Gainesville. He's got a contract that runs, I think, you reported through the end of July. So that's only six or seven weeks away. They're not going to complete a search before then, I suspect. What does the leadership at UF look

like when the fall semester begins in August? I think Fox has publicly stated that once his interim contract is up, he's out. He has the option to extend it, but I think he said publicly in faculty senate meetings that he doesn't want to take that option. It's widely speculated that the kind of internal front runner would be Joseph Glover, who is the

longtime provost, the top academic officer at UF. He served there for about 15 years before he stepped down in 2023. And he came back in the interim along with Fox last year after former president Ben Sasse resigned. So I think he's kind of viewed as the heir apparent here. There's been no public statement from the university about their steps moving forward. But as for what leadership looks like after Fox is out as the interim president, I think it's anybody's guess. Garrett Shanley is a reporting intern at the Miami Herald. Garrett, terrific reporting. Thanks again for sharing it with us. Thanks for having me.

Good to be here. You can always reach out to us by emailing radio at thefloridaroundup.org, radio at thefloridaroundup.org. I'm Tom Hudson. You're listening to the Florida Roundup from your Florida Public Radio station. The State Board of Governors will have another university presidential recommendation

soon. This week, the Board of Trustees at Florida International University unanimously approved appointing former Lieutenant Governor Jeanette Nunez as the school's next president. We need to make sure that our reputation matches our reality and our reality is one of academic excellence, it's one of research, it's one of aligning along many strategic partners in this community, in this state, in this country. Nunez was the sole finalist to emerge after a presidential search. If approved later this month she will have a five-year contract with a base salary of $925,000 and an annual performance bonuses of up to 400 grand. Now the turnover of higher education leaders here in Florida is not

confined to public universities. Pascoe Hernando State College President Jesse Peisers abruptly resigned last month. Nancy Guan fills us in from our partner station WUSF in Tampa. Peisers' resignation came after trustee chair Marilyn Pearson Adams accused him of concealing enrollment and retention data. In the weeks since, an employee who spoke out against the work culture at the school was terminated. And most recently, the vice president of academic affairs, who worked directly under Pizers, was also let go. Maria Witherell is a retired math professor at the college. She says there's been no

transparency throughout the entire ordeal. This whole thing is discouraging. And I truly believe that the trustees want to do a good job but there is not any trust because what has gone on. Witherell says she wants the board of trustees to provide more information on the enrollment data that Pizers resigned over. I'm Nancy Guan in Tampa. And this final news from public education in Florida this week, the state has a new education commissioner. Anastasio

Kamoutsas was unanimously approved by the State Board of Education Wednesday. You have my full commitment that our students will receive an education, not indoctrination, that our parents will have a voice in their children's classrooms and our teachers will be supported. Kamutsas is a familiar face around public education here. He was general counsel and chief of staff at the Department of Education before becoming deputy chief of staff to Governor DeSantis. Finally on the roundup this week, the dust. The dust is here. Sand from the Sahara Desert has made its way all across the Atlantic Ocean, bringing hazy skies here to the Sunshine State. Now, it's not unusual for these plumes to blow in this time of year.

The dust can certainly bother some people who already have breathing issues. It can also make for some spectacular sunrises and sunsets. Now, if you're up to it, you can catch both on the same day. You know, that's the benefit of living on a peninsula. That is the floor to round up this week. It is produced by WLRN Public Media in Miami and WUSF in Tampa by Bridget O'Brien and Grayson Docter with assistance from Denise Royal. 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 J and Jackson Harp. Our theme music is provided by Miami Jazz guitarist Aaron

Leibos at AaronLeibos.com. Thanks for emailing, listening and above all supporting public media in your corner of the Sunshine State. I'm Tom Hudson, have a terrific weekend!