The Florida Roundup - Property tax elimination, consumer sentiment dips in Florida, ‘Your Florida’ legislative session week 3 and weekly news briefing

Episode Date: March 21, 2025

This week on The Florida Roundup, we spoke about a bill to study the impact if property taxes were eliminated with state Sen. Shevrin Jones, who sits on several committees slated to take up the legislation (04:04). Then, we spoke about a dip in consumer sentiment in Florida with Mihaela Pintea, chair of FIU’s economics department (22:00). Plus, we checked in with WUSF’s state government reporter Douglas Soule for an update on week 3 of the legislative session (33:43). And later, we bring you more news from the week including a federal judge’s ruling to deny a request to block Florida's social media ban (38:21), an update on defluoridation efforts (41:26), and the city of Fort Myers Council's vote to block city police from entering into a federal government agreement on immigration operations (44:01). And we open up our mailbag to share some listener emails (45:44).

This is the Florida Roundup. I'm Tom Hudson. Great to have you along with us this week. In the spring of 2007, the US economy was a few months away from what would eventually be called the Great Recession. The housing crash was already underway in parts of Florida. Home prices were falling. Foreclosures were rising.

And the then new speaker of the Florida House wanted to make a big change. Runaway property taxes threaten the standard of living of millions and millions of Floridians, of homeowners and renters, and it threatens the bottom lines of businesses big and small. That is Marco Rubio. He's now Secretary of State of the United States. But 18 years ago, he was the Florida House Speaker and he wanted to all but eliminate property taxes. We must pass meaningful, comprehensive and immediate tax relief this session. He wanted to replace the money lost by drastically cutting property taxes with a higher sales tax.

And he had a big endorsement from a former governor It would create a huge Economic surge for the state that's former governor Jeb Bush speaking to CBS 4 in Miami about what was called the tax swap Replacing property tax money for local governments and schools with money from sales taxes You assume that the benefits of reducing or eliminating the property tax money for local governments and schools with money from sales taxes. You assume that the benefits of reducing or eliminating the property tax would be shared with winners, which I think it would, then the benefits would far exceed what a typical consumer would spend. The effort eventually failed in the

legislature back then, but the idea of getting rid of property taxes here in Florida did not die. This is pinching people. This is Governor Ron DeSantis in late February throwing his political capital behind an effort to study the elimination of property taxes. We're in a unique situation as a state because we could choose to offload more of our tax burden to visitors and to non-residents if we wanted to. But would tourists and part-time Floridians pick up the tab if property taxes disappeared for full-time residents? What would be the impact on your household budget or your roads or schools or parks or

libraries? 305-995-1800. Call us now 305-995-1800. Send us an email radio at the floridaroundup.org. Eric in Dunedin wrote us, getting rid of property taxes would be the fastest route to get all property into the hands of the few. There would be no cost beyond the purchase price and acquiring more and more and holding it indefinitely. David in Palm Beach County wrote us, my wife and I moved to Florida in 2017 and unfortunately chose to rent. We were looking for a house the whole time. Over the same time that we were looking we saw our rent soar and we were getting shut out of the housing market by people who were paying cash. We ended up buying a house in 2023 for almost $800,000

and now have a $9,000 annual property tax bill. David continues, it feels terribly unfair that we have to pay so much more than people who bought before property prices skyrocketed. Maybe if the property tax laws were more equitable, I would feel okay about it. But given the situation of unequal property taxing, I definitely am in support of getting rid of property taxes." And then Marjorie in Oakland Park in Broward County wrote, "'Property taxes are paid for by property owners, which inherently means those people are more well off.' She says, "'If we eliminate property taxes, the tax burden will be shifted to sales tax. Poor

people spend all their income on necessities. The proposal to eliminate property taxes, the tax burden will be shifted to sales tax. Poor people spend all their income on necessities. The proposal to eliminate property taxes, which might sound appealing, actually just shifts more of the tax burden onto the poor. Marjorie continues, not only is this unjust, it will also place a greater burden on social services because the poor will have even less disposable income. State Senator Chevron Jones is a Democrat from Miami-Dade County. He sits on two Senate

committees that will consider a bill to study getting rid of property taxes. It's just one of several bills focused on property taxes this year in Tallahassee. Senator Jones, welcome back to the Florida Roundup. Nice to have you. Thank you. Do you support this idea to study the elimination of property taxes in Florida? Listen, I support us studying anything that we can figure out how to bring relief to Floridians, but the elimination of property taxes in Florida is not one of them because it will absolutely bring a true period of darkness to the Sunshine State. And while property taxes aren't perfect, they are truly the backbone of funding the

essential services that many individuals take for granted. And so the spirit in how that bill is currently moving, I do not support it. No. So as I mentioned, you sit on two committees that this particular bill is destined for. I take it you're a no vote right now for this? Yeah, I absolutely will be a no vote on there. I'm also expressing some concerns because when you listen to some of the policy experts who have spoken, the Florida Policy Institute, who have done extensive research on the effects of us eliminating property taxes, if you take all of that into the account, I would hope that my colleagues would be looking to vote no on this measure also. Because I can only imagine sending something like this to the

voters and knowing that my colleagues on the other side of the aisle have done not such a good job and communicating the effects of what happens when they do things like this to people. I have no trust in this being sent out to the voters because they just won't understand, many of them, some of them won't understand that this will put Floridians in a very, very tough position. Yeah, so in order to consider actually eliminating property taxes, that would take a constitutional amendment for Floridians to vote on, which would then require 60% support during an election. That's right. You mentioned the Florida Policy Institute. This group looked at proposals to eliminate property taxes

and estimated back in February that if property taxes were eliminated, essentially state sales taxes would have to double from 6% to 12% to make up for the lost tax revenue. Right. But would local governments actually be able to increase their own local sales property to their local sales taxes that much? The answer would be no because remember the state legislature told the told cities or counties that before you raise taxes you have to come before the legislature. So yeah you will put cities and counties into a conundrum.

And listen, here's what I will say. You know, the issue is the governor has made it clear that if property taxes were eliminated, sales, sales taxes would not increase. The state sales tax of 6%. The state sales tax would not have to increase and that he would veto the bill. If the government has found a way to eliminate property taxes without raising sales taxes while simultaneously still providing the funds for our local governments to thrive, then he has my full support.

I would be a yes vote all day. But the thing is, we know that that's just not how politics work. And the math isn't my thing right now. So the governor and supporters of the idea to at least study the elimination of property taxes point out that as a property owner in Florida, with property taxes levied at the local level, those property owners, in their estimation,

never quote, truly own the property outright, that there's always some fee or some tax that they owe for being a property owner. I can't respond to that because even when we heard that in finance and tax committee, when they were taking us through the property taxes that have what has been contributed to the general revenue over the last, I think it was 10 to 12 years,

there were a great deal of questions, a great deal of questions in there as it pertains to who owns the property as it pertains to how individuals have paid into the general revenue here within the state of Florida. So, yeah, it's unclear, I must repeat, that cities and counties will not be able to fill the hole because the state legislature has put a on how and what they can raise taxes on without it coming to the legislature. How would this impact affordability of housing in Florida, which is a whole state challenge at this point, Senator?

It'll fall into the renters because the price is going to have to go up somewhere. Someone is going to have to go and someone's going to have to pay it. Those individuals who are in favor of this, you may have not been able to give a compelling case that this will actually work, and Floridians will not have to pay more money out of pocket, money that they already don't have. Miami-Dade County, your home county, estimates that getting rid of property taxes entirely

would eliminate a quarter of the county budget. It would eliminate about half of the budget revenue for the local school district. How concerned are local officials about this and what do you give the odds of at least this study becoming law? I think my colleagues probably will go along with the study being done. I don't know what that looks like with it being rolled out in its in its full form. And when you speak about local governments, you listen, local governments, they would lose fiscal autonomy as they would no longer collect property taxes and, and they will

become dependent on the state for funding, whether it's for the schools or other public services like the police and the fire and fire services. But I also think there's, there's a there's something that we're not talking about. And that is talking about those individuals who are lower to moderate income. So those households with low to moderate income, including with property owners and renters, they will end up paying more in taxes

as a percentage of their earnings compared to wealthy residents if sales tax increases to make up for the lost revenue. So as this conversation happened, then my hope is that my colleagues speak to Floridians who will have to foot this bill or this idea, this very bad idea that's being circulated. We're speaking with Shev Jones, a Democrat state senator from Miami-Dade County, about the possibility of studying the elimination of property taxes in the state of Florida. Property taxes are levied at the local level, but Senator Jones and his fellow senators and House members are considering studying this at the state level, which would then

require some kind of constitutional amendment if it actually would go before voters. Simon in West Palm Beach sent us this email, Senator. which would then require some kind of constitutional amendment if it actually would go before voters. Simon in West Palm Beach sent us this email, Senator. Simon wrote, Marie in Boca Raton wrote, as I'm baffled by this idea coming out of the Florida legislature eliminating property taxes, sure, we'd all like to pay less taxes, but I value the services those taxes pay for, and I'd rather pay than lose those services. Marie writes, I can't imagine how raising the sales tax could ever cover these needed

services. It seems that the wealthy would not be paying their fair share just supporting public services with sales taxes. So the governor also talked about this as a way that may not cost more taxes if it forces local governments to look for spending efficiencies. Are there efficiencies to be found in local governments and school districts

in order to really put property taxes on consideration for significant reduction, if not elimination? Well, we want to talk about government efficiency. I think Democrats and Republicans and alike in Tallahassee right now have made it clear that if we want to, in good faith, check on government efficiency to see whether or not local governments are spending taxpayers' dollars appropriately, then we can have that conversation. But that's not the conversation

that we're having right now. In the last fiscal year, property taxes raised $55 billion in revenue for local governments and school districts doubling over the last decade. And that was according to a presentation that I remember that we had in our Finance and Tax Committee. And most of that money, Tom, $33.7 billion of that went to government and social programs, just like one of the last listeners said, and that's to your police, your firefighters and your jails. The rest of that, which was

the 21, I think it's like $20 billion, went to schools. And so schools are the single biggest beneficiaries from property taxes. And so my question back to those who support this and to my colleagues, how do we fund our schools? How do local governments fund the needs of their communities? And if they cannot give a answer, a answer that benefit Floridians, I think we should not only take the idea off the table, I think we should stop putting things out there like this that raises red flags with Floridians when they are already under enough stress when it comes to the spending money and the money that's

coming out of their pockets. Supporters of this review or this study will point out exactly the same data that you just spoke about, Senator Jones, about look how much property taxes have increased in a dollar amount or even a percentage amount over the past decade or so. And there's two contributors to that, right? One is the tax rate, the percentage of whatever

the tax rate is. And the second, of course, is the value or the assessed value of the land and the buildings that are being taxed. And we know Florida property values have skyrocketed, certainly since the pandemic. So that's a big contributor, I would suspect, to this increase in property taxes. How might lawmakers go after the increasingly financial burden

of property taxes for Florida property owners? I think that's a question that we're going to have to look at. I think the alternative solution we should be looking into is possibly tax relief for those individuals who are most affected by property taxes. But rolling out an entire elimination of property tax is not the way to go. And while the goal of reducing this financial burden on our homeowners is commendable and something I believe personally that we all want, eliminating property taxes could lead

to underfunded essential services and increased tax burdens on low-income residents, loss of local government autonomy, and various economic pitfalls that we cannot even list. And so I think if we want to have a true conversation, a real true conversation of how we can make sure that Floridians can keep more money in their pocket. It should not start at us eliminating property taxes. It should start at us, what does our wasteful spending look like over the last, what, 10, 15 years in the state of Florida since my colleagues have been in power. There's money that can be saved. There's money that we have wasted since I've been in the legislature. And I

think if we can uncover that stuff, we don't have to have the conversation about eliminating property taxes. That money would be state government money, which would not have been generated by property taxes. So any savings there may not have an impact on the property tax bill of a homeowner. That's true. You're right. But we're talking about government efficiency. If we're talking about government efficiency and how we move and how the because right now the governor and my colleagues, they're talking about we want to make sure that Floridians can save money. Well, the conversation shouldn't just start at property taxes. There are other avenues that we should be looking at and how Floridians

can keep more money in their pocket. Shev Jones is a state senator representing parts of Miami-Dade County. He's a Democrat and always appreciate the conversation, Senator. Best of luck to you and your colleagues. Thank you so much. We invited Senator Jason Pizzo, who sponsors the legislation in the Senate for an interview. He declined our invitation. Regina's been listening in patiently in Venice. Regina, you are on the radio. Go ahead.

Hi. Yeah, I just I have a comment. I mean, in terms of the way that the uniqueness of our economy is being framed, I mean, I think as a tourist industry, that's kind of making, putting a sparkle on what it really is. We're a service industry. We have a predominant retail and service industry base here and it's not an economy that is built by the tech industry.

For example, a lot of the people in this state are on either low income minimum wage earners or seniors on fixed income and come here either part time on a fixed income to get out of the winter. I just do not think that we are framing this appropriately. It seems to also be the words of a politician. I think what we need to do is listen to the experts and look at the data regarding what the numbers are and not necessarily listen to politicians, put politicians on the side burner and come back and validate what they said. Got it. Regina, thanks for adding your voice to the conversation. Elin's been listening

in Hallandale Beach in South Florida. Elin on line three. Go ahead, you're on the radio. Hi, thank you for taking my call. I think getting rid of property taxes is a very crazy idea. It's not a good idea at all. What I will do instead is reducing or decreasing property taxes somehow because in my case, I'm divorced, I'm single, I don't have kids, but I still pay for a lot for the school, which takes a big chunk of my taxes, of my property taxes. So somehow, maybe by decreasing or considering the status of someone, meaning that if they're single or they don't have any kids, couples that choose to not have kids or they can't. So yeah, something like that.

Yeah, that would be wildly interesting, Ilan, if that could be possible. Juan Carlos in Miami Lakes, you got about 20 seconds, but I wanted to hear from you. Thanks for holding on. Line five. Real quick, I do think that it's an interesting concept, but I agree with Senator Jones. And the fact is that I'm a local elected official and I don't see how we would raise funds or we would raise money to be able to provide services that we provided. And in regard to our, or whether or not the claims that we're being inefficient with the funds, I'd welcome anybody to look at our budget and look at where we're spending our money. Yeah. Councilman, thanks

for listening and joining us here for the conversation. We couldn't get to your phone calls. Send us a quick email because we'll read conversation. We couldn't get to your phone calls. Send us a quick email because we'll read those and certainly we'll get to those in the weeks ahead. Radio at the floridaroundup.org. Plenty more to come here on the Florida Roundup. For 75 years, Nicholas Children's Hospital has been recognized as a trusted source for exceptional pediatric care. From their very first day, their dedicated team has focused on putting your child's well-being first to deliver world-class treatment with a compassionate touch. Trusted by generations of families, they've been dedicated to making a difference every single day.

Nicholas Children's Hospital, where your child matters most. You can join them in celebrating 75 years of hope and healing. Learn more at nicklisschildrens.org. Miami New Drama presents Birthright, a new play about six young American Jews who meet on a birthright Israel trip. After October 7th, they confront what it means to be Jewish in America. April 3rd through 27th at the Colony Theater. Tickets at MiamiNewDrama.org. FIU is Miami's preeminent state research university. FIU is recognized as a top 50 public university by U.S. News and World Report and is considered a national leader in environmental resilience,

health and innovation. Learn more at news.fiu.edu. This is the Florida Roundup. I'm Tom Hudson. Thanks for being here this week. There's no free lunch. You've probably heard that adage. What does it mean? Well, it means you can't get anything that's worth something for free. So how about this deal? A free lunch for the price of a live radio program. Well, that's the offer from our partner station WJCT in Jacksonville. Come have lunch and we will serve you a live in-person Florida roundup.

It's all on April 4th. The St. Johns County Schools Superintendent will be one of our guests that day. St. Johns County is one of the fastest growing areas in the state. We're going to be talking about the growing pains for schools and today's environment for public education. So it's a free lunch for the price of a live radio program. be talking about the growing pains for schools and today's environment for public education. So it's a free lunch for the price of a live radio program. Pretty good bargain. Space is limited. You want to register now though, go to wjct.org slash events, wjct.org slash events and we'll see you April 4th in Jacksonville.

Now how are you feeling about your finances? Call us 305-995-1800. You know Florida consumers are losing some of their optimism. Each month the University of Florida surveys people from all over the state to gauge what they're thinking about their household budget. Now in February Floridians feelings about their household budget. Now in February, Floridian's feelings about their economic futures soured substantially. People were pessimistic about their own financial outlook

and the nation's financial outlook. Call us now, 305-995-1800. A week ago, state economists warned lawmakers that, quote, uncertainty exists during their regular update on state tax revenues. Legislators use this data and crafting their state budget and the state expects to collect about a billion dollars more in taxes and fees than it projected just a few months ago. Still, there's that word uncertainty. So what's your word to describe your financial outlook here in Florida? 305-995-1800. Call now 305-995-1800.

Mihela Pinta is the chair of the economics department at Florida International University. Mihela, thanks for joining us. First, let's just talk about the broad economy. How would you describe the outlook for Florida's economy? The outlook for Florida's economy is pretty stable and to some extent uncertain. So everybody is standing by waiting to see what's going to happen. So one example of that is the consumer confidence. People in Florida, even though there was a decrease in the consumer confidence relative to November 2024 when President Trump was elected, the decrease, it happened relative to the current economic condition, but even more so regarding the expectations for the future. Yeah, so stable but uncertain.

And when folks look at what they think their household economy is going to be like, their household finances, they've grown more pessimistic. What's weighing on them? Several things. There was a decrease in consumer confidence regarding the economic conditions in the US overall. And this is across all political party affiliations,

more so for the Democrats, but definitely affecting negative Republicans and independent as well. President Trump has not ruled out a recession. He's talked about short-term economic pain as he's been dealing on again, off again, on again, off again, on again, off again tariffs, for instance. And of course, there's the war in Ukraine and Russia, and there's the war with Hamas in Israel. I mean, it is a lot for consumers. And in Florida, where we're so hospitality, tourist-driven amongst other service industries,

what's the risk? What's the opportunity? What's the opportunity? There are several conditions that are particular to Florida, as you mentioned, tourism. So the dollar became stronger, which has, even though it sounds great, it has a negative impact for international tourists, because they have to spend more of their domestic currency in

order to be able to come to Florida to vacation. Another factor that's particular to Florida is that we have quite a significant federal civilian employment, about 100,000 people across Florida. So some of these people, they lost their job or they're uncertain about what's going to happen to their employment. Another factor that's very relevant for Florida economy is deportation of immigrants. So even more so than this federal civilian employment in terms of the numbers. And there again, so they are a significant part of the Florida economy, of South Florida economy. They work in agriculture, they work in construction.

The question is, are they going to be afraid to come to work or are they going to be deported? Again, the number as they are right now, it's unclear if the threats or the talks about deportation and had a chilling effect on their employment is going to lead to an increase in the price of agricultural goods, an increase in the price of construction, and then construction, it's a big component in Florida economy, even more so in the rest of the country. All of this is happening in an environment where the unemployment rate in Florida is still very healthy, three and a half percent, but it has been steady. It hasn't been dropping, but it's been steady at that pretty low level, which is a healthy market if you're out there

looking for a job. In the meantime, wages which had been growing have not been keeping pace with inflation necessarily or a lot of that has been, I don't know, what did you pay for eggs lately? You know, six, eight dollars last time we got a carton of a dozen eggs. I closed my eyes before I buy the eggs. Our inflation gauge in our kitchen is there's a chocolate tort that is sold at a very popular grocery store that's throughout Florida. And even my son took a picture of it and said, oh my gosh, it's almost $10 now.

It did not stop him from buying it. We still bought it. It's expensive. And it's just one of many items that Floridians are having to deal with. And that kind of is a chilling effect, too, in terms of our spending habits, isn't it? Yes.

So consumption is holding. Now, I have to say that in Florida, because we have a lot of people that are retired, consumption is actually higher than at national level, right? But if they retire, they save less and they consume more as a proportion of their income. So anything that's going to have a chilling effect on consumption is going to have more of an impact in Florida than in the rest of the country. What do you make of some of these price trends, these inflationary trends? Gasoline is less.

I paid less than $3 a gallon, which I'm happy about. But those egg and those chocolate prices, I tell you, I mean, they are noteworthy on our budget. So one thing that we learned as economists, like a word that we used a lot during COVID and when inflation picked up and during 2022, for example, is transitory. We don't know what's going to happen. The question is, is it going to be transitory or is it going to be permanent? So, for example, tariffs. Tariffs are going to have an impact. Some economists argue that it's going to be just a one-time increase.

So it's not going to have any impact on inflation in the long run. Whereas other economists think, well, yes, an increase in the tariffs that's permanent is going to lead to an structuring of the global trade, which is going to have implications for price increases for years to come. Overall home prices statewide are flat from a year ago. They're not really moving down, but they're not moving up like they were a few years ago either. Luxury homes, more expensive homes are holding up better. Vintage condos with these new reforms are not doing so well in terms of the

prices. What's your general sense about the housing market and kind of the effect, the wealth effect that housing can have and then what it has on consumer confidence and spending? So we see a flattening in the house prices in Florida with some expectations maybe of continuing decrease, especially in condo prices, especially for the older condominiums that now have to go to recertifications, have to go to massive assessment,

and especially if we're thinking about the older condominiums. So this is affecting a lot of the retirees, people that live on fixed income, which we have more in Florida than in the rest of the country. If you're going to have to pay an assessment of $50,000 on your $300,000 condominium, well, you have to start cutting other expenses. One thing that I thought was surprising for me was the fact that even though we still have net migration, we have more of out migration for younger people. And so we still have people retiree moving to Florida, but a lot of people between the ages of 20 to 29 are leaving the state. And this is not a good thing for the labor market in Florida. So we have an incoming of wealth.

But then if our young people are leaving the state, well, again, this is not a good signal for for the future. Miheala Pinta is the chair of the economics department at Florida International University. $3 a gallon gasoline in Florida, six to $9 for a dozen eggs. How about your household finances? Margaret Jean has been listening in in Sarasota. Margaret Jean, you're on the radio. Go ahead.

Yes, I am. Thank you. Thank you. Your thoughts? Well, you know, again, we are, they've already mentioned it, we're a service dependent economy. We can't control storms. We can't control red tide. can't we can't control our tourism from Canada based on our current position that we have. I'm very concerned about what's going to happen in the next two years especially with the stock markets etc. So when we find that our economy gets squeezed I believe Florida's going to get squeezed. Making changes like where is our local taxes coming for our schools, really

makes me very concerned about being able to be fiscally responsible for the current infrastructure we have. Florida has a history of doing better than the national economy when times are good. It also has a history of doing worse when times turn tight. Margaret Jean, have you made any changes in your household budget? Yes. I've gone ahead and taken provision. Again, I'm a retiree. I depend on my pension, my investment. I've been doing very well. I mean, there's no two ways about that. But I'm very concerned about what's going to happen, perhaps to Social Security, as well as to the value of my portfolio. I depend on it for the next, for two of us,

for the next 20 years, at least that kind of projection. So I'm very concerned that the responsibilities at my government and federal level are not going to necessarily help me out. What kind of- So that's where I am right now. Yeah. What kind of, Margarine, we'll let you go. Thank you for joining us here on the floor to round up. Ms. Kennedy in Boynton Beach, go ahead. You're on the radio. Yes.

My comment is regarding why we don't have restrictions and limitations on Airbnb and Verbo, like they do in Boston. I could read you right from a site that says one of the key requirements is that a host must be a permanent resident living at the property they intend to rent out. We have rampant purchase of housing that could be purchased by people who live and work in Florida year round, by residents that don't live here. The rental market has been driven sky high. Ms. Kennedy, I'm short on time. I apologize. But a really important point when it comes

to the supply and the affordability of homes here in Florida. I'm Tom Hudson. You are listening to the Florida Roundup from your Florida Public Radio station. Each week of the legislative session, we talk about some of the issues you have told us that matter. It's part of the Your Florida Project, connecting you with state government and policies that affect your life throughout the Sunshine State. Price of property insurance is a perennial issue here. Just as lawmakers were gathering, the Tampa Bay Times reported how insurance companies

were using affiliate companies to send hundreds of millions of dollars to investors while claiming they were going broke or even leaving the state, no longer insuring Floridians or their homes. Paula Primera Conti of St. Petersburg watched it happen. The insurance market for homeowners insurance was really doing very badly some years ago. Now it's better. There's more. There's some insurers who came back into the state and so on. But you have to keep the vacanthold. It's not possible that they come to Florida and then they don't pay anything if the person has done things right. Some lawmakers grilled insurance regulators over their own report that found insurers were using these affiliated companies to move money. Douglas Soll is with us once again from Tallahassee, our state government reporter. So Douglas, how have lawmakers responded to these revelations? So lawmakers are pretty angry. We're

talking about a lot of money here. And this all came to a head at a hearing held by the Florida House. The current and immediate past insurance commissioners got hammered about all this to be frank. Now, the commissioners say that report was never finished and thus the findings can't be trusted. But lawmakers also want to know why the findings so worrisome were never finished. This was honestly never given a complete comprehensive answer. Other than that, the report was lost at a busy time. House members weren't satisfied with that answer.

Yeah. So what might lawmakers do at this point as they're meeting and writing laws and reforms and regulations. They definitely want to have more hearings. There's a push to get to the bottom of this by the end of session. The calls for accountability might increase depending on what's learned. Home insurance is a huge contributor to the escalating cost of living across the state. Emily Rigan lives in

Bradenton. I have quite a few friends that are actually moving away from this state because they owned their homes. And like one person said, her insurance went up to $10,000 a year. She'd never had a claim. She was like, I can't afford that. So it's sad to see that happening.

Now two years ago, Douglas, the legislature ended what the insurance industry blamed for such a high rate of insurance lawsuits and contributing to the high cost of insurance one way attorney's fees. But now, they may come back, explain what's happening here. Important to point out that those laws that were passed two years ago were done so with the goal of reducing litigation against struggling insurance companies. Obviously, that report we just talked about puts into question some of that struggling adjective, right? But anyway, supporters of this proposed prevailing party measure say it would still reduce what they call frills lawsuits, while also boosting consumer protection. But the return to the one way attorney's fees is gathering some support in committee, isn't it?

It is it is in a bill has even passed a committee doing so. While insurance rate increases are much smaller this year, it comes after years of huge jumps and several big storms. Benjamin is in Tampa and told us this glass hurricane season, we had two major hurricanes hit the Tampa area, and I got damaged in my home. And I couldn't even claim it because my deductible is so high. So Douglas, how do lawmakers think all of these different proposals floating around Tallahassee this year will impact insurance premiums going forward for homeowners?

The goal is certainly to continue to make increases smaller and ultimately make things cheaper. We just have to see what makes it to the finish line. The higher cost of insurance has been pointed to as one of the contributing factors for higher cost of condominium assessments and special assessments. Of course, there was a whole slew of reforms put in place after the surfside tragedy a few years ago, what's the state of reforming some of those

condominium reforms? I don't think all the lawmakers see completely eye to eye and what to do at least not yet. But next week, a Senate committee is going to hear a bill that among many other things would allow condo associations to invest reserve funds. Interesting. All right. Well, I suspect we'll bring that up next week when we talk to Douglas Soil, our state government reporter in Tallahassee. Thank you, sir.

Thank you for having me. Community Engagement reporter Megan Bowman contributes to our reporting and you can add your voice to the Your Florida Reporting Project by visiting w usf.org slash your dash Florida. Stick around. We got plenty more to come. You are listening to 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. Let's get you caught up on some of the other doings in the state legislature as it shapes laws in your name. First a law passed last year and was successfully defended in court. A week ago a federal judge ruled in favor of the state's social media ban for young teens. The law bans social media platforms from allowing anyone under 14 in Florida to create an account and requires social media sites to get parental permission for 15 and 16 year olds. The judge turned down a request by a group of tech companies that wanted to at least temporarily block the law. The judge

ruled the trade associations did not prove which social media platforms would be impacted by the law. Now we talked about this law here on the Florida Roundup. Back in January, we spoke with Republican Representative Toby Overdorf, who sponsored the measure. He told us then that if social media providers change certain features like infinite scroll and likes, then they could allow young teens to join. If they change the algorithms, if they change the manner in which

they're doing push notifications, then all of a sudden they do not meet the content of the law and therefore they could be allowed to move ahead with an account. However, we're not seeing any appetite for change from these businesses. It's not clear if and when the state will enforce the law after its court win. Meantime lawmakers are not done hoping to write new rules for social media here in the Sunshine State. One proposal this legislative session would block access to disappearing social media messages like those on Snapchat for users younger than 16 years old. The bill would also require social media platforms to

allow parents to see those messages and police could view them too if a parent allows it. Republican Representative Michelle Swalsman from the Pensacola area is the sponsor. My reason for doing this bill is to protect kids in cases of trafficking or other instances where they're being groomed on social media. This proposal was approved by a House committee this week. While we're talking about kids here, high schoolers may still have to get up before the crack of dawn in Florida next school year. How subcommittee on Wednesday moved forward with essentially repealing a 2023 law that mandated later start times for high schools. The requirements are slated to take

effect in August as a way to help high school students get more sleep. But as the deadline is neared, many school districts have said they're struggling to comply with the later start time because a lot of issues school bus schedules after school activities and child care problems. State representative Jeff Holcomb of Hernando County says there's really no easy solution. We all understand the science and the science makes sense but this is a logistical nightmare so at the end of the day are we going to send our elementary school students to school at 7am. There really isn't a good answer at all. As the law is right now, Florida public high schools would not be able to start until 830am or later beginning next year.

Now the current bill making its way through the House would allow districts to avoid meeting the requirements if they submit reports outlining school start times and strategies that they considered to have later start times. A few weeks ago on the Roundup we talked with you about efforts to stop adding fluoride to local drinking water systems. Anya Panello has an update now from our partner station WUFT in Gainesville. Florida legislators are discussing bills that would ban the addition of fluoride to public water supplies. Those in favor say they want more freedom over their health, calling fluoride forced medication. Those against say fluoride is important for preventing cavities, especially in children. If passed, more than 100 water utilities in Florida would have to stop adding fluoride to their drinking water, impacting cities like Gainesville, where Bobby Murmer lives.

If you look at my teeth under an x-ray that's been blown up, it looks like a sponge. Just small little holes everywhere. Murmer grew up on well water in Pasco County that didn't have fluoride added to it. He says that's led to years of dental work, crowns, fillings, root canals. He says he spent between 30 to 40 thousand dollars on his teeth. Raimea Eagle Glenn also lives in Gainesville. She's against fluoride and has been asking her local utility to put its removal to a vote for weeks, but to no avail. We just simply can't get away from it because it's being added to our water just across the board

and we really don't have a way to opt out. Governor Ron DeSantis and Agriculture Commissioner Wilton Simpson have both shown strong support for the bills. In Gainesville, I'm Anya Panillo. President Trump's immigration czar was in the state Thursday morning in Sarasota. Tom Holman was joined by Governor DeSantis at New College. They were talking about changes in immigration policy here in Florida and across the country.

Holman said the number of people entering the United States at the U.S.-Mexico border is down significantly since Donald Trump took office in January. A secure border saves lives and that's what President Trump has done. We were saving lives by the thousands simply because they have a secure border. Holman's visit here to Florida comes as a federal judge in Washington, D.C. has been pushing the Trump administration to answer questions about deportation flights with Venezuelans on them sent to El Salvador on Saturday. The judge ordered the deportation flights to stop and return to the United States. Florida lawmakers meantime passed a law during a special session just a few weeks ago here it creates a new state board of education enforcement and requires sheriff's departments and county jails to participate in a federal immigration program. The governor used the appearance with the immigration czar to call on Congress to take the president's executive actions and make them permanent.

We've got to get this this into law and I think Congress really needs to be way way more aggressive than what they've been so far. Just south of where the governor was and a few days earlier, the Fort Myers City Council rejected an agreement between its police department and the Federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement Bureau. Jason Fields is the police chief in Fort Myers. This is what he told the city council before it voted. We're not going to be kicking in people's doors and pulling, you know, mothers and children's out of house. That's not it. The final vote was tied 3-3 to not sign an agreement with the federal

immigration authorities. Governor DeSantis argues local police are required to participate in immigration enforcement. State Attorney General James Uthmeyer said his office was investigating Fort Myers. The AG sent a letter the day after the Fort Myers vote to the city claiming that rejecting the deal means the city is violating the state ban on cities limiting cooperation with federal immigration enforcement. Now this led to a city on the other side of the peninsula this week to take a different approach. South Miami did not reject an

agreement. Javier Fernandez is the mayor in South Miami. He did not think the city needed to take any more action regarding the new state law over immigration enforcement. We are fully in compliance with all of our obligations under the statute with respect to related issues and we've certainly given no direction to anyone not to do something that we're required to do. Ultimately, late Tuesday night, South Miami decided to get legal clarity on whether or not its police department must partner with federal immigration authorities under the new Florida state law. Are we required to sign the agreement that apparently has now put Fort Myers in jeopardy?

I'm Tom Hudson, and you're listening to the Florida Roundup from your Florida Public Radio station. Finally on the Roundup this week, let's open up our email inbox. We've got lots of messages from you sent to us radio at the floridaroundup.org. The inbox is always open. We love to hear from you on a variety of topics, whatever's on your mind. Pen us a note, or I guess type it out, radio at the floridaroundup.org. We were talking last week, I think it was, about legislation that could roll back some of the gun regulations here in Florida that were put in place after the Parkland shooting. Lauren was listening to that conversation and wrote,

the effort to make it easier for people to acquire weapons of war is disturbing. year for people to acquire weapons of war is disturbing. By the way, Lauren signed their email, W USF sustaining member that's our partner station in Tampa, Lauren, thank you for your support of public media in your community. We also talked last week about cuts to the federal workforce here in Florida. Kathleen wrote us Dear Mr. Hudson. First Kathleen, call me Tom. Everybody call me Tom. Don't call me Mr. Hudson. Kathleen said, Why are we only talking about cutting spending? Why not look at the income

side of the ledger? Investing in the IRS increases government income. Getting rid of tax cuts for billionaires and corporations increases government income. When Jeff Bezos pays a lower percentage tax rate than I do as a teacher, something is wrong. Kathleen, thanks for your note. I will share with you that this week, the Hudson household submitted its taxes for 2024. Time is ticking April 15 is right around the corner. Hope you're making progress in your home. Raymond sent us this note. My partner has worked for the IRS over 10 years and I've witnessed her give overtime and weekend

hours to meet deadlines. She has now lost all her trainees resulting in a waste of over a year of time training needed agents during the height of tax season. Rosie said I'm a prescribed fire practitioner in Florida. Rosie wrote that Florida burns upwards of 2 million acres a year. The successful practice of controlled burning is completely dependent on fire weather forecasters with the National Weather Service. If we lose these experts, Rosie writes, the state will experience more fire issues. By the

way, there's been a massive, massive fire in the Everglades this week. It closed both roads into and out of the Florida Keys, even closed the first exit off of the Florida Turnpike. This fire was just one of more than a dozen wildfires burning throughout the state, according to data from the Florida Forest Service. Now, most of them just a few acres at most. Any fire could be dangerous, but this fire in the Everglades, it grew to more than 24,000 acres as of Thursday night. A lot of dry and windy conditions have been fueling it. Thankfully, it has not threatened any people or buildings.

Gale sent us this note. Gale wrote, Trump has gulped 13 of his first 48 days in office. Imagine how many federal employees' salaries could be paid for. Gail, I'll note that there's a website that tracks the president's golfing habit, TrumpGolfTrack.com. According to the website, the president has played 16 rounds of golf since returning to office. Send us a note, radio at the floridaroundup.org, radio at the Florida Roundup dot org radio at the Florida Roundup dot org. That's our program for this week. It's produced by WLRN Public Media in Miami and WUSF in Tampa by Bridget O'Brien and Grayson Doctor 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 Hart. Katie Munoz answers our phones. Theme music is provided by Miami Jazz guitarist Aaron Leibos at AaronLeibos.com. Don't forget we're coming to Northeast Florida, the first Coast WJCT, our partner station in Jacksonville. A live Florida Roundup with a live studio audience. We'd love to see you there. It's free but you have to register at wjct.org slash events. Lunch will be served and so will a hot fresh edition of the Florida Roundup. We'd love to see you there. April 4 at WJCT in Jacksonville. Register for free at WJCT.org slash events.

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