Although the state legislative session is almost half over, there’s still more work ahead for lawmakers before they can pass a budget.
On this episode, we get a progress report on some of the biggest proposals from political journalist William March and Jeff Brandes, former state senator and founder of the Florida Policy Project, a non-partisan research institute.
Brandes and March talk about bills that could erode the rights of local governments to make decisions on the environment, development, and cultural issues like what flags to fly over government buildings. They also discuss the issues that aren’t really being addressed, including housing and homeowners insurance.
"If you asked 100 people, what are the big issues in Florida? I don't think they would say social media and health care," said Brandes.
"We're not focusing on the big issues that are in front of us right now, and these things tend to fester, if you don't deal with them," he said.
"I think we're where California was back in the early '80s. And if we don't put some strategies in place to begin to deal with housing issues, then we're going to find ourselves in a really terrible place in a few years, where, you know, there is essentially that missing middle," said Brandes.
March said he will be keeping an eye on education funding in the second part of the legislative session, along with bills to regulate social media and consolidate power in Tallahassee.
"For the last several years, five years, maybe more, there's been, I would say at least one and usually more than one bill that has gone through the Florida Legislature to take powers away from local government. This year, one of the big ones is a bill that would abolish all police civilian review boards," said March.
