In Florida, conversations about race and sexuality are more dangerous than aging buildings in the aftermath of the Surfside condo collapse. School books need more scrutiny than rising property insurance premiums. Lies about widespread election fraud are more urgently addressed than real sky-high housing and renting costs.
Tallahassee has become a city of made-up crises that the Florida Legislature was happy to fix in the legislative session that ended Monday. There was no shortage of red meat Gov. Ron DeSantis could feed his supporters in his culture wars.
Lawmakers ignored pleas from LGBTQ students and passed the so-called “Don’t Say Gay” bill that bans conversations about sexuality and gender identity in K-3. They limited how teachers and employers can discuss race and sexism so that white people and men don’t feel “guilty.” They made it easier for parents and activists to ban books from school libraries. Denied abortions to victims of rape, incest and human trafficking after 15 weeks of pregnancy and gave credence to Donald Trump’s lies about the 2020 election being stolen with the creation of a new state election crimes investigation office.
There also was a fair share of your typical election-year bonanza: record spending in the state budget; increased affordable-housing funding (but no comprehensive policy to tackle the issue); a 5.38% pay raise and $15-per-hour minimum wage for all state employees; additional raises for prosecutors and public defenders; a month-long gas-tax break that goes into effect the month before the November elections; and a sales-tax exemption for diapers that got bipartisan support.
These are all needed projects and, in normal times, our biggest concern would be that lawmakers might have indulged in an election-year spending spree. At $112.1 billion, the state budget is 10.4% higher than last year’s and still needs to survive DeSantis’ line-item veto pen.
Revenge politics
But these are not normal times and, in large part, thanks to DeSantis, who often appears to be the de facto House speaker and Senate president. For the most part, legislative leaders capitulated — or enthusiastically subscribed — to his desire to control every aspect of how the state functions and punish those who disagree.
They penalized 12 school districts that defied the governor last year when they required masks. Republicans originally wanted to withhold $200 million from Miami-Dade, Broward, Palm Beach and other counties, but in the end they opted for a lesser sentence by making them ineligible to receive “school recognition” grants.
Lawmakers also struck back against an academic accreditation agency that launched investigations into the University of Florida and Florida State University over concerns they were unduly influenced by state politics. They passed legislation to force universities to change accrediting agencies after an evaluation cycle and allow them to sue an accreditor for damages if they feel they are negatively impacted.
Media outlets also are on their blacklist, not surprisingly. A last-minute bill allows legal notices to shift from printed newspapers to websites run by county governments. Given that a compromise had already been reached with newspapers last year, lawmakers’ intent seems to be to hurt a revenue stream for those publications, including the Miami Herald. Truly hurt will be citizens — in particular those in poor and rural areas, where internet and computer access is spotty. This bill makes it easier for notices on important government actions, such as new construction, and public hearings to be easily hidden on a obscure government webpage.
Here’s other information the public will have a hard time accessing: the names of people vying to become the president of a state university or college — a prestigious position that current and former lawmakers often seek — whether they are qualified or not. Under House Bill 703, which is awaiting DeSantis’ signature, candidates’ personal information will remain a secret during the early stages of the selection process.
And if you’re going to protest any of these bills, make sure you choose the right location if House Bill 1571 becomes law. In DeSantis’ “free state of Florida,” you won’t be allowed to protest in front of people’s homes, including the governor’s mansion — which is owned by the public. We understand that in this age of extreme polarization, politicians and others fear for their safety, but this bill seems bound for a court challenge on First Amendment grounds and is ripe with opportunities for law-enforcement abuse.
Inaction after Surfside
Imagine if the same priority had been given to striking a deal on an unprecedented bill to revamp the state’s lax condo regulations and require periodic inspections of buildings of at least three stories. After the collapse of Champlain Towers South in Surfside last year, legal and engineering experts convened to come up with reform recommendations, some of which ended up in bills that were advancing in the House and Senate. The chambers, however, couldn’t agree on whether to require condo associations to maintain financial reserves for maintenance.
They also couldn’t agree on how to help homeowners facing double-digit property insurance increases.
In the Twilight Zone our state leaders inhabit, the real urgency is not in protecting the lives of 2 million people living in more than 912,000 condominium units that are at least 30 years old. More important is to fight books, “woke” teachers and corporate diversity trainers.
State Republican leaders may have won this session’s culture wars, but in real-life Florida, too many residents were civilian casualties.
