Your Official 2020 Legislative Update: Week 6

12 min readFeb 24, 2020

Dear Friend,

We have just wrapped up Week 6 of Florida’s 2020 Legislative Session, and wanted to make sure you got our Week 5 review, which you find here! Below you will find our Week 6 update along with upcoming events we invite you to join us for, too.

Missed a weekly update? Click on these respective links to catch up: Week 1, Week 2, Week 3, Week 4, and Week 5.

Keep in mind that our Weekly Updates our thorough but will never be all encompassing to what happens during the 2020 Legislative Session. Please consider keeping up to date with us in real time through our social media accounts including Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. You can also watch Committee Meetings and Floor Sessions live on the Florida Channel.

UPCOMING EVENTS

We are excited to be participating in these two upcoming community events and encourage you to learn more by clicking on their respective graphics. Soon we will announce our post Legislative Session Debriefs, too.

Now onto your Weekly Legislative Update…

FLORIDA STATE BUDGET UPDATE

Two weeks ago the Florida House adopted a $91.4 billion budget that was slightly less than the spending proposed by Gov. Ron DeSantis. Meanwhile, the Senate proposed a budget totaling $92.8 billion. You can learn more here, and watch the Florida House debate the budget at this link

Keep in mind that this is the first draft of the Florida House, and the next step is budget conferencing where the House and Senate try to bring their budgets together and compromise on key issues. There are several unresolved subjects and differences between both budgets, and we’ll highlight just two of those differences here. Note that the increase we secured for arts and culture funding last legislative session has actually been slightly increased in this new budget.

First, the Florida House budget raids the Affordable Housing Trust Funds by about $200 million and the Senate does not. We are advocating to the Budget Chairman that we should adopt the Senate’s stance on affordable housing trust funds. Second is teacher pay. Though both the Florida House and Senate provide budget increases for entry level teachers, the current allocation and funding formula could actually place OCPS at a deficit per student. We have already shared our concerns with both the Budget Chairman and the Chairman of PreK-12 Appropriations Committee and continue to advocate a wage increase for all teachers. Special thanks to advocates from Orange County Technical College who stopped by our office to share some of their funding concerns with us, too.

We also wanted to highlight the need to increase funding in the Florida House’s budget around preventative mental health programs, Florida Forever, and in reducing the Agency for Persons with Disabilities (APD) wait list. We’ll continue to advocate on these issues and more.

LGBTQ INCLUSIVITY IN FLORIDA’S VOUCHER PROGRAM

The ongoing work to advocate for LGBTQ inclusivity in Florida’s private voucher school program has continued. Last month the Orlando Sentinel reported that at least 14 percent of Florida’s nearly 147,000 scholarship students attended private schools last year where homosexuality was condemned or, at a minimum, unwelcome. As stated in the Orlando Sentinel, “The Sentinel found 83 schools that refuse to admit LGBTQ students or could expel them if their sexual orientation or gender identity were discovered. Some also refuse to educate students whose parents are gay or to hire staff who are gay. Another 73 schools call being gay or transgender a biblical sin but do not explain how those views play out in admissions or student discipline decisions.”

We knew this was a problem when the Orlando Sentinel first reported about it last year, and filed legislation back in August 2019 to help address this problem and eliminate LGBTQ discrimination as a predetermination of admission into a tax-credit funded private school. The bill has yet to be given a hearing, and today we are in active communication with multiple stakeholders, working to secure a meeting with the Department of Education this week.

I also wanted to lift up with several editorials written on the subject, including a recent piece in the Orlando Sentinel and another by Senator Darryl Rouson in the Tampa Bay Times. Here is one more op-ed from Kathleen Oropeza of FundEducationNow.org, a non-partisan group focused on Florida education policy. The Orlando Sentinel also recently shared perspectives on this issue from a local NAACP leader.

In similar news, this past week Colorado advertised the benefits of their state in Florida media markets by demonstrating how much more open their state is towards LGBTQ people and diversity as a whole. You can read more about that here.

E-VERIFY UPDATE

Gov. Ron DeSantis has been trying to bolster President Donald Trump’s anti-immigrant themes through the legislator. Last session the Governor’s agenda was to ban “sanctuary” cities in Florida (even though Florida did not have any) and this year it’s to require all employers use e-verify. But he’s facing a challenge from a surprising force: Republican allies. Click here to learn more about the e-verify saga in the Florida Legislator.

Meanwhile, Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Venezuelan exiles escaping the dire situation in their country continues to be something that the Trump Administration ignores.

FLORIDA COALITION AGAINST DOMESTIC VIOLENCE UPDATE

In late 2019 we submitted a letter to the Speaker of the House and Chair of the Public, Integrity, and Ethics (PIE) Committee about our concerns with the financial decisions of the Florida Coalition Against Domestic Violence (FCADV). Our concerns were taken seriously, and last week the PIE Committee provided an update on the salary of their former CEO Tiffany Carr, and it seems that she may have been paid upwards of millions of dollars through the use of excessive paid time off (PTO) approved by their board of directors. The board has ended their cooperation with the investigation, leading to the Florida House issuing subpoenas. Last week, legislation to remove FCADV from Florida Statute passed the House Floor.

We have been actively keeping in touch with leadership at Harbor House to ensure that there is no interruption of services for our domestic violence survivors while this investigation into FCADV continues.

TEACHER PAY IN FLORIDA

As noted in our update on Florida’s State Budget process, we continue to advocate for increased pay not just for entry level teachers, but for all educators and support staff in our public schools. It was an honor to meet with Republican members of the Florida Education Association (FEA) — we continue to advocate for all teachers everywhere.

CONSTITUENT MEETINGS

As we get closer to the end of legislative session most of my time is spent on the House Floor, leading to less constituent meetings. But we were still able to find time to meet with CWA Local 3108, our Humanistic Buddhists (who we also hosted in the Florida Capitol!), Crime Survivors for Safety and Justice for # SurvivorsSpeak, and the Hemophilia Foundation of Greater Florida!

CARBON NEUTRAL AMENDMENT

Two weeks ago we filed an amendment for Florida to be 100% carbon neutral by 2050, an action other states and major corporations have already taken. For those who don’t know, carbon neutrality, or having a net zero carbon footprint, refers to achieving net zero carbon dioxide emissions by balancing carbon emissions with carbon removal or simply eliminating carbon emissions altogether.

Unfortunately our amendment failed on what sounded like a party-line vote, but we’ll continue to advocate for climate action. Read a recent op-ed about our amendment and Florida’s lack of action on climate change here.

AFFORDABLE HOUSING TRUST FUNDS

As noted in our update on Florida’s State Budget process, we continue to advocate for a stop the raids of Florida’s Affordable Housing Trust Funds, and spoke to the Budgetman Chairman last week on our concerns with the current Florida House budget. Check out this great editorial from the Orlando Sentinel echoing our concerns.

WAYS & MEANS COMMITTEE

During last week’s Ways & Means Committee we debated several bills including the Florida House’s 102 page tax package. As a reminder, every year the Florida Legislature passes a tax package, one that is negotiated between each chamber. The tax package typically includes the sales tax holidays for back to school season and emergency preparedness — but it also includes multiple tax breaks for corporations, and this year was no different.

We asked tough questions on the tax package, and filed three amendments to make the tax package better for working families. This included one amendment to remove speciality language that was added to benefit the state’s largest utility companies, another amendment to repeal the $540 million corporate tax refunds and allocate those funds towards reducing the wait list of Agency for Persons with Disabilities (which is about 21,000 people long right now), and another amendment for Florida to join 28 other states in implementing combined reporting.

Each amendment failed, but it led to important dialogue and you can watch the full Ways & Means Committee at this link. I will add that there is one part of the tax package that I do like: it allows for greater flexibility on local TDT revenue to be used for water improvement projects versus just tourism marketing. Read more about the Florida House’s tax package at this link.

PROTECTING ACCESS TO A SAFE AND LEGAL ABORTION IN FLORIDA

Last week on a vote of 75–43 the Florida House passed SB404, legislation that puts into place forced parental consent for minors who wish to end their pregnancy. The bill was debated for more than five hours on the House Floor, and you can listen to our full testimony against SB404 at this link. The final vote was mixed, with four Democrats voting for the bill and two Republicans voting against it. You can read a review of the debate at this link.

We were disappointed by the outcome but not surprised. Unfortunately abortion access has become a conservative litmus test for our colleagues and the Governor — and even though we already have parental notification laws in Florida, that did not stop our colleagues from painting a false narrative and using fear tactics to pass legislation that is likely unconstitutional, and a trojan horse to ban abortion statewide.

We continue to urge our colleagues to focus on prevention of unplanned pregnancies versus politically motivated legislation that misleads the public, endangers already vulnerable young people, and is ultimately designed to ban abortion.

AMENDMENT 4 UPDATE

A three-judge panel of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Wednesday upheld U.S. District Judge Robert Hinkle’s October ruling that the state cannot deny the right to vote to felons who are “genuinely unable to pay” court-ordered financial obligations, such as fees, fines and restitution. Unfortunately, Gov. Ron DeSantis asked an appeals court Friday to continue preventing felons from voting while the state appealed the panel’s decision — once more preventing rights restoration in the State of Florida. This court decision was an important victory to fully implement what the voters wanted in supporting Amendment 4, but the fight continues.

It was wonderful to meet with members of the Florida Rights Restoration Coalition while in Tallahassee, too.

RESOLUTION TO CONDEMN WHITE SUPREMACY GAINS REPUBLICAN SUPPORT

Last year we filed Florida House Resolution to condemn white supremacy and white nationalism. The resolution gained co-sponsors but was never given a hearing — now we are hearing Republican leadership support a resolution with language moving in the Florida Senate. We are engaging in partisan conversations and will share updates.

DEFENDING DIRECT DEMOCRACY

Legislation continues to move that would make it tougher for the kinds of citizens’ ballot initiatives that have become part of the Constitution in recent years to reach Florida voters via the ballot. We saw this same effort take place last legislative session, and today my Republican colleagues are at it again introducing a bill that would, “require the sponsor of a citizen initiative, to place the initiative on the ballot, to gather sufficient petition signatures to meet the 8-percent threshold in all 27 of Florida’s congressional districts, rather than only half of the districts.” You can read more about this effort to squelch local Democracy here.

SUPPORTING OUR AIRPORT WORKERS

Last week two airport workers at the Orlando International Airport who were leaders in organizing a new union were terminated by their employer. We were shocked to hear this news, and fully support Central Florida workers as they build collective power and ask for better wages and benefits.

LOVE TO OUR INTERNS

Here is a quick shout out to #TeamAnna legislative interns! Not only do they provide us with incredible support but they are incredibly generous too and this week interns picked up trash off East Colonial and joined community groups in cleaning up Lake Underhill Park!

SECOND ANNUAL HOOPS DAY IN THE FLORIDA CAPITOL

We are excited to announce the Second Annual Hoops Day in the Florida Capitol on February 27th! Co-hosted by our office, Rep. Amy Mercado, Rep. Kamia Brown, Rep. Cindy Polo, Rep. Fentrice Driskell, Rep. Tracie Davis, and others #HoopsDay is a chance to show off your FAVORITE hoops earrings in Florida!

Some quick background on how this day came to be: It was inspired by one of our interns from the 2019 session who shared with us that she was told during a legislative intern orientation that hoop earrings were not professional. We disagreed with that assessment. Hoop earrings have been around since 2500 BC and exist across many minority groups as symbols of resistance, strength and personal identity. On #HoopsDay (those that are able!) will wear hoop earrings as a symbol of those values, and we invite you to join us!