Florida Republicans really don’t seem to like the people they swore to represent
Florida’s Republican lawmakers want to make it harder for you to vote by mail. They want to permanently cut funds available for the construction of affordable housing and limit the power of cities and counties trying to fight climate change and the COVID-19 pandemic.
They want to know the ideological leaning of college professors, students and staff through so-called "intellectual diversity" surveys (but they swear they won’t use that information to punish universities).
And they want to silence even peaceful protesters by creating a new categories of enhanced crimes.
And instead of helping millions of Floridians in need because of the pandemic, they plan to use some of the estimated $1 billion in revenue the sales tax will generate to replenish Florida’s unemployment trust fund so they can give businesses an unemployment tax break.
They might throw workers a few bread crumbs by possibly raising the state’s maximum unemployment benefits, among the lowest in the nation, by $100 per week to $375. That’s if the House agrees to it.
GOP FEARS NO BACKLASH
Despite all of that, the Florida Legislature, emboldened by a larger GOP majority and former President Trump’s wide victory margin in the state in 2020, fears no backlash from voters.
The 2021 legislative session that ends later this month will likely go down in history as a year that is both pro-special interest and extraordinarily anti-people. The Florida Capitol may be hundreds of miles away, but Mar-a-Lago surely has been the gravitational pull that’s driving a lot of decisions in Tallahassee.
The Legislature has the opportunity to fix the problems the pandemic highlighted — from our affordable housing crisis to the long waiting list for social services. With $2 billion more in tax revenue than originally anticipated, lawmakers could have balanced the needs of working Floridians with those of businesses and political donors.
But that’s not what they’re doing. Lawmakers have chosen to dive head first into the GOP’s crusade against voter access and so-called "woke culture" at college campuses and social media. They want to fine platforms that ban political candidates in a clear nod to Trump, who was removed from Facebook and Twitter this year.
The most egregious proposal of 2021 mirrors the racist elections law Georgia just passed. The Florida version would add restrictions on ballot drop boxes and require voters to apply to vote by mail more frequently. That’s despite virtually every Republican acknowledging Florida set an example on how to run a presidential election with record numbers of mail ballots last year.
Meanwhile, Gov. Ron DeSantis has all but declared victory against COVID-19, even though cases have been rising and the state is Ground Zero for variants. He’s banned the enforcement of mask mandates and made it harder for local governments to control the crowds that wreaked havoc in Miami Beach.
Much like Trump, DeSantis spends an increasing portion of his public appearances snapping at reporters, dodging tough questions and airing grievances — whether it’s about a "60 Minutes" segment on Florida’s vaccine distribution in rich communities, his ban on vaccine passports or his suit against the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in an effort to resume cruise operations. That suit, experts told the Miami Herald, has little chance of proceeding.
While he might have grounds to criticize "60 Minutes" for being one-sided, his administration has refused to release information on the state’s coronavirus contact tracing and variant clusters.
DeSantis’ top priority is passing House Bill 1, dubbed the "antiriot bill." He announced it after last summer’s Black Lives Matter protests, which were mostly peaceful in Florida. Violence during protests is already a crime in Florida, but Republicans contend the bill will prevent the state from becoming Portland by raising penalties for crimes committed during "riots."
The bill, conveniently, has a loose definition of what constitutes a riot and who’s involved in it; and it would shield people from civil liability who injure or kill protesters who are deemed rioters.
There’s more. That same bill also would deny bail to people arrested for theft during a protest if they are in a county under a state of emergency. And it would create a process for the governor and Florida Cabinet to override local budget cuts to law enforcement.
That latter provision is in line with a dangerous trend in the Legislature. When lawmakers disagree with how local communities are run — especially if those communities are passing progressive proposals — they file legislation to usurp that local government’s powers. There are bills this year to overturn Key West’s referendum to limit cruise ships at the city’s port and to allow the Legislature and the governor to nullify local emergency orders.
At the same time, lawmakers continue to try to chip away at the state’s lauded public-records laws.
There are bills this year to make voter-registration records secret, hide the home addresses of members of Florida’s Cabinet and Legislature (making it hard to determine whether a lawmaker lives in his or her district) and keep secret the names of candidates applying for the presidency of a university or college.
THERE ARE LOSERS
Even when lawmakers have been on the right path, that often means someone has to lose. The Legislature passed a bill to create a steady fund to mitigate sea-level rise and for stormwater projects, but did so by cutting into Florida’s affordable-housing trust fund.
And let’s not forget: This Legislature will be in charge of redrawing legislative and congressional districts beginning this year. Drawing districts that favored Republicans — coupled with Democrats’ inability to organize and win elections — got us where we are today.
The warning signs in the 2021 legislative session are clear. The Legislature is advocating against the interests of Floridians.