Lt. Gov. Nunez says GOP will work out differences

Lt. Gov. Jeanette Nunez said she’s confident Gov. Ron DeSantis and Republican state House and Senate leaders will work out their differences when the 2020 legislative session begins this week.

“I wouldn’t necessarily call them divisions,” Nunez said in an interview with the Orlando Sentinel on Jan. 6 of issues including E-Verify immigration checks for workers and funding for the tourism agency Visit Florida. “I would just say that they’re healthy spirited debates that are going to continue over the course of the next two months.”

E-Verify is strongly backed by DeSantis but not a priority of Senate President Bill Galvano, while Speaker Jose Oliva is again questioning whether Visit Florida should get the $50 million DeSantis wants for the agency.

“There’s a couple of things last session that looked like they weren’t necessarily going to make it to the finish line, and they did,” Nunez said. “I think that while the onset of session [may see] some challenges and some roadblocks, I’m confident that we’ll be able to have just as — if not even more — successful a session that we did our first year. So I think the talk [of] ‘the honeymoon is over,’ I think it makes for good political theater, but I don’t think it’s reality.”

Nunez spoke to the Sentinel the day before a scheduled visit to Melbourne on Tuesday, in which she will meet with federal officials at Orlando Melbourne International Airport to discuss “Opportunity Zones.”

The zones, created by President Trump through an executive order in 2018 with bipartisan support, are designed to help drive investment to poorer communities.

But a wide berth for governors to pick favorites, including former Gov. Rick Scott’s designation of a census tract containing a yacht marina owned by a major contributor, has led to Democrats and other critics calling for reforms.

In Central Florida, prime development areas have ended up in the zones, putting developers there in line for potentially major tax benefits on any future projects.

“While one could criticize ‘why this,’ or ‘why not that,’ ” she said, “I think my focus really is on, how do we take advantage of those areas? And make sure we not only look at additional private capital but also what can we do in the public sector to perhaps provide investment on the public side with things like education and workforce training?”