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Florida’s Democratic Party Chair is not running for re-election after a disastrous 2020 election. The state party lost seats in the legislature and congress. And as Mike Vasilinda tells us,  her re-election would have been problematic.

Democrats expected to go from seventeen to 19 seats in the state Senate Instead, they lost a coveted south Florida seat. Sen. Darryl Rouson is a Democrat from St. Petersburg and says 

“So it just means we have to work a little harder.”

It was worse in the House, where Democrats lost three incumbents and two targeted open seats. Orlando Democratic Representative Anna Eskamani says Dems need to change strategy.

“We’ll have to be more aggressive in committee, where we have more numbers. We’re going to have to ask tough questions” says Eskamani.

And then there were the two congressional seats in South Florida  that it lost.

Democrats have been calling for new leadership since the party took an 8 hundred thousand dollar Payroll Protection loan that became fodder for Republican commercials.

Now, party Chair Terri Rizzo, who has been in the job three years, sent this memo saying she would not seek re-election in January.

Eskamani knew the resignation was coming and adds “And I hope the executive director does the same.”

Eskamani was one of the first to speak out against the PPP loan and one of the first to call for new leadership.

“And this needs to set a new standard where we are going to focus on everyday people. The incoming leadership cannot be bought and sold by the consultant class” she says.

Former Miami Mayor Manny Diaz and national committee woman Nikki Barnes have declared they are running. But Eskamani says others may jump in. She has questions.

“What’s their organizing model? How do they interpret power?”

In the end, Eskamani says the party must change how it operates…from relying heavily on consultants to being silenced by taking corporate cash, Other wise, it will be more of the same with a different face.  

Democrats lost legislative seats despite more than 15 million last minute dollars in out of state money used to help democratic legislative candidates.

The Florida Chamber says it has been told by the State that unemployment taxes will go up next year by almost two hundred percent, but as Mike Vasilinda tells us, the state is so far mum on the increase.

On March first, Florida’s trust fund for paying unemployment claims sat at just over four billion. At the end of November, it was down more than 75 percent to just under a billion. 

To replenish the fund, Carolyn Johnson, the Director of Business, Economic Development & Innovation Policy at the Florida Chamber says the state has told it minimum rates will increase by almost 200 percent.

“This is coupled with businesses hurting due to the pandemic” says Johnson.

Employers with the best record will see the tax go from seven dollars an employee to twenty dollars and thirty cents.

Johnson also says “Every employer that’s not at the minimum or maximum will have a rate based based off the number of layoffs over the last three years”

The Chamber says it was given the new rates by the Department of Revenue, but the Department hasn’t officially released anything and did not respond to email and phone requests. 

The January hike is a far cry from the great recession when the lowest rate skyrocketed by more than a hundred dollars per employee.

But the chamber says it is still a big hit to businesses.

“If  you’re an employer with a hundred employees, you’re seeing a thirteen hundred dollar tax increase that you might not have expected coming January one” says Johnson. 

The Chamber says layoffs because of the pandemic will not count against an employers record because an executive order exempted them. The increase comes as businesses must also cope with a higher minimum wage starting September first next year.

Florida’s higher than usual unemployment is reaping one benefit for businesses. With fewer people working, and more working from home, workers compensation costs for businesses is going down. The state has approved a six point six percent decrease next year.  First. Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis says it is one more reason Florida is a good place to operate a business.

“As we’ve seen with automobile insurance, fewer claims lead to the carriers rolling out discounts back to the policy holders so this is the same thing. I run risk management for the state and out risk management department has seen fewer workers comp claims because fewer people are working in their typical occupations and they are tele-working, so again, fewer hazards of the job” says Patronis.

The decrease applies to new and all policypolicies in effect on January first.

A hearing tonight by the Michigan Senate Oversight committee will hear testimony on election irregularities. Some GOP members still want legislatures in contested states to order their electors to vote for President Trump, and as Mike Vasilinda tells us, the same thing nearly happened here in Florida during the 2000 recount.

It was a rare sight 20 years ago. The State House introduced a resolution.

“A con concurrent resolution appointing electors for President and Vice President of the United States” read the title.

The Florida House was doing what governor Ron DeSantis has been urging other legislatures to do: ordering electors to vote for a specific candidate.”

Rep. Dudley Goodlet (R-Ft. Myers) was the rules chair and lead the charge.

“This power is conferred upon the legislatures of the states by the Constitution of the United States” Goodlet told colleagues on the House floor.

At the time, Democrats, including newly elected Dan Gelber of Miami, argued the effort was an attempt to steal the election.

“We will be disenfranchising every single voter” predicted gelber.

The House approved the resolution along party lines, 79 to 41.

But the Senate took a much more cautious approach, delaying a vote until it was absolutely necessary to preserve the state’s electoral vote. John McKay was the President at the time.

“I was very concerned Florida’s actions might be used in the future as justification to certify votes for one Presidential candidate or another” McKay told us by phone.

And what nearly happened here 20 years ago likely would have set a precedent for today’s legislatures in contested states.

Dan Gelber is now the Mayor of Miami Beach.

“Had the Senate acted, I think it would be something thats would not be just  bad precedent, but there would always be an urge, from one side or the other,  to impose its will over the will of the voters” says Gelber today.

And The window for any state legislatures to vote is narrowing. Electors meet December 14th in every Capitol across the Country. 

The Florida Senate never took a vote in 2000, but it would have if it was needed to make the states electors votes count.

It’s been more than seven years since Florida Universities raised tuition. And this year lawmakers face a pandemic induced 2 point 7 billion decline in revenue, which, as Mike Vasilinda tells us, has lawmakers putting tuition hikes back on the table.

At six thousand three hundred and seventy dollars a year, University tuition in Florida, before fees,  is the second in lowest in the nation. Only Wyoming charges less. 

“And so our product by any scale comparable is a fraction, in most cases, of other states, and its something we’ll have to look at” says newly sworn in Senate President Wilton Simpson (R-Pasco County).

Flordia lawmakers face the toughest budget balancing act they’ve seen in a decade. Senate President Simpson is an advocate for foster kids, and says lawmakers will have to make difficult choices.

“When you start putting priorities together, I’m going to have a higher priority to make sure we’re taking care of those must vulnerable children, and and we haven’t raised tuition in ten years” says Simpson.

When he was governor, Rick Scott refused to reappoint university trustees who had voted for fee hikes. Now as US Senator, he’s weighing in again.

In a speech to the conservative Heritage Foundation, Scott says he will soon file federal legislation penalizing states that hike tuition.

Under his proposal, Scott says “All federal funding will be cut off if tuition or fees are increased.”

At he other end of the legislature, House Speaker Chris Sprowls says not all degrees should cost the same.

“If they can get on line and engage in higher in higher education as a way to help them find a job, then lets make that as easy as possible for them” says Sprowls (R-Clearwater).

In the end, any tuition hike would have to get the okay from the governor, and Ron DeSantis has said in the past:

”I don’t want to tax anyone more.”

But that was before the pandemic.

So far, United Faculty of Florida, the union representing professors hasn’t taken a position on supporting a tuition hike. 

In a surprising ruling, the Florida Supreme Court has refused the states efforts to reinstate the death penalty for two convicted murders, and as Mike Vasilinda tells us, the decision will mean at least 100 other murderers facing death will get another chance at life in prison.

In 2016, the Florida Supreme Court ruled that anyone sentenced to death by a less than unanimous jury after 2002 was entitled to a new sentence. Then earlier this year, it back tracked saying only some parts of a jury decision must be unanimous.

FIU law professor Hanna Gorman says the defense community was worried.

“There was a new court. The composition changed and changed significantly, and what that meant to Flordia death penalty jurisprudence, is that we were seeing a number of decisions that were increasingly concerning” said Gorman, who works on criminal justice issues.

Following that January ruling, the state moved to send two murderers back to death row on their old death sentence. But in a ruling that surprised many, the court said no.

Pete Mills is the Chair of the Florida Public Defenders Death Penalty Steering Committee. “We did not anticipate this ruling. We expected the court would something else” says Mills.

This decision leaves one hundred convicted killers awaiting a new sentence. 

“There will be various outcomes” says Public Defender Mills. “There will be retrials for re-sentencing. The state and defense will cut plea agreements in some of the cases, and the state might simply decide not to go forward.”

And even though the court has backtracked on unanimity, it is still the law in Florida until lawmakers change it says Human Rights Attorney Mark Schlakman. 

“The ultimate determination and emphasis should be justice” says Schlakman.

The ruling will force the families of the victims in  those one hundred cases to relive their anguish.

And If the state doesn’t want to seek the death penalty again, those convicted will remain in prison for life with no chance of parole. Since 2016, about 50 death row prisoners have been re-sentenced. 

Florida’s Commissioner of Education has said he hoped to issue a new emergency order detailing how Florida schools would operate in January prior to Thanksgiving, but it appears it will be coming later than expected.

The Commissioner did give some hints as to what might change for students and parents in the spring semester earlier this month.

At the November meeting of the State Board of Education, Florida Commissioner of Education Richard Corcoran said the state will build upon lessons learned in the fall when asked about a new emergency order.

“I would say I think the next emergency order is going to be a significant improvement based on our first 90, 100 days in school,” said Corcoran.

He also promised full parental choice, leaving in place online and brick and mortar learning options.

But Superintendents are worried some students have been having a difficult time engaging with online learning.

“Our difficulty and some parents’ difficulty is getting them to complete those assignments and to upload those and get them back,” said Wakulla Superintendent Robert Pearce.

And Corcoran said in the spring there will have to be greater efforts to intervene when online learning isn’t working for a student.

“We have to do one of two things. Move them to a different modality, a different choice. So that we’re not short changing that child and all of the repercussions that come with it. Or we need to have massive interventions and we need to know what those interventions are if they’re going to stay for medical reasons or whatever in that modality,” said Corcoran.

The Commissioner also said the state would move ahead with standardized testing to identify what impact the pandemic has had on student performance.

“When we get that back we’ll look at that data and wherever we see and aberration that is not fair or not just of course we’re going to make adjustments,” said Corcoran.

We did reach out to the Department of Education to ask whether to expect the updated emergency order before Thanksgiving.

DOE Communications Director Taryn Fenske told us the department’s goal is to issue one before the end of the month.

“We’re on track to meet that goal. We’ve been working with districts and superintendents and they’re aware of that timeline,” said Fenske in an emailed statement.

One of the biggest concerns of school administrators is whether districts will continue receiving full funding for students who opt for distance learning.

At the BOE meeting the Commissioner said those details were still being discussed.

Businesses will likely be given some limited immunity from COVID lawsuits the next time the Florida Legislature meets this spring.

At least one suit has been filed in Miami against Publix Supermarkets, claiming wrongful death.

Publix Deli employee Gerardo Gutierrez passed away in April after a battle with COVID-19.

His family is now suing the grocery chain, alleging policies the company put in place at the start of the pandemic resulted in his death.

“Their father died because Publix said you can’t wear a mask,” said Michael Levine, an attorney representing the Gutierrez family.

Legal liability protections for companies in the age of COVID-19 is expected to be a top priority for Florida lawmakers.

“It’s something that I think that we should do. That would give businesses confidence to be able to operate,” said Florida House Speaker Chris Sprowls.

The Senate President and House Speaker have given few details, but they have said they don’t support total immunity.

“I cannot imagine that we are going to let people off the hook for negligence,” said Senate President Wilton Simpson.

As an example of what kind of protections businesses are looking for, The Florida Chamber of Commerce pointed to a Pinellas County case, where a man sued a restaurant after entering and not seeing anyone wearing masks.

“And while he did not contract COVID he was so concerned about it that he’s suing for emotional damages for $1 million. So there’s kinds of lawsuits like that out there as well,” said Carolyn Johnson, Director of Business, Economic Development and Innovation Policy at the Florida Chamber.

Whether any potential protections passed next year would apply to the Publix case isn’t clear, but the family’s attorney is optimistic their case will be unaffected.

“Certainly an employer like Publix shouldn’t be trying to take away the liberties and freedoms of its workers to decide how they’re going to stay healthy, how they’re going to stay safe,” said Levine.

Legislative leaders say they’ll likely take up liability protection legislation early in the 2021 Legislative session.

The Florida Chamber of Commerce said it hopes any protections will apply retroactively in order to cover the entire pandemic.

And while Florida leaders have limited their discussion on liability protections to essential businesses, other states that have enacted similar legislation have also granted protections to long term care facilities and schools.

Florida is on track to become the third state in the country to hit one million cases of COVID-19, likely within the next week.

Across Florida, mayors and others are growing frustrated by their lack of enforcement power of pandemic policies.

When the pandemic began, Governor Ron DeSantis shied away from enacting certain across the board pandemic policies like a face mask mandate, instead favoring local control.

“Each region in Florida is very distinct and some of these things may need to be approached a little bit differently,” said DeSanits in March.

But as State Representative Carlos Guillermo Smith explains, that local control was largely stripped away in the Governor’s most recent pandemic executive order.

“Now local leaders feel handcuffed because Governor DeSantis signed an executive order saying that they were not allowed to enforce their own mask mandate,” said Smith.

As cases rise across the country, 31 states have enacted tighter COVID restrictions in recent weeks.

Florida has not.

Now Mayors in Miami, Miami-Dade, St Petersburg and county commissioners in Palm Beach are asking for the Governor to return some of the local control the were given at the start of the pandemic.

The Florida League of Cities also weighed in telling us in a statement: “We believe the Governor should allow cities to take the actions they believe are necessary to protect their citizens. When our state and local governments work together, we are better equipped to manage this public health crises.”

“Governor DeSantis needs to lead or he needs to get out of the way,” said Smith.

Health professionals with Physicians for Social Responsibility prefer statewide action over a patchwork of local regulations.

“This virus is like a bird. The bird doesn’t recognize when it flies from Tallahassee to Thomasville that it’s entered another state,” said Dr. Howard Kessler.

The Governor has been absent from the public eye for nearly three weeks now, only releasing a YouTube video touting the rollout of a vaccine by the end of the year.

Florida added another 9,000 COVID cases Friday, bringing the total to more than 914,000 since the start of the pandemic.

However Florida leaders are optimistic for the future, with hope two vaccines may be ready to roll out before the end of the year.

“I don’t believe we’re going to a dark winter,” said Senate President Wilton Simpson.

Governor Ron DeSantis said while its not clear how many vaccine doses the state will get or exactly when they’ll arrive, once the FDA gives the go-ahead, the rollout will move quickly.

“They will then go out within the next 24 hours,” said DeSantis.

Five Florida hospitals will receive the first doses, including Tampa General Hospital where Dr. Jason Wilson has been on the front lines on the pandemic.

“You know there’s been some frustrations in the sense of, you know we don’t have a lot of tools and things to offer,” said Wilson.

He said news of the vaccines and the approval of a monoclonal antibody treatment are a game changers.

“These vaccines give us some light at the end of the tunnel. These vaccines give us the idea that all these efforts we’re making are paying off,” said Wilson.

Nearly 2,000 long term care facilities are also slated to receive vaccines.

“It gives us hope,” said Kristen Knapp with the Florida Health Care Association.

Knapp said for residents, it couldn’t come soon enough.

“They really have undergone so much with the visitation restrictions early on and just the different challenges for them. In a home-like environment that they were so used to for so long and everything really turned upside down for them,” said Knapp.

While the vaccines signal a light at the end of the tunnel, health professionals say now is not the time to let your guard down.

“This is, you know, not the year to have a big Thanksgiving holiday gathering. It’s not going to be the year to travel for the holidays,” said Wilson.

Hospitals and long term care facilities will still have to develop plans for distributing the vaccines to patients, residents and staff.

Another challenge will be educating the public about the importance of vaccine.

The Governor has said vaccines will not be mandatory.

It’s expected the vaccine could be available to the general population as early as April according to Dr. Anthony Fauci.

Florida’s unemployment rate continues to fall.

Numbers released Friday show it was at 6.5 percent for October, down seven tenths of a percent from September, but there are still 659,000 Floridians looking for work.

Between February and April, Florida lost nearly 1.2 million jobs.

More than half, just under 700,000, have returned.

“Florida’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate in October 2020 was 6.5 percent. This represented 659,000 individuals out of a labor force of 10,101,000,” said DEO Chief Economist Adrienne Johnston.

More jobs came back in October.

“Up 61,100 jobs, or point eight percent from September 2020,” said Johnston.

Friday’s release marked the sixth straight month of job gains in the state.

But the figures do show 14,000 people became discouraged and stopped looking for work in October.

That means they aren’t counted as unemployed.

Seven out of ten industries gained jobs in October.

“Leisure and hospitality gained 29,600 jobs over the month, driven by 21,100 jobs gained in accommodations and food services. Profession and business services added 13,000 jobs,” said Johnston.

Job losers were education, health care, information and government.

Still, 19 of 24 job markets in the state saw job growth last month.

“The Tampa metro area gained the most jobs with 5,800 and Cape Coral grew the fastest at 1.8 percent,” said Johnston.

At 10.4 percent Osceola County, the home of Disney, continues to have the highest unemployment rate in the state.

That’s before Disney’s announced 18,000 lay offs next month.

The pandemic has put Florida retailers in a precarious place.

Now they are asking everyone to shop local this holiday season or risk not having a place to shop in the future.

The pandemic has already taken a toll on how much shoppers are expected to spend this year.

Overall holiday spending is expected to be down an average of $50 per person, making a tough year for retailers even tougher.

It’s why the Florida Retail Federation is launching a Find it in Florida campaign.

“One in five jobs here in Florida is tied to the retail industry, and its been a tough year, so we’d like to see you support your neighbors,” said Retail Federation President Scott Shalley.

A survey from the National Retail Federation shows the drop in spending would be even worse, but for fewer people traveling this year and are diverting their travel budget to gifts or goods.

Online sales have skyrocketed during the pandemic and the retailers are okay with that, so long as the items are purchased from Florida businesses.

“You can go to the store, you can meet them at the curb, or you can even shop online . But if you shop online, we’re just encouraging you to shop with people who have businesses that have a Florida presence,” said Shalley.

Earlier this week, state lawmakers signaled they are likely to change a Florida law that requires internet buyers to voluntarily pay sales taxes.

Instead, they plan to require out-of-state retailers to collect the tax.

“They still owe the same tax. We just use the honor system to collect that tax. And I can assure the honor system doesn’t work very well,” said Senate President Wilton Simpson.

Retailers feel the move is vital to their survival.

“You know, we’ve always felt it critical for our local retailers to have a level playing field, but even more so now its critical for the State of Florida,” said Shalley.

First they have to survive this holiday season, which normally accounts for about 20 percent of their annual revenue.

The National Retail Federation found consumers will spend slightly less on gifts and a touch more on decorations, but will cut spending on non-gift purchases by almost 30 percent this season.

A conservation advocacy group is calling on the new legislative leadership to create committees dedicated to battling climate change.

While the House Speaker and Senate President have both spoken out about the need to mitigate the effects of climate change, activists argue they’re not focusing on the underlying causes creating climate change.

The House Speaker and Senate President authored an op ed earlier this year, focused on the need to protect coastal communities from sea level rise.

The Speaker made similar comments during his speech Tuesday

“We need to bring the same long range planning and strategic discipline to our environmental programs that we bring to our transportation work plan,” said House Speaker Chris Sprowls.

But environmental groups argue mitigation is only part of the puzzle.

“The talk so far is about addressing the symptoms of the problem and not addressing the underlying illness,” said Aliki Moncrief, Executive Director of Florida Conservation Voters.

In a letter sent to both legislative leaders earlier this week, Florida Conservation Voters called for the establishment of climate change committees.

“To talk about what climate solutions are available,” said Moncrief.

Democratic State Representative Anna Eskamani sees potential for such committees to help address some pandemic related issues like unemployment.

“Prioritization and investment in both energy efficiency and renewable energy production are two opportunities to retrain unemployed people and get them rapidly rehired,” said Eskamani.

This is the second year Florida Conservation Voters have called for a climate change committee.

They didn’t get one last year and so far they haven’t gotten a response this time around either.

How much lawmakers will be able to accomplish on the climate change front is up in the air.

The Legislature will be looking to cut the state budget by as much as $5 billion next year, and in the leaders’ op ed on sea level rise there is an emphasis on ‘cost effective’ solutions.

In his first speech as House Speaker, Rep Chris Sprowls suggested the state deemphasize land acquisition in its conservation plans and instead put more resources into beach re-nourishment, septic tank conversions and flood mitigation.

Florida Conservation Voters argues land acquisition plays a key role in flood mitigation strategies.