In this episode: In mid-June, just a few hours before Florida’s Republican-controlled Legislature finalized this year’s state budget, GOP leaders in Tallahassee slipped a sentence into the spending plan authorizing state officials to acquire a piece of property in the Panhandle through a popular land-preservation program. Three months later, the administration of Gov. Ron DeSantis used that little line in the budget to spend $83.3 million in taxpayer money on a tiny spit of vacant land owned by a prominent real-estate developer and Republican Party donor. Here’s the story of how Florida politicians pulled off a land deal that one longtime conservation leader called “a sham.”

Editor’s note: A written version of this story first appeared in the Seeking Rents newsletter: Florida lawmakers took instructions from a landowner’s lobbyist. Now Florida taxpayers will pay $83 million for four acres.

Show notes

For further reading:

Lobbyist wrote proposal directing Florida to buy pricey 4 acres in Destin (Tampa Bay Times)

‘A sham’: Florida’s longtime conservation experts question pricey 4-acre Destin purchase (Tampa Bay Times)

State senator promotes Destin waterfront land purchase added late in budget talks (Politico Florida)

$83 million for sandy Florida lot: Did GOP donations pay off for seller? (Orlando Sentinel)

In this episode: With the start of the Florida Legislature’s 2026 session approaching, lawmakers just revived two big bills they failed to pass during their last session. One would give fetuses some of the same legal rights as living children — and further cement into law a legal theory known as “fetal personhood” that conservative legal groups want to use to cut off all access to abortion. Another would help fertilizer giant Mosaic Co. fend off lawsuits related to radioactive contamination left behind in the company’s former phosphate mines.

Show notes

The bill’s discussed in today’s show:

Senate Bill 164 — Civil Liability for the Wrongful Death of an Unborn Child

House Bill 167 — Former Phosphate Mining Lands

For further reading (and listening) about fetal personhood and Mosaic’s proposed legal shield:

Florida AG made sweeping claims in confidential abortion case

Florida politicians will go further to interfere with abortion – unless Florida voters stop them

Florida lawmakers may help a mining giant fend off lawsuits

Mosaic’s Next Chapter (Florida Trend - July 2018)

And the the story mentioned at the very end of the show:

Florida lawmakers took instructions from a landowner’s lobbyist. Now Florida taxpayers will pay $83 million for four acres.

In this episode: Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis spent between $35 million and $40 million of taxpayer money last fall during an unprecedented advertising campaign against citizen-led amendments that would have enshrined abortion rights and marijuana freedom in the state constitution. The estimate is based on hundreds of pages of emails, invoices, transaction logs and other documents obtained by Seeking Rents through a series of public records requests. The records also reveal ways in which the governor and his aides bent rules and blurred lines during their publicly funded campaign against a pair of ballot measures supported by millions of Floridians — from paying political strategists on hidden subcontracts to making rushed payments under misleading pretenses.

Show notes

Hidden consultants and hurried payments: Records reveal details of DeSantis’ campaign against abortion and marijuana amendments

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In this episode: A new state law that was supposed to be about helping Floridians rebuild their homes after hurricanes is now being weaponized by Gov. Ron DeSantis and some politically influential real-estate developers to strip local governments of all power to manage growth. As a result, communities across the state have suddenly lost their ability to protect wetlands, save rural land from suburban sprawl, or make homebuilders harden subdivisions against flooding. Some places are even now having trouble regulating roosters in residential neighborhoods. But more than two dozen cities and counties just decided to do something about it.

Show notes

Senate Bill 180 — Emergencies

Ron DeSantis is helping real estate developers exploit a hurricane relief law

Neal Bundles Checks to DeSantis at Manatee Press Conference

Your town, their rules

How the ‘Free State of Florida’ works with business lobbyists to keep wages low

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In this episode: A billionaire hedge fund manager and a New York City charter network lobbied to expand a school privatization program in Florida, according to records obtained by Seeking Rents.

Editor’s note: A written version of this story first appeared in the Seeking Rents newsletter: Lobbyists for a billionaire and a charter network pushed Florida lawmakers to expand a school privatization program, records show

Show notes

Senate Bill 2510 — Prekindergarten Through Grade 12 Education

A few examples of key Florida lawmakers who have had personal and financial ties to the charter school industry:

Firms belonging to wife of Rep. Donalds grabbed millions in charter school contracts

New disclosures only deepen mystery of Rep. Donalds’s wife’s charter school companies

A South Florida charter school network now runs a small district 500 miles away. Legislators with close financial ties to charters helped make that happen.

Incoming speaker Corcoran says bill that would benefit his wife’s charter school is part of broader reform

A few stories about the failure of Florida’s first ‘School of Hope’:

Federal grand jury investigates bid-rigging in DeSantis’ education department

Florida officials tried to steer education contract to former lawmaker’s company

Jefferson gets its schools back following bid shenanigans and efforts to keep it with a charter operator

And some of the stories and resources referenced in the pod:

Commentary: Florida doubles down on failed Schools of Hope experiment

This link will download an spreadsheet from Florida Department of Education with 2025 list of public schools that are now classified as “persistently low-performing.”

A billionaire is showering cash on Florida politicians

Lobbyist for a billionaire-run hedge fund wrote a bill allowing longer non-competes, records show

The Secret to Success Academy’s Top-Notch Test Scores

At a Success Academy Charter School, Singling Out Pupils Who Have ‘Got to Go’

At Success Academy School, a Stumble in Math and a Teacher’s Anger on Video

Filing Alleges Bias at Success Academy Network Against Students With Disabilities

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In this episode: Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and the state Legislature just approved an odd new law that tries to choke off funding for fact-checking organizations and media-monitoring firms that rate news outlets based on their accuracy and ethics. The unusual measure had a hidden backer: Newsmax, the right-wing cable news network that rose to prominence by promoting phony election-fraud claims after the 2020 presidential election.

Editor’s note: A written version of this story first appeared in the Seeking Rents newsletter: A right-wing news network lobbied Florida lawmakers to defund fact-checkers, records show

Show notes

Senate Bill 2502 — Implementing the 2025-2026 General Appropriations Act

House Bill 1449 — Agency Contracting with Media Reliability and Bias Monitors

Newsmax Will Pay $67 Million to Settle Dominion Defamation Lawsuit

Newsmax paid $40 million to settle defamation suit over US 2020 election claims

Newsmax Analyst Lauds DeSantis for New Anti-Censorship Law

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In this episode: After a pitched battle that dragged on for more than a year, the people of Fernandina Beach finally seemed to beat an effort by Rayonier Advanced Materials to build an ethanol plant in the historic seaport town. But then the company sent its lobbyists to the state Capitol with legislation to overturn to the decision. And the lawmakers who filed the bill on RYAM’s behalf tried to cover the company’s tracks.

Show notes

For more on the on-the-ground battle against ethanol in Fernandina Beach, check out this Craig Pittman piece:

Florida beach town faces explosive fight over ethanol plant

And don’t miss our previous episodes in this series:

A Republican megadonor got caught hosting a pigeon shoot. Then he got Florida politicians to change the law.

Florida’s largest landowner lobbied to weaken development rules on rural land

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In this episode: The largest private landowner in Florida is the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Better known as the Mormon Church, it owns more than 600,000 acres around the state. About half of its land holdings are cattle ranchlands east of Orlando — where the the church has long-term plans to build the equivalent of a new city of 500,000 people. But voters in Orlando recently approved new rules meant to slow suburban sprawl on rural land. So the Mormon Church turned to Florida’s Republican-controlled Legislature to step in. And the church had help.

Show notes

The bills discussed in this show:

Senate Bill 1118 — Land Use and Development Regulations

Senate Bill 180 — Emergencies

Time is a flat circle:

Lobbyists for developers pushed Florida lawmakers to block rules meant to save rural lands from sprawl

The top 10 landowners in Florida:

Land Lords

Reach more about the Mormon Church’s long-term development plans in central Florida (stories from the August 2017 issue of Florida Trend magazine):

Ranchland to rooftops in central Florida

Deseret Ranch — the Land

Rural Florida’s players and their projects

Tavistock’s Role in Developing Rural Florida

Duda's agribusiness development reach

This the second episode to come out of public records we obtained after the end of the Florida Legislature’s 2025 session. Here’s the first episode:

Florida Passed Bills for Pigeon Shooters?! (YouTube)

A Republican megadonor got caught hosting a pigeon shoot. Then he got Florida politicians to change the law. (audio)

And here’s the podcast mentioned in this show about the erosion of home rule happening Florida and other Republican-controlled states:

Your Town, Their Rules: How States Are Stealing Local Power (YouTube)

Your town, their rules (audio)

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In this episode: In recent weeks, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis — and aides he installed as attorney general and education commissioner — have bent local leaders in Orlando and Tampa to their will in disputes over mass deportations and book bans. They’ve done so by twisting laws and then threatening punishment under their twisted interpretations. But there are ways communities can fight back.

Show notes

908.104 — Cooperation with federal immigration authorities

908.102(6) — Definition of “sanctuary policy”

Under duress, Orange County mayor signs ICE addendum to ward off threat of removal from office

South Miami mayor hopes lawsuit will help cities decide ‘without fear’ if ICE agreement works

How Florida’s new education chief is rattling schools with public threats

Judge strikes down parts of a Florida law used to ban school library books

Penguin Random House LLC v. Gibson — Order (Aug. 13, 2025)

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In this episode: In February 2024, a pair of animal-rights groups used drone recordings to expose a massive pigeon-shooting event at a ranch in Okeechobee, Fla., owned by Troy Link, the CEO of Jack Link’s Meat Snacks and a major donor to Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and other Republican politicians A little over a year later, DeSantis signed a new state law that criminalizes the use of drones to record people on private property. That law, records show, was written by lobbyists hired by Troy Link.

Show notes:

Pigeon Jerky: Florida Beef Jerky Magnate Blasted for Hosting Live Pigeon Shoot

House Bill 1121 – Unmanned Aircraft and Unmanned Aircraft Systems

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