Seeking Rents – The Podcast

In this episode: Longtime Florida journalist Nate Monroe, the statewide columnist for USA Today’s Florida newspapers, joins the show to talk about the bursting of the Ron DeSantis bubble — an implosion that plenty of people in Jacksonville always said was inevitable. We also chat about why TV execs are trying to keep abortion banned in Florida and who to root for as some of the biggest bullies in state politics turn on each other.

Show notes

Check out some of Nate’s recent work:

Noticed a lot of anti-abortion ads on Florida TV? Columnist Nate Monroe found out why

Will Florida Supreme Court finally constrain Gov. Ron DeSantis?

With national ambitions extinguished, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is adrift

Plus, as promised on the pod, here’s more about one of the most delicious backstories from Ron DeSantis’ doomed presidential campaign: DeSantis Tried to Bury Her. Now She’s Helping Trump Try to Bury Him

Questions or comments? Send ‘em to [email protected]

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Subscribe: SeekingRentsFL.com

In this episode: A recent report from the United Way revealed a staggering fact about Florida: Nearly half of the state’s 9 million households are now unable to afford basic living expenses. One reason so many Florida families are struggling is that the state has the most unfair tax code in the country — one that takes far more money from the working and middle class than it does from the very wealthy. But there’s a way Florida lawmakers could solve both problems at once. It’s called the “Working Floridians Tax Rebate,” and it would deliver a tax cut to more than 2 million Floridians. Esteban Santis, an economic policy analyst at the Florida Policy Institute, joins the show to discuss it.

Show notes:

Check out a a terrific deep dive into the United Way study that found nearly half of all households in Florida are struggling to make ends meet.

Find more research and read report itself directly from the United Way.

Learn what makes Florida’s tax code so easy on the rich — and punishing on the poor — from the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy.

Read up on the Working Floridians Tax Rebate, including how it would work, who would get a tax cut, and why the benefits would ripple out others.

And if it sounds good to you, figure out your representatives in the Florida Legislature and tell them to support it.

Questions or comments? Send ‘em to [email protected]

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Subscribe: SeekingRentsFL.com

In this episode: Anti-abortion politicians in Florida are in a panic over Amendment 4, the proposed constitutional amendment that would overturn the state’s near-total abortion ban and prevent further government interference with abortion. State police are going door to door to interrogate Floridians who signed the Amendment 4 petition, and political appointees are using taxpayer resources to advertise against the ballot measure. Maya Brown, a political strategist and advisor to the Amendment 4 effort, joins the show to talk about where things stand with the campaign — and a few other key races on the ballot in Florida this fall.

Show notes

Read more about how some Florida politicians are weaponizing state police and spending taxpayer money as they scurry to save one of the strictest abortion bans in the nation.

Then visit Yes on 4 and make a plan to vote.

Questions or comments? Send ‘em to [email protected]

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Subscribe: SeekingRentsFL.com

In this episode: With help from some politically plugged-in groups, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis hatched a plan to build golf courses, hotels and pickleball courts on state parkland across Florida. But the plans leaked — and blew up in his face. Legendary Florida environmental journalist Craig Pittman joins the show to discuss the controversy.

Show notes

Get the latest updates on DeSantis’ state park plan from the Tampa Bay Times, which has been on top of the story from day one.

Read Craig Pittman’s unique perspective on the controversy at the Florida Phoenix. Then check out his podcast. And his books, too!

Questions or comments? Send ‘em to [email protected]

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Subscribe: SeekingRentsFL.com

In this episode: The most important result to come out of this week’s primary elections in Florida was the rejection of culture-warring School Board candidates in races around the state. But the most interesting result came in Manatee County, where, in one fell swoop, residents completely overhauled a local county commission that many believed was in the pocket of a few influential real-estate developers. Liv Coleman, a political science professor at the University of Tampa and resident of Manatee County, joins the show to talk about how it all went down.

Show notes

Read some of the important local reporting from The Bradenton Times and the Florida Trident:

* County's Effort to Gut Its Own Wetland Protections Gets Murkier

* Did a Tampa-based Political Consultant Secretly Participate in the Redistricting of Manatee County?

* Hopes Exchanged Text Messages with Beruff and Pedicini

* Hatchet Man

Check out Liv Coleman’s newsletter, The Manatee Muse.

Questions or comments? Send ‘em to [email protected]

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Subscribe: SeekingRentsFL.com

In this episode: Just two years after they seemed to be in their ascendancy, School Board candidates backed by Gov. Ron DeSantis and the conservative censorship group Moms for Liberty suffered big losses in local elections across the state. Longtime Orlando Sentinel education reporter Leslie Postal joins the show to talk about what just happened in Florida.

Show notes

Both Politico Florida and the Associated Press have good roundups of the statewide results in School Board elections.

Here are some of the stories we alluded to during the show:

* Tolstoy, Sendak picture book among hundreds banned from Florida schools

* Textbook authors told climate change references must be cut to get Florida’s OK

* Only one reviewer complained of ‘critical race theory’ in Florida math textbooks

* Schools Without Rules: An Orlando Sentinel Investigation

* An inside look at the private interests shaping public education in Florida

Questions or comments? Send ‘em to [email protected]

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Subscribe: SeekingRentsFL.com

In this episode: Over the past few years, Republican politicians in Florida have enacted a near-total abortion ban, spent millions in taxpayer money on anti-abortion propaganda, and blocked funding for contraceptive care. But many of them want to go much further — from completely banning abortion in all situations to granting legal rights to frozen embryos used for in vitro fertilization. That makes the stakes incredibly high for Amendment 4, a proposed constitutional amendment on the November ballot that would enshrine abortion rights into the Florida Constitution.

Show notes

Read Amendment 4 for yourself.

Learn more from the organization supporting it (Floridians Protecting Freedom).

See the impact of an abortion ban imposed by Gov. Ron DeSantis and state lawmakers — a ban that would be overturned if 60 percent of Florida voters approve Amendment 4.

Make a plan to vote.

Questions or comments? Send ‘em to [email protected]

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Subscribe: SeekingRentsFL.com

In this episode: Every year, Florida lawmakers take more power away from cities, counties, towns and school districts — stripping local communities across the state of ability to make decisions for themselves. Often in response to lobbying by some of the state’s largest corporations, Florida’s governor and Legislature have blocked locally elected leaders from passing laws that address water pollution, wages and benefits, gun safety, fossil fuels, rent control, and so much more. In this episode, Jason Garcia is joined by Danny Rivero, an investigative reporter at WLRN in Miami, whose series “Tallahassee Takeover” examined just how far Florida politicians have gone in eliminating local freedoms — and the long-term consequences of concentrating so much power in one place.

Show notes

Listen to “Tallahassee Takeover,” WLRN’s nine-episode series about the many ways that Florida politicians in Tallahassee are seizing control of cities, towns, counties and schools from the people who actually live in them.

Check out more of investigative reporter Danny Rivero’s work.

Further reading: There's a war on democracy in Florida. It's being waged by Big Business. (Seeking Rents)

Questions or comments? Send ‘em to [email protected]

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Subscribe: SeekingRentsFL.com

In this episode: Bowing to pressure from Florida’s construction and farming industries, Gov. Ron DeSantis and the state Legislature just passed an infamous new law protecting businesses that refuse to provide clean drinking water to employees working outside in 100-degree heat. In this episode, Jason Garcia talks to a trio of activists who have spent years fighting for heat protections for outdoor workers in Florida: Esteban Wood of the immigrant-rights group WeCount! and Jeannie Economos and Ernesto Ruiz of the Farmworker Association of Florida. The group discusses their work from Miami to Orlando to Tallahassee, what it’s like to go up against the Big Business lobby, and why this fight is NOT over.   

Show notes

Check out some of the Farmworker Association’s research on the health impacts of extreme heat

Learn more about WeCount’s Qué Calor! campaign to win heat protections for outdoor workers in South Florida

Further reading: No water, no shade: How homebuilders, farming companies and construction firms got politicians to reject heat rules for outdoor workers in Florida

Questions or comments? Send ‘em to [email protected]

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Subscribe: SeekingRentsFL.com

In this episode: Nearly 20 years ago, Florida leaders erased an anti-competitive law that had been preventing a public nonprofit insurance company from challenging private, for-profit insurers. Gov. Ron DeSantis and the state’s Republican-controlled Legislature decided to reinstate that law. As a result, Florida homeowners are now paying higher prices for their home insurance.

Sources:

* House Bill 1A (2007)

* Senate Bill 2A (2022)

* Citizens chooses higher rate hikes for South Florida than its own numbers indicate (South Florida Sun-Sentinel)

* Florida Republicans protected insurance companies from competition. Florida homeowners are now paying higher prices. (Seeking Rents)

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