Dear Friend, 

We’re more than halfway through Florida’s 2021 Legislative Session! And every Monday, we’re sending you an email review of what we’ve been up to in Tallahassee. Click here for last week’s review. 

Also, if you’re not doing so already, please consider keeping up to date with us through our social media accounts, including Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. You can also watch Committee Meetings and Floor Sessions live on the Florida Channel. 

Onward together, 

Rep. Anna V. Eskamani 

UPDATED COVID19 GUIDE

As always, first up is the the latest version of our COVID-19 Guide (español), along with our Unemployment Issues blog post and our guidance for renters. If you are facing issues with your unemployment claim, please fill out our DEO escalation form here. 

COVID-19 Vaccine News and Updates

All Florida residents are now eligible to receive any COVID-19 vaccine as prescribed by the Food and Drug Administration. The Pfizer vaccine is authorized for persons age 16 and up. The Moderna and Janssen (Johnson and Johnson) vaccines are authorized for persons age 18 and up. Note that all individuals under the age of 18 receiving a vaccine must be accompanied by a guardian and complete the COVID-19 vaccine screening and consent form. To download a copy of the form, click here.

Orange County officials say they expect demand for the shots to be high over the next three to four weeks, so you’re encouraged to pre-register at ocfl.net/vaccine. 

And in another bit of vaccine news, Cheyenne and I got our first shots!

If you haven’t been vaccinated yet, please make your appointment as soon as possible. The sooner we’re all vaccinated, the sooner we can get back to something resembling normal! 

It’s just devastating to think about all the families that have lost loved ones to the COVID-19 — especially kids who will grow up without a parent. A study published last week by the American Medical Association estimated that approximately 40,000 kids around the country have lost a parent to this virus. 

Many people know that I lost my Mom to cancer when I was 13 years old. I still think about her every minute of every day. 

I spoke to the Miami Herald and Tampa Bay Times last week about my experience, and how important it is for us as lawmakers to begin a dialogue about helping Floridians deal with the enormous emotional losses so many have suffered. 

 Thousands of Florida children lost a parent to COVID, according to a new study.

A Budget That Does Some Good — But Doesn’t Do Nearly Enough 

The Florida House passed a $97 billion state budget last week, for the fiscal year that starts July 1. 

I voted against this proposed budget because I don’t think it does nearly enough to help the front-line workers and genuine small businesses who have been most economically impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. 

There are some things I really like about this budget. It includes money to expand postpartum care for new mothers on Medicaid from two months to a full year after birth, something that Rep. Kamia Brown (D-Orlando) has championed in Tallahassee and that will absolutely save lives — particularly the lives of Black moms, who currently suffer from far higher rates of maternal mortality. 

It preserves funding for arts and cultural programs at just over $20 million. The many diverse and talented arts groups we have across the state, but especially here in Orlando, are such an important part of both our economy and our cultural fabric. That’s why Rep. Carlos Guillermo Smith (D-Orlando) and I have been fighting so hard these last few years to restore arts funding after it was gutted under former Gov. Rick Scott. 

And this budget includes desperately needed funding, and often overlooked, money to support National Guard members, who have been such a critical part of our state’s COVID response. 

But unfortunately that’s just not enough to outweigh the negatives of this budget, which ultimately elevates the interests of big corporations above the interests of everyone else. 

This budget raises taxes on consumers while cutting taxes on businesses. It slashes funding for affordable housing and for hospitals that serve uninsured Floridians. It continues to underinvest in public health — even after we’ve all seen firsthand now how important public health preparedness is.

Most disappointingly, Republicans in the Legislature continue to display a callous and cruel disregard for the struggles of working-class folks by refusing, yet again, to expand Medicaid coverage to cover more people. And they are doing so for purely partisan reasons: President Joe Biden’s “American Rescue Plan” would fully cover this expansion with federal money. 

Some of us tried to make this budget better. The Republican budget, for instance, would spend $3.5 billion in federal relief money on deferred maintenance. But Rep. Ben Diamond (D-St. Petersburg) offered to use that money instead sending $1,000 checks to essential workers and providing emergency grants to small businesses. Republicans rejected both ideas. 

Meanwhile, Rep. Smith offered an amendment to finally fully restore arts funding to the level it was at before Rick Scott to an axe to it. Republicans voted that down, too. He also filed an amendment to eliminate the Agency for Persons With Disabilities wait list, and that was voted down too.

We’re still early in the budget process, though. The Florida Senate passed its own version of the state budget last week, and now the House and Senate will negotiate a final version over the next three weeks through a process known as “budget conference.” So I’m still hopeful that we’ll end up with a stronger, more compassionate and more stimulative budget by the end of session.  

You can watch my debate on the state budget starting at 2:49:00 of this video. 

Underinvesting — Again — In Affordable Housing 

While the full budget hasn’t been finalized, I’m disappointed to say that two of the worst aspects of this year’s budget have been.

Last week, both the House and the Senate passed SB 2512, which *permanently* cuts the state’s affordable housing trust fund. The bill now goes to the Governor. 

Republicans rammed through this bill because they wanted to take affordable housing dollars and spend them instead on flood mitigation projects to compensate for rising seas and on water quality projects. 

The lack of affordable housing is an absolute crisis in Florida — one that’s been made worse by a 2007-08 housing collapse in which banks forced millions of people out of their homes, the collapse of so many smaller homebuilders and the consolidation of the industry into a handful of industry giants who prefer to build big sprawling homes in gated suburbs, and, most recently, the COVID-19 pandemic that fell hardest on low-income, front-line workers. 

Just this month, my office received 23 phone calls from homeless Floridians looking for help. I’ve paid some of their hotel bills myself just to keep a roof over their head while we help connect them with longer-term support. 

And yet this Legislature, which has raided more than $2 billion out of the affordable housing trust fund over the past 20 years, is now cutting it permanently rather than finding other sources — using American Rescue Plan relief money, for instance, or closing corporate tax loopholes — to pay for resiliency projects. 

What’s most infuriating about this is that this is yet another example of Tallahassee redistributing wealth upwards — prioritizing the needs of wealthier Floridians, who can afford to live on the oceanfront, over those of lower-income Floridians, who just want a safe and secure place to sleep.

Having the security of a roof over your head allows a Floridian to go to work, to go to the doctor, to have efficacy in their own lives. Meanwhile funding coastal-flooding “resiliency” doesn’t do anything to address the underlying climate change that is making seas rise and won’t help the farm workers or construction workers who have to endure ever-hotter temperatures.  

But I promise you we’ll keep fighting to find more affordable housing dollars before this year’s budget is done. 

You can watch my debate on this bill starting at 1:49:49 of this video. 

Taking Money from People and Giving it to Businesses 

The other bad bill we sent to the governor last week is SB 50 — a bill that takes money from people and gives it to businesses, and is yet another example of the Legislature transferring wealth upwards. 

This legislation will raise taxes by more than $1 billion a year on Florida consumers by collecting sales tax on all online purchases. 

At the same time, it will cut taxes for businesses by more than $1 billion a year, first by bailing businesses out of the unemployment compensation taxes they are supposed to pay and then by permanently cutting taxes on commercial leases. That’s a tax break that will send the biggest savings to chain retailers that rent space in lots of shopping places — businesses like Publix, a major campaign contributor. 

I fought like hell to make this a better bill. 

I offered an amendment to spend the money instead to invest in affordable housing, flood resiliency in water quality — so we wouldn’t’ have to rob Peter to pay Paul like we did with SB 2512. I offered an amendment to pair these tax cuts for businesses with higher unemployment premiums for laid-off workers. I offered an amendment to close corporate tax loopholes, too, since it makes no sense that we’re shutting down tax avoidance by consumers but not by big business. 

I even offered an amendment that would have replaced the tax cuts for businesses with a cut to the statewide sales tax — which would have been a direct savings for consumers and reduced our reliance on what is a brutally regressive form of taxation, because low-income folks must spend a far larger share of their income on sales taxes than wealthier people. 

But Republicans rejected all of them and instead passed yet another tax bill written by and for big business lobbyists. 

You can watch my debate on this bill starting at 16:50 of this video or at this link.

Changes to High Stakes Testing

This year Florida will allow high school seniors to graduate, third graders to be promoted and middle school and high school students to earn grades in certain courses even if they skip state exams or do poorly on them.

This Executive Order from the State of Florida waives three key testing rules for 2021: one that demands third graders, with some exceptions, pass the state reading test to move onto fourth grade; another that requires 12th graders to pass the state’s algebra 1 exam and its 10th-grade language arts exam to earn a diploma; and a third that counts scores on state exams in certain middle and high school courses — algebra, biology, civics, geometry and U.S. history — for 30% of final class grades. Instead, school districts will be able to make promotion, graduation and grade decisions “at the local level,” based on classwork and district tests, said Jacob Oliva, chancellor of K-12 education for the Florida Department of Education on a call with superintendents Friday.

But Spar noted the order still allows student test scores to be used in teacher evaluations this year, and so the state will “impose very real costs” on teachers, Spar said. “The educators who have served Florida’s students throughout the pandemic also deserve to be shown some grace. “

We are asking that teacher evaluations NOT be connected directly to student test results this year.

Fighting to Protect Trans Kids

One of the ugliest and most cruel bills of this session — a cynical attack on transgender kids by Republican lawmakers — is headed to the House floor.

HB 1475, which attempts to isolate and ostracize trans kids by banning them from playing sports with their peers, cleared its final committee last week. It will be heard on the House floor on Tuesday. 

This is from page one of the Republican Party of Florida playbook: Find some marginalized community and attack them, other-ize them and use them as a boogeyman to distract your own supporters from that fact that your entire platform is one of harming your own base to help your corporate donors. And all the innocent people who get hurt are just collateral damage. 

We will NOT let this happen without a fight. Democrats in the House have filed 19 amendments to this inhumane piece of legislation, we’ll fight hard to change this bill for the better. 

Send an email to your legislators right away telling them to STOP the cruel trans sports ban: https://bit.ly/3t3cV6A

And thank you to this kind Floridian who left this note at our Orlando Office door, too! 

Tallahassee Rides to the Rescue of Big Pharma, Corporate Polluters and Giant Cable Companies 

We’ve talked a lot about how Republicans in the Legislature — urged on by corporate lobbyists — are once again attacking home rule this session and trying to stop cities and counties from making their own decisions about what’s best for their communities. 

We saw two more ugly examples of that last week. 

First, there was HB 1053, which is big business-backed retaliation against communities that have sued to hold opioid companies like Purdue Pharma accountable for the devastation they have caused. 

This awful legislation would let Florida’s Attorney General prevent cities and counties from suing corporate bad actors who cause community-wide devastation — like drug companies that deliberately addict people to their products or polluters who ruin entire ecosystems. 

The attorney general would be able to do this by declaring an issue to be a “matter of great governmental concern.” Once that happens, every local government would be bound to follow a statewide lawsuit led by the Attorney General — and forced to accept whatever settlement the Attorney General negotiates. 

This bill would do two things. First, it will give protection to destructive industries, like the fossil-fuel companies whose greed is heating our atmosphere to the point of global catastrophe. Second, it will give politicians running to be elected Attorney General more leverage to demand even larger campaign contributions from the industries they are supposed to police. 

I voted against this bill in the House Civil Justice & Property Rights Committee. You can watch my debate against it at 38:54 of this video. 

And another example of Tallahassee trampling on local control was HB 1239, which would be a big gift for cable companies like Comcast and Charter. 

This bill would cap the rates that city-owned power companies — like OUC in Orlando or the city of Winter Park’s electric utility — could charge companies like Comcast and Charter for the right to attach broadband equipment to utility poles. 

Many cities would be forced to lower their rates so Comcast and Charter could save money — leaving residents of these cities to make up the difference in the form of higher electric bills. (Gee, another example of Tallahassee taking money from people and giving it to corporations…Where have we seen this before?) 

I’m a big believer in local control — and in making sure corporations pay their fair share — so I was an EskamaNO vote on this bill in the House Ways & Means Committee. You can watch my debate against it starting at 35:19 of this video. 

Universities are Under Attack Once Again 

In Tallahassee, we regularly see Republicans in the Florida Legislature attack any institutions they can’t coerce directly and that doesn’t automatically subscribe to Florida Republicans’ keep-the-status-quo-at-all-costs agenda. 

That’s why they strip power from cities and counties where voters have elected more progressive leaders. It’s why they work so hard to undermine public trust in mainstream journalism and try to keep their voters locked in a closed-circuit loop of right-wing propaganda. 

And it’s why they keep meddling in universities, whether by slashing funding and driving out respected academics like we’ve seen them do at UCF — or by HB 233, the so-called “academic freedom” bill that passed the Legislature last week. 

This bill has nothing to do with intellectual freedom and everything to do with far-right dogma. It’s meant to scare university professors by letting students record them without consent for use in lawsuits, force campuses to provide platforms for racist, conspiracy theory-spewing trolls, and conduct unscientific surveys meant to support an argument rather than learn anything new.

I voted against this bill when it was on the House floor last month. And now that it passed the Senate last week, it will go to Gov. Ron DeSantis to sign or veto. 

While we’re talking about committee meetings, last Friday we presented House Bill 409 again, this time with an amendment for the bill to more closely reflect common law. You can read more here.

Two Terrible Ideas Tie Each Other Up Amid Backroom Dealmaking 

We had some fun teaming up with Orlando comedian Ben Brainard to spill some session tea last week and explaining some of the horse-trading happening behind the scenes. 

Basically, Gov. Ron DeSantis and House Speaker Chris Sprowls really want to pass HB 1, the anti-democratic, unconstitutional “anti-protest” bill that’s meant to pander to the Newsmax crowd. But Senate President Wilton Simpson’s top priority is SB 88, a bill that protect Big Sugar from ever being held accountable for public health problems caused by its sugarcane burning. 

DeSantis and Sprowls don’t necessarily want to give Big Sugar a hand. But if they don’t, then Simpson won’t help DeSantis and Sprowls violate all Floridians’ First Amendment right to engage in protests. 

Definitely check out the entire video here but also remember there’s an important point here: If just one of these awful bills fails to pass, then chances are the other one will collapse, too. So we need to keep fighting both with everything we’ve got.  

Corporate Tax Breaks Strike Again!

This week we are expected to vote on even MORE corporate tax breaks in our Ways & Means Committee. I know these topics can be wonky, so I created a Tweet thread and Facebook post to help explain it all!

Piney Point Update 

Heavy rainfall over the weekend dropped 4 million gallons of water into the pond holding polluted process water at the former Piney Point phosphate plant, but authorities say repairs to the breach are holding for now. 

Separately, the Senate last week added $3 million to its budget to clean up the Piney Plant site, where the acidic process water is contained within giant stacks of radioactive phosphogypsum — two byproducts from turning phosphate rock into fertilizer. Ultimately, Senate President Wilton Simpson wants to spend $200 million on cleaning up and securing the site, using money from President Joe Biden’s American Rescue Plan. 

I’m relieved that the immediate threat of catastrophic failure appears to be over. But now we have to turn attention to solving the larger structural problems of the environmental damage caused by the phosphate-mining industry — and making sure that polluters, rather than taxpayers, pay for the cleanup. 

We Were Profiled by Spectrum News!

Spectrum News reporter Pete Reinwald recently spent some time shadowing us in Tallahassee for profile story that published last week. 

We talked about everything from my Mom to the culture in Tallahassee. He talked to other lawmakers — and my twin sister, Ida, too. 

You can read his story here: State Rep’s Future Canvas is Grounded in Her Past

 Meetings and Events From the Past Week

Here’s a look at some of the other things we were up to last week!

ANNA IN THE NEWS

FL Legislature approves major cuts in dollars for affordable housing, amid COVID-19 and housing crisis

Rural broadband bill clears second House committee, but past concerns linger

Florida House easily passes $97B budget over Democrat’s scorn

Report states people with poor health, people of color denied unemployment benefits more often

Thousands of Florida children lost a parent to COVID, according to a new study

Woman Calls for FDOH to Hold Massage Therapist Accountable in Assault Cases

Lawmakers call for unemployment fixes as system continues to lock people out

Rep. Eskamani, Local AFL-CIO Union Leaders Call On Florida Legislature To Use Internet Sales Tax To Help Unemployed Workers

Who’s who in the Matt Gaetz scandal

UPCOMING EVENTS

Team Anna’s Legislative Update

The 2021 Legislative Session is almost coming to a close and we’re joining together for a Team Anna update!

Join us virtually at the Florida State Capitol on April 21st at 7:00pm for a deep dive into the final fights and goals for this session.

From unemployment and small business relief to civil rights and local control, we will touch on it all. In these final days of Session, learn how you can keep up with the process and hold lawmakers accountable to the People’s Priorities! Click here to RSVP!