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Juan Porras’ bill to put Gulf of America in textbooks clears first House hurdle

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Rep. Juan Porras’ proposal to begin mandating the phrase “Gulf of America” in K-12 instructional materials is finally moving.

The House Education and Employment Subcommittee is advancing legislation (HB 549) that would compel School Boards to “adopt and acquire” materials using the Gulf of America name and to “update geographical materials for Floridians.”

Porras’ measure will no longer include a renaming of the Tamiami Trail.

The goal is to gradually erase the Gulf of Mexico designation disfavored by President Donald Trump, Gov. Ron DeSantis and Agriculture Commissioner Wilton Simpson. Yet materials with the Gulf of Mexico name won’t have to be discarded under this legislation; they will be phased out over time in the effort to align with federal guidelines adopted this year.

The sponsor said this would set precedent and would update students with “current terminology” for the body of water in what he called an age of “American exceptionalism.”

“We would be the first state in the union to do this measure,” Porras noted ahead of the 16-2 vote. “With your support, we’ll make the Gulf great again.”

Asked by Ranking Member Yvonne Hinson if novels referring to the Gulf of Mexico would have to be changed, Porras avoided the question.

He noted that the state “cannot change prior books” that have been purchased, but the bill as written leaves open the question of needing to align the name in fictional works with Florida Statute.

Other Gulf of America bills are finding smooth sailing in the House and Senate.

Sen. Joe Gruters’ bill (SB 1058), the companion to Porras’ proposal, floated through the Senate Governmental Oversight and Accountability Committee, with the support of Senate President Ben Albritton.

Rep. Tyler Sirois’ legislation (HB 575), which would change 92 statutory references in Florida law to refer to the body of water along Florida’s west coast as the Gulf of America, found the House Government Operations Subcommittee to be a favorable port of call this week.

Sen. Nick DiCeglie’s bill (SB 608), the companion to the Sirois bill, inspired similar unity in the Senate Community Affairs Committee.


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Mike Giallombardo’s CRA-killing bill advances, but even some supporters disagree with its aim

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A bill that would end all of Florida’s community redevelopment agencies (CRAs) within the next 20 years is advancing in the House, where even some who voted for the measure believe it’s too severe.

Members of the State Affairs Committee voted 17-8 for HB 991, which would ban the creation of new CRAs — special government entities meant to improve blighted areas by funding infrastructure, housing, and business development projects — on or after July 1.

Any existing CRA would have to be terminated by the end of fiscal 2045 or the termination date in the CRA’s charter, whichever is earliest. Existing CRAs couldn’t be extended.

The bill, as written, would also bar CRAs from initiating new projects or issuing debt after Oct. 1. Those with outstanding bonds would still be able to operate until the bonds mature, but with a closing deadline of no later than Oct. 1, 2045.

Cape Coral Republican Rep. Mike Giallombardo filed HB 991 after learning that some CRAs have misappropriated funds. He said their Boards, usually composed of City Council members or their local analogs, have used the money to fund pet projects like art festivals and give themselves raises.

Giallombardo said he had pictures on his phone proving breaches of fiduciary duty by CRA Board members. He declined repeated requests to specify whom he was talking about or where the malfeasance had occurred.

“These CRAs become pockets of, let’s just call it, slush funds for some of these local governments,” he said. “And some of these are 50 years old. They just continue to kick the ball down the road,” he said. “We’re in an opportunity right now, especially with the climate — you know, DOGE and accountability — (and) I think it’s important for us to take a look at these.”

Rep. Mike Giallombardo said eliminating CRAs will end the waste, fraud, and abuse, which he’s seen evidence that he declined to share with his colleagues on Thursday. Image via Florida House.

First authorized by the Legislature in 1969, CRAs are state-authorized but locally established to target and develop specific urban or rural areas affected by economic distress or underdevelopment. Their principal funding mechanism is tax increment financing (TIF), where taxable property values are “frozen” at the onset of the CRA’s creation. As property values increase over time alongside redevelopment and improvement projects, the additional property tax revenue generated feeds back into the CRA for reinvestment in future projects.

Many have been staggeringly successful. Rep. Griff Griffitts, a Panama City Beach Republican, spoke of one CRA created in his district in 2020. At the time, the taxable value of the area was $900,000. Today, he said, it’s $6 billion.

“I know the good that they can provide for communities,” he said, adding that “bad actors” still misuse agency dollars and comingle funds. He said one of the objectives of CRAs, to finance the development of affordable and workforce housing, can be supplemented or replaced by the state’s SHIP and SAIL programs that the lawmakers infused with funding through the Live Local Act.

Griffitts said HB 991 “is not perfect” and appeared to disagree with its central premise of killing CRAs outright within the next two decades. “But I think this is a really good start to put some guardrails around these CRAs.”

Griffitts voted for the bill, as did Melbourne Republican Rep. Debbie Mayfield, who similarly expressed concern about wiping out CRAs altogether and recommended instead that tighter restrictions be placed on them.

It would hardly be the first time. In 2019, lawmakers passed more stringent oversight rules for CRAs through HB 9, which, among other things, imposed new audit disclosure requirements, mandated that CRA spending must have County Commission preapproval, and provided that the state could terminate inactive agencies.

Rep. Debbie Mayfield said her vote for HB 991 Tuesday came with a hope that it would be amended before passage to address the many concerns she heard from both sides of the dais. Image via Colin Hackley/Florida Politics.

Boynton Beach Democratic Rep. Joe Casello suggested that a more reasonable approach would be strengthening the standards HB 9 established “rather than eliminating a tool that has successfully driven local economic growth.”

Delray Beach Republican Rep. Mike Caruso agreed. He said some Board members may be acting improperly, but the benefit CRAs provide to “blighted areas that the free market failed to improve” is more than enough of a testament to their worth.

“I look at this bill as if we’re chopping down a tree when we should be just trimming a branch,” Caruso said.

Giallombardo noted that funds from a CRA would remain with its given city, which could directly take on revitalization projects. But several members of the Committee pointed out problems with that perspective.

Rep. Anna Eskamani, an Orlando Democrat, said the runway his bill provides CRAs with outstanding bonds may not be long enough, particularly for longer, multiphase projects. North Miami Democratic Rep. Dotie Joseph said HB 991 would compound the negative impacts of a proposal (SB 852) Gov. Ron DeSantis supports this year to study eliminating property taxes, which could hamper local services, including “defunding the police.”

Small businesses within CRAs pay lower rents, made possible by the frozen property values, and eliminating that arrangement could drive their overhead costs to untenable levels, Lake Worth Democratic Rep. Debra Tendrich said. The bill would also prevent some less well-to-do residents from being able to buy homes and imperil local transportation provisions that benefit seniors, she said.

Casello, Caruso, Eskamani, Joseph and Tendrich voted against HB 991. St. Pete Beach Republican Rep. Linda Chaney voted for it but said she still sees the benefit of CRAs.

“I also have experienced the use of CRAs maybe not in the best interest of the taxpayer in terms of need-to-have versus nice-to-have projects,” she said. “Having said that, I would like to talk to you about maybe some refinement to this so that the need-to-have projects are funded above the nice-to-have projects.”

Rep. Dotie Joseph repeatedly asked Giallombardo for specific examples of CRA malfeasance. He said he had them on his phone, but didn’t elaborate, Image via Colin Hackley/Florida Politics.

Rep. Ashley Gantt, a Miami Democrat, contended that HB 991 is too vague and looks to destroy rather than correct. She said she was troubled by Giallombardo’s reference to DOGE, President Donald Trump’s federal initiative through which unelected billionaire Elon Musk has taken a (somewhat figurative) chainsaw to federal agencies in the name of government efficiency.

“We see how many thousands of federal employees have been laid off and are hopeless. I don’t want that to happen in my community,” Gantt said. “We have the power and ability … to protect our citizens, to make sure that they know that they are seen. … Why can’t we be transformative in thinking of new ways to still be accomplished? We don’t want CRAs to exist in perpetuity, but we also don’t want to kill the hope in our community. And it’s not like we’re asking for unreasonable changes or clarification.”

Gantt, Joseph and Tampa Democratic Rep. Diane Hart, who is not a member of the State Affairs Committee but appeared at the meeting, each proffered amendments to HB 991. Hart’s would have deleted the ban on new CRAs after July 1. Gantt aimed to erase the bill’s prohibition on new CRA projects and debts after Oct. 1. Joseph’s would have replaced the bill’s language entirely with an allowance that any resident or business owner in a CRA could file a complaint about any violation of state CRA rules that the Department of Commerce would have to investigate.

The GOP-dominated panel rejected them all.

Americans for Prosperity signaled support for the HB 991. Mulberry Commissioner Neil Devine, 1000 Friends of Florida and representatives of Wakulla and the CRAs of North Miami, North Miami Beach and Opa-locka opposed the measure.

Lobbyist Ryan Matthews, representing the Florida Redevelopment Association, which includes all 213 CRAs in the state, said cities without CRAs wouldn’t be able to use TIF funding to multiply their investment dollars and significantly improve their ability to issue bonds for projects.

He said that Florida’s 213 CRAs aren’t averse to sunsetting, but some need more time.

“We have multi-hundred-million-dollar projects in the pipeline,” he said, adding that HB 991 passes with its prohibition on new projects intact, it “will prevent those projects from coming to fruition.”

David Cruz of the Florida League of Cities told the panel about a project underway in Southwest Florida. A developer wants to build 78 new affordable units. The company bought land, obtained entitlements, went through zoning, and secured funding. Groundbreaking is scheduled for December.

Giallombardo’s bill puts the project at risk, he said, because the developer’s previously guaranteed tax rebate through the local CRA wouldn’t be possible.

“That entire project is going to go up in smoke,” he said.

HB 991 advanced on a party-line vote, with only Caruso crossing the aisle to vote “no” with his Democratic colleagues. The bill will next go to the House State Affairs Committee, after which it has one more stop before a floor vote.

Its Senate twin (SB 1242) by Ocala Republican Sen. Stan McClain skidded by its first of three Committee stops Tuesday on a 4-3 vote. It’s next slated for a hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee.


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Last Call for 3.13.25 – A prime-time read of what’s going down in Florida

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Last Call – A prime-time read of what’s going down in Florida politics.

First Shot

Central Florida homeless advocates say a new law is making it harder to understand the gravity of the homeless situation while they also grapple with public outcry over building a new shelter in Orlando.

In 2024, the Legislature passed a measure (HB 1365) banning cities and communities from allowing people to camp or sleep in public places. 

“Based on what we’ve already seen, people are definitely hiding more,” said community leader Martha Are during a League of Women Voters of Orange County meeting. “People are less visible. The numbers are not necessarily going down, but if you can’t find people when you’re doing the counts, then it can appear that the numbers have gone down.”

Are is the CEO of the Central Florida Commission on Homelessness and the Homeless Services Network of Central Florida.

Gov. Ron DeSantis, who pushed for the ban that went into effect in January, said, “It’s not criminalizing homelessness. What they’re saying is you don’t have a right to just sleep in front of somebody’s business or you don’t have a right to just take over a street and put an encampment down.”

Critics call it an unfunded mandate and say it doesn’t solve the root of the homelessness dilemma. 

Read more on Florida Politics.

Evening Reads

—“15 lessons scientists learned about us when the world stood still” via Claire Cain Miller and Irineo Cabreros of The New York Times

—“Judge orders Donald Trump officials to offer jobs back to fired probationary workers” via Salvador Rizzo of The Washington Post

—“We hear you, Mr. President’: The world lines up to buy American gas” via Max Bearak, Rebecca F. Elliott and Brad Plumer of The New York Times

—“Should Democrats let the government shut down?” via Christian Paz of Vox

—“Gutting the Department of Education is as cruel as it is stupid” via Nikki McCann Ramirez and Ryan Bort of Rolling Stone

—“Elon Musk looks desperate” via Charlie Wiezel of The Atlantic

—“Trump ramps up E.U. trade war with tariff threat on champagne, wine” via Kim Mackrael, Gavin Bade and Anthony DeBarros of The Wall Street Journal

—“Trump travel ban: ‘no exceptions’ for Cubans, Venezuelans. Other islands may join Haiti on list” via Nora Gamez Torres and Jacqueline Charles of the Miami Herald

—“Florida vaccine skeptic out as proposed CDC director amid measles outbreak” via Steven Lemongello of the Orlando Sentinel 

Tampa Bay Rays won’t move forward with stadium deal” via Janelle Irwin Taylor of Florida Politics

Quote of the Day

“They can’t even find enough to arrest me just ran their mouth like circus clowns”

Andrew Tate, taunting the Governor and Attorney General.

Put it on the Tab

Look to your left, then look to your right. If you see one of these people at your happy hour haunt, flag down the bartender and put one of these on your tab. Recipes included, just in case the Cocktail Codex fell into the well.

Pour Dave Weldon a Better Luck Tomorrow now that he’s officially out of the running for CDC director.

U.S. Rep. Byron Donalds gets a Turning Point for landing an endorsement from Charlie Kirk.

Breakthrough Insights

Tune In

Selection Sunday approaches this weekend.

The field for the NCAA Tournament will be set and college basketball fans can begin filling out their brackets after the announcement on Sunday (6 p.m. ET, CBS).

Of the 68 spots in the field, 31 will come from automatic bids awarded to conference tournament champions. The other 37 spots will be assigned by the NCAA men’s basketball selection committee, whose task is to identify the best teams in the country, seed them, and place them in their regions.

The Florida Gators could earn a #1 seed after a remarkable campaign. Florida (27-4 in the regular season) finished second in the Southeastern Conference standings behind another probably top seed, Auburn. Any wins in the SEC tournament by Florida can only help their cause. The Gators will play the winner of Thursday’s Mississippi State-Missouri game in the quarterfinals on Friday.

Other candidates for #1 seeds include Duke, Houston, Alabama and Tennessee, although it would be surprising for any conference to be awarded three #1 seeds. It happened in 2019 when Virginia, Duke, and North Carolina were all #1 seeds from the ACC.

Three of college basketball’s blue bloods have struggled and could be on the bubble. ESPN’s Bracketology lists North Carolina as the last team in. Two-time defending national champions Connecticut will likely make it in but are projected as an eight-seed. Kansas will almost certainly make the tournament but will likely have the program’s lowest seed since 2000. The Jayhawks have been a four-seed or better in the last 23 tournaments. They are projected as a six-seed.

___

Last Call is published by Peter Schorsch, assembled and edited by Phil Ammann and Drew Wilson, with contributions from the staff of Florida Politics.


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Andrew Tate taunts silent Ron DeSantis, James Uthmeier

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The most controversial figure in kickboxing history continues to jab at Florida’s Governor and the Attorney General he recently appointed.

“Why hasn’t Ron or his homosexual AG arrested me yet? Struggling to find probable cause? Ran your mouth like clowns but can’t do anything? Uh oh. COURT. OF. LAW. Innocent until PROVEN guilty. This is America not Romania. I dare you to arrest me,” tweeted Andrew Tate about Gov. Ron DeSantis and AG James Uthmeier on Thursday.

That tweet was later deleted but was only the first in a series of statements. Tate said he’s back in Miami and that if he’s arrested and charged, he could “clear (his) name in a USA court of law once and for all.”

“They can’t even find enough to arrest me just ran their mouth like circus clowns. It’s win win for me because I’m innocent. I dare you to arrest me, (DeSantis). I’m here in your state. My bags packed for jail and I am waiting patiently,” he said.

Tate then mocked DeSantis’ stature and preference for height-enhancing footwear: “When Ron DeSantis puts on his booster shoes to threaten you… But you stand there. UNFAZED!” Tate posted alongside an image of him staring at the camera.

DeSantis and Uthmeier have not responded to recent provocations from Andrew Tate or his brother Tristan.

DeSantis said last week they were not “welcome” in Florida, leading to Uthmeier launching a criminal probe on the two. While the Tates have been accused of human trafficking in Romania, they have not been convicted.

And it’s uncertain what Florida can convict them of at the moment, leading to the Tate brothers’ defiance.

“We’re never going to bring any case without evidence to back it up. You have that commitment from me. It seems like they’ve done some pretty gross things in other countries. I don’t have jurisdiction there, but if there’s evidence that they committed a crime in Florida, we will pursue that further,” Uthmeier vowed on Monday.

Uthmeier, who was appointed to replace Ashley Moody earlier this year, has spoken at length about his moral issues with degrading comments the Tates have made about women.

“They’ve gone public, you know, joking around saying, ‘Oh, what is the age of consent in America: 15, 16, 17, oh, we can’t remember.’ That’s absurd. That is horrific. And anybody that’s going to defend, you know, that practice is on the wrong side of me, that’s for sure. If you are soliciting and trafficking minors in our state, you belong in the dark, cold back of a jail cell,” he said.

However, Andrew Tate believes he and his movement are the future, and that of Uthmeier and DeSantis are the past.

“In 10 years, they’re the Governors. They’re no longer Ron DeSantis. No longer Byron Donalds, no longer their little girlfriend, AG. All those f****** losers are gone. My fans are the government, my fans are the f****** President. That’s their problem, because they’re all growing up now. They’re all 16, 17, 18 years old. That’s why they’re scared,” Tate said earlier this week.


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