Florida Priorities Summit: Elected leaders need to take more ownership of big issues
Who is responsible for addressing Florida’s most pressing issues?
The state, primarily. And the state needs to step it up, leaders say.
Issues surrounding the environment have risen to the top of the list of priorities of the Florida Influencers, a group of 50 industry leaders across the state, in their final survey of 2019.
As the third-most populous state with a growing number of residents, Florida is in environmental crisis.
At the Florida Priorities Summit on Tuesday at the University of Miami, Audubon Florida Executive Director Julie Wraithmell, Everglades Foundation CEO Eric Eikenberg, Florida Crystals Vice President Gaston Cantens and Miami Beach Mayor Dan Gelber spoke on the best ways to address pressing issues like sea level rise, declining water quality and the loss of habitat for wildlife.
The Florida Priorities Summit is a project by the Miami Herald, el Nuevo Herald and the Bradenton Herald to bring experts together in lively debate over the subjects that matter in the state.
The panelists, moderated by Politico senior writer Mike Grunwald, debated whether the environment requires more state decision-making in order to avoid the worst impacts of climate change and ensure Florida’s future.
“We certainly can’t do it without the state government, which has been nonexistent to the discussion,” Gelber, a former state representative, said.
He quoted state economist Amy Baker who said last year the greatest threat to Florida’s economy is man-made environmental disasters, such as high level of nutrients in waterways. But the first line of defense is local governments, he argues, and that’s not the way it should be.
“I always feel like we’re doing things in spite of Tallahassee and that’s not a good way to be,” he said.
Gelber said that the only organized response to the crisis in sea level rise is happening at the local level, and that there’s “not a modicum of thought right now” in Washington, D.C., or Tallahassee of what to do.
He compared the issue to a hurricane in which officials from state, federal and local levels show up for the press with their windbreaker jackets and their names in big fonts emblazoned on the front.
“That’s for a climatic event that may not even happen,” he said. “We have a climatic event that’s happening now.”
Wraithmell emphasized the state’s robust economy and noted that “acting while the tax base is robust is really important.”
“The real challenge is just human nature,” she said. “Humans are resistant to change and are sometimes blind to it.”
She said that with new residents arriving to the state daily, there are many who do not have the same understanding of Florida’s environmental challenges and none of the reference points.
Eikenberg, who credited Gov. Ron DeSantis with his renewed commitment to the environment, said “political will is what’s needed” to address these constant challenges and move with the influx of new residents and tourists.
His first few months in office, DeSantis vowed to make the state’s algae-plagued waters a priority in a sweeping executive order that promised $2.5 billion for environmental work, created a chief science officer along with an office to prepare for rising seas, and formed a task force to tackle the blue-green algae blooms flowing from Lake Okeechobee. DeSantis said he was making good on a campaign promise to address the state’s environmental problems after a devastating red tide slammed the Gulf Coast during the heated midterm election.
Eikenberg said DeSantis’ commitment needs to be sustained, and that without groundwork to make sure the commitment is there, no meaningful change will be accomplished.
“Florida’s future is at stake,” he said. “We’re Floridians. Let’s roll up our sleeves and solve these problems.”
Cantens and Eikenberg had different assessments of the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan, an ambitious 30-year proposal aimed at advancing the goals of the 1994 Everglades Forever Act which committed the state to restoring the lake and its tributaries to their natural state.
Cantens said the state has already made quite a bit of progress. He contested that 30 years ago, no one in Florida would have guessed how advanced the sugar industry would become.
“You read a lot about the sugar industry,” he said. “We have come a long way. We are not Old MacDonald’s farm.”
Panelists on other topics Tuesday similarly hope to hold the state’s leader’s accountable.
▪ On education, Miami-Dade County Superintendent Alberto Carvalho noted that the county “has not been on the winning end of the distribution of revenues” from Tallahassee and that the state could do a better job incentivizing teachers into the profession.
▪ On the economy, Melissa Medina of eMerge Americas said that the startups are economic drivers that provide an often unheralded economic impact, and that she doesn’t think “the state is offering enough for the smaller companies to move here.”
▪ On cannabis, Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried said the current structure in Florida is “a very cost-prohibitive regulatory framework” and that the state could do better for businesses and patients.
▪ On transportation, Miami Mayor Francis Suarez said perhaps the state could get an enhanced scoring on tax credit deals if they did projects within a certain distance of an existing station. “I would love for the state to do something collaboratively,” he said.
Education in the Sunshine State
Environmental issues narrowly edged out education, which had been the top priority of Influencers, when the Herald surveyed them in April. Education remained the top issue throughout 2018 as well.
A panel of education experts — Carvalho, elementary school teacher Erin Caputo, state Sen. Anitere Flores and University of West Florida president Martha Saunders — weighed in on teacher pay and technology advancement Tuesday. They said that while the state should continue moving forward toward a more individualized and advanced education system, teachers need to be paid accordingly to meet the state’s expectations.
DeSantis on Monday proposed a record $91.4 billion state budget for the next fiscal year, including spending an additional $1 billion on teacher raises and bonuses.
“We just continue to throw more and more and more at teachers,” Caputo said. “Yes, Governor DeSantis put in his budget an increase or another bonus, but there’s been how many failed bonuses? ... I know accomplished teachers that can’t support themselves.”
Carvalho noted that Miami-Dade County “has not been on the winning end of the distribution of revenues” from Tallahassee and that the state could do a better job incentivizing teachers into the profession.
Flores addressed this issue, and said because Miami-Dade County and her constituents in Monroe County have a higher cost of living, a raise wouldn’t necessarily help every teacher.
She challenged attendees to “hold legislators accountable” on this issue during the 2020 legislative session.
“I feel quite confident that the Legislature will end up implementing $1 billion more in education,” Flores said. “But we have to look a little bit deeper beyond the bottom line numbers. We’re getting better, but we have to be able to do more.”
Florida’s economy
The panel of economics experts agreed that DeSantis should create an office of entrepreneurship that focuses on making job development among startups a priority.
They say in order to reduce structural and actual barriers, an office could allocate resources toward policies and education that would enable entrepreneurship.
Medina said that the startups are economic drivers that provide an often unheralded economic impact. Richard Florida , a Florida International University fellow and noted urban studies theorist, agreed but added that there should be a second statewide imperative: how to give people who are in low-wage jobs opportunity and upward mobility.
“There are great incentives for larger corporations to move to Florida,’‘ Medina said. “But I don’t think our state is offering enough for the smaller companies to move here.”
“There has to be a fundamental mind shift in this state,’‘ she said, away from the investment in real estate and land deals into a more diverse investment into technology and innovation.
Mark Vitner, an economist with Wells Fargo, said other states have used some forms of incentives with primarily angel fund investors.
“You want a reward system in place, and you’ve got to bring risk-takers into the market,’‘ he said.
Cannabis in Florida
On cannabis, a panel of experts discussed the wide-ranging topic, from medicine to a potential future recreational marijuana market to hemp agriculture.
They all agreed that the current medical framework is “prohibitive” in that medical marijuana license holders are asked to do too much, and that patients and small businesses lose out in the end.
“It’s a very cost-prohibitive regulatory framework,” Fried said. “You’re asking license holders to be experts in growing, manufacturing, research ... it’s a huge undertaking for a corporation. We need to address the problems in the regulatory framework.”
Cannabis attorney Matt Ginder, of Greenspoon Marder, said the limitations on entrepreneurs is negative because once a license holder acquires one, they have what he calls “a super license,” or a license worth millions that could be flipped to an out-of-state company or foreign investor.
“If you break up the licenses, it will require a second look at the regulatory scheme,” he said “There is the opportunity for transportation or logistics companies to enter, to deliver products to patients. Right now the opportunities are a little uncertain.”
DeSantis has used the word “cartel” to criticize the regulatory scheme, which requires medical marijuana companies to grow, manufacture, sell and market their own product.
An appellate court issued a ruling earlier this year that the current system is unconstitutional and inconsistent with Amendment 2, the ballot proposal that legalized medical marijuana. The case is expected to go before the Supreme Court in early 2020.
Transportation in Florida
The final panel focused on transportation, where city, county and statewide leaders talked about what the state can do to help institute a plan that works for all of Florida.
Sen. Manny Diaz Jr., a Hialeah Republican, said local efforts like those in Miami and Miami-Dade County can help come up with solutions the state can use as a guide.
“We have to take our lead more from what’s going on locally,” he said. “Having some of those home-grown solutions help out the state’s role to support those.”
Suarez, the Miami mayor, added that the state could better collaborate with counties and cities instead of waiting on them. He gave an example of mass transit, and said perhaps the state could get an enhanced scoring on tax credit deals if it did projects within a certain distance of an existing station.
“I would love for the state to do something collaboratively,” he said.
The summit marks the culmination of the Florida Influencer Series for 2019 — a project by the Miami Herald, el Nuevo Herald and the Bradenton Herald. Over the past six months, the Influencers shared their ideas on how to address the most important issues facing the state and responded to questions from readers.
Miami Herald Tallahassee Bureau Chief Mary Ellen Klas contributed to this report.
This story was originally published November 19, 2019 at 12:19 PM.