Seeking Rents – The Podcast

In this episode : Ron DeSantis starts to reassert himself on Day 17 of the Florida Legislature’s 2024 session, as lawmakers begin moving bills to give the governor more military power and tools to punish everyone from Palestinian students to…woke airports? Predatory lenders are probably nervous, too. Contact : Garcia. JasonR@gmail.com Follow :  Twitter   Follow the show :  Apple  |  Spotify Get fu...

In this episode : Day 16 of the Florida Legislature’s 2024 session is in the books, and it’s not all bad. Today we’re talking about bills dealing with tiny homes, carbon capture and — of all things — registered mail. Contact : Garcia. JasonR@gmail.com Follow :  Twitter   Follow the show :  Apple  |  Spotify Get full access to Seeking Rents at jasongarcia.substack.com/subscribe

In this episode : On Day 15 of the Florida Legislature’s 2024 session, state lawmakers and big-business lobbyists try to bring back an ugly barrier to unemployment insurance that even former Gov. Rick Scott backed away from. Plus: Updates on more bills that moved forward, including legislation to deny drinking water to construction workers and to fill the labor shortage by encouraging high school...

In this episode : An update from Day 14 of the Florida Legislature’s 60-day session, where some lawmakers are standing up to the insurance industry…but other lawmakers are proving how unreliable they are. Contact : Garcia. JasonR@gmail.com Follow :  Twitter   Follow the show :  Apple  |  Spotify Get full access to Seeking Rents at jasongarcia.substack.com/subscribe

In this episode : Republican lawmakers in the Florida Legislature say some news organizations can’t be trusted. But they don’t want you to know which organizations can be trusted. Plus: Florida’s latest abortion battle. Contact : Garcia. JasonR@gmail.com Follow :  Twitter   Follow the show :  Apple  |  Spotify Get full access to Seeking Rents at jasongarcia.substack.com/subscribe

In this episode : On one side of the state Capitol, Florida lawmakers were passing a bill to ban pride flags from public buildings. On the other, they were passing a bill to let homebuilders use more kids on construction sites. A dispatch from Day 9 of the Florida Legislature’s 2024 session. Contact : Garcia. JasonR@gmail.com Follow :  Twitter   Follow the show :  Apple  |  Spotify Get full access...

In this episode : Recapping another busy day in the Florida Legislature. Lawmakers are now eight days into their 60-day legislative session, and they’re moving bills to protect poultry companies, plastic polluters, and police officers who engage in brutality. But they also want to build more housing for migrant farmworkers. Contact : Garcia. JasonR@gmail.com Follow :  Twitter   Follow the show : ...

In this episode : A quick recap of the second day of the Florida Legislature’s 2024 legislative session, including two big fights pitting some of the state’s biggest business lobbying groups against advocates for children and environmental activists. Plus a new “Stand Your Ground” law, but to shoot black bears. Contact : Garcia. JasonR@gmail.com Follow :  Twitter   Follow the show :  Apple  |  Spo...

In this episode : The Florida Legislature opened its 2024 session on Tuesday, a news-filled first day that included a pledge to keep Florida one of the worst states in the nation for health insurance coverage. Learn more in a quick Day One recap that also has updates on lobbying by big-box stores to incarcerate more shoplifters and by police officers to avoid accountability — but also promises to...

In this episode : Sixteen- and seventeen-year-old high-school students in Florida could be made to work overnight shifts and 40-hour workweeks under a bill being lobbied through the state Legislature. The legislation was written by a think tank financed by a billionaire donor to Ron DeSantis, and it’s being pushed by lobbyists for chain restaurants like McDonald’s, Burger King, Outback and Olive G...

In this episode : Lobbyists for rent-seeking retailers like Walmart, Target and Home Depot are pushing policies in Florida that send small-time shoplifters to prison for many years — and then make it harder for them to get back on their feet when they finally get out. It’s an example of short-sighted, self-interested corporate lobbying that prioritizes protecting the profits of a few above all els...

In this episode : We go deep inside the gears of government to show you how the state of Florida, urged on by lobbyists for the state’s biggest businesses, has rigged the rules around property taxes in a way that helps special interests keep tax breaks they squeeze out of Tallahassee — even when those tax breaks are unconstitutional. (For a written version of this story, click here .) Further read...

In this episode : Inside a federal courtroom in Atlanta, a lawyer for Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis just made a remarkable confession: The state is trying to prevent private employers from talking to their own employees about things like systemic racism and gender inequality. It’s part of a broader effort by the DeSantis administration to control what Floridians can say, hear and learn about groups th...

In this episode : Days before he launched his campaign for president, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a sweeping law making it much harder for many Florida workers to band together in unions and collectively bargain for better pay. It takes direct aim at hundreds of thousands of public-sector employees in Florida, from public-school teachers to municipal garbage collectors. But it also threatens...

In this episode : Florida’s tourism industry runs on a low-wage workforce. And the state’s biggest tourism businesses, from Walt Disney World to Outback Steakhouse, fight hard to suppress pay for workers — whether that means cutting off unemployment assistance for jobseekers or litigating against local living wage laws. They’ve had help from a long line of Florida governors, from Jeb Bush to Rick...

In this episode : The state of Florida has long been a harsh place to rent an apartment, with industry-backed laws that give landlords enormous power over their tenants. But things had been getting better: Over the last few years, cities and counties around the state have passed dozens of local laws that provide some basic rights to renters and help keep families from being forced into homelessnes...

In this episode : Before Ron DeSantis was elected governor of Florida, the state and some of its local communities passed a series of laws that were supposed to reduce the influence of money in politics. But DeSantis has rolled back many of those reforms — from a local ordinance that tried to keep Super PACs out of city elections to a state law that made it harder for Florida politicians to hide t...

In this episode : In west-central Florida, a bit inland from Tampa Bay, The Mosaic Co. makes billions of dollars every year scraping phosphate rock out of the ground and turning it into fertilizer at chemical factories. But in doing so, the Fortune 500 mining giant generates millions of tons in toxic waste. Now, Mosaic wants new laws and taxpayer subsidies that could let the company turn its toxic...

In this episode : The city of Orlando, home to Disney World and Universal Studios, raises hundreds of millions of dollars every year from a tax on hotels. But while other communities spend hotel taxes on public safety, environmental preservation and affordable housing, Orlando spends all its money propping up tourism businesses and sports billionaires. It’s the result of decades of lobbying by Dis...

In this episode: With his eye on the American presidency, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has spent the past four years courting the billionaires and big-dollar donors he hopes will bankroll a national campaign. DeSantis has hosted private receptions at the Governor’s Mansion and planned $100,000 rounds of golf. But he’s also granted policy favors that have helped some of the world’s richest people — of...

In this episode : Gov. Ron DeSantis just signed a draconian rewrite of Florida’s property insurance laws that will give homeowners less time to file claims, make it harder to sue companies that won’t pay those claims, and force hundreds of thousands of Floridians to pay higher prices. It’s bitter medicine that the governor says is necessary to save his state’s ailing insurance market. It’s also th...

In this episode: Nearly 60 percent of voters in Orlando, Fla., just passed a referendum calling for rent control in one of the most unaffordable housing markets in the country. But they’re probably not going to get it. That’s because Florida leaders have passed a landlord-friendly state law that blocks cities and counties from enacting local rent control. Meanwhile, lobbyists for everyone from rea...

In this week’s episode : You might not know it, but minimum wage is back on the ballot again this year in Florida — in the form of legislative elections around the state that could decide the fate of a Big Business-led effort to wipe out local wage laws. In this week’s episode, we take a closer look at that and other important economic issues that you never hear about in campaign commercials, but...

In this week’s episode : There’s a narrative taking hold in political media that Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is waging a “war on Corporate America.” There’s just one problem: It’s a myth. Today, we take a close look at just how friendly Florida’s governor has been to Big Business — from cutting taxes on corporate profits to doing favors for companies like Disney and Florida Power & Light. But there...

In this week’s episode : Late last year, a small group of people appointed by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis allowed utility giant Florida Power & Light to raise electricity rates by roughly $5 billion over the next four years. But this record-setting rate hike is even more generous than you think. Today, we’re talking about equity ratios, ROEs and RSAMs — and how you’re paying more for power because o...