this is the weekly on click Orlando comm
with Justin warmoth welcome back our
guest this morning is Democratic
candidate for governor Andrew Gilliam
the current mayor of Tallahassee says he
has bold progressive plans for Florida
we'll discuss those ideas starting with
improving the state's education you have
a plan for teachers tell us about your
plan and how would that get done yeah so
we've proposed let's just take the state
of affairs right now
Florida teachers are starting salaries
are in the bottom 10 percent of states
right our quality is in the gutter and
it's not because we have failing
teachers and failing students it's
because we have a system of matrix which
in my opinion only exists to prop up the
testing industry in the for-profit
charter school industry what we need is
a whole new approach at the public
education system in this state one we
need to begin earlier 0 to 5 is where
it's at over 90% of brain development
that happens over the course of human
life takes place between the ages of 0 &
5 in this state roughly 40% of our kids
are starting kindergarten not ready to
learn nearly that same percentage by the
time they get to third grade on not on
grade level reading we've got a reshift
the matrix here we've got to unleash the
talent that teachers to do what they're
paid to do which is to teach and then
unleash the innovation of our students
to explore that whether they're on a
college round trajectory or if they want
to get a skill and a trade do an
apprenticeship and get a job where they
can make a good wage we have to make
those paths available for all of our
students I'm the only candidate that has
proposed $50,000 starting salary for
teachers and we're the only Canada that
also proposed a way to pay for it what
we've said is that the 3% of the
wealthiest corporations in this state
have to pay their fair share they got
six point three billion dollars
overnight windfall from the trunk tax
game and what we're saying is we don't
want all you know six point three
billion of it but we'll take a billion
of it to reinvest in our state's public
education system because good employers
will not choose to say to Florida if
they cannot recruit the workforce that
they need to fill the jobs I believe
that the way we built Laura's economy is
by unleashing our talent by training our
talent by telling any employer across
the country across the world that if you
choose Florida we can guarantee you the
workhorse that can fill those jobs and
make sure that you get the profit line
that you want but you're gonna have to
pay them a good wage you're gonna have
to make sure that you invest a little
bit back in this state and if we do that
we're gonna make a state that you'll
never regret coming to and you've also
said that another way to find that money
is to first legalize marijuana course
and then tax it absolutely John Morgan a
high profile attorney who I'm sure you
know who he is he is all over the place
doesn't like that idea he doesn't like
the the sense of just legalizing
marijuana just to tax it yeah your
response to that and and why is that a
good idea well I tell you just look no
further than Colorado you have a state
there that is legalized marijuana and
now a few years ago they were giving
rebate checks to residents of the state
of Colorado because they underestimated
the revenue that they were going to get
that year right so but I think
legalizing is twofold yes there is a
taxing element to it right that can help
bolster this state's economy especially
a state where we don't have a state
income tax but number two we have got to
end this criminal justice cycle this
pipeline of taking people who are being
incarcerated costing citizens and
taxpayers tens of thousands of dollars
for simply the use of a plan
it doesn't make good sense and I believe
we need to move assiduously into the
21st century by legalizing taxing and
reinvesting that money back into the
state's education system another big
topic that we hear from our our viewers
obviously voters around the state of
Florida is health care and the current
state is not great for Florida what is
your perception on the on the health
care problem of Florida and what would
you do to address that well it is a huge
crisis in the state in fact it's top of
mind it's almost always ranked
consistently the number one issue it got
pushed from number one when after
Marjory Stoneman Douglas and it is now
back a central focus and we have to ask
ourselves why why are working people in
the state of Florida terrified of
getting sick and they're terrified of
getting sick because if they get sick
they cannot go to work if they cannot go
to work they cannot earn a wage if they
can't earn a wage they cannot pay their
bills if they can't pay their bills
their lights are turned off
they don't make mortgage and they don't
make rent so it's imperative that we
create the kind of health care system
when we say health care is a right
we mean to make that possible through
legislation so the first thing I'll do
as governor is we're going to expand
Medicaid by expanding Medicaid to nearly
a million of the people who are the most
medically needy people in this state we
will unleash about six billion dollars
from the federal government that right
now is being distributed to other states
that will be bring down to the state of
Florida that nursing shortage that we're
talking about we can fill that nursing
shortage with those kinds of resources
to go into our system for those of us
who have insurance we're not getting
away scot-free for those individuals who
don't they're showing up in emergency
rooms and that form of care happens to
be the most expensive and least
effective form of care and so why not
get them into maintenance in care right
well you can take care of yourself and
live out your lives I do want to ask you
about the study conducted by Harvard
which showed I mean the number of people
that they believe and that they
researched who died during Hurricane
Maria rather than what the government
says what was your response to seeing
that study and is that surprising it's
overwhelming that in the most
industrialized country in the world
largely the world's largest global power
recall that Puerto Rico is a part of the
United States that we would lose track
of the total number of those lives that
were lost we have a census it's for a
reason this has been a total failure at
every level now in my opinion the people
of Puerto Rico deserved better than this
the people of the United States and our
reputation deserved better than what the
federal response had been and so we've
got to now fix what is now completely
broken we've got to make sure that on
the island of Puerto Rico that they get
the resources that they need to build
the kind of infrastructure to make them
more resilient in the face of storms now
for those who are here with us here in
the state of Florida we need to make
sure that we have housing vouchers
available for to them we need to make
sure in our schools that we've got isaw
teachers available for those students
and they're quick learners both in
English and in Spanish right we've got
to make sure that we're creating the
kind of economic opportunities that give
these people lift the chance to get a
work and earn a wage for themselves and
for their families we got to make sure
that this tragedy could never ever
happen again it's shameful that our
binders were taken off is similar to
what we saw in Katrina I think was
devastating I think it
sustained on this country and I believe
the same is true in the case of Puerto
Rico both the storm the aftermath and
now the recovery we've got to square our
shoulders to the difficult task a
building on more resilient island there
you mentioned affordable housing for
Puerto Ricans here in Florida but it's a
it's a crisis not only for them but for
everybody
citizens absolutely what needs to be
done to address that and to fix that and
what could potentially happen if that's
not addressed well you're absolutely
right so first of all we're already
seeing the impacts of it not being
addressed our young talent they're
fleeing this state this is an estate
that they can that they can get a job
and earn enough on that job to get a
house that they can live in those folks
are important to the future of the state
of Florida kana me we've got to do a
couple of things one we need to make
sure that the Sadowski funds that were
allocated for the purposes of building
affordable housing that we actually get
those dollars into the Sadowski fund but
we can also do things like what we've
done in my city through inclusionary
housing so for every 50 units of housing
that is developed on a single track of
laying single family units 10% of that
housing is dedicated to affordable and
we've done that by working with our
developers to say listen we don't want
to just build a housing that maybe make
sure the biggest profit but then creates
in a community that people can't access
and so let's work together to figure out
what workforce and affordable housing
looks like to ensure that our young
talent can stay here that our working
people can live close to home you know
we often hear from Governor Scott about
the job creation in the state and he is
a big proponent of jobs yes our
corporate tax rate right now is five
point five percent you have an idea to
increase that what would be your
reasoning behind that could that
eventually backfire yeah so let me tell
you the corporate tax rate right now in
the state of Florida is lower than that
of the states of Alabama in Georgia we
do that under this fallacy that being
the cheapest date means that that's how
we're going to recruit the kind of jobs
to keep Florida's economy growing well
then tell me why the jobs that we create
that in this state forty six percent of
the people say that they cannot make
ends meet the truth is that many of
these jobs are low-wage jobs where
people have to work two and three jobs
just to make ends meet that is not my
vision of Florida and I believe in order
for us to achieve a real vision that
encompasses the real people of the state
of Florida we've gotta build a
economy that includes them and that
means everybody pays their fair share in
the state of California the corporate
tax rate is eight point eight percent
one of the highest and the nation yet
every widget gadget-gadget that we have
designed in the state of California so
this idea that having corporations pay
their fair share means the fleeting of
corporations leaving your state is
simply untrue it is not proven and so
what we're saying is that everybody can
pay their fair share we can still be an
affordable place to do business but
we're only going to be competitive if we
have good education systems if we have
good roads if we have good
transportation networks if we have the
kind of future solar energy economy that
a guarantee attracts the kind of talent
that says man this is the kind of state
I want to live in all I'm simply saying
is that regular people everyday average
working people pay their fair share
corporations also have to pay their fair
share and together I think we can build
a state that will all be proud of now
because of time constraints some of the
topics mayor Gilliam and I discussed
were left out like the state's
transportation issues including I for
the student debt crisis and the rumors
he was on the short list to be Hillary
Clinton's running mate in 2016 you can
find that part of the discussion right
now on click Orlando com / weekly thanks
for joining us this morning I'm Justin
warmoth have a great Sunday
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