so great to be with you this morning and
we begin with the end this weekend's
overtime sign-off from Tallahassee in
the last minute Dill's bringing big
changes our way if you don't think that
what they do in Tallahassee affects your
life think again
lawmakers just passed bills that may
change the way you drive the school's
your kids attend how much you pay in
Texas how local government treats
migrants who are here without papers
lawmakers also took the decisive action
to clean up polluted algae filled
waterways and beaches and at the urging
of Governor Ron de Santos lawmakers
appropriated nearly seven hundred
million dollars for clean water
Everglades restoration and other
environmental needs one South Florida
lawmaker at the center of it all is
state senator Perry Thurston of Fort
Lauderdale he is a Democrat representing
the 33rd Senate District which is much
of Central and North Broward County and
represents the state in so many ways as
well good morning good morning it was
good to be here
yeah welcome home it's good to be home
well we are glad you were here we regret
we could not convince a Republican
lawmaker to come and present another
point of view but Glenna and i will do
our best but first if we can senator
what's the headline coming out of the
legislative session into just yesterday
afternoon well I like the governor I
have a different taking I think we got a
chance to see the problems with a
one-party rule system where you have an
anti-immigrant flavor and a pro-gun
legislation and a total disregard for
the will of the people the one-party
rule really has been in effect in this
state for probably 20 years or so what
was different this time well I think
that it seems as though the Republicans
were a little bit more emboldened
emboldened I baby by the changes on the
Supreme Court or some other aspects of
what's going on excuse me and a governor
who actually got along with lawmakers
has supposed to Rick Scott who had an
on-again off-again relationship I would
agree I think that certainly the new
governor was engaged and that problem
made a difference but but I still think
that the outcome is that it doesn't
benefit the people of the state of
Florida we
to parties to address all the issues and
concerns even though we're dressed in by
major party line vote that didn't stop
the legislation you know senator one of
the most controversial bills what we've
been talking about it here for a couple
of weeks is the arming of teachers
expanding the Guardian program to arm
teachers right now there is a full-on
press by opponents to get the governor
to veto at which he will not do but what
what changed in the last year because
last year's legislature right after the
Marjory Stoneman Douglas high massacre
when when really unprecedented gun
safety legislation was passed that
wasn't part of it no it working out well
what that was a compromise last year if
you remember we went to the wee hours of
the morning making sure that teachers
did not have guns and you had all of the
students for Marjory Stoneman Douglas
this is one their number one priority so
when we have a commission that say
they're following the will of the people
that's not the will of the people we
pointed out that every editorial across
the state the parent Teachers
Association the students to teachers
nobody wanted this all we can surmise is
that it's on someone's agenda possibly
the NRA well you know the the part of
the program is the districts have to opt
in Dade and Broward have already
stipulated they will not opt in so
what's wrong with having the ability to
opt in especially for some of the rural
school districts where the tone of tenor
is much different well what's wrong with
it is this if you take a teacher right
out of college who has a desire to teach
and to motivate children but not a
desire even in a rural area to carry a
gun but now because that's there I'm
going to be sort of nudged and pressured
to do that there that's going to be a
problem
along with the fact that this we don't
pay teachers we don't want to give them
annual contract we don't want to secure
their position but yet we want to put
them in a position to have to be law
enforcement in solitary just let's let's
move on to the sanctuary cities bill
this was another kind of big ticket item
and of course I think governor
the Santa says he supports that he's
going to sign it so local law
enforcement henceforth if they get a
immigration detention detainer from ice
they're going to have to essentially act
as ice agents but they already do in
Broward and miami-dade well why did the
legislature feel moved to to pass this
bill well I think it goes farther than
local law enforcement I think it goes to
agencies like DCF anybody who comes in
contact when an undocumented individual
will now be required to turn them over
to ice and I think that it's a attack on
the immigrant community for no apparent
reason
you know we passed resolution banning
the leadership in Venezuela but with
this legislation right here someone
who's in this country who's undocumented
stopped for a parking ticket or bad life
will be subject to indifference we would
point out do not have TPS that they are
not here I mean they're here legally on
a visa but they do not have temporary
protected status and you know we pointed
out in this is my point you know we are
a country of immigrants we pointed out
that there was no Native Americans on
either side of the owl's so all of us
came here from someway and we've all
contributed to the culture and the
vibrant and the strength of this
community you have this anti-immigrant
bent and we don't know where it's coming
so you're not convinced that this was a
past as a public safety law by the
Republicans so you're not convinced that
this this really is a nod to safety and
addressing criminal undocumented
immigrants which is what the the law is
supposed to do well that criminality can
be the simple fact of not having your
papers yeah not that you committed a
crime and the reason we know that is we
file several amendments clarifying that
see the rhetoric is that it's criminals
but when we say well that's not what the
words say here's an amendment to clarify
that so there would be no confusion all
voted down yeah
and that shows me that there is a
concern senator let me go back just for
a moment to the voucher issue this new
voucher that's going to allow
18,000 or so students to attend private
or maybe religious schools there was
this court case 2007 governor Bush tried
to get this through and the state
Supreme Court said it's unconstitutional
well we have a new Supreme Court what do
you think they will do I don't want to
try to predict these are three good men
and women who have joined the court some
from the third District Court of Appeal
here in Miami what do you think's gonna
happen
first of all we're talking millions and
millions of dollars from general revenue
which is why that was blocked and Bush v
Holmes what what 100 we had 136 but
we'll take one-third millions of dollars
taken from general revenue that can be
used for public schools it was blocked
before in the case that you referenced
Bush v Holmes you know when you get new
Supreme Court justices the law doesn't
change based on the makeup of the
judicial the members who are there so I
think that what did as you say we're not
gonna predict what they're going to do
but it's going to be a test of the
impartial independence of our judiciary
you know what's interesting though the
the family empowerment vouchers as
they're called the this is something
that is championed in many of the
communities where the schools are the
most fragile and the most challenged and
many of them you or your constituents
really like the idea of having a voucher
with money to choose where their student
were their child goals some of the
people in my community champion that 90
percent of the students in my community
attend public school and what they were
champion more is bringing these schools
up to the level of all schools and
having them have the same accountability
so is that an either/or situation I mean
why not really prioritize making public
schools better yet have the choice give
the choice to people and families to go
to the schools they want I can tell you
this 100 percent of the people in our
caucus on our side of all al who favor
public schools you adequately fund those
public schools and bring them up to the
level you won't get the opposition that
you get but if you look at over the
course of the last year's and you saw a
real good indication based on
president's leads argument against
further expansion
vultures you look at what's been
happening in Tallahassee for the last 20
years there's an unholy connection
between these charter schools and the
Florida Legislature a senator Thurston
you had one mandate you and your fellow
lawmakers passed the budget and you did
yesterday 91 billion dollars and stuck
down in that budget are millions and
millions of dollars of appropriations
for local projects now Rick Scott when
he was governor was famous for
exercising a line-item veto you
certainly have some projects for your
district for Broward County what's kind
of happy to those well well absolutely
we're hoping that the current governor
will do a lot better than a rich got who
was horrendous to South Florida and
South Florida that I'm a dad is a donor
County we send a lot of money into
Tallahassee and don't get near the
benefits that we should be receiving we
should do an analysis on that but there
are a lot of good things in the budget
especially for environment and some
project for our community we would like
to see those not get slashed and burned
by the veto authority of the governor
thanks for the lightning round we can
talk to much more about all kinds of
things and invite you back and it has
been as these new laws progressed like
the lightning round is just an
indication that there's so much going on
in town