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Floridians may have another minimum wage amendment to vote on in 2022 if a new proposal in the State Capitol is approved.

The proposed amendment would allow the Legislature to set a training wage below the minimum wage.

The ink is barely dry on the $15 minimum wage amendment voters overwhelmingly approved in November.

Under the minimum wage amendment passed last year, the state’s minimum wage will rise to $10 an hour this September and by an additional dollar each year until reaching $15 in 2026.

Now lawmakers are already looking to walk it back.

“The rising minimum wage is going to have an impact on teen workers. It’s going to have an impact on those with low skills,” said State Senator Jeff Brandes.

Brandes is sponsoring the new wage amendment.

It would allow the Legislature to set a lower training wage, for what he describes as hard to hire employees.

“And we’re trying to make sure that the employers aren’t putting those on the bottom of the pile, but are strongly considering those,” said Brandes.

It would apply to prisoners, people with felony convictions and Floridians aged 21 and younger.

“Those populations generally have an unemployment rate of around 25 to 30 percent, which is five or six times the state average unemployment rate,” said Brandes.

It immediately got pushback from Attorney John Morgan, who pushed the $15 minimum wage amendment.

In a tweet he suggested it would disproportionately affect people of color and promote child labor abuse.

“This is exactly what the Republicans were gonna try to do,” said Agriculture Nikki Fried, the state’s top-elected Democrat.

Fried condemned the effort.

“Senator Brandes’ proposal is not what’s in the best interest for the citizens of our state considering we just passed this amendment,” said Fried.

There is no house sponsor for the training wage amendment, which makes its future uncertain.

Even if the training wage amendment passes through the legislature with the required 3/5’s vote, it would still need at least 60 percent voter approval to become part of state constitution.

Governor Ron DeSantis and legislative leaders are going to war with big tech social media companies who they say have played fast and loose with the public square.

Companies who don’t treat everyone the same could face big fines.

In his 2018 race for Agriculture Commissioner, Republican Matt Caldwell paid Facebook to run a campaign ad showing his support of the 2nd Amendment.
Instead, it was blocked for a day.

“We were being prevented from talking about a fairly straight forward American value,” said Caldwell in a 2018 interview.

Now, pointing to the most recent election, the Governor and legislative leaders want to hold the five tech giants accountable for their decisions.

“We’re looking at protecting privacy. We’re looking at protecting people from being censored and deplatformed. And we are looking at protecting people from election interference,” said Governor Ron DeSantis.

As proposed, the legislation would allow individual consumers and the Attorney General to file lawsuits against big tech companies for blocking users or failing to follow their own terms of service.

It would also fine big tech $100,000 a day for de-platforming political candidates.

“When it comes to elections in Florida, big tech should stay out of it,” said DeSantis.

Senate President Wilton Simpson called the censorship one-sided.

“Lets be clear. They are targeting conservatives,” said Simpson.

Florida currently holds about $8 billion in big tech stocks, but calls to divest those stocks appear to be going nowhere.

“And they have market caps that this would be a drop in the bucket,” said DeSantis.

Agriculture Commissioner and Top-elected state Democrat Nikki Fried believes big tech has become a monopoly.

“Big tech has gotten too big,” said Fried.

But she said the GOP’s motivation is misguided.

“This is politics,” said Fried.

House Speaker Chris Sprowls believes Florida’s legislation can make a difference.

“They don’t have to tell people what they are doing or why they are doing it. Under our bill, they have to,” said Sprowls.

Even the Governor acknowledged Florida is just one state, but he said he hoped other states would be emboldened.

Florida’s Commissioner of Agriculture Nikki Fried is hoping to work with the new Biden Administration on a wide array of progressive issues.

In a 30-page plan announced Tuesday, the Commissioner outlined steps she hopes the new President will take to better help Florida’s environment, access to democracy, Florida farmers and rural communities.

Among the top priorities are increased access to broadband in rural areas, automatic voter registration, grants for reducing carbon emissions in agriculture and the legalization of recreational marijuana.

“Many of these ideas are ambitious, but if there was ever a time that required bold action, this is it. Because as the President said, this is no time to just build back to the ways things were before. We have to build America and Florida back better,” said Fried.

Fried is also asking for increased crop insurance options for timber farmers and a commitment from the Biden Administration to address foreign trade practices she says put Florida farmers at a disadvantage.

Florida lawmakers are trying to drum up support for liability protections for healthcare workers and long term care facility staff who have been on the frontlines fighting the pandemic.

From PPE shortages, crowded COVID wards and lockdowns at long term care facilities, health care workers on the front lines of the pandemic have faced numerous trials over the past year.

“They ran toward this crisis. They led, they cared for with dedication, with commitment,” said Mary Mayhew, President of the Florida Hospital Association.

And as lawmakers have sought pandemic liability protections for Florida businesses, they’re now hoping to provide similar legal protections for those in the health care industry.

“We should be celebrating our caregivers, not putting them at risk of being sued,” said Kathy Gallin with the Florida Health Care Association.

State Senator Jeff Brandes told us liability protections for health care workers will go further than those proposed for businesses.

“The key is, we have to recognize this is a global pandemic and physicians were given oftentimes conflicting from the CDC and other groups,” said Brandes.

Brandes said the legislation will address COVID-adjacent issues, like delayed elective procedures.

“Physicians had to make some tough calls. There are obviously some things that are included in the health care world that are not in the geral business world that we need to look at. And some of the ramifications, obviously many more of the executive orders related to the health care space than the business space, and so we want to make sure that we’re encompassing many of those conversations,” said Brandes.

The Florida Chamber found protections for healthcare works have broad support.

A new survey showed 78 percent of Floridians approve.

The Florida Chamber’s survey showed bipartisan support for pandemic liability protections for healthcare workers with 71 percent of Democrats, 75 percent of independents and 84 percent of Republicans saying they approve.

The legislation hasn’t been filed yet, but the Senator leading the charge says he expects a bill to drop in the coming days.

One in five renters and one in ten homeowners are believed to be behind on their rent or mortgage payments nationally.

In Florida, more than 47,000 eviction notices have been filed, and a handful of bills filed at the State Capitol seek to keep people in their homes.

Every day in Florida, 180 new eviction notices are being filed.

A total of 47,676 have been filed since the pandemic began according to the state courts administrator.

A legal services documentary put out by Virginia Poverty Law Center highlights the problem.

Most landlords won’t rent to someone who has been evicted.

“We’’ll check the court records and see an eviction and unfortunately, we can’t help you,” said Margaret Eaddy, a woman with a past eviction interviewed in the documentary.

In Florida legislation has been filed to require courts to send tenants and landlords to mediation.

“It’s to help level the playing field. Try to provide more process for tenants,” said House sponsor Fentrice Driskell.

Under the bill, tenants would not have to post all of their back due rent with the court, guaranteeing a hearing on the facts.

Other pending legislation would remove eviction documents from the public record.

“We allow records to be expunged and sealed for criminal offenses. Why not for the unfortunate situation of an eviction?” Said Senate sponsor Darryl Rouson.

Amanda Gill with the Florida Apartment Association worries the legislation will do more harm than good.

“This legislation would ultimately prevent housing providers from working with residents in those incidents where they would otherwise be incentivized to do so,” said Gill.

But legal services attorney Stephanie Johnson said anything to slow evictions will help people.

“To not have those evictions count against them so they can find adequate housing is important,” said Johnson.

The CDC’s national eviction moratorium has been extended through the first of April.

The national moratorium has kept most cases from going to court, but this year’s session begins March 2nd and runs through April 30th, a full month after the national moratorium is set to expire.