Winning. Governor Ron DeSantis signs HB 1421 to improve school safety in Florida Photo by: Marta Lavandier/AP FILE - Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis speaks at Miami's Freedom Tower, on Monday, May 9, 2022, in Miami. (AP Photo/Marta Lavandier, File) By: The Office of Gov. Ron DeSantis Posted at 11:34 AM, Jun 07, 2022 and last updated 11:34 AM, Jun 07, 2022 TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Today, Governor Ron DeSantis signed HB 1421, which takes several measures to improve school safety in Florida. The steps taken by HB 1421 build on legislation over the last three years to implement the additional recommendations of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Commission to make schools safer and improve youth mental health in Florida. In the Freedom First Budget, Governor DeSantis also approved a record $140 million for mental health and $210 million for school safety, including school hardening grants and youth mental health awareness and assistance training. HB 1421 does the following: Extends the sunset of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Commission; Authorizes the Commissioner of Education to enforce, rather than just oversee, school safety and security compliance; Authorizes safe school officers to make arrests on charter school property; Requires all safe school officers to complete crisis intervention and training to improve knowledge and skills for response and de-escalate incidents on school premises; Requires law enforcement officers to be present and involved in active assailant emergency drills; Requires school boards to adopt family reunification plans in the event of an evacuation; and Requires that school districts must annually certify that at least 80 percent of school personnel have received mandatory youth mental health awareness training. “Every child needs a safe and secure learning environment,” said Governor Ron DeSantis. “By signing HB 1421, we continue to build on the many steps we have taken since 2019 to implement the recommendations of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas Public Safety Commission, while also making record investments in mental health and school safety.” “This legislation is a huge leap forward in school safety,” said State Board of Education Member Ryan Petty.“I want to thank Governor DeSantis for his bold leadership on this most fundamental issue. Nothing is more important than providing safe and secure learning environments for our children and educators. Extending the Commission’s work and requiring mental health and de-escalation training for safe-school officers will make a major difference in mitigating the risk of a future tragedy.” “Every parent deserves to know their child is safe at school,” said Tony Montalto, President of Stand with Parkland. “This new law, which passed unanimously through the Florida Legislature, is an important next step in providing school safety assurances to families and students. Florida will continue to do everything possible to make sure our schools meet the highest safety standards and that mental health issues associated with school violence are being addressed.” Since 2019, Governor DeSantis has has increased the amount of funding for these initiatives annually. In 2021, the Governor signed SB 590, which required school administrators to gather data on involuntary examinations of students and report data to the Department of Education (DOE); required school safety officers to receive mental health training; and required schools to give timely notification of threats, unlawful acts, and significant emergencies. In Fiscal Year 2021-2022, the Governor signed $368 million in the budget for school safety and mental health funding, including: $120 million for the Mental Health Assistance Allocation, an increase of $20 million over the previous year; $180 million maintained for the Safe Schools component of the Florida Education Finance Program (FEFP); and $6.5 million for the Coach Aaron Feis Guardian Program to train teachers and staff for emergencies. These bills strengthened the protection of children by increasing communication and notifications prior to a student being subjected to an involuntary examination, and required additional mental health training for teachers and students in teacher preparation programs. In 2020, the Governor signed Senate Bill (SB) 70, Alyssa’s Law, which required DOE to utilize funding and work with public schools to implement a panic alert system to ensure real-time coordination between first responders. For the 2020-2021 Fiscal Year, the Governor signed $342 million for school safety and mental health funding, including: $100 million for Mental Health Assistance Allocation, an increase of $25 million over the previous year; $180 million maintained for the Safe Schools component of the FEFP; $3 million for recurring funding to gather an analyze data from social media and state agencies; and $8 million for Alyssa’s Law, to implement a panic alert system between schools and emergency services. In 2019, the Governor enacted legislation to implement school safety recommendations of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Commission and issued Executive Order 19-45 to require the Department of Education to communicate best practices for school safety to all school districts. In Fiscal Year 2019-2020, the Governor approved $317 million for school safety and mental health funding including: $180 million for the Safe Schools component of the FEFP; Over $80 million for Mental Health Assistance Allocation and for Youth Mental Health awareness; and $50 million for school hardening grants to improve security of school campuses.
Number 1 in complete bullshiat. By the way New York is the U.S. State that is Number 1 in foreign tourism, Florida does not even come close.
Post your source. I don't know if they are referring to dollars or visits, but you apparently do. So post the numbers.
Year after year.... New York has been number one. Whether dollars or visitors. This can be determined with the most simple of Google searches. Go educate yourself.
So "go google", no source. I knew you'd say that, and I did google - New York shows up on some, but only some. And its number of tourists. Florida beats it in dollars. Hawaii and Nevada show up in others, beating New York solidly, and so does California. Something smells like bullshit, and you're in it.
Let's see what the Wall Street Journal has to say... DeSantis Harpoons the Tampa Bay Rays Vetoing sports subsidies is good policy, but emulating woke cancelers is a mistake. https://www.wsj.com/articles/ron-de...ssives-politics-11654543401?mod=hp_opin_pos_1
Let's take a look at the other shenanigans that DeSantis has been pulling which undermine the pocketbooks of the residents of Florida. In this example he is sticking it to Florida residents to improve his re-election chances in November. DeSantis’ aide first pitched October gas tax break, emails show The emails rebut the narrative that lawmakers proposed the October break, which will go into effect right before the election. https://www.tampabay.com/news/flori...st-pitched-october-gas-tax-break-emails-show/ TALLAHASSEE — Gas prices hit another record high Tuesday, but Floridians must wait nearly four months before they can save 25 cents on every gallon at the pump. They may have Gov. Ron DeSantis to thank for not only the tax break — but for the wait. Although GOP lawmakers took credit for cutting the gas tax this October, emails show that a top DeSantis aide suggested it first. Days after DeSantis publicly calledf or a five-month suspension of Florida’s gas tax last year, his team drafted legislation to delay the break until October. Republican lawmakers said they decided on October because it’s the month with the fewest tourists, although data doesn’t support that claim. Lawmakers said they wanted to ensure Floridians, not tourists, would benefit from the tax break. But critics note that October is also a crucial month for DeSantis’ reelection campaign. It’s when voters start casting ballots for him and his Democratic challenger in the November governor’s race. “People need relief now but their Legislature wants to wait until October to provide it,” said Sen. Annette Taddeo, D-Miami, after lawmakers passed the cut in March. Taddeo had been running for governor, but this week dropped her bid to run for a congressional seat. “Everything here is political and about elections — it is not about taking care of people.” Since DeSantis signed the October gas tax cut into law last month, gas prices have continued to rise, reaching a record average of $4.768 per gallon Tuesday, according to AAA. ‘Put this in bill drafting’ DeSantis first proposed cutting the gas tax on Nov. 22 last year, blaming President Joe Biden for rising gas prices. “We want to protect Floridians as much as we can against the inflation that we’re seeing,” the governor said. He called on the Legislature to temporarily cancel the gas tax for roughly six months. Nine days later, DeSantis’ director of legislative affairs, Stephanie Kopelousos, drafted legislation to make the cut for October only. “Can you please put this in bill drafting?”she wrote on Dec. 1 to Dee Alexander, an aide to Sen. Aaron Bean, R-Fernandina Beach, the vice-chairperson of the Senate’s Appropriations Committee. The draft legislation was among dozens of bills DeSantis’ office asked senators to file and sponsor ahead of this year’s legislative session. When DeSantis released his proposed budget eight days later, it called for a five-month reprieve from the state’s gas tax, using $1 billion in federal stimulus dollars to fill the hole in the state’s transportation trust fund. Yet on Dec. 15, Bean’s aide responded to Kopelousos with a slightly modified bill that still included an October timeline. Later that month, and into the first week of January, DeSantis’ office and the Senate worked together to rewrite the legislation to have the tax break last from July 1 to Nov. 30. A five-month tax break was the governor’s intent all along, according to DeSantis spokesperson Bryan Griffin, who produced emails from other DeSantis advisors in January advocating for the longer break. He said that the Legislature was to blame for wanting the October break. “In the course of the legislative process, the governor’s tax holiday idea was adopted but ultimately written by the Legislature to only run for one month,” Griffin said in an email. “It is our understanding that October was selected because it follows peak summer tourism season, so the tax holiday would inure to the greatest benefit of Florida residents rather than out-of-state visitors.” When asked why DeSantis’ aide, Kopelousos, first requested an October timeline, Griffin did not say. Why October? After publicly resisting cutting the gas tax, the Legislature’s two budget writers made a surprise announcement during the final days of the legislative session that they agreed to cut it, but only during October. Sen. Kelli Stargel, R-Lakeland, told reporters that it was because May and October were the months with the fewest tourists, which meant that Floridians would benefit from the cut more than people from out of state. “It had nothing to do with the election,” she said. The decision to pass a motor fuel tax break, but wait months to implement it, is unusual among the handful of states that have imposed such holidays this year. About the same time as Florida lawmakers announced the October cut, Georgia lawmakers voted to cut their 29 cent gas tax immediately. Republican Gov. Brian Kemp recently extended the cut until July 14. There is no official data to back up the claim that October or May are the lowest months for tourism. Visit Florida, the agency that produces the state’s official tourism estimates, doesn’t have monthly figures and doesn’t know anyone who does, a spokesperson for the agency said. (The agency produces tourism estimates quarterly.) Senators relied on the state’s monthly tax collection reports, Senate spokesperson Katie Bettasaid, which include six categories, of which “tourism” is one. “In the tourism category, October has been the lowest month for the last decade, which is the time period our staff evaluated,” she said. But the state’s monthly reports reflect economic activity for the month prior, those reports caution, so October reports reflect activity largely from September. On top of that, the “tourism” category includes in-state spending by Floridians, such as Floridians going out to eat, which watersdown the metric. When asked whether senators took that into account, Betta said, “Our staff evaluated many data points, all of which point to the early fall — October timeframe that was chosen.” Other data does not support that October is the month with the fewest tourists. Between 2017 and 2019, February was the lowest month for motor fuel consumption in the state, followed by September. In those same years, September was the lowest month for local governments collecting tourist development taxes, although that data reflects economic activity from August. As one of Florida’s primary economic drivers, tourism is surprisingly consistent year-round. In 2019, the year before the pandemic, the fourth quarter saw 30.8 million tourists, the lowest of the quarters, while the first quarter, the highest, saw 35.5 million — a swing of only 15%, according to Visit Florida’s estimates. Last year, the difference between the fourth quarter (the lowest) and the third quarter (the highest) was less than 5%. Bean, whose aide drafted the language requested by Kopelousos, said he didn’t know precisely how his office settled on October. “I know right now, I could use a quarter off my gas,” Bean said. “Whatever it is (in October), hopefully Floridians will appreciate that we give them back their money, because it is their money.”