Taylor Swift would possibly now understand how topical her music “Florida!!!” is on the subject of the state’s political scene.
Because the State Watchdog Reporter for USA TODAY Community-Florida, I cowl the state authorities in Tallahassee. Any given day, you could find me watching a press convention with Gov. Ron DeSantis, trying by means of medical expert knowledge or interviewing state legislators in regards to the payments they’ve sponsored.
However at this time, I will be writing about Taylor’s lyrics and the way “Florida!!!” they are surely.
Florida: Taylor’s Model in comparison with DeSantis’ Model
In case you did not keep up till 4 a.m. to take heed to Taylor Swift’s new extremely anticipated album “The Tortured Poets Division” then you definitely’re one of many few who haven’t got an opinion on the music “Florida!!!”
The music, that includes Florence Welch with Florence + The Machine, depicts the state like an previous frontier city – disorderly and darkish, with homicide, binge consuming and medicines – the alternative of Gov. Ron DeSantis’ powerful “legislation and order” stance on crime.
“We’re happy with being a legislation and order state,” DeSantis stated final week as he signed 5 public security payments in St. Petersburg.
The governor has repeated the mantra at virtually each press convention this spring. Whether or not it was signing a invoice that might enable owners to take away squatters from their property or warning spring breakers in Miami, DeSantis has criticized blue states like California and has in contrast them to Florida.
“What passes muster in New York and California will not be passing muster right here,” he stated when he signed “Property Rights” invoice (HB 621) in Orlando in March.
Florida (Taylor’s model) is totally different. Her lyrics echo the Sunshine State stereotypes that DeSantis is actively making an attempt to vary.
Regardless, the verses of “Florida!!!” hit information peg after information peg in each stanza, and it is easy for me to jot down in regards to the newest in Florida politics utilizing Taylor’s skills. Possibly Technology Alpha will subscribe to the paper after this.
Bringing the warmth in ‘Florida!!!’
‘You may beat the warmth if you happen to beat the costs too’
Is Taylor speaking in regards to the warmth preemption legislation DeSantis signed final week?
The measure was in response to a Miami-Dade County proposal, which urged mandated breaks within the shade on the most well liked days – however Florida stated no and handed HB 433. It bars native governments from establishing insurance policies relating to warmth publicity necessities not in any other case required below state or federal legislation.
Throughout this 12 months’s legislative session, Sen. Jay Trumbull, R-Panama Metropolis stated he sponsored the invoice to achieve assist for a statewide mandate to comply with federal Occupational Security Well being Administration (OSHA) laws.
However the legislation has pissed off and angered some specialists and advocates for building staff and farmworkers, who say staff want extra protections, not fewer.
Florida and the odor of weed – authorized or not
‘And my pals all odor like weed or little infants, and this metropolis reeks of driving myself loopy’
Smelling like weed is one thing DeSantis has warned Floridians time and time once more could occur if a constitutional modification on the poll this November passes.
The proposal, often called Modification 3, will legalize the “non-medical private use of marijuana merchandise and marijuana equipment by an grownup” 21 or older if authorised by 60% or extra of statewide voters. It will take impact six months after the election.
DeSantis stated he thought medical marijuana was sufficient for Florida.
“This state will begin to odor like marijuana … it would scale back the standard of life,” he stated. “Can we wish to have extra marijuana in our communities? I do not suppose it’s going to work out nicely. However it’s a very, very broad modification.”
Destin will get title dropped. What about trip leases?
‘So you’re employed your life away simply to pay For a time-share down in Destin’
This session, native governments misplaced authority to the state on trip leases. The brand new legislation additionally created in a single day occupancy limits, and fines for rental violations could be capped at $500.
There have been just below 27,000 trip leases licensed with the state in 2022, a quantity seen as capturing solely a fraction of the leases possible in operation.
Lawmakers have been scrapping over trip leases for greater than a decade, advancing insurance policies that toggle between extra state management and extra hands-off. This 12 months, the state comes out on high, except DeSantis vetoes the invoice.
DeSantis hasn’t commented on the newest laws and his workplace declined to supply perception into his considering.
Florida could also be a drug, however the penalties are getting steeper
‘Florida is one hell of a drug’
If Taylor is speaking about literal medicine, that is a difficulty Florida’s lawmakers have continued to crack down on. This 12 months, Florida added tianeptine, ‘fuel station heroin,’ to the Schedule I.
In early April, DeSantis signed “Exposures of First Responders to Fentanyl” (SB 718) and stated it will “be sure that the those that put on the uniform are protected,” though medical specialists say the brand new legislation might probably trigger hurt and discourage bystanders and members of the family from calling 911 throughout an overdose.
DeSantis additionally introduced an growth of the Coordinated Opioid Restoration (CORE) Community, an effort between the state’s Division of Well being, Division of Youngsters and Households and the Company for Well being Care Administration. Its goal is to curb the variety of deaths attributable to the polluted drug provide and will probably be expanded to 29 counties.
This system, which began in 12 counties in 2022, connects folks with treatment remedy, restoration packages and peer assist.
Hurricane Florence and the Machine?
‘The hurricane with my title when it got here, I bought drunk and I dared it to clean me away’
That is Florence’s line. It is fairly apparent – Hurricane Florence hit in 2018. This 12 months, an “extraordinarily lively” hurricane season is probably going, in accordance with climate forecasters.
Final 12 months was the fourth most lively season on report. Hurricane Idalia was the one U.S. landfalling hurricane in 2023. It made landfall as a category-3 hurricane on Aug. 30 close to Keaton Seaside, Florida, inflicting storm surge inundation of seven to 12 toes and widespread rainfall flooding in Florida and all through the Southeast, NOAA stated.
Taylor can quickly get a much bigger bottle of wine in ‘Florida!!!’
‘Barricaded within the lavatory with a bottle of wine. Properly, me and my ghosts, wе had a hell of a time’
Floridians will quickly have the ability to purchase large bottles of wine – as much as 15 liters in quantity. Nebuchadnezzars ought to be on cabinets July 1.
“There was actually no public coverage cause why we must always have this (earlier) regulation and this can be a regulation that had been in place for a lot of, many many years,” DeSantis stated at a bill-signing ceremony in Wine Watch, a Fort Lauderdale wine store.
The brand new legislation additionally permits smaller huge bottles, together with 4.5-liter, 6-liter, 9-liter and 12-liter.
Taylor meets Tiger King in ‘Florida!!!’
‘And your dishonest husband disappeared, nicely, nobody asks any questions right here’
One in all Florida’s most well-known disappearing husbands was the partner of “Tiger King” star Carole Baskin, who’s asking the Florida Supreme Court docket to guard her towards a defamation lawsuit filed by the longtime assistant of her lacking former husband.
Main as much as the airing of “Tiger King,” a Netflix documentary sequence that grew to become a cult phenomenon in 2020, Baskin endeavored “to deal with a false storyline (that) urged she killed her former husband,” in accordance to authorized filings from the star.
Baskin learn aloud previous diary entries on her YouTube channel and posted on her web site accusations that McQueen, who had appeared on the present to debate Baskin’s former husband’s mysterious disappearance, embezzled and dedicated different misdeeds.
McQueen sued Baskin for defamation in Hillsborough County Circuit Court docket, however a choose there stated the assistant had no grounds to sue. A state appeals court docket disagreed with the decrease court docket.
Now Baskin is asking the state’s Supreme Court docket to weigh in, elevating the stakes on a sequence of authorized arguments encompassing the First Modification and defamation legislation.
‘Florida!!!’ meets Texas as DeSantis sends within the state guard
‘So that you pack your life away simply to attend out, the sh*tstorm again in Texas’
DeSantis talks about Texas so much at his press conferences.
The governor and members of his administration routinely blast President Joe Biden and Republican members of Congress for his or her response to the rise of immigrants coming by means of the nation’s southern border.
DeSantis reestablished the State Guard in 2022, and in February of this 12 months, he despatched greater than 1,000 Florida Nationwide Guard members and State Guard Troopers to Texas to assist cease what he referred to as “the invasion on the southern border.” They joined Freeway Patrol, Fish and Wildlife Conservation Fee and Florida Division of Legislation Enforcement members already there, a press launch stated.
Additionally in February, Taylor bought wrapped up in a conspiracy idea in regards to the president. Practically 1 in 5 Individuals, largely conservatives, believed the singer is a part of a covert effort to assist Biden win the 2024 election, in accordance with a Monmouth College ballot.
Two-thirds of Individuals, nevertheless, are supportive of Taylor’s efforts to extend voter turnout.
Taylor Swift’s Florida is aligned with newest Census knowledge
‘So take me to Florida‘
The music ends with a shout out to this chorus I am attributing to the state’s inhabitants increase. In line with the U.S. Census, Florida skilled a web migration of greater than 200,000 adults in 2022.
Come to Florida, Taylor. That is an official invitation. I will seize the Nebuchadnezzars.
USA At the moment, John Kennedy and Douglas Soule contributed background data to this story. Ana Goñi-Lessan is the State Watchdog Reporter for USA TODAY – Florida and may be reached at AGoniLessan@tallahassee.com. Comply with her on Twitter/X: @goni_lessan.