It was a frigid morning in the shadow of St. Pete City Hall as activists sought to call out Florida's legislative leaders for a similarly icy attitude toward things like home rule and economic opportunity.
The event was one of several around the state orchestrated by the progressive group Awake the State in conjunction with groups like union-backed Fight for $15 and others. The aim was to highlight the progressive wishlist the groups share, one that in recent years, Tallahassee's most powerful haven't exactly been enthused to receive, let alone execute.
“We think that everyday Floridians, their issues are getting ignored in favor of what corporations and their army of lobbyists want to see happen,” said Mark Ferrulo, director of the nonprofit Progress Florida.
Among bills over which the diverse group expressed concern were one that would essentially make it impossible for the women's health nonprofit Planned Parenthood to operate, one that would legalize and regulate the practice of hydraulic fracturing, also known as "fracking" and several dealing harshly with undocumented workers.
"Here in Florida we are not immune to hateful rhetoric and discriminatory legislation. For the upcoming legislative session, there are seven bills slated for legislation that criminalize mothers, fathers, even children, and separate families," said Maria Jose Hayes, an organizer with Florida Public Service Union/SEIU. “We are not your scapegoats. We are not your chess pieces to be used for political gains. We are hard-working Floridians."
Members of the SEIU-backed Fight for $15 movement called for a $15 minimum wage as well, pointing to what they deem a disproportionate amount of anguish and stress placed on those who make barely over $8 an hour at, say, a hotel, nursing home or fast-food joint while executives of those same companies might make millions.
“It is the low-wage workers that keep these corporations running," said childcare worker Demetria Adkins. "It is the low-wage workers that need your help right now … we have millions of people that can't afford to pay rent, transportation, food and other needs that they need for their families. So we're asking our legislators in Tampa and Tallahassee to support 52 percent of workers in Florida that make under $15 an hour in Florida. It is because of our work — let me repeat this — it is because of our work that these corporations are able to rack up billions of dollars of money.”
Newly inaugurated St. Pete City Councilwoman Lisa Wheeler-Brown, whose district comprises some of the county's most impoverished areas, echoed the call for a living wage for all.
“We are not asking Tallahassee anything," she said. "We are demanding that you pay us what we deserve. No one should have to worry about putting food on their table, keeping a roof over their head. We live in America.”
It was Councilwoman Darden Rice who talked about the grim reality of Tallahassee's penchant for trying to negate local laws that don't correspond to the interests of powerful industries, such as utilities and oil and gas companies.
The latest attempt to preempt local ordinances comes in "the form of a ban on banning fracking. As oil and gas companies have sought to pour noxious chemicals into the earth's crust with the hope of sucking up some precious fossil fuels, cities and counties have passed fracking bans. As with popular local policies, state lawmakers don't like it.
“Think of all the things the state has already tried to preempt, that stops your local council members from trying to protect our community: banning plastic bags," Rice said. "We had to hustle a few years ago to get our fertilizer in place before the state preempted that. We had to hustle last year to get a wage theft ordinance in place before the state preempted that. I can't even propose an outdoor smoking ban at a playground because the state has preempted me on that. Let's not forget gun safety laws.”
There were also a couple of items the assembled activists reckoned were missing from lawmakers' agenda.
One is the potential acceptance of millions in federal Medicaid money that would help thousands of Floridians get health insurance coverage.
“If it's up to Governor Scott and the current leadership of the legislature, nearly 600,000 Floridians are going to go without health care once again because we're just going to refuse federal money that is ready to be handed to us, but unfortunately they'd rather play political games and kowtow to their corporate puppet masters," Ferrulo said.
This article appears in Jan 7-13, 2016.