DeSantis Lays Out 2026 Budget Priorities

gone want them completely eliminated 34% want them cut 87% admitted that cutting property tax is probably going to hurt some local services, but a lot of them are okay with that in this poll. If they knew the details, though, maybe that would change. That's a good point, Chris. That's a good point. I mean, that pays for the trash pickup. So then what happens? Do we only get our trash picked up once a week instead of twice a week? Like, are those the kind of things that were going to have to sacrifice? Yeah, it's going to stink. Right. Now, 80% of voters. in this survey believe landlords should pass along any tax savings to tenants through lower rent. Yeah, right. Good luck with that. But, and this is another key point, when voters are asked what cost of living issue they want tackle first. property insurance still beats property taxes. Yes, and I kind of feel like last year we talked a lot about property insurance, property insurance, and then all of a sudden this property tax thing kind of popped up. And some people, I think, you hear the word property, and you don't think. And the insurance is still a huge problem. And for a lot of people, their property insurance has gone up way more than their property taxes have. Yeah. And what I also thought was notable about that finding is that despite uh what we're hearing from officials here in florida that the situation is getting better it's getting better it's getting better clearly people still not feeling it if that's still their top issue. Yeah, well, and it's not just the cost of the property insurance, which has gone up. It's the fact that if you do file a claim, you're getting screwed. Yeah, it's a complete mess. And on that note, this is an interesting new story that the legislature is, you know, looking to accomplish in this upcoming session. Yeah, Ron DeSantis is writing the state for a so-called artificial intelligence bill of rights. It's legislation that could help Floridians and fights with insurers. when they make claims. So Representative Hillary Castle has a measure that would mandate qualified human professionals. Guaranteed human. Right. Just like us. To review these insurance claims. And rather than allowing companies to just sort of shift that task to AI tools and algorithms that are probably assigned to find the best way to not pay the claims. Exactly right. I believe that's the prompt. Find a way out of this claim. Yes. That's right. And then, you know, if you have a complaint about it, and you call the insurance company, they're like, well, that's just what we determine. Yeah. You know, you're out of luck as opposed to somebody who actually reviewed the case. So this is an interesting.

state of affairs in the sense that there are many other states and President Trump, who want to ban states from having restrictions on AI. Right. Florida is taking a leading role in trying to implement some different AI regulation measures. This one makes a lot of sense to me. Basically, a real person has to sign off on any denial, and if there were AI tools used, they have to explain it. Now, the American Property and Casualty Insurance Association, they said the bill could slow down processing and drive up consumer costs by limiting AI tools that reduce errors. But to me, that's not what this bill does. the AI tool, you just have to have a real person answer for it and explain it. So... Right. One of my friends works for a health insurance company and she's been working on this project where they're using an AI tool to look at some of the claims and then she has to go back and verify it while they program the AI tool. She said it's the worst project she's ever had to work on. She hates her job right now. Yeah. Like I can understand utilizing AI in certain areas to make it more efficient or things like that. But again, it's what is the prompt that they're putting in for this AI stuff. And then you've got to have somebody double checking us and somebody who can answer to. the person who filed the claim so they can get, you know, the information they need about what happened. Right. Exactly. A student holding a musical instrument as if it were a gun prompted an alert that resulted in a code read at a school in Oviedo in the Orlando area. Lawton Child's Middle School placed on a brief lockdown on Tuesday morning after an automated weapons detection system detected a student holding a clarinet like a rifle. Yeah, this is why you need a real person behind some of that AI stuff. This is exactly why. But then again, you know, on camera, you could see where, like, you know, it looks like a bunch of, like, triggers on the side or something. I mean. I guess. But then the sounds emanating from, yeah, not quite the same as gunshots being fired or anything like that. A little different. Well, that student could play. Yeah, pretty good. So the principal, Melissa Laudani, said that, look, we have multiple layers of school safety, including this automated system that detects potential threats. So, you know, if somebody's walking down the hallway, as we have seen in schools around the state and in other parts of the country, that appear to be a weapon, this is supposed to trigger the code red. And unfortunately, it was a musical instrument, and it turned out to be a false alarm. But I think what they're saying is, in effect, the system did its job. Right, right. And there was another case. I forget where it was. Maybe it was Maryland where it was a bag of Doritos. that was mistaken for a weapon and that triggered a whole thing. She's about as a bag of Doritos look like a weapon. I don't know. Red die number 40. There's some kinks that need to be worked out. But I wonder as a parent, Dana, would you rather have this in place than not? Yeah, I think so. I think it makes a lot of sense. Yeah, and it would probably ease the kids too. My son gets nervous about this stuff sometimes. So, yeah, it's a good way to make you feel better about it. Right. Just make sure, you know, if they got the clarinet.

They're doing this and not, you know. Don't hold it like a rifle. Holding it like a weapon, exactly. All right. Chris Trankman with today's top stories. Chris, thanks so much. Thank you. Start with today's top stories and Natalie Rodriguez. Good morning, Natalie. Good morning. Well, the pendulum is swinging toward Democrats. Those words from Nikki Free, chair of the Florida Democratic Party, following former County Commissioner Eileen Higgins win to become the city's next mayor. Everybody was watching this race as kind of a bellwether of a test of Republican stronghold here in the state of Florida, but also for the rest of the Congress. country. And what we've been able to illustrate here in Miami is when we organize, when we have an exceptional candidates that are talking about the kitchen table issues, we win every day. The race drawing national interests from former President Obama's endorsement of Higgins to President Trump endorsing former city manager Emilio Gonzalez, who very eloquently as soon as the results came in, congratulated Higgins and said he stands by her as the next mayor of the city because now we just have to move forward. Yeah, there was no, you know, the whole thing was rigged or anything like that. It was just your normal, like, old school concession. A couple things. I think Democrats should probably say. slow their role just a bit. Again, she's getting a little ahead of herself. Yeah, it was a good win for Democrats in Miami. Also, they overperformed in like that Senate District 11 special election. Nikki Fried was highlighting Hernando County results in that election. The margin for Republicans shrank from 34 points last year to six points this week. I would just... Note that, look, I come from Hernando County. Hernandez County ain't going blue anytime soon. And that margin, I would bet in the midterm is going to go back up. Maybe not 34 points, but it ain't going to be six points. And look, I think one thing that Democrats have to recognize here that I haven't heard a lot about, especially at the national level, Eileen Higgins isn't a socialist. You know, helps when you run a candidate who can build broader coalitions and doesn't alienate a bunch of, I mean, we're talking about some of the things that she's looking to do earlier in the show in the 6 o'clock hour. She's looking to do in permitting reform. Okay. It's not looking at handing out, you know, a bunch of free stuff like Zohran Mamdani, pie in the sky type stuff. So, you know, if Democrats are going to run candidates that can win over some independents, maybe some disaffected Republicans and still turn out their base because they want to push back against Trump, then they'll have a good midterm election. If you're going to run a bunch of Zohran Mamdani's all across the country, including in areas where it could be a tight race, then you're not going to do as well. So it really just depends on, you know, what... strategy is going into the midterms. And for Florida Democrats, I'm not buying that they can change things here in Florida until I see it.

because they just haven't been able to do it. They get outperformed every single time by Republicans who are more organized. Now they have a big voter registration advantage in this state. So I would think, you know, if I had to put money on it, I would say 2026 is probably going to be a bit better for Democrats than Republicans. But I would be even more cautious saying that in Florida, where we've seen there's been a red wall that's blocked some blue waves in recent years. What else is going on, Natalie? Venezuelan opposition leader and Nobel Peace Prize recipient Maria Corina Machado appearing in public for the first time in 11 months after a daring escape from her homeland. She addressed the public yesterday and this morning she is talking about that U.S. seizure of the oil tanker said to be transporting sanctioned oil to Iran off the coast of her homeland. I believe there's no other generation in the history of Venezuela that is... that loves more freedom, our family, and our soul or territory, the possibility of actually being in your homeland, in moving freely, in your homeland. Because we have lost that. Now, in a post on X, Attorney General Pam Bondi said that the ship, in fact, had been sanctioned for years over its alleged involvement in an oil shipping network supporting terrorist groups. And Maria Corina Machado supports that statement. The move comes as tensions have escalated between President Trump and dictator Nicolas Maduro, who Senator Rick Scott earlier this week said. Come Christmas, he's going to be out of there one way or the other. Well, let's hope so. So the seizure of the oil tanker, apparently it came just hours after Maria Corina Machado managed to escape the country on a boat. And apparently her team had to inform the U.S. military that she was escaping so they wouldn't mistake her boat for an alleged narco terrorist boat and bomb it. Like, hey. She said that they had their hands on in her escape, that they actually enabled her transport from Venezuela to Jon Ossoff. So she credits the Trump administration for getting her out of their safely. Yeah, they helped get her out of there. But initially it was like, hey, you know, we've got this plan. Make sure you don't hit all. Right, right. And if you can help us, great. And she was wearing a wig in the disguise. And it was like 10 hours, this whole process. They went through 10 military checkpoints. And then she gets to the coast. They took a little bit of a break, and then she had to take that trip in the open Caribbean Sea. And it was on this little, like, wooden fishing skiff. Oh, my gosh. Yeah, I mean, the story about how this all went down is just incredible. But it's amazing to see her out of that country. And the hits keep coming for Nicholas Maduro and his Venezuelan regime. So let's hope that regime comes to an end soon. All right, let's get to one more quick story this morning. It might be the craziest one of the morning. Absolutely. So a what's believed to be heavily intoxicated doctor is facing battery charges, among other things. 39-year-old Giselle Mansour, who is an internal medicine specialist. She was listed at Mount Sinai, but I checked this morning, and Mount Sinai does not have her list. And she doesn't have a- It's gone. Yeah, she's been fired. She has a private practice in Key Biscayne. But she was caught on live camera feed by Department of Transportation. And according to the arrest report, she'd been down drinking with a friend, fine, at

restaurant. Her husband picks them up because they're not sober. An argument in the car gets heated between the friends. She pulls over to try to de-escalate the situation on the Palmetto Expressway. Well, troopers say that she kicked her hubby in the face from the back seat. She gets out of the car, jumps on the hood, and wait. But wait, it gets worse. Troopers show up. They arrest her. She starts kicking and screaming in the back seat. She refuses to get out. They try to restrain her. She spits in the face of a trooper and they tase her. She is now facing several charges, but she was granted a $3,800 bond on several of those charges. But the bond this morning is listed as... to be set on the charge of assault on an officer. Yeah, I guess she walked into like live traffic on the expressway. She sat down and just blocked all the cars. Oh my gosh. So she had herself quite a moment. And you know, you know when the husband got that call that he had to come pick them up. He's like, uh-oh, what am I getting into? He knew. This is going to go well. Now, I don't know that he knew it was going to go that badly. Yeah, well, I don't know. I looked at her Instagram, and they seemed to be very much in love. They just celebrated their three-year wedding anniversary, and she wrote a post about how he is her safe place. She's beautiful. Yeah. She's a hot doctor. Yeah, just had a really rough day, and we'll see if that relationship can survive, getting kicked in the face. Yeah, he said, I guess in court, he said through the court video call, she's my wife. to pick her up from jail yeah yeah well she's pretty hot and she's a doctor so you know yeah yeah yeah uh Natalie Rodriguez with today's top stories Natalie thanks so much you got it let's get to today's top stories with Chris Trankman good morning Chris good morning so attorneys and loved ones of a Tampa woman who was shot in the head at a birthday party in September are now suing the apartment complex over security issues So back on September 19th, 26-year-old Erinique Moore was at a pajama party at the River Tree Landing apartments when three uninvited guests showed up. And according to the attorney, Megan Bridwell, she said these people came onto the property freely because there was no control of access. There was no gate, no security cameras. There was a struggle at the party. And outside of the apartment, Lamonte Scott ran off the front porch and then fired several rounds into the apartment from outside a bedroom window. And one woman was grazed in the back of the head by a bullet, but Moore was shot in the left center part of her forehead. And she's been hospitalized at Tampa General Hospital. And x-ray shows that, you know, the bullet's path goes right through her head. Yeah, it's amazing. She's still alive. But I guess her family is saying she can have a long recovery. She's going to have to, like, relearn how to walk and talk and do all of that. This is an interesting case because...

There are some requirements here in Florida for landlords. I'm just not sure it rises to the extent that these attorneys are arguing it does where an apartment complex would have to put these security measures in place. There are a lot of apartment complexes that aren't gated that don't have security cameras and things like that. Now, if... an increase in crime or something like that is foreseeable. then landlords have a responsibility, and I was looking at kind of the statutes here, they have a responsibility to take reasonable steps to secure the premises. But now you're getting into what exactly does that require? Do they have to have 24-hour security guards? Do they have to install a gate around the property? Right. What is reasonable? This is apparently an apartment complex where there have been a number of issues, you know, In recent years, so crime is something that can be prevalent in that area, but I still don't think that would lead to... the landlord of these apartments to have to put in like a gate or something like that. Right. So it's not that there was a gate that was broken or not functioning or open when it shouldn't have been. There's just no gate. Yeah, then you're in a non-gated community and that just is what it is. Yeah. At least that was my reading of the story, right, Chris? Yeah. I mean, I think that in this particular case, the attorney is arguing that it was still the responsibility of the complex to provide that security. But if you look at the video of the place, it's just what you would expect. at a place without any gate. You can just drive up and that's what these guys did. They obviously had some issue with people there and they showed up there uninvited. But whether that's the apartment complex's responsibility is going to be a determined in court. I'm not sure that they're going to win that loss. Yeah, it's terrible what happened to this woman. It seems like they just want to find somebody to be responsible, but yeah. Yeah. A key Florida Senate committee has unanimously approved a bipartisan piece of legislation aimed at fixing problems in the state's $4 billion school voucher program. The measure came in response to a scathing report from the auditor general that detailed how funding allowed thousands of students and millions of dollars to go unaccounted for during the last academic year. So key recommendations include keeping the money that's for vouchers separated from the budget for public schools. The way it works now is lawmakers rolled the voucher funds into the general education budget as they expanded the program so all Florida kids could be eligible. But the scrambled funding has become a mess to...

keep track of yeah and obviously public schools are like well if you can't keep track of where all the money is going especially in these uh you know newly uh eligible people applying for vouchers and how is the education set up in the state supposed to function normally right basically uh part of what happened here is the state expanded uh the voucher program And so many people decided they were going to try to take advantage of it. The state couldn't keep up. They didn't have, we've talked about this before. They did not have the infrastructure in place to track all of this. And so it became a giant freaking mess. Now every voucher student is going to have a state issued ID number. I guess that could help. I don't know why that wasn't something that was put in the place to begin with. And this is the thing, though, that's going to suck for families who have their kids enrolled with this voucher system. They could have to confirm where their child is enrolled 10 times per year. So the funds don't keep going to kids who, like, switch schools or leave programs. That's a lot of follow-up. Oh, yeah, that you've got to keep saying, my kids still at this school. Right. They want to keep checking. So I get having that as a check in place. This is going to be a pain in the ass for families. Right. Why would. Wouldn't it just be that when you leave a school and go to a new school that that new school has to register it and then it's connected to that child? That sounds a little too simple, don't know? Okay. I'm here to give solutions. I'm trying to help. Remember when they first put it in, like the schools weren't even getting anymore? Yeah, yeah. It was a big problem. And you had some schools that were shutting down because of it because they needed the money and it wasn't coming to them and they didn't know when it was going to get there. So they couldn't keep operating. There was another story in the Tampa Bay Times as reading. recently and it showed how homeschooling is expanding. Oh yeah. I know a lot of people who homeschool now. Because they get money for it. Yeah, up about 6.6% since 2020. So the pandemic kind of kicked things off. And I think the growth too of like the online resources for, can you like I don't know how. homeschooling worked back when i was in say high school you would have to get all those materials and stuff yeah there's curriculum you get now it's a lot easier i think and there are groups that uh you know work together uh with other homeschoolers but the problem is they don't have any accountability right nobody really knows that they're actually doing anything at school at home. Well, one of the moms quoted in the story in the Tampa Bay Times said that she decided to homeschool her son because the public schools weren't challenging enough for him. Some people actually think that. Yeah. Some people really do think. Someone is so smart. Well, and as somebody who has a pretty smart child, there are definitely times where it feels like they have to teach to the kids that are having a harder time. Right, right, right. So then he's not being challenged. Yeah, I never had that problem. Public school was plenty different. I'm not homeschooling now. Not at all. All right, what else is going on, Chris? So if you're a resident traveling inside the state of Florida or somebody coming to visit, Florida remains a top destination for holiday travel, according to AAA. So nearly half the top 10 domestic destinations in the U.S. this holiday season are right here in Florida. Yeah, the warm weather.

Yeah, so number one is Orlando. It's not a surprise. Number two, Fort Lauderdale. Number three, Miami. And number six is Tampa. So a pretty good showing for Florida. Other top-ranked places include Los Angeles Anaheim. That's where Disneyland is located. Honolulu, Hawaii, Maui, Dallas, and... Las Vegas. Yeah, all warm weather areas. People from the northeast, the Midwest. Yeah, no one's going to the... My cousin and her two kids came last year on Christmas Day. They flew down here and it was freezing in Massachusetts. Yeah. They loved it. Yeah, they wanted to get away from that. Yeah, it was great. That's right. Nobody's going to like Anchorage. No, no. They don't even have any sun. But what's interesting is that Tampa is projected to have the worst holiday traffic in the entire country. Yeah, that is strange. There's a lot of people coming here. I get that, but there was a new study that analyzed traffic conditions, 50 largest U.S. cities for the Christmas season. Tampa ranks as the worst city for holiday travel, a 36% jump in congestion heading into Christmas. I would think that would be Orlando, because Orlando is a mess. On a normal day. Right, right. Maybe it has something to do with a lot of the people who are going to Orlando are going to Disney and you can navigate Disney, you know, without necessarily having to get stuck in traffic. No, you can't? Well, like, can you take the buses and stuff like that if you're getting around? You've got to get there first. Yeah, that's true. If you're staying in the actual resort and you don't have to get on I-4, but, I mean, it's a disaster. I mean, the problem with Tampa and Orlando is you have I-4. Yeah. One road that goes, you know, east and west and this part of the state. And if anything happens on that road, even a fender-bender, the whole interstate shuts down. It's just terrible. Yeah, and I bet part of it, too, is you got all these people coming into town from other places. They don't know where the hell they're going. Oh, no, not at all. I was going to mess up traffic in and of itself. Chris Trankman with today's top stories, Chris, thanks so much. The headlines, they move on, but the heartache and the terror, they do not. Iran and its terrorist proxies are continuing to target Israel. Hezbollah continues its attacks in the north, forcing families to live under constant threat. But Israel is not only defending her people, she is standing on the front lines against terror that threatens us all. Even when the news crews leave, the international fellowship of Christians and Jews, they remain. Every day, they are on the ground, providing life-saving aid. Now, near Israel's border with Lebanon, a Hezbollah drone recently struck the home of Yelina, widowed earlier this year, and living alone, she was trapped inside by the blast. Thankfully, she was not injured, but she remained displaced. It's hard these days, she says, but I don't want to leave. Well, as Christians, we are called to stand with God's people and pray for those defending Israel and protecting the freedoms we hold dear. I want you to join the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews in praying for the peace of Jerusalem and for the soldiers.

families, and civilians carrying the burden of this fight right now. Visit pray-I-C-J.org. That's pray-I-F-C-J.org. Thank you. The Ryan Gorman Show on News Radio, WFLA. Follow us on Facebook and Instagram at Ryan Gorman Show and find us online at Ryan Gorman Show.