The State Senator Fighting for Her Part of Miami | Alexis Calatayud

We already had a podcast. Did

did we?

I feel like we just spoke.

We always do We always do the behind the scenes, the backdrop of

you know, like sometimes we get like uh politicians here and they're all like all buttoned up and all like stiffy and stuff. No, I like her because we try and get them on stiffy and unbuttoned. No, the great thing is that nobody sees that there were, you know, you know, they were, you know, hey, we got to do it. Listen, when we're in the cameras, we just we just flow. We just flow.

We just No, with one of those. And by the way, we had ice cream, coffee, [laughter]

and now and now we have our great

Alexis Kalatu.

There you go. Very well.

And I was

Now everybody says the the the la the last name very well.

I like the last name. Yeah.

Um and I wasn't aware that your family is so embedded in this community. It was pretty nice, you know. That was really nice.

Many years,

you know. So

grandfather, her father,

my mom's father as well. Both of my grandfathers were veterans of the

couple weeks before before. Welcome to a day in Miami, Senator.

You know what I'm saying? Now we can take off from there.

Yes.

Talk to us, Senator.

How explain Yeah. Tell us tell us a little bit about yourself for people who may not know you.

Oh, for sure. Um, so my name's Alexis Galad. Born and raised in Miami. Love it.

Um, all four of my grandparents are Cuban exiles.

Wow.

And my grandfathers fought in the Bay of Pigs invasion. Very proud.

Sure.

Of them. Um, they raised our families in Miami. Both my parents uh grew up in Westchester.

They met high school sweethearts. Coral Park.

Wow, dude. That's amazing.

1987, baby.

All right. Go ahead. [snorts]

And uh they raised me and my two brothers in West Kendall and then we moved to the Falls area about

18 years ago.

Mhm.

What high school did you go to?

I went to Westwood Christian.

Oh. Oh, yeah. It's right there. Yeah. right there on B Miller.

Mhm.

Miller. Yeah. By horse country.

And my brothers went to Killian because they wanted to play basketball. They wanted to play football at like a higher level.

They had a good program at that time. Now it's like changed a lot. But you know

Yeah.

What?

I see like kids like I saw something the other day.

No comment.

Like I saw something the other day that there was like you know like dramatic drop in enrollment to like you know in schools. You know

that was a big thing with the school. Yeah.

It's gone down from thousands of students. Now it's about 450 at Killian.

Yeah. which actually I like. I kind of like it because you have smaller class sizes I guess you know like is that better for us?

This is one of the areas that I I love to work in because the reason I ran for office to begin with was for education.

Okay.

Um that's something I mean very much embedded in the Cuban exile story is the one thing that can't be taken from you is your education. Um when you come to this country it creates your path. And so the last four years in the legislature I've been working on education non-stop. I'm actually chairwoman of higher education and uh vice chair of pre-K through 12 education. And so with declining enrollment happening across the state and across the country, we have to think about how we're going to restrengthen our public education system.

But listen, you're the perfect person to ask this then because everyone keeps asking. I had a conversation this morning about it. Um people are questioning why is that happening? I hear about vouchers. I hear about immigration. I hear like a lot of like nuances that are happening. I just thought that people were just, you know, leaving the state or something or just like less population. I'm not sure, but

it's all of the above. And and that's where the nuance comes in. A lot of folks like to have a quick and easy answer. That's not ever real. Um cost of living is one of the major drivers for young families, especially if they don't own a home. Um then they're navigating how long do I want to rent? What's my pathway to home ownership? Um, so you have more and more young families choosing not to be in Miami or moving further north, right? Even if they stay in Florida.

You do have uh a migration change in the state. You do have a declining birth rate. Fewer babies are being born.

That's another thing. Yeah. Y

we talked about that.

Yeah.

And what's up with the voucher program? I wasn't into I I wasn't very charter schools. Is that

like my daughter went to charter school and I thought it was amazing. You know, I went to public school. Obviously, I came out like a good kid, right?

[laughter]

That's questionable, but I I have nothing cuz we got a lot of heat about that. I have nothing against public schools. I came from public schools. You came from public schools.

No, no, you got heat. I never got heat. I I commented I love

and I thought that my daughter going to charter school and then she went to private school after that was amazing, you know, cuz I saw the difference, you know, and how they treated you, you know. Um

there's there's no doubt in my mind that there should be one defining principle for education. How do you help every kid express their potential?

Yeah. Okay,

that's the question. What environment is best for every kid? Not the same environment. Any parent can tell you every kid is so different.

So when we think about educational choice, we shouldn't just think about it as in a voucher private school or a charter school or a traditional public school. Did you guys know 80% of the students in Miami date county public schools do not go to the school that they're zoned for?

I did not know that. They go to another public school,

but then they're lying on the on the on the addresses. And what are they doing? Well,

no, they're not.

Well, listen, I just That was old school.

Old school.

In my time, you know, my mom's family to go to another school. Oh, I want them to go to Cole Park. Coral Park. Sorry, but Cole Park was the school in my years and 80s. I know that. But at the end of the day, and all the parents say, "Oh, but they never really verified that, you know. It was like just put your address."

There was like 19 people that were registered in my house. one guy see [laughter]

and DCF never came to check child welfare

never never

and everybody came out good

well [laughter] the ones I remember

so what they do now is they let uh the choice environment within the public school system so good like in Coral uh Cutler Bay they have this really cool marine science program that is part of their middle school and high school so you have parents in Coral Gables who their kid wants to study marine science

makes sense they send them now to Cutler Bay and that's happening all over Miami date county. So some of the variability is all the factors we mentioned. It's also the reality that there's success within Miami date county public schools in really cool programs and you can't tell from year to year if a Coral Gables kid is going to end up at the Cutler Bay School or not. And so all these variations cause instability and it takes public education champions. I consider myself one of the for one of the foremost in the Senate. I really drive policy and funding to support them to help reimagine the system.

Is is is public education at least like locally here for the county has the funding gone down at all or is it been consistent or can you talk to us a little about that?

Yeah, so how the funding is structured today and how it's been structured for 25 years is per student. So, as the number of students go down in the system pretty dramatically year-over-year,

you get less money. Yeah.

Um, you're educating fewer students, but there are some static costs that really don't change.

Of course. Of course. And is it a touchy subject to talk about like teacher pay? Like, you know, cuz I hear a lot about that in the comments, too. Like,

what's what's touchy about it? I don't know. teacher teachers teachers are the people that need to be on the first thing of payraises across the

I agree but you know we dropping these these content pieces you know we talked to the sheriff man talked to the sheriff talking about you know obviously the county is going through this budget session now and all that and talking about how we need to pay the safety and the sheriffs and everyone in the com like what's up with the teachers you know like why are we not paying the teachers more you know uh that would increase the attraction of students wanting to go to these schools

well but could could we clarify That is that under the budget of Miami Dade would

or is that a separate budget?

Yeah, great question.

So, two factors. The state pays half of the education budget for our our schools in Miami date county and then local advalorum property taxes that the school district collects pays the other half. I have but I have good news on that front. Although we have the constitutional amendment that was right

may likely pass. I was one of the advocates that carved out education funding from the property tax special amendment and the goal of that is to keep whole our education budget. That would have been a three to5 billion reduction in public education if it would been maintained. Now they're completely held harmless regardless of what happens. So

So it doesn't matter if if it passes, fine. If it doesn't pass, our teachers are good.

Hold completely harmless. And so we've invested.

That's important to say. By the way,

I got my letter in the mail. I have it here. I bought it here.

I'm glad you really really clarified that because a lot of people are, you know, listen, we all know everybody votes with their wallet and their checkbook. So then at the end of the day, you know, a lot of people are saying, well, property taxes vote like anything has to do. But we like to explain to people even though people say, "Listen, I don't care. I don't care. I don't." That's their mentality. But it's good to explain that because a lot of people don't understand that some services are going to be lost.

It's really important for every constituent, every resident, every voter to soberly analyze not just the impact on their family, but the impact to the community services they value. Yeah.

And I say that as I say when they consider

anything they vote on, they should bring that same seriousness and sobriety because this is the future of our community in every respect.

Yeah. the the stuff that I see again, you know, I'm in the comments there. So, I, you know, I kind of have a little tab on I guess our following. A lot of people complain about the fact that, you know, one year you're paying $2,000 for taxes, the property sells, and now you're paying $15,000 for taxes, and they're like, "We've been selling so many homes here. We've been selling so many new developments. Where's that difference of money going?" Like, that's usually like the biggest situation I see. Like, so how is this being spent? you know, like, you know, they're obviously, you know, just questioning where's the money going, you know, so don't you're not going to give us a break now when every year after year after year the budget's getting bigger and bigger and bigger. And that's a sentiment

and and I really can't speak to to the county, but what I can tell you is where I think we should go further in the future.

Um, exactly what you're talking about when you resell the home. When I'm talking to the residents I represent, three things have come up. One, first-time home buyers are getting hit with the highest property taxes on their block.

Crazy.

It's wrong. And it's one of the factors why families are leaving,

even if they want to essentially be house poor, live up to here and their expenses, and purchase the home in Miami. The second is portability of property taxes. I've met so many seniors who would love to downsize and essentially free up that single family home for a younger family, increase the amount of supply, supply and demand, reduce some of the costs, they can't move because if they move, they're going to pay double, triple, quadruple property taxes, downsizing,

right?

Um and and the last bit is I think we need to be really int intentional about supporting our seniors on on fixed incomes that are low and moderate income.

Yeah. They should not have to leave their homes because they can't afford the property taxes in the last years of their lives.

I agree. Sir, I've never understood this. Why is it that when you sell a home, you get reassessed? Like that doesn't make sense to me, you know, other than it's a money grab.

It's the Save Our Homes cap.

Yeah.

So, so if it's a homesteaded property, um, then you connect to the Save Our Homes and you only get a 3% increase on your assessed value year-over-year. But unless that big jump though, like buy

because save the homes belong to someone else.

So from let's say I buy a house from someone who bought it in the 90s,

it'll only be 3%. It'll be reassessed at the new price right now.

Reassessed at at uh taxable value.

Got your taxable value and then from there max 3% though.

Yeah. Like I don't get that. That's the problem. I don't understand, you know, but whatever it is what it is like that little law. We have the tax guy coming. Uh who is it? We have to

we have them coming in. And I was going to ask him that question like

so our property taxes unlike every other law in the state of Florida are in the Florida Constitution.

There we go.

So we have to amend the Florida Constitution or take it to a vote of the 60% of Flidians to amend the Constitution anytime we want to tweak property taxes. It's worth doing to modernize the system.

Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. I mean, and then the second the other thing was that, you know, people feel like they never own their homes,

you know,

but that's always been uh, you know, a topic that you pay off your house, but you still have to pay the property tax.

I mean, but these are things that I guess nowadays I feel like the discussion has is being had and for a long time people just question.

Oh, no, it's being had and and there's coming there's a Yeah, there's things happening. You know what I'm the fact of increasing the homestead exemption and then you know in a way really helps those you know senior people. It really does.

And honestly we're not and I get it. Look, we're not that bad. Like you know we had this guy here from what was

which one you always tell me. We had this guy

overseas from overseas. The guy

Oh, the guy from Right. We had our Jay

Denmark and he goes listen over there like 50 60% extra like

we have the ambassador of Denmark. Yes. Oh yes.

Yes. The amazing guy. Craziest day in the world. What can I tell you? The guy's a huge fan of the day in Miami. He's doing a tour from Denmark from he was in Washington. He came down to Miami. He was in Tampa and he went to Miami. He said, "I want to go on this guy's program."

And he came to the program and he was saying, "You guys have the best life."

Yeah. If you come to Denmark, he said, "No state tax." And we're like, we're here complaining about everything.

Denmark is like 20ome% and stuff like this. But the Europeans have kind of created this social contract over there, right? And like the economic mobility we have

doesn't exist in their countries.

Yeah.

It really doesn't.

No, no, it's it's uh it's very different. But again, I guess we've been talking about it lately, so I see it a lot in the comments and like people are just like, you know, obviously people are feeling the squeeze, you know, with inflation and everything getting more expensive and the cost of living going up and then it's like, you know, you get taxed on your income, you get taxed when you go to the store, you get taxed here. It's like, you know, so and then the moment that people ask to reduce taxes, everyone goes crazy, you know. So

I feel it. Listen, I think a lot of people say that it's not going to pass. I think it's going to pass for sure. What do

you mean they say it's not going to pass?

Some people tell me it's not going to pass. The other thing is that we need to be clear here cuz I was talking to

Who you talking to?

Um,

and at what time? [laughter]

Listen, the other situation to to finish this call,

brother. If I'm a betting guy, I will put whatever you want right now. But hear me out because this is important and I think we talked about this a little bit with Pepe uh from Ballard with Jose Felix

and and you know what you know

people don't realize this but the renters right which there's more of than homeowners

are probably going to vote for it down because there's no incentive

right if this does pass they're probably going to then tax second homes which are usually investment homes which is then going to be passed down to the renter

and The renters's going to have to pay for it

and the renters's going to take the bulk of it, you know, which is most cycles now. So, you know,

now now we're psychoanalyzing this to the team.

Yeah. So,

right.

Moving on to sea level rises. [laughter]

But still, even though even though that could happen, I don't know how many renters really out there are going to say

I think the most I haven't seen the home owners. No, I think the most important part is the way that they're going to sp like the verbiage of it when you go vote is going to be the most important thing,

right? Well, remember that's that's a tricky one. So, we got to really figure it out because remember the yes is no and the no is yes sometimes. So, we got to always you got

Have you seen the verbiage yet or no? You're not

Yes. It's out. It's pretty clear.

Oh, it's pretty clear. Like

yes is yes. I want to reduce my property taxes. No is

that's it. [laughter] That's it.

I win the passing.

Of course. But but I'll tell you, I mean, if so, I think a lot about renters because I so my first bill that I passed in the legislature was a um down payment assistance program and the state has invested $300 million into this program.

A lot of money.

It is a lot.

Yeah.

Um it's $35,000 loans at 0% interest to first-time home buyers.

Wow.

And so essentially those are that's for renters. Is that yearly or over time?

No. So,

because I've seen programs that come out yearly or until like those um there was a military program that came out again recently or until like the funding runs out, you know,

until the funding runs out. So, it's a dedicated stream of income uh of funding. Our first two years was $und00 million each year. The second two years are $50 million. I've been advocating for this money and uh I created the program and we've helped 20,000 families go from being renters to being owners in Florida. And so I think about

right now those guys are going to vote yes.

Yeah, damn right they're going to vote yes.

But you I say that to say I think a lot of renters in our community are they have their eye on the prize, right? They have their eye on the horizon of I want to live here for the rest of my life. I want my peace of Miami. And so they're thinking through what are the cost reductions that can help them be there. Both my brothers bought homes last year, their first homes.

And Yeah.

Well, they experienced their first year of their property taxes at the previous rate.

Surprise.

And they just got hit with their first real assessment.

Yes. Yeah.

So, yeah. No, I listen. I'm I'm flipping burgers at night. So,

yeah. Listen,

where you know, let's step back a little bit. I know right now you're currently uh district 38.

Yes, sir.

District 38. Can and what what

a lot of stuff going on here.

What what uh district or what geographic area does that encompass?

Yeah. So I represent southeast Miami date 550,000 people. Kiscane, Coconut Grove, Coral Gables, South Miami, Pinerest, Palmetto Bay, Cutler Bay, The Homestead Air Reserve Base, The Zoo, Nuranja, The Redlands, South Miami Heights, Gs, Princeton, uh, West Pine, Richmond Heights, The Falls, where I live, Kian, uh, East Kendall, Dade, Glenn Heights, Sunset.

Wow, you have excellent memory.

Glenber Heights, baby, right there. That's amazing.

I' I've I've been everywhere.

You've been everywhere. You've been everywhere.

Glenn Heights. Well, bring in Glamour Heights, you know. So, let's uh

No, I say why did you get why you decided to get into politics? Curious to know because we always ask that to everybody, you know.

Yeah. Like a why.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Why do you do this to yourself? I guess is the real question we ask.

That's the real question. Um

so I mentioned I'm an FIU grad. Uh my first year at FYU.

Awesome.

Woo. Go Panthers.

Yes.

My first

Look at that now.

They do that now.

Yeah. I like [laughter] it. It's okay. It's okay.

Like it's not aggressive. Like it's P up. You see like these big jack guys like going like this now like all the football players and stuff.

Oh, it's the same like the you.

Yeah, the is dope though.

This is strong.

Yeah, this is strong.

This is not so strong. This is my [laughter]

Anyways, moving along.

We love FIU.

No, we do love FIU and we love Jan and everybody out there, you know.

Yes,

huge fan.

So,

but yeah, I would consider a different, you know, whatever. Go for it. It's a good suggestion. Strong suggestion. When I was a freshman at FIU, the state legislature changed their bright future scholarships. 25% of the kids at FIU lost their scholarships.

Oh wow.

And half of the kids there were the first in their family to go to college and uh 60% are lowincome. So those kids were probably not going to graduate. I started going up to Tallahassee and ultimately to Washington to advocate for scholarships for them. if we weren't going to give them bright futures, give them need-based aid, help them move their families forward, and I fell in love with advocacy. I would keep going to Tallahassee year-over-year. I eventually ran for student body president.

No, no, you could tell. Did you win

twice? Were you an IB student? You're like, you're like one of those IB students, you know.

No, no. And uh I fell in love with it and uh I ended up working afterwards.

What a B. What a B. Those A classes and up. Oh,

no. No. ID. It's like international.

I thought you said she a B student.

No, no, no. It's like these programs where like, you know, it's like the super smart kids were always in, you know, like you you give me that vibe like you're always like the

No, I blossom later. I blossom later. So, I uh worked at a nonprofit and I trained 500 campuses across the country in student advocacy.

Love nonprofits.

Um

I decided, you know, take my talents back to South Beach. I came back home to Miami and I wanted to help young people passionate about education run for office themselves and I became a campaign manager for Andrew Vargas and Bans Lupus. Uh

Sure. I remember Vance. Yeah.

And I uh was his chief of staff for two years in the House of Representatives.

Love chief of staffs.

I helped him on early childhood education policy. Um and then I was recruited by the Florida Department of Education to lead their policy team uh during the COVID uh pandemic period. and I was part of the COVID reopening schools team. Uh, and then I was recruited to run for office. And to me, it was how can I be helpful? How can I be a meaningful addition to advocate for the future of our community that was always through education, but it became when I when I ran for office and actually became a senator, it was so much broader than education. It became very much about affordability. The first bill I passed was the down payment assistance program.

Wow. because it's not just anymore about getting that college degree. It's about being able to afford to live in your community.

Yeah, of course. Now, now you're representing everything now that you're going out there.

Yeah.

What else apart from that? What else can we Let's give an update to our viewers. What What else can you tell us that you guys have that you at least have been working advocally in what's going on? I know we have a whole bunch of stuff. We have the Underline, the Lum Trail, South Day Trail.

Yeah.

You know, a whole bunch of stuff. And you know, a lot of people are into that and what's going on right now. What's what's what's the latest and greatest that's going on with that?

Green spaces are really important, especially about when so much of our community is being, you know, is changing its face, right? Um I've worked over the last four years to bring back from Tallahassee $460 million in local investment to Miami date county.

That's awesome. And a piece of that is in the green spaces of the Underline, the Lulham Trail and the South Date Trail, trying to create spaces where families can connect with one another, where they can enjoy their neighborhoods and walk through them. And then the vision we have in the future is the shoreline and Kibiscane to continue these kind of pedestrian walkways, parallel uh linear parks. To me, it's all about family. How do you keep families in Miami? How do you elevate their quality of life? and really reconnect back to sense of community.

Yeah. Yeah. You know, I was going to ask you cuz, you know, um I don't think a lot of people understand the difficulty it is to, you know, sometimes do a job like yours. People just see politicians like, "Oh, whatever, just go out, you know, just hanging out, whatever." But how hard is it to get like $400 million, you know, which is a lot of money associated, and like bring that back to the community? what is like can you take us behind the scenes what needs to get done

you know cuz a lot of people don't understand that

I think I think

and and you have to be good at that right cuz you can't just send anybody up there you know cuz then they they won't be able to advocate properly I suppose or

not only that but it has to be a good issue you know what I'm saying it has to be something that you're really you know to her point they're they're fighting for these things which is really like you know

the whole green spaces area you know that they've been fighting for for such a long time

but you know go ahead and and take us through that process of more or less of what you know

how it work like how does it work? How how long does it take?

I mean you sit there you go we need $400 some million dollars

done. No I don't think it happens like that.

It doesn't work that way.

I asked for double that to be honest.

Oh wow. So there you go. See so you negotiate. Hey you had to negotiate.

So walk us through the process of how something like that would look like.

For sure. So politics like everything else in life is completely relational. when we go up there, it is it is what's important to my community and how do I convey that to the people who make the final decisions. We have chairman of appropriation and there's five different areas, education, healthc care, civil justice, environmental and transportation and you have to build the relationships of trust with those individual chairman. So they say, "All right, Alexis, you need 5 million, you need 10 million, you need 20 million. What do you need for your people?" And that relationship of trust matters. I also have essentially studied the the legislative process and the appropriations process. When I worked at the Department of Education, I was responsible for advocating for all the public education investment of our state. The teacher salary increases we got when I was in the department of education, we got one year $250 million for teacher salary increases. So it's also studying how how the process works. So building the relationships that the community needs to get the money and then also understanding how it works. So I did both and my team would work around the clock to make sure we didn't miss a single negotiating moment with not just the Senate that I'm a member of but with the House counterparts and you have to leverage these individual moments between negotiation. So I've become somewhat of an expert in being able to navigate that because my northstar is my people need money. My people need money for environmental resilience. My people need money for green spaces, for traffic and congestion issues, for transit across the board, particularly education. This past year, I was able to help secure $75 million to help stabilize the entire public education system with declining enrollment.

Wow.

That's stuff that takes a lot of work.

Yeah. I mean,

so now then you get the 400 million that gets sent to who? Like how does that get applied? How runs usually take? Can you take

it's not like a check for

That's what I'm saying. No, I assume, you know, but

right. No, we're not getting it. I know.

I know. But a lot of people a lot of people think it's like, you know, you run a check for it. It doesn't work.

How does that process does the state I guess follow up with the projects? You have to like submit project, you know, details or anything like that.

Absolutely. I give you an example. One of my favorites I worked on with the South Dade Ministerial Alliance. These are major uh uh major African-American churches that riddle from Richmond Heights all the way down to Florida City. And we have created a supplemental program for their elder feeding programs and their youth services that are scaling up their operations uh to 3x and able to support more families that need it. Um that was one of my favorite initiatives. We invested $350 million into their programs. Um, one of the other ones that I'm really passionate about is FIU's partnership with Baptist, the Wartheim College of Medicine at FYU and Baptist Health. We've now fully funded the partnership, $200 million.

I saw that. Yeah, that's amazing.

It's going to be as significant as some of the other major uh university and and uh health collaborations. By the way, I'm a governing board member of the public health trust for Jackson and I really see the vision of health care access in our community broadening and expanding by these types of investments. But it's piece by piece uh yearbyear continued meaningful investment with a northstar. We need to have vision in this community. Too long we've had two or four year spurts of what we think we should do based on politicians election cycles. This is one of the benefits of being a younger member. I'm 32. I'm going to live in Miami for the rest of my life. I want this community in 15, 30, 60 years to be prepared for the challenges of the day.

And I'd say more than that, the issues that Miami experiences today are the ones that the rest of the state will experience in 10 years. We can build the solutions for the challenges that other people haven't even experienced yet.

That's a very good point. You have a little mayoral talk there, county mayor talk there, you know, like

she has the vibe for it.

I know, but you know, you I don't know if you can do a little bit more over there as a state senator

probably, right? Yeah.

Getting more more more help.

Would that be like a You're going down or

I don't know. I mean, that that's like

to be clear, I very much enjoy being a states.

I know. I know. I know. I know. But I feel like you have the vision for someone in maybe other positions.

I don't think there's an up or down. And it really just is where you're, you know, your calling. You know what I'm saying? So, I guess that's the best way to state it. You know what I'm saying?

I'm very curious about the U Health Alcohol Tax Solution.

Oh boy.

Yeah.

Oh god. Why are we getting into that?

We worked really hard. So, Sylvester Cancer is one of the best cancer centers in the country. And um so what I wanted to do from the first time I joined the legislature is give them more support to do research, outreach, and I mean to help cancer patients in Miami.

And so to do that, we need recurring funding for those investments to be long-term focused. What we did is diverted $10 million a year from the alcohol tax to Sylvester Cancer so we can have that continued repetitive funding so they can make long-term investments into cancer care for our families.

That's a great one. That's a great So this is not we're not being taxed extra alcohol. This is already from what's already there. They're just saying, you know,

I had no idea we had an alcohol tax.

There's a lot.

I guess you just go and pay and that's it. And I just

this is what we do in this very shed light to people what's out there and explain it.

Now it makes me want to know what else is their money's being spent on, you know, like but I guess they use it for programs like that, right? That's that's good. That's good.

I mean, you have a whole bunch of of of of stuff. What what what can you give us also? You know, I know it's very important for you guys from Tallahassee to work handinhand with our local politicians.

Very important. you know, to really get things done because I think it's like uh, you know, it takes an army in the sense of like, you know, you have to have the local person in this case our our commissioners or whichever be they whatever

with our state legislators.

How important is also for you guys to work with our federal federal representation also to get money federal to the state?

It's a great question. It depends on the issue. So when I am working on Everglades restoration support and funding, we've been funding half a billion dollars a year in Everglades restoration funding from the state level, but we need the federal investment to match to continue moving those projects forward with the restoration. Another really important area for me is the affordability of young families, whether that's child care or that is health insurance. I passed legislation at my first or second year in the legislature that expanded the subsidized children's health insurance program, Kid Care. And we have been working with the federal government to approve the state's expansion because there's families that make too much for Medicaid uh but they make too little for private insurance or their company doesn't offer

space there. We expanded the eligibility by income for those families so that no no kid in Florida should go without healthare.

Healthare is expensive. Expensive.

Like I pay $700 a month and I've never gone to a doctor, you know? It's just

Maybe you should go to the doctor.

Yeah. Like [laughter]

I've never needed it and it's been years.

We are very afraid of what we're going to find.

Yeah. Years of paying this. And I'm like, I guess I'm subsidizing everybody, you know, but whatever.

But you have to have it, brother. You have.

No. No. 100% 100% 100%. These are the programs we need our federal partners for uh to approve these waiverss to invest in these programs so that we have alignment.

No, no. Extremely important. Um talking about the Everglades, what is your thoughts on everything going on with the UDB?

Yeah.

I just saw right now I don't even know I think he was within the UDB line, but they weren't too happy about the situation with Kelly Tractor,

right? I mean that was their land. They got it. They're going to do their thing there. moving their headquarters over there, etc. You know, uh, but kind of wanted to get your thoughts on that cuz people are very upset about that.

Yeah. So, I can tell you about what's happening at the state level this past legislative session.

I know. I know the state wants to move it. No,

they tried to eliminate it.

That That's not what's out there. I don't know where you heard that.

No, they did try. Somebody came in.

There's a There was I think there was a representative that said they wanted, but now you can't put now the pressure on all these representative state senators saying that they want to move the I'm happy to tell the tale.

Go ahead. Go ahead. Go ahead.

So, we had a representative that passed uh passed legislation in the House of Representatives that would allow for moving the urban development boundary to go from a super majority of all the county commissioners to a simple majority of whoever showed up that day.

Wow.

That was of the county commissioners

of the county commissioners. People get sick. People need child care. So,

no, people work.

People [laughter] work. So that was the threshold change that was coming from the state legislature.

I stopped it.

Wow.

The bill came from the house to the senate. I filed an amendment and that I'd worked on for a month and we got unanimous support, Republican and Democrat, every part of the state to support the amendment. We took that out of the bill and we killed that provision. So preserving local control of the urban development boundary at the high level of a super majority of all the county commissioners present, it's the right thing to do. Yeah. Yeah. I just felt like the state's going to say, "Nope, we're moving it." You know, but I guess it's not as easy as

that's why representation matters.

Yeah, it does.

Yeah.

But I guess that's a that that's that's a good I mean that's a very good uh you know analysis in the sense that sometimes people are not there. You know what I'm saying? To go and vote or something like that for you know [ __ ] happens.

So I do want to ask about the underline. The underline I think

we we we did speak a little about this.

Yeah. But it's been a very nice project. Uh, it's not completed yet, right? It still has some miles to go.

It's fully funded and they're finishing out the construction phase of phase 2 and phase three. So, it'll it'll be done, I think, by the end of the year or or maybe the beginning of next year.

Oh, wow. Super nice. Super nice. And that goes all the way from all the way it follows the the metro rail.

Yeah. Dade all the way to Bickl

to Bickl.

To Bickl, you know, the little domino things that you see now, you know, all that bunch of stuff. I mean, listen, at least it's something that you're doing down there. You know what I'm saying? I mean, the people can walk and ride their bikes.

Yeah. Um, so I funded through the state legislature about $3.5 million to that project, the final phases. And as I said before, whatever we can do to improve quality of life of families, connect them to each other, connect them to the places they want to go outside of a car. May

No, I think so. Senator, your door must be like the door that with the numbers, you know, like 3 million. 300 million. 200 million.

Guess what my number on my door is?

What is it?

305. Let's go for real. Yeah.

Wow.

Let's go to the 305 door.

That's amazing.

See, you're not going to get pitbull, but you are going to get the senator.

Miss Worldwide.

You're going to get you're going to get you're going to get the senator.

I'm interested to know about sea level rise studies. you know, I know that, you know, I kind of wanted to understand your position on that or kind of you can shine some light. I mean, I'm not like uh a person who doesn't believe in climate change or anything real,

you know, but you know, a lot of people, you know,

don't really worry about it too much. So, kind of wanted to get your insight on that.

Yeah. I mean, sea level rise when we think about sometimes like the beach.

Yeah.

It's in Bickl, it's in Saga Bay and Cutler Bay. There's soggy parts of our community where people can't get into their homes in a in a intense

in a when a rainstorm

in an intense thunderstorm much less a hurricane or a tropical storm. So I think about sea level rise as quality of life issues. And so what I've been doing methodically throughout my district is working with the municipal governments and the county commissioners to identify what are the most challenged spots. And we invest in subbasin projects. We invest in storm water mitigation programs, pumps all across the community that we're matching state and county, state and city dollars to roll out and improve people's quality of life.

It's kind of a blockby-block effort, but it's really going to matter as sea level rise continues, as climate change impacts our community in dramatic ways. We have to be fighting back with appropriate infrastructure upgrades. That's one thing that I commit to doing to my residents for my residents uh to keep moving the ball forward. A lot of that money I mentioned is for these type of projects. So the sea level rise studies we've been doing is to juxtapose data with actual implementation of projects on the ground.

Wow. Yeah. I mean, listen, it call it whatever you want to call it, but at the end of the day, you know, to those areas that she just mentioned, and we've talked about this here with other we've had Francis was mayor and stuff. You know, it's crazy when really when you have these these days that we've had showers and showers and you really it's uncontrollable and the fact of the gets flooded, all these people get so flooded, you know, and the fact that you really have to invest in the sense of trying to pump that water back.

Mhm.

You know what I'm saying? So then of course, you know, it's it's it's it's a part that I think a lot of people don't understand that you do need the state funding for this because the the the county or the cities can't do it alone.

They cannot do it alone.

You know what I'm saying? They need that help from the state.

I think that one of the biggest also um things of of that I would like for our viewers to understand apart from you know you have your state reps and you have your state senators. Could we take I always and I say from a from a background of of of politics but also from looking at kids I know that want to be in maybe in governmental in government. Yeah. And and

one day and and they say well

take us it this is this is a beating a lot of people to at least pointed a while ago what when you do running for politics is not as you know easy as one thinks. You know what I'm saying? I mean, a total of it. You're up there, you know, give give the viewers a little explanation. You're there like Monday through uh Thursday or Friday, you guys when you're in session every day, you know, from the morning I mean to at night sometimes trying to get bills passed and uh everybody on in some type of negotiation situation budget-wise when it comes down to the sense of passing, you know, the the budget, you know, everybody everybody sees here what's going on with the county of passing a budget, right? What does it entail? The sense of when you guys have to like sit down, roll your sleeves back and really think of the sense, okay, what's going to pass through? What's the governor gonna sign?

Right. Right.

No, more or less

in every respect. So, we're in Tallahassee four to five months of the year. But it's uh it's non-ontiguous. So, I'll be up there one week, down here two, up there two weeks, down here three, back and forth and back and forth for about four months. And what we're doing in that period of time is throwing out ideas. We submit bills. I file usually 20 to 40 bills, different ideas on how we should change the law to help people. Wow.

And that represent our community. The other part of my job is analyzing what bills other parts of the state are filing and do they hurt our community.

And so a big part of my job is reading other people's bills and trying to amend them or try to collaborate with the bill sponsor to say this is how it affects my people. Can we do it a little bit differently? And then there's a third rail of bills that are just terrible for us and they have to change or they have to die for our community to be in a good place. I view it in three ways. And then you overlay the budget. So we have now $114 billion budget. That's gone up a lot in the last five, seven years, considerably increased. What I think about a lot is that we invest a great deal of sales taxes in Miami and South Florida into that budget. We need to bring that money back down. So, I view my responsibility not just to have an oversized role in the shaping of state policy to make sure it doesn't hurt Miami and it does support our residents, but that we get more dollars back because we are investing more than any community in the state. So when I work in the process of those five months in Tallahassee, I view it through the lens of I need to be watching everything. I need to be a part of every conversation. I need to get get to the table and negotiate for us. When I mention it's all relational, they're not going to help you, right?

They're not going to listen to you. So a big piece of that is understanding that it's a dance. It's not a science. It's not a math. It's an art. Advocacy is an art and representing our community is the most incredible honor of my life. So when I'm up there, I'm diligent and I'm vigilant on what's going to help us, what's going to hurt us, and then how can I apply my voice, how can I apply my relationships to put us in a better place of success.

Yeah. Have you like the worst bill you've ever seen? You're like absolutely not. Like is there any like

we cannot support that 100% at nothing?

I probably said a UD line thing or

[laughter]

Uh that was a big one. That was a huge one. That's a huge one. You know what I'm saying? Because people would say, you know, Tanahas is going to make the decision.

Yeah.

You know what I'm saying? So to that point, you know, I mean, that is that is a pretty a big one. That is a pretty big one.

I mean, I just I I just I just feel that, you know, people need to understand a sense of like, you know, it takes a lot to run for office. You know what I'm saying? It just takes a lot to run for office and and you really have to be a person that's really dedicated

in the in the sense of of of wanting to run. I I praise everybody that wants to do it.

I I just never realized how much good you can do. I knew from the education lens of hey, I want to be up there because I want to be on the opposite side of the table. I don't just want to advocate to someone and hope they choose to do the right thing.

I want to be in

filing the bills. I want to be fighting for the bills. But now I on the other side I see the issues I've been able to work on preserving control of the urban development boundary, preserving access to HIV medications for 12,000 Flidians. Um protecting uh our public education system with the declining enrollment money. Um there there's kind of no beginning or end to the good you can do if that is how you view your role to to advance good things to stop bad things and to moderate the rest.

That's a very impressive and like you simplified the process a lot.

We're just going to have to figure out how to make TAS a little bit more exciting.

Yeah.

You know what I'm saying? Just a little tad.

We're going to day.

What did I tell you a while ago?

He's going to day.

Uh never been. But they say it's cool. You know, it's fun. But I don't know how to tell you that it's the most exciting thing that happens to Tallahassee. Yeah. Tallahassee is not the excitement. You guys are.

Yeah. Okay, cool. So, he hasn't been in years, you know, like 25 years

for reason. For good reason.

Yeah. I just thought I want to go check it out, you know.

But what did I tell you? I tell you I will be I will be a a

We're going to do personal interviews.

What is it? A trooper. And I will go with your day days. I will I will make my return to Talahasi after 20ome years. [laughter] What's up with this space spaceport territory? Because we see a lot of um of the aerospace uh industry is wanting to come down even to Kendall, you know, by the airport over there. I know Robert Gonzalez, our commissioner, pushing for a lot of that. Uh I think I just signed I just saw recently like a a company lease like a big space out there. If you can give us a little feedback on that.

Yes, absolutely. So, it's legislation that I created and passed.

Oh, wow. It creates everything we say.

She's amazing. guy. You

hitting on everything.

Hard at work over there, Senator. Good, good, good.

No, no, no, no. I'm I'm going to have to sit down and write a couple of things I want her to pass legislation on now.

Yeah, please. I'm pretty good at it.

You know, I could tell.

So, we created a financial incentive zone for companies related to aerospace in any way, whether it's the space industry or the airline industry. And what we want to do is attract manufacturing, logistics, commercial, whatever in that space. And the goal is to there's hundreds of acres above the Homestead Air Reserve base that in my opinion look like Jurassic Park.

Man, I I can't believe that's still

it's still like that.

Could you imagine the whole I'm talking about years. They they've come up with so many plans for that and nothing's ever gone through.

I'm so passionate about it. And it doesn't have to only be aerospace, but the concept is to meet the community where it's at. We have tremendous amount of housing being developed in South Dade because that's the only place land

still exists.

Um

but we don't have an industrial commercial footprint down there. So what do we have? We have traffic all day and night going north and then going south. If we had the opportunity to have a robust economic zone in that area, we could have a mitigation of traffic congestion. Yeah. and we can have real opportunity for medium and high wage jobs if we design the industry attraction correctly to that south aid region. So that's my vision. What we need going forward after this incentive zone has already been approved by the Florida legislature is collaboration with our county leaders on laying infrastructure. It's kind of like the field of dreams. You build it and they will come.

Wow. We need to develop the infrastructure in that area to bring in these companies who have many options whether that's other parts of the state. I also created a spaceport territory around Tindle Air Force Base in near Panama City Beach. So they have there and then they also have like an Austin or other places in Texas where they can put some of these aerospace companies who are really excited. I think we should have a double down approach of state, county, municipal collaboration on building out an economic zone that really challenges the status quo for South Florida.

That that'd be great. And you know, it's so funny with the

with the Homestead Air Force Base. You know, I I know that's been in play for so many years. A lot of people even Is it I mean, obviously it's still a working facility. Correct.

It is. And it looks like we are going to receive the next uh mission as it's called a new fleet of the most upgraded aircraft for the reserve base

really.

And that's the question of whether the reserve base closes or stays open whether we receive the mission of maintaining uh the new um the new uh airplanes.

I thought they were going to put like something with like the space force or something out there. No. Well, I mean I

now that I'm aware and space force should be

and now this is just my thing but is that senator do you guys you know have power over that is it still is that under federal right

completely federal

completely federal yeah yeah way back in my in in in my wild wild west years of the commission you know they thought that you know they can just come over and take over the the homestead air force base you know what I'm saying it's it's a great time to it was a great time of the day county commission

I think I would be a lot more nervous if Miami date county controlled the Arizona

listen listen it it went all the way to commission that all went you know to vote until you know everybody was voting and all these voting to 3 or 4:00 in the morning with votes and all of a sudden um the president chimed in I mean the federal government came in and goes uh by the way you guys have no uh jurisdiction [laughter] over this so all you guys have done is just been a waste of time and money just just an FYI. So I was curious to know, you know, because I remember visiting that that that place. I had a a I had a two about two good friends of mine that were on the in the reserves.

Yeah.

And then you and being in the reserve, you can go and shop there.

So you had a a store.

So imagine like a Publix or whatever, an Aldi inside the Homestead Air Force Base and you would go shop with your ID. You know what I'm saying? Obviously everything was like half the price. You know, you would get great deals if you were a a reserve. if you're a reserve person. It was that was that was the that was that was a a good moment to understand that. But that's that's incredible to me to know that

we would have to get new aircrafts or new new planes to be stationed here.

Mhm.

Yeah. Well, it makes sense. Why wouldn't we? I mean, Miami, you know, come on.

I mean, hopefully by that time already, we're already we already got Cuba liberated. You know what I'm saying? So, you know,

and that's the big that's the big need. I mean the Chinese

the whole western hemisphere as well you know from here you know Miami Panama everything else over there we can be under control you know so um before before we go what what do we have a free Cuba in the next two years

I hope so

come on

so one of one of the things that I'm a part of just for passion and of um my best friends and I started a nonprofit in 2021 after the July 11th protest.

What time do you do all this stuff?

I don't know. She's extremely busy. I can tell.

You have me exhausted.

It's uh it's called Cuban Freedom March.

Okay.

And what we've done in solidarity with the Cuban protesters all across the island is we've hosted marches and protests across the country um to elevate their voices on the American stage. And most recently we've been telling the story of Cuban dissident, Cuban prisoner, political prisoners even today. Um, and so I am very deeply connected to the future freedom work and you know my one of my best friends Alan Kuyaso that runs the group, he's you know supporting uh the the weaving together of the exile community of the different diasporas of our of our history. Um because we need to be those in exile, those in the dias the Cuban diaspora need to be of one voice, one mind and one support for the future of a free Cuba in addition to what we hope our secretary of state who

the best

understands understands um not just that Cuba should be free, but that authoritarianism in the Western Hemisphere is the cancer of of society. And if we can root it out in Cuba, we can take it out even more easily in Venezuela, Nicaragua. So, is Cuba going to be free? I mean, we need we the exile community needs to be of one mind. Yeah. The efforts at the at the White House are the highest they could ever be. We have the right guy on the on the ship at the table. We just had Ninoa the other day, you know, Ninoa from the radio and and we were talking with, you know, Nino knows Cuba so so well

and we were talking about that, you know, listen,

if my if again we're betting people, my money is now

I hope so.

A year and a half, a year and a half.

My commitment is regardless,

yes,

I'm going to carry on.

Oh, 100%. We got to continue. Continue.

I not tired.

No, no, we can't. We got to continue. We've gotten this far. We're going to get to the finish line.

Well, this is very impressive.

This is I I loved it. I loved it. I loved it.

We got We got the session.

I know. But we got to bring the senator has to come back.

Yeah.

She has to come back because, you know, I mean, by the time that she comes back, she probably did like, I don't know, maybe like 14 other amendments,

most likely. You know, so I'm sure that we, you know, something something else happened.

No, no, I want to go to work with her for one day just to see how efficient she is. You know, learn from her.

You're going to have to put on sneakers.

Yeah.

All right. Go ahead. Last question. All right. Probably the hardest question.

It is the hardest question.

All right. Let me flip the back of my [laughter] read it. Read it.

You got to give us your top three restaurants.

Okay.

Starting with number three and the reason why and then go in your work work your way up. Okay.

Oh my god.

This is one of the most important questions cuz this gives a shout out to local businesses.

Oh yeah. It could be your go-to, you know.

Let me give you two cuz I got two ready.

No, no, you got to go. All right. But go starting for number three. I'm I'm going to start debunking this whole situation with three, by the way, because everybody's already used to the question.

Now, we're going to do five then.

No, I'm going to kill people now. I'm I'm

ready. Number three, go.

Samurai.

OH, LET'S GO. THAT'S A CLASSIC. That's I used to go to high school there.

The little yellow sauce is so good.

That's the best yellow sauce. What is that called? Yum sauce.

It's the best yellow sauce.

Best yellow sauce. Better than Have you been

They still are those people. Are those things even open?

Yes. And they still have a long line. Have you gone? You still go down for a dirty dining or something? No,

no, no, no, no, no. I think that was probably Benhana.

I actually go and I buy the yellow sauce and then I make vegetables and protein at home.

Wow. But you got

Is that the Yumyang sauce?

That's a yumyang sauce. The classic one. I mean, I always felt like it's by the falls Samurai. It's amazing. Amazing.

Look at it. I just didn't know it still existed.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I used to go when we were younger.

Yeah. That's when you got to go in and

What do you get? You get your Yes. That little habachi tape.

No. You got to come home and take off your clothes in the garage. [laughter] Now you can't walk inside the house.

And the guys do little tricks with the little hat on

and the onion for the love.

They put the the little volcano

and the heart and the rice.

Yeah. Yeah.

I like it. We should go to Samurai. It's fun. It's a fun.

Enough said. Enough said, viewers. This is what you got.

Little train. All right. Um I guess you're getting the classic. What? Shrimp and steak or what do you get?

Yeah, you got the shrimp and steak. Yeah. All right. Number two.

All right. All right.

Shadow Wagyu.

Oh, wow. Okay. That's a classic. That's a classic.

Now we're talking.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I see in the corner.

And so the owner the owner was my Yeah.

was my brother's basketball coach at

Killian. He's a good guy.

Doing a great work.

Exclusively holding bakatalo. If you want to order your bakatalo and your skin cream that we have here, you know,

unknown. Get it at

shadow. Great great great great body and sule that we represent.

Some people think it's like to cook. It's not. It's for your lotion.

It's for your body.

And they have it available there at Shadow Waggu. Remind me to give you one before you leave.

Yeah. Take one. Yeah.

We do all our family birthdays there.

Oh, wow. You do chef chef's table.

I shout. No,

you do the chef's table. No,

we have not done the chef's table yet.

Okay.

Yeah, I've done it a couple times. It's fun.

All right. No, I thought you were saying samurai. Invite Eddie to the next one.

Yeah, I'll go next family [laughter] out.

There's enough train volcano with little with the matches. [laughter]

It's really fun.

It is fun.

No, no. I'm I'm all for it. Number one,

just tell me so I can dress appropriately. [laughter]

Number one, Tina and the Gables.

Tinta Cafe or Tina?

Tina Tina and the Gables and the Gables. I haven't been.

Yeah. Thank you, Jay, for putting that up there for us.

Is that one? Was that a food by Manny?

No, that was Wait, that is that fine dining?

That was Corables. Cor about Tina.

I got to tell you what I do, though.

Okay, so Tina and Cap

Shadow and Tina share a wall. Okay. So, it's it's right then. Oh, I have I didn't had no idea.

This is what I do. They have a steak and eggs. I don't I don't subscribe to that. I get the eggs, which is a carbonara scrambled eggs with baso panchetta and giant egg yolks on top and uh shaved parmesan. And then I order a steak from Shadow and I move it

into Tina's.

And I have steak and eggs.

Oh my god. Let's go. I love steak and eggs. That's another thing. This you just you're making your own restaurant there. cuz I'm I go to both all the time.

Yeah.

I didn't even know the place was next to chef.

Me neither. I got to go check it out.

Fantastic. Fantastic.

I got to go check it out.

Fantastic. And then

you see how good the things that people learn on the show.

And these are all restaurants in the district.

Yes.

It is. Okay. All right,

Senator. A real pleasure.

No, no, no, no, no. We're not We're not done yet. No,

I'm going to put it on the spot. I want another place. Give me another place now. I'm going with number four.

Honor honorable mention.

Honorable mention. Give me another place. GIVE ME ANOTHER PLACE. NOW I'M GOING TO MAKE you think.

You know what's great?

What?

Babes uh butcher counter.

Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. We just put them Jay also put them as an editorial.

They were voted as one of the best.

You're not going to stump her, man.

And you know what? I I love

She's on a roll.

I love food. I love food. What I get I'm very

Did you bring appropriations money for food for restaurants as well, too? [laughter]

Bring a bill. I do a bunch of veggies and I toss two burgers in with a little manego cheese at Babes.

I get you go to these places and create your own foods.

Yes.

Do Do they like recognize you? Like

recognize you should create your own food. Let me have the vegetables. Bring me the cheeseburger from next door and I'm making my own thing. You know,

honestly 100%. I do that at every place I go.

You're a real Miami person. That's [laughter] it. Like

No, no, no. This is great.

Wow. Senator, what? This is Miami girl. This this has been this has been good. You got to come back. You got to come back. You got to come back because we got we got a lot to talk about and we want you know we want to get more of your input before now and and November

the what? What else? I haven't finished yet. I want to thank her again for coming. You know what I'm saying? We're going to we're going to hit Samurai. You know the place.

I would love together. We're going to do a day in the life. We're going to do a little uncut edited version from Samurai. I think Summer has not got a mention like this in about 24 years.

You can smell it through the camera.

You can smell the camera.

But it's a good family dinner, you know. It's nice. Okay.

Well, thank you again, Senator. And as we always say before we go, go out and live it, love it, and make it another day in Miami.

Yeah.

Thank you.

Let's go.