75 – LegCon Tallahassee 2026 Wrap Up

In today’s episode, Peter and Sonny summarize what happened at LegCon Tallahassee 2026 and introduce the audience to Jon Carter, our new Assistant Director of Government and Political Affairs, who played a key role in our success at the event. They point out how our chapter’s territory covers one-third of the Florida legislature.

“The Obvious Podcast” is a production of ABC Florida East Coast Chapter. Unless otherwise stated, all content reflects the opinions of the guests and hosts.

If you like “The Obvious Podcast,” you can click here to listen to the audio version and subscribe on all the major podcast platforms, such as Apple Podcast, Amazon Music, or Spotify. We encourage you to leave us a review so other listeners can find us. 

You may also follow “The Obvious Podcast” on Instagram, Truth Social, X/Twitter, and now on TikTok.

► Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theobvious_podcast/

►X: https://x.com/TheObv_podcast/

►Truth Social: https://truthsocial.com/TheObvious_Podcast/

► TikTok: http://www.tiktok.com/@the.obvious.podca 

►Email: theobvious@abceastflorida.com

Transcript

Sonny Maken 0:09

Welcome to the Obvious Podcast, episode number 75. My name is Sonny Maken. I'm the COO at ABC Florida East Coast.

Peter Dyga 0:18

And I'm Peter Dyga, president and CEO at the ABC Florida East Coast.

Sonny Maken 0:23

You are listening to the Obvious Podcast where all opinions expressed are our own, unless we say otherwise.

Peter Dyga 0:29

Loveless Joe, we ask you to subscribe on any major podcast platform or watch us in action on YouTube, follow the Obvious Podcast on Instagram, X, and Truth Social, and now on TikTok. All the links you need are in the show notes. And reach out to us anytime at theobvious@abceastflorida.com. And if you're enjoying the ride, help others find us by leaving a review wherever you listen. So all right. Happy Friday, Sonny.

Sonny Maken 0:57

Happy Friday, Peter. What a cold week it's been for us here in Florida. Um, how's the weather where you on?

Peter Dyga 1:06

I got out of Florida, Sonny. Our viewers might notice that our setup doesn't look like our typical one today. So, and that's because uh I'm in a remote location south of Florida. I got out. I heard the cold weather was coming, so I was like, where can I go? Let me go to Costa Rica. So here I am. It's cool here, by the way, too. It's like affecting the whole northern hemisphere, but but nothing as cool as what you're experiencing.

Sonny Maken 1:32

So well, today my car had um heated seats and the heated steering wheel were both on.

Peter Dyga 1:38

You don't get to use them often, do you? You don't.

Sonny Maken 1:42

Uh in fact, last night I turned on the heat of my house, which you know hasn't been used in years. And uh, you know, that like initial like funkiness you smell because the system's blasting on. Um, you know, and it was just it was intense. Like it's been it's been cold for us, especially. I know all my friends up north are making fun of me because Boston had two feet of snow, and they're like, What are you talking about? You know, like it's in the 40s, we're like dying down here, you know. Iguanas are falling out of trees.

Peter Dyga 2:09

So, you know, he resists that, you know, no, I'm not gonna turn the heat on because warm weather will be back in a day or two. But you know, it gets to one point where it's like, you're so you're so cold in your house, you we have to break down.

Sonny Maken 2:22

I saw my dog shivering. I was like, okay, I'm gonna have to turn the heat on. My dog is shivering. This is not gonna, this is not gonna go well if I if I uh hold off. So, you know, Peter, as we talk a lot on our show about uh politics and just national politics and state politics and everything that ABC does about politics, and obviously we talk a lot about the media, and one of the complaints that I have about the media is that there's never any kind of follow-through. They'll do a story and then they'll kind of talk about it for a few days and then forget about it, and you never know what happened. So uh one of our uh recent episodes was about our legislative conference in Tallahassee. And so one of the things I wanted to do, you know, now that the conference has happened, is update our audience on how that went and the issues we talked about. And I, you know, you and I had a conversation about this. We felt like one of the best uh ways to do that is to have our audience meet our newest member of the ABC family, who played a very uh important role. In fact, his second, I believe his second day on the job was at the conference. And I really like doing that, don't we?

Peter Dyga 3:27

Baptism by fire, you know, a lot of great stories over the years.

Sonny Maken 3:32

So his his first day was uh was a board meeting, and his second day was a conference. And um, so I wanted, you know, we wanted to introduce Jonathan Carter, uh John Carter, sorry, he doesn't like to go by Jonathan, John Carter, uh, to our audience and talk about how Tallahassee went and sort of what issues that you know our industry and our team is following and paying attention to that are happening in Tallahassee. So, John, welcome to the show. Um we wanted to well, and welcome to ABC. You know, I know this is your um fourth or fifth week at ABC. So I know it's been uh intense and wow time flies. Time flies.

Peter Dyga 4:16

Anyway, I love this idea, by the way, Sonny. I think it's great to follow up on um, you know, uh this the legislative conference and not just talk about it beforehand. And by the way, we we did a good job, I think, and and uh TJ and everybody in terms of promoting it. And we had one of the highest uh participation rates of any chapter, you know, and also statewide. So it was really exciting uh with the level of participation. So I love following up on, you know. So okay, we talked about it beforehand. Now let's talk about what happened, what happened and and how it went and where we're at and where we see the next month of session. So, any event. So before we get into that, John, it's great to have you. So, you man, you've been a rock star already in my book, you know, to have you on board. So it's it's uh awesome to have you. What do we want to do, Sonny? Let John introduce himself a little bit and his uh background and whatnot. Yeah, so exactly.

Sonny Maken 5:10

Let's let's hear who John Carter is, and please don't confuse him with the uh uh what's the guy's name? Edgar Rice Burroughs character, um, John Carter. That's J-O-H-N. This is J-O-N. All right, Mr. Carter, all of you.

Jon Carter 5:24

Uh well, thank you, Peter and Sonny. It's uh it's a privilege to be a part of the ABC family, and um uh, you know, it was definitely off to the races from day one. So it was just it's super excited to to to be here and to participate in the ABC conference and you kind of took some of the to the talking points. Uh, you know, we had the the largest uh participation of any chapter in the state, and it was so important to have that because uh the East Coast chapter uh encompasses from the Treasure Coast uh and and Space Coast all the way down to the keys, which which is a which is almost a majority of the state legislature and Senate represents that area. So uh, you know, uh Peter once said that you have almost a third, like for every legislator, uh uh that one, two, three is one for us. So we had, I think, over 35 of our chapter members um take time out of their busy schedules to participate in um uh we call it how the sausage gets made and um advocate on behalf of the chapter and the industry. So we were able to cover um uh almost all of our representation. I think it was over we had over 45 meetings or something um with either a staff or the representatives. And uh, you know, some of the bills that we are tracking.

Sonny Maken 6:46

John, can I interrupt you for a second?

Jon Carter 6:47

Yes, sorry.

Sonny Maken 6:48

Um Peter, that was a really sort of profound point that just our membership territory alone represents a third of the legislature. I mean, that's a lot of political leadership, political influence, political work that just, I mean, obviously the five chapters cover the whole state, but just our region alone is a third of the legislature. And so I don't think we can minimize or just sort of gloss over how much work that takes because there's a lot of people you have to talk about. And you know, we're like obviously talking about uh state, you know, the large local municipalities, the state, and we're talking about uh national, so congressional districts and all of that. So there's a lot this chapter does in terms of political uh influence and the political work that we do. And it it's it's a lot in terms of what the team does uh and the size that we cover. So I just wanted to like point that out uh to our audience.

Peter Dyga 7:43

In terms of the yeah, in terms of the the people, the number of legislators, I bet it's even higher. I don't know that I've actually done that calculation. Uh I think John alluded to it. I I'm I've for a long time talked about just from a population perspective. Right. And that's when I'm just speaking of like the tri-county area of Miami-Dade, Broward, and Paul Beach. And I mean, there's like six million plus people, uh, maybe seven million, you know, in that region and a state that's uh what are we up to now, 20, 21 or 21? In any event, it's it's it's basically every third resident of the state of Florida lives in you know, the South Florida area. And that's not counting again the trade at Treasure and Space Coast, you know. So yeah, I'm like, you know, love talking about if you think of the entire state of Florida, everybody who lives in it, and you just go one, two, South Florida, one, two, South Florida. I mean, we're a huge population center, and then you add space and treasure coast and Monroe County, and yeah, we have uh a significant portion, you know, that of the legislature that we have to cover, and we do it well. And by the way, there's a long-standing history of that. You know, we're a chapter that always has tried to meet and done fairly successfully every legislator during that one and a half days we're up in Tallahassee for Legcon, which is by why, by the way, and I hope I'm not stealing more of John's Thunder, but he can get into more detail. Why we split up, right? We had to split up into walk groups, you know, even to make it possible.

Sonny Maken 9:09

So, in any event, well, uh, John was about to get into our issues, but before he did that, I wanted to have him basically talk about his uh biography and how he ended up at ABC. And and I know he looks shockingly young to be an associate government affairs director, but I'm just uh wanted to know kind of where were you born? Where were your policy, you know, what's your experience? How'd you end up here?

Jon Carter 9:33

Uh uh thank thank you for that question. So I was born in Canada, near Niagara Falls, Canada, and I moved to Boca Ratone in 2009 with with my mom and sister. Um, my mom owns and operates a gymnastics academy and has since I was five. She she was small.

Sonny Maken 9:49

I'm sorry, John. Hold on one second. I just want to make it clear, Peter and I make a lot of fun of Canada on our show. I just wanna I just want to show to you, prove to our audience. We love Canada. We hired a a well, he's an American citizen, but you know, a Canadian by birth at our uh at our in our ABC family. So it's all just good fun.

Jon Carter 10:07

It's always fun to be the diversity hire.

Peter Dyga 10:13

Trust us, we don't do that. It just when it happens, it's just good coincidence. That's right.

Jon Carter 10:20

All right, John. No, so um, you know, we I watched as uh local government um, you know, forced my mom's business to close its doors in Canada. Um just to due to stupid regulations. She had to go before a city council and and ask uh for permission to be to be in the building she was in um every year. And then one day that variance uh wasn't granted. So we, you know, had to find another way. And that's what triggered the move to America, the land of opportunity. My mom came here to start her business over again to give us better education. Um, so local government really affected me from an early age. And so, you know, I always had that in mind. I went to Palm Beach State College and got involved in local campaigns for city council. Uh, had the privilege of serving as a campaign manager to a mayor, getting re-elected, uh serving as a campaign coordinator for the lieutenant governor when he was running for U.S. Senate in 2016. Um I was I was uh privileged to serve as student body president from Palm Beach State. And one of one of our responsibilities was going up to Tallahassee uh and advocating for um appropriations for uh you know um higher education issues, meeting with our elected representation to to bring the issues to the students. So that's really what got me um into this. I've I've served as uh a legislative aide to a county commissioner, uh an aide to uh a representative in the state of House of Representatives. Uh prior to to joining the ABC family, I served as uh chief of staff to the mayor of Palm Beach County and did that for several years. So I'm very involved in the process. Uh I've uh served as um uh chair of a community advisory panel for the city of Boca, president of my rotary, and um you know everyone jokes that uh that I look so young to have accomplished all this, and I say I'm aging backwards. So I'm on the tail end of my career. This is that's great.

Sonny Maken 12:19

Uh we're well, we're very excited to have you as part of the ABC family. Um, you've already had, you know, been a difference maker, as I say. Uh certainly appreciate all the work you've done. But I did want to ask you about some of the issues that we're we're paying attention to that you noticed in Tallahassee. And really, if there were any sort of big, broad brushstrokes that you you caught kind of in terms of what's happening in Tallahassee that were um that's you know, unique insight, a unique perspective that you think we can give to our audience.

Jon Carter 12:49

Well, this is a very interesting session um because it's it's just kind of picking up where the the tension uh left off last session. And um one of one of the um, you know, it's it's it's very interesting because you had um Governor DeSantis had such a great relationship with all of his uh speakers and Senate presidents since the uh moment he took office in the in that beginning um opening session prior to going to session, he took all of his leadership uh to Israel on a on a trip. And and that is really where they you know kind of created that bond and and and agreed to you know really come as a united front uh towards a lot of legislative issues. And you saw that change last session with the um with the entire House and Senate passing, or almost the entire House and the Senate passing um vetoes, uh reining, reining in some of the some of the governor's decisions and and serving as uh the legislative check to the executive branch's um uh power, which we really haven't seen uh in quite some time. And that kind of triggered this back and forth between the speaker and the governor. And you saw a uh budgeting cycle where a lot of things were on the table and the uh Senate, House, and and governor couldn't be further apart. So we didn't have Florida, it has a 60-day session. They have one constitutional requirement, and that's to pass a balanced budget. They can file as many bills as they want, but there is no requirement to pass any of them, to hear any of them. So uh for them to not get that done in 60 days, I forget how many days it took, but we finally had a balanced budget um in the middle to late summer. So for a lot of people, it doesn't even feel like the legislative session ended because we jumped right back into committee weeks. And here we are, you know, just the tail end of week four of the legislative sessions. So um almost halfway done. And we're gonna be looking to see uh what the budget looks like. But some of the bills that we we looked uh for and and were looking up, um uh, you know, one of the one of the big like um big picture issues is uh tax exemptions for prefabricated labor uh offsite. So right now, Florida is the only state that adds an additional sales tax, or it's so how it works is the total of the materials uh purchased, including the labor, that whole cost is factored into the sales tax. If you uh manufacture those labor, those uh materials off site and then bring them to the job site. If you purchase the materials off-site and then assemble them on the job site, uh the materials are taxed as uh you know tangible personal property, uh, but the the um the labor is not. So that's an So hold on.

Sonny Maken 15:56

Let me let me let me say what she just said again for our audience, those of the those that aren't in construction, um, who wouldn't understand a lot of the terminology we're using. So in construction, you can buy raw materials and you can assemble a building on site, or you can buy what's called prefabricated. Peter, jump in if I say something wrong, please. You can buy prefabricated buildings or uh panels or parts of buildings that you can bring on onto your location and have them assembled, right? We see them, that's why one of the reasons buildings go up so fast, because there's a lot of construction is now what's called prefab. So, what you're saying is that Florida is one of the only states in the country where if you are buying um parts of a wall, concrete wall, that are gonna be that are pre-assembled and prefabricated somewhere else, you're paying the sales tax on the labor that went into making that prefab wall there off site. That's correct. Got it.

Peter Dyga 16:50

But if you Florida's not in Florida is not ordinarily a taxable item, labor. I mean, is that correct? I think so. I think ordinarily you're right. I don't think Florida, you know, taxes labor, so it's uh it's kind of unique. And you mentioned we're the only state actually in the country that does that. So it definitely puts us at a competitive disadvantage. Uh this form of construction is becoming more and more popular. It's a great way for you know for contractors and businesses to to uh uh control quality uh as well as cost, right? You know, because when you can do so you know uh something in a controlled environment over and over and over and then bring it and assemble it, it's definitely helps you in that regard. So any bet one of the one of the uh key uh legislative goals that came out of our planning conference, right? So again, um one of the things we're working on in in Tallahassee. So where does that stand, John?

Jon Carter 17:44

So right now there's no affiliated um um bill numbered or or filed legislation to it. So so we've approached the ways and means chair to see if we can't incorporate this into a tax package. But even though there's no bill this session, it's so important that our members came up to Tallahassee and advocated for this because uh something like this doesn't change overnight. Um, since it is an adjustment to the sales tax revenue, it does need to be scored by the um uh uh revenue estimating conference. And I believe it is currently being scored to analyze that. Um, and then if you take a look at some, I mean, this is you guys are absolutely right, this is an anti-competitive um uh taxation. And if we're trying to incentivize manufacturing companies to come here to give our um our construction companies more access to those prefabricated labors to expedite jobs and and and you know, cut down costs on all of that. Uh also it makes it more efficient on the job site. If you have everyone assembling it there, um everyone working all on top of each other, it just makes sense to do it this way. That's why it is increasing in popularity. So we need to have these conversations now because it is going to take us a few cycles to um either create a reduction in that that sales tax or to eliminate it altogether. If you look at the uh commercial sales tax or sales tax on commercial leases, Florida was one of five states in 2015 that had this sales tax and it you know it was very anti-competitive. And what happened is it took until the 2021 legislative session to it was almost going to be completely eradicated. Uh, but what happened was with the COVID and the pandemic, uh, it completely destroyed the uh reserves for the unemployment um uh protection uh funds. So what they said is once these commercial sales tax on those leases um replenished that fund, they would eliminate it altogether. And so now we've seen an elimination of that sales tax. So uh, you know, different strategies can be um deployed when looking at this. So it's a long-term play, but it's very important to have those conversations now. So another piece of legislation that we were focused on has to do with condo associations. And so for reference, that would be House Bill um 255 or Senate Bill 2 uh 638, Senate Bill 638, uh, and that's by uh Representative John Snyder in in the House, who is uh part of the Florida East Coast chapter, uh serving northern Palm Beach County, uh as well as um uh Martin County, and um then Senator uh Trumbull in the Senate. So this uh is a piggyback on the statute of repose uh language that um ABC pushed for uh in prior sessions. So basically what happens is the statute of repose allows for um litigation if there are um you know issues with the construction um after a certain amount of years until you you know it's it's becomes then you know the responsibility of of whoever owns the building to do it. And so the statute of repos originally was 10 years, and then last year or the year before that, we managed to get that down to seven years. Um, and now there's been a lot of debate between um why why this should happen, you know, because we've seen a lot of um uh condo associations uh it they defer their maintenance, they they don't um charge the the proper dues for their association or the spending is is all over the place. And then when it comes time for maintenance, um you know, some of these these uh condos have neglected to do it and it has caused you know well catastrophic um uh results. So the statute of reserves and what we're going after is a little bit more transparency and that. Would require the um the turnover, the the certificate of occupancy documents to be registered with the uh department of uh uh the DBPR, which would um allow for that that time to for us to have a concrete of when that um uh statute proposed kicks in.

Peter Dyga 22:21

On your uh comprehension of these issues is is spectacular, brother. So given you're you know, you're really new to them, you know, in a large uh in a large way, probably. So, and by the way, even before it was 10 years, it was even higher than that before the ABC played a role. I think getting it down from 15 to 10 and then to seven. It always amazes me, by the way, uh Sonny and John, how you know we're going through the process of renewals, uh, and we uh we know that in associations, the number one reason people join is you know for networking and business development, right? They want to expand that. But the people who who uh every year you know uh have to reassess or question, you know, maybe I didn't attend enough things, or uh, you know, when they realize all we do, you know, when you think about the impact of lowering the statute of repos, if you do any of that kind of work, um, it's just it's it's amazing, you know. So the game, my point is the association impacts the construction industry and everyone's business in so many ways, whether it's workforce development or labor-related issues, uh, you know, uh legislative issues, it's not just you know helping you helping you build your your backlog, if you will, you know, of work. So I mean, this is a great example and how um sometimes it uh the legislature has a way of taking a couple steps back because of some uh you know, some bad decision.

Sonny Maken 23:46

Uh I think it's fair to point out is this idea that the work that we do benefits the whole industry, right? Whether or not you're a member doesn't matter. Now, obviously, we have some very involved, very invested members who um we work with and we kind of share all these issues with, but it benefits everybody. And internally we call that like the freeloader problem. And that's why I think we are really interested in increasing membership here, because it's like the more members you have, the more one, you can tackle more issues, is from what you heard from John talking about how many issues just come up. And you know, we talk a lot about the victories, but we really talk about the victories where we have, where we have sort of defeated the bad ideas, right? And because a lot of bad ideas pop up, and we don't always make hay of those, but there's a lot of stuff that affects our industry that we just fight uh at a committee level, right? Before uh it even makes it past the committee level. And so I think if we do a better job of sort of articulating that as a value proposition to people in the construction industry, uh perhaps they will realize the value of the political aspect of ABC and not just the uh what they see as networking or or or sort of the education piece.

Peter Dyga 25:03

It's a great point, Sonny. So and I know we're kind of up against the clock. We barely really scratched the surface of some of the legislative issues, but maybe to come full circle or wrap things up. You know, I think we have this, we have two different challenges when it comes to membership and renewals. And one is that, obviously, everyone appreciating the full spectrum of what we do and how it impacts them. I I think of another story that you and I have dealt with recently, actually for a for a year or two now, one particular member um, you know, who who has a uh you know, has uh an opinion that he likes to share about how he likes to see us get a little more engaged or active on a particular issue. And we're constantly telling people, well, we need you at this legislative planning conference. You need to be involved. You need to be involved in the committee, yeah, you know, to help guide this direction, to help make sure these conversations happen. Yeah, you know, because we are a member-driven organization, you know, if you're not there and your voice, and I think we point blank told him that last year and uh comes back this year with the same criticism. And guess what? We didn't see him anywhere in the last year, you know. So it's like, you know, we we can't force these things. If you have these opinions, we ask you to, you know, the solution isn't not to uh renew or not to be involved, it's actually to make sure you you join uh and that you get as involved as possible. So in any event, um, I wish we had more time, but uh we because we have a lot more issues. I don't know if we need to do a part two or I can't, John. If we gave you like a minute, can you just summarize some of our other priorities and one or two more?

Jon Carter 26:36

I mean uh yes. Um, so so one of the last bills that we we were focused on, laser focused on, is commercial construction projects. And what this bill would do, which is House Bill 405, um, is it would create a uniform uh permitting application that would be administered through the Florida Building Commission. And they so they would design it and they would have until 2027 to issue that. Um, it would also create a uniform reduction in fees when private providers are used for um inspections. And it would also clarify the no damages for delay causes. It sets specific definitions so that way our members um are more empowered when when um things out of their hands, especially that are you know the local control's fault, local governing entity. Um uh so it forgives them those protections. And that bill is moving. It's passed all three of its uh reference committees, and so it'll be voted on by the entire House floor, and it's also uh made some headway in the Senate as well. So that's a House Bill 405 by Representative Griffiths, and then um the Senator uh Aaron Gral, uh another East Coast uh chapter um district. That's Senate Bill 526.

Peter Dyga 27:52

You talk about a dream, dream bill, you know, for our industry. So in any event, I hope uh you, our listeners, kind of found this uh informative in terms of the great things we're doing in Tallahassee. Uh, your fellow members who are taking the time to go up there and be what citizen lobbyists for a day, right, John? I mean, we talked a little bit earlier about breaking up into groups and all the different meetings we see. How impactful is that? Does that make a difference? You've been on the other side of that table, you know, at times. And what does it mean when industry professionals and business owners, you know, come up?

Jon Carter 28:25

So we used to have a lot of meetings, um, and I'd sit in or or take them on behalf of the representative. And you saw, you know, so many lobbyists, same faces, and it's great. Uh, you know, you get you get the context of the issues, but when you hear from the people that uh are affected the most, um, you know, firsthand knowledge, it it really changes it. It makes the the text on on those bills real and that then reminds you that the decisions you make are not just hitting a green button or a red button, um, but that is a significant impact in someone's life uh that you are tasked with representing, um, uh whether it's your district or statewide, you have a vested interest. So, you know, uh the when everyday people come up to Tallahassee, the best product is produced.

Peter Dyga 29:17

John, we are super thrilled to have you as part of the staff. So, and again, we love baptism by fire. So we threw you right into it and you have done a great job. Uh, hope our listeners and viewers have enjoyed learning a little bit more about John. Uh, get involved, right? Come on out to events and meet him and talk to him. If you're not engaged in the political and government affairs aspect of what ABC does, we invite you to get involved because uh we can only, right? We're only as good as our our members and your engagement.

Sonny Maken 29:46

So well, thank you. Thank you for your time and uh thank you for joining us from uh Costa Rica. Enjoy the warm weather, and we will see you next Friday.

Peter Dyga 29:58

When is it safe to come back?

Sonny Maken 30:01

Not for another week.

Peter Dyga 30:02

Anyway, all right, for comments, we ask you to send us an email at the obvious at abceflor.com. Until next Friday. Take care.