Florida’s Competing Agendas & The Value of a Dollar – Top 3 Takeaways – April 23rd, 2025 - Driven By Braman Motorcars
Takeaway #1: Their agenda is not your agenda
We’re now under a week and a half away from the end of Florida’s legislative session and the tone in Tallahassee is becoming uglier by the day. On Tuesday, Governor DeSantis torched Florida’s House yet again – and this time over the Everglades Restoration Plan. In the words of DeSantis... Unfortunately, the Florida House of Representatives have proposed a budget that slashes Everglades funding and water quality efforts by almost half a billion dollars. While he also accused the House of basically being opposed to whatever it is that he’s into as he said: The leadership in the House of Representatives has taken a position that if I’m for something that it’s their view to just oppose us, just in a knee-jerk fashion. Oh, the Governor always gets his way. We don’t want to give the Governor any wins. That’s kind of how these people think. Well, I can’t specifically speak to how “these people” think – although there is plenty of evidence to suggest that House Speaker Daniel Perez is highly interested in independence from Governor DeSantis’s agenda. That’s true if we’re talking about the best way to address tax cuts, which let’s not forget currently hang in the balance of what the legislature chooses to do (as of this moment no tax cuts have been approved nor has the bill to consider the elimination of property tax in Florida passed)...but it’s also true of what the House appears willing to do on water and environmental policy too. As DeSantis went on to say: This is one of so many other things where their agenda is not your agenda. Their agenda is not what the people voted for. Their whole agenda really represents a revolt against the voters that sent them there. All they had to do was continue the momentum, continue the success, build off what had come before you. And instead they submit a budget, where they’re trying to totally sabotage all the efforts that we have with Everglades Restoration. So, what’s true? As of now, the House’s Everglades Restoration proposal is 62% lower than what DeSantis has proposed, and it leaves out entirely the waterway needs that are our biggest needs on Florida’s east coast. Governor DeSantis’s plan called for $64 million to continue construction of the EAA Reservoir system that once complete can clean excess Lake Okeechobee water, store it, and send it South through the Everglades which is the natural flow. Additionally, DeSantis proposed $50 million for specific projects aimed at reducing discharges from Lake Okeechobee east into the St. Lucie Estuaries, Indian River Lagoon and Lake Worth Lagoon. How much has the House allocated for the EAA Reservoir and related projects? As of now zero. So, yeah, from what’s yet to happen on taxes, to the House’s idea of environmental policy – I agree with DeSantis that their agenda, at least as of now, hasn’t been my agenda (although my House Rep. Mike Caruso has been one of the rare voices in the House to support DeSantis against Perez). He’s right to make some noise about this because there’s not much time left to address any of this.
Takeaway #2: Follow the Dollar
Not so fun fact. Did you know that despite yesterday’s snap back stock market relief rally, the DOW is still at risk of having its worst April since the Great Depression in 1932? If you’ve been feeling uneasy about the financial markets – it's not just you. We have experienced the greatest volatility in the financial markets of any April since you’ve been living (God willing we’ll not test what happened in ‘32 when the DOW was off over 20% during the month). Anyway, yesterday’s rally was brought to you by...the rumor mill and specifically news that Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told a group of investors that the trade war with China was unsustainable and he expected de-escalation sometime soon. So, there’s that for whatever it’s worth (which was approximately 3% for stocks yesterday at least temporarily). But to me, the biggest news to emerge from the financial markets yesterday was the way that the U.S. Dollar behaved. Yesterday the US Dollar finally broke its losing streak. The US Dollar Index, which values the Dollar in your pocket against a basket of leading currencies around the world, may have put in a bottom. After reaching the lowest value in over three years on Monday, the Dollar Index has rallied close to a dollar off of its lows, which is super important that what happens next with inflation and our overall economy. Despite yesterday’s bounce off recent lows...
Takeaway #3: The value of the Dollar is still a problem
The last time that it was valued as low as it is today the US inflation rate was ‘8.5% near the peak of ‘Bidenflation. If the Trump administration wants to avoid a similar fate – it's the US Dollar that needs to continue to become stronger – which it will if there are actual trade deals that get done which is what the financial markets and the US economy need as much as anything right now. Again, the effects of the tariffs have yet to be felt by anybody. Similarly, the rapid decline of the U.S. Dollar has barely been felt by anybody. The stock market turbulence is about the extent of what people have seen. But the stock market is a leading indicator and, on that note, ... If meaningful progress isn’t made within the next couple of weeks the retail equivalent of what we’ve seen in the financial markets will be coming to stores near you. Bessent’s comments are nice. Actions speak louder than words. The value of the US Dollar is still 9% lower than the day that Trump became president – that loss of buying power combined with the impact of tariffs is something we don’t want to see or pay for. Right now, the Dollar is the key to the economic story. Its value will tell you all you need to know.