Florida lawmakers plan to return to Tallahassee next week for an extended legislative session.
It was scheduled to end May 2, but lawmakers had to push the date back to June 6 in order to finish the state budget, the one thing they're required by law to complete each year.
They cited several policy bills they'll discuss as well, but most other legislative issues have been settled.
READ MORE: 2025 Florida legislative session extended: what passed so far, what failed and what's next
Your Florida talked with people across the Sunshine State about how they think the session went, and what issues they feel elected officials should have addressed.
"They just, as far as I'm concerned, (are) missing the mark," Ocala resident Lynn Miller said. "Instead of doing good for the majority of their constituents, they just ping-pong on these stupid things like banning fluoride, which benefits millions of people, and they really don't do anything of substance. I don't even know what they're doing half the time."
Fluoride ban
Gov. Ron DeSantis said Tuesday that he will sign a bill banning the use of additives like fluoride in public water systems. The law would take effect on July 1. For decades, fluoride was added to drinking water to increase dental hygiene.
Nancy Wear from Miami said getting rid of it is "tragic."
"That's going to come back to bite us big time. Maybe not immediately, but I think it's going to," she said.
ALSO READ: Gov. Ron DeSantis says he will sign fluoride ban into law
Wear said she grew up with well water (without fluoridation) in the Northeast U.S., and around the age of 15, she had a lot of cavities that required a "whole bunch of fillings."
"So I am very much in favor of the fluoride, of having the fluoride we had, which is very safe," Wear said.
Last year, Florida Surgeon General Dr. Joseph Ladapo said fluoridating water was "public health malpractice." He cited research that suggests a high level of fluoride exposure can cause lower IQ and higher rates of ADHD in children.
However, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the decline of cavities makes fluoridation of drinking water one of the "10 great public health interventions of the 20th century."
Citizen-led ballot initiatives
DeSantis signed a measure on Friday that could make it harder for citizens to get proposed constitutional amendments on the ballot just hours after lawmakers passed it. Florida is one of 18 states that allow these types of amendments.
Two hot-button citizen-led initiatives nearly passed last election. Amendment 3 would have allowed recreational marijuana usage for adults 21 and over, and Amendment 4 would have enshrined abortion rights into the state constitution.
DeSantis advocated against those measures and said the new law will prevent fraud in the process. It adds more restrictions to getting petition signatures and imposes tougher penalties for violations.
READ MORE: Gov. Ron DeSantis quickly signs bill restricting citizens' initiative process
Nancy Hughes lives in Lakewood Ranch. She volunteered with the League of Women Voters of Manatee County to collect petitions for Amendment 4.
"It was tough getting Amendment 4 on the ballot. We were going to every public event we could think of," she said. "We were standing on street corners, stopping anybody who walked by, asking them if they would sign the petition."
She said it's concerning to see the state making the process even more challenging to get citizen initiatives on the ballot.
"If the state legislature doesn't want to listen to what the voters think they should be voting on or supporting in the state legislature, there has to be some recourse on the public's side, and that's what the ballot initiative is all about," Hughes added.
But Timothy Eldred from Panama City supports adding hurdles to citizens' initiatives. He said his handyman business has struggled due to a 2020 amendment voters passed that increases the minimum wage incrementally to $15 by next year.
Eldred said he doesn't believe people understood all sides of the issue when they voted for that amendment, and supports making it more difficult for similar initiatives to make it on future ballots.
"Because people are going to vote for stuff they don't have any idea [about]," he said.
Gulf of America vs. Gulf of Mexico
The Gulf of Mexico has carried the name for around 400 years. But on his first day in office for the second time, President Donald Trump signed an executive order changing the body of water's name to "Gulf of America." Florida is the first state in the U.S. to recognize the name change.
Gus Morales from San Antonio said he doesn't care if the name changes.
"Honestly, I think it was great because it pissed off the left," he said.
But at a Your Florida listening session at the On Top of the World retirement community in Ocala, resident Kathy Bell opposed the name change.
"This is the most ridiculous amount of time spent on something that is just meant to distract us in Florida," she said.
In April, DeSantis signed two measures into law: House Bill 575 will change state laws to reflect the name change, and House Bill 549 will require state agencies to update "geographic materials" with the name change.
Property insurance failures
A top concern for many Floridians is property insurance. And lawmakers seemed to agree at the beginning of the session, when many bills were introduced that could have addressed property insurance rates and required companies to be more transparent.
But none of those bills passed by the time the session was scheduled to end last week. House Bill 841 would have limited policy cancellations, nonrenewals and rate changes for properties damaged by hurricanes or wind, but was "indefinitely postponed and withdrawn from consideration." A similar bill in the Senate (SB 790) also failed.
And the lack of help is frustrating for people like Lisa Ferguson in Orlando.
She's lived in her house for nearly 25 years. Ferguson said her insurance premium has more than doubled in the last few years.
"There's not been one thing in the Florida Senate or legislature that they have done to change [insurance companies'] practices," she said.
Ferguson said she has reached out to her representatives and even had an opportunity to meet with former state CFO Jimmy Patronis and Florida's Insurance Consumer Advocate Tasha Carter to share her struggles with home insurance.
"But they have no answers. They have absolutely none," she said. "I appreciated them listening to me, because that meant a lot. But there's, there's nothing."
Although lawmakers plan to return to Tallahassee the week of May 12 to address more legislation, property insurance is not one of the issues they've said they'll discuss.
Get in contact with Your Florida reporter Meghan Bowman at bowman4@wusf.org.
If you have any questions about the legislative session, you can ask the Your Florida team by clicking here.
This story was produced by WUSF as part of a statewide journalism initiative funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
