State Representative District 70: Mark Oliver

Name: Mark Oliver

Age: 28 

Family: Mother Myra Thomas, father Mark Oliver, brother Trent Oliver 

Bio: Oliver grew up in a working class family in St. Petersburg. After high school, he went to University of South Florida to pursue his dream of playing division one football. A day after graduating with a bachelor's degree in communications, Oliver started his own business and opened a gym called One More Rep. After several years he merged with another gym to create CrossFit Sabal Park. As a fitness business owner, he continued to train as an athlete and was ranked amongst the top 1% fittest CrossFit athletes in the world five years in a row. As a world class athlete and small business owner, Oliver still felt that he could do more. The opportunity came a year later when he met one of his client’s sons, Andrew, who has down syndrome. When Andrew met Oliver, he was overweight, overly shy and afraid of crowds, and his issues with balance and coordination made him wary of falling. Oliver offered to train him for free. Within a month, Andrew was riding a bike, was joining fitness group classes and lost more than 20 pounds. The excitement Oliver felt in witnessing Andrew’s transformation inspired him to pursue his passion — helping persons with disabilities. In 2018, Oliver founded a nonprofit, Specially Fit, which extends fitness training beyond Special Olympic athletes into schools across Central Florida. Today, Specially Fit is in over nine schools. Oliver works with eight staffers and 20 volunteers to train more than 400 students with disabilities every week. 

Why are you running for office? 

I have dedicated myself to providing young people with disabilities the opportunity and support to overcome obstacles and fulfill their promise. I will do the same for you and the people of District 70. 

We have opportunities in Florida to expand access to health care, proactively tackle climate change with 21st century infrastructure, invest in an education system that caters to the needs of all our students, as well as lead the nation in special needs programs that are fully funded and help people with disabilities live their best life. 

Together we can seize these opportunities and build a better, stronger Florida for our families, communities and future generations. 

What are three priorities you hope to accomplish, if elected? 

1. Premium education: I will fight to fully fund public schools, work to end the school-to-prison pipeline, work to end disparities and achievement gaps, provide greater access to testing our children for gifted, raise teacher pay and invest in 21st century infrastructure for all of Florida’s schools;
2. Equitable housing: I will lead the charge by implementing a comprehensive strategy to fight for equitable housing for every resident in our district. By advocating for safe, efficient and healthy living standards, I will ensure the people of our diverse community have a voice in Tallahassee. Equitable housing includes low-income housing, working class housing, and market rate housing. This will help to ensure that housing options are available at all income levels and will also effectively work to increase development and growth in the areas where it is needed the most; and
3. Disability rights: I will lead the fight to keep iBudget, fully fund Home and Community Based Service Waivers, expedite Medical Waivers, and expand successful support programs. 

With Florida revenues expected to finish the year at $1.6 billion below expectations: 

What budget cuts would you propose? What would be your position on raising taxes to close any gap? 

COVID-19 has had devastating effects on the state budget. The Legislature set aside approximately $300 million in the proposed 2020-21 Budget to respond to potential impacts of COVID-19. As our future becomes more uncertain with disproportionate impacts on minority communities and businesses, we must begin planning now to ensure future response and recovery. I would support tax increases on some of the state’s largest companies and corporations who already receive millions/billions of dollars in tax cuts while smaller businesses struggle to stay afloat during the pandemic. I oppose any cuts to education, affordable housing or health care that are critical resources for vulnerable residents. 

What’s your position on calls for the state to expand its Medicaid spending? 

I believe in the medicaid expansion. I also believe that health care should be a fundamental right, not a privilege. Instead, extreme politicians refuse to acknowledge that Floridians struggle every day to keep themselves and their families from going bankrupt due to the lack or cost of health care. 

How would you rate Florida’s public education funding: too little, just right, too much? What would you change? 

Too little. I am a product of public education. I believe in putting working people first through the “Fair Share for Florida’s Future” plan. The plan asks for the richest corporations to pay a little more of their fair share of corporate income taxes, so we can invest in public education and our workforce's development. The "Fair Share" investments will include early childhood education, a pay raise for teachers including a starting salary of $50,000 for new teachers, public school construction and an expansion of Shop 2.0 vocational training. 

Gov. Ron DeSantis made the environment a top priority when elected, committing to spend/invest $2.5 billion during his term to help clean up and protect Florida’s water systems. How would you describe your position toward this spending? 

Yes, I will work to reenact environmental protections by protecting our beaches from soil erosion, maintaining the health of our aquifers, banning offshore drilling off Florida’s Gulf Coast, and passing climate policies that safeguard our environment and communities. 

Visit Florida’s budget went from $76 million to $50 million in the last legislative session. Given the pandemic and its effects on Florida tourism, what would you propose in the next session? 

COVID-19 has had devastating effects on the state budget. The Legislature set aside approximately $300 million in the proposed 2020-21 budget to respond to potential impacts of COVID-19. As our future becomes more uncertain with disproportionate impacts on minority communities and businesses, we must begin planning now to ensure future response and recovery. I would support tax increases on some of the state’s largest companies and corporations that already receive millions/billions of dollars in tax cuts while smaller businesses struggle to stay afloat during the pandemic. I oppose any cuts to education, affordable housing or health care, which are critical resources for vulnerable residents. 

The November ballot will have an amendment to require a $15 minimum wage by 2026, increasing by inflation every year after. What’s your position on the minimum wage? 

As a small business owner, I support Amendment 2, also known the $15 Minimum Wage Initiative and utilize its messaging in my campaign materials, direct mail, campaign speeches and other promotional material that might be developed for voter outreach. If I am the owner of a business, a corporation or a not-for-profit entity that has employees, I also pledge to give said employees a $15 minimum wage, in accordance with the proposed amendment. 

For the past three years, the issue of who should regulate short-term residential rentals has come before the Legislature. What’s your position — should the state or local governments regulate them? Why? 

Yes. Many Floridians are struggling to make ends meet, and the cost of living in Florida is way too high. I will fight for private property rights to allow Floridians the flexibility to rent their private properties for use as a vacation/short term rental home. 

State funding for the arts increased from $2.6 million two years ago to $21.2 million in the most recent session. Arts groups requested $62 million. What’s your position on state taxpayers funding the arts? And if you support it, how much should they get? 

I agree that there should be more funding for programs with my education plan the Fair Share for Future Florida Plan we can make this happen 

Florida’s unemployment insurance compensation system was roundly criticized during the pandemic. It pays one of the lowest amounts in the nation — a maximum of $275 per week for 12 weeks. Should that be changed, and if so, to what? Why?

The unemployment system was set up to fail. As a small business owner I find this heart breaking; families are still waiting on their checks. One of the first things I will do when elected is address this issue.