Florida Weekend Recap – April 11
A recap of this week’s best political and policy happenings; Historic City News brings you what you missed this week in Florida policy and politics.
Week in Review for April 6-10, 2015
BUSINESS and INDUSTRY
It’s last call for alcohol bills still moving through the committee process, as the House and Senate send some bills to the chamber floor and take shots at others, like Rep. Chris Sprowls’ growler legalization bill and Rep. Greg Steube’s whiskey and Wheaties proposal. ● They may face long odds, but gambling proposals in both chambers moved last week, with a House panel approving an omnibus gambling bill by Majority Leader Dana Young and a Senate committee giving the go ahead to an extension of the Seminole Gaming Compact — but only after members of both bodies added their own bids to the pot. ● The Florida Ports Council released their State of the Port report, which found Florida’s seafarers will have to carefully navigate several challenges to capture more container and cargo traffic in the upcoming year. ● Citizens Property Insurance approved another 45,000 property insurance policies for removal last week, bringing the total number of take-outs approved in 2015 to 582,236.
ECONOMY
A bill to end a long standing exemption on aviation fuel taxes for some airlines has taken off in the Legislature, even after experiencing some turbulence in the House Finance and Tax Committee, and cleared its final committee stop Wednesday. ● The House’s tax cut package met with the overwhelming approval of the full body, but it faced skepticism for Senate leaders who say fights over health care funding could jeopardize any revenue reductions this year. ● An attempt to shoehorn in a tax hike on the gucci-loafing special interests in the Legislature failed after the legislation’s sole sponsor abandoned his designs. ● Job growth in Florida slowed last month, according to ADP Payroll’s monthly employment report, even though Florida remains third in the nation for job creation behind number two Texas and number one California. ● A proposal to allow gas stations to sell lottery tickets at gas pumps and other point-of-sale terminals passed a Senate panel Wednesday.
EDUCATION
The Florida Legislature passed significant changes to the education accountability system that were primarily put in place by former Gov. Jeb Bush. The bill sent to Gov. Rick Scott would limit the amount of state testing that can be done in public schools, undo a restriction on school starting dates and would delay the release of this year’s school grades until an independent review of the new test can be performed. Scott has not yet said whether he will sign the bill into law, but the GOP governor in the past has questioned the amount of testing in place. ● Crossing the line: A bill to let Florida children attend any public school that has open seats, even in other counties, won unanimous support from the Florida House Education Committee and now heads to the chamber floor. ● The Florida College System said it supports the idea of performance funding based on meeting key metrics but also noted, “Florida is such a national leader that even the college that ranks last on the performance funding model will still be strong on national metrics and should not be cast in a negative light.”
ENERGY and ENVIRONMENT
An amended version of a House bill seeking to implement hydraulic fracturing or “fracking” into Florida’s statutes passed its final committee. The measure initially included a mandate for the Department of Environmental Protection to conduct a study on the energy extraction process, but didn’t include funding for the survey. The bill was amended to appropriate $1 million for the study, but environmentalists said more dollars would be required to adequately regulate and monitor fracking. ● SB 288, which sets stricter limits on the Public Service Commission, was unanimously passed by the Senate Committee on Communications, Energy and Public Utilities. Before members passed the measure however, it was amended to give utilities the ability to issue bonds to pay for shutting down nuclear plants. ● Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam says Florida’s citrus industry still is threatened by disease despite a federal forecast that shows the industry holding almost steady. Florida agriculture faces a threat from citrus greening, a bacterial disease that is spread primarily by Asian insects called citrus psyllids. ● Oh the hu-manatee! A terrorized spring breaker’s videotaped reaction to a gentle manatee in Florida has gone viral.
HEALTH and HUMAN SERVICES
Senate Majority Leader Bill Galvano made clear that the Senate is not backing down from its push to expand Medicaid. Galvano said the Senate is going to press on, despite an apparent reversal from Gov. Rick Scott and friction with the House. “The Senate position is still the most reasonable position given what we are facing with the low-income pool,” Galvano told reporters in Tallahassee. ● Likewise, Scott hinted that he too would not retreat from his resurrected opposition to Medicaid expansion, but he stopped short of saying he’d veto it. Speaking to reporters in Orlando Tuesday, Scott said the federal government can’t be trusted to pay for Medicaid. The reversal comes as Scott and the Legislature have been in intense negotiations with the federal government to extend more than $1 billion dollars in hospital funding. ● A measure (HB 7119) aimed at redesigning Florida’s mental health and substance abuse systems, was unanimously passed through the House Health and Human Services Committee. Rep. Gayle Harrell says the goal is to empower the managing entities to transform into what she calls “coordinated care organizations”– though she says she’s still working out that definition.
LAW and ORDER
Lawmakers came closer to passing a proposal that reforms Florida’s alimony laws and child support system after a Senate subcommittee passed SB 1248 by Sen. Kelli Stargel. ● The House passed a law repealing the state’s unconstitutional ban on gay adoptions, but added a “conscience exemption” that allowed individuals and adoption agencies to refuse services to gay couples based on religious grounds. ● The House and Senate both made moves to ban revenge porn — sexually explicit images posted to the internet, often by jilted lovers, to harass the depicted subjects — after hearing impassioned speeches from revenge porn victims. ● A proposal to allow evacuees to carry guns during a state of emergency is headed to the governor’s desk, but two other proposals that would allow guns on college campuses and at K-12 schools under some circumstances seemed to have missed the mark. “I’ve polled the members of the Senate, and there doesn’t seem to be too much support for that bill,” Chairman Miguel Diaz de La Portilla said in reference to the controversial controlled carry bill by Sen. Greg Evers.
POLITICS
Republican Chief Financial Officer Jeff Atwater is floating above the other candidates the for a 2016 U.S. Senate race. He would get 38 to 34 percent against U.S. Rep. Patrick Murphy. Atwater leads U.S. Rep. Alan Grayson 42 to 32 percent. “If U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio runs for president, the fight for his Senate seat will be a test of relatively unknown candidates on both sides of the aisle,” said Peter A. Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac Poll. “Florida’s Chief Financial Officer Jeff Atwater has a small edge in exposure to the voters, but we have a long way to go.” ● State Sen. Darren Soto said he would run for Congress in Florida’s 9th District if Grayson does not seek re-election there. “I’m honored to represent District 14 in the State Senate, but if Congressman Grayson decides to run for the U.S. Senate, I would run for the congressional seat,” Soto said. ● A trio of Republicans won special elections in North Florida which were sparked by the departure of John Thrasher for Florida State University.
PUBLIC SECTOR
A bill eliminating a state review process for designated “developments of regional impact” was amended and passed by a House committee. HB 933 still faces strong opposition from local and environmental groups who say the legislation would usurp local authority to manage growth. Critics of the DRI program say that it duplicates other state permitting programs. ● HB 113, sponsored by Rep. Keith Perry, which would open local construction projects to statewide competition if said project gets 50 percent more of its funds from the state, was passed through the House State Affairs Committee by a 10 to 8 vote. Home rule concerns from the Florida Association of Counties and Florida League of Cities, along with some lawmakers, has plagued the measure at every committee stop. ● A measure returning a small amount of regulatory authority of plastic bags to localities made a small step forward and passed its first committee. SB 966 would allow coastal communities with fewer than 100,000 people to enact pilot programs banning plastic bags between Dec. 31, 2015, and June 30, 2016. They must collect data on the effects of the regulations or bans and provide reports to the state.
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