The Florida legislative session: the bad, the sag, and the ugly
Sen. John Thrasher, R-St. Augustine, center, Sen. Don Gaetz, R-Niceville, left, and Senate President Mike Haridopolos, R-Melbourne, Thursday, March 25, 2010, in Tallahassee, Fla.(AP Photo/Phil Coale)
The Florida spring legislative session is a wrap. Saggy pants, bestiality and bath salts are out. Expanded development and Medicaid HMOs are in.
The big winners this session included developers, the Florida Chamber of Commerce (surprise) and the religious right. Among the losers: state employees, students, teachers and people who depend on either unemployment insurance or Medicaid.
Peter Schorsch has the most comprehensive wrap-up of the session, including how the intraparty politics played out for the GOP supermajority. The St. Pete Times reports on how Gov. Rick Scott spins what turned out to be less bold “wins” for him. (The biggest potential sticking point for his tea party base: the failure to pass an Arizona-style immigration bill.)
And here are some highlights — or lowlights — from the Times’ thorough breakdown of the bills passes, and the bills failed:
Criminal, civil justice
BATH SALTS (Passed): Bans methylenedioxypyrovalerone, or “bath salts.” (SB 1886/HB 1039)
BESTIALITY (Passed): Bans abuse involving sexual contact with an animal. (SB 344/HB 125)
CIVIL RIGHTS (Passed): Allows some released felons to apply for an occupational license and public employment before having rights restored. (SB 146/HB 449)
CONCEALED WEAPONS (Passed): A concealed weapon permit holder who accidentally shows a gun would no longer be subject to penalty. (SB 234)
DOCTORS AND GUNS (Passed):Limits instances when doctors can ask patients whether they own firearms. (SB 155)
MANDATORY SENTENCES (Failed):Eliminates minimum mandatory sentences for nonviolent offenders convicted of drug offenses. (SB 1334/HB 917)
RED-LIGHT CAMERAS (Failed): Outlaws traffic infraction cameras at intersections, repealing legislation adopted last year. (SB 672/ HB 4087)
SEXTING (Passed): Decriminalizes sending sexually explicit text messages, photos or videos via cell phone or other devices by minors. (SB 888/HB 75)
SYNTHETIC MARIJUANA (Passed): Outlaws synthetic marijuana. (SB 204/HB 39)
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Education
CHARTER SCHOOLS (Passed): Lifts barriers for charter schools to expand, in part by designating certain schools as “high performing.” (SB 1546/HB 7195)
CLASS SIZE (Passed): Changes definition of core curriculum, reducing the number of courses that must meet class-size caps. (SB 2120/HB 5101)
EDUCATIONAL ACCOUNTABILITY (Passed): Catch-all bill that, among other things, limits gifts to school board members and their relatives to $50. (SB 1696/HB 1255)
SAGGY PANTS (Passed): Requires school boards to prohibit students from wearing clothes that show their underwear or body parts, and imposes punishment up to in-school suspension. (HB 61/SB 228)
SCHOOL VOUCHERS — FLORIDA TAX CREDIT SCHOLARSHIPS (Passed): Removes limitation on tax credits for companies that fund vouchers for low-income students. (SB 1388/HB 965)
TEACHER TENURE (Signed into law): Teacher evaluations will be based in part on student test scores, and administrators will be able to more easily fire teachers with weak evaluations. (SB 736/HB 7019)
VIRTUAL SCHOOLS (Passed): Expands online school offerings and requires incoming high school students to take at least one online course before graduating. (SB 1620/HB 7197)
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Energy, environment
CITIZEN CHALLENGES (Passed): Reverses state’s “burden of proof” requirement that potential polluters show that their projects won’t contaminate air or water. Replaces it with a requirement that citizens and other challengers provide proof that the project will harm air or water. (SB 1382/HB 993)
CLIMATE (Failed): Repeals the Florida Climate Protection Act, which authorizes the state to create a cap-and-trade regulatory program to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. (SB 762)
FERTILIZER (Passed): Prohibits local governments from passing ordinances that ban sales of fertilizer, but grandfathers in existing laws, such as Pinellas’ ban. (HB 7215)
GOLF COURSES (Failed): Requires the Division of Recreation and Parks to hire Jack Nicklaus Design to build courses in state parks in every region of the state, creating a Jack Nicklaus Golf Trail. (SB 1846/HB 1239) [Yes, someone proposed that.]
GROWTH MANAGEMENT (Passed): Shifts review and regulation for development from the state to local governments with repeal of the 1985 Growth Management Act. (HB 7207)
SEWAGE AS FERTILIZER (Failed): Lifts a not-yet-implemented ban on spraying treated waste from septic tanks as fertilizer on farmers’ fields. (HB 1479)
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Ethics and elections
BLIND TRUSTS (Failed): Requires the governor, lieutenant governor and three Cabinet members to place their personal assets into blind trusts. (SB 86)
CAMPAIGN CONTRIBUTIONS (Failed): Increases the $500 maximum campaign contribution to $10,000 for gubernatorial candidates, $5,000 for Cabinet races and $2,500 for state legislative candidates. (SB 1690)
ELECTIONS (Passed): Reduces days of early voting from 14 to eight, requires some voters who have moved to cast provisional ballots, tightens the time for third-party groups to submit voter registration forms and reduces the time that signatures on citizen-led ballot initiatives are valid. (SB 2086/HB 1355)
ETHICS (Failed): Bars a lawmaker from voting on legislation that would “inure to his or her special private gain or loss” or to an employer, relative, business associate or board upon which the official sits. (SB 2088/HB 1071)
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Gambling
CASINO RESORTS (Failed): Allows for development of resort casinos in up to five areas of the state. (SB 2050/HB 1415)
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Government
PENSIONS (Passed): Local government employees face new limits on sick leave and overtime under a compromise plan. (SB 1128/HB 7241)
GUN CONTROL (Passed): Prohibits local governments from regulating firearms. (HB 45)
PENSION REFORM (Passed): Employees in the Florida Retirement System will pay 3 percent of their salaries into their retirement accounts, face higher retirement ages, and their retirement accounts will no longer collect cost-of-living-adjustment starting July 1. (SB 2100, HB 1405)
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Health care
ABORTION — CHOOSE LIFE (Passed): Proceeds from Choose Life license plates will go to Choose Life Inc. for assisting pregnant women, instead of counties. (SB 196/HB 501)
ABORTION — HEALTH CARE EXCHANGES (Passed): Health care plans created through the federal health care law cannot offer coverage for abortions. (SB 1414/HB 97)
ABORTION — PARENTAL NOTIFICATION (Passed): Requires minors seeking a judicial waiver for parental notification of an abortion to get the waiver in district court rather than a wider-reaching appeals court. (SB 1770/HB 1247)
ABORTION — THIRD-TRIMESTER BAN (Failed): Expands ban on third-trimester abortions to include viability of the fetus. Doctors who perform abortions would be required to receive ethics training. (SB 1748/HB 1397)
ABORTION — ULTRASOUND (Passed): Women preparing to undergo an abortion must be offered the opportunity to have the results and images of an ultrasound explained to them. Woman can decline to see the image. (SB 1744/HB 1127)
MEDICAID (Passed): Reforms place the program’s 3 million recipients into managed care. HMOs and other large, managed-care networks will bid with the state on managing any number of 11 regions in Florida. Also makes it more difficult for recipients to sue Medicaid doctors and hospitals. (SB 1972/HB 7107, 7109)
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Insurance
AUTOMOBILE INSURANCE (Failed): Among other things, bill gives insurers 90 days to investigate auto accident claims for possible fraud before paying claims. (SB 1930/HB 1411)
AUTOMOBILE INSURANCE (Failed): Limits attorney’s fees in personal injury protection lawsuits. (SB 1694/HB 967)
CITIZENS PROPERTY INSURANCE (Failed): Allows state-run insurer to raise rates by up to 25 percent. The current maximum: 10 percent. (SB 1714/HB 1243)
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Military affairs
COLLEGE CHOICE (Failed): Allows veterans who lived in Florida four years before entering armed forces to be admitted to any state bachelor’s program of their choice. (SB 894/HB 693)
DRIVER’S LICENSE FEES (Failed): Reduces driver’s license fees for certain disabled veterans. (SB 368/HB 123)
PROPERTY TAXES (Passed): Extends certain property tax breaks to disabled veterans 65 years or older who have a service-connected disability but were not Florida residents before entering service. (SB 592/HB 439)
VETERANS DAY (Failed): Requires schools to observe Veterans Day as a holiday and not hold classes. (SB 1062/HB 375)
WOUNDED WARRIOR HUNTS (Passed): Requires Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services to develop more hunting areas for disabled veterans. (SB 850/HB 663)
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Miscellaneous
ADVERSE POSSESSION (Passed): Requires that property appraisers notify rightful homeowners when someone files for adverse possession. Anyone who seeks adverse possession must disclose, under penalty of perjury, the intended use of the property. (SB 1142/HB 927)
BARKING TREEFROG (Failed): Makes barking treefrog the state amphibian. (SB 502/HB 645)
CLAIMS — ERIC BRODY (Failed): Allows Eric Brody, a Broward man paralyzed after a Broward Sheriff’s Office cruiser crashed into him, to collect $12 million. (SB 42/HB 1151)
CLAIMS — DANIEL AND AMARA ESTRADA (Failed): Compensates the Estradas in a “wrongful birth” case against University of South Florida. (SB 18/HB 545)
PHOTOS, VIDEOS OF DEATH (Passed): Exempts photos, videos and recordings depicting deaths from public records. Introduced for families of two Tampa police officers whose deaths were captured on a dashboard camera. (SB 416/HB 411)
ANTI-SHARIA LAW (Failed): Says foreign laws and doctrines should stay out of Florida courts. (SB 1294/HB 1273)
UNION DUES (Failed): Bans public employee unions from using automatic payroll deduction to collect union dues and using dues for political activity. (SB 830, HB 1021)
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Gov. Scott’s priorities
DRUG TESTS FOR WELFARE RECIPIENTS (Passed): Requires drug screening for adult welfare recipients. (HB 353)
DAUBERT STANDARD OF EXPERT TESTIMONY (Failed): Changes standards by which judges admit expert testimony. (SB 822/HB 391)
GOOD SAMARITAN PROTECTIONS (Passed): Protects from civil litigation people who offer temporary housing, food, water or electricity to an emergency first responder or immediate family members of an emergency first responder. (SB 450/HB 215)
IMMIGRATION (Failed): Requires some public or private employers to use the federal government’s E-Verify system, and changes rules for law enforcement to check the immigration status of suspects or inmates. (SB 2040/HB 7089)
Taxes and budget
BUDGET (Passed): The $69.7 billion plan funds state government for the 2011-2012 year. (SB 2000)
CORPORATE INCOME TAX (Passed): A tax break of $1,100 a year on average for 15,000 small businesses as first step in effort to cut the state’s annual $2 billion corporate tax. (HB 7185)
ONLINE TRAVEL TAX (Failed): Shields online travel companies from paying taxes on retail price of hotel rooms they sell and allows them to pay based on wholesale cost. (SB 376 /HB 493)
PROPERTY TAXES (Passed): Requires property owners to pay 75 percent of their taxes while they appeal their property appraisals. (HB 281)
UNEMPLOYMENT COMPENSATION (Passed): Pays for a tax cut for businesses by cutting state benefits for unemployed Floridians. Instead of making the maximum $275 weekly benefit available for 26 weeks, the state would use a sliding scale based on the unemployment rate. Benefits would be available for no more than 23 weeks and no less than 12 weeks. (HB 7005)
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Veto override
LEADERSHIP FUNDS: Allows leaders in the House and Senate to operate campaign accounts that can raise and spend unlimited amounts of cash. (HB 1207)
Read the complete list of proposed, passed legislation here.
Meanwhile, Rick Scott’s other “accomplishment” — killing high speed rail by refusing $2.4 billion in federal funds — is not benefiting 15 other states.
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thank you for keeping us informed about the nightmare that is Florida. I’m trying to spread the word.
Jeez, if they are going to cut unemployment benefits, it’s kind of cruel to cut bestiality too.
[...] Instead, in the high tradition of the 2010 GOP, Republican supermajorities in Florida passed laws banning abortion coverage in private health insurance plans, baggy pants, bath salts, bestiality, and firearm regulation by local governments. They also tried to pass a measure requiring the Division of Recreation and Parks to hire Jack Nicklaus Design to build golf courses in every state park in Florida and create the Jack Nicklaus Golf Trail. Fortunately, that one failed, but the voter suppression bill passed, ensuring that working voters, students and those voters most likely to vote Democrat won’t have as much of an opportunity to do so. The Reid Report has the full list. [...]
[...] were higher priorities than immigration this session (they had to get those leadership funds, the saggy pants law and 5 abortion bills done, pronto!) But the teas were having none of [...]
if any ones here today all the best to yous for 2012
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