Alex Snitker previews Florida’s Legislative Session, sets date for Liberty Lobby Days
Friends,
The opening day of the 60-day regular session will begin on Tuesday January 9th. This means the legislature can begin to debate and vote on bills for final passage in each chamber. Committees will continue to meet and vote on bills that have not been approved already through the committee process.
photo/Urbantallahassee
So far 2,547 bills have been filed, with 1,228 of those being appropriation requests by legislators, also known as pork projects. These appropriation bills total $2 billion.
Much of the session will be taken up with creating the annual budget. Governor Scott has proposed a $87.4 billion budget, $4 billion higher than his proposed budget last session and $21 billion more than his first budget proposal seven years ago. The House and the Senate will come out with their prospective budgets and they will have to come to an agreement on how much to spend by the end of session on March 9th.
The clock is ticking on getting legislation passed through their committee stops and to a final floor vote. Several of the bills the Liberty First Network is supporting have been heard in at least one committee, but we need a big push to make sure they do not get stalled and time runs out. Here are some of the bills we support that are making their way through committees:
HB 37/SB 80 Direct Primary Care Agreements: This legislation will protect direct patient/doctor agreements from burdensome government regulations by establishing in law that a Direct Primary Care agreement and the act of entering into such an agreement is not insurance and not subject to regulation under the Florida Insurance Code.
HB 13 Sports Franchise Facilities: This legislation would prohibit sports franchise from constructing, reconstructing, renovating, or improving facility on leased public land; requires lease of facility on public land by sports franchise or sale of public land for sports franchise facility be at fair market value.
HB 15 Deregulation of Professions and Occupations: This legislation deals with occupational licensing and would repeal, or revise regulations and fees levied on some professional licenses, such as hair braiders, hair wrappers, body wrappers, manicurist, pedicurist and makeup artist.
HB 17 Community Redevelopment Agencies: This legislation will require community redevelopment agencies to be more transparent and accountable. CRAs are now slush funds to reward political donors who fund elected official’s campaigns.
Other important bills such as campaign finance reform, repealing red light cameras, protecting property rights in land comprehensive plans, and term limits for school board members have not been heard in one committee as of this date. We need to get these brought up in committee ASAP.
Be sure to check out our “Legislative Ticker” on our web site to get the action alerts for each of these bills. CLICK HERE TO SEE THE TICKER
ADVANCE FREEDOM AND LIBERTY IN TALLAHASSEE ON JAN 22ND AND JAN 23RD
Join the Republican Liberty Caucus of Florida and the Liberty First Network for the 2018 Liberty Lobby Days at the Florida Capitol in Tallahassee. This event will take place on Monday January 22nd and Tuesday January 23rd, 2018.
The Liberty Lobby Days is a great chance to meet with legislators to advance our liberty agenda of less government and more freedom and liberty.
On the evening of Monday January 22nd, 2018, the Republican Liberty Caucus will host a reception at the James Madison Institute headquarters near the Capitol. This reception will be free of charge and will include hors d’oeuvres and beverages. If you cannot participate in the legislative meetings, be sure to attend the reception. The reception will be from 6:00 PM to 8:00 PM on Monday January 22nd, 2018.
