Update from Tallahasse: Legislative Session 2010 Week Four

Education was a major theme of this fourth week of session. In the first week details of Senate Bill 6 by Senator John Thrasher of Jacksonville were written in this space. This week the Florida Senate passed this bill, which will change the way in which public school teachers are evaluated and compensated. The legislation is based on the premise that the evaluation of a teacher’s effectiveness should be measured by the success of their students. Additionally, another education-related bill by Senator Thrasher, Senate Bill 4, passed the Senate. This legislation will raise the standards for math and science credits for high school students (phased in over the next few years). Also, Senator Don Gaetz of Niceville’s SJR 2 passed the Senate. If adopted by the House it will put on the next general ballot the option to amend the class size amendment and give school districts more flexibility in meeting the requirements of the amendment while maintaining its spirit.

Senator Mike Fasano of New Port Richey’s SJR 718 advanced one step closer to consideration by the full Senate this week. The proposed amendment to Florida’s Constitution will, if adopted by Florida’s electorate, will override the so-called “Recapture Rule” enacted into administrative code by former Governor Chiles and the Cabinet in 1995. The way it works now is that Save Our Homes caps the annual taxable value increase of real property at 3%, no matter what the assessed value may be. However, when the market value goes down (as most property values did during the economic downturn), the Recapture Rule allowed the assessed value to be limited to a 3% reduction (or the CPI) no matter if the actual value may have gone down 10 or 20 % or more. That is why, despite the constitutional amendment and the statutory rollback that took place a few years ago, most property owners saw little if any decrease in their property taxes. Without the Recapture Rule, they would have seen a large deduction in their taxes because the taxes would have been tied to the market value of their home, not the assessed value (which may be artificially inflated to keep the tax base high). Senator Fasano is hopeful that the House will share his passion to save property owners from the continually high rates of property taxation they are subjected to.

Senate Bill 1224 by Senator Andy Gardiner of Orlando, which previously passed the House as House Bill 689 by Representative Gary Aubuchon of Cape Coral, sends to the governor the so-called “Slip and Fall” bill. The legislation will require that if a person slips and falls on a substance that otherwise would not have belonged on the floor of a business, the victim of the fall will have to prove that the business had knowledge of the condition of the floor and did not take action to fix the problem. Once the governor receives the bill he will have 7 days to take action on it (sign or veto). If he receives a bill after the session ends he has 15 days to take action.

Each year the House and Senate rotate hosting the annual budget building process. This year the House is the host, thus that chamber sends its version of the bill over to the Senate for consideration first. Additionally, the House hosts the conference process to reconcile the two distinct and often very different visions for the state’s upcoming fiscal year. This week the Senate Ways & Means Committee voted on, and passed out, its version of the state budget. During week five the Senate will meet to vote on the budget and agree to meet with the House in conference. At that time conferees representing the two chambers will be announced and the fun will begin.

For more information please visit: http://tampabayinformer.com/Government/Politics/2010/04/01/Update-from-Tallahasse-Legislative-Session-2010-Week-Four.html

Lawmakers are rushing to pass several bills related to personal-injury lawsuits

TALLAHASSEE – Republicans in the Florida Senate just beat down Democratic Sen.Dan Gelber’s effort to take aim at Attorney General Bill McCollum for running to the court house over the federal health reform Congress passed this week.

Lawmakers are rushing to pass several bills related to personal-injury lawsuits and took up one which would put $50 million contingency-fee caps on the state Attorney General’s office when it hires outside lawyers.

But Gelber – himself a candidate for attorney general –offered an amendment to the bill Thursday intended to make the point that McCollum was also using an outside lawyer, who happens to be a former co-worker, to launch what Democrats have called a “frivolous” politically motivated federal lawsuit to throw out the health care reform.

Gelber called McCollum’s lawsuit “an ideological escapade” on the floor and tried to add language to the bill limiting the AG from hiring outside lawyers for pursuing a federal lawsuit challenging the health care reform.

Democrats blasted the move, and Republicans blasted back over the federal reform signed by President Obama this week.

“Every time we disagree with something the attorney general does, are we in this body going to take a stand and say ‘No you can’t do that thing … even if it protects the constitutional rights of those citizens,” the bill sponsor, Sen. John Thrasher, R-St. Augustine.

But Gelber said the attorney general had enough on his plate with pill mills, gang violence, child predators, and other criminals.

“The question we should ask right now is ‘Why is the attorney general spending all the resources of his office almost on a daily basis on this political frolic designed only to get headlines?” Gelber said.
The amendment failed, of course, to persuade any Republicans, and the bill (HB 437) passed 27-11 without Gelber’s amendment.

The contingency-fee bill is part of a deal between the House and Senate, trial lawyers and businesses to pass four different tort-related bills this session.

As part of the deal, trial lawyers get a weaker version of a bill re-instituting “parental waivers” than what the tourism industry wanted, and businesses get more protection from slip-and-fall lawsuits. The Senate quickly passed 32-5 the “slip-and-fall” bill (HB 689) making it harder to sue grocery stories or other businesses when someone gets hurt because there was something slick on the floor.

Both the slip-and-fall and contingency-fee bills had already cleared the House and were sent to Gov. Charlie Crist.

The Senate then went on to pass two bills that go the House.
One (SB 2060) raised the sovereign immunity caps for the state and local governments.
The other ( SB 2440) is the so-called “parental waiver” bill sought by Walt Disney and the tourism industry to let parents waive the right to sue for their children when they get hurt taking an “inherent risk” at theme parks, rock-climbing walls, horse-training academies and so forth.

For more information please visit: http://blogs.orlandosentinel.com/news_politics/2010/03/gelber-cant-stop-the-senates-tort-reform-choo-choo.html