We are SINE DIE! The Legislature ended sine die as of 11:00 AM Friday morning. This ends the 2023 regular session. According to LobbyTools, 1,873 bills and PCBs were filed, 2,674 amendments were filed, 3,229 votes were taken, and 356 bills passed both chambers.
We will begin working on the Session Summary shortly including a breakdown of the budget. This will take several weeks to complete. We anticipate it being ready for Summer Conference. In the meantime, we will also be working on a session report card to show how your advocacy based on the platform impacted legislation.
HERE you will find the legislative bill tracker supplied to us by our team at GrayRobinson. All of the bills we are tracking are listed on the report in numerical order. Bills that align to our platform are highlighted in yellow. A few of the bills to highlight:
- HB 1259 Education by Rep. Canady passed both chambers. This bill requires the sharing of capital outlay to charter schools with a glide path over the next 5 years as to the percentage to be shared.
- HB 1537 Education by Rep. Rizo also made it to the finish line. This bill covers a variety of education topics including making changes to the school grading formula for elementary schools, shifting to professional learning for teachers, and provides students with the opportunity to use the Classical Learning Test scores to meet Bright Futures requirements. It also includes amendments by Rep. Massullo and Sen. Simon that sets concordant scores for this year’s graduating seniors at last year’s scores for ELA and modifies them slightly for Algebra I EOC.
- SB 986 Education by Sen. Burgess will also be on its way to the Governor. This bill is focused on charter schools and includes a provision that would allow unrestricted current and capital assets to be shared with another charter school within its network as long as it’s in the state. This would be considered an unforgiveable 5 year loan that must be paid back.
- HB 477 Term Limits for District School Board Members by Rep. Rizo which reduces your term limits from 12 years to 8 years also passed both chambers. In addition, HB 411 Residency of Local Officials by Rep. Steele also made it to the finish line. This bill changes when you need to prove residency in the district from qualifying to upon taking office.
