Florida school district leaders are faced with a school security dilemma. Lawmakers are requiring them to add armed safety officers or “guardians” to every elementary, middle and high school campus, and they set aside $170 million for the task. But that won’t come close to projected costs. The gap — as little as $500,000 in…
The 2018 Legislative Session adjourned, sine die, on Sunday evening with the passage of the $88.7 billion state budget, budget implementing bill, and a tax relief bill. On the same day, Governor Scott signed Senate President Joe Negron’s priority legislation relating to post-secondary education ( SB 4) and House Speaker Richard Corcoran’s priority legislation relating to…
The legislature has extended the 2018 Session through Sunday, March 11 in order to allow for the 72-hour cooling off period before a final vote can be taken on the budget. The chambers also agreed that they will consider ONLY the Conference Reports budget bills and a tax relief bill – HB 7087 — after…
Today, legislators settled the final budget issues and published the 2018-2019 General Appropriations Act (Budget) and related bills and information. To allow for the constitutionally required 72-hour “cooling off” period before voting on the budget, legislators will extend the Session through Sunday, March 11. We are in the process of compiling our annual FSBA Legislative…
This afternoon, legislative leaders announced that an agreement has been reached on the $87 billion state budget. Because this is a day later than would be necessary to adjourn on Friday, it is expected that the Session will be extended and the budget will be subject to a final vote on Sunday or Monday. As…
As we begin the last scheduled week of the 2018 Session, please take a few minutes to view our Legislative Weekly video featuring Andrea Messina providing a recap of recent legislative events and focusing on the key bills and issues that remain to be resolved. One of those key bills – HB 7055 — was…
Because the Senate held a rare Saturday floor session, this issue of the Session Spotlight provides our report on bills that were considered on both Friday and Saturday. On Friday, both chambers postponed consideration of their respective public safety bills but legislators did consider several other bills of interest, including bills relating to local tax…
Today, was a fairly light day of committee meetings and floor sessions. The Senate Public Safety bills were expected to be debated on the Senate floor, but that debate has been postponed until tomorrow. Meanwhile, other bills of interest that were considered, including bills relating to local government ethics, impact fees, and early learning, Please…
Legislators took up several bills of interest today including bills relating to retirement, curriculum and graduation requirements, and government accountability and ethics. Please click on the link below for our report on the outcome of consideration of these and other bills today. There are no committee meetings or bills of interest scheduled on Friday. However,…
The main highlight today was a rally of an estimated 5,000 students, teachers, parents, school district personnel, legislators, and other citizens seeking to express their concerns and recommendations for legislative action in the wake of the tragedy at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School last week. Concerns about student safety and school security have also influenced…