Gelber's Latest Legislative Updates

The latest news and views from State Senator Dan Gelber on Florida's legislative session, coming from tonight's conference call.

The call started out discussing the potential budget deal. Others will probably touch on that a lot, so I'll focus on the other top issues that Gelber discussed.

Other than the budget, one of the top laws up for debate right now is the property insurance bill that would allow Citizens, the state-run insurer of more than one million Floridians to raise rates for policyholders. The Senate has proposed moderate increases, but Gelber said that it is likely the final bill will contain increases in the range of 10-15%. As usual, Governor Charlie Crist is coy about the bill and his support or opposition to it.

Much less important is what Gelber calls the "license plate wars." As most readers know, Florida has an endless variety of specialty license plates for automobiles, the proceeds of which go to designated organizations. Two plates have come up this session that have explicitly Christian messages -- one with a cross, the other with a massive picture of Jesus. Gelber points out -- as is consistent with my understanding of the First Amendment -- that these plates would violate the federal establishment clause. Gelber adds that they would likely violate the state version as well. Similar plates in other states have been ruled unconstitutional and the same thing would likely happen here. Gelber thinks these two plates will eventually be left out of the final Senate bill, but he says the hours wasted debating these bills are silly when Florida is facing such serious issues. There is also some serious question as to where the money from these plates goes and who is behind the push for them.

Gelber said the card check bill, designed to kill the power of the national Employee Free Choice Act, has passed the House and is headed to the Senate. Florida is already one of the worst states in the union in terms of how we treat unions/workers, and this bill would attempt to keep Florida that way, regardless of what Congress does. Such a thing would likely be unconstitutional under the supremacy clause, but why test it. The current proposal would make it a constitutional amendment that would have to go before the voters, 60% of whom would have to approve. Gelber thinks that the misleading wording of the proposal would likely get the 60%, since it makes voters think they are protecting the secret ballot in all elections. The secret ballot is already protected, of course -- including in union elections -- and the EFCA wouldn't change this at all, but that doesn't stop Republicans from lying about it.

Unemployment modernization is another hot topic in the legislature right now. Under the stimulus plan, Florida is eligible for $450 million to modernize the system for citizens applying for unemployment benefits. Almost every other state has already done this modernization. Florida hasn't and is still working with the system put in place (including the technology) from the 1940s. This old-fashioned setup lessens the ability of people to get into the system. Republicans have effectively rejected this money, despite the fact that Florida needs it probably more than any other state because of our antiquated system and our extremely high unemployment rate.

Gelber tried to get at least $150 million of the unemployment modernization money by limiting the scope, since he knew the overall money wasn't going to be approved, but his proposal was rejected on a voice vote, almost certainly along party lines. Governor Crist says he'd like to have the money, but Gelber says Crist isn't doing anything to get the money. Big business lobbyists oppose the bill, despite the fact that it would benefit them by covering their payments to the unemployment compensation trust fund for a year. Gelber has been pushing for this for years, but the Republicans are stopping it.

Now that the end of the legislative session is near, Gelber says the last-minute vote-trading will begin. Logrolling will begin and we're entering a dangerous time, when bad bills and amendments could sneak through. Gelber suggested two such issues could revolve around oil drilling and the voter suppression bill, both of which were thought to be dead at this point.

The voter bill was pulled out of its last senate committee, so it could, theoretically, be brought to the floor, rather than dying in committee. Most experts think this bill would be overturned as unconstitutional, but that's a bit much to leave up to chance. People concerned about the voting bill should contact the Senate president, who may drop the bill if he's pressured enough.

It's possible, Gelber thinks, that the proposal to allow offshore drilling within three miles of Florida's coast could be trade bait as well. This proposal came up late in the session with a huge financial push. We really should look into finding out who is behind the proposal, something sofar unknown. Who is behind the push and what is their real agenda?

Gelber noted that, in all likelihood, the governor wasn't going to get involved in any of the hard decisions the legislature has to make this session.

State Senator Alex Villalobos is looking, once again, to pass his bill making witnesses before the legislature testify under oath, making lying while under oath a second or third degree felony. Gelber supports the bill and thinks it will pass the Senate, but that, once again, the House will kill it.

Gelber also noted that the education waiver for stimulus funds was finally submitted and he thinks we're likely to get it, particularly with the close relationship between Crist and Barack Obama.