TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – The annual Florida Legislative Session gets underway Tuesday, and our state senators are looking to pass bills on everything from property insurance reform to allowing counties to use tourist tax dollars for public transportation and workforce housing.
Many likely won’t make it through committees.
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Twelve state senators (nine Republicans and three Democrats) represent Central Florida voters in Tallahassee during the session. Senators can file as many bills as they want.
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Getting a bill passed isn’t easy. Lawmakers need to get their bills on committee schedules, convince other lawmakers to support them, and get the bills heard and voted on. They also need to get members of the Florida House to sponsor a companion bill in their chamber.
Lawmakers often see decent bills die because they run out of time. Sometimes, it takes years to get a bill through the legislature.
We contacted all of our Central Florida state senators and asked them what bills they hoped to pass this year and what issues they hoped the legislature would prioritize. Here are the responses we got.
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Sen. Tom Leek, R-District 7
Representing Flagler and Volusia counties
“You know, for me, I think we need to continue to work on property insurance in the state of Florida as well as auto insurance. But property insurance is going to be my primary focus this year,” said Sen. Tom Leek, who is joining the Florida Senate after serving two terms in the Florida House.
Leek is sponsoring SB 1508. The bill establishes a procedure for solving disputed insurance claims that all companies have to follow and requires claims to be resolved in a timely manner.
“I’ve got some legislation coming through that will make the claims process expedited,” Leek said. “You get a ruling from a judge that you have coverage within 60 days, and you get final determination within 180 days.”
Leek is also pushing SB 1176. This bill would ensure that people who make storm-resistant upgrades to their homes will not see their property values, not to mention their property taxes, go up.
Another bill Leek is very passionate about is SB 494. This bill would require the Florida Department of Law Enforcement to keep a list on its website of people who were convicted of animal cruelty charges. He is also sponsoring SB 502, which provides stiffer penalties.
Leek sees the bills as a continuation of Ponce’s Law, a 2018 bill he supported which increased the chances of animal abusers going to jail and allowed judges to bar someone convicted of animal cruelty from owning a pet.
“Now we’re saying that not only are the penalties going to be stiffer, but we’re also going to make it possible for adoption clinics and other people like that to see where somebody has been banned from owning a dog, so that we can make sure that those people who are committing this kind of animal cruelty don’t just recirculate through the system,” Leek said.
Leek is also sponsoring SB 234, the Officer Jason Raynor Act, after the Daytona Beach police officer who was killed in 2021. Raynor was searching for a stolen car when he saw a similar vehicle. When he tried to question the person in the car, Othal Wallace, police say Wallace shot Raynor and fled. Raynor died of his injuries. Wallace was found guilty of manslaughter and sentenced to 30 years in prison.
Leek is also chair of the Senate Committee on Commerce and Tourism.
You can find the rest of Leek’s bills on his page on the Florida senate website.
Sen. Carlos Guillermo Smith, D-District 17
Representing Orange County
“There’s really a diverse agenda that we’ve put forward for Senate District 17,” said Sen. Carlos Guillermo Smith, who joins the Florida Senate after serving in the Florida House until 2022. “We have a big agenda, and it’s all focused on solving the real problems that Floridians are facing.”
Smith is sponsoring two bills that would make changes to the way tourist development taxes are used by Florida counties. The taxes, which are levied on hotel stays and other vacation lodgings, can only be used for tourism-related things such as tourism promotion, convention centers, and sports facilities.
SB 1114 would limit the amount of TDT revenue that can be spent to promote tourism in order to use the money for transportation or public facilities, capping the amount at 40% of revenue, up to $50 million.
“Right now in Orange County, approximately $100 million annually in hotel taxes, taxpayer funds, is given to Visit Orlando for tourism promotion. That actually only represents 30% of collections, which means in order for Orange County to use even a penny of hotel taxes to connect SunRail to the airport, for example, and promote public transit, which will certainly help tourism, they need to first give Visit Orlando 40% of TDT collections, which is $140 million,” Smith said. “That is an objectively absurd amount of resources to give to tourism advertising, when we have so many community needs and issues that need to be addressed.”
SB 1116, meanwhile, would allow the TDT revenue to be used for public safety improvements and workforce housing.
Smith is also sponsoring SB 412, which would require motorized wheelchair makers to make manuals and parts available to other repair companies.
“Right now, there’s a very monopolistic set up where the manufacturers of powered wheelchairs set up the exclusive rights to do any of the repairs that are necessary, which can leave people vulnerable populations, many of them who are living with serious disabilities without access to their powered wheelchair for months with extremely high prices,” Smith said.
Smith has also introduced a bill to cap insulin prices for people with private insurance to $35 a month (SB 1676), a bill to make sure tenants are notified if their home is at risk for flooding (SB 1332), and a bill to bring a Florida Museum of History to the town of Eatonville, picking up a passion project of his colleague, the late Sen. Geraldine Thompson (SB 1754).
Smith is also vice chair on the Senate Criminal Justice Committee.
You can see all of Smith’s bills by going to his page on the Florida Senate website.
Sen. Randy Fine, R-District 19
Representing Brevard County
State Sen. Randy Fine is in a different situation from other lawmakers. The freshman state senator will resign from the legislature on April 1 because he is running for U.S. House District 7. That means any bills he sponsors that are not passed or picked up by another lawmaker after he leaves office could be dead for the session.
“The people in Washington are asking me, ‘Why are you spending so much time? You’re leaving.’ But, you know, the way I’m wired is I’m going to run through the tape. So I’m focused on getting the bills filed,” Fine said.
Fine has two gun bills that are priorities for him. SB 94 would allow people aged 18 to 21 to buy a gun. SB 814 would, among other things, allow people to carry guns on college or university campuses.
“The bill extends no new rights to anyone,” Fine said. “It’s the current people who can carry concealed. Right now, the law says you can carry it at the pizza place across the street from campus, but you can’t carry it on campus as though there’s a magic force field that keeps the bad guys from bringing guns onto campus. This would simply say you have the right.”
Fine is also trying to get a bill passed that would ban government buildings from flying pride flags, any racial flags, or anything considered politically partisan (SB 100). The Florida Senate wouldn’t hear the bill last year, but this year, it has already passed one committee.
Fine also says one of his legislative priorities was already passed during the special session.
“One of my bills passed, which was the elimination of in-state tuition for illegal immigrants, which was a priority of mine,” Fine said.
Fine is also chair of the Senate Governmental Oversight and Accountability Committee and vice chair of the Senate Community Affairs Committee.
You can see the rest of Fine’s bills on his Florida Senate page.
Sen. Kristen Arrington, D–District 25
Representing Orange and Osceola counties
Sen. Kristen Arrington’s biggest priority is one that doesn’t involve a bill. She wants to help alleviate traffic issues in Osceola County.
“Many of our constituents would love to spend more time with their families or spend their time doing anything besides being on the road,” Arrington said. “So I’m definitely excited to be on the transportation committee so I can have a voice for our region with that. And also just to make sure that everything that is on our work program for FDOT for the next five years stays on the plan. We have a lot of great projects coming to Central Florida.”
Arrington is also working on several education-related bills. One, SB 460, would require schools to have a plan for when a student wanders away who is disabled, such as children who are autistic.
“You know, many of them wander out of the classroom or, you know, unfortunately, they’re also attracted a lot of times to bodies, water and the woods,” Arrington said. “So just working with our schools to make sure that they have what’s called a safe program so people know how to respond or what they need to do, and they have a program in place so we can prevent this from happening. Or if it was to happen that they’re able to act right away.”
Arrington is also sponsoring SB 336. This bill would expand a program that offers tuition assistance to members of the Florida National Guard to include the spouses and children of guardsmen.
Meanwhile, SB 338 creates a mentorship program in schools for the Florida Bright Futures program, and was suggested by Osceola County students.
“The students felt that the Bright Futures program is not promoted enough in schools to them,” Arrington said. “So they suggested a mentorship program.”
Arrington said the bill would also put requirements on the school district to make sure students know all the options available through the scholarship program, including deferment.
Arrington also hopes more is done regarding both property insurance and auto insurance this year. She’s hoping that some proposals might emerge in the first few weeks of the session.
“I do love the first couple weeks of committees, when we do workshops or we do panels and we get everybody in the room to talk about these problems and ask questions,” Arrington said. “And so, I would like to see more of that, to have some more conversations about car insurance, because I think that’s going to be the next thing that’s pricing folks out.”
Arrington is also vice chair of the Senate Commerce and Tourism Committee
You can see the rest of Arrington’s bills on her Florida Senate page.
Other Central Florida state senators
Five other state lawmakers did not respond to our requests. However, you can see the bills they filed by clicking on the links to their Florida Senate member pages.
Representing Brevard and Volusia counties. Wright is also the chair of the Senate Committee on Military and Veterans Affairs, Space and Domestic Security.
Sen. Stan McClain, R-District 9
Representing Marion County. McClain is also chair of the Senate Community Affairs Committee.
Sen. Jason Brodeur, R-District 10
Representing Orange and Seminole counties. Brodeur is also chair of the Appropriations Committee on Agriculture, Environment, and General Government.
Sen. Blaise Ingoglia, R-District 11
Representing Sumter County. Ingoglia is also chair of the Senate Banking and Insurance Committee and vice chair of the Senate Environment and Natural Resources Committee.
Sen. Keith Truenow, R-District 13
Representing Lake and Orange counties. Truenow is also chair of the Senate Agriculture Committee.
State Sen. Geraldine Thompson, D-District 15, passed away last month. Her seat will remain vacant during the session, but lawmakers are working to make sure her priorities are heard.