Lawmakers Have Ideas Ready For Potential Special Session

August 13, 2010

There’s no timetable for when lawmakers may return to Tallahassee and take up remaining issues related to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill – if they do return at all – but several proposals are being drafted by lawmakers that could lead to property tax rebates, additional money for tourism development boards and heightened powers for the statewide prosecutor.

Lawmakers stopped by Tallahassee last month for one day to shoot down Gov. Charlie Crist’s proposal to allow voters to make the ultimate decision on whether the state should ban offshore oil drilling. But they also failed to address any economic issues related to the oil spill.

Senate leaders bemoaned the fact that the House wouldn’t stay and work on other legislation related to the effects of the spill, which a committee of senators had already started examining. House Speaker Larry Cretul instead appointed his own committees to tackle issues associated with the spill and told Senate President Jeff Atwater that if necessary, lawmakers could return to the Capitol in September to take up ideas brought by both House and Senate members.

Sen. Don Gaetz said members of the Senate are trying to prioritize the issues into three categories – ones that need to be handled immediately, those that could be handled in the organizational session that will be held in November and ones that can wait until the regular legislative session in the spring.

“We’re trying to rack and stack the issues,” said Gaetz, R-Niceville, who chairs the Senate Select Committee on the Economy.

The House committees, meanwhile, have begun to meet by conference call.

The big question remains when and if a special session will ultimately be called, bringing legislators back to Tallahassee before the November election. Cretul has said he wants lawmakers to first figure out whether there even needs to be a special session through committee meetings, and if so, what needs to be done. A spokeswoman for Cretul reiterated that position to the News Service Thursday.

Senate President-Designate Mike Haridopolos told reporters last week that there would be a session if “we have a conclusion” on what to do, and Gaetz acknowledged that the Senate had to “have a dance partner” in the House to pass legislation.

“The worst thing is going into a special session and not knowing how you’re going to end it,” he said.

Gaetz said that the select committee’s ideas are in legislative drafting now and he is hopeful the House will soon produce its own proposals as well. The Senate proposals so far include:

-A multistate compact among the other Gulf of Mexico states that lays out needed regional environmental protections
-Legislation strengthening the role of the statewide prosecutor, particularly when it comes to environmental crimes.
-Property tax relief that could include property tax rebates similar to payments made in 2007 to Central Florida residents whose homes were destroyed or heavily damaged by tornadoes.
-A law that would authorize a matching program from funds in the Restaurant and Lodging Trust Fund so that Panhandle tourism boards could promote the area, particularly during the winter months when there are fewer visitors.
-Economic incentives to companies, unrelated to tourism or the military, who want to move to the region.

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Written by William Reynolds · Filed Under News