The Political Whore

By Jim Johnson
PoHo Contributor

Jim Johnson is the creator of The State of Sunshine blog.

Today is the 46th day of the 2009 Legislative session.

The Senate passed it’s version of the budget yesterday and has a light agenda, the House will debate the budget today:

Florida House of Representatives

The House will be meeting in session today to consider passage of bills that have completed the committee process. Bills heard “on the Floor” are on first placed on a “Special Order Calendar” where they are read (for the second time), debated, and amended. Bills taken up on Special Order move to “3rd reading.” The Florida Constitution requires bills to be read three times before a chamber can pass the bill. Some of the bills to be heard today are:
Third Reading:

• House Bill 5001 and House Bill 5101 &mdash These bills combined are the House version of the 2009-2010 Fiscal Year appropriations bill.
• There are several other bills that make policy changes necessary to support the budget, from tweaking trust funds to allowing community colleges greater flexibility in use of student fees. These bills will generally be non-controversial.
• Further there are other bills on third reading, but the general rule on budget day is for these other bills to be skipped in lieu of debating the budget. Among these bills is House Joint Resolution 919 by Rep. Will Weatherford — This bill proposes an amendment to the Florida Constitution to change the class size requirements:
  • For pre-kindergarten through grade 3, the maximum number of students that could be assigned to each teacher in an individual classroom is raised from 18 to 21, but the school level average cannot exceed 18 students.
  • For grades 4 through 8, the maximum number of students that could be assigned to each teacher in an individual classroom is raised from 22 to 27, but the school level average cannot exceed 22 students.
  • For grades 9 through 12, the calculation method is limited to the average number of students at the school level, which cannot exceed 25 students.

Special Order Calendar:

• Senate Bill 788 — This bill will be the Senate version of a new Seminole Indian Gaming Compact. The Compact will allow Seminole Tribe of Florida to to conduct banked card games, including baccarat, chemin de fer, and blackjack (21). The bill also permits the Tribe to conduct roulette, and craps if the licensed parimutuel facilities in Miami-Dade and Broward Counties become authorized to offer the play of blackjack. [Sidebar: For anyone who wants a detailed and full analysis of the Seminole Gaming issue, the Senate Commitee staff has prepared an excellent analysis. Click here to download the PDF.]
• House Bill 7145 a committee bill by the Select Committee on Seminole Indian Compact Review — This bill revises the regulations of parimutuels (horse tracks, dog tracks, etc) in several ways, such as allowing quarter-horse racing, reducing the fees and taxes parimutuels pay, and increasing limits on poker betting. The bill is designed to allow parimutuels to compete with the Seminole Tribe.

Florida Senate

The Senate has only one committee meeting scheduled for today, with nothing of note on the agenda.

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