Gov. Rick Scott has a Saturday deadline to act on 17 more bills out of the 2016 Legislative Session, suggesting he may handle them as early as Friday, the last business day of the week.
His daily schedule shows only “staff and call time” slated for 8:30 a.m.-1:15 p.m.
Of the latest tranche of bills, Scott already has signed SB 1322, intended to end the battle between the state and several Florida counties over juvenile detention costs.
The remaining measures include a bill (SB 1602) to increase the safety of in-home elevators, creating the “Maxwell Erik ‘Max’ Grablin Act.”
Grablin was a 12-year-old Bradenton boy killed in a home elevator shaft when he went looking for a pet hamster.
The bill “establishes clearing requirements for elevators installed in private residences and requires all such elevators to be equipped with a sensor device that prevents elevators from operating if an obstruction is detected,” according to a news release last month.
Another bill (SB 7076) would move the start of the 2018 session up to January.
In odd-number years, the state constitution requires the Legislature to begin on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in March. The constitution allows the Legislature to set the dates in even-numbered years.
Lawmakers did that in 2014, when they decided to start the 2016 Legislative Session in January. Under the current bill, the 2018 session would convene Tuesday, Jan. 9.
Scott now has been given all the bills that passed the Legislature in 2016. After the latest round, he will have 26 bills still needing action.
