Republican state Sen. Tom Lee of Thonotosassa doesn’t give up easily. He has filed two bills that for the 2018 session that are essentially repeats of proposals that didn’t pass this year.
Brandon-area state Sen. Tom Lee and Lithia Rep. Jake Raburn rankled members of the Tampa City Council earlier this year after they learned of the legislative proposal that would ultimately prevent cities and counties from creating Community Redevelopment Agencies (CRA’s). While the bill did not make it to Gov. Rick Scott‘s desk, it might next year, St. Petersburg House Democrat Wengay Newton warned Thursday.
Fifty legislators received top marks from Americans for Prosperity-Florida, the largest number of A+ legislators since the organization began issuing its annual legislative scorecard. The organization released its 2017 Economic Freedom Scorecard, which graded 5,500 votes on 96 issues, on Tuesday. The scorecard showed 50 legislators — 11 senators and 39 representatives — received an A+. That means legislators scoring an A+ voted with AFP-FL received a score of 100 percent or higher.
For the Tampa Bay legislative delegation, it was one of the more combustible moments of the 2017 Legislative Session. We’re referring to when Republicans Jack Latvala and Dana Young pushed back forcefully against Tom Lee‘s insistence of an audit of Tampa International Airport’s $2.6 billion master plan. Actually, what they were really pushing back against was Lee’s provocative comment that “potential public corruption” was taking place at TIA. Airport CEO Joe Lopano confirmed Thursday that state audit is now underway.…
The attempted assassination Wednesday morning of Louisiana Republican Congressman Steve Scalise in suburban Washington D.C. has shaken the nation. Certainly, lawmakers now realize how vulnerable they are to mentally unstable people with access to firearms who disagree with them politically. At Friday’s Tampa Tiger Bay Club, five members of the Hillsborough County Legislative Delegation were asked their thoughts on what the shooting means for Floridians, and the nation. Plant City Republican House member Dan Raulerson said the answer was simple — everyone, especially lawmakers…
Although modest in scope, Tampa Bay area lawmakers and business officials are happy that Gov. Rick Scott signed legislation (SB 1672) they believe is the first step toward creating a regional network to push for transit. The bill changes the actual title of TBARTA. It will now be the Tampa Bay Area Regional Transit Authority (it used to be “transportation”). The new agency is slightly smaller in scope in terms of geography, but not smaller than originally envisaged by Clearwater Republican Jack…
When Gov. Rick Scott appointed a conservative jurist to the state’s Supreme Court in December, he made clear he wasn’t done. “I will appoint three more justices the morning I finish my term,” he said, referring to the mandatory retirement in early 2019 of the court’s liberal-leaning triumvirate of Justices Barbara Pariente, Peggy A. Quince and R. Fred Lewis. Now, two progressive organizations are saying to Scott: Prove you can. They say he can’t. The League of Women Voters of Florida (LWVF)…
