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House Dems say “Lets get to work” on Medicaid expansion

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Borrowing the governor’s often-used slogan “let’s get to work” House Democrats on Thursday said it’s time for House Republicans and Gov. Rick Scott to work on finding a solution to the impasse on health care that has brought the 2015 legislative session to a grinding halt. At an early morning press conference on Thursday House minority leader Mark Pafford said House Democrats are ”ready to work” but that the governor “is a guy that cant spend time in Tallahassee actually dealing with the health…

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Lobbying ethics bill stumbles in Senate Rules

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A lengthy debate over a lobbying ethics reform bill ended with with former Senate President Don Gaetz moving to TP his own bill. The proposal — Gaetz’s SB 1372 — would tighten many restrictions on lobbying in Florida. Most notably, it would hold Gov. Rick Scott‘s brainchild — Enterprise Florida Inc., housed within another Scott innovation in the Department of Economic Opportunity — to the same standards that other state governmental apparatuses are held to. Specifically it would require those seeking to…

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Andy Gardiner says Senate will talk Medicaid, health care with ‘anybody at a any time’

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Senate President Andy Gardiner made an appearance at the A Healthy Florida Works press conference on Tuesday, joining a group of business leaders who are supporting his chamber’s plan to draw down Medicaid dollars and provide access to health care for as many as 800,000 uninsured Floridians. With less than three weeks left in the 2015 regular session, the group called on the Florida House of Representatives to join the Florida Senate and support a Medicaid expansion as proposed in…

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Tom Lee says he’s making plans on how to bring the session in for a landing

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Senate Appropriations Chairman Tom Lee said Thursday night that he is beginning to make plans on how to bring the 2015 session in for a landing if legislators cannot solve the budget impasse between the House and Senate spending plans. Lee said the chambers need to reach some sort of accord by “the middle of next week or thereabouts and then we are out of business.” Then the questions become whether the Legislature extends the regular 2015 session or whether the…

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Gwen Margolis’ ‘palcohol’ ban progresses in Senate

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A bill to prohibit the sale of powdered alcohol — known in industry lingo as ‘palcohol’ — before it has even arrived at Florida retailers passed another test in the Senate on Thursday. The ban was unanimously approved by the Rules Committee. State Sen. Gwen Margolis’ SB 998 now awaits a vote by the full Senate. Brandon state Sen. Tom Lee spoke for a lot of casual observers as well as his panel-mates when he asked Margolis — like Lee, a former Senate president…

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Lawmakers pass few bills as budget questions linger

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Just past the midpoint of the Florida Legislature’s 60-day session, lawmakers have left town for the Easter and Passover holidays. So let’s take a look at what they have done with the more than 1,700 bills that have been filed. They set next year’s presidential primary for March 15. And they’re really, really close to sending Gov. Rick Scott a bill that will let rural mail carriers ride around without their seatbelts. That’s about it. Every year the Legislature saves…

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Epic battle brewing at Capitol as session appears headed to overtime

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Now we have a session — a battle of wills and philosophies in the building of a state budget. The Senate wants to talk. And in the House, the talk is about war. Both chambers have passed a state budget for next year. If you look at the bottom lines the difference is about $4.2 billion. More than numbers separate the two. The chambers may be located in the same Capitol and are controlled by the same party but the…

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