May was another month full of activities, especially
Democratic picnics and efforts by our club members to promote sensible gun laws
and immigration reform. We also had a
very well attended May meeting, at which we heard from gubernatorial candidate
Senator Nan Rich and Pinellas County Commissioner Janet Long. Since
these events are covered in separate articles and pictures, I’m going to focus
here on some of the key votes in the Florida legislature in the 2013 session
that ran from March-May, following up on the brief overview that I gave at the
beginning of May.
The tables below indicate how our Pinellas County
legislators voted on some of the key issues.
Though much of the action in the legislature takes place behind closed
doors and often involves complex compromises, the roll-call votes do illustrate
patterns that should be of interest to these representatives’ constituents –
us. If you haven’t already done so, be
sure to pick up one of our club’s book marks that lists all of the contact
information for our local, state and federal lawmakers, to facilitate your
communication with them now and in the future.
These book marks will be available again at our next meeting, at the
Thirsty Marlin, 7 p.m., on Monday, June 17.
I am still hoping that the Governor will call a special session of the
legislature later this year to address the health care issue in particular, but
so far he seems unwilling to take actions needed to persuade the House
Republicans to be reasonable.
Most of the critical votes in Tallahassee on the most
controversial issues were highly partisan.
However, some major differences were evident between the two Republican
Senators from Pinellas County, with Senator Latvala adopting much more
reasonable positions on health care expansion, the parent trigger bill and
public employees’ pensions than Senator Brandes. Our House delegation voted largely along
Democrat versus Republican lines on most controversial bills, though Rep.
Hooper (who is term-limited and is running for the Pinellas County Commission
in 2014) joined all of the Democrats in voting against the parent trigger bill
(which died on a 20-20 Senate vote). A
plus (+) indicates a progressive vote, a minus
(-) indicates a vote in the opposite direction. Further explanations of the issues appear
after the tables. All of the Pinellas
House Democrats and the lone Pinellas Senate Democrat supported the progressive
position on each of the key votes in the tables below.
Key Senate Votes in
2013
|
Issues
|
Joyner (D)
|
Brandes (R)
|
Latvala (R)
|
|
1 Health Care
|
+
|
-
|
+
|
|
2 Parent Trigger
|
+
|
-
|
+
|
|
3 Election Reform
|
+
|
-
|
-
|
|
4 FL Retirement
|
+
|
-
|
+
|
Key House Votes in
2013
|
Issues
|
Dudley
(D)
|
Rouson
(D)
|
Zimmerman
(D)
|
Ahern
(R)
|
Grant
(R)
|
Hooper
(R)
|
Peters
(R)
|
|
1 Health Care
|
+
|
+
|
+
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
|
2 Parent
Trigger
|
+
|
+
|
+
|
-
|
-
|
+
|
-
|
|
3Campaign
Finance
|
+
|
+
|
+
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
|
4 Nuclear
Plant Fees
|
+
|
+
|
+
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
|
5 Florida Retirement
|
+
|
+
|
+
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
Brief Explanation of Issues
Senate
1 Health Care: +
indicates a vote for the compromise legislation that would have expanded health
care insurance coverage to more than 1.1 million uninsured Floridians. This bill passed the Senate 38-1, with only
Senator Brandes voting No. It died when
it was not accepted by the House.
2 Parent Trigger: +
indicates a vote against the so-called parent trigger bill that would have allowed
a complete revamping of public schools, including their conversion to charter
schools, if they “failed” according to test-score results. This bill died on a 20-20 Senate vote after
passing the House. It was opposed by the PTA, most school boards
and teachers’ organizations.
3 Election Reform: +
indicates a vote against this limited and flawed election reform bill, in an
effort to achieve broader expansion of early voting than this measure
provides. This bill passed 27-13.
4 Florida Retirement:
+ indicates a vote against this bill that would have prohibited new
state employees, teachers and county employees from enrolling in the Florida
Retirement System and would have steered them to self-funded private plans instead. This bill was defeated 18-22 after passing
the House.
House of
Representatives
1 Health Care: +
indicates a vote against the flawed House bill that would have rejected $51
billion in federal aid and omitted most currently uninsured Floridians from
health insurance coverage. This bill
passed the House 71-46 but died when it was not accepted by the Senate.
2 Parent Trigger: +
indicates a vote against the so-called parent trigger bill described in the
Senate section above. It passed the
House 68-51 but died on a tie vote in the Senate.
3 Campaign Finance: +
indicates a vote against the campaign finance bill that increased the amounts
that individuals can give to political campaigns, expanded the powers of
candidate political committees and eliminated Committees of Continuous
Existence. It passed the House 79-34 and
was accepted by the Senate.
4 Nuclear Plant Fees:
+ indicates a vote in favor of the Dudley amendment that would have tightened
restrictions on electric companies’ imposition of fees for pre-construction
costs of nuclear power plants (by requiring popular vote approval in the
affected area). This amendment was
defeated 42-73. The weaker (but still
better than the status quo) bill then
passed the House and Senate by overwhelming votes.
5 Florida Retirement:
+ indicates a vote against this bill that would have prohibited new
state employees, teachers and county employees from enrolling in the Florida
Retirement System. It passed the House 74-42
but was defeated in the Senate.
