Your News from Tallahassee

CAPITOL BEAT: Your news from Tallahassee By FMO Legislative Counsel, Nancy Black Stewart

Summer is Over.....

The Legislature is home, in their districts with all of you, but they are far from idle! Many of them have been traveling all over the state to take public input at meetings dedicated to the issue of redistricting. In the last issue of FMO News, I discussed a bit of the detail of reapportioning the state. There are Constitutional requirements and restrictions and at the end of the day, not everyone will be happy. Legislators put substantial time, energy, and emotion into representing their constituents and it is similar to loosing old friends as they face representing different people.

Reapportionment and the state budget will be the predominant issues when the 2012 Regular Session convenes in January. The FMO Legislative Committee and the FMO Board of Directors are in the process of determining next year’s legislation.

Once I receive my charge from them, I will go to work to obtain bill sponsors to see what we can accomplish next year. As we pit home ownership against property ownership, our issues become more difficult and sometimes take longer to accomplish. Stay tuned as decisions are made.

An interesting development this summer has been the changing of House committee memberships. At the beginning of his term, House Speaker Dean Cannon , (R-Orlando), created the opportunity for House members to continue to grow in both leadership roles and substantive areas. When committees were appointed for 2011 Regular Session, the appointments termed out on July 1. Since that time, the Speaker has taken requests and feedback from House members as to their preferences and concerns. The result has been new committee members, new Chairs, and new Vice Chairs, in some circumstances.

You may be wondering how that might affect you. The best example would be to remember all your efforts to turn the ship around on the issue of the deregulation of the Division of Condominiums, Timeshares, and Mobile Homes last session. Many worked on this initiative and legislators listened. Now there will be new players up and down the chain should that issue be brought forward again. So with some legislators we will be starting the process as if from scratch. That, in itself, is not a worry, however, new players will cause further vigilance.

Committee meetings start in September and will continue through the end of the year. With Session convening on January 10, there is substantial work to be done between now and then.

6 September/October 2011