| Legislative Update 2008 |
| What three issues gained national attention?? |
Embarrassing debate:
Criminalize truck-nutz |
Controversial debate:
Saggy pants in schools |
Heated Debate:
Take Your Gun to Work |
Legislators spent time debating whether an anatomically correct pickup truck accessory modeled after bull testicles, commonly known as truck nutz, should be outlawed. The Senate amended a Highway Safety Bill to impose a $60 fine and a moving violation with points on a driver's license for displaying the accessory on vehicle bumpers. As visiting schoolchildren watched from the gallery, the Senate awkwardly tried to debate the issue without explicitly referencing the accessory. There was bi-partisan opposition to the proposal. |
A Saggy Pants Bill by a Democrat offered overreaching penalties to violators and was viewed by opposition groups as "criminalizing wearing saggy pants in Florida schools." The debate gained Florida unwanted national attention and ridicule. Senate Bill SB302 was approved 28-11 but dropped the criminal sanctions. The House Bill amended the bill to allow principals to issue warnings followed by school suspension for additional violations. After the back and forth between Senate and House and all this effort, the bill died. |
The Florida Chamber of Commerce
(opposing the Gun Bill) and the NRA
(supporting the Gun Bill), faced off to
make it legal for gun owners to keep
legal guns in their personal private cars
at work in public access parking lots.
The gun lobby
won and the Bill passed.
It seems like too many members
did not understand the concept of
“going postal." With this bill, angry
disgruntled workers bent on revenge
won’t have to drive home to get their
guns ... they just have to walk out to the
parking lot.
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| How did the 2008 Legislative Session impact your life? |
- State sales tax holidays - cancelled
- Motorcycle - to pop a wheelie is now illegal in Florida
- Tuition increase of 6% at state universities and community colleges
- Boat Registration fees increased $10 or up to $65 depending on boat size
- CSX - Commuter Rail Project defeated
- Public campaign financing for statewide offices continues to be protected
- Budget cuts for Department of Corrections - fewer probation officers and staff for State Attorneys and Public Defenders
- Penalties increased for growing pot in your home but not in your yard
- Court system funding was cut, which will adversely delay your ability to obtain justice in disputes
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| Why was the new budget signed behind closed doors? |
Why was the $66.2 billion budget with $4 billion slashed from education, health care,
public safety, etc., signed behind closed doors for the first time in recent memory? It was
because this budget had nothing to cheer about.
Our Palm Beach Democratic Legislators
described the 2008 Legislative Session as one of the worst.
As Florida's economy staggers and tax collections continue to fall below expectations,
cutting the State Budget was the dominant theme of the 2008 Florida Legislative session.
The efforts of Democrats to raise issues about the root causes of the financial crisis were completely shut down. Any attempt to debate the merits of fixing our tax structure, such
as ending specific sales tax exemptions to protected groups with strong lobbies, was met with the Republican cry "we will not
raise taxes." So the special interest sales tax loopholes remain, allowing $42 million dollars to be lost because bottled water
is exempt and $64 million to be lost because deep sea fishing is exempt, among others. Democrats favored increasing the
cigarette tax $1 (current tax is only 34¢ well below the national average of $1.11), which would have generated $1.1 million in
revenue that could have been used to support health care programs, but it was also shot down. |
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| “Those who are too smart to engage in politics are punished by being governed by those who are dumber.”
- Plato
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