Florida’s State of the State address and Preview of the 2019 legislative session
Bottom Line: Governor DeSantis kicks off Florida’s 2019 legislative session with his inaugural State-of-the-State address. He’ll do it riding a record wave of support. Through his first seven weeks in office, Ron DeSantis has pushed an aggressive agenda forward successfully, enjoys 60% approval statewide and a positive 41% approval rating at the start of his first session. Record highs for a Florida Governor. He’ll doubtless expend some of that political capital pushing his agenda forward with his address and what he emphasis’s will have even greater impact than his predecessor - given his current standing statewide. Now about the session...
Before looking ahead to what begins today, here’s a look back at what happened last year. In Florida’s 2018 legislative session:
- 3,189 bills were proposed
- 196 passed
That’s only 6% if you’re keeping score but then again 196 pieces of new legislation passing is a lot when you think about it. That’s an average of a new law less than every two days. So, what’s 2019’s session shaping up to look like?
- 3,006 bills have been proposed
I guess the good news is that’s less to consider than last year’s proposals but given then given that the state session only lasts for 60 days – that's more than 50 proposals to wade through per day. Where would you even find the time – which is why most won’t even see the light of day. Among the hottest button issues are the ones that would have immediate impact in Florida including:
- Smokable medical marijuana (recreational isn’t going anywhere this session)
- Everglades restoration/Lake O’ discharges
- School voucher expansion
- Sanctuary cities ban
There are no shortage of proposed pieces of legislation that grab headlines but won’t be going anywhere this year - like recreational marijuana – but it’s likely you’ll see swift decisive action on many of the big issues early in the session to pave the path for other priorities in communities around the state. As a reminder, the only task the state legislature must complete is passing a budget. So that’d be the single most important agenda item this session. I’ll keep you posted...