Subject: 2010 End of Session Report

2010 Legislative Overview & Update: We Did It!

Just to give you a general overview of the activities in Tallahassee this year, I've included some over all numbers for you to see the success and failure rate of Bills from both chambers below and an update on the Window Tint bill.

Number of General Bills, Local Bills, and Resolutions Filed
House: 1039
Senate: 1438
Total: 2477

Number of Bills that Passed
House: 373 (Success: 35.90% Failure: 64.10% )
Senate: 278 (Success: 19.33% Failure: 26.28% )
Both Chambers: 301 (253 when resolutions and local bills are removed from total)
Success Rate Avg: 26.28%
Failure Rate Avg: 73.72%

During the 2010 Legislative Session, the window tint language was amended onto one of the "transportation" packages that were moving through both the House and Senate. Specifically, we asked Representative Aubuchon to amend our language onto his Roads, Bridges & Ports Committee Bill. He did at his committee meeting on March 15, 2010 and a bill relating to Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles (HB 0971) was formed.

This language was also amended onto the Senate version of this bill (SB 2400) on April 13 during the Finance & Tax Committee. Both versions of the bill kept our window tint language throughout the legislative process.

In the final two weeks of session, the House version of the bill passed Third Reading by a vote of 114-0 and was sent to the Senate. The Senate laid down its version and took up the House bill. This passed by a vote of 29-0 on April 29, 2010, and thus, this bill became ready to be sent to the Governor.

As of today, the bill has not been sent to the Governor. It is scheduled to be discussed in the Revenue Estimating Conference this week (standard procedure) and will eventually be sent to the Governor (most likely within the next two weeks). Once it is sent to the Governor, he will have 15 calendar days to sign it, veto it, or do nothing (which will result in the bill becoming law). This bill has received bipartisan support all the way through and it is expected that the Governor will sign this bill. If signed, our language will go into effect September 1, 2010.

For those of you still Reading: Our Trust Fund was moved into a protected area as many of you may know- however that said we must still stay vigilant and keep watch as ways around this are being studied by some for the future legislative sessions.

Florida was facing a nearly $3 billion shortfall (even with the infusion of federal stimulus dollars). The total does not technically include the anticipated Federal Medicaid Assistance Percentages (FMAP) matching dollars from the federal government. However, it does have "contingency spending" in the event that the roughly $730 million does arrive from Washington. The following is a quick snapshot of the more talked about appropriations.

Total: $70.4 billion (including $1.4 billion in reserves). Trust Fund Sweeps: $507 million (including $160 million from the State Transportation Trust Fund, and $148 million from the Local Government Housing Trust Fund).

The Bottom line, we were spared and protected from any raids this year- but we must stay alert going forward. Burt Hodge will be your First Vice President for the 2010-11 term and I am confident he will provide much more information and a watchful eye on both Florida and National legislation, which may affect our Members.

In-closing I would like to say based on the overwhelming failure verses success rates of this session I feel a BIG Thank You to the Membership and the Board of Directors for their time and support in making this a successful year. Remember we cannot do this alone and I ask all of you to stay involved.

Sincere Regards;
Tim O'Rourke, CPS 1st Vice President
FALl
1261 S. Missouri Avenue Clearwater,
Florida 33756

(SEE the attached PDF file below with the text of the Tinted Window Bill.)