My office staff and I welcome your contact regarding any issue that is important to you. As always, I consider it a pleasure to serve you, and the people of our district.
I also encourage you to visit “Online Sunshine,” the official website of your Florida Legislature. At http://www.leg.state.fl.us/ you’ll find links to both the Senate and the House websites. The site also provides links to Florida Statutes and other governmental information and entities. There is also a link to kid’s pages that are designed to educate young ones about how our state government works.
Weekly Wrap-up
End of Week Update – Week Eight
April 24, 2009
The Florida House met this week to discuss and debate bills that go to the heart of our focus this Session - recharging Florida’s economy and helping create jobs for Floridians. Included among the week’s highlights are bills that streamline the growth management process, prevent drastic rate increases for Citizen’s Insurance customers, allow for consumer choice in the residential property insurance market, protect Floridians’ freedom of speech and a measure to eliminate a state-pay practice known as “double-dipping.” All of these measures serve as a backdrop to our main goal – passing a balanced and responsible budget that meets Florida’s future needs without penalizing Florida’s families and businesses.
ENDING “DOUBLE-DIPPING”: I have always valued the hard work and dedication of our state employees. All too often, their dedicated service to the state goes unrecognized and like all Floridians, they are also feeling the effects of the economic downturn. Unfortunately, the current retirement system includes a loophole which not only increases costs for the government (and Florida taxpayers) but also creates a situation which is not fair to either the taxpayer or the rank-and-file state employee. Under the current system, a state employee can retire and return to work in 30 days while collecting retirement benefits and a state salary at the same time. This unfair, costly loophole needed to be closed. To that end, the House took a significant step toward increasing government accountability by passing House Bill 479, which extends the period of time state employees must stay in retirement to six months or they will be required to forfeit their pension. It also prohibits renewed enrollment, meaning state employees cannot accrue a new pension in addition to the original pension they already earned.
PROTECTING TAXPAYER DOLLARS FROM TALLAHASSEE INSIDER INFLUENCE: Protecting taxpayer’s hard-earned dollars is the main focus of House Republicans this Session. This is particularly true when considering who will sit on boards and councils that make decisions of how to spend taxpayer money. The process must be fair and free from undue influence and conflict of interest. To protect Floridians’ dollars, the House passed House Bill 285 which alters the membership of the Low Income Pool (LIP) Council by prohibiting lobbyists who are not employed full-time by a public entity from serving on the Council. The LIP Council provides direct payments and distributions to hospitals and other health care providers in Florida for care provided to uninsured Floridians. This bill ensures that the Legislature is receiving unbiased information about the best way to use your taxpayer dollars.
PROVIDING CHOICE TO HOMEOWNERS: Florida’s homeowners face a difficult challenge in choosing their homeowners’ insurance policy in an increasingly less-competitive Florida insurance market. Too often, Floridians are left with few choices to insure the largest investment they will make in their lives. I found this situation to be counterproductive to energizing Florida’s economy. To address this issue, the House overwhelmingly approved House Bill 1171 this week. House Bill 1171 puts the power to make insurance choices back into the hands of the consumer. While providing for necessary consumer protections, House Bill 1171 allows the consumer to make insurance choices and encourages a sustainable and competitive private insurance market. I trust Floridians, armed with all of the relevant information, can make the best decision for their residential property insurance policy and company.
PREVENTING DRASTIC RATE INCREASES FOR CITIZENS’ CUSTOMERS: Florida homeowners are arguably hit the hardest when it comes to the rising cost of insurance. This is particularly true for those insured by Citizens Property Insurance, the state insurer. To help alleviate this situation, the House passed House Bill 1495 which will prevent drastic rate increases for Citizens customers. Without this bill, on January 1, 2010, Citizens’ customers will likely face dramatic overall average statewide rate increases - in excess of 40% for personal residential multi-peril policies, 55% for personal residential wind-only policies, 60% for commercial residential wind-only policies and 140% for commercial nonresidential properties. This bill lowers rates of increase for Citizens policyholders in anticipation of the mandated expiration of the rate freeze.
STREAMLINING THE GROWTH MANAGEMENT PROCESS: Intelligent, common-sense growth will play an important role in recharging Florida’s economy. To create incentives that will promote responsible development in urban areas and reduce sprawl, the House passed House Bill 7127 this week. House Bill 7127 strikes a balance between state and local control of growth management by retaining state regulatory oversight of planning and development processes, while recognizing the role and responsibility of local elected officials to make land use decisions in the best interests of their local community. Additionally, local oversight leads to more responsible environmental controls over growth.
PROTECTING FLORIDIANS’ FREEDOM OF SPEECH: Freedom of speech is a right we, as Americans and Floridians, hold very dear. To underscore my belief in the fundamental right to freedom of speech, I supported House Bill 949 that protects Floridians from libel lawsuits filed in foreign courts, often by individuals with ties to organizations like al Qaeda and Hamas. The measure will help in the fight against a tactic known as “Libel Tourism.” I am pleased that the measure supports both freedom of speech and freedom of the press while helping to fight terrorism by closing a loophole in the law which gave shadow groups a cash cow to fund their activities.
Suggestions and Public Appearances
I and my staff use the newsletter as a cost-effective tool to keep you in touch with what is happening in your State and in your Florida Legislature. We welcome all suggestions and comments. Do not hesitate to contact my District Office to let us know of issues you are concerned about and would like us to address in this newsletter.
As my schedule allows, I am happy to speak at local community events or groups about issues of interest. My Legislative Assistant, Ray Walker, or my Secretary, Mary Katherine Peebles, will be happy to work with you in making such arrangements.
Utilizing email as a newsletter distribution tool is a fiscally-responsible means to distribute information to my constituency about what is going on in their Florida Legislature.
Please feel free to e-mail The Ford Update to your friends and relatives. Alternatively, please let others know they can be added to my email list by going to www.gulf1.com/ford.
As always, please feel free to contact me or my staff with any of your needs or concerns. My district office is open Monday – Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. The address is:
1804 West Garden St.
Pensacola, FL 32502
(850) 595-5550
Emailing me will allow for the most prompt reply to your issue.
To view my Committee assignments, please visit www.myfloridahouse.gov. Click on the Representatives tab for an alphabetical listings of all Representatives. This website provides a multitude of other legislative information including Committee Schedules, Legislative Bill Search Engines, a Kid’s page, End-of-Session Reports, etc.
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