- April 18, 2024
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State Sen. Dorothy Hukill and Rep. Tom Leek spent part of the morning on Wednesday, April 11, talking about what changes have been taking place during the 2018 legislative session.
Both Hukill and Leek expressed their pleasure that Ponce's Law had passed. However, Leek said it had been more difficult to pass than it should have been.
Leek also called himself a "home rule guy" and said that while he believes local officials "do a really good job ... there are places in the state where the local officials do a very bad job."
Hukill and Leek said that the legislative session also saw changes due to this past year's hurricanes and the Parkland shooting.
"We did some good things in light of the fact that we had to switch gears in terms of budgeting," Hukill said. "Because very near the end of session ... you're trying to budget money as a result of the Parkland bill coming up."
The bill includes a $500 million plan directed at school safety and mental health.
"The school safety bill is a bill that makes just about everybody unhappy in some way, which is probably a good indication that what it did was a comprise and a good, right solution," Leek said.
Hukill said more money has been allocated toward education, including additional technology and a stipend up to $250 to $300 for teachers' classroom supplies.
Leek said he was proud that Gov. Rick Scott signed a bill that will allow for a statue of Mary McLeod Bethune to be erected in the U.S. Capitol's Statuary Hall Collection. Leek said the bill did, however, pass after some controversy.
Leek also brought up another bill that requires a study to be done before any city or county can impose a tax. According to Leek, the study is meant to create transparency and let voters know what they are voting on. The study would be of a requested project and would need a statement of the current impact of the proposed change and financial results.
According to Leek, an analysis was done in accordance with the bill and found that there were 71 instances since 1986 that the legislature raised a tax or fee within the bill's definition and 91% of the time the legislature passed those by more than two thirds while 99% of time they passed it by almost 60%.
Leek said that at the request of the governor, he was also asked to run a proposal that would make it more difficult to raise taxes by requiring two-thirds of each house to vote on a project.
"It really comes down to a matter of philosophy," Leek said. "Whose money is it?"
