I am finding out it is all about semantics.  This afternoon I was in the Senate Select Committee on Florida’s Economy waiting to hear about “one stop permitting.”  I have been working with the Task Force on Streamline Permitting and was excited to hear about their ideas.  Our group met with Senator Don Gaetz, the Chair of the Select Committee and gave him our top ten list of ideas on streamlining the permitting process.  Well, our idea of streamlined permitting and the select committee’s notion of the concept are quite different.  We are looking at construction and environmental permits that businesses need to build and they are looking at professional licenses.  Houston … we have a problem!

Both are important.  Per the testimony during the committee meeting, people are waiting too long to receive a license from the appropriate state agency.  But usually people are working while they are waiting for their license.  Unfortunately, when it comes to a building or environmental permit you can not move forward until you received the appropriate documentation.  Although both are important, I really feel as though we need to address the building and environmental permits first to kick start Florida economy again.

Hopefully we can educate the legislators on how important the streamlined permitting process is to the business community at the workshop being held by the House Agriculture and Natural Resources Committee tomorrow.

And I am still recovering from the Irish Caucus event last night.  Over 50 legislators attended to show how “Irish” they really are along with Lt. Governor Jeff Kottkamp.  And as a special treat, the Mayor of Fort Lauderdale Jack Seiler called in to wish everyone a Happy St. Patrick’s Day.  Maybe next year he can join us in Tallahassee.  And the Co-Chair of the Irish Caucus, Speaker Pro-Tempore Ron Reagan was the last to leave.

See you in the halls!

Keyna Cory

For more, in depth information please go to our "Members Only" Legislative Brief

Being of Irish decent (and who isn’t on St. Patrick’s Day) you would think I would have something green in my closet to wear today.  But all I had was my favorite little pin I bought in Ireland that has a small shamrock in it so I wore it proudly.  After all it was from Ireland and I should get points for that!  But not everyone wore green today.  Brad Piepenbrink, Senator Garrett Richter’s aide was asked about his green when he appeared before the Senate Community Affairs Committee today.  If a Senator can not be in a committee to present his or her bill, the Senator’s Aide is allowed.  Brad was well prepared on the bill about “Truth In Millage” notices called TRIM notices sponsored by Senator Richter.  He told the committee that the issue was brought to the Senator by Mr. Flanagan and in the spirit of St. Patrick’s Day he asked for them to support the bill.  That prompted a question from Chairman Mike Bennett, “Where is your green?”  It is normal for new legislative aides to be harassed when presenting bills but Brad took all of it in good stride.  The bill passed unanimously.

I told you yesterday about SB 1468 by Senator Charlie Dean that would implement Amendment 6 – the constitutional amendment that passed last November to change the way working waterfront are assessed by property appraisers.  Good news!  It passed unanimously and now is on its way to the Senate Finance and Taxation Committee.  I took my yard sign that had “Vote yes on Amendment 6” with our cool logo that AIF created for the Save Our Waterfronts Coalition with me to the podium when I spoke in favor of the bill.  I also wanted to take a minute to thank the members of the Taxation and Budget Reform Commission who sponsored the amendment for us – Ken Wilkinson, Lee County Property Appraiser; former Senator & Broward County Commissioner Jim Scott and former Representative Carlos Lacasa. 

However during public testimony, the representative from the Miami River Group asks the committee to add language to the bill to cover all of her members’ properties.  As much as I would love to help the Miami River, I can’t.  You see this is a different type of bill.  When you have legislation to implement a constitutional amendment you can not deviate from the language that appeared on the ballot.  We actually have members of the Save Our Waterfronts Coalition that did not get all of their properties included in the definitions.  We had to carefully craft language so that the Taxation and Budget Reform Commission would approve the constitutional amendment that appeared on the ballot.  Maybe the Miami River Group can find another bill to correct their problem.  We have come too far to have the potential problem of expanding the bill beyond what is in the constitution.

Well, I am going to wrap up as soon as I can so I can go to the Irish Caucus event at Goodie’s Restaurant.  This is a time when it doesn’t matter if you are a Democrat or Republican … as long as you are Irish it doesn’t matter what party you belong to!  We will miss Rep. Jack Seiler who is no longer in the House due to term limits.  He loved the Irish Caucus party.  But we will toast him tonight … he is being sworn in as Mayor of Fort Lauderdale.  The luck of the Irish continues!

See you in the halls!

Keyna Cory

For more, in depth information please go to our "Members Only" Legislative Brief

But today was packed full of meetings.  We started off our day with our AIF Lobby Team meeting where we go over our priority bills and calendars for the week.  I put together a chart showing where all of our AIF 2009 Session Priorities bills are in the legislative process and shared with the Team.  It is amazing how many bills we have working their way through committees! You can see a similar list on our AIF website – go to www.aif.com and click on “Session Central.”

As soon as we finished with our Team meeting, we had a Workers Compensation Coalition for Business and Industry meeting at 10:00 am.  Tammy Perdue, AIF General Counsel and Chair of the Coalition let everyone know that the bill would be up in the House General Government Policy Council tomorrow.  The Coalition and our AIF Team were busy checking our assignments and making sure that every member of the Council has been contacted about the bill and if there are any questions, get them answers.

At 11:00 am, the AIF Committee on Taxation met and Senator Thad Altman, the Chair of the Finance & Tax Committee was our special guest speaker.  It was a great time for our members to ask questions about their tax issues.

Then at noon, Frank Meiners, our tax expert and I were at the House Finance & Tax Council meeting in the Capitol.  Frank testified in support of the Streamlined Sales & Tax issue but after 2 hours of testimony from other speakers, he thought he would lighten up his comments.  He wanted the committee to pass streamlined sales tax since Randy Miller is getting older … he wanted them to pass it before he retires!  It got a chuckle, especially from Randy would took the harassment with a smile.  Randy is with the Florida Retail Federation and has been advocating for the streamlined sales tax for years. 

Finally, I attended the Streamlining Task Force meeting.  Our task force is looking at ways to streamline the permitting process and have submitted a “top 10” list of ideas to the House and Senate.  We hope that our list appears later this week in a PCB (proposed committee bill).

I am already looking forward to tomorrow – SB 1468 by Senator Charlie Dean is up in the Senate Community Affairs Committee.  This bill implements the constitutional amendment that clarifies the way working waterfronts are assessed by property appraisers.  AIF was actively involved in the passage of Amendment 6 so I can not wait to see how we do in the committee.  But more about SB 1468 tomorrow!

See you in the halls …

Keyna

For more, in depth information please go to our "Members Only" Legislative Update

Today I attended the Senate General Government Appropriations Committee meeting.  They are reviewing the budgets of the different agencies and departments under their purview.  A Department of Business and Professional Regulations (DBPR) representative was asked by Senator Steve Oelrich (R-Gainesville) what would happen if the $1 per packet tax on cigarettes was adopted.  He wanted to know would the department be able to handle additional cases of cigarette smuggling.  It has been proven that an increase in taxes causes bootlegging of tobacco products from states with lower taxes.  Last year, the department investigated 85,000 cases of smuggling with a very limited staff.  The representative from Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) said they would not be able to handle the increase, especially since they are investigating more gambling and money laundering cases as well.

Chairman Carey Baker (R-Eustis) said he did not want enforcement efforts to “go up in smoke.”  Senator Oelrich replied “let’s nip it in the butt.”

All we needed was a drum set with a “pa-dum” at the end!  Thanks Senators Baker and Oelrich for the one liners of the day!

See you in the halls.

For more, in depth information please go to our "Members Only" Legislative Update