By State Senator Sam Slom
The Senate and House closed the 2010 State Legislature on April 29 after passing many bad bills. Most of the bills are awaiting the Governor’s decision with a deadline of July 6 to sign, let become law without her signature or veto.
I voted “no” on the following bills and more during the waning days of session. The “no” votes include the following bills:
HB 2239: Dietary supplements subject to the bottle tax the same as soft drinks, juices and water.
HB 1987: Adds a new tax to various types of solid waste disposal, including those that are shipped out of state.
HB 444: The “civil unions” bill which I opposed passed out of the House on the last day with a 31 to 20 vote.
SB 2806: Sets up the State’s Rainy Day Fund for more raids in the future. SB 2807 proposes a constitutional amendment that would allow surplus general funds to be deposited to the rainy day fund during bad economic times.
SB 2937: Prevents the same person (vexatious requester) from requesting the same information over and over from government agencies even if they don’t get an answer.
SB 466: The anti-leaf blower bill has so many state and county regulations built into it that will inevitably make it impossible for the average yard keeper to legally use one.
SB 2395: Extends the VEBA trust fund program another 6 months to Dec. 31, 2010. This union backed fund is getting support to push further amendments.
HB 1948: This bill will delay tax refunds up to 90 days.
HB 2200: I voted no on the State Budget because it has a number of tax and fee increases and does not make systemic changes to state budgetary overspending.
SB 2124: Raids the State’s Hurricane Insurance Special Fund for $67 million to finance teacher salaries for furlough days.
HB 2421: The $1.05 barrel tax increase from the current 5 cents will hit everyone in the pocketbook including motorists, electricity rate payers and all consumers.
Final Statistics: There were 2112 bills introduced for the 2010 session. There were 961 Senate bills and 1151 House bills. 249 bills were passed by the legislature. The Governor has until July 6 to decide which bills she will sign, let go without her signature to become law or veto. She has to notify the Legislature by June 21 on which bills she wants to veto. 3523 bills were introduced in the 2009 session with many carrying over to this year. 249 were passed in 2009. 232 bills became law in 2009.
