Q&A of the Day – What’s Being Taken up in Florida’s Special Session?
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Today’s Entry: @brianmuddradio Help me out here. I don’t really get the point of the special session that’s been called. I don’t see anything that couldn’t wait two more months until January. What am I missing.
Bottom Line: Well...maybe nothing. I’ll start by saying my approach as always is analytical and not tied to inherently supporting whatever the legislature and governor are doing. With that said obviously given Florida’s best in the country success economically and otherwise over the past decade they have gotten it right far more often than not, which is why it might seem as though my analysis tends to generally be favorable of the legislation that they produce. Good policy is good policy. That said, while their track records provide room for some benefit of the doubt about what’s about to happen in this week’s special session, it’s by no means a given that what comes out of the session is inherently good policy. Let’s dive in.
In the proclamation for the special session called for by the president of the Senate Kathleen Passidomo and House Speaker Paul Renner it was said that the session was called for (click the link above):
Without getting into the weeds of the proposed legislation here’s what we’re looking at with each of these proposals. There are a total of 11 active bills across five categories heading into the session. Those bills are:
- Disaster relief which calls for an additional $417 million in Hurricane Idalia assistance for those impacted by the hurricane in addition to additional funding for the My Safe Florida grant program for homeowners to upgrade their homes
- The Family empowerment scholarship bill which seeks to raise the annual number of eligible Florida students for the scholarship from 26,500 to 40,913 students
- The scrutinized companies bill which would disallow investments in the Florida Retirement fund from including companies with ties to Iran
- The Security Grants bill which would open Jewish non-profit schools and museums in the state to grants which could be used to enhance security
- The State of Israel bill which is a proclamation in support of Israel
- The Support for Israel and Condemning Hamas bill which is a slightly different version of the previous bill proclamation
So, let’s quickly take a look at each of these based on a sense of urgency in the context of holding a special session two months in advance of a regular session:
- The disaster relief bill may not be of paramount concern for most Floridians, but no doubt is for those in the Big Bend which were impacted by Hurricane Idalia. The case can be made that there is a sense of urgency with this legislation.
- The Family empowerment scholarship expansion, on the back of Florida’s Universal School Choice legislation, may have validity, however it can certainly be argued that there’s not the need for a special session for this legislation.
- The scrutinized companies bill. On the one hand it can be argued that if Florida has any investments with ties to Iran we would want those eliminated immediately. On the other hand, I know Florida CFO Jimmy Patronis well enough to know he’d have already made those types of changes on his own without being legally prompted to do so. I’m fine with this legislation to guard against future funds flowing in the direction of people who openly sponsor terrorism and who seek the destruction of the U.S., however I fail to see the need for this legislation now as opposed to a couple of months from now.
- The security grants bill to me is potentially the most compelling of the bunch. As I recently covered in my story “The Rise of Anti-Semitism", antisemitic attacks had already risen 5-fold preceding the Hamas terror attack and subsequent Israel-Hamas war. That the state could act to allow Jewish non-profits to have access to grant money for security not only seems justified but also extremely time sensitive.
- The two Israeli proclamation bills are nice but not actionable and certainly don’t warrant a special session on their behalf.
So, there’s my assessment. There are two bills, Idalia relief and grants for Jewish security that are especially time sensitive. The others objectively could wait. You’re welcome to decide for yourself if you feel this warrants a special session. Many are suggesting that this is really about attempting to boost DeSantis’ presidential campaign. I seriously doubt it will have an impact one way or another.