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Legislature in brief
By ALISA ULFERTS and Associated Press Today is the 46th day of the 60-day session. Localities can't regulate drivers' cell phone useA bill that would prevent local governments from banning hand-held cellular phone use while driving is on its way to the governor. In addition to overriding local bans, the legislation (SB 358), which received final passage in the House Thursday, directs the Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles to collect data on whether dialing while driving leads to more accidents and report back next year. A few local governments, including Miami-Dade County, Weston, Highland Beach, Pembroke Pines and Pinebrook Village, have adopted or are considering bans on hand-held cell phone use by drivers. Election chiefs would shed their party labelsThe Senate passed a measure that would make supervisors of elections nonpartisan. The bill (SB 1536) passed 24-8 over the objection of some who said it wouldn't remedy concerns over whether election officials were beholden to politics -- it would magnify them. Sen. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Weston, said people would be more suspicious when supervisors serve on canvassing boards that settle election disputes if they don't know what party the person belongs to. "You can never can truly eliminate an individual's bias," she said. But sponsor Sen. Jim Sebesta, a Republican and former elections supervisor from St. Petersburg, said it would remove the appearance of partisanship from the elections process and help avoid suspicion over election officials' motives. In nonpartisan elections, there are no primaries, and a candidate's party affiliation is not given on the ballot. The bill goes to the House. Senate sticks with canker eradication billThe Senate refused to change a bill that would clear the way for the state to resume citrus canker eradication in South Florida back yards. A final Senate vote was set for next week after lawmakers defeated amendments by South Florida senators seeking to require court hearings and individual search warrants before infected or exposed trees could be chopped down. State agriculture workers were cutting down trees within 1,900 feet of infected trees until last fall, when an administrative hearing officer stopped the program because of the way the 2000 law creating the program was worded. The legislation is intended to clarify that the Agriculture Department can get a countywide search warrant to find and destroy infected or exposed trees. Sen. Bill Posey, R-Rockledge, sponsor of the bill (CS-SB 1926), called canker the anthrax of the citrus industry and said that without the new law it might be another year before the legal challenge stalling the program is resolved. That threatens the state's $9-billion citrus industry and its 120,000 jobs, he said. A companion bill (HB 1539) is awaiting action in the House. Two chambers agree on Everglades bondsThe state would be authorized to issue up to $100-million in bonds each year to buy land as part of the Everglades restoration project under bills moving through the House and Senate. The House amended its bill (HB 913) to lower the bond authorization from $125-million. The Senate had raised its amount from $75-million. The state and federal governments are sharing the cost of the $8-billion Everglades project. The state has committed to spending $100-million a year on the project for 10 years. Other bills advancing:
Sent to the governor:
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From the Times state desk
From the state wire
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