Today in Tallahassee: Prisons, guns and growth management

TALLAHASSEE — A day after the Senate passed its legislative and congressional redistricting plans , the chamber is taking it easy today. Senate President Mike Haridopolos scrapped Wednesday’s slated floor time (in case Democrats wanted to debate the maps longer) and the chamber has only one committee meeting. That one meeting should be a dozy, though, as the Senate Rules Committee takes up two proposed committee bills to privatize all the prisons in South Florida. The House continues to grind away in committee. The House Agriculture and Natural Resources Subcommittee is meeting at 9:30 a.m. to consider two agency bills and HB 463, sponsored by Reps. Paige Kreegel , R-Punta Gorda, and Jeff Brandes , R-St. Petersburg, which would allow concealed weapons permits for any honorably discharged armed service member or veteran. To be eligible for a concealed weapons permit under current law, you have to be 21 years of age. The Community and Military Affairs Committee meets at 8 a.m. and is considering a proposed constitutional amendment, HJR 785, sponsored by Rep. John Wood , R-Winter Haven, that would allow charter counties to impose term-limitations on county commissioners and other constitutional officers like sheriffs and property appraisers. The committee is also taking up a proposed committee bill that re-visits last year’s dismantling of the state’s growth-management act. The proposed committee bill addresses a lawsuit brought by Yankeetown by allowing charter provisions calling for elections for comprehensive planning to be grandfathered

into law if they were passed before the last session’s reform outlawed the practice. It also makes it easier for local governments to scrap the “concurrency” requirements in their local plans, and makes other clean-up changes. A separate bill on the schedule, HB 979 by Rep. Jose Diaz , R-Miami, would exempt virtually all large-scale development projects from the state’s Development of Regional Impact review process if the projects go through what’s called an “expedited review” where state agencies have 30 days to determine whether growth-plans impact vital state resources. The bill also limits the topics that the agencies can provide comments about. The House Education Committee is also slated to hear from six state university presidents on the need for reform. Last Friday, FSU and UF’s presidents told the panel that STEM degrees should cost more for students and the Legislature needed to do more to help its top-tier research schools stand apart from its constellation of four-year degree colleges and universities. Today, University of Central Florida President John Hitt and University of South Florida President Judy Genshaft will lead off the discussion at 10:45 a.m. The committee resumes testimony at 2 p.m. with John A. Delaney of the University of North Florida; Wilson G. Bradshaw , Florida Gulf Coast University; Judith A. Bense , University of West Florida; and Gordon E. Michalson with New College of Florida.

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Today in Tallahassee: Prisons, guns and growth management

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