Florida Legislature
You think you know what’s best for your community? Lawmakers in faraway Tallahassee disagree. Indeed, this year there are multiple bills in the state Legislature with a single goal: Taking power away from local communities. Some of them involve straight-up…
State campaign finance data for the fourth quarter of 2025 has dropped, and initially we were going to write about how much Big Sugar gave last year. And in fact, we WILL write about it, right here: According to the…
Look, you know how the game is played. Special interests call the tune, your legislators dance; they file bills written by and for deep-pocketed donors. And as you’ve heard us say so many times over the years, few donors have…
Florida Sen. Stan McClain comes off as an affable guy — the type of person you might like to get a beer with. But after seeing the legislation he’s filed ahead of the 2026 Legislative Session, you may want to…
If you haven’t seen it, be sure to check out the Tampa Bay Times blockbuster two-part series on how Florida’s water quality is getting worse almost across the board — in large part because Florida lets special interests (developers, Big…
Given the continued breakneck pace of growth in Florida, we highly doubt that rogue local government regulators are roaming Florida, coming down like a ton of unjust bricks on the head of poor, persecuted developers. But you might be tempted…
The Florida Legislature is soon in session, and we’d like to think clean water will be atop the 2026 agenda. We’re not putting money on it, though, so we’ll be watching our lawmakers very closely this session – and we…
VoteWater and 37 other Florida conservation organizations are calling on the state Legislature to repeal key portions of Senate Bill 180, legislation signed into law earlier this year that effectively prohibits local governments from adopting measures to sensibly guide growth,…
We’re in what was supposed to be the final week of the Florida legislative session, but as of this writing the House and Senate budget proposals were still billions apart. That means the session will either be extended, or legislators…
Developers, Legislators want to shut you out – and shut you up
The Florida Legislature is now in session. What could possibly go wrong? In fact, the sheer number of bad bills filed this year is stunning. Many involve attempts to push more “sprawl” through the pipeline with less public oversight. There…