Florida Legislature
Every year when the Florida legislative session convenes, we can expect a barrage of bad bills destined to coddle polluters, facilitate ever-more “sprawl” and restrict citizens’ rights to participate in decision-making. The 2025 session lives up — or down —…
For weeks Florida legislators have been meeting in committee, filing and debating bills and preparing for the official start of the 2025 Legislative Session on March 4. This session VoteWater’s Gil Smart will travel to Tallahassee to lobby for clean-water…
If you missed the latest installment from “Seeking Rents” reporter Jason Garcia on how a big Florida homebuilder effectively wrote a new law to build subdivisions faster and cheaper, check it out here. It’s key to understanding how the “sprawl”…
Welcome to the good, the bad and the hideously ugly. The 2024 Florida Legislative session began Tuesday, Jan. 9, and continues through Friday, March 8. More than four dozen bills that could have an impact on clean water have been…
Dear VoteWater community: The things we’d really like Santa to bring would never fit into a stocking. Clean water: Santa could pour some in but it would make a mess. Of course, it couldn’t hold a Christmas candle to the…
With weeks to go before the Florida Legislative session even begins, a solid contender for “Worst Bill of the Year” has entered the fray. And you know that’s going to be a crowded field. Gaze upon House Bill 789 and…
Another Florida legislative session is right around the corner, and you know what that means: More bad bills destined to result in dirtier water, more giveaways to special interests and good bills left stranded without sufficient support. It’s how we…
New study based on flawed past studies could be used to justify permanent ban on fertilizer bans — leading to dirtier water One of the more dubious actions (and there were plenty) taken by the 2023 Florida Legislature and rubber-stamped…
Summertime fertilizer bans are common throughout Florida. Statewide, 18 counties and more than 100 municipalities have a “strong” fertilizer ordinance that, among other things, include strict, no-exemption rainy season bans. Two reasons for that: first, many fertilizers include nitrogen and…
Update: Sen. Albritton got even MORE sugar money than we realized! Below, we report on a $25,000 contribution from U.S. Sugar to Florida Sen. Ben Albritton’s campaign committee, Friends of Ben Albritton. The report is true and correct. But the…
