by Bradley Parsons
Staff Writer
Over a period of 60 spring days, Florida’s legislators filed nearly 2,500 bills. But filing 40 bills a day doesn’t represent the hard work. The heavy lifting is reserved for the 400 bills that actually make it through the legislature and past the governor’s veto pen.
Most of those bills cost the state money. And in a tight budget year, local law makers said they had to push hard to pass legislation that would positively impact Duval County.
Still, the Duval Delegation succeeded in pushing through bills to improve local roads, crack down on accomplices of child abusers, help hurricane victims claim insurance dollars and incentivize Florida’s film industry, members told the Jacksonville Regional Chamber of Commerce Tuesday. The delegation gave the Chamber’s Government Affairs Committee a legislative session recap at its monthly breakfast meeting.
Rep. Stan Jordan said the legislature did some of its best work for Florida lobbying for the state’s military bases during the last round of base closures. The so-called Base Relocation and Closure process closed in May, and Jacksonville came out a winner.
Before the closures were announced, there was speculation that Duval County could lose the Naval Air Depot and even late concern that Mayport Naval Station might become a casualty of the Pentagon’s plans to mothball the aircraft carrier John F. Kennedy.
Instead, the Pentagon enlarged the local military presence, directing more ships, planes and military jobs to Jacksonville. Overall, the state gained nearly 3,000 jobs and its losses were minimal.
“When you talk about military bases, there’s no issue more pressing than preserving all our installations across the state,” said Jordan, a member of the House Military Veteran Affairs Committee and the governor’s BRAC advisory committee.
“You’re talking about 714,000 jobs and a $44 billion a year economic impact,” he said.
Jacksonville benefited from its reputation as a military-friendly city, said Jordan. That perception has been strengthened by local events like the pre-Super Bowl salute to the World War II generation, he said. The reputation will be a help as Jordan campaigns to bring federal veteran’s cemetery to Duval County, he said.
Florida’s reputation in the entertainment industry as a filming location has suffered in recent years from a lack of state support, said Rep. Don Davis. Davis made it a priority in the 2005 legislative session to reverse that trend.
Davis highlighted $10 million in state funding that he was able to stash away for incentives for the entertainment industry. The industry once thrived in Florida, but the state has lost business to states like Louisiana and New Mexico who offer tax and capital investment incentives, he said.
Florida set aside $2.5 million for incentives last year. That sum lasted six minutes once eligible film companies applied for it, said Davis. He said the $10 million would last long enough to create 35,000 jobs and more than $200 million in economic activity.
Davis thought the bill was important enough to merit a trip to Nic’s Toggery in Tallahassee before visiting the governor’s office to lobby for it.
“I bought the most expensive tie there and told the governor, ‘You know what they say about strangers bearing gifts,’ ” said Davis. “He laughed because he knew what I was there for. He told me ‘You’ve got your $10 million.’ ”
Rep. Terry Fields was able to make similar progress in grabbing Duval County some state and federal dollars to fix up rural roads. He said he found millions in state transportation money to pave dirt roads.
An Insurance Committee member, Fields said the legislature also made progress in reforming the system insurance companies use to pay out damages following natural disasters. The need for reform became obvious, said Fields, following the run of hurricanes that hit Florida last summer.
“It’s a work in progress but we are making progress,” said Fields. “There are still people in Escambia County living in tents inside their homes because of some of the ills in the insurance industry.”