After a whirlwind 2023 session of the Florida Legislature, the only thing left is to … break down what happened and look forward to doing it again next year.
Reps. Fred Hawkins and Paula Stark, the two representatives of St. Cloud and the eastern part of Osceola County appeared at a pair of events to update residents on the session, hosted by the St. Cloud Chamber of Commerce.
While Stark, the district 47 representative whose district includes downtown St. Cloud, Buenaventura Lakes and a small part of Orange County, was in her first session, Hawkins served his third.
Stark said she hasn’t been able to turn off “Legislative mode” since returning just over a week ago.
“Everyone around here is trying to pick my brain,” she said. “They’ve forgotten that it was a steady four months (of committees and session), and when you’re a freshman, you’re drinking from a fire hose.”
Hawkins said Stark didn’t get the traditional time in committees to acclimate to the State House.
“Her class got sworn in … and went right to the floor, first day, to take care of Disney and other amendments. We had some great freshmen this year, and Paula was one of them. You should be ‘St. Cloud Proud’ of her."
The two Republicans were in the middle of the incredibly fast-paced session where a number of bills were approved by the conservative majority.
Hawkins sponsored the bill that led to changes in how Walt Disney World will be governed – no longer by its self-government Reedy Creek Improvement District — and how high school sports will be governed in the state. But, those were the moves that made the headlines, and there was plenty more to talk about.
“We passed the largest tax cut in Florida history,” Hawkins said, noting how a number of sales tax holidays are coming up on hurricane preparedness and Back to School supplies. “More will be done on insurance relief, we have to take little bites of the apple or the Legislature will screw it up, so we know you aren’t seeing the results of it yet.”
Hawkins, who sits on a number of education subcommittees, said Osceola County schools will be getting upwards of $18 million more in funding.
“I’m proud of the session we had,” he said.
Stark said she’ll be re-filing a bill to help regulate lot rents on mobile home lots.
“They have a mortgage, but have to pay lot rents, which have been increasing astronomically,” she said. “These are seniors on fixed income in many cases, they then can’t afford it, they have no recourse and state statute doesn’t protect them. Affordable housing means different things to different people.” She is also taking back a criminal justice bill regarding about 260 firsttime drug offenders — that she says would save the state $49 million to not incarcerate them — and credits for those who want to upgrade historical buildings, in order to get them on the tax rolls.
The two voted in different directions (Hawkins for, Stark against) on a bill that would reform the cases lawyers file in personal injury cases and on a bill that would allow local areas to put in rent control reforms (Stark for, Hawkins against).
Two of the appropriations bills Stark submitted were passed, she said: $2 million to fund drainage improvement in some of the Buenaventura Lakes areas hard hit by Hurricane Ian, and a microchip packaging program at BRIDG that will allow for chips to be packaged for market here instead of being sent overseas.
“I’ve been skeptical over the years of the money we’ve spent at NeoCity over the years, I believe we need to put some real ‘oomph’ behind them,” she said.
Two of her sponsored bills were passed: one that speeds up a missing person going into the state’s tracking system, and another that speeds up the floating vessel platform permitting process, which Stark said would help in removing them ahead of a storm.
Members of the public who attended the events had the chance to ask questions and add comment, and some used the forum to suggest to the county how to do land use in order to control growth and traffic. Both Stark and Hawkins said land use and development codes are each the responsibility of leaders at the county level.
