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Florida has some of the highest insurance rates in the nation and according to the industry they are rising, because of abuses in what is called assignment of benefits, or AOB.

Changing the law could impact how you get your home repaired after it’s been damaged.

After Michael hit Panama City, Jasmin Tolbert told lawmakers that contractors were knocking down her door.

“Trying to get me to sign forms so they could help me,” said Tolbert.

Those contractors wanted her to sign was an assignment of benefits, giving the contractor the right to bill the insurance company directly.

Signing that form has lead to the doubling of lawsuits over the last 5 years.
“The primary driver of abuse is the way attorneys get paid,” said James Lynch with the Insurance Information Institute.

Called one way, most legal fees fall on the insurer.
“The resulting costs are like a hidden tax on consumers,” said Lynch.

One proposed change would continue to protect homeowners in their fights with insurers, but place the potential for paying legal fees on contractors who accept an assignment of benefits.

“And that if you assign you benefits to a third party, that third party does not get the benefit of that one way attorneys fees,” said Florida Insurance Commissioner David Altmaier.

Water restoration companies say the problem is lowball estimates from insurance companies.

“Right now, the insurance companies are paying on average around 20 to 25 percent of what the estimates are,” said Josh Reynolds with Right Way Emergency Services.

Both sides agree that only a small number companies and lawyers are abusing the system.

The restoration people who say they are the good guys, say regulate regulating their industry more would weed out the bad apples.

“They probably don’t have the educational; training, probably don’t have the financial ability to train their people in mold, so absolutely, you get rid of them,” said Foyt Ralston with the Florida Association of Retail Specialists.
Depending on which way lawmakers go, how much you pay for insurance and whether or not you get your home repaired could be at stake.

Without being able to bill insurance companies directly, many contractors won’t risk taking on big jobs without a guarantee of getting paid, or getting paid up front.

Democratic lawmakers are pushing Legislation the would allow family members to ask a court to take away a relatives gun if they believe there’s a risk to themselves or others.

The expansion of the state’s red flag law is drawing concerns from 2nd Amendment advocates.

The state’s ‘Red Flag’ gun safety law allows law enforcement to ask a court to take away a persons fire arms if they’re a danger to themselves or others.

State Senator Lori Berman has filed a bill that would allow family members to do the same.
“Who better to determine that someone is at risk than someone living close to them,” said Berman.

Kate Kile with Mom’s Demand Action says family members could act as a first line of defense.

“Families know best what’s happening in their own systems and they can be observing and watching these incremental changes that may be happening,” said Kyle.

There aren’t exact numbers for how many times the red flag law has been used by law enforcement since it took effect in July, but Senator Berman estimates it’s been invoked 400 times in Broward county alone.

Former NRA President Marion Hamer says the current law is already open to potential abuse by law enforcement.

She worries adding in family dynamics would increase that risk.

“You don’t want family members using a piece of legislation to be vindictive or vengeful or just plain mean,” said Hammer.

Senator Berman says those concerns are overstated.

“I don’t think a family member would really want to go to court and subject themselves and their family to that unless they were really afraid of a true danger,” said Berman.

The Legislation would also prohibit a person from keeping a gun in their home if they live with someone who has had their right to own a firearm revoked, unless it is either disabled or kept in a locked safe.

Because families were intentionally left out of the original law, it’s highly unlikely Democrats will be able to force it through this year.

Amendment 8 was the only constitutional amendment kicked off the 2018 ballot.

It would have put term limits on school board members, but the Florida Supreme Court ruled another proposal it was bundled with mislead voters.

Now lawmakers want to see if the issue can stand on its own in the 2020 election.

The amendment would limit school board members to eight consecutive years in office.

It got its first thumbs up from a House Committee Wednesday.

Sponsor Anthony Sabatini says school board term limits are overwhelmingly supported by Floridians.

“82% across the board want the term limits, and so we’ve seen it with a lot of the constitutional amendments over the past few years, particularly marijuana, some of these other topics,” said Sabatini. “It’s important that we listen to what the people want.”

In 2018 90% of school board incumbents won re-election, with many running unopposed.

Currently in Florida only counties that have a charter system are able to set term limits for school board members.

Duval county is the only that has chosen to adopt them.

Chris Doolin, with the Small School District Council Consortium says instead of forcing term limits statewide, the constitutional amendment should instead give local governments the authority to decide for themselves.

“So that what happens in Dade or Broward isn’t what’s mandated for Dixie or Leavy or Lafayette or anywhere else in the state,” said Doolin.

Others suggested 8 years was too short a term, saying they’d support a 12 year limit.

“Peer reviewed research also shows that people reach their peak performance in any position at about ten years,” said Representative Jennifer Webb.

A similar constitutional amendment proposed in the Legislature last year would have set a 12 year limit, but it failed.

A Tallahassee woman was sentenced to life in prison Wednesday morning for masterminding the murder of her husband more than 18 years ago.

If not for the dead man’s mother, justice would not have happened.

For 17 years, Michael Williams’ body laid in a watery grave 70 miles from where the duck hunter supposedly went missing.

His mother Cheryl says God sent her a message days later when she visited the lake.

“And all of sudden a voice comes in my head, Mike is not in Lake Seminole, he did not drown,” said Cheryl.

Police believed the duck hunter was eaten by alligators, but after the message, Cheryl Williams launched a campaign to find her son.

She carried placards, put up billboards and took out full page newspaper ads.

Now she says justice has finally been served.

“If I had not done what I had done for 17 years, Mike’s disappearance would never have been solved,” said Cheryl.

Michael Williams’ wife Denise Williams was sentenced to life in prison for masterminding his murder by his best friend and her lover.

The motive: $1.7 million in life insurance and a desire not to face the stigma of of divorce.

“She can never get out on parole,” said Cheryl. “That’s justice, and that’s what I wanted. That’s what I’ve been fighting for.”

Like most tombstones, Jerry Michael Williams’ lists his October 1969 birthday, but that’s where the similarity to other tombstones ends.

It also lists the day he was murdered and then buried 18 years later.

Cheryl says friends tried to talk her our of including those dates.

“He didn’t die a normal life. He didn’t die of sickness or accident. He was murdered,” said Cheryl.

Cheryl says because of her efforts, she is now being asked to help find other missing victims across the country.

A bill that aims to create harsher penalties for criminals who kill or seriously harm police k-9’s cleared its first House committee Wednesday.

Sponsor Representative Josie Tomkow says the legislation comes in response to a police K-9 named Fang that was killed in Jacksonville late last year.

“He was a 3-year-old bomb detector and patrol dog with the Jacksonville sheriff’s office. Fang was the 98th police dog killed in the line of duty in the past four years across the country and the second police dog killed in our area in four years,” said Tomkow.

Currently the crime is a third degree felony, punishable by up to five years in prison or a $5,000 fine.

If passed, criminals would face up to 15 years in prison and a $10,000 fine.

Police drones may soon be used for monitoring traffic, taking photos of crime scenes and even crowd control under Legislation that cleared a House committee Wednesday morning.

Currently drones can only be used by law enforcement to search for missing persons, chase suspects and prevent imminent damage to life or property.

Bill sponsor Representative Clay Yarborough says it’s caused confusion in some situations for law enforcement.

“In October of 2017 down at the University of Florida was Richard Spencer. You had a Sheriff and law enforcement there who were unsure whether they could use drones because it was not specifically laid out in the law. So this would help to address situations like there where it clearly would help to have that aerial perspective,” said Yarborough.

Some lawmakers had concerns that the expanded list of uses might be exploited.

Yarborough says existing law addresses those issues.

Florida’s Commissioner of Agriculture has named the state’s first ever Cannabis Director.

Holly Bell, a banker from Nashville will serve in the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, working to implement Ag Commissioner Nikki Fried’s vision for marijuana in the state.

One main priority, passing Legislation to regulate hemp in the state, to help Florida farmers.

“After 80 years of stalled progress we can finally be putting cannabis to work for farmers, consumers and patients here in Florida. That’s exactly what I worked on in Tennessee by bringing farmers, investors and government together to build an infrastructure to drive the economy,” said Bell.

The newly created position comes with a $110,000 a year salary.

House Budget leaders are already expressing hesitations about some of Governor Ron DeSantis’ key budget requests.

Environmental spending and a reduction in borrowing from trust funds are two major sticking points.

The House appropriations committee got its first overview of Governor Ron DeSantis’ $91.3 billion budget proposal Tuesday.

Democrats call it, “Probably the best proposed budget in, let’s say 8 years,” said Representative Evan Jenne.

That’s because of some major bi-partisan requests, like not taking money from state trust funds dedicated to things like affordable housing.

“What I hope is that setting that standard also comes with a veto threat,” said Representative Carlos Guillermo Smith.

DeSantis is also asking for $625 million in environmental spending.

House Budget Chair Travis Cummings says the House is far from meeting that goal.

“We’ve gotta figure out how we’re going to do that and where those dollars are going to come from,” said Cummings. “We think about $225 or $250 million.”

One thing House Republicans and Democrats both agree with the Governor on, disaster recovery needs to be a priority.

“There are families with small children living in tents and out of their cars just two hours from here,” Panama City resident Jennifer Burg told the committee.

Burg, part of a group called Michael’s Angels gave an emotional plea to lawmakers.

“Today we need your help more than ever to ensure that we are appropriated the funds we so desperately need to save our communities,” said Burg.

However, it’s not clear if that what the state can afford will be enough to satisfy those hit hardest by the storm.

“We can’t fund all the projects. I mean what I’m seeing so far, we’re going to need help from our federal partners,” said Cummings.

The Governor’s plan includes at least $2 billion for hurricane recovery, most coming from the Federal government.

The Senate Appropriations Committee along with numerous House and Senate appropriations subcommittees will receive budget briefings throughout the day Wednesday.

Five million, or nearly seven out of ten voters approved a ban on indoor workplace vaping in November.

State lawmakers got the message and are moving forward with implementing legislation.

Legislation creating the same restrictions on indoor vaping as those on tobacco brought out the state’s major health groups.

“The combustable tobacco product, the biggest problem is the nicotine that’s in it,” said Mark Landreth with the American Heart Association.

“If you use an e-cigarette, you are four times more likely to start smoking traditional cigarettes,” said Matt Jordan with the American Cancer Society.

It also brought out a small army of entrepreneurs who sell vaping equipment and juices, who say they are not tobacco merchants and shouldn’t be treated like one.

“We are not affiliated with a big tobacco company,” said Joshua Unger from Sarasota. “Our business is helping people quit smoking.”

“Vaping is 95% safer than combustible cigarettes,” said Delorres Orlando from Clearwater.

After almost an hour the legislation moved forward.

Committee Chair Senator Wilton Simpson says lawmakers are still learning what is proving to be a complex issue.

“I think we’ll get better information as we go forward,” said Simpson. “It may not be better information, but it will be more information.”

Under the legislation that is moving, vaping would be teated just like smoking cigarettes.

It would be allowed in bars and places where it’s the only thing being sold, but nowhere else.

The American Cancer Society wants vaping lumped in with tobacco, saying it will free up money to help people quit.

“Basically you used to smoke on planes, they let pregnant women smoke,” said Jordan. “Just because something is status-quo, it doesn’t mean it’s acceptable.”

However, the entrepreneurs would prefer lawmakers do nothing

In the end, if local governments don’t like what lawmakers do, the amendment allows then to enact stricter prohibitions.

State lawmakers were told at least $100 million is still being invoiced to SunPass and toll-by-plate users after the state switched vendors last summer.

Millions of bills are still in the process of being sent out after system failures raised questions.

DOT District Four Secretary Gerry O’Reilly says the state never planed for the system to work immediately, but was surprised when it went south.

“So there was never a plan to send out invoices a day after we went live. It was get it ramped up get it running, but that period from mid June to Mid August was crazy, and then when things settled down, from the agencies perspective, it was we’re going to check this and make 100% sure this works properly,” said O’Reilly. “Whatever was checked in the past is great, but we’re gonna do it again and prove to us that all the different scenarios that could be envisioned for a customer invoice have been checked, and that this system is producing this correctly.”

The final batch of bills, some of which date back to last July, will go out this week.

About 200 child care advocates wrapped up a two-day event at the State Capitol Tuesday morning.

The Rally in Tally is hosted by the Florida Coalition for Children.

It brings foster families and children together with care providers for training and speak to lawmakers about key issues facing the child welfare system in the state.

Executive Director of the Coalition Kurt Kelly says, the biggest priority this year is getting lawmakers to extend a Federal waiver that has helped fund millions of dollars in services.

“It could be a huge hole in the budget, anywhere between 25 and $100 million. So that means the citizens of Florida have to either pick that up or there are many services we would not be able to provide and that’s unacceptable,” said Kelly.

The waiver is set to expire this coming October.

Suspended Okaloosa County School Superintendent Mary Beth Jackson’s appeal is moving forward.

A hearing before a Special Master set out a timeline for the case Monday morning.

The goal is to hold a pre-hearing conference in mid-March and a final hearing soon after.

Jackson was suspended by Governor Ron DeSantis at the recommendation of Education Commissioner Richard Corcoran following a child abuse scandal in her district.

The Governor asserts Jackson failed to implement proper policies and reporting requirements.

Jackson’s attorney George Levesque argues she showed proper leadership by firing the teacher at the center of the scandal.

“We do have a story to tell. We believe that one of the best performing school districts in the state was very well run, that these are unfortunate situations, but the idea that Miss Jackson was so incompetent that she should be removed from office I think is just lacking,” said Levesque. “So what we’re asking for is tell us what she actually did wrong.”

The Special Master says he hopes to have a final report on the Senate President’s desk by the end of March.

A bill that would lift the state’s ban on smokable medical marijuana passed it’s first Senate committee stop Monday.

Senator Jeff Brandes is the bill sponsor.

“The constitution does not allow the Legislature to ban smoking,” said Brandes. “So this is allowing us to come up with a process for smoking.”

A court ruled the state’s ban was unconstitutional.

The state has been appealing the ruling, but Governor Ron DeSantis says he’ll drop the appeal and let the ruling force the Legislature’s hand if they don’t make the fix themselves by mid-March.

Lawmakers like Senator Gayle Harrell still have hesitations.

“Smoking itself, whether it is marijuana, whether it is cigarettes has significant health risks,” said Harrell.

Senator Aaron Bean is especially worried when it comes to kids.

“It causes havoc on an adolescent brain,” said Bean.

As a safe guard, the Senate Health Committee tagged on an amendment that would require non terminal patients sign a consent form acknowledging the risks of smoking and also require a second doctor’s opinion before smokable cannabis could be dispersed.

“To make sure that patients are truly informed about the risks,” said Harrell.

The amendment also limits the option of smoking to cases where a doctor has deemed it the only possible treatment.

Senator Brandes says if his bill gets too bogged down with amendments that restrict access, he’ll simply pull it and let the Governor drop the state’s appeal.

Brandes made it clear the newly amended bill was one he could not support, vowing to make severe changes going forward.

The Senate bill has two more committee stops before it would go to the Senate floor.

So far no House bill has been filed.

While that’s almost guaranteed to change, the legislation is expected to face even harsher scrutiny in the House than in the Senate.

Governor Ron DeSantis is proposing the largest budget in state history.

He says his budget is focused on the environment, education and public safety.

The Governor unveiled the $91.3 billion budget proposal Friday morning.

It’s $2 billion more than the current budget.

“You’re seeing big increases because of the disaster and these are things that we have to obviously tend to,” said DeSantis. “So I think all told this is not a budget that is spending money unnecessarily.”

DeSantis is proposing the state spend $1.7 billion on hurricane recovery.

That would be in addition to $1.9 billion from the Federal Government.

DeSantis following through with a campaign promise, is also recommending $625 million for the environment and to clean Florida’s waterways.

Environmental groups like Florida Conservation Voters are especially excited to see $100 million included for Florida Forever, which would go towards land acquisition.

“Protecting the land on top of it really helps make sure the water gets into the aquifer clean and when it exits through our rivers it’s cleaner,” said Jonathan Webber with Florida Conservation Voters.

The Governor also wants to add almost 600 employees to the Department of Corrections, mostly in positions that would focus on mental health.

Another big change, the Governor is proposing the state dissolve the Agency for State Technology and shift its responsibilities to the Department of Management Services.

The Governor also has ambitious plans for education funding.

DeSatis wants to increase per student funding by $224.

That’s double last year’s increase.

There’s also $100 million for school safety.

DeSantis also announced he intends to overhaul Florida’s Best and Brightest Program, by no longer factoring in college entrance test scores into awarding bonuses.

“Rather than relying on a 20-year-old test score to determine the bonus that may be awarded to a teacher, it could change and be the outcome and effectiveness of that teacher instead,” said Andrea Messina, President of the Florida School Boards Association.

Despite the historically high budget, the Governor’s budget proposal includes more than $335 million in tax cuts.

“Florida being a low tax state I think has been integral to our success and our growth,” said DeSantis.

The cuts come in the form of lowered property taxes and sales tax holidays.