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A battle of words is raging in the state Capitol over the restoration of felons rights. The conflict is over what constitutes completing one’s sentence and statements made by the sponsors of rights restoration amendment to the Florida Supreme Court. As Mike Vasilinda tells us, the battle comes down to the definition of paying all fees and fines.

The Senate Criminal Justice committee has approved legislation requiring felons to pay all of their fees, fines and restitution before getting their right to vote back. 

The committee agree with Sen. Jeff Brandes, R-St. Petersburg 

“I believe that we must include, and this amendment does include restitution, fines, fees imposed as part of the sentence” Brandes told the committee. 

Within hours, activists labeled the move a poll tax. Lawmakers responded by pointing they’re only doing what the man who wrote the ballot initiative, Legal expert Jon Mills,  said to the Supreme Court in 2017. 

“All matters. Anything that a judge puts in the sentence.”

So it would also include the full payment of any fines?” Asked Justice Ricky Polston.

“Yes sir“ replied Mills.

House sponsor James Grant (R-Tampa) says the legislature is taking Floridians for a Fair Democracy at their word.

“They explicitly and affirmatively said no it’s everything, quote, within the four corners of the document. Quote: fines and fees and probation, parole, restitution are all part of the sentence” Grant says.

But Legal scholar Mark Schlakman tells us that no matter what the group said where, its still not binding on lawmakers.

“The key is the language. And if you read the language strictly, it affords more discretion than the legislature is thus far taking” says the FSU law professor.

Desmond Meade was the driving force behind the ballot initiative. He calls the political maneuvering “heartbreaking”.

“There’s a partisan drum thats beating so loudlyIn their heads and it’s driving out the voices of the people, and that’s sad” says Meade. He plans to return to the Capitol next week to push lawmakers on the fee issue. 

A study by the state parole board in 2011 found that felons whose rights were restored were far less likely to commit new crimes.

And legal experts also tell us that even if felons are not required to pay all fines and fees before getting their rights back, they would still owe the money and be legally obligated to pay it. 

After a class size initiative, a workplace smoking ban, and high speed rail amendments were approved in 2002, lawmakers were successful in convincing voters to make it harder to pass amendments. Now after the passage of medical marijuana and felons rights, the legislature is again trying to make passing initiatives harder…much harder.

After a series of successful petition drives in 2002 lawmakers were successful in raising the threshold for approval from 50 to 60 percent. Scott McCoy of the Southern Poverty Law Center says when it comes to voters going around lawmakers, they become parochial. 

 “They don’t like it of course, because they want to only game in town when it comes to making Flordia Law” says McCoy. 

When amendments kept passing, lawmakers shortened a petition’s unlimited lifespan to just two years. 

“They’re trying to put roadblocks in that path and we have serious concerns about that” add McCoy

Now, after the passage of the controversial felons voting rights, and medical marijuana, A bill was filed and passed its only committee in the short span of thirty six hours. 

Rep. Paul Renner of Palm Coast is the Chair of the Judiciary Committee.

“And it should be for Floridians to initiate that,” says Renner when it comes to petition drives. 

The hastily filed legislation requires petition gatherers to only be Florida residents and registered with the state.

“Let’s make sure they’re actually Floridians, Not North Koreans or Russians, or Californians or people from Georgia” add Renner.

Aliki Moncrief ran the Successful land conservation amendment in 2014 and says paid petition gatherers is the only was to succeed with a tight time limit and a large state.

“There’s no way we would have been able to do that as Florida’s Water and Land Legacy if we weren’t able to call on professional signature gatherers” says Moncrief.

So we asked Rep Renner how petition drivers could flourish with only Floridians 

“I would say to them, Florida has twenty one million people, they have twenty one million options.”

Because the changes being proposed this year are statutory, voters don’t really have a say, except to voice their opinion.

The legislation also says that those who gather petitions, can’t be paid by the petition….which is exactly how they are paid now.  

The legislation also requires the ballot summary to contain the name of the sponsor, a cost estimate, and contribution information, all without lengthening the 75 word limit on ballot summaries.

After we reported that Sun Trust was closing the bank account of the Medical Marijuana Business Association earlier this week, which was criticized by the Commissioner of Agriculture as being wrong, the banking giant has reached out to association founder Jeff Sharkey, who says he and the bank are talking.

“As an association, you know, we receive funds from a number of different entities. Physicians groups, non profits. We’re not selling marijuana. I think their real concern is with licensees whoa re actually dealing with the product, plants. So, we’ve had some preliminary conversations and I appreciate them reaching out” says Sharkey.

Banks are reluctant to handle any accounts associated with marijuana because it is still illegal under federal law. While the two are talking, the association hasn’t stopped looking for another bank, yet.

After the suicide of two Parkland survivors in as many weeks followed by the death of one of the fathers of a Sandy Hook victim, Governor Ron Desantis and Firsts Lady Casey held a round table this afternoon at the Governor’s Mansion looking for answers.

“Mental health was obviously an issue before that, but I think when you see two suicides like that, you know, we want to bring in stakeholders snd see if there is something being missed. Obviously in the aftermath of Parkland, there was a lot attention on this. But yet we have this so we want to hear from folds and find out what the state can be doing more, what the local communities can be doing more, and try to fight it” says the Governor.

Last week, suicide prevention advocates were in the Capitol, urging the state to do more to prevent what has become the eighth leading cause of death in the state. 

Photographs, video or audio from mass killings in Florida could soon be out of the sunshine.

Legislation approved by the State Senate today makes it a crime to release the material, and someone who does could spend up to five years in prison.

The legislation was once so broad the infamous video showing Broward Sheriff’s deputies not going into Marjorie Stoneman Douglass High School to stop a killer could not have been released.

The First Amendment Foundation objected.

“Law enforcement. One agency was accusing another agency. Why didn’t they engage the shooter sooner, more effectively. It was the ability to access those records and then the reporting on them that made a difference,” said Barbara Petersen with the First Amendment Foundation.

Because of the foundation’s efforts, lawmakers narrowed the public records exemption to just the actual killing of three people or more.

It leaves intact the right to see what lead up to the event.

“This removes the language about causation that we had before,” said State Senator Jose Javier Rodriguez.

Senate sponsor Tom Lee says the narrowing was a recognition.

“Government can not be responsible for policing itself. And the public has, under our laws here in the state of Florida and the United States has a right to access to information, so we don’t do these things lightly. What we are narrowing down are a lot of things that are causing people distress,” said Lee.

The legislation also seeks to keep private any existing video of a mass shooting.

If it becomes public, then video from Pulse or Stoneman Douglass could not be released.

The legislation makes the release a third degree felony if a records custodian released the photos or video, but nothing in the bill prohibits a victims family members from releasing the recording.

The bill does leave open the door for someone to go to court to get the video, but more often than not, the cost of going to court is prohibitive.

The Florida League of Mayors is complaining about legislative attempts to preempt local governments from passing ordinances on everything from banning plastic straws to regulating short term home rentals through online booking services such as AirBNB.

Hawthorne Mayor Matt Furrency is the group’s President.

“This is a local zoning issue. Each of our communities can decide how short term rentals fit within our communities. We’re not necessarily for them or against them, but we want the opportunity to work with the short term rentals and figure out where they go and how they fit in our communities,” said Furrency.

The mayors say the local governments know their areas best, and shouldn’t be prohibited from enacting restrictions local residents want.

More than a thousand senior citizens crowded into the courtyard at the state Capitol Wednesday.

There were booths about health care and even one senior dressed up as a prescription bottle.

Dave Bruns with AARP says the living bottle is to show support the Governor’s call to import cheaper drugs from Canada

“Were heard some really wrenching stories today from people who are shelling out $800-$1,000 a month for their prescription drugs. Right now Governor Governor DeSantis and the Legislature are considering a plan to let us import safe, affordable, FDA approved prescription drugs from overseas. It could save us 50%-70%, from the cost for our prescription drugs,” said Burns.

The drug plan is moving in the House, but faces opposition in the Senate.

The Interfaith Coalition for Reproductive Heath and Justice was in the state Capitol Wednesday, arguing against legislation requiring minors to get a parent’s approval before getting an abortion.

President Kate Lannamann says abortion is actually safer than childbirth, but no one is pushing parental permission for having a baby.

“The consequences of an abortion from medical terms is that it’s one of the safest procedures. Even safer than a colonoscopy, where the maternal mortality rate from child birth is much higher. So this would be forcing young people to bear children against their will, something as people of faith we can’t abide by,” said Lannamann.

The group is also concerned by a bill that would prohibit abortions after a fetal heartbeat is detected…which is sometimes as early as six weeks.

The number one complaint of voters this past election, state Senators say, was the grouping of two or more different subjects in amendments from the Constitution Revision Commission.

Responding, the Senate voted unanimously to allow voters to require single subjects for CRC amendments on Wednesday.

Senator Darryl Rousson of St. Petersburg says the choice should be up to voters.

“For the people of the state of Florida to decide whether once and for all, bundling is truly for convenience, or for voter fatigue, for obfuscation or to carry a bad thing with good thing hoping that the bad thing passes,” said Rousson.

The House is also expected to approve the amendment, which voters would see on the 2020 ballot.

Florida could soon become the 8th state in the country to raise the legal age for smoking from 18 to 21.

The restriction would also apply to vaping products.

Fewer than one in 20 teens smoked a traditional cigarette in 2017, but nearly 15% said they used an e cigarette.

13-year-old McKenzie Faust, who was touring the Capitol for kids day isn’t one of them.

“You should wait or not do it ever,” said Faust.

State Senator David Simmons says one way to keep kids like McKenzie from picking up the habit, is to raise the legal age from 18 to 21 for both cigarettes and E-cigarettes.

“The ability to abuse young people, even if they are eighteen, nineteen, or twenty years old exists because this is a very addictive product,” said Simmons.

At a committee hearing for a bill that would raise the age, vape store owners cried foul.

“It would be unfair to categorize us a tobacco product,” said vape store owner Jonathan Risteen.

But Vape manufacturers supported raising the age in a full page ad in a local Tallahassee newspaper published Tuesday morning.

“I hate tobacco,” said State Senator Aaron Bean.

Bean was the only member of the committee who voted no on raising the age.

“We have to allow people to make their own decisions,” said Bean. “I struggled with it, but I did say when you turn eighteen you’re an adult and you have to make your own decisions.”

Concerns are also being raised when it comes to taking away an already 18-year-olds’ right to smoke.

“When Florida raised the drinking age from 18 to 21 back in the mid 1980’s, no 18-year-old lost the right to drink.

The age was raised one year at a time.

The legislation faces an uphill battle in the House where personal freedom is the mantra of leadership.

While making young adults wait longer to legally smoke, the legislation also eliminates a provision in Florida law that takes away an underage teen’s drivers license if they are caught with tobacco products.

If you’re out of town and someone’s breaking into your house, how do you report the crime to your local police?

A new bill would require every dispatch in the state to have the ability to transfer you to any other jurisdiction at a moments notice.

Imagine calling 9-1-1, getting the wrong dispatch center and being hung up on because they can’t transfer you.

It’s exactly what happened to Rep. Mike Caruso when his son was injured on a ski trip.

“Finally after about ten minutes on the phone trying to get somebody to come I just hung up the phone and picked my son up off the ground, put him in my car and drove to the hospital,” said Caruso.

The proposed legislation, which cleared a House committee Tuesday, would require all dispatch centers Florida to be able to transfer calls to any other dispatch center in the state.

“This bill could mean the difference between life and death,” said House Sponsor Bobby DuBose.

Rep.  DuBose says a requirement in the bill that all dispatcher centers be able to receive text messages will also make Floridians safer.

“We have individuals who have no voice, but also are confronted with emergency situations. So this gives them an opportunity to reach out and receive help,” said DuBose.

The legislation would also require dispatchers to have a system in place that would allow them to directly communicate with all first responders in the field, to cut down on response times to incidents of mass violence.

Former Police Chief Gary Hester says the need for improving response times was highlighted during the Parkland shooting.

“The massacre occurred in three minutes or less, so response is absolutely crucial,” said Hester.

Under the bill, text to 911 services would have to be in place by 2022, while transferring 9-1-1 calls has no deadline.

It’s expected all but six counties in the state will offer text to 9-1-1 services by the end of the year, regardless of whether or not the proposed legislation passes.

An amendment to a human trafficking bill approved Tuesday requires that johns caught in a prostitution ring like the one uncovered in South Florida that snared billionaire football owner Robert Kraft, face a mandatory ten-day jail sentence.

Sponsor Toby Overdorf hopes jail time will be a deterrent.

“Currently on the first conviction, there is actually not a jail term associated with it, and this is a real deterrent. If a person is looking at having ten days in jail for going through a solicitation act, I think they’ll think twice about going through a solicitation,” said Rep. Toby Overdorf.

Other legislation also seeks to train restaurant and hotel workers to look for signs of human trafficking.

A House committee voted unanimously Tuesday to impose a $2 penalty on local governments for every gallon of sewage that is spilled or improperly released.

It is the second unanimous vote for the bill this legislative session and bodes well for the bills ultimate approval.

The bill requires the money be used to upgrade the system that failed.

House Sponsor Rep. Randy Fine says Government can’t keep asking citizens to make sacrifices when it won’t do the same.

“I mean, we’re actually putting what you flush down the toilet into our water ways. And the bigger problem is how do we ask people to change their own lives and how they live in the state of Florida when every time it rains the government puts sewage into the waterways. We can’t have do as I say not as I do regulation. Government has to get serious about how it contributes to the problem,” said Fine.

Sewage discharge is being partially blamed for the fouling of waterways on each side of the state.

A coalition of immigrant rights organizations rallied at the State Capitol this morning against a proposed ban on sanctuary cities in the state.

While supporters of the legislation say it only targets undocumented immigrants who have broken the law, opponents fear it would ramp up deportations of all immigrants, including those in the country seeking asylum or with protected statuses.

“The consequences of this bill need to be front and center. Our colleagues need to understand all the damage they would do in so many parts of our community, local governments, and all kids of issues that would be caused by this bill,” said Senator Jose Javier Rodriguez.

The group also advocated in support of legislation they say would help immigrants. Including a bill that would allow non citizens to acquire drivers licenses.

A House committee approved a proposed ban on fracking Tuesday morning, but the legislation ironically faced opposition from the petroleum industry and some environmentalists.

The ban applies to two forms of fracking, but does not address a third, known as matrix acidizing.

Environmentalists call it an intentional loophole, but bill sponsor Rep. Holly Raschein says it’s a necessary compromise, because the technique has applications outside of fracking.

“A lot of folks again, use that to clean out water wells, the oil and gas industry use it for exploration… Anything that we do or we move forward on we do not want to have unintended consequences. That’s something that we really try to avoid in the Legislature,” said Raschein.

The Senate companion bill passed its first committee stop this afternoon. It also includes language that would ban oil drilling in the Everglades, while the House bill addresses only fracking.