House Bill Update

The following are the bills introduced and still active in the House of Representatives during the current House special session.

HR 1A - Solidarity with Israel: On it's face this is a largely meaningless bill, since it is nothing more than a declaration of support for Israel in its attacks on Gaza. Reading the fine print, though, and there are some problems. The bill unilaterally declares that Iran is sponsoring the attacks on Israel, without providing any evidence to support such a claim. The bill condemns "attacks on civilians" by Palestinians without saying anything about Israeli efforts that harm civilians. Finally, I'm not sure that this proclamation is particularly relevant to the job the legislature is supposed to do, the powers of a state, or the stipulated reasons for the special session. My vote: No.

HB 7A - Cigarette Tax, by Zapata: This one would raise the cigarette tax and specify where the revenue would go, primarily to the Lawton Chiles Fund and health care-related funds. I don't know enough about existing law to get too much into the specifics, but I do like the idea of raising the cigarette tax. In the short term it would certainly bring in more revenue and it would provide an additional disincentive for smoking, particularly amongst poorer people and younger people. In the long run, though, it would seem likely to be a declining source of revenue, so there has to be more done to fill the budget gap. My vote: A tentative yes, pending further expert analysis.

HB 9A - Trust Funds/Creation/Primary Care Services Trust Fund/AHCA, by Zapata: This incredibly vague bill would create the "Primary Care Services Trust Fund" within the AHCA, tasked with using money from the cigarette tax to provide funding to local health departments and similar entities. This is one of the shortest bills I've ever seen -- it's shorter than the declaration of support for Israel -- so I'm a bit worried about the details of the program. Other than that, it seems like a good idea. My vote: Yes.

HB 11A - Procurement of Contractual Services by a State Agency, by Bogdanoff: I'll have to admit that since I don't understand the current law in this area, I don't know enough to evaluate the changes proposed in this bill. Anyone wanting to weigh in on this one would be greatly appreciated.

HB 13A - Corporate Income Tax, by Schwartz: Bills like this are why regular citizens don't generally pay attention to the specific proposals made in legislatures. It's written in a very strong legalese and since it makes little reference to current law, it's difficult to know what's being done here. The bill claims to be creating a more unified accounting system so that in-state corporations aren't disadvantaged in competition with multinational or multistate corporations. Sounds good, that I would agree to with no problem. But there are a lot of details in this one and I'd have to have an expert and a lawyer go over it to figure out what they all mean in practical terms.