Getting it started

Senators spent the week laying the groundwork for the legislative session that begins in March. Kicking things off, Senate President Joe Negron, R-Stuart, tried to dispel the notion that the upper chamber would be the graveyard for conservative legislation that emerges from the House.

“The next two sessions will not be the conservative House versus the moderate Senate,” Negron said. “Instead, I expect the House and Senate will present competing conservative visions on the many issues that our constituents care about.”

Among the potentially contentious issues: what to do about the workers’ compensation insurance system after a pair of Supreme Court decisions sparked rate hikes for businesses.

The Supreme Court this year ruled that strict limits on attorneys’ fees were unconstitutional and also tossed out a restriction on benefits in the case of a St. Petersburg firefighter injured on the job. Along with helping lead to the 14.5 percent rate increase, those decisions have refueled debate about key issues in a major 2003 law.

Lawmakers also began to consider how to implement a constitutional amendment legalizing full-strength medical marijuana and what to do about a tight state budget next year. Latvala said the Legislature would likely have to allow property owners’ taxes to go up in order to fund an increase in spending on public schools.

“I think it’s clear to me that if we don’t capture the new property values, there will be very slim if any increases for K-12,” he said. “So if we want to provide any local school district increases, I think we’re going to have to allow them to take the additional property value.”