Peter Schorsch
I like to think of myself as a centrist and I genuinely think good ideas come from both sides of the aisle.
With that said, I must admit, that it’s kind of nice watching the Senate getting along pretty well. The vast majority of bills are moving through the upper chamber with almost no dissent and even at times, the dissent is itself bipartisan.
It was kind of cool, for example, watching Joe Negron and Tom Lee genuinely and effusively support a recent amendment in committee by Jeff Clemens (D-Iconic Democrat) to ensure that an election-related bill wouldn’t be used to sweep folks from the voter rolls.
That’s the way things have been this year in the Senate. Kum. Bay. Ya!
The House, on the other hand has not let anyone – anyone – forget who is in charge and which wing of the party controls the docket.
So let’s see how the House deals with the newly amended estoppel bill (CS/SB 736.)
Why?
What had evolved into a compromise bill to end abuses by homeowners’ associations has now devolved into an all-out face beating of those very same homeowners. The opponents of the measure are calling it a grotesque price-fixing bill that tells HOAs how much they can charge to prepare a legal document known as an estoppel certificate – and now the price cap is really, really low. Further, the Senate version has no guarantees that the homeowners even get reimbursed for their troubles.
So here’s the question: Will the GOP-controlled House let a bill with – and there really isn’t any other way to say this – government-mandated price caps go through?
Will the House stand up to the Senate and say, “That’s just a little too much government interference for us?”
You may not be watching an arcane estoppel bill … but I am getting out the popcorn on this one.
