A.G. Gancarski
Former Jacksonville City Council President and first-term State Rep. Clay Yarborough had an excellent Thursday in the Florida House.
Two bills that Yarborough sponsored — HB 1141 and HB 589, dealing with — passed the House. As did a committee bill that Yarborough was carrying.
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Lobby Up: CS 7023 would create the Local Government Lobbyist Registration Trust Fund within the Commission on Ethics.
It’s a companion of CS 7021, which creates a statewide registry of local lobbyists.
The bill passed 113-1. CS 7023 also passed resoundingly.
Yarborough had told us that he wanted to carry the bill, a request of Committee Chair Larry Metz.
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Don’t Give ‘Til It Hurts: CS/HB 1141 prohibits solicitation “for fundraising or business purposes” of state employees on work grounds during work hours.
The bill repeals statutory provisions related to the Florida State Employees’ Charitable Campaign also. The FSECC was suspended last year.
The Senate version (SB 1310, carried by Frank Artiles) is on a slower track, and is in front of its first of three committees of reference next week.
There was resistance of this bill, from two Tallahassee Democrats who represent the majority of state workers.
Rep. Lorraine Ausley objected, saying the measure “effectively kills” the FSECC, ending forty years of non-profit support.
The high point of giving was $5M. The most recent year: $282,000.
“The annual campaign accomplished many things from the 1980s until 2010,” including boosting morale and allowing workers to “give at the office,” Ausley said.
Ausley blamed Gov. Rick Scott for this chance, citing his “lack of enthusiasm” for “charitable giving.”
Ausley also noted that a third-party New Jersey company “ran this program into the ground,” giving “the Governor and the DMS the convenient excuse to suspend the campaign and then kill it altogether.”
Ausley, who noted the United Way had run the program when it was successful, had a bill to reinstate the charity, but couldn’t get her bill heard because of the Governor’s position, she said.
Rep. Ramon Alexander also noted the “private entity taking a huge chunk of money” was the major problem.
“Listen to the local representatives on this member,” Alexander urged.
Despite the objection of the Tallahassee Democrats, Yarborough said “the numbers have significantly decreased over the last ten years of the program … we shouldn’t be the middleman, giving 65 percent of contributions to a third-party vendor.”
The bill passed 81-33.
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Price Check: HB 589 (“The Prescription Drug Transparency Act”) would require Florida’s AHCA to collect data on retail prices charged by pharmacies for the 300 most frequently prescribed medicines, updating the website monthly.
The bill passed unanimously.
