Florida Politics - Campaigns & Elections. Lobbying & Government.

Staff ReportsOctober 10, 2017

Florida sports franchises will be banned from constructing or renovating facilities on leased public land under a bill advanced Tuesday by the House Committee on Government Accountability. Lobby Tools reports that HB 13, sponsored by Republican state Reps. Bryan Avila and Manny Diaz, is identical to HB 77, which died in the Senate during the 2017 […]

Peter SchorschAugust 23, 2017

Republican state Rep. Bryan Avila earned some praise from Americans for Prosperity-Florida for sponsoring a bill to kill Sunshine State stadium deals. The conservative group called the Florida Sports Development Fund, an incentive program greenlighted by lawmakers in 2014, “corporate welfare” and lauded Avila’s HB 6005, filed Tuesday, for attempting to repeal the “sports incentive […]

Staff ReportsJuly 25, 2017

Fifty legislators received top marks from Americans for Prosperity-Florida, the largest number of A+ legislators since the organization began issuing its annual legislative scorecard. The organization released its 2017 Economic Freedom Scorecard, which graded 5,500 votes on 96 issues, on Tuesday. The scorecard showed 50 legislators — 11 senators and 39 representatives — received an […]

Jim RosicaApril 27, 2017

The reaction to the Florida Legislature’s repeal of the state’s “booze wall” law continued long after Wednesday’s vote. The House, on a close vote of 58-57, passed the Senate’s bill (SB 106) to allow retailers to remove the ‘wall of separation’ between hard liquor and other goods. (Full story here.) The legislation now heads to Gov. Rick Scott. If signed […]

Jim RosicaApril 26, 2017

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The Florida Legislature has voted to tear down the booze ‘wall.’ The House, on a by-a-nose vote of 58-57, Wednesday passed the Senate’s bill (SB 106) to allow retailers, at least those who choose to do so, to remove the ‘wall of separation’ between hard liquor and other goods. The legislation now heads to Gov. Rick Scott. […]

Jim RosicaApril 25, 2017

A bill to allow retailers to sell hard liquor in the same store as other goods is one step closer to passing the Legislature. On Tuesday, the House decided to take up the Senate’s version of the “whiskey & Wheaties” legislation (SB 106) out of a “spirit of compromise,” said bill sponsor Bryan Avila, a Hialeah Republican. After two and […]

Jim RosicaApril 24, 2017

A troubled measure to undo the requirement that retailers sell distilled spirits separately from other goods is back on the House calendar for this week. But a number of amendments were filed Friday night that could continue to muddle the legislation’s path to passage. The House on Tuesday will again consider the “whiskey & Wheaties” bill (SB […]

Jim RosicaApril 5, 2017

House votes on senate gambling bill—by amending it with their own bill The House stood its ground, voting 73-40 Wednesday to replace the Senate’s gambling overhaul (SB 8) with its own version (HB 7037). That sets up the conference process by which both sides say they can “iron out the differences” between their different approaches. […]

Michael MolineMarch 29, 2017

Two days after the Oakland Raiders won NFL approval to move to Las Vegas, the Florida House Wednesday set a final floor vote on a bill that would ban professional sports teams from building or refurbishing stadiums on public land. CS/HB 77, by Bryan Avila, says “a sports franchise may not construct, reconstruct, renovate, or […]

Joe HendersonMarch 22, 2017

Depending on your point of view, red-light cameras in Florida are either: A) Of great benefit to public safety by making drivers think twice when approaching a changing traffic light; or B) a cash grab by communities that amounts to a backdoor tax. Just we’re clear, I’m on the side of Option B. While several […]

Tag: Bryan Avila

Sports franchise bill passes only committee, heads to House floor

American for Prosperity praises Bryan Avila’s bill to kill stadium incentives

50 Florida lawmakers earn A+ on AFP-FL scorecard

Interests for and against ‘liquor wall’ legislation react to passage

Legislature votes to tear down the ‘liquor wall’

Liquor ‘wall of separation’ could fall in Florida

Is this ‘whiskey & Wheaties’ last hurrah for 2017?

Short takes: Legislative roundup for Wednesday

Ban on public support for profession sports facilities cleared for final House vote

Joe Henderson: Time to get rid of red-light cameras, but turn up heat on texting