Pubdate: Mon, 12 Apr 2004
Source: Naples Daily News (FL)
Copyright: 2004 Naples Daily News.
Contact:  http://www.naplesnews.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/284
Note: Publisher prints several newspapers - please indicate which newspaper 
in LTEs.
Author: Michael Peltier
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/testing.htm (Drug Testing)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/youth.htm (Youth)

BUDGET TALKS, AMENDMENT PROCESS AMONG MAJOR ISSUES FACING RETURNING LAWMAKERS

TALLAHASSEE--Budget talks, drug testing in high schools and proposals to 
make it more difficult to amend the Florida Constitution highlight the 
beginning of the home stretch as lawmakers return for three frenzied weeks.

Fresh from a week off, lawmakers must complete the work of their 60-day 
legislative session by April 30 if they want to go home on time. 
Characteristically, they have left the bulk of heavy lifting for session's 
end and must now resolve differences on a handful of issues before going 
home to campaign.

Committees in both chambers will address both major issues and minor 
concerns as they rush to keep as many bills in play as deadline for most 
committee work comes to a close next week.

Lawmakers are forging ahead with proposals to make it tougher to amend 
Florida's Constitution, a response to a rash of amendments that have 
recently granted constitutional protection to high-speed trains and 
pregnant pigs.

In the House, lawmakers want to require a 60 percent vote when groups ask 
voters to change the Constitution. Proposals by lawmakers themselves, 
however, would require a simple majority vote. House members also want any 
proposed amendment to carry a price tag that would outline estimated costs 
and who would pay.

Senators have already passed measures reining in the process by requiring 
any proposed amendment deal only with existing constitutional provisions 
(eliminating the pregnant pig and high-speed rail initiatives) and must be 
approved by 60 percent of voters. The threshold would be in place 
regardless of whether lawmakers or citizens' groups propose the change.

On the budget front, leaders in both chambers will appoint conferees this 
week to resolve differences on how to spend at least $56.5 billion. First 
up for negotiators will be to agree on a bottle line. The House budget 
proposal is $1 billion higher, spending more one-time money but preserving 
a handful of costly programs axed in the Senate plan.

The chambers have positioned themselves well for negotiations. The House 
plan funds popular programs but does so by raiding trust funds or using 
one-time funds Senate negotiators contend should be left alone.

The Senate's more austere plan cuts funding for popular programs that will 
likely receive money when the smoke clears. The stance gives the chamber a 
bargaining chip in its quest to hold down trust fund raids.

In other action, House members today will vote on whether to allow drug 
tests to be performed on high school students participating in 
extracurricular activities. HB 113 is up for a final vote in the House, but 
the measure faces tougher sledding in the Senate, where it has yet to get a 
committee hearing despite being repeatedly placed on the Senate Education 
Committee Agenda.

The House is also expected to approve measures preventing school districts 
from banning pagers and cellular phones from campuses. Reflecting the 
headlong rush into the wireless age, the bill would reverse a prohibition 
lawmakers made a few years ago to ban pagers from campus in an attempt to 
slow drug traffic.

Meanwhile, bills requiring school districts to provide more physical 
education activities for students remain in play. At trio of bills aimed at 
reducing youth obesity by requiring more phy-ed requirements is up for a 
vote in the Senate Education Committee on Tuesday. Similar measures in the 
House have yet to be placed on committee agendas.
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MAP posted-by: Terry Liittschwager