State Government Issues Abound as 2015 Legislative Session Opens in Tallahassee

BRADENTON — The Florida Legislature’s 2015 session begins today and will run through May 1. As usual, there will be a host of hot-buttoned issues competing for a limited number of floor votes.

Medicaid expansion has largely been ignored by the House in recent sessions, though a recent speech by local Senator Bill Galvano (R-Bradenton) suggests that the higher chamber, which passed it 39-1 in 2013, might be less than content to see it die on the vine now that hospitals stand to lose millions in federal indigent care funds which will transition into the expansion.

The legislature will continue to look at ways to control the seemingly inevitable adoption of medical marijuana, which just missed the 60 percent threshold in a referendum to amend the state constitution this past November. Local Rep. Greg Steube has already filed a bill.

A legislative session never goes by in Florida without an NRA-drafted gun bill hitting the floor and this year's looks to be allowing guns on college campuses, which failed in 2011. Supporters will try to use the recent shootings at FSU to frame it as a school safety measure. There's also another effort by Rep. Steube to get guns into elementary, middle and high schools, which likewise seeks to add colleges this time.

With the state's current gambling pact with the Seminole Tribe of Florida set to expire this summer, casino interests are also lobbying hard in Tallahassee, hoping to see some sort of gambling expansion adopted by the legislature, which unlike 2013, won't be constrained by the potential loss of hundreds of millions of dollars for violating the compact. The issue drew attention after casino honchos traveled to the capital in January for private, closed-door meetings with the governor.