The first week of Legislative Interim Committee meetings began on Monday. This year is a redistricting year which requires the Legislature to perform the once every decade task of establishing new legislative and congressional districts due to the census changes in Florida’s population. We should expect redistricting to take center stage during the regular session beginning in January.

In terms of our priorities for 2022, two important issues have emerged already for our Legislative agenda:
1) including COVID-19, or other infectious diseases as a line of duty presumption for Law Enforcement, Correctional, and Correctional Probation Officers (HB 117);
2) including Correctional and Correctional Probation Officers along with part-time officers in the workers’ compensation coverage for PTSD (HB 49, HB TBA and SB 200).

Additionally, the state agencies have issued their respective Legislative Budget Requests (LBRs) with a combined total of $228 million in recurring General Revenue funding. Salary increases were included in almost every agency’s request. The Florida PBA bargaining teams will make additional pay proposals to the agencies during negotiations.

This summary is short, but please expect more information during the October committee weeks.

As always, please stay safe.

Sincerely,

Matt Puckett