Today is a huge day in the legislature for a bill that will solve many problems for elected constitutional officers, school board members, who want more accountability from their advocacy associations; more importantly, school board members that want and deserve more choice in advocacy, particularly when taxpayer subsidized advocacy groups sue the Governor and Legislature in court, will now have this--if some dominoes fall the right way today.
HB 549 is on the agenda for consideration today in the House, and an amendment will be added from the floor that reads:
(4) Membership association dues paid with public
funds, as defined in s. 215.85(3), shall be assessed for each elected or
appointed public officer. However, if a public officer elects not to join the
membership association, the dues assessed for that public officer shall not be
paid to the membership association.
HB 549 has a similar, companion bill (SB 1114) in the Senate that did not make the special order calendar for this week.
Because of this, many of us from around the state will be putting on a "full court press" urging
