Welcome to

Tax cuts, education, money, and gambling. Another year of Florida legislative matters are upon us, and as Matt Galka tells us, Florida’s Speaker of the House hopes to avoid the pitfalls that doomed some of this past year’s lawmaking period.

2015’s legislative session ended with a shocking twist of political theater. The Florida House ended early – killing a few policy issues in the process.

Florida’s Speaker of the House says don’t expect those kind of fireworks this time around.

“My hope is that the 16 session will return back to some normalcy,” said House Speaker Steve Crisafulli.

With less than a month to go before lawmakers return to try and pass new laws, Crisafulli laid out his plans for legislative session. Tax cuts are high on the list, but the Governor is shooting for $1 billion dollars. Crisafulli isn’t ready to commit to the number.

“Is a billion dollars in full off the table? No, it’s not, the reality is, though, is we have to sit down and do the math on the proposed budget and find out where we’re going to land,” he said.

Passing a new gambling deal will also be at the forefront of the to-do list for the legislature.  The Governor inked a new Seminole Compact last week that could add $3 billion dollars of revenue to the statse. Lawmakers need to sign off as well.

“I can’t sit here and tell you for sure that, as it’s written, it has no chance. Is it unlikely? Yea, it’s very unlikely, but there are some things that members have started talking about that they want to tweak,” said Rep. Crisafulli.

Crisafulli said water policy, education reforms, and laws benefiting Floridians with disabilities will be the first ones to come out of his chamber.

While healthcare money was the main dustup that derailed 2015’s legislative session – neither the House Speaker or Senate President have indicated there would be that type of issue this time around.