Legislative Session begins March 4, ends May 2
By Teresa Sargeant
Reporter
State Rep. Doug Bankson, R-District 39, is preparing to enter his second term in the Florida Legislature after winning reelection in November. This week the Apopka native gave The Apopka Chief a preview of the upcoming legislative session, which begins on March 4 and lasts 60 days until May 2.
Bankson has co-sponsored seven bills, including one for tag flipping, House Bill 253. He also gave his perspective on the two recent special sessions that convened to address immigration issues, as well as his efforts to increase funding for the Lake Apopka restoration.
This interview has been edited for clarity and length.
Q: What do you think will be the top three priorities in this year’s legislative session overall?
Bankson: Overall, there’s been such a national mandate to deal with the immigration issue, and that’s a challenge. It’s a tough one, but we have to do the right thing when it comes to immigration policy, and the governor has a very strong push for that.
I would say insurance has got to top the list. This is just unaffordable for people, and I’m very concerned, especially for our seniors. We’re looking for legislation to try and address that, and I’ve looked into some other things that deal with the industry itself. I’m personally going to be pressing on that to see what we can do to bring our insurance prices back to something that’s reasonable and affordable.
Beyond that, a real focus is on a tight fiscal policy. [House] Speaker [Daniel Perez] told us this year that we’re not to use the word “appropriations.” We’re supposed to use the word “budget.” Because the average person has to live on a budget, and this is their money that we’re responsible for, so he wants us to think in that manner.
We’re seeing the COVID money begin to disappear, so all of this excess that we’ve had in the last couple of years is beginning to wane. We have to look forward and make sure that we’re not just still spending at the same level even if the same amount of resources are not coming in.
Q: What are the top three issues that are priority to you in this session?
Bankson: Other than continuing to deal with insurance, I’d say No. 1 is education and workforce. Right now, we have a booming economy in one sense, other than the fact that we’re trying to keep up with the inflation coming out of Washington, but we’ve got workforce needs in different areas that we need to make sure that we’re training them up. Being involved in both the Education and Workforce committees, that’s been something that has really interested me to be involved in, because we need to have an education that fits the workforce and that fits the students.
I’m very proud of the work that we’ve done to make sure that there are technical colleges, universities and schools all of the different paths for success, and then allowing the parents to have that choice, to send their students a pathway that they will succeed at. That’s just a very high thing on my list.
I also want to stay focused on public safety, and I’m going to be running a couple more bills again this year. I was able to pass two of those for our Florida Sheriff Association (FSA), and I have two more that are priorities to them. One is dealing with tag flipping, which is those who conceal their license plate and make everyone else pay for the tolls on the road.
Also, they’re hiding those from police to be able to follow after them in the case of crime, and the other one is fleeing and/or evading and fleeing. Basically, it allows them [law enforcement agencies] to continue to go after the perpetrators of crime and not allow them to hide. This was brought to me by one of our own in the Apopka Police Department. The FSA has had the same issue.
Water quality is always important, and with us being right here on the shores of Lake Apopka, we need to continue to make sure that we have safe water and water quality continues to get better.
Q: Were there any water quality bills that you supported?
Bankson: That’s actually being dealt with more with our appropriations—or rather, our budget request. In Apopka, for example, one of the first ones there, of course, dealing with the asbestos pipe replacement. We got the firefighter recruit training center, persons with disabilities, substance abuse treatment resources and child trafficking prevention projects. That’s $3.8 million that I’m going for Apopka locally here.
Aside from that, there’s a water need in Winter Garden and Seminole County as well. In Winter Garden, there’s $2.75 million of appropriations, and a big part of that is on the shores of Lake Apopka. That’s where I try and think of water treatment plant on the shores of Lake Apopka, down in the Winter Garden area.
Again, continuing to fund the process we rate. We’ve been able to get $5 million per year. I want to try and increase that, so I’m really going to push after that. We see other areas, other water needs, where multiple millions of dollars are being put that direction, and I think Lake Apopka is one of our pearls, right here in the center of the state. So, I’m going to continue to push to see if we can increase the funding there.
Q: Immigration has been front and center, and you said that will be one of the top priorities. Can you say more about what you’re expecting?
Bankson: We’ve had two special sessions, and it was something that the governor felt very strongly about—that we want to move immediately in line with the president. It was a very challenging time. It was confusing for folks back home. I had different ones say, ‘Why didn’t you support the governor’s bill?’ The bottom line is we never even had the option to vote on that. However, the bill that we did pass in the House, as well as in the Senate, was a very strong and robust bill.
There were a lot of things said in the media. Some of the things just weren’t quite accurate. But the bottom line is it was all in keeping with the mandate that the American people gave through the president and our state wanting to lead the way on that. It’s interesting that Democrats and Republicans agreed that this truly is a crisis, that the border had become a crisis, and we need to address it now. Not everyone agreed in how to do that, but the bottom line is, what we passed.
The first bill was the House and Senate version, and then the governor came back in and waited on it. All of the leadership got together, worked out the compromise, and that was finally session that we were able to pass that and basically a very robust policy when it comes to immigration that helps to fix the issues, to stop the flood of everything from fentanyl to sex trafficking, all of these things across the border.
We can only do what the state can do. We still need Washington to fix the issues, and it’s very frustrating to be the ones here that have to make the hard decisions, because they weren’t doing it at the federal level. But I believe we’re going to see all of that coming together.
The bottom line is, we are a nation of immigrants. We don’t want to stop immigration, but we also have to have a lawful way to do it. There’s just no way to have an open border without elements coming across that border that are against us. There are many very good people wanting to come across, but there are people who’ve been waiting in line, and it’s unfair to them. They’re in just as much need. They care about their families, they want to have a future in the American Dream, and they’ve been waiting in line, and now, because of the flood of the last four years over this border, they don’t even have those opportunities.
It’s a challenge. There’s a lot of emotion involved, but we have to do what’s right, first of all to the American people and the people of Florida, and make sure that there’s safety involved in that.
Q: Is there anything else you would like to add?
Bankson: I’m excited and honored to serve. I work nonstop when session starts, and it’s 60 days of nonstop work. I’m continuing to advocate up there, but also back in the district, I want to hear from our citizens. I’ll get communication, but I like to sit down and talk together and find out, what can we do to work together.
A lot of times, there’s a lot of emotion, but if we can press beyond those things and find out what are the issues we need to solve. Let’s work together to solve them. And I look forward to doing that.
I’m going to be running bills again, prime co-sponsoring bills across the aisle with different ones as well as on the same side of the aisle. The bottom line is, what is best for our people? If it’s a good thing, we need to do it because it’s good, because it’s right, and so I look forward to serving again, and serve with my heart.
The Apopka Chief is an award-winning weekly newspaper serving the greater Apopka area in Central Florida since 1923.
Follow The Apopka Chief on Facebook.
Follow The Apopka Chief on X.
Follow The Apopka Chief on Instagram.
