Legislation that passed during the 2010 session of the Florida Legislature, which ended Friday, would:
ABORTION
- Require women seeking an abortion in the first trimester to pay for an ultrasound exam and view the live image unless they can prove they are victims of rape, incest or domestic abuse.
BALLOT ISSUES
- Place on the ballot a state constitutional amendment to loosen class size limits by requiring them on a school average basis.
- Place on the ballot a state constitutional amendment sponsors say will clarify, but opponents argue would undermine, a pair of citizen initiatives that would curtail gerrymandering of legislative and congressional districts.
- Place on the ballot a state constitutional amendment that would bar Floridians from being forced to obtain insurance coverage, a measure inspired by the new federal health care overhaul although legal experts say it cannot override federal law.
- Place on the ballot a nonbinding straw poll asking if the federal government should balance its budget without raising taxes.
BUSINESS & CONSUMERS
- Exempt from sales tax books, clothing, shoes, wallets and bags costing less than $50 and school supplies costing less than $10 during a three-day back-to-school sales tax "holiday" Aug. 13-15.
- Roll back an increase in the unemployment compensation tax paid by employers, though that will mean borrowing millions from the federal government to cover jobless workers - money that will have to be paid back in the future.
- Give financial aid to the ailing space industry and tax breaks to the film and entertainment industry and buyers of yachts, aircraft and machinery; offer a tax credit to businesses for hiring jobless workers.
- Reinstate parental waivers that exempt theme parks, go-cart tracks and other businesses from liability if their children are inured after the Florida Supreme Court had prohibited the waivers because there was no law allowing them.
- Make it harder to win slip-and-fall lawsuits by requiring a victim to prove a business knew or should have known a dangerous condition had existed for a sufficient time to have it fixed or removed - or that it was a foreseeable hazard.
- Crack down on rogue debt collectors by making it easier to regulate the industry and increasing punishments.
CRIME
- Bar sex offenders from coming within 300 feet of schools, day care centers, parks and playgrounds and prohibit them from wearing Santa Claus suits or other costumes attractive to children while preventing the state from labeling someone a sex offenders for having consensual sex with a minor if there was less than a four-year age difference between perpetrator and victim.
- Tighten screening of caregivers who work with children, the elderly and disabled to weed out convicted criminals.
- Add homeless people to the list of victims covered by Florida's hate crimes law that can result in increased penalties for attacks.
- Require youth sports coaches to undergo criminal background checks.
DRUGS
- Require retailers to track over-the-counter sales of ephedrine, which can be used to make methamphetamine.
- Require commercial pain management clinics to register with the state and let only doctors with special training dispense controlled substances.
- Ban the sale of smoking pipes, bongs and other paraphernalia commonly used for smoking illegal drugs as well as tobacco except at stores that mostly sell tobacco products.
EDUCATION
- Expand a private school voucher program for low-income students supported through business tax credits by increasing its annual spending cap, adding more revenue sources and increasing the value of each scholarship.
- Expand eligibility for private school vouchers for disabled students.
- Require middle school students to take a civics class and pass an end-of-course test.
- Increase high school graduation standards by requiring more math and science and replacing the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test, or FCAT, for those subjects with end-of-course exams.
- Encourage, but not require, school districts to hold ceremonies, assemblies or other academic scholarship signing day events to match the hoopla that surrounds the signing of college scholarships by football players and other athletes
- Bar schools from infringing on religious freedoms of teachers, staff and students.
- Prohibit schools from using mechanical or manual restraints on disabled students that restrict their breathing or secluding them in rooms that don't meet fire marshal's rules.
ELECTIONS
- Revive and repair a law ruled unconstitutional last year that required certain nonpolitical organizations to register with the state and comply with financial reporting requirements if they simply mentioned a candidate or an issue.
ENVIRONMENT
- Ban the personal ownership of Burmese pythons and six other species of nonnative giant reptiles.
FIREARMS
- Prevent adoption agencies from asking prospective parents if they have firearms in the house.
- Prohibit lawmakers from raiding a trust fund for the state's concealed weapons permitting program.
GAMBLING
- Endorse a 20-year compact with the Seminole Tribe of Florida that guarantees the state about $1.3 billion over the first five years and more later in exchange for the expansion of gaming at the tribe's casinos.
GOVERNMENT
- Enact a state budget of $70.4 billion for the fiscal year beginning July 1.
- Ask Congress to call a constitutional convention to pass a federal balanced budget amendment.
- Raise liability limits for the state and local governments from $100,000 to $200,000 per person and from $200,000 to $300,000 per incident on claims that can be paid without legislative approval.
- Cap fees of outside lawyers hired by the attorney general's office at $50 million.
MOTOR VEHICLES
- Authorize the use of cameras to ticket red light runners.
- Create new specialty tags that support surfing ("Endless Summer"), fishing ("Catch Me, Release Me") and horse enthusiasts ("Florida Horse Park"), as well as the Fraternal Order of Police and the Florida Diversity Foundation.
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