Last night, three of Hillsborough County's representatives in Tallahassee addressed the County's Democratic Executive Committee, about their legislative goals for the 2010 session.

However, what was painfully obvious is that those legislators – State Senator Charlie Justice, and State Representatives Betty Reed and Mike Scionti, are handicapped, particularly in the House, by being the minority party.

Senator Justice took to the stage first inside Fletcher Lounge on the University of Tampa campus, where he discussed a possible special session next month, and some of the bills he has filed for 2010.  Among the bills include several that attempt to address campaign finance irregularities, such as trying to cap contributions made by third party "527" type groups, which the Hillsborough/Pinellas legislator decried as "groups making a mockery of campaign finance caps".  Another bill would ban corporations from giving more than $500 to a candidate, the same limit that individuals currently have imposed on them in Florida.

And with news of another lawsuit being filed in St. Petersburg regarding a toxic plume that originated some 17 years ago, Justice says he will introduce legislation that would simply inform residents that such a problem exists.

Before his address, Justice spoke with CL about the possible upcoming special session that has been rumored will take place next month.  One of the potential issues on the agenda would be to approve the controversial SunRail proposal.

With Florida eagerly hoping to be approved nearly $2.6 billion in stimulus money to build a high-speed train between Tampa and Orlando, many state and federal legislators have said that it's important for state lawmakers to demonstrate their sincerity in wanting the project by approving SunRail.

A key hold up has been liability for CSX trains – one reason why Lakeland State Senator Paula Dockery has held the deal up the past two years.  But Justice said yesterday that "lawyers are telling me" that the liability issue may be fading.  What's certain, Justice says, is that "we have to show some mechanism, show something to the feds," that the state has funding available for their share of money up front for high speed rail.

Justice might be referring to this development, reported last month in the Orlando Sentinel:

CSX has indicated it might be willing to compromise on liability by mirroring a deal it recently reached in Massachusetts, which purchased tracks from the company for a commuter train.

CSX agreed to help defray the cost of the liability insurance that the state's transit authority has to carry.

And, if an accident occurs between a commuter train and freight train and CSX is clearly at fault because of willful misconduct, the railroad will be responsible to pay the deductible on that policy, up to a maximum of $7.5 million per incident.

This article appears in Nov 11-17, 2009.