New Florida Senate Transportation Chair Jeff Brandes not certain about texting while driving legislation

One of the first bills filed for the 2013 legislative session comes from Sarasota state Sen. Nancy Detert. Her bill would fine drivers $30 for texting, but only if they're stopped for another violation. Although that's rather modest compared to other states when it comes to regulating cellphone usage in autos — states like New York and California only allow using hands-free phones while driving — Sen. Brandes said he's not sure about it.

"Georgia has a law very similar to the one being proposed, and they're having a very challenging time enforcing it," he said, adding that Detert's bill (being sponsored in the House by Sarasota's Doug Holder) is a secondary enforcement law. "They have to pull you over for speeding, and then have to determine that while you were speeding you were texting. And so, that's an incredibly challenging thing to do. It opens up a lot of cellphone privacy issues. So we have to be cautious, but we do have to look at it."

Among other issues that Brandes said he looks forward to addressing is synchronized traffic light cameras. He also said it's important to invest in infrastructure, ports and highway systems, and what roads motorists need to pay to drive on.

"We're going to have conversations about some of our roads as well as what can be tolled, and what should not be tolled," he said.

He also expressed concerns about transportation gas taxes, as cars that get better fuel efficiency means less revenues for the state (as is the case at the national level, where the 18.4 federal tax hasn't changed in nearly two decades).

"Interesting challenging problems, but I look forward to taking them on in the next couple of years," he said.