Florida Senate to Vote on Voter Rules, Permits and Tribal Lands Thursday

The Florida Senate is scheduled to take up a wide-ranging third-reading calendar Thursday that includes measures touching voter registration requirements, local government permitting, tribal land rights, and anonymous complaints against law enforcement officers.

Treasure Coast property owners and local governments could feel the effects of at least two bills on the calendar. SB 208 would make the permit and development-order application process less costly for applicants while simultaneously limiting the ability of local governments to deny applications on grounds of incompatibility with neighboring land uses. A separate bill, HB 991, would require voters to provide additional citizenship information when registering to vote.

Also on the Senate's special-order calendar is HB 929, which would bar local governments from preventing members of the Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida or the Seminole Tribe of Florida from constructing a chickee — a traditional open-sided structure. HB 1483 would place limits on anonymous complaints filed against law enforcement and correctional officers.

Two higher-education measures are also scheduled. SB 7036 would revise eligibility rules for the grandparent tuition waiver covering out-of-state full-time undergraduate students, while HB 1479 would require preeminent state universities to reserve 95 percent of new fall enrollments for Florida students.

Separately, the Central Florida Expressway Authority is holding an online public meeting Thursday morning to study the location and potential phasing of a roughly 15- to 20-mile expressway connection linking Florida's Turnpike northeast to U.S. 192 and north to State Road 534 at Nova Road.

The Senate floor session begins at 1 p.m. in the Senate Chamber at the Capitol. The Special Order Calendar Group will meet approximately 15 minutes after the floor session ends to set the following day's agenda.

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