An effort to give cities and counties authority to limit smoking at beaches and parks cleared its first legislative test Thursday — earning unanimous approval from the Senate Regulated Industries Committee.

The measure (SB 258) is similar to one sponsored by Rep. Bill Hager, R-Boca Raton, who two years ago successfully got lawmakers to give school boards power to enact tougher anti-smoking restrictions than those contained in state law.

Since it was first approved in 1985, the state’s Clean Indoor Air Act has been focused on smoking inside public buildings and workplaces. It also bars local governments from enacting any measures stricter than what is allowed under the state law.

Sen. Eleanor Sobel, D-Hollywood, said smoking doesn’t have a place on the beach or in public parks. Eliminating it, could save cities and counties cleanup money, she said.

“This will save a lot of money, besides people won’t have smoke blowing in their faces,” Sobel said.

Representatives of local governments, anti-cancer groups, and other health advocates endorsed the Senate measure Thursday. The only caution came from Richard Turner of the Florida Restaurant and Lodging Association, who said his organization is still trying to gauge the proposal’s possible effect on restaurants.

Turner said many of his group’s members spent a lot of money a decade ago to comply with state law after voters extended the smoking ban to restaurants. Although the legislation would only affect publicly-owned facilities, Turner said some cities and counties lease space to restaurants, which could face broader prohibitions.

Beach cleanup volunteers throughout Palm Beach County say they see the evidence every time they walk the sands.

“Cigarette butts are the number one item we pick up,” said Todd Remmel, county chapter chairman for Surfrider Foundation, an environmental activist organization. “Beaches are supposed to be a playground. But people use them as ashtrays.”

State Rep. Bill Hager, R-Boca Raton, wants to change that.

Hager is pushing legislation (HB 439) this spring that would give cities and counties power to enact anti-smoking measures on publicly-owned property that are tougher than those in place at the state level.

State law, which has barred local controls since first enacted in 1985, is aimed chiefly at barring smoking indoors.

The legislation, which so far has been ignored by the influential cigarette industry in Tallahassee, is drawing some pushback from cigar enthusiasts.  A Senate version (SB 258) is scheduled to get its first hearing Thursday in the Senate Regulated Industries Committee.

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South Florida lawmakers got a stark look Wednesday at how rising sea levels could dramatically change Palm Beach, Broward, Miami-Dade counties and the Keys in coming years, leading to calls for more state aid to stem the tide.

County planners and water managers from officials presented an 84-page action plan to regional legislators that was compiled last fall. While climate change has caused sea level to climb nine inches over the past century, that rate is accelerating and could advance an at least an additional nine inches over the next 50 years, analysts have concluded.

Evidence of the changes are already being seen across South Florida, where regional flooding and saltwater intrusion is becoming common in area canals and waterways. Several lawmakers said a goal for this spring’s legislative session should be to convince more of their colleagues that South Florida’s problems have a statewide impact.

“We’ve got to convince the rest of the state that this is an economic disaster,” said Sen. Jeff Clemens, D-Lake Worth. “We can’t wait for sea levels to keep rising. We’ve got to plan for the future.”

Making more funding available for the region is a likely push, said Rep. Mark Pafford, D-West Palm Beach, chairman of the Palm Beach County legislative delegation, who organized Wednesday’s hearing. “This demands our attention,” he said.

Officials speaking at Wednesday’s hearing offered plenty of anecdotes about South Florida’s changing coastline. In Broward County, several waterside neighborhoods commonly flood during high tides; on Stock Island, in the Keys, Monroe County officials are elevating the ground floor of a new fire station, in anticipation of future flooding, officials said. Roads, sewer systems and development decisions will all be affected by the changing water line across the region, officials said.

In Palm Beach County, Everglades restoration efforts could be slowed by rising saltwater intrusion, hurting water management efforts, said Ernie Barnett of the South Florida Water Management District.

“You can fight water with water,” Barnett said. “We need to push more water through the Everglades toward the coast.”

The report by local officials included some sobering conclusions about the impact of rising water on the area.

The report found, “The upper estimate of current taxable property values in Monroe, Broward, and Palm Beach Counties vulnerable in the one-foot scenario is $4 billion with values rising to more than $31 billion at the three-foot scenario. The greater values reflected in the financial impacts are coastal residential properties with ocean access and high taxable value.”

But Rep. Bill Hager, R-Boca Raton, offered a darker view. He said lawmakers and county officials will have a challenging time convincing many Florida leaders to direct dollars toward fighting what he said was an inevitable change.

“We can do this stuff,” Hager said. “But inevitably, the cycles of the earth will overcome whatever we do.”

Plenty of political careers will be shaped by Tuesday’s vote.

But one storyline unfolding in Hillsborough County is whether former House Speaker Johnnie Byrd can make a comeback as a candidate for judge. The always controversial Byrd was last seen on a political stage in 2004, when he finished a distant fourth in a six-person field for the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate.

On Tuesday, Byrd is challenging incumbent Circuit Judge Mark Wolfe.

Heading into Tuesday’s election, Wolfe has far outraised Byrd, with the incumbent collecting $163,837 to the challenger’s $34,670.

Byrd’s weak bid for Senate came after two tumultuous years as speaker. The Plant City Republican had few strong allies in the House, forced lawmakers into some tough votes on social issues and even phone rates. And he departed without many in the Legislature or lobbying corps holding him in the usual misty-eyed esteem achieved by Florida leaders.

Tuesday will decide whether a Republican ex-speaker can make a comeback. But it may also presage another attempted political return by a former Democratic House speaker. Former Fort Lauderdale Rep. Tom Gustafson is running in November against Boca Raton Republican Rep. Bill Hager.

Gustafson was chosen last month by the Palm Beach County Democratic Executive Committee to replace Pamela Goodman on the ballot, after she withdrew to care for her ailing husband.

A day after Gov. Rick Scott and Chief Financial Officer Jeff Atwater urged lawmakers to overhaul Florida’s personal injury protection auto insurance standard, House and Senate panels began Wednesday what is likely to prove months of wrestling with the issue.

Rep. Jim Boyd, R-Bradenton, had his proposal (HB 119) dissected by the House Insurance and Banking Committee, with legislators quizzing him about efforts to limit lawyers’ fees, expand clinic regulations, and limiting the number of visits an accident victim can make to massage therapists and chiropractors.

Two lawmakers, Rep. Bill Hager, a Boca Raton Republican, and Rep. Evan Jenne, a Fort Lauderdale Democrat, urged lawmakers to consider scrapping personal injury protection completely — saying the system was beyond repair.

“Have we arrived at a point where we say this sucker is such a rotting carcass that we’ve got to throw it out?” Hager said.

Boyd, however, said the Legislature should make one more attempt at repairing PIP — the $10,000 mandatory insurance coverage which critics say for years has spawned a lucrative industry of staged auto accidents, unneeded medical treatments, and frivolous lawsuits.

“We still think we have a chance to salvage this thing,” Boyd said.

While Boyd was pitching his bill, the Senate Banking and Insurance Committee was hearing testimony from a wide-range of industry representatives. Among them: Gary Brown, who runs Choice Medical Centers, operating in Palm Beach and Broward counties.

Brown said lawmakers could help shrink what critics say is almost $1 billion in higher insurance and legal costs borne by Floridians, if they more strictly regulated clinics. He said legislation should demand tougher licensing requirements and bar clinics from referring patients to lawyers.

But Brown also said the insurance industry needs to be a focus for any legislation.

Boyd’s bill, and others being developed, chiefly target those making money off insurers. Brown, though, gave the industry low marks.

Sen. Joe Negron, R-Stuart, asked Brown to grade on a 1-to-10 scale how responsive companies are to paying PIP claims.

“I’d say zero,” Brown said, saying the industry’s cold shoulder fuels lawsuits.

West Palm Beach Democrat Mack Bernard earned a shout-out Monday for being among only a handful of lawmakers attending all 26 public hearings this summer on redistricting.

The grueling tour spanned from the Pensacola to Key West, with stops rural and urban along the way. “We learned a lot. And saw a lot,” said Bernard, after the House Redistricting Subcommittee noted his wide-ranging schlep.

With lawmakers returning to the Capitol for a week’s worth of committee hearings, recapping those redistricting hearings consumed much of the House’s day.

When it comes to redrawing district lines for the 120 House seats, members of the public, community groups, and local elected officials often urged lawmakers to strive to keep municipalities whole, without dividing them across more than one district.

Boca Raton and West Palm Beach were among the communities making such pitches; of course, some areas — like rural Jackson County in North Florida — sought to be divided among two state House seats, in hopes of gaining more oomph in Tallahassee.

Singled out during the summer’s hearing in Boca Raton were a couple districts – held by Rep. Steve Perman, a Democrat and Bill Hager, a Republican. Perman’s District 78 was criticized as unwieldy, stretching from the Fort Pierce area to Boca Raton; Hager’s district should be confined to Palm Beach County, some of those testifying said, rather than stretching as it does now, into Broward.

For Senate districts, Palm Beach County commissioners this summer also urged lawmakers when they begin creating maps next year, at least keep the current compliment of three Senate districts with a majority of their population in the county — out of the six districts that now touch the county.

A bit of Palm Beach County history — edged a bit closer to history Wednesday.

The House voted 115-0 to approve legislation that would eliminate an advisory board for the Lake Worth Inlet District which, itself, was disbanded by the Legislature in 1996 after operating as a taxing authority for 81 years.

The seven-member advisory panel, which includes representatives of Ocean Ridge and Manalapan, was recommended for extinction by the Palm Beach County Commission. Supporters said the move would do little to upset inlet maintenance, which has been carried out by the county the past 15 years.

Rep. Bill Hager, R-Boca Raton, who sponsored the measure, said scrapping the committee also would save money. Palm Beach County had said it costs 132 staff hours to assist the panel, costing taxpayers about $7,000.

The measure still needs Senate approval.