Legislation that would make Florida the 40th state in the nation to ban texting while driving was approved Monday by a Senate committee, with the full House expected to follow suit later this week.

Sen. Nancy Detert, R-Venice, sponsor of the measure (CS/SB 52) that cleared the Judiciary Committee on an 8-0 vote, said it’s taken lawmakers years to come around to restrictions long supported by the public.

“The public is ahead of the politicians,” said Detert. “The big change in the politicians is every time they go home people say, ‘how come we never pass that texting-while-driving bill?’ It’s gone from public support to public frustration. They’re as frustrated as I am.”

Detert, R-Venice, and Rep. Doug Holder, R-Sarasota, have proposed identical measures (SB 52, HB 13) that would make texting while driving a secondary offense, meaning motorists could be ticketed only if law-enforcement officials had stopped them for another reason.

A ticket could cost first-time offenders $30, plus court costs. But the bills also include exemptions allowing people to use phones to check maps, use voice-commands or listen to the radio through the phone. Drivers also could text while stopped at a light, under the legislation.

“It’s pretty clear this will save lives if we pass it,” said Sen. Darren Soto, D-Kissimmee.

The Senate has advanced Detert’s bill in earlier years. But the proposed ban has been rejected by Florida’s more conservative House. The past two years, then-House Speaker Dean Cannon, R-Winter Park, refused to let the measure be heard in committees.

Current House Speaker Will Weatherford, R-Wesley Chapel, has torn down the roadblock.

“New leadership in the House has been very important,” Detert said. “They’ve been held mute all these years, and now they’re allowed to express their opinion.”

AAA Auto Club South says a survey it commissioned shows 87 percent of motorists support laws prohibiting texting or emailing while driving.

Still, the same survey showed that 69 percent of Americans acknowledge talking on their cellphones while driving within the past 30 days, while 24 percent say they have sent texts or emails.

A House committee heard experts Tuesday warn about the dangers of distracted driving — with tales of motorists changing CDs, putting on makeup, or grabbing a Smartphone to send a text message, the target for Florida legislation.

Again.

But two hours worth of testimony, which included statistical support showing that texting takes drivers’ eyes off the road — leading to inadvertent lane changes and collisions — left Rep. Doug Holder, R-Sarasota, feeling pretty good. After 10 years of inaction, Holder said this could be the year lawmakers approve a ban.

“We had really different priorities,” Holder said, looking back on at least part of the past decade, where dozens of bill limiting cell-phone use or texting while driving were introduced each year and failed.

“I think this year is certainly the year,” he added. “We’ve always recognized it’s common sense legislation. It’s a no-brainer to have a law.”

Holder concluded, “Making texting illegal while driving will save lives in Florida.”

Then-House Speaker Dean Cannon, R-Winter Park, blocked attempts last year to have a texting ban heard, after the measure was OK’d by the state Senate.

But Cannon left the House in November due to term limits. Supporters say his departure may help clear the way for Florida to become the nation’s 40th state to prohibit drivers from texting.

Last year,  Holder’s legislation didn’t get a hearing in the House. But Tuesday, the House Transportation and Highway Safety Subcommittee took testimony from law enforcement, traffic safety advocates, AARP, a high school student leader, and even a University of West Florida psychologist.

Each concluded that banning texting behind the wheel was worthwhile.

Chicagoan Jennifer Smith, who became a nationwide advocate for a texting ban after her mother was killed in 2008 by a distracted driver, said merely trying to warn people against the dangers of a ban was useless. Motorists will continue the practice, unless it’s made illegal, she said.

“I don’t know how much more education we can give people – and it’s still a problem,” Smith told the panel.

Steven Kass, the UWF psychologist, said texting leads people to weave into other lanes, take longer to brake, and drive more slowly than surrounding traffic. He said statistics show cell-phone use and even hands-free phoning also impair driving, although most lawmakers seem wary to extend a proposed ban that far.

“Anytime you add more than one task, performance degrades on one or more of the tasks,” Kass said.

Holder and Sen. Nancy Detert, R-Venice, have proposed identical measures (SB 52, HB 13) that would make texting while driving a secondary offense, meaning motorists could be ticketed only if law-enforcement officials had stopped them for another reason.

A ticket could cost first-time offenders $30, plus court costs. But the bills also include exemptions allowing people to use phones to check maps, use voice-commands or listen to the radio through the phone.

Sen. Maria Sachs, D-Delray Beach, is sponsoring legislation (SB 74) that would make texting or using a cellphone without a hands-free device a primary offense for motorists.

Detert’s bill has already been modified to allow for texting if a motorist is stopped at a light or stuck in traffic. Holder said Tuesday he’s open to similar changes if it gets a text-ban through the full Legislature this spring.

The $69.7 billion state budget now before Gov. Rick Scott will send tremors through Florida’s struggling economy, with school districts, hospitals and other big employers soon cutting jobs and programs because of a sharp drop in taxpayer dollars, economists say.

Scott has generally praised the spending plan for shrinking government, cutting regulations and reducing taxes. He says it will spur private business expansion and fulfill his campaign pledge to create 700,000 jobs over seven years.

Many analysts aren’t so sure.

More certain, they say, is that state government’s pullback will lead to at least a short-term reduction in dollars coursing through Florida. It could add to the state’s 10.8 percent unemployment rate, they warn.

“A reduction in state spending? Well, first, that’s just going to reduce jobs,” said David Denslow, head of the University of Florida’s Bureau of Economic and Demographic Research.

“It’s going to be another headwind in the economic recovery,” said Denslow, an occasional adviser to the Republican-led legislature. “You’re cutting employment, reducing infrastructure spending and lowering the amount of money going to communities. That’s going to have a negative effect.”

Lawmakers remained divided Wednesday night on efforts to limit unemployment compensation in Florida — with the House reworking a Senate plan linking the number of weeks a jobless worker can collect benefits.

Instead, the House dug-in, mostly — around the plan it approved in the session’s opening week. The House wanted to reduce the state’s current 26 weeks of benefits to 20 — but boosted that by three weeks as the session’s horse-trading entered the homestretch.

“It has a long-term, positive effect on businesses, because it lowers the unemployment taxes,” said Rep. Doug Holder, R-Sarasota.

The Senate has resisted a direct cut in weekly benefits, instead tying the duration of benefits to the state’s unemployment rate. A full, 26-weeks would only be available to those out-of-work when unemployment hit 12 percent. The current 11.1 percent jobless rate would allow for 24 weeks.

The House also supports a sliding scale. But it wants to roll-back the maximum benefits to 23 weeks.

“How does this help the unemployed find jobs?” asked Rep. Joe Gibbons, D-Pembroke Pines.

The bill also demands that those seeking benefits take a skills test aimed at matching them to jobs. It also gives employers more authority to challenge a worker’s bid for benefits, with Florida’s biggest industry organizations saying the current system overly favors those out of work.

Holder, a Sarasota Republican, said he thought his Senate counterpart, Nancy Detert, R-Venice, would meet him on the middle-ground.

“We feel it’s an appropriate compromise,” Holder said.

The House approved overhauling the state’s unemployment compensation system, cutting benefits and reducing tax rates in a strict, party-line vote.

The 81-38 vote in the Republican-dominated House was designed as a first-week-of-the-session message that the GOP is looking to help businesses rebound — possibly at the expense of Florida’s jobless.

The move came even as the state’s Agency for Workforce Innovation reported Thursday that the state’s unemployment rate hit 11.9 percent in January, down slightly from December’s 12 percent level. The state lost 13,000 jobs in January, AWI said.

But Rep. Doug Holder, R-Sarasota, said the House bill (HB 7005) will help turnaround what he called a “capsized economy.”

“It sends a resounding message to the business community: Florida is the place to be,” Holder said.

But Democrats, who unanimously opposed the measure, said the measure would hurt out-of-work Floridians.

“I’m pro-business. But I’m also pro-people,” said Rep. Alan Williams, D-Tallahassee. (more…)