Jeb! is not having a good week. He had to follow the law and common sense by allowing a foster kid to have an abortion. His underhanded plan to undo the voter mandated class size amendment failed miserably, and now one of his priority giveaways to business interests has also been shot down.
Senate rejects liability protection
In a stunning defeat for the Florida business lobby, 10 Republican state senators sided with Democrats late Thursday to reject a plan to make it harder for crime victims to collect damages from a business where they are victimized.
With a 24-16 vote, the Senate soundly rejected a House plan that would require a jury to award a level of blame to the criminal, even if he or she hasn’t been identified, thereby reducing a business’ liability.
The vote came after an hourlong debate in which the Senate’s public gallery was filled with dozens of high-powered business lobbyists and trial attorneys sitting on the edge of their seats. Both sides said they had not known how the vote would go.
“I think we just got whooped,” Rick McAllister, president and chief executive of the Florida Retail Federation, said moments after the vote. “We thought it was going to be closer.”
Just hours earlier, as Gov. Jeb Bush toured the fourth floor of the Capitol, he named major reform to the state’s premises liability law, specifically in the area of criminal activity, a top priority. So has House Speaker Allan Bense, R-Panama City.
Opponents said they worried the plan would narrow businesses’ obligation to keep visitors safe to the point that they would stop taking security measures.
“They want the bad guy on the verdict because he’s not going to be 80 percent responsible, he’s going to be found 100 percent responsible,” said Sen. Rod Smith, D-Alachua, a onetime prosecutor who is running for governor.
