Conservative Leader Thinks Rick Scott and Legislature are Off to a Good Start

Conservative activist John Stemberger, president of the Florida Family Policy Council, offered his take on the first week of the 2011 legislative session in an update to supporters sent out over the weekend.

The 2011 legislative session officially kicked off last Tuesday morning with both chambers opening for business, noted Stemberger. The new Legislature features one of the largest freshman classes in recent political history with 57 new members experiencing the process for the first time.We now have the most conservative House, Senate and governor in modern history. Hopefully this will translate into major reform and getting pro-life and pro-family bills passed into law which have been stalled and blocked for many years.

There is also a new sheriff in Tallahassee and his name is -- Rick Scott, continued Stemberger. And our new governor is seemingly and refreshingly not concerned with polls, politics, lobbyists and all the nonsense games that go on in Tallahassee. He has a mission and a mandate and he is very focused on accomplishing it. So far, we are duly impressed with his leadership, appointments and steely commitment to do what is right. While the focus in this session is clearly on jobs and on our current economic state, we are hopeful that social and moral issues will still be addressed.

While he seemed hopeful about the new leadership in Tallahassee, Stemberger saw challenges ahead.

The process of crafting a budget will not be an easy task this year, he wrote. This is the fifth budget in a row that our elected officials have had to cut spending to match the revenues that have been collected. The budget process will be the driving force of this session and will dominate most of the next 60 days.