Every week, Sunshine State News offers a glimpse of the important business legislation and pivotal state issues being addressed in the Florida Legislature in the coming days.

This week: the Senate takes up the fight over whether to allow presiding officers and minority leaders in the House and Senate to create committees to promote and fundraise for party candidates; lean, mean budget proposals work their wayto the House floor and through Senate committees; and a hefty jobs bill with a $187 million price tag might make its way to the Senate floor.

These are hard times. And, a $49.95 expenditure at taxpayer expense on gourmet cupcakes isn't going to go down well with state lawmakers.

As a consequence, Florida 's 24 workforce job boards are coming under greater scrutiny.

Florida's $100-billion-plus agriculture industry, second only to tourism, is one powerful economic engine. And, Saturday -- declared National Ag Day by Congress -- is a good day to remember that agriculture in the Sunshine State is a formidable employer and an even more impressive producer.

WASHINGTON, DC -- Virtually all of the oxygen in Washington, DC went to congressional action on health care, and the Sunshine State played a rather dominate role in this legislative process.

First, Florida received major TV airtime when the U.S. Senate was debating the health care bill last December. It was then that the "gator special" deal was born. That deal, negotiated by Sen.

The battle over political boundaries is heating up, with Democratic-leaning labor unions and trial attorneys helping to stoke the fire.

Fair Districts Florida, which collected enough signatures to place Amendment 5 on the Nov. 2 ballot, wants to re-engineer how legislative and congressional districts are drawn in the state.

If approved by 60 percent of the voters, the measure would:

Knowing that neither Gov. Charlie Crist nor the Senate have any plans to approve his bill, Rep. Dean Cannon, R-Winter Park, plans to unveil legislation on offshore energy exploration later in the session anyway.

On Friday, Cannons Select Policy Council on Strategic and Economic Planning held its last public hearing. For the past year, the council has heard presentations on offshore drilling, and how it would impact the states environment and economy.

Former Rep. Loranne Ausley, the frontrunner in the race to be the Democratic nominee for state CFO, is holding as many fundraisers as possible before the end of the reporting quarter on March 31. With two fundraising events already this week, Ausley will be in Miami on the March 22 and Jacksonville on March 25 to raise more dough for her campaign Meanwhile, state Sen.

An expansive but expensive bill that would use tax credits to create jobs for the unemployed and stimulate job creation for the space flight, defense contractor and film industries passed the Senate Policy Steering Committee on Ways and Means Thursday.

The bill, SB 1752, authorizes $1,000 per-person tax credits for businesses hiring the unemployed and expands from $35 million to $100 million tax refunds for space flight and defense contractor sectors and certain industries. It also provides $20 million in incentives for the film and entertainment industries.

Bowing to criticism of federal water pollution standards from state environmental officials, and business and farming industries, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will delay implementing some of the most contentious aspects of the proposal and seek a third party review of the science behind it.