Rep. Mark Danish, D-Tampa
Date of Birth: Feb. 15, 1954
Birthplace: New York, N.Y.
Residence: Tampa
Education:City University of New York, Earth and Environmental Sciences with Secondary Education
Occupation: Teacher
Previous Public Office: None
Family: Wife, three children, two grandchildren
Did you know?Is an avid swimmer, typically stroking aquarter of a mile a day, four or five times a week.Hillsborough Countys newest Democratic state representative is shaping up to be one of the Florida Legislatures most ambitiously progressive freshmen, but thats not stopping him from confidently hoping some of his proposed legislation will survive the coming session.
Theres a lot more bipartisan work happening in Tallahassee, and hopefully it lasts, Mark Danish, D-Tampa, tells Sunshine State News. I really do believe we need to compromise, and do whats best for our state, and not look at whether a bills sponsor is Republican or Democratic.
A middle-school science teacher, Danish says his chief priority will be the funding of Floridas K-12 education system.
"The [education] budget has been so severely cut over the last couple of years, but now that we have a surplus in the [state] budget, we need to continue to put money back into education to restore it to what it was before the recession hit, he tells the News. We are way below where education funding was six years ago."
One of the two bills hes already filed, but hasnt yet been assigned to a committee, would require all K-12 schools to spend funds annually allotted by the Legislature for supplemental academic instruction to provide summer school programs for students who are at risk of academic failure, wish to take electives, or who come from families whose income is below 200 percent of the federal poverty guidelines.
Danishs second bill already enjoys one Republican co-sponsor: Rep. Mike Fasano, R-New Port Richey. HB 469 (Gasoline Stations) is a disability rights measure. It would require all gas stations in Florida to provide signs at each of their pumps containing the phone number of the station; the disabled person could call the store number, and if two or more employees are on duty, one of them would have to come out and pour gas for that disabled person.
Danish says the measure has worked well in his Hillsborough County, which has had its own local ordinance mandating such an accommodation for about a year.
Weve gotten a lot of positive feedback on it, and even the gas companies like the idea, he says. Its a feel-good kind of thing to do, and it doesnt really take much time or effort to do it, and its good for customer relations. The gas stations are getting positive feedback that theyre helping people, so the gas stations look good.
In the coming weeks, Danish will be introducing other pieces of legislation, among them a Homeowners Bill of Rights which would streamline the home foreclosure process and guarantee homeowners certain due process protections.
We need to make sure this is done fairly and that people will have their day in court if theres a reason they shouldnt be foreclosed upon, Danish tells the News, while declining to comment on specific measures the bill would contain, because it is still being drafted. At the same time, I want to make sure that the banks are able to foreclose as needed when theres no real opposition.
Danish tells the News he will also be introducing a bill that would require the state to compile and publish a list of between 50 and 100 chemicals of high concern to pregnant women and children.
Theres a lot of different chemicals out there in our society, and some of them are of a danger and a lot of people dont realize that, Danish says, adding that his proposed list would probably be published on the website of the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, for easy access and download.
Danishs final proposal will probably be his least popular. He wants Florida to pass a law committing itself to the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact. If passed, and if eventually joined in this compact by enough states whose electoral vote total numbers at least 270, the measure would commit Florida to assigning all of its electoral votes to whomever wins the national popular vote in a presidential election, even if that candidate does not win the popular vote in Florida.
So far, seven states (Arkansas, California, Colorado, Illinois, Maryland, New Jersey and North Carolina) have joined the compact, but they share only 132 electoral votes between them.
Appropriately enough, given his background as an educator with an undergraduate degree in earth and environmental sciences, Danish has been placed by House Speaker Will Weatherford on the important House Education Commission and the Agriculture and Natural Resources Appropriations Subcommittee, assignments hes especially pleased with. He also sits on the Economic Affairs Committee and the Government Operations Appropriations Subcommittee.
Asked just how he plans to get his bills through a Republican-dominated Legislature whose conservative members might find some of it paternalistic or (in the case of the national popular vote measure) culturally radical, Danish cites the success hes already achieved in getting Fasano to co-sponsor his gas station bill. He also says he has a Republican (whom he was not ready to name) willing to sponsor it in the Senate. He also cites what he says is a new atmosphere of bipartisan cooperation in the Florida Legislature.
Still, hes not blind to the challenges facing him.
I know I wont get all of them done, he admits. But theres always next year.
Reach Eric Giunta at egiunta@sunshinestatenews.com or at (954) 235-9116.
