Bunkley outlines Florida Baptists' legislative concerns

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TALLAHASSEE (FBW)—With the "moderately-positioned tone" of Gov. Charlie Crist, pro-family organizations in Tallahassee will take a mostly defensive posture during this year's legislative session attempting to stop harmful legislation, while seeking "limited" opportunities to advance good bills, according to Bill Bunkley, legislative consultant for the Florida Baptist Convention.

A longtime veteran of Tallahassee public policy advocacy, Bunkley gave Florida Baptist Witness an overview of his priorities and concerns during the new 60-day session of the Florida Legislature, which began this week. Chief among Bunkley's concerns are many bills to expand gambling, although he also hopes pro-family forces are able to pass bills to protect academic freedom of teachers and students addressing evolution and pro-life legislation.

Noting pro-family groups have adjusted to Gov. Crist's term by taking a "more defensive posture"—attempting to protect gains of prior years, Bunkley said, "without the support of a principled conservative governor, it will continue to be difficult to flourish in this environment."

Pro-family organizations will largely be relying upon the more conservative House of Representatives in the Republican-controlled Legislature to hold back harmful legislation, expressing most concern about further expanded gambling.

"The greatest potential for disappointment to Florida Baptists could possibly be in the area of gambling if those advocates are successful in advancing the many initiatives being filed," he said. "Our line of defense lies in the Florida House and its Speaker, Marco Rubio."

Bunkley listed a wide-range of issues and bills he will be closely watching in the Legislature this session, including bills relating to gambling: the Florida Lottery and other gambling expansion; homosexual rights: adoptions, transgender accommodation, companion registry and recognition, bullying definitions; pro-life: school based health center's authority, embryonic stem cell and biomedical research, reproductive health services; and other matters including religious exempt child care facilities and academic freedom for Florida science teachers.

The impetus for further gambling expansion is coming from Gov. Crist and some legislators who see gambling revenue as a means to balance the state's budget during an economic slowdown. The Legislature is expected to cut as much as $2 billion from the budget, while the governor is seeking more revenue from the Lottery and his compact with the Seminole Tribe, as well as other means to balance the budget.

"The Florida Lottery and any related gambling revenue will be an easy target for elected officials to tap," Bunkley noted.

According to Bunkley, specific legislation under consideration which attempts to advance gambling include opening up the pari-mutuel facilities to allow video bingo terminals run by the Florida Lottery, expanding hours of pari-mutuel card rooms, video bingo terminals from limited hours of live or satellite races to 24/7 operation, allowing alcohol to be sold in video slot areas, lowering slot machine taxes in Broward and Miami-Dade counties from 50 to 35 percent, allowing televised high stake poker tournaments, allowing use of debit cards to buy lottery tickets, and allowing more entities to have electronic video terminals.

"Though many of the bolder gambling proposals may die in the House, more and expanded games by the Lottery will be tougher to stop," Bunkley told the Witness.

Another gambling-related concern is possible legislative action on Gov. Crist's compact with the Seminole Tribe permitting certain games at its casinos that are currently illegal elsewhere in the state in exchange for hundreds of millions of dollars in payments to the state. The compact is currently before the Florida Supreme Court in a challenge filed by House Speaker Rubio, asserting the governor cannot unilaterally enter into a compact. If the high court rules in Rubio's favor, the governor may send another version of the compact to the Legislature for approval.

Regarding evolution academic freedom legislation, Bunkley predicted a difficult road to passage. Noting the late start in filing legislation in the wake of the Florida Board of Education's Feb. 19 vote approving new science standards, including what critics regard as a dogmatic, pro-evolution position, he said each chambers' rules committees will determine the number of committee assignments for the bills, which will play a factor in the bills' success or failure.

In a Feb. 20 interview with Florida Baptist Witness, Rubio said the House may be open to passing academic freedom legislation, while noting, "I think there's still going to be folks out there talking about this—on both sides. ... I think this will be a battle that will go on for quite some time." (For more, see "Rubio: Florida House open to legislative fix on evolution" in the Feb. 28 issue.)

Sen. Ronda Storms, R-Brandon, has filed SB 2692, the "Academic Freedom Act," which provides public school teachers and students rights regarding scientific views about chemical and biological evolution. Storms is a member of First Baptist Church in Brandon.

"The purpose of education is to train our students how to think and to develop in our students higher level critical thinking skills," Storms told the Witness. "This bill is necessary in order to protect scientific inquiry and academic freedom for everyone. Every scientific theory should be subject to the full rigors of intellectual inquiry and critical thinking skills, and teachers should be fully protected in their presentation of legitimate debate to the student."

Storms said Sen. Stephen Wise, R-Jacksonville, a member of First Baptist Church in Jacksonville, will co-sponsor the bill, and Rep. D. Alan Hays, R-Umatilla, a member of First Baptist Church in Umatilla, will sponsor a companion bill in the Florida House.

Passage of the academic freedom bill "could happen, but we will have very, very heavy resistance of multiple interests and lobbyists," Bunkley said.

Bunkley also said that he and other pro-family advocates will be pressing for adoption of SB 2400, legislation introduced by Sen. Daniel Webster, R-Winter Garden, which would require women considering abortion to view an ultrasound image of the unborn child. Webster is a member of First Baptist Church of Central Florida in Orlando.

The House version of the ultrasound bill, HB 257 introduced by Rep. Anthony Trey Traviesa, R-Tampa, is more expansive, addressing other pro-life concerns, including requiring a 24-hour waiting period before abortions and requiring abortion clinics to file patients' bill of rights, and revises certain provisions relating to parental notice before girls may have an abortion.

Bunkley, a longtime member of Idlewild Baptist Church in Lutz, encouraged Florida Baptists to stay informed about developments in Tallahassee and engage their own legislators with concerns.

"What happens in Tallahassee and Washington really does matter," he said. "If every Christian accepted their blessing and responsibility by registering to vote, giving attention to issues of the day and electing representatives that reflected their values we would not be in the declining moral state we find ourselves in today."