FFDA Legislative Day - 2010 Recap
3-31-10

The FFDA held a reception and dinner at the Governor’s Club in downtown Tallahassee to kick off this year’s Legislative Day. It was complimentary for any FFDA member to attend. Representative Roberson dined with the group. We also had visits by Representatives Charles McBurney and “Doc”Renuart” along with former Representative Dennis Baxley who is running for seat 24 currently held by Kurt Kelly during our reception.

The following day started out with a breakfast meeting at Georgia McKeown’s office, the FFDA Lobbyist, to review the funeral bill HB 527 that is passing seamlessly through its assigned House committees. The companion bill has yet to be heard in the Senate, but it should be in the coming weeks. The current outlook is good and we are hopeful that it will pass with flying colors and that the Governor will sign it into law this summer.

Upon our adjournment of our breakfast meeting, our group went to the Capitol for our legislative visits. We visited with Speaker of the House, Larry Cretul, future House Speaker Dean Cannon and Will Weatherford. We also were able to talk with Representative Mary Brandenburg, Representative Kelli Stargel and Representative Lake Ray. FFDA members were able to sit in on the very controversial debate over teacher merit pay bill in the Senate Gallery and were introduced by Representative Roberson in the House Gallery as well.

FFDA continues to carry the torch for funeral, cemetery and cremation service and is the voice at the capitol that all legislators look to when issues arise concerning the industry. We look forward to supporting HB 527 and SB 1152 during the rest of this session and look forward to next year’s legislative day!