Tiger Bay: Leon legislative delegation highlights policy wins this session at Capitol

Three members of Leon County's delegation to the Florida Legislature Wednesday highlighted their policy victories in the 2024 legislative session when they spoke before the Capital Tiger Bay Club.

Republican Sen. Corey Simon, and Democratic Reps. Allison Tant and Gallop Franklin, all of whom are from Tallahassee, shared inside-the-bubble stories of the recently concluded 60-day session with about 75 members of the local club, "founded to provide a non-partisan forum on current political issues."

The fourth member of the delegation – Rep. Jason Shoaf, R-Port St. Joe – was unable to attend the luncheon.

This session, Franklin, Simon and Tant secured about $131 million in local projects, subject to approval by the governor, and a pay raise for the area’s 20,000 state employees – a $26 million impact to the local economy. But they spent much of their time highlighting their policy successes in other areas:

• Simon touted his efforts as Senate Education Committee chair to deregulate public schools, end high-stakes testing, and to find ways to identify struggling students earlier.

• Franklin pushed a bill to allow pharmacists to prescribe HIV prevention medication and allow home health services for Medicaid patients.

• Tant thanked Simon and Franklin for backing her effort to create a “supported decision making” law for parents to advocate for adult children with developmental disabilities. She has a developmentally disabled son.

Tant and Franklin explained how they funneled bills on disability rights, elder care and health care through Simon in the Senate.

'We have a very functional delegation'

When Franklin breached the usual etiquette and referred to Simon as "Corey" instead of "Senator," he quickly apologized, provoking laughter from the audience.

“We tend to be informal,” Franklin said over the audience's response.

“We have a very functional delegation,” Tant quickly added.

Tant said she found the 2024 session to be less emotionally charged than last year's, when lawmakers passed landmark legislation for universal school choice, a six-week abortion ban and eliminated the need for a concealed carry permit for firearms.

Simon said he noticed a slower pace to legislating this year: The Florida Senate approved 143 bills in 2024, compared to 194 the previous year.

“We had an opportunity to sit down and really dive into the policy issues ... I think I learned more this session because of just being able to dig into the issues,” Simon said.

James Call is a member of the USA TODAY NETWORK-Florida Capital Bureau. He can be reached at jcall@tallahassee.com and is on X as @CallTallahassee.

This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: Franklin, Simon, Tant emphasize teamwork at latest Capital Tiger Bay