Senate President Ben Albritton, a citrus grower from Hardee County, has made what he calls the “rural renaissance” plan a priority of the 2025 legislative session.
The plan (SB 110), unanimously passed last month by the Senate, would take a series of steps to try to boost health care, education, transportation and economic development in rural areas of the state.
But with the legislative session in its final two scheduled weeks, the House has taken pieces of the Senate plan and mixed them into at least three other bills — including bills that have drawn opposition because of proposals unrelated to the rural renaissance plan.
That was on display Tuesday as the House Health & Human Services Committee and the House Commerce Committee approved bills (HB 1427 and HB 991, respectively) that included parts of the rural renaissance plan and other issues.
Rep. Kelly Skidmore, D-Boca Raton, opposed the bill in the health committee because of what she described as three “poison pills” unrelated to the rural renaissance plan, such as a long-controversial idea about what are known as dental therapists providing care.
“Unfortunately, rural renaissance is getting caught up in it,” Skidmore said.
Putting various proposals in a single bill — often known as a legislative “train” — is a common strategy, especially late in legislative sessions. The strategy can help provide leverage as the House and Senate try to reach agreement on issues.
In this case, Albritton, R-Wauchula, wants the rural renaissance plan, so House leaders can hold it up to help get priorities they want.
Skidmore described it as the Legislature “nearing the end of the sausage making,” as the session gets close to its scheduled May 2 end.
House Health & Human Services Chairwoman Josie Tomkow, R-Polk City, noted during her committee’s meeting that she is from a rural area.
“What we’re looking at right here is, we all have been around, we know that this happens at the end of session,” Tomkow said. “We know that there’s a greater good that we’re trying to accomplish here. What we’re trying to accomplish is making sure that patients have access to any and all services and needs before them.”
As an example of the health-care proposals included in the Senate plan and the House bill approved by Tomkow’s committee, both would create a grant program to help provide incentives to attract physicians and other types of health providers to rural areas. As another example, a program would allow rural hospitals to use grant money for such things as mobile health units.
The bill approved by the House Commerce Committee deals with a wide range of regulatory issues, along with picking up pieces of the rural renaissance plan. Some of the regulatory changes drew opposition during Tuesday’s committee meeting.
As examples of what the bill shares with the rural renaissance plan, lawmakers would create an Office of Rural Prosperity at the Department of Commerce, provide block grants to rural counties with declining populations and target money to rural transportation projects.
Before the Commerce Committee approved the bill, Chris Doolin, a lobbyist for the Small County Coalition, said he wanted to give a “heads-up.”
“The components of the rural renaissance program are spread out in a number of bills,” Doolin said. “In this bill, you have a significant number of those elements in the rural renaissance program
