Republican State Representative Trudi Williams spoke to members of the Fort Myers Republican Women's Club Tuesday afternoon about her impressions of this spring's legislative session. Representative Williams of Fort Myers says despite the state legislature's failure to pass measures including immigration reform and an energy bill, she's happy with the healthcare and education measures that did pass. Williams praised the legislature's decision to overhaul Medicaid by moving 2.8 million Floridians into private networks.
"Certainly the Medicaid reform that hasn't been reformed since 1964," Williams said. "The teacher tenure bill I think is great. I mean finally you're going to be able to reward good teachers for good works. There was a lot of really good legislation that passed out." READ MORE
Although job creation is a top priority for Governor Rick Scott, Williams thinks more could have been done in the legislature toward that end.
"I don't think there was as much job growth as there could have been had some of these other bills passed," Williams said. "There was no job creation bill. The energy bill would have been a great one, but that also failed."
With the spring session over, Williams now turns her attention to the redistricting process. She serves on the subcommittee charged with redrawing the state's senate district boundaries along with Lehigh Acres State Representative Matt Caldwell. Public input meetings on redistricting will be held around the state from June through October. Those meetings will begin in the Florida Panhandle, but won't make their way to Southwest Florida until the fall.
