According to this newspaper story, published April 23, Florida legislative leaders say they will drop the controversial portions of this year’s omnibus election law bill. This probably means that the bill will no longer make it illegal to pay initiative circulators on a per-signature basis.
Here’s the “official” page on the main bill talked about in the article, HB 7149:
http://www.myfloridahouse.gov/Sections/Bills/billsdetail.aspx?BillId=42118&SessionId=61
There are a lot of amendments proposed, and I haven’t gone through all of them to see which ones suggest what. (It took long enough to page down the main bill to see that almost 10 of its 81 pages are spent on introductory description of what the bill would do!) It is interesting to note, however, that the Economic Development & Community Affairs Policy Council which helped initiate the bill has produced two reports on it since recommending it to the full House on the 17th.
Meanwhile . . . there are two “Related Bills” listed on this page. One is the “similar” omnibus SB 956, which the article also mentions. The other is HB 497, which is focused entirely on paid petition circulators — and while it’s back in committee now too, the latest text I can see there still says it *would* ban paying per signature.
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jalp (of GPMI — not at the moment for, but of)