The Florida Legislature's fourth special session of the year is going on now and, like its predecessor, Special Session C, it's running smack into 'Noles football fans.
The Miami Hurricanes come to town Saturday for a rivalry showdown with Florida State. Lawmakers won't be around, even if they haven't concluded the business of their property-tax special session.
"We wouldn't meet over the weekend, we just wouldn't do that," said House Speaker Marco Rubio Wednesday afternoon while trying to fill members in on the schedule ahead.
A flurry of amendments has upended the ready-made agreement reached by Rubio and Senate President Ken Pruitt last week. New proposals this week, including extending Save Our Homes protections to all property owners and swapping some property taxes for a penny increase in the state's sales tax, have postponed the done-deal vote that was expected as early as today. Instead, negotiations continue.
But even working Wednesday required certain sacrifices of Rubio and his family.
"Today's my ninth wedding anniversary," Rubio said. "This isn't how we planned to spend it."
As Wednesday ends, both House and Senate plan to come back into full session no earlier than 10 a.m. with no promises about when they'll work things out. The official proclamation for this special session says it could go as long as Oct. 29.
A similar conflict arose during the budget-cutting session earlier this month. Special sessions in January and June didn't have to worry about football games.