The failure of the film industry tax credit bill, SB 1409, yesterday was an interesting display on how quickly votes can change. Though it went down 11-16 in the Senate according to many of our sources this bill was virtually tied as of yesterday.
While I can’t divulge our sources, or the specific Senators that we believe flipped, it was interesting to see the cascade effect once it was known it was going to fail. Instead of being say 14-13, once Senators knew their votes would not be the “deciding” vote they could jump off (or on, depending on your perspective) the bandwagon.
With Senator Nelson’s vote against it he can now hope to have the bill reconsidered, but given the expiring opportunity to have it heard in a Senate committee (let alone a House committee if it left the Senate) it appears this bill is all but dead.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
I've seen this happen in City Councils as well that have procedures that have established roll call votes. I've known cities where the council typically vote the same way and after the first or two votes are cast you pretty much know the outcome. One way I think to change this at least in local government is by having electronic voting whereby the council presses a green or red button. The votes are shown to everyone once all the votes are locked in. This at least will be cut down on some of the vote switching once they know the direction its going.
ReplyDeleteI think that is a great idea Daniel, but what could be reason's why it has not been changed to that type of voting? Tradition? Money? I think that would help speed up the legislation process but that might also mean that bills that are really needed might not get passed, ever. it's a tricky double-edged sword!
ReplyDelete