TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – The Legislature passed about 275 bills during the 2016 session that ended Friday. That means about 1,600 bills died. Here's a look at some that succeeded and some that failed.
Winners
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- An $82.3 billion dollar budget for the fiscal year that begins July 1.
- Requirements that doctors who perform abortions have admitting privileges at a nearby hospital.
- A water policy that aims to clean springs, protect groundwater and restore the Everglades.
- A package of bills that expands a program providing scholarships to families of children with autism, Down syndrome and other intellectual disabilities and creates employment and higher education incentives for the intellectually disabled.
- A measure that allows parents to move their children across county lines to any public school with capacity.
- A bill to replace the statue of Confederate Gen. Edmund Kirby Smith that represents Florida in the U.S. Capitol.
- A three-day sales tax holiday for back-to-school clothes.
- The so-called "Right To Try" bill that allows terminally ill people to use medical marijuana.
- A bill that specifies in law that clergy don't have to marry same sex couples.
- A memorial to Holocaust victims to be built on the Florida Capitol compound.
- A boycott of companies that boycott Israel.
- An overhaul of Florida's alimony law that ends permanent alimony payments and urges judges to enforce equal time-sharing of children between divorced parents.
- Three ballot measures dealing with taxes. One that would grant property tax breaks for first responders disabled in the line of duty, one that would exempt solar panels from tangible personal property taxes, and another that would lock in place the value of a home belonging to a senior citizen who is eligible for a property tax break.
- A requirement that police arrest someone before seizing their property.
- A measure that allows students who transfer schools to become immediately eligible for sports while adding stricter penalties to for schools and coaches found guilty of recruiting violations.
- A bill that attempts to fix Florida's unconstitutional death penalty law by requiring at least 10 jurors vote to condemn prisoners before they can be sentenced to die.
- A requirement that life insurance companies check each year to see if policy holders are still alive and then contact beneficiaries if they're not.
- A bill that requires gas stations install devices to prevent illegal credit card skimmers in pumps.
- Changes to Florida Kidcare that allows children of legal immigrants to become immediately eligible for subsidized health insurance instead of waiting five years.
Losers
- Gov. Rick Scott's proposal to create a $250 million fund to lure businesses to Florida
- A bill to allow concealed weapons permit holders to openly carry their guns.
- A bill that would let people carry guns on state college campuses.
- Civil rights protections for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people.
- A bill that would require the state's Department of Environmental Protection to study and create regulations for fracking.
- A statewide policy regulating car services like Uber and Lyft.
- The $3 billion gambling deal Scott negotiated with the Seminole Tribe.
- A bill that would ban nearly all abortions.
- A bill giving the governor authority to use military force to prevent people from settling in Florida if they come from Eastern Hemisphere countries where "invaders" live or train.
- A bill that would have made clear that fantasy sports games are legal in Florida.
- A measure to limit driver's license suspensions for non-driving violations
- Mandatory recess in Florida elementary schools
- Allowing school districts to offer tests such as the SAT and ACT as alternatives to Florida's high-stakes standardized test