Two lines, no waiting -- maybe

In most cases, a legislative bill starts in either the House or Senate, then goes to the other chamber, and finally to the governor for her signature.

That's not exactly the case with this session. To speed up the process, similar legislation is being filed simultaneously in both the House and the Senate in many cases. If the bills pass both chambers with the same language, they're declared duplicates. That way, a Senate bill doesn't have to go through being assigned to a House committee and then going to the House floor, and vice versa.

It's faster, but it can get messy -- as it did today. For instance, the bill to allow a state income tax break based on federal income tax breaks for hurricane victims sailed out of a House committee but ran into problems in a Senate committee.

The trick is going to be making sure those two bills that deal with one topic read the same when they pass the House and Senate. Otherwise, the bills will have to go to the opposite chamber, or they'll be killed in a time-crunched session.

-- Dan Turner