PALMETTO - Port Manatee and Florida’s other 13 ports may find it a challenge to earn legislative focus on their priorities this year in the face of one issue expected to dominate the coming session: redistricting.

But the ports may also find their agendas bolstered by Gov. Rick Scott’s overall focus on port and all forms of “multi-modal transportation.”

That’s the forecast offered by Lori Killinger, Port Manatee’s state legislative lobbyist, at Thursday’s port authority meeting.

“I don’t believe Port Manatee or any of the other ports are at significant disadvantages because they are ports,” Killinger, an attorney with Lewis, Longman & Walker, said after the meeting. “But I do believe there is a lot going on at the Legislature. There isn’t a lot of money to be spent, and a difficult task will be more difficult than ever.”