When big things shake Tallahassee, we tend to feel big aftershocks in Miami-Dade, the state’s largest county. And big things are afoot in the annual lawmaking session that begins Tuesday in the Florida Capitol.

Redistricting. The state budget. And gambling, gambling, gambling.

No issue has created more local buzz in the weeks leading up to session than the heated debate over whether the state should allow big-time casinos in Florida.

Rep. Erik Fresen of Miami and Sen. Ellyn Bogdanoff of Fort Lauderdale, both Republicans, are pushing to reshape gambling in Florida and allow up to three so-called “destination resort” casinos throughout the state.

Still, their broad proposal faces a long slog in a year when lawmakers — in addition to crafting a budget in a state with a projected $1.7 billion shortfall — must engage in the once-a-decade process of drawing new legislative districts to ensure each has an equal population.

Redistricting, also known as reapportionment, will force all Florida House and Senate members to be up for election this fall. That prospect will make this year’s session more political than usual as every lawmaker casts votes with an eye on November. One Miami-Dade legislator, Democratic Rep. Luis Garcia of Miami, is already campaigning for Congress.

The Miami-Dade delegation, the state’s largest and with a history of fractious Republicans, has made a concerted effort to remain united ever since a new crop of lawmakers won their seats in late 2010. Last year, legislators joined forces against a controversial proposal cracking down on illegal immigration. They also tried to squeeze the state budget for funding for local institutions and organizations.

This may be the last year — at least for the near future — that Miami-Dade lawmakers in the GOP-controlled Capitol have a clear voice in the leadership that rules the House and Senate. Rep. Carlos Lopez-Cantera, the delegation’s chairman and House majority leader, is term-limited. None of his Miami-Dade colleagues is on a definite path to join the powerful leadership ranks next year.

This year, lawmakers have agreed to again fight for money for groups ranging from the Jackson Health System to senior centers to Farm Share. They also want funding for Florida International University’s medical school, a poison control center at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine and new buildings for overcrowded Miami Dade College.

“The priorities are to maintain funding for services in Dade, and healthcare and education,” Lopez-Cantera said.

Separately, Miami Republican lawmakers have filed a slew of bills. Among them: Rep. Jose Felix Diaz is pushing Caylee’s Law, named after the late Caylee Anthony, requiring caregivers to quickly report a missing or dead child. Fresen and Sen. Miguel Diaz de la Portilla are sponsoring a measure giving counties the power to, among other things, do away with ineffective community redevelopment agencies.

Democrats, for their part, have put forth some bills with bipartisan support — though they will still be up against long odds. Rep. Richard Steinberg of Miami Beach, for example, teamed up with a Tampa Bay-area Republican senator to propose a constitutional amendment giving voters the power to repeal laws.

Other Democratic proposals are likely to go nowhere in the GOP-controlled Legislature. For instance: a move by Rep. John Patrick Julien of North Miami Beach and Sen. Oscar Braynon II of Miami Gardens to require a unanimous jury vote to sentence a defendant to death.

Contentious issues threaten to pull legislators apart.

A split delegation agreed (by an 11-7 vote in August, with some members absent) to back a bill allowing Miami-Dade lawmakers — and not just county commissioners or citizens collecting petition signatures — to place charter amendments directly on the ballot. The bill, put forth by Lopez-Cantera, died on the Senate floor last year after opposition from Diaz de la Portilla, a former county commissioner.

Gambling, tied to so many tangled and deep-pocketed interests, will probably also put legislators at odds, if the Legislature moves the broad proposal forward at all.

“Once the session starts, I think a lot of the focus is going to be shifted” to the budget and redistricting, Fresen said.

Yet it’s not only Fresen’s and Bogdanoff’s casino bills that would affect the Miami-Dade gaming industry.

Miami Republican Rep. Carlos Trujillo, for example, has put forth a measure that would outlaw video-gaming slot machines, known as maquinitas, unless they are regulated by the state. Cities such as Hialeah and Miami have essentially legalized “amusement” machines; the county — and Miami’s own police department — treats the machines as contraband used for illegal gambling.

“It’s really been a legal nightmare for police, for law enforcement and even for municipalities,” Trujillo said.

But the issue that most threatens delegation unity may be redistricting.

Preliminary maps proposed by the House set up a three-way fight among Julien and Reps. Daphne Campbell of Miami and Barbara Watson of Miami Gardens, Democrats who currently represent three districts but could be packed into only one. Another possible scenario would place Republican Reps. Eddy Gonzalez and Jose Oliva in the same Hialeah district.

A third matchup would pit Diaz against fellow GOP Rep. Ana Rivas Logan in Kendall. And a fourth would force a faceoff between Trujillo and Republican Rep. Frank Artiles in South Miami-Dade.

Still, at least some of the lawmakers who may soon have to view their colleagues as political adversaries say they hope to brush aside any election concerns.

“I’d like to think that the Dade delegation will stay united,” said Diaz, the delegation’s vice-chairman. “We can’t be near-sighted and forget that we need to work together.”