By Keith Laing
The News Service of Florida
Lawmakers continued working on the sagging state budget last week, with the House and Senate’s main budget committees approving full spending plans, setting the stage for final approval in each chamber, and then protracted negotiations between the chambers.
The Senate moved through a $68.6 billion budget proposal, while the House plan is $67.2 billion, but the chambers’ different approaches to getting there were on full display. In areas ranging from education to health care to state agencies to gambling, the budgets that will have to be merged were worlds apart.
The House pulls $716.8 million out of a dozen state agency accounts, while the Senate yanks a more modest $295.1 million. The Senate boosts K-12 per-pupil spending by $15.41, while the House would slash such spending by $30.
The Senate uses a large pot of money that isn’t certain yet, though it’s widely expected, counting on an extension of federal Medicaid assistance to prop up its spending plan. Congress hasn’t approved that money yet, though signs are that it will.
The Senate is also betting more on a proposed gaming compact with the Seminole Indian Tribe, including $435 million in gaming revenue anticipated if a compact is reached. While the legislative negotiators on a proposed gaming deal with the Seminoles have mostly kept their cards close to their vests, lawmakers in both chambers tipped their hands last week that a deal might be close.
Though details remain in flux, general agreement appears to have been reached on a number of fronts involving how much and what type of gambling would be allowed in tribal facilities. Also at issue is the tax rate for non-Indian tracks and frontons.
A nonbudget area where House and Senate negotiations could be contentious came into clear focus when the House Energy and Utilities Committee approved its proposal to overhaul the Florida Public Service Commission, despite opposition from the chair of the PSC and major differences with the Senate.
The House bill (PCB EUP 10-04), which removes the PSC staff from the control of the panel, received a cool reception from Gov. Charlie Crist and was blistered by PSC Chairwoman Nancy Argenziano, but the panel changed the measure to place the Office of Regulatory Staff it would create under the control of the Cabinet instead of the Legislature and unanimously approved it.
Committee Chairman Rep. Stephen Precourt (R-Orlando) acknowledged that none of the changes brought the measure any closer to what the Senate has already approved (SB 1034), which focuses mostly on ending “ex parte” communications, or outside the record communications, between staff and regulated company officials.
“This is going to be a big negotiation between where the Senate is and where we are,” he said, which seemed to be a running theme in the budget heavy week that was.
Health-care battle heats up
The battle over the nation’s health care system that has consumed Washington, D.C,. for more than a year moved to the states last week, lead by one state in particular: Florida.
Attorney General and likely Republican gubernatorial nominee Bill McCollum suited up for a healthy legal fight over the recently approved federal plan and lawmakers waged battles in committees and on the floor of the Senate that echoed the contentious health care debate in Congress.
Saying “the freedoms of Americans were impaired” by the federal legislation, McCollum’s lawyers were in federal court in Pensacola minutes after President Barack Obama signed it into law, trying to block its requirement that Florida residents buy health insurance. And before Obama put pen to paper, a House panel approved a proposed resolution to block the requirement.
It all made Florida a central battleground in the next round of the national health care fight. McCollum’s lawsuit was filed on behalf of 12 other states in addition to Florida.
“The President of the United States signed into law a health care bill that in our judgment and the judgment of 12 other state attorney generals is unconstitutional and invades the sovereignty of the states,” he said. “It forces people to buy something, in the sense of buying a health care policy or pay a penalty, a tax or a fine that simply the Constitution does not allow Congress to do.”
Just as quickly as McCollum delivered his legal analysis of the health care bill, Democrats diagnosed the lawsuit as being politically motivated. House and Senate leaders said their prescription for the lawsuit was asking the state’s auditor general to investigate McCollum’s office if he proceeds. And on the Senate floor, a Democratic senator running to replace McCollum tried to unsuccessfully amend a bill (SB 712) that deals with the attorney general’s ability to hire outside counsel to outlaw the federal lawsuit.
The amendment, sponsored by Sen. Dan Gelber (D-Miami Beach), was voted down 24-14 along party lines.
Democrats also howled about the fact that the law firm that will work on the lawsuit for all 13 states is McCollum’s former firm, Baker and Hostetler of Orlando. The firm was originally retained by South Carolina, which started preparing for the lawsuit earlier, and will work on an hourly rate, not a contingency fee basis, meaning the firm will be paid whether the states win or lose.
Republicans, however, said McCollum’s lawsuit was just what the doctor ordered and approved a resolution (HJR 37) to override the requirement that Floridians be forced to buy insurance.
It all ensured that as the health care battle moves from the halls of Congress to the campaign trail and the courts, the sun will shine brightly on the Sunshine State.
Points on the chalkboard
Republicans in the Legislature chalked up several victories last week in their push to approve long-sought changes to the state education system. The GOP narrowly got a bill through the Senate that would effectively end the long-standing tradition of paying teachers based on years of service and instead base pay raises in part on standardized tests.
Over the staunch opposition of Democrats and their frequent ally the state teachers’ union, the Senate approved the measure (SB 6), which will base teacher pay raises in part on the performance of their students, 21-17.
Before the bell rung on the week, the Senate also approved an effort to back off a bit from a 2002 constitutional change that limited the size of public school classes, though the plan would ultimately need to be graded well by 60 percent of Florida voters.
The bill (SJR 2) would ask voters to go back into the constitution to allow schools to meet a grade level average of those numbers, rather than an individual classroom cap.
Parents, teachers and students who support school choice rallied outside the Capitol and vouched for a bill expanding a state school voucher program to allow more low-income students to go to private schools earlier last week, and then later in the week a different group of parents, teachers and students rallied in support of public schools.
The Senate approved the measure expanding corporate tax credit scholarship program on a 27-11 vote. The program gives companies a tax credit in exchange for a donation to the program, which sends low-income students to private institutions. The measure would expand the cap on how much of the scholarship money can be awarded from $118 million to $140 million and increases the per student award.
Democrats, who have long-opposed the measures, gave Republicans an F for their education plans and criticized the majority party for acting as if passing the bills was a timed-test after the Senate held an unusual-for-March evening session.