by Mike Sharkey
Staff Writer
The two-month sprint is on for Brad Thoburn, the City’s Director of State and Federal Affairs. As the City’s main lobbyist in Tallahassee and Washington, a “sprint” is how Thoburn describes the annual session which began Tuesday and wraps up May 6.
As usual, Thoburn has a wish list of items he’d like to see addressed and they range from Medicaid reform to base closings to the local water supply. While Thoburn admits his list is long and varied (he also says it’s a work in progress), there are a few items he is pressing, namely growth management, a Community Contribution Tax Credit Program and a Super Bowl tax increment.
The CCTCP was established in 1980 and serves as an incentive for businesses to donate money towards low-income housing and community development. With the program destined to sunset June 30, it’s important to cities like Jacksonville with developing and resurgent downtowns that the program be extended.
Rep. Don Davis of Jacksonville introduced the Super Bowl tax increment and Thoburn says this is one bill that could easily be misinterpreted.
“There has been a lot of talk about the State helping with expenses related to Super Bowl,” said Thoburn, putting extra police, fire and security personnel at the top of the game-related expense list. “We did not introduce it before the game because we did not want it to come across as self-serving.
“As we looked at the process and in the future, we realized there are three Florida cities that host the Super Bowl. That game generates a lot of extra tax revenue for the state. We wanted to create a vehicle to help capture some of that revenue. The idea is to recoup some of the expenses, not create a windfall.”
With the proliferation of housing developments, malls and other retail businesses, it comes as no surprise that growth management is on Thoburn’s agenda.
The recent veto by Mayor John Peyton of the new development at the Baymeadows Golf Club and the subsequent lawsuit is proof that sensible growth management must occur in the future. Locally, Thoburn doesn’t expect to make great inroads this year, but he does need the legislature to start paying close attention to Duval County.
“All the issues are important, but the one that will have the biggest impact on Jacksonville is growth management,” he said. “I doubt if something will happen this year, but it’s a huge issue.”
Interestingly, Thoburn says his days in Tallahassee practically mimic the session itself.
“The session evolves,” said Thoburn, who will be in Tallahassee all day today and most of next week. “On a typical day, there is no schedule.”
Thoburn says his approach to each item on the county’s list is as different as the items themselves. It may benefit one bill to talk to as many
legislators as possible while another bill may stand a better chance of
passing if he or another lobbyist from Jacksonville talks to just a few of the right people.
“When Jim King was Senate president, it was sometimes easier to go directly to him for help,” explained Thoburn. “He was good to go to for high-level requests.”
Overall, the lobbying process is a delicate balancing act and requires a detailed working knowledge of the entire Florida Legislature, not just the Duval Delegation. The key, Thoburn says, to getting a bill passed is finding the right people to back the bill.
“You try to find someone knowledgeable about the bill or someone on the right committee,” said Thoburn, who is in the middle of his fifth session. “Sometimes, you need a key person. Sometimes, you need numbers
[of people].”
Obviously, it takes much more than the backing of the local delegation to get a bill passed. In fact, it takes backing from members of the legislature from all over the state.
According to Thoburn, the Duval Delegation has a good relationship with other members of the Florida House and the City has fostered a solid relationship with the current and future speakers of the house.
“We have a good relationship with Marco Rubio, who is from Miami and will be the speaker in a couple of years,” said Thoburn. “We have a good
relationship with Allan Bense [the current speaker], whose son goes to JU. And, we continue to have a good relationship with the governor.”