Kottkamp, AIF talk small business, session

News

by Mike Sharkey

Staff Writer

With less than two weeks until arguably the most important legislative session in memory begins, the Associated Industries of Florida has prepared its priority list. Wednesday morning at The River Club, representatives from AIF presented that list to about two dozen area AIF members. Lt. Gov. Jeff Kottkamp also talked about the importance of the session.

“Obviously, we are facing some pretty significant economic challenges, which is no surprise,” said Kottkamp.

According to Kottkamp, in the modern history of Florida, the budget has not gone down two years in a row. This year’s budget is expected to tumble another $10 billion from about $70 billion to close to $60 billion — making the 2009-10 fiscal year the third year in a row the budget has been reduced.

That reduction is the result of a combination of several things, many of which AIF intends to address during the session through its statewide lobbying efforts.

Jose Gonzalez, vice president of governmental affairs for AIF, said his organization will employ a team of 19 lobbyists that will focus on 19 specific areas AIF is looking to make progress on during the session, which begins March 3. Topping that list is property insurance.

“Property insurance is a perennial issue,” said Gonzalez, adding that AIF has 25 members that are insurance companies.

Gonzalez said the hurricanes and subsequent damage caused over the past several years have created a fiscal nightmare for both the state and the insurance companies. The amount of money paid out to rebuild damaged or leveled homes has either put several companies out of business or forced them out of Florida. In turn, homeowners are finding it more difficult, if not impossible, to find affordable homeowners insurance.

“They (the Legislature) are scared in Tallahassee. We have finally beat the drum enough,” said Gonzalez. “We are in a state of peril in Florida. They (the governor’s office) are projecting a deficit of $19 billion this year and that is frightening. If we get hit by a hurricane, we better start thinking about a one penny sales tax (increase).”

Gonzalez said AIF would approve of raising premiums on insurance on a sliding scale and pushing for a hurricane rating system for houses.

“That way if you buy or sell a home, you know where you stand,” he said.

The second-biggest priority for AIF is workers compensation. According to Gonzalez, a recent decision by the United States Supreme Court has all but negated reform measures approved in 2003 that regulated workers’ compensation.

“There has been a reduction of 60 percent of workers compensation claims since 2003,” he said. “Going back to the pre-2003 era should be scary to the business community. This is just the beginning if we don’t do something about it. It’s looking promising this session to fix attorneys’ fees. We are not looking to address anything else. The goal is to fix them without having to negotiate too much with the trial bar.”

Keyna Cory, chief lobbyist for AIF, said the organization will also tackle the regulations that govern doing business in Florida. She says there is too much duplicity, which is time-consuming and restrictive to property owners.

“The Legislature has finally woken up. We have all of these regulations and they overlap,” said Cory. “It takes so much time to get permits to do work on property you own. It’s not fair. The streamlining of permitting will help tremendously.”

Keyna also said the creation of the Small Business Regulatory Advisory Council should help small businesses operate more efficiently in the future. The Council is comprised of nine members: three appointed by the governor, three by the speaker of the house and three by the president of the senate. Cory is a member of the Council and said the first group of rules the Council will examine should be determined by the end of the month.

As bad as things seem, Kottkamp is convinced Florida is poised to emerge just fine and ultimately become one of the stronger states economically in the country. He said $1.4 billion worth of projects were approved in the last four months, creating 39,000 jobs.

“We will face our current challenges and keep an eye on the future,” he said. “As you look around the state, the groundwork is being laid for that. It’s just a few short years away.”

The following are the 19 specific areas that AIF will focus on during the legislative session. These areas were determined by polling AIF members and approved by the AIF board of directors. They are in alphabetical order and not in order of priority.

• Contracting

• Economic development

• Education

• Elections

• Energy

• Environmental

• General business

• Growth management

• Health care

• Insurance

• International affairs

• Legal and judicial