Gov. Rick Scott on Thursday signed 48 bills, including a measure sure to earn him some political heartburn.
The bill (HB 7013) will provide $5,000 payments to government workers who adopt foster children, with the payments increasing to $10,000 for adopting children with special needs.
But the bill also sparked fierce protests over what one critic called its “poison pill” — a provision repealing the state’s decades-old ban on gay adoption.
An outcry by social conservatives about repealing the ban led the House this spring to approve another measure — dubbed the “conscience protection” bill — that would have protected faith-based adoption agencies from lawsuits or loss of licensure for refusing to place children with gays. But the “conscience protection” bill did not pass the Senate.
Scott sought to bridge the divide in a letter Thursday that accompanied his signing of HB 7013. He noted that the gay adoption ban hasn’t been enforced since 2010, when the 3rd District Court of Appeal struck it down. However, he wrote, “It is my hope and expectation that the Legislature will take future action to make clear that we will support private, faith-based operators in the child welfare system and ensure that their religious convictions continue to be protected.”
Sen. Don Gaetz, a Niceville Republican who was the Senate sponsor of HB 7013, said he was elated and grateful that Scott signed the measure.
“I know that there was political pressure to veto the bill,” Gaetz said. “I know there were people who were passionate, and I’m sure very well intentioned, who believe that one line in this bill was enough to encourage the governor to veto what was otherwise truly an expression of hope and support by the state of Florida for hundreds and hundreds of hard-to-place kids.”
Meanwhile, Rep. Dennis Baxley, an Ocala Republican who supported the “conscience protection” bill and is one of the most-prominent social conservatives in the Legislature, pointed to the difficult decision that faced Scott.
John Stemberger, president of the conservative Florida Family Policy Council, had a harsher assessment of the bill. Stemberger tweeted that the governor had signed a “bad homosexual adoption bill putting faith-based agencies at risk.”
But Rep. David Richardson, a Miami Beach Democrat who played a key role in getting the gay-adoption ban repealed, said in a statement he was “glad the governor did the right thing.”