The cynics will say that the Senate's emphatic approval of President John McKay's tax reform plan was its high-water mark. They will say that the only remaining question is how the House of Representatives will contrive to reject it.

That may be so; the majority concern amid that ideological wasteland reportedly has less to do with the merits than with whether to kill tax reform in a committee or take it to the floor so that more members can dip their hands in blood.

It was not a positive sign when Speaker Tom Feeney timed a press conference to conflict with the Senate's debate and used it to disparage McKay's leadership. To be accused by Feeney of twisting arms is like being called ugly by a frog.

But no matter what follows, the Senate's session Thursday was historic -- for the outcome, for the quality of debate and for the courage that 31 senators displayed despite a brutal, unceasing assault by special interests that are conducting the most deceitful propaganda campaign in recent memory. It will be remembered as the day when more than three-fourths of the Senate accepted the challenge of Lisa Carlton, who chairs the Appropriations Committee, to "be concerned with the people who will sit in this chamber next year and the years after." When they heeded Minority Leader Tom Rossin's reminder that "You were sent here to make a difference. Now's your chance."

It will be remembered most of all for refuting the seductive but irresponsible myth that Florida's 52-year-old sales tax is adequate for the 21st century. A thumping majority of the Senate has declared that it is not. Sen. Don Sullivan, for example, spoke eloquently on the damage inflicted to education by Florida's "stop and go" revenue base. Whether reform succeeds now or later, it is inevitable. The creaky, unfair, unreliable and illogical patchwork is on its last legs. What happened Thursday may not yet be the beginning of the end, but if not, it will be remembered as the end of the beginning.

Significantly, of the nine senators who voted against the constitutional amendment, only one took the floor to say why. Two of the silent eight are candidates for attorney general, who should expect to explain on the campaign trail what they were unwilling to share with their colleagues.

An odd delay

The public also awaits a convincing explanation from the Florida Chamber Foundation as to why it is still withholding a long-awaited critical report on Florida schools even though data from the study were publicized more than two months ago. Expecting a final report this week, senators responsible for the education budget were startled to learn they could not see it. The reason was even more astonishing: The chamber apparently was allowing Gov. Jeb Bush to edit the report.

Bush, who has pitched his re-election to making things look better than they are, is entitled to contest the report's findings. But he should not be allowed to do that before publication, or to the exclusion of other stakeholders.

Bush's copy, which reporters disgorged under Florida's remarkable (and ever-threatened) public records law, disclosed heavy-handed editing aimed not only at questioning the data but at changing the interpretations. For example, someone in his office drew lines completely through the following passages:

"Florida cannot effectively compete today in the global economy with low-skill labor; other countries provide low-skill labor for production and services at far lower wages. Instead, the critical ingredients of success are knowledge and talent . . .

"On balance, the data reveal that Florida's education system is not preparing the state's youth for the challenges of the next decade."

To be sure, the chamber is not a public agency. But as a lobby that expects to influence public affairs, presumably for the public good, it should treasure its integrity and the objectivity of its reports. Allowing the governor to edit its work in progress demeans both.

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