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A Times Editorial
House members irresponsibly rejected federal funds that would have paid for programs to improve Floridians' health and protect the environment.
© St. Petersburg Times, published January 17, 2003
It has been falsely reported that the Republican leaders of the Florida House of Representatives are conservatives. They're not conservatives. They're fanatics.
This is some of what they did the other day:
They turned down a $1-million federal grant, the first installment on a five-year, $5-million program, for a public awareness campaign to educate Florida women on the risks of heart disease, stroke and breast cancer.
They rejected $764,000 in federal money to help clean up underground storage tanks that may be leaking poison into your drinking water.
They said no to spending $16,543 to distribute federal surplus food to women and children who are nutritionally at risk. President Bush's agencies were giving money free of strings to brother Jeb Bush's state, money for which Florida had competed against other states.
And having won it, Florida said no. Let other states have the money, which will happen unless the committee reconsiders its folly when it meets again next month.
The fanatics, exercising their veto through a joint committee that's empowered to approve mid-year budget changes, professed to be unconvinced that agencies would spend the money wisely. The real reason, at best, is their colossal ignorance of the budget process. House Appropriations Chairman Bruce Kyle, a third-termer from Fort Myers, had never even served on a budget committee before being named to head one.
At worst, House Speaker Johnnie Byrd may have been using Kyle to send messages: to state agencies, and to the Senate, of worse things to come. It's worth noting that Senate President Jim King, a moderate, pragmatic Republican, just happened to be the prime sponsor of the women's health program that got the ax.
To her credit, Rep. Sandra Murman, R-Tampa, broke with the House line when it came to voting on that program. But Reps. Gus Bilirakis, R-Palm Harbor, and Leslie Waters, R-Seminole, followed it slavishly. Their seats would be better off vacant than put to such grotesque misuse.