Opinion: Can Republicans govern?

The dysfunctional ''family budget'' passed by the Florida House is so riddled with contradictions that it calls into question the ability of our legislators to do their job at all.

If political slogans could teach children to read or give shelter to families in need, then Florida would be a model for civilized society. But no matter how fond House Speaker Johnnie Byrd has grown of his sophomoric pitch to "live within our means," the budget his chamber passed Tuesday is distinguished mainly by its dishonesty and callousness.

The budget his House obediently adopted, on a party-line vote, is so riddled with financial contradiction that it fails even his own stated objectives. It raises local taxes and tuitions while leaving families (he calls this "Florida's Family Budget") with little more than a hole in their pockets. How does the House propose to live with the means of higher education? It would raise tuition by 12.5 percent, reduce scholarships, and then hope students don't notice that universities are being cut by $84-million anyway. In other words, families would pay more for less.

Here is but a small sample of how the House has written its "family" budget:

-- Passing the buck: Two-thirds, or $417-million, of the "new" money for public schools would actually come from local property taxpayers. Counties would be asked to pony up $64-million to pay for juvenile pretrial detention the state currently provides. Cities would be charged $32-million for criminal laboratory work the state currently provides.

-- Curious math: Public schools would be given an extra $623-million, yet $300-million of that money is targeted for class size reduction and $315-million for an ill-considered plan tying teacher pay to FCAT scores. And the House wants districts to re-institute remedial summer school that its previous budgets eliminated. So what source of money would schools use to pay basic costs of inflation, such as salary, utility, and health insurance increases? How about new students?

-- Violating trust: Roughly $1.3-billion would be poached from "trust" funds that were established to provide specific services in return for specific fees or taxes. The raid includes $125-million from a fund set up to support affordable housing.

-- Very, very medically needy: The House says it would, with compassion, continue to provide health care to those in the "Medically Needy" program. But the fine print is revealing: These poor, sick people would have to spend all but $450 of their monthly income on medical bills before the state would rescue them. Observes Rep. Suzanne Kosmas, D-New Smyrna Beach: "None of us in this chamber could live on $450 a month. This is the death knell, literally, for many of these people."

The manner in which this budget was adopted was as skewed as the priorities themselves. And the budgetary games included a little hide-and-seek: Members were told to vote the education appropriation without knowing the impact to their own school districts. Byrd chalked that up to a computer glitch, yet the technological lapse was curiously narrow and targeted. Longtime legislative observers -- including those whose days in the Capitol preceded the advent of personal computers -- have never seen a budget passed without detailed school district information.

"What I'm seeing just doesn't add up," Steve Swartzel, lobbyist for Pinellas schools, said Wednesday. "Adding mandates and reducing funding is not a great way to improve the education system. . . . We're never ones to cry wolf, but if the House budget passes, I don't know what we'll do."

Neither do House members from Pinellas or any other county, because they cast their votes without knowing the effect.

Byrd chose the occasion of the budget vote Tuesday to hold a theatrical performance on taxes, calling to order the House as a "committee of the whole" to condemn a $675-million housing fee plan proposed by a senator. That plan had no chance of passing in either chamber, but Byrd didn't let legislative protocol or decorum stand in his way. He wanted instead to publicly rant on taxes, in much the same way he once irresponsibly accused senators of scheming to raise sales taxes by $11.5-billion. He emerged from the session to tell reporters the Senate's budget was "pixie dust," as though raiding trust funds, raising local taxes and cutting schools was a more responsible way.

The manner in which the House, Senate and governor's office have conducted business in these trying budgetary times seriously calls into question their ability to govern at all. In the past 18 months, they have gathered for two annual sessions and four special ones and have mostly traded insults. Gov. Jeb Bush summoned them to work in October 2001 to pare $1.3-billion from the budget but offered only vague principles, such as "don't raise taxes" and "protect frail and vulnerable citizens." That session ended when the House unceremoniously adjourned, leaving the Senate to pick up the pieces. Not much seems to have changed since.

Florida faces serious, long-term financial problems that require serious, long-term solutions, and the Republicans in charge now inspire little confidence that they can meet the challenge. No one expects the current session to end on time or to produce any enduring reform in taxation or education finance. While poor people wait to find out whether their health will be protected, Byrd is busy drafting new slogans and Bush is musing to reporters about Alice in Wonderland. Is this leadership?

Voting blindly against schools

The following House members from the Tampa Bay region voted on Tuesday to support a budget that undermines public education. Don't ask them to explain the impact on your own school system, however. They voted blindly, with no budgetary breakdown to explain the effects. All of them are Republicans:

Charles S. Dean, Inverness (Dist. 43); Dave Russell, Spring Hill (Dist. 44); Thomas Anderson, Holiday (Dist. 45); Heather Fiorentino, Port Richey (Dist. 46); Kevin Ambler, Tampa (Dist. 47); Gus Bilirakis, Palm Harbor (Dist. 48); Kim Berfield, Clearwater (Dist. 50); Leslie Waters, St. Petersburg (Dist. 51); Frank Farkas, St. Petersburg (Dist. 52); John Carassas, Largo (Dist. 54); Sandra Murman, Tampa (Dist. 56); Faye Culp, Tampa (Dist. 57); Ed Homan, Tampa (Dist. 60); Ken Littlefield, Zephyrhills (Dist. 61); Johnnie Byrd, Plant City (Dist. 62).

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