After two turbulent sessions, your agents in the state Legislature have limped home to their districts hoping to sort out what just happened in Tallahassee before they head back later this month for another round of wrangling.
In what has been widely called the worst legislative session in recent Florida history, the House and Senate knocked heads on everything from class size and phone rates to how many limbs a person could lose before being considered disabled.
The results range from moderately harmful to disastrous. Unless, of course, you happen to be very wealthy, very healthy, childless or a lobbyist for a major corporation. In that case, you will applaud the Legislature and eagerly await the next round of goodies the pols will throw your way.
For the rest of us, we should confront our legislators as they make the rounds of community functions in the coming days, and borrow Desi's famous line to Lucy: You got some s'plaining to do.
The legislators spent countless hours trying to shift your money from one pocket to another, trying to stretch too little revenue too far. Yet, no one had the political courage to put the focus on two large reasons why there is not enough money to go around. No, it is not about raising taxes, although in a responsible legislative body, that option should be on the table.
Just imagine how much better shape Florida would be in had the GOP leaders not strong-armed the state into a $262-million corporate tax break last year? Better yet, listen to Florida TaxWatch, which estimates that by removing 100 or so of the multitude of sales tax exemptions that special interests have rammed through the Legislature, the state would gain nearly $1.3-billion.
Instead of focusing on the causes of the crisis, the legislators pinched pennies on essential services and shifted as much of the burden as possible onto the counties. They raided trust funds and generally were so reckless that even the presumptive incoming Senate president, Tom Lee, a Republican from Brandon whose district includes a portion of Pasco, said, "we put Band-Aids on cancers and ignore(d) the reality of long-term problems that we have."
Local legislators share in the blame for this fiscal fiasco.
One bill that should be of intense interest to workers in Pasco County, particularly the thousands of men and women who toil in the building trades, deals with workers' compensation. The insurance companies plied legislators with millions of dollars of campaign contributions, drew up the bill and held the legislators' hands as they walked it through the chambers.
The result is a measure that makes it practically impossible for anyone to collect these benefits. Workers can be somewhat thankful, however, that the bill that passed was an improvement over an earlier version that would have required that they lose both arms, both legs, both hands, both feet, both eyes, or one from any two categories to be considered permanently disabled.
Pasco's all-Republican delegation voted for the measure, including Reps. Heather Fiorentino, Ken Littlefield, David Russell Jr., Gus Bilirakis and Speaker Johnnie Byrd in the House, and Sens. Mike Fasano, Victor Crist and Lee in the Senate.
From raising college tuitions and phone rates to squeezing the state's middle- and lower-income residents, all the while shielding heavy campaign contributors and wealthy residents and allowing industry lobbyists to write their own legislation, the lawmakers hardly covered themselves in glory this year.
If you happen to see one of your legislators in the coming days, ask them: What in the world were you thinking? Why are you not calling for repealing the tax breaks and ending the sales tax exemptions? Why are you not howling for fiscal responsibility and, instead, blindly following the party leadership straight over the cliff?
Their answers may tell you a lot about what to expect from them next year. Even with a $1-billion in the bank from the federal government, the state's financial situation in 2004 could make today look like high cotton.
