Florida's House speaker, who last year praised a law raising local phone rates, calls for its repeal. Other lawmakers are skeptical.
By STEVE BOUSQUET
Published March 22, 2004
Florida House Speaker Johnnie Byrd is a candidate for the U.S. Senate.
TALLAHASSEE - House Speaker Johnnie Byrd wants to repeal a law, which he strongly supported a year ago, that set the stage for the biggest jump in local phone rates in Florida history.
Byrd, a candidate for the U.S. Senate, said legal opposition from state Attorney General Charlie Crist and a recent federal court ruling have cast doubt on whether the law will foster the competition lawmakers had intended.
In the midst of an election-year session, Byrd wants House members to reverse themselves and repeal the year-old law. "The atmosphere is too uncertain for my taste," Byrd said. "We don't often try to repeal things, but in this case we need to go back to the drawing board."
BellSouth, Sprint and Verizon successfully lobbied the Legislature last year for the power to raise local rates by as much as $7 a month in return for corresponding cuts in long-distance charges. Since 1996, the three telecommunications giants spent more than $5-million in campaign contributions to legislators and political parties.
The companies won a $355-million rate hike from the Public Service Commission, but Crist has mounted a sustained legal assault in the Florida Supreme Court to block the rates from ever taking effect.
Byrd had assigned his outside legal counsel, Steve Burton of Broad & Cassel in Tampa, to review the law in January, in light of Crist's challenges.
Two weeks ago, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia ruled that the phone giants could not be forced by states to lease their networks to competitors at low, regulated prices. Byrd said that decision could "significantly impair" the ability of local carriers to compete with regional companies.
"I have significant concern about whether our legislative intent can be accomplished at this time," Byrd wrote in a letter to Rep. Holly Benson, a Pensacola Republican who chairs the House committee that will study a repeal bill. "Our constituents should not have to suffer the consequences of these unfortunate events, notwithstanding our good intentions."
Benson, like many lawmakers, has heard complaints about the new law for months. She said a repeal bill would be considered as early as this week.
"We haven't outlined the specifics yet, but I think he has conveyed to a lot of people how important this is to him," Benson said Sunday. "What we've seen so far is that this is significantly more rapid than expected. . . . It's been very controversial."
Byrd's call for repeal could be controversial, too, and comes on the heels of his unsuccessful attempt to limit attorneys' fees in some malpractice cases. The effort was blocked last week by Republican lawyer-legislators who refused to fall in line with their leader.
The initial reaction to Byrd's call for repeal of the phone rate increase was not enthusiastic. One leading Republican was openly skeptical, and Democrats questioned Byrd's motives. "I'm interested in learning more from the speaker as to why he thinks this is justified at this time," said Rep. Marco Rubio, R-Coral Gables, the House majority leader, whose job requires rounding up the votes to support Byrd's agenda.
Rep. Allan Bense, R-Panama City, who will succeed Byrd as speaker, said Byrd did not tell him of his plans. He said he learned of Byrd's decision in the newspaper on Sunday and wants to meet with Byrd and review the court case. Byrd's repeal effort was first reported in Sunday's Florida Times-Union. "We'll visit and we'll talk," Bense said.
Rep. Chris Smith, D-Fort Lauderdale, the incoming leader of House Democrats, said he thought Byrd was motivated by election-year politics. "He's running for the U.S. Senate," said Smith, who voted for the higher rates. "That phone vote was a tough vote for a lot of people and it's a vote that may not show dividends for years to come. For political expediency, he's got to react to it."
Sen. Tom Lee, R-Brandon, one of the loudest critics of the bill last year, said he thought many lawmakers would approach the issue with "trepidation."
"Let's think about it for a second - 130 members who voted for that are about to have to publicly state that they made a bad vote," Lee said. "That's pretty unprecedented."
He said an attempt by lawmakers to seek "political redemption" can't change the fact that they voted for the rate increase in the first place.
But the attorney general praised Byrd's decision.
"I'm delighted in the interest," Crist said. "Our goal all along was to keep these high rates from going into effect."
Consumer groups and the influential AARP tried to defeat the bill last year, warning that the promise of long-term benefits was a myth. They flooded lawmakers with letters of opposition, but were no match for the army of 150 telecommunications lobbyists who guided the bill to passage.
Despite opposition from consumer groups and a sustained letter-writing campaign by the AARP, the Legislature overwhelmingly approved the law last year. The House vote was 93-20 and the Senate vote was 27-12.
Byrd was one of the House supporters, saying, "If you have a free market, the consumer benefits."
Gov. Jeb Bush signed it, and predicted a "robust market."
Bush had vetoed a phone-rate increase the year before, but said he liked the 2003 version because it gave regulators a greater role in approving rate hikes and expanded a "Lifeline" program to make phone service more affordable to the poor.
A spokeswoman for Bush, Alia Faraj, reiterated those reasons Sunday, but said Bush would wait for "the process" to proceed in the Legislature.
The approval of the phone rate increase led to a widespread loathing of the Legislature. A poll of Florida voters last May for the St. Petersburg Times and the Miami Herald found that 84 percent wanted Bush to veto the bill. The phone legislation was the main reason that, in a separate question, only 16 percent approved of the Legislature's job performance.
One Democratic lawmaker who opposed the bill, Rep. Doug Wiles of St. Augustine, said he was eager to see how Republican lawmakers would explain a repeal vote to their constituents.
"The governor and speaker have both left the members stranded in the middle of a river without a paddle," Wiles said.
- Information from the Associated Press was used in this report.
