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STEVE BOUSQUETStill, the proposal for a constitutional amendment to make state government live within its means has a doubtful future in the Senate.
TALLAHASSEE - A House committee agreed Wednesday that the state budget is growing too fast and voters should have the power to limit future spending.
The House Appropriations Committee approved the proposed constitutional amendment, sending it to the full House. It's largely symbolic because the Senate does not intend to take up the issue.
The proposal would tie growth in state spending to growth in household income. If taxes generate more money, it could be returned to taxpayers.
The state budget grew from $39-billion to $54-billion in the past decade, a time when the state grew by some 4-million people.
Rep. Joe Negron, R-Stuart, the House sponsor, said his objective was to rein in the growth of Medicaid, the federal-state health insurance program for the poor.
"As a general rule, it's appropriate for us to only be spending money as fast as our constituents are able to earn it, to pay for those expenditures," Negron said.
Most other committee members endorsed the bill.
Negron's bill (HJR 385) would allow the Legislature to exceed the spending cap by a three-fifths vote in both houses. But that did not satisfy Democrats or three Republicans who voted against the bill. Don Sullivan, R-South Pasadena, was one of them. "This is a bad idea. It's being done precipitously," Sullivan said.
The Pinellas lawmaker, who served a decade in the Senate, faulted the House for taking up a far-reaching proposal late in the session without public testimony. "There is absolutely no excuse for this to come up with 16 days left with no testimony, no public comment . . . and do something forever and ever," Sullivan said.
Later, at a jovial reunion of former senators, Sullivan said the House needs help from the Legislature's upper chamber. He took a lot of ribbing from senators who suggested that the former senator gets little respect in the House. "All my bills are dead, but it would be nice if the Senate would form a little training group and come help us," Sullivan joked.
Detert said Floridians depend on lawmakers to make spending choices every year and it is wrong to abdicate that responsibility.
"Good government is not made at the ballot box in 75 words or less," Detert said, referring to the limit on ballot initiatives' length. Senate President Jim King, R-Jacksonville, said the Senate version of the bill was dead.
- Times staff writer Alisa Ulferts contributed to this report.