The issue has become part of the last-minute horse-trading as the 2004 session winds down.
By STEVE BOUSQUET
Published April 28, 2004
TALLAHASSEE - A freeze on residential phone rates that seemed unthinkable when the 2004 session began gained new momentum Tuesday.
A once-skeptical Senate showed strong interest in the idea, but with three days left in the session, it's far from a done deal.
The proposed freeze is part of a late-session round of horse-trading between Senate President Jim King, who once said the Senate would not even consider the idea, and House Speaker Johnnie Byrd, R-Plant City.
Byrd, who like most lawmakers voted to increase phone rates a year ago, made the freeze a high priority. The Senate has bills it wants the House to approve.
"We have some things we're told the House has to pass, and there are some things we have to pass," King told senators. "It's very much in question whether the bills will pass."
The freeze is seen as a largely symbolic gesture by Byrd to curry favor with voters as he seeks the Republican nomination for the U.S. Senate.
The Public Service Commission authorized the largest residential rate increase in state history last December, but Attorney General Charlie Crist and the state's public counsel challenged the rates in court. That froze the rates at current levels.
Byrd stunned some lawmakers and the influential telephone industry lobby at mid session by proposing a repeal of the 2003 law that set the rate increase in motion. He soon modified his strategy to a freeze.
The Senate on Tuesday considered freezing rates through May 10, 2005. While local rates can't go up, long-distance rates couldn't go down during that period either, said the bill sponsor, Sen. Mike Haridopolos, R-Melbourne.
A final vote was delayed. The Senate bill (SB 2302) includes two task forces to study phone rates in Florida. The House version freezes rates at their July 2003 levels.
"There are just so many clouds out there, and the attorney general has already got an injunction," said Haridopolos, who enthusiastically supported last year's law.
Sen. Anna Cowin, R-Leesburg, tried to block a rate freeze with an amendment protecting contracts for provision of communication services that were in effect before April 1 this year. The Senate ruled the amendment was out of order on procedural grounds, and it was never debated.
Byrd maintains that Crist's lawsuit, and a federal appeals court decision limiting the FCC's rule-making power, have made it more difficult for new companies to enter the Florida market and give consumers greater choices, leading to possible lower rates.
"I remain optimistic about the consumers of telephone services, too," Byrd told reporters when told of the Senate's action. "I think there's a real opportunity to protect the consumers, especially residential customers and seniors."
Byrd said the Senate's decision to consider the freeze was not tied to the last-minute budget agreement the two chambers reached Tuesday.
King told reporters he wasn't sure what the Senate hoped to get from the House in return for passing the freeze. But he warned of the dangers of any lawmaker who shows all of his cards.
"I'm not sure I would tell you if I was sure what it was," King said.
For weeks, AARP, the influential senior lobby, has tried to turn up the heat on the Senate by urging its members to call and e-mail lawmakers.
The Senate's foot-dragging on a rate freeze surprised AARP because some of the most ardent critics of the original legislation were in the Senate. Last year's bill passed the Senate, 27-12, and the House, 93-20, before Gov. Jeb Bush signed it into law.
- Times staff writer Lucy Morgan contributed to this report.
