Lawmakers finish their work and adjourn about 20 minutes before midnight, leaving some pet projects on the table.
By STEVE BOUSQUET, JONI JAMES and JENNIFER LIBERTO
Published May 1, 2004
[AP photo]
Many senators in Tallahassee on Friday, including Sen. Lesley Miller, D-Tampa, held their noses with one hand and pressed their voting buttons with the other to pass on a one-month gas tax cut, as part of a budget agreement they grudgingly made with the house.
TALLAHASSEE - The Florida Legislature staggered to a chaotic close Friday night after passing the state budget but failing to agree on myriad other major bills.
The $58-billion budget includes new fees, a corporate tax break and sweeping changes in health care policy.
Consumers will enjoy a nine-day, back-to-school sales tax holiday July 24-Aug. 1. They also will get an eight-cent break on the state gasoline tax, a measure backed enthusiastically by the House but approved only grudgingly by senators, who literally held their noses as they voted.
Weary lawmakers voted to require disclosure of large, previously secret donations to special fundraising committees, a top priority of Gov. Jeb Bush. Issue ads that appear close to Election Day will have to meet stricter disclosure requirements.
Perhaps the most controversial policy change lawmakers approved is a potential shift of hundreds of thousands of Medicaid patients into HMOs to cut costs.
But lawmakers failed to agree on new safeguards for troubled school voucher programs and several measures sought by House Speaker Johnnie Byrd, including a cap on spending, a freeze on residential phone rates, a new appeals court in Tampa and a public records exemption for an Alzheimer's center in Tampa.
A top priority of Bush and Senate President Jim King also failed: a package of measures to make it more difficult for citizens to amend the state Constitution.
"We just couldn't get there," Senate President Jim King said.
Also left undone: a Senate-backed bill to increase taxes on off-brand cigarettes.
But lawmakers did pass a bill to implement voluntary prekindergarten programs as voters mandated in a 2000 constitutional amendment. It is uncertain Bush will approve the measure, however, because he has said it falls short of what voters demanded.
Despite the pile of unfinished business in an election year, Bush didn't complain.
"The world won't end if 500 bills aren't passed. In fact, many people won't know it," Bush said. "It's a good session for people who believe in limited government."
Democrats, a distinct minority in the Republican-controlled Legislature, were pleased that most of the measures to make it harder to amend the state Constitution died. The governor, King and Florida businesses were strong supporters of the effort.
In other last-minute actions, the Legislature sent to the governor bills that:
- Require disclosure of donations by special interests and lobbyists to political committees lawmakers have used to help their bids for legislative leadership posts. But the measure does not limit the size of the donations.
- Create a condominium ombudsman to mediate disputes between condo owners and boards. Boards would no longer be able to strip owners of their right to rent their units.
- Direct state regulators to "give great weight" to the idea that no new boating restrictions are needed when the manatee population in an area reaches a number to be determined. The Department of Environmental Protection has not endorsed the idea.
- Expanded the capacity of the state-sponsored reinsurance fund, the Florida Hurricane Catastrophe Fund, from $11-billion to $15-billion. The plan lowers from $5.2-billion next year to $4.5-billion the amount of storm-related claims insurance carriers would have to pay before the fund is used. It also raises maximum posthurricane assessment on Florida policyholders, from 4 percent after one hurricane to 6 percent annually. Back-to-back storms could result in increased assessments of up to 10 percent.
- Created a $137-million tax break (SB 1826) for corporations investing in new equipment or facilities. Tied to federal tax changes and supported by Bush, the tax break allows Florida businesses to speed up depreciation write-offs.
The budget, effective July 1, shifts from the state to the counties the $91.5-million annual cost of detaining juveniles awaiting trial. Trauma centers will get $23-million next year to help make ends meet.
Despite staving off budget cuts for one more year for some poor pregnant women and patients in the Medically Needy program, which serves extremely ill people without health insurance, lawmakers cut those programs as of July 1, 2005. That means they will have to re-create the programs during next year's legislative session or the cuts become permanent.
Sprinkled throughout the budget are new fees, including higher fines for traffic infractions and increased costs for filing for divorces and lawsuits, and a 7.5-percent increase in college tuition.
To help the state cover the costs of court operations starting July 1, a divorce filing will cost $55 instead of $18. Traffic fines go up $15. Higher court recording fees will generate $104-million.
Lawmakers increased public school funding 7.3 percent. But once money for class size reduction and 55,000 new students are taken into account, schools will have little new money to cover rising costs, such as higher salaries.
This is the ninth consecutive year tuition has increased. Out-of-state, graduate and professional students could be hit harder. Their tuition will go up at least 12.5 percent, and could climb to 15 percent, depending on the school.
The average in-state student would pay $219 more, raising the annual bill to $3,139. Florida's 28 community colleges will increase tuition by 5 percent.
The higher education system fared far better than last year when it lost millions of dollars. This year, higher education gets about $100-million for escalating student enrollment growth and almost $200-million to match a backlog of private donations.
Despite a massive lobbying effort by business, it appeared voters will face only one question on the Nov. 2 ballot that could make it harder for citizens to amend the state Constitution: shorten by six months the deadline for filing paperwork to qualify an initiative for the ballot.
The current deadline is 91 days before a general election.
The last day was dominated by complex legislation bouncing back and forth between the House and Senate.
Much of the agenda was shaped by Byrd's bid for the U.S. Senate. The Plant City Republican hopes to appeal to GOP voters by emphasizing his support for lower taxes, an abortion-notification law for minors and freezing phone rates.
A widely supported bill to protect Florida's migrant farm workers from pesticides and corrupt labor bosses, which includes stiffer penalties for contractors who endanger workers' health, nearly died in the rush to adjournment. It ultimately passed.
The House had demanded that the bill include a $900,000 grant for a Future Farmers of America institute in Polk County, which the Senate refused to support. Rep. Marty Bowen, R-Haines City, said Byrd insisted on it.
"That amendment was given to me by the speaker about 30 minutes before that bill came up," Bowen said. "I would never do something to jeopardize something I'd worked so hard on."
The session opened in early March with Bush calling for changes to Medicaid, which takes nearly $1 of every $4 the state spends. That first week, lawmakers rushed to provide $25-million more to 90,000 children waiting for subsidized insurance and they eliminated the politically volatile KidCare waiting list.
But as the weeks went by, the pace of lawmaking slowed.
Tension between the House and Senate was so high, legislative leaders did away with the traditional dropped handkerchief on adjournment.
And Bush didn't stick around to congratulate lawmakers.
- Times staff writers Anita Kumar, Lucy Morgan and Alisa Ulferts contributed to this report.
Lucy Morgan: 