Monumental egos
A Times EditorialPublished November 11, 2004
Though one of the enduring indulgences of Florida's biennial legislative leaders is to vest them with trophy buildings upon their departure, House Speaker Johnnie Byrd and Senate President Jim King have taken ego to new heights. The law they passed earlier this year, two days into their final legislative session, is apparently a gift that keeps giving.
The state will spend $30-million this year to build an Alzheimer's research center named after Byrd's father, a biomedical research center named after King's parents, and a chiropractic school at a university that never asked for it. But there's more. The law directs the state's chief finance officer to write checks directly to those centers in future years - bypassing future Legislatures.
This one took some cheek.
Incoming House Speaker Allan Bense, R-Panama City, says the provision has caught him by surprise: "I didn't realize it until after the session was over. I missed it, and a lot of other people missed it as well." Incoming Senate President Tom Lee, R-Brandon, professes similar bewilderment: "Even the governor couldn't explain it."
Whether lawmakers knew the extent of their leaders' arrogance before rushing the bill to passage by a collective vote of 151-1 is less important now than their willingness to change it going forward. To issue direct payments to pet legislative projects is to leap recklessly past at least two budgetary checkpoints. One, lawmakers do have, and should have, the authority each year to set spending priorities and to change them as they deem appropriate. Two, beyond annual appropriations, trust funds are the vehicle to target money for long-term objectives while maintaining public accountability.
The lack of future oversight is only one of the problems with this year's act of legislative privilege. The money for the chiropractic school, in particular, is an affront to a university system that has shown no interest in it. King is right that some lawmakers, most notably senator and chiropractor Dennis Jones, have been working to get a university-based chiropractic school for years. But a history of political interference is hardly an argument for bypassing the current university Board of Governors. The board was written into the Constitution by voters two years ago in large part to insulate the universities from just such meddling, and this school and this law may well violate that provision.
Gov. Jeb Bush is calling on lawmakers to tear up the future blank check for Byrd and King. That's an appropriate start. He and lawmakers should also want to answer, some day, for a system that is entirely too eager to bestow such gifts in the first place.