So, brain surgery is easier than legislating?
By HOWARD TROXLER
Published April 17, 2005
Consider a young man or woman who has just graduated from medical school and wishes to become a brain surgeon.
Our young doctor will have to spend one year in a general surgical residency program, followed by six more years as a resident in neurosurgery.
To recap: brain surgeon, seven years.
And yet, the Florida Legislature this past week announced that its members cannot master the demands of their job within the measly eight years allowed by Florida's term limits.
Nope. A Florida legislator really needs at least 12 years to learn the ropes in Tallahassee, the Legislature declared. And so the voters of Florida will be asked to approve longer term limits in the 2006 election.
Now, maybe you do not like term limits. Maybe you think they have done more harm than good.
But make no mistake about one thing:
A 12-year term "limit" for the Florida Legislature will mean an automatic 12-year term for any legislator who chooses to stay that long.
That's because an incumbent member of the Legislature in this state simply cannot be defeated. None of the 160 members were defeated in the last election.
None. Zero.
They have rigged their own voting districts. They are wallowing in campaign money, which they use to buy their way out of any serious challenge.
It is downright sick.
I can't tell you how many incumbents need to be beaten each election for our democracy to be healthy, but it sure as heck is more than zero.
So, just remember, when they are asking for a 12-year term limit, they are asking for a 12-year term.
This is gonna be a fun fight.
It is impossible to turn around without reading another headline saying, "Legislature Votes To Do Whatever Utilities Tell It To."
You already know the most famous example of recent years, a bill to as much as double local telephone rates.
This year, there are bills to make sure electric and telephone companies can stick you with their hurricane costs.
Some Florida cities have thought about offering their own Internet services or other kinds of public utilities - so, of course, there are bills to punish them for "competing" with the for-profit utilities.
Now, just to rub a little salt in the wound . . .
You might remember that the Florida Public Service Commission, which supposedly (ha!) regulates utilities in this state, is in ethical hot water because its members like to hang out with utility folks at conferences and junkets.
Naturally, our Legislature is rushing into action. Is the Legislature siding with consumers for once, making sure the PSC acts like a fair judge?
What, are you nuts? Of course not. There's a bill in the Senate to make it legal for the regulators and the regulated to keep hanging out together. Of course.
This Monday, a panel in the state House will take up a bill to cut off alimony to an ex-spouse who moves in with a new partner of the opposite sex. The Senate has already passed it.
Aside from whatever fairness issues are involved, this bill also gives Tallahassee a chance to moralize a little bit about Living In Sin. As Gov. Jeb Bush puts it, the current law "basically increases an incentive for people to live together and not get married. That's wrong."
However, it turns out there is a fascinating loophole in this law, pointed out to me by a smart reader.
Ex-spouses are punished only for taking up with "the opposite sex."
But you can keep the alimony checks rolling as long as you switch teams, as it were, and you enter into a same-sex shack-up. I say this is truly progressive thinking by legislators, and hereby award them all little rainbow lapel pins.