Legislators go long way to get ideas
A national conference in Seattle gives lawmakers a chance to swap information. More than four dozen Floridians attend.
By STEVE BOUSQUET
Published August 21, 2005
SEATTLE - The cool temperatures, upscale stores and picturesque waterfront of this city beckoned the visitors from Florida.
But many state lawmakers who came west for a legislative conference stayed inside a convention hall instead. They sipped Starbucks coffee while sitting in workshops on the economics of health care, post-conviction DNA testing for prison inmates and looming problems in higher education in America.
More than four dozen Florida legislators and senior staff members spent much of the past week in this city, known for its seafood and the towering Space Needle. The Florida group was part of a crowd of 7,200 lawmakers and staff members at the National Conference of State Legislatures that ended Saturday.
Lawmakers in Florida are generally allowed to take one taxpayer-funded legislative trip a year. More of them pick this conference than any other, saying it's a chance to dig deep into public policy and learn how other states cope with similar problems.
Rep. Dudley Goodlette, R-Naples, moderated a workshop on how to improve civility in politics.
Rep. Dick Kravitz, R-Jacksonville, explained the added penalties facing sex offenders under the Jessica Lunsford Act, named after the Homosassa girl who was abducted and killed in February.
Rep. Ed Jennings, D-Gainesville, wanted to learn how independent redistricting commissions work in other states. Arizona, New Jersey and Washington have appointed panels that draw legislative and congressional districts, and several other states, including Florida, are considering such proposals through the ballot-initiative process.
Jennings, Rep. Curtis Richardson, D-Tallahassee, and Sen. Tony Hill, D-Jacksonville, all took front-row seats to listen to UCLA law professor Daniel Lowenstein and Washington political organizer Cecilia Martinez debate the merits of independent redistricting commissions.
Martinez is director of the Reform Institute, which supports removing redistricting from legislatures. She cited polls showing voters consider it a conflict of interest for elected officials to draw their own districts.
"The system needs changing," said Martinez, who described the "inevitability of a public cry for reform."
Lowenstein said legislative systems inherently involve conflicts of interest. "I urge you - whether it's politically convenient or no t - to retain control of this," he told a room packed with lawmakers.
As elected officials from all over realized, their districts may be diverse, but the issues they face are similar. They include Medicaid costs, the rising number of working poor without health insurance, and compliance with the federal government's No Child Left Behind Act.
Lawmakers trade information with each other or from lobbyists, and the conversations can lead months from now to bills on legislative calendars in Florida and other states.
Rep. Anne Gannon, D-Delray Beach, said she got an idea for a bill after hearing New York lawyer Barry Scheck, of the Innocence Project, discuss flawed witness identifications that were a factor in many of the 161 wrongful convictions overturned through DNA testing.
At a workshop entitled "The Impending Crisis for Higher Education," experts from two higher education groups said that in many states, an increasing share of the cost of college has shifted from states to families over the past decade.
They also said that nearly 90 percent of the increase in the number of high school graduates from 2003 to 2018 will be in six states, including Florida.
On Wednesday, dozens of Florida lawmakers, some with their spouses, attended Florida Night, a cocktail reception and buffet dinner. The event was organized by Tallahassee lobbyists Jack and Keyna Cory, paid for by more than a dozen lobbyists and clients, and attended by two reporters from the St. Petersburg Times.
Hundreds of businesses and interest groups that lobby state capitals were here promoting their products and generating goodwill. Delegates could play with slot machines or get free cholesterol tests.
The Marijuana Policy Project was here, as was the Pro Rodeo Cowboys Association and People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. The National Rifle Association's booth was only a short distance from its archrival, the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence.
Steve Bousquet can be reached at bousquet@sptimes.com