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Four days in December

Lawmakers in Tallahassee approved a surprising 10 different bills last week and wrapped up their special session a day early.

Florida lawmakers accomplished more in four days last week than they often have to show for their annual 60-day session. A legislature willing to finally ban gifts and require the disclosure of lobbying fees, tax slot machines appropriately and reasonably compensate a wrongly convicted man is doing something right. The new era of cooperation and reasonableness promised by Senate President Tom Lee of Brandon and House Speaker Allan Bense of Panama City when they took charge a year ago came into full bloom.

The special session was called because Gov. Jeb Bush is determined to privatize Medicaid health care, and the Legislature obliged him as well. But the Senate was right to demand that the governor's experiment in Broward and Duval counties not spread unchecked across the state. Any expansion will have to pass through the Legislature, which is a necessary check on the governor's impulse to privatize. Bush says he can save money without compromising medical care for poor people, and he needs to prove that before any rapid expansion. Poor people, who have limited health care options, deserve as much.

Special sessions usually require a narrow focus, but lawmakers approved a surprising 10 different bills. Chief among them:

Gift ban and lobbyist disclosure. Lobbyists long have ruled in Tallahassee, but take note. They lost this one. With Lee pressing for disclosure of lobbyist fees and a previously reluctant Bense pushing for a ban on gifts from lobbyists, lawmakers had no choice. At the point they were forced to declare their allegiances in a publicly recorded vote, the measure passed by a collective vote of 148-9.

The gift ban could be circumvented by lawmakers who use soft-money fundraising committees and political parties to pick up the tab, but it is a strong statement and loopholes that are exploited can be dealt with later. The grousing by lawmakers unaccustomed to paying their own way was testament enough to its need. Sen. Steve Geller, D-Hallandale, sounded as though he was being cast adrift in a hurricane: "If I'm going to a meeting, you have essentially told me I need to brown bag my lunch or dinner." Such horror.

Slot machines. Voters decided that four Broward parimutuel facilities could have slot machines, but not necessarily that their owners could make a killing. The 50 percent tax rate is more than fair, and it strengthens the governor's hand in negotiations that now lie ahead with the Miccosukee and Seminole Indian tribes. The tribes will seek to install their own Las Vegas-style slot machines as well, and Bush told a newspaper the new measure provides "the floor from which we know where we can go." The tribes have managed in the past to avoid any state regulation of gambling and any "revenue sharing," and Bush will not want to be the latest governor who is played for a patsy.

Compensating Wilton Dedge. Dedge finally will get some compensation, $2-million, for the 22 years he spent in prison for a rape he never committed. The bill's passage was punctuated in the House by a poignant apology from Speaker Bense, who said he wished he had okayed the deal earlier. Bense, having seen the light with Dedge, is now positioned to help assure that other wrongly convicted offenders are fairly compensated. Those who are wrongly imprisoned should not need lobbyists and media attention to make their case.

The session actually ended a day early, which is another unusual political marker. Maybe the coming holidays or the coming election year had something to do with it. But these four days in December are worth remembering.

[Last modified December 10, 2005, 00:34:02]