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Of sweet defeats and key lime pie

The Legislature smartly rejected Gov. Jeb Bush's efforts to gut class size limits and protect school vouchers, took a stab at the insurance crisis - and named an official pie.

By Times editorial
Published May 8, 2006

They barked like dogs, honored the Florida Gators' title team and gave the House speaker a Corvette. The Senate president fired the majority leader for siding with the minority party (and most voters). And lawmakers agreed to let dogs eat in outdoor restaurants, start school closer to Labor Day, and name the official state pie key lime.

But the 2006 legislative session will be remembered more for what lawmakers didn't do than for what they did. After seven years, Republicans finally found their backbone and stood up to Gov. Jeb Bush in his final year in office. Thanks to Senate Democrats and a handful of courageous Republican moderates, efforts to gut the class size amendment and preserve vouchers in the Constitution failed to win approval. Those were bitter defeats for the governor, and they splintered the Senate. But the winners were those who respect the voters' desire for smaller class sizes and the authority of the Florida Supreme Court, which ruled Bush's Opportunity Scholarship vouchers are unconstitutional. The moderate Republicans so criticized by their conservative colleagues, including Sens. Dennis Jones of Treasure Island and Nancy Argenziano of Dunnellon, are more reflective of the overall Florida electorate.

The Legislature's newfound independence was evident in other areas as well, offering hope that the balance between the executive and legislative branches will be adjusted a bit no matter who succeeds Bush. Lawmakers substituted a more logical merit pay plan for teachers for a heavy-handed one from the Bush administration that relied almost exclusively on FCAT test results. The "insidious'' intangibles tax on stocks and bonds that the governor rails about finally was eliminated, and a per drink tax was abolished. But the tax cuts were far less than Bush sought and more reasonable than in previous years.

Legislators also rejected a gimmick Bush advocated to send homesteaded property owners a $140 check and instead sent $715-million directly to the state-run Citizens Property Insurance to lower assessments. The governor called the checks "smart politics,'' but voters would have reacted with the same skepticism that killed a similar idea in Washington to send $100 checks to help play for gas. Reducing the assessments for 2005 from 11 percent to about 2.5 percent is the right thing to do for homeowners facing soaring premiums as well as the assessments.

That wasn't the only case where the billions in additional state revenue generated by a strong economy and a housing boom made life easier for lawmakers. Schools received an 8.6 percent per student increase in funding, the most in recent memory. Lawmakers even saved about $1.7-billion for reserves. But no amount of money could paper over where lawmakers came up short on policy.

They failed to pass meaningful campaign finance reform, despite Senate President Tom Lee's best efforts. They caved in to the National Rifle Association, requiring gun and bait shops to offer to register voters and that the names of concealed weapons owners be kept secret. Doing one thing right - killing the NRA's effort to require employers to allow workers to bring their guns to work in their cars - doesn't make two wrongs okay. Lawmakers also made it too easy to win state approval for nuclear plants and too hard for poor families to get health insurance from KidCare. They went too far in responding to a crisis that doesn't exist, approving both legislation and a constitutional amendment that will make it impossible for local government to condemn land in blighted areas for redevelopment. Under those restrictions, St. Petersburg, Tampa and Clearwater could not have assembled land for key redevelopment projects.

Lawmakers weren't nearly as bold in addressing a real crisis in homeowners insurance. The package passed in the session's final minutes late Friday night is a stew that places more of the burden of future assessments for Citizens, the insurer of last resort, on nonhomesteaded property owners and less on homeowners fortunate enough to have insurance in the private market. But there isn't much to entice private insurers back into the market, and even the bill's supporters acknowledge this is just a start.

The next time the Legislature meets in regular session, there will be a governor who is not named Bush for the first time since 1998. While this legislative session may not have been his most successful, he has had a remarkable run. Regardless of our philosophical differences, he has set the agenda for eight years.

The dynamics will be different in 2007, regardless of who is living in the Governor's Mansion. Some issues, including homeowners insurance, will be back.

In the meantime, you will be able to take your dog to a restaurant, stop paying an alcohol tax by the drink, look forward to a later start for school - and hope another hurricane doesn't hit.

[Last modified May 8, 2006, 06:05:52]