Opinion: Wreck these trains by our legislators

Wreck these trains by our legislators

By MARTIN DYCKMAN

To Florida legislators, the word "train" means something their leaders had pledged to stop. As you can guess, they didn't.

Train refers to a bill that picks up a lot of baggage having little to do with the original subject.

Sometimes that's just for convenience, especially as time begins to run out.

It becomes sinister when the baggage cars latch on so fast that nobody but a few lobbyists and their elected stooges know what's in them, angling to get the dirty work to the governor's desk before anyone else is the wiser, and to load it onto bills he won't want to veto.

That's how the bill to end automobile emission inspections would also stop local governments from regulating blasting at rock mines.

But that wasn't the only train.

From what I'm hearing, Gov. Jeb Bush's staff is worried over Senate Bill 1300, which would wipe out the small-group health insurance reforms that Lawton Chiles got past the insurance lobby almost 10 years ago. It would allow premium increases based on the health and claims experience of each employer's workers rather than on the experience of all similar policies grouped together. That means higher premiums for lots of people -- including the boss -- and a harder time for older, sicker people who are looking for work.

Thanks to the power and slick propaganda of the Florida insurance lobby, whose greed is matched only by its shamelessness, the bill got to Bush's desk with only five House members and no senators voting against it. That shouldn't stop him from vetoing it, however. No harm would be done.

Knowing that, the insurance lobby also stuck the small-group gouging provisions on two other bills, both of them classic "trains." The Department of Insurance is considering whether to ask Bush to veto all three.

The trouble is that one of them is House Bill 2339, the so-called Patient Protection Act, which the Republican leadership intends to cite to voters in the fall election as evidence of its deep concern over abuses in managed care. As its passage also evidenced the House leadership's deep concern that HMOs not be sued, the extent of "patient protection" is debatable. But it would be hard for Bush to veto.

The other is House Bill 591, a 245-page monstrosity that could be called a circus train for all the junk in it. The title alone consumes 14 pages, much longer than this column. Most of it has to do with changing the way the state regulates health professions, but none of it appears urgent, not even the designation of "Florida Alzheimer's Disease Day."

For Bush to veto both of these bills would teach the Legislature -- and the lobbies -- a much-needed lesson about trains. Otherwise, vetoing just Senate Bill 1300 would be an empty gesture.

Don Sullivan's Senate Bill 290 is another train. A train wreck, actually.

As originally intended, it makes it more difficult for property appraisers to raise personal property assessments that have been reduced by value adjustment boards. Though it was billed as relief for Florida printing companies, it appears that BellSouth also has a large interest, with several million dollars a year in Dade County taxes at stake. Fortunately for other taxpayers, the bill has potential constitutional and veto problems. One amendment -- not Sullivan's -- lets counties keep $15 filing fees they now have to return to successful appellants, and Bush could see that as a tax increase.

His veto, however, would also kill the Legislature's already-bungled attempt to delay until next year the controversial requirement that, beginning this year, homeowners must provide their Social Security numbers to qualify for homestead exemption. Though everyone has been on notice of this since 1994, hundreds if not thousands of homeowners have yet to comply.

This was chugging along as a separate bill. When Sen. Anna Cowin, R-Leesburg, saw time running out, she coupled it to Sullivan's bill, making it a train.

But where her bill had an immediate effective date, Sullivan's bill takes effect next January -- too late for this year's tax roll.

Not to worry, says the Department of Revenue. Its lawyers say they'll respect the Legislature's intent, if not the strict letter of the law. But that doesn't necessarily mean all the appraisers will.

And what if the bill is vetoed, or gets held unconstitutional? There's no severability clause.

This is how trains become train wrecks. When, if ever, will our Legislature learn?