State: Bush vetoes huge transportation bill

Gov. Jeb Bush vetoed an enormous transportation package on Thursday that would have forced youngsters on motorized scooters to wear helmets, eased development regulations for marinas and airports, and created a license plate for golfers.

Kids under 16 would have been required to wear bicycle helmets when riding motorized scooters under a provision that supporters called a common-sense safety restriction.

But the Legislature repealed a law last year that required motorcyclists to wear helmets, and Bush had cited the scooter helmets as one on the reasons he vetoed the transportation package.

Sen. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Weston, sponsored the scooter helmet provision and criticized Bush's decision.

"It was a totally reasonable child safety measure, and it is mind-boggling that he would veto it as over-regulation," she said.

The transportation bill was approved by lawmakers on the last day of the legislative session and became a "train," or a vehicle to tie together dozens of issues at the last minute. Bush noted the bill is more than 300 pages and makes nearly 200 changes to current law.

The governor wrote in his veto message that the bill "provides a textbook example of logrolling, the kind that makes it difficult to provide Floridians with good, sound public policy."

"In my view," Bush wrote, "the diversity and sheer number of issues contained in House Bill 1053 goes beyond what has been marginally accepted in the past . . ."

The veto came one day after Senate President John McKay defended legislative trains in a speech to the Suncoast Tiger Bay Club in St. Petersburg. He called them an acceptable part of last-minute negotiations.

"It's much blown out of proportion," he said of the criticism before joking that "if you're really sneaky, you can slide some things in. That's sort of the sport.'

Bush said there were good and bad provisions in the transportation package. He wrote that he liked proposals that would have waived fees for Pearl Harbor Survivor and Purple Heart license plate holders, changed the oversight of Florida's Turnpike and allowed Department of Transportation employees to act as private contractors and bid on state projects.

But Bush said there were other provisions of "questionable benefits" besides the regulation of motorized scooters. He cited an issue relating to driving schools similar to one he vetoed last year, relaxed penalties for unsafe drivers, property rights issues and increased access to confidential auto insurance coverage information.

Lawmakers from both political parties were upset by the veto.

Sen. Alex Diaz de la Portilla, R-Miami, complained that the legislation included reforms aimed at curbing corruption at Miami International Airport.

"It's a shame," he said. "The governor doesn't understand the needs of the people of Florida, and particularly the needs of Dade County."

The bill also would have:

Eased development regulations for some new marinas, airports and petroleum storage tank facilities. Environmentalists opposed those provisions.

Restricted the ability of some local governments to remove billboards in some areas.

"We think it was a good call to veto a bill that would extend urban blight across Florida . . .," said Charles Lee, senior vice president of Audubon of Florida.

Peter Dunbar, a lobbyist for the Florida Outdoor Advertising Association, said the governor's aides told him that Bush was not concerned by the billboard provisions. Without the legislation, he said, existing agreements between billboard companies and Tampa, Hillsborough County, Largo and Clearwater will remain in place.

Created a Florida golf license plate, with money from the sales going to the Florida Sports Foundation and the Dade Amateur Golf Association.

Assured Leon County that it would not lose state road money. A provision that McKay inserted into the state budget would force the county to remove speed humps from a road leading to Tallahassee Regional Airport or lose its share of money for road improvements.

Also Thursday, Bush signed another bill to add more firefighters, emergency medical technicians and paramedics to the pool of workers who get extra retirement benefits because of the risks of their jobs. He also signed changes to the homicide statute to make resisting a police officer with violence a crime that can trigger first-degree or second-degree felony murder charges if a death occurs in the melee.

- Staff writers Craig Pittman, Alisa Ulferts and the Associated Press contributed to this report.

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