Opinion: Special session caution

The Florida Legislature convened Monday in obedience to Gov. Jeb Bush's summons for a special session that he expects to end by midnight Nov. 1. But few others really think it will and Senate President John McKay does not sound like one of them. During a colloquy over parliamentary procedure, he referred off-handedly to "our efforts of the next few weeks . . ." "Few" and "two" are not necessarily synonymous.

It could end sooner, of course, if Bush and House Speaker Tom Feeney were to exhibit coherent leadership akin to McKay's. But the conditions initially laid down by the governor so far permit consideration of nothing but budget cuts to accommodate this year's projected $1.3-billion revenue shortfall. (He has said he would consider expanding them.) Predictably, Feeney allowed nothing but budget cuts to be introduced for consideration by the House. The House passed one of them on the spot: It repeals a $708-a-year raise that legislators were about to receive. This was for symbolism rather than substance; it saves merely $76,000 a year, which is microscopic compared to the tax cuts for wealthy investors that Feeney means to preserve at all costs.

Senators, on the other hand, heard McKay declare that "the Senate will address the intangibles tax issue and hold firm in its use of that revenue." He and the Senate promptly underscored that pledge by consenting to the introduction of 42 bills, only two of which purport to be within the narrow terms Bush imposed. The Constitution says the Legislature can do that with a two-thirds vote. The Senate's bill introductions were unanimous.

This owed to the Senate's bipartisanship as well as to its common sense, but it came with an ominous price. Many of the 42 bills are so-called "shells," consisting of little more than titles on such subjects as "public records/acts of terrorism," "interception of communications," and "material witnesses." Several hours later, Sen. Ginny Brown-Waite's select committee on public security began stuffing 10 of these shell bills with enormous assaults on liberty in the guise of fighting terrorism. The material witness bill it approved would entitle the Department of Law Enforcement to have judges jail people for up to four days without bond in connection with any terrorism investigation. Another bill would allow existing public records to be kept secret up to 21 days during a terrorism investigation. Under another, public officials could withhold not only the location of pharmaceutical stockpiles, but also any information as to the "type or amount." Thus it would be a state secret as to whether Florida is well prepared or not, and citizens would have to take officialdom's word on the matter. This will not do.

McKay seemed to recognize the potential for abuse in warning senators that it would be "imprudent to go too far afield" on non-budget matters "during a short special session."

However, the session cannot and should not be short if the House continues to insist that the only solution to a cash flow emergency in this fundamentally prosperous state is to slash and burn. Sen. Don Sullivan, who chairs the education budget subcommittee, reflected the more responsible approach in predicting that "The Senate will not accept less than a significant increase of revenue from some place." If that takes until Christmas or longer, so be it.

The state will recover eventually from the twin blows of recession and terrorism; the question for the next few weeks, or months, is: How many of its citizens shall be left behind? And how many of their civil liberties?

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