Security tight as session begins

Differences between GOP leaders harden, and the House speaker says lawmakers may not finish the budget cuts in two weeks.

By STEVE BOUSQUET

© St. Petersburg Times,
published October 23, 2001

TALLAHASSEE -- Amid tightened security, legislators began a two-week special session Monday with no quick consensus on how to close a $1.3-billion budget deficit that will siphon dollars from classrooms, clinics, tobacco prevention and troubled teens.

"We're broke and at war. But things are about to pick up," said House Speaker Tom Feeney, R-Oviedo, as he welcomed the House's newest member, Republican Greg Evers of rural Baker in the Panhandle.

A parade of human service advocates issued dire predictions if cuts go through. They said a planned multimillion-dollar cut in home detention for some juvenile offenders will mean more crime because some troubled teens will receive lax supervision.

"This is a quality-of-life issue," said Pinellas-Pasco Public Defender Bob Dillinger. "If we eliminate home detention and electronic monitoring, we'll all be impacted."

Leon County State Attorney Willie Meggs called the proposed cuts "a big step backward."

Cuts are coming, but lawmakers disagree on how to go about making them.

As the session opened, Republican legislative leaders staked out contrasting stands on tax and budget issues. That's hardly new, but the abbreviated two-week timetable for this session leaves scant time for posturing. The biggest difference is that the Senate wants to defer or repeal a tax cut and borrow interest from fee-supported trust accounts to minimize some cuts, but the more conservative House does not.

Senate President John McKay, R-Bradenton, vowed to "hold firm" on his demand that the most recent cut in the intangibles tax on stocks and bonds, set to take effect Jan. 1, instead be put off so the money would stay in the treasury. McKay at first rejected any tax cuts last session, too, but he eventually compromised on $175-million.

Feeney called delaying the tax cut "a very bad idea," but added it was inaccurate to portray the House as inflexible on the issue.

Senate Democrats want to go further. Some are advocating new taxes to prevent further cuts in programs. But with 15 members in the 40-member Senate, Democrats have little hope of prevailing.

Lawmakers who until recently thought it unwise to criticize Gov. Jeb Bush during a time of war and national emergency are now increasingly critical of him.

Most are Democrats, who are revving up their attacks on Bush for blaming the budget woes on the terrorist attacks and for being unwilling to consider new taxes as an alternative to cuts in programs. Bush issued a statement Monday calling the attacks "the root of our current budget shortfall," but as Democrats point out, state revenue estimators had cited a $673-million shortfall through Sept. 10.

Senators want to keep the cuts to a minimum in the hope that the economy will rebound later. But Rep. Carlos Lacasa, the Miami Republican who is the House liaison on the budget, argued at a House GOP caucus Monday that conditions could worsen. He cited tensions between nuclear powers India and Pakistan and how the start of the Islamic religious holiday Ramadan next month could interfere with American ground attacks in Afghanistan.

"Frankly, I would have liked deeper cuts," Lacasa said.

In Florida, where the terrorist hijackers practiced their deadly flying maneuvers and where the nation's first victim of inhalation anthrax died, the battle against terrorism has added relevance. As Capitol visitors paused to have their briefcases and purses scanned, work began on ways to help authorities track suspected terrorists, such as limiting access to some public records.

Gov. Jeb Bush urged passage of measures to kick-start the economy and create an estimated 30,000 jobs by speeding up construction of roads and schools, and he wants to spend an extra $20-million on an advertising blitz to lure tourists back.

"What's interesting to me is that certain folks in Tallahassee have staked out a position to the left of Tom Daschle and Dick Gephardt on whether we should raise taxes during a recession," Feeney said, referring to the Democratic leaders in Congress.

There are other differences: McKay rejected a Feeney plan to let school boards divert some local tax dollars for day-to-day operations that are now earmarked for construction.

Security in the Capitol was noticeably tighter Monday.

McKay wore a state-issued photo ID on his lapel and urged others to do the same. Public access to some elevators was shut off, while others were programmed not to stop on certain floors.

The usual bustle at the Capitol entrance was slowed by a security checkpoint, and visitors paused to let police or state troopers put file folders through an X-ray machine. An armed guard paced the hallway outside Bush's office.

But as the differences between Republican leaders hardened, Feeney for the first time expressed doubts as to whether the Legislature could finish all of its work by one week from Thursday.

"I don't know that there's any magic about Nov. 1," Feeney said. "I'm more hopeful than I am optimistic."

Sen. Don Sullivan, R-Seminole, said how the session will end depends when Speaker Feeney will "cave" on the intangibles tax cut. Asked what it would take to do that, Sullivan said: "probably a good congressional district." Legislators are redrawing all boundary lines, and Feeney wants to run for Congress next year.

-- Times staff writers Lucy Morgan and Alisa Ulferts contributed to this report.

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