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A Times Editorial
The House sent in its dangerously unbalanced, irresponsible and shamefully amended budget. It would serve Floridians well for the governor to veto it.
© St. Petersburg Times, published October 31, 2001
Speaker Tom Feeney and his vassals in the front ranks of the House chamber are undoubtedly pleased with themselves, but most Floridians are offended and ashamed by what their so-called representatives did Tuesday. To protect a tax break on stocks and bonds for less than 5 percent of the population, the House has sent to the governor an amended budget that poorly serves all the rest, is dangerously unbalanced and flouts the principle that the two houses of the Legislature should negotiate in public over such serious matters.
Senate President John McKay was entirely accurate in saying that the House had chosen the tax break over the proper funding of education and human services and was charging it, in effect, to the state's savings account. In a true understatement, McKay added, "I don't think that's responsible."
As he pointed out also, it probably wasn't constitutional either. In its haste to entrap the Senate by accepting a budget that the Senate had intended only as a basis for negotiations, Feeney overlooked a decisive fact. That budget hadn't been on anyone's desk for 72 hours before the Senate took what would turn out to be its last vote on it.
This is what Section 19(d) of Article III of the Florida Constitution has to say about it:
"SEVENTY-TWO HOUR PUBLIC REVIEW PERIOD. All general appropriations bills shall be furnished to each member of the Legislature, each member of the Cabinet, the governor, and the chief justice of the Supreme Court at least seventy-two hours before final passage by either house of the Legislature of the bill in the form that will be presented to the governor."
The Tax and Budget Reform Commission proposed this 10 years ago to guard against last-minute surprises from conference committees. That it may foil Feeney's surprise is an unexpected but providential side benefit.
McKay speculated Tuesday that the governor's signature wouldn't be dry on the bill before someone who would be hurt by its provisions turns to a court to enforce the Constitution. But litigation is by nature slow; the current budget deficit won't wait; and the intangibles tax has to be put back on the table before payments become due in January. Gov. Jeb Bush should veto the bill today and recall the Legislature to Tallahassee immediately. That would serve the people well. And it would serve Feeney right.