New Legislature wants your help

At their first organizational session, lawmakers say they can't tackle the state's problems alone.

By SHELBY OPPEL and DIANE RADO

© St. Petersburg Times, published November 22, 2000

TALLAHASSEE -- A brand new Legislature came to town Tuesday with this message for Floridians: We'll tackle the state's toughest problems if you'll help us do it.

Senate President John McKay promised to try to end homelessness in Florida, but he called on local communities to serve as "vital partners" in that effort.

He pledged to give tax breaks to citizens and corporations. But he also wants businesses to give scholarships to poor children so that they can go to private school -- in return for a corporate income tax credit.

As Florida faces burgeoning college enrollment, new House Speaker Tom Feeney said students should be able to go online to take their courses -- which saves the state money.

"It should no longer be necessary for a student to move to a university town and sit in a classroom at the same time each day for 13 weeks to complete a course," Feeney said.

The Legislature convened for its first organizational session after the November elections as the nation's news media surrounded the Capitol to await news of the presidential election.

"When we first got here, we thought all the reporters and cameras were here for us," joked Mike Hogan, a Jacksonville construction company executive who was sworn in as a Republican member of the House of Representatives.

The loudest standing ovation in the House was for Republican Secretary of State Katherine Harris, the controversial elections chief who has been in the middle of the drama over the close race between Vice President Al Gore and Texas Gov. George Bush.

It was a day of firsts in the Republican-controlled House, where more than half of the 120 seats changed hands this fall because of term limits that forced lawmakers out of office.

Among the 63 new members sworn in Tuesday were the first female Republican speaker pro tempore, Rep. Sandra Murman of Tampa, and the first Haitian-American legislator, Rep. Phillip J. Brutus, D-Miami. Also sworn in was Rep. Edward Bullard, D-Miami, the first male spouse elected to fill a vacancy created by a wife forced out by term limits, former Rep. Larcenia Bullard. Feeney, R-Oviedo, was sworn into one of the state's most powerful jobs six years after he was the losing lieutenant governor candidate on now-Gov. Jeb Bush's ticket. In the Senate, McKay, a Bradenton Republican, assumed the presidency after a remarkable comeback. In 1996, he resigned the chairmanship of the Senate's budget committee after headlines of his affair with telecommunications lobbyist Michelle Dodson, now his wife. Tuesday, she sat next to McKay as he delivered his first address to the Senate.

At times he sounded like the conservative businessman that he is.

"Our tax structure should not create economic disadvantages for Florida-based businesses as they compete in the 21st century," McKay said.

He said Florida needs to continue its phase-out of an "onerous" intangibles tax on stocks, bonds and mutual funds.

McKay wants the Senate to review more than 300 sales tax exemptions now on the books, rework the little-understood formula that distributes money to public schools and review the quagmire of election laws that has come into focus because of the upheaval over the presidential election.

At other times, McKay espoused a social agenda more often associated with liberal Democrats.

"On any given day in our state, there are at least 52,000 Floridians without food, a home or appropriate shelter," he said, adding that "a walk around many small towns demonstrates that this heart-wrenching problem is permeating our society at every level."

McKay said local community groups are already doing much to tackle homelessness and that he will look to them to "serve as vital partners as we strive to end homelessness in our state."

Feeney's speech had fewer specifics. In education, he called for building on "innovative reforms" begun by Gov. Jeb Bush and Lt. Gov. Frank Brogan, a reference to school vouchers, and for spending state dollars on non-traditional education, such as distance learning for university students.

Feeney seemed to be pushing for further privatization of government functions, saying "Florida's citizens can't afford to allow government to be the sole provider of critical services."

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