One budget fight remains to be settled in courts

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© St. Petersburg Times,
published November 26, 2001

Somewhat forgotten, as Gov. Jeb Bush and our Legislature face the state budget crisis this week, is that they were supposed to be facing each other in court.

The governor sued the Legislature in June over some stuff that the Legislature wrote into the state budget. Since then they have settled most of the case.

But on one point, both sides have declined to yield. They were scheduled to duke it out in front of Leon Circuit Judge Nikki Clark, whose name you might remember from last year's election fight. Because of this week's legislative session, the matter has been delayed until January.

The fight is about an outfit called the Florida Healthy Kids Corp., which provides health coverage to more than 200,000 kids in our state up to age 18 who don't otherwise qualify for Medicaid or other services.

This is undeniably a Good Thing. We're talking about regular exams, shots, emergency care, screenings, all kinds of care, for a few dollars a month per family. It needs to be clear that neither party in the lawsuit is opposed to healthy kids (the concept) or Healthy Kids (the corporation).

What they do disagree on is where Healthy Kids gets its money. State law says that each year, the corporation's board of directors is supposed to set a local "match," a dollar figure that local agencies in Florida are expected to chip in for the coverage.

However, in writing this year's state budget, the Legislature decided not to require any local match funds. Healthy Kids was instructed to replace the local matching funds out of its own considerable surplus.

This was a nice little gift for many of Florida's 67 counties, or other local agencies taking part. The total amount of matching money was not huge, in terms of the total state budget -- $7-million, maybe a little more. But that is that much money the locals could be using for other worthwhile things.

However, this removal of the local matching money is exactly what the governor is suing the Legislature to overturn.

You might ask: "Is the governor being mean? Does he want fewer kids to get health care?" The answer is no. The governor is trying to overturn the Legislature's decision on a matter of important constitutional principle.

Under our state Constitution, the Legislature cannot use the state budget as a back-door way of changing other laws. The budget can deal only with how to spend money.

That means that, say, on line 545 of the budget, the Legislature cannot sneak in a sentence saying, "By the way, we've decided that the statewide speed limit is now 80 mph."

Neither can it use the budget alone to say, "Hey, we're creating a couple new state agencies over here, and while we're at it, we're going to make the Highway Patrol dress in bright pink."

In the case of Healthy Kids, an existing state law clearly requires the corporation to establish a local match. But with a single paragraph deep in the budget, the Legislature nullified the effect of that existing law. The governor could not veto the paragraph without killing the entire budget line for the program, more than $200-million. Imagine those headlines: GOVERNOR KILLS 'HEALTHY KIDS' MONEY.

The Legislature argues that it did not change the law. Healthy Kids set the amount of the local match this year, just as the statute says. All the Legislature did was then order Healthy Kids to replace that match by using its own surplus. In other words, lawmakers were deciding how to spend the state's money. What is that if not making an appropriation? (The governor's answer: It also changed a source of the state's revenue, which is a different kettle of fish.)

I lean toward the governor in this showdown. He and the Legislature have a policy disagreement, and he should be entitled to have his whack at it with a veto. The Legislature made his veto impossible as a practical matter, and did an end-run around state law, with a paragraph stuck into the state budget. If that is an acceptable way to run the railroad, then why have checks and balances at all?

-- You can reach Howard Troxler at (727) 893-8505 or at troxler@sptimes.com.

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