With budget healed, campaigning begins

TALLAHASSEE -- As state lawmakers applied a $1-billion tourniquet around a bleeding budget Thursday, the face of Florida's political future was plainly visible.

Janet Reno, Democratic candidate for governor and a polarizing presence, showed up to watch the end of the Legislature's special session. Adoring students mobbed her one minute. Hispanic lawmakers upset with her decision last year to return Elian Gonzalez to his father in Cuba, vilified her the next. They walked out of the House chamber at the mention of Reno's name, then called her the "most corrupt" attorney general ever.

Senate President John McKay also focused on the future. Minutes after he ushered through budget cuts he attributed to the recent economic past, the Bradenton Republican gave senators a long pep talk about a plan to seek voter approval next year to overhaul Florida's tax system.

Sounding much more like a liberal Democrat than the Republican real estate developer that he is, McKay urged senators to reject arguments by businesses that enjoy tax breaks, calling them "the forces that feed at the trough, at the expense of the citizens."

McKay, who soon will go on a statewide tour to promote his tax reform proposal, is single-minded in his pursuit of redoing the tax code next year -- the last year of his two-year Senate presidency. He pleaded for help in his mission to lower the sales tax from 6 percent to 4 percent and wipe out billions in business tax exemptions without increasing taxes. He calls the plan a "simple modernization."

Talking tax reform over a lunch of fried chicken -- a lunch paid for by the Florida Chiropractic Association -- McKay cited the current budget mess as proof of the need for tax reform. He brought with him Henry Fishkind, an economist paid to advise the Senate on tax policy.

House Speaker Tom Feeney, R-Oviedo, declined to say whether he would support McKay's tax reform plan. A constitutional amendment requires a three-fifths vote of each chamber and can't be vetoed by the governor.

"We are definitely willing to consider changes," Feeney said. "The House leadership will pay close attention to it, but we want to reduce expenditures."

Feeney is fixated on the future, too. The week after next, when House members are back in town for more committee meetings, Feeney will hold an oft-postponed fundraiser for his 2002 campaign for Congress from the Orlando suburbs.

But when it comes to the future, the heaviest burden may again fall on the Legislature.

Holes throughout the budget have been filled in with cash reserves and money from trust fund accounts as a stopgap measure. Lawmakers did that so they could say they avoided deeper cuts while buying time until June 30, the end of the budget year, in the hope that Florida's tourist-dependent economy will recover. But the short-term fiscal outlook is bleak.

Lawmakers may have to cut much deeper in the months ahead. Even moderate Republicans, such as Sen. Don Sullivan of Seminole, said he was willing to consider requiring school districts to increase property taxes next year to make up for an anticipated loss of new state revenue.

Uncertainty is in the air.

"I have no clue what will happen in the future," Gov. Jeb Bush said of the economy.

Reno sat in the front row of the House and Senate galleries watching lawmakers debate $1-billion in budget cuts to balance the budget. She complained that the cuts would set back Florida's education system.

"I'm here because I care very much for Florida," Reno told reporters. "The governor has been intent on cutting taxes."

Outside the Senate gallery, students from Ramblewood Middle School in Coral Springs clustered around Reno and chanted "Go Janet" as the candidate posed for pictures. A short time later about a dozen Republicans, including nine Cuban-Americans, left the House floor when Democrats introduced Reno.

Rep. Carlos Lacasa, R-Miami, one of those who walked out, said he wanted to protest the way Reno handled the celebrated case of Elian, the Cuban boy who turned 8 Thursday.

Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart, R-Miami, called Reno "the most corrupt attorney general in the history of the United States."

Bush chided Reno for coming to the Capitol on the session's last day and seizing the media spotlight away from another Democratic candidate for governor, Rep. Lois Frankel of West Palm Beach, who has led the floor debate in opposition to Bush's policies.

"I feel bad for Lois Frankel. Lois understands the budget a lot better than Janet Reno does, I'll bet, and she's the one who's worked very hard, and, I think, done her job as part of the loyal opposition in a very dignified way," Bush said.

Reno was gone by the time Bush stepped before cameras to congratulate fellow Republicans for their budget-cutting work. Cuts that Bush called "responsible," Democrats labeled "devastating" to schools and senior citizens.

If Florida voters missed the debate this week, they can catch it again next fall in TV ads and direct-mail pitches by candidates for governor and the Legislature.

Bush, who is seeking to be Florida's first two-term Republican governor, and Reno, his best-known opponent, did not cross paths in the Capitol. But Bush's campaign rushed out a statement: "Being a leader takes more than criticizing from the sidelines."

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

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