Tallahassee officials are still wrangling over the details of a Cabinet reorganization that will determine how well Florida's finances are being overseen.

It has been three years since Florida voters approved the Cabinet reorganization that's to take effect barely a year from now, yet the Legislature still hasn't implemented an important part of it. That's no accident or oversight. Some people have been playing a dangerous game.

As proposed by the Constitution Revision Commission, the offices of comptroller and treasurer will be consolidated in a new position of chief financial officer. So will their constitutional duties that have to do with keeping the state's money and paying its bills. But they also have other important jobs that were assigned by law over the years, and the Legislature needs to decide what to do about those.

The treasurer is also the insurance commissioner and state fire marshal. The comptroller regulates state-chartered banks, savings and loans and the securities industry, which makes him the world's only elected banking commissioner. Even separately, these are enormously influential portfolios that have not always been administered with the appropriate indifference to campaign contributions. Together, they would present an enormous potential for political abuse. No one elected official should hold sway over the entire financial industry.

To his credit, that's Comptroller Robert Milligan's view of the matter. He recommends, as House Bill 577 proposes, that financial regulation be consolidated in a new professional department under the collective supervision of the governor and the remaining three Cabinet officials. The chief financial officer, meanwhile, would be responsible primarily for seeing that the state's money is well-kept and well-spent. That's a big enough job as it is -- and, as a member of the Cabinet, the chief financial officer would also help to set regulatory policy over insurance, banking and the rest of the financial industry.

That's a good compromise. Seven-headed government never worked as well as Cabinet devotees insisted, but there will be only the governor and three Cabinet members after Jan. 7, 2003. Rep. Mark Flanagan, R-Bradenton, chief sponsor of HB 577, makes a persuasive point that it would be "far more difficult to influence the Cabinet than to influence one elected officer."

The serious opposition to this bill comes from Treasurer Tom Gallagher, who is running for chief financial officer, and his allies in the Senate. Led by Jack Latvala, R-Palm Harbor, they propose to put the chief financial officer in charge of the financial industries as well as the state's own money. The governor and attorney general would vote on confirming or removing his appointees, but the CFO would effectively control regulatory policy.

When the last session failed to resolve the matter, suspicions arose of a strategy to end the 2002 session in impasse as well. The game would be to pass the buck to the courts, on the presumption that the courts would choose the easier -- if less responsible -- alternative of simply declaring the comptroller's and treasurer's offices merged into one. This theory falters, however, on the improbability of the governor allowing the Legislature to go home without passing a reorganization bill.

Milligan, meanwhile, has a strategy of his own. He's threatening to run for chief financial officer, against Gallagher, if the Legislature doesn't act on reorganization. The Republican hierarchy, wanting no such primary, is urging Milligan to run for Congress instead. Latvala, as chair of the Senate committee in charge of congressional redistricting, could make it a cakewalk for Milligan.

Whatever else can be said of Florida politics, it's not dull.

Back to Perspective

Contact the Times | Privacy Policy
Standard of Accuracy | Terms, Conditions & Copyright

From the Times
Opinion page