Florida legislative session ends with little to show

By ALEX LEARY and JENNIFER LIBERTO, Times staff writers
In print: Saturday, May 3, 2008

Florida House Speaker Marco Rubio, R-West Miami, left, and Senate President Ken Pruitt, R-Port St. Lucie, embrace during the end of the session ceremony on Friday at the Capitol. Each leader came in with a priority, but left empty handed.
	[SCOTT KEELER | Times]

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TALLAHASSEE — House Speaker Marco Rubio wanted a huge property tax cut but the Senate said no. Senate President Ken Pruitt wanted a higher education overhaul, and the House said no.

If the 2008 Florida legislative session that ended Friday can be summed up in a word, it's "No."

In a session consumed by a bleak budget, there was little money or patience for anything else — not even the popular sales tax breaks for back-to-school and hurricane supplies.

The election-year session lived up to its advance billing, as legislators took few chances and avoided just about everything that cost money.

"The budget was issue No. 1, issue No. 2 and issue No. 3," lamented Rep. Jack Seiler, D-Fort Lauderdale. "It overwhelmed everything else and it's tough to get out from behind that shadow."

Gov. Charlie Crist got his No. 1 priority – a program to expand health coverage to some of the state's 3.8-million uninsured — in part because it doesn't cost any money. And a skeptical Senate defeated a $650-million proposal to buy 61 miles of CSX railroad line for a commuter rail project.

Minutes before adjournment, the House agreed to mandate insurance coverage for children with autism.

The session ended with the traditional hankie drop at 6:02 p.m. Crist declared victory, and said he would sign a 6 percent college tuition increase.

The lack of money put a sharper focus on frivolous bills the Legislature takes up each year. Lawmakers failed to pass a law preventing teens from wearing baggy pants to school or one banning drivers from adorning their vehicles with Truck Nutz.

Even social conservatives did not get what they wanted: a bill allowing creationism to be taught in public schools and another requiring women to have an ultrasound before a first-trimester abortion.

There were some victories.

The Legislature passed a property insurance package that freezes Citizens Property Insurance rates for a year and imposes stricter rules on other insurers.

Gun rights advocates won a three-year battle to allow employees to leave their guns in their locked cars. The law, signed by Crist, goes into effect July. 1

Former St. Petersburg resident Alan Crotzer was paid $1.25-million for the 24 years he spent in prison before DNA evidence cleared him of a double rape conviction. Future victims of wrongful incarceration, will be paid $50,000 for each prison year.

Lawmakers extended the state's land-buying program for 10 years, and tenatively approved the governor's efforts to curb greenhouse gases.

Rubio, R-West Miami, called the session productive. "I would put the substantive accomplishments … up against any session I have been involved in."

But some veterans said it was one of the most depressing sessions they can recall.

"Brutal," said prominent lobbyist Brian Ballard.

House Minority Leader Dan Gelber of Miami Beach decried the session as "all pain, no gain."

To be sure, 2008 will likely be remembered for a single issue: the budget.

The bad news built for months, reflecting the national economy and the end of Florida's hot real estate market. With sales tax and other revenue down sharply, the Legislature arrived in March having to cut $500-million from the current budget. That's after previously cutting $1-billion.

Then, lawmakers began to cut more than $4-billion to build he 2008-09 budget, a painful process that gutted health care by nearly $1-billion and cut school funding.

In a show that they too were feeling the pain, lawmakers cut their own pay by 5 percent.

But what hurt more was the elimination of home projects — parks, libraries, etc — that spur goodwill with constituents, even as they are decried as pork.

Some slipped through, like $2.5-million Gov. Charlie Crist helped secure for a St. Petersburg College institute expected to be named for Rep. C.W. Bill Young, R-Indian Shores.

"People have come to expect us bringing things home," said Rep. Peter Nehr, R-Tarpon Springs, who sought money for a fire truck and parks.

Rubio began the session complaining that Amendment 1 property tax cuts were measly and issuing a challenge to the Legislature to do more.

He pushed to cap property taxes at 1.35 percent of taxable value and to cap government revenue and spending.

But Pruitt swiftly promised no major property tax legislation. Like many others, he felt the changes needed time to sink in.

In the end, lawmakers Friday passed a small package that would end an assessment practice known as "highest and best," in which small mom and pop beach hotels, for example, are valued as though they are high rise condominiums.

For his part, Pruitt wanted to ask voters to give the Legislature authority to set university tuition, sidestepping a court battle with the Board of Governors. The measure also asked voters to create an elected education commissioner.

House leadership, who might have used the measure as a bargaining chip, never took it up.

"We just didn't have the votes," said House Majority Whip Ellyn Bogdanoff, R-Fort Lauderdale.

The two chambers did compromise Friday on education measures to reform public school curriculum and FCAT provisions, improve educator ethical standards, and change the state's criteria for grading high schools.

-- Staff writers Shannon Colavecchio-Van Sickler, Steve Bousquet and David DeCamp contributed to this report.