Poking the bear is always a bad idea, especially when he's bigger than you. Especially when his name is Rick Scott. And, dare I say it, especially when he's right.
Legislators, lucky for you, you still have time to save yourselves.
The plan where you give the governor just $25 million for Visit Florida, $0 for a dike; $0 for economic incentives; and $75 million for tax cuts? Don't go there. Turn it around. Backtrack like a team of sled dogs straining for home.
Frankly, your over-the-top oratory -- dismissing Gov. Scott's wish list as so many "cockroaches" -- soils the office of governor and the accomplishment of one of the strongest and most pragmatic leaders Florida has ever seen.
Let me take you back for a minute.
Few who were at the inaugural speech in 1991 of Gov. Lawton Chiles, the old 'He-Coon' himself, will ever forget it. To dramatize the importance of consideration for all three branches of state government, he held up a three-legged stool as high as he could lift it.
"Look at this stool," he said. "It's got three legs. If you pull one out, it won't stand; it needs all three."
Respect the office of governor and the governor's priorities as you do your own, Chiles was saying.
Too bad most current members of the Legislature were too young to have witnessed it.
Don't think Rick Scott isn't taking names. And I don't mean just the leaders' names. I would lay odds he knows right now who in each chamber is backing him and who isn't. And if the 2017-2018 budget goes through as it stands, still crushing his priorities, expect a fair amount of hell to pay.
All Florida governors I've seen in action over the years have played that kind of payback game to some extent. But Scott comes from corporate world. He plays hard and he plays mean.
Scott, who couldn't get his personal pick for Republican Party of Florida chairman elected during the last two party cycles, still isn't raising a dime for RPOF. You think that isn't payback?
And ask former Senate President Don Gaetz. Gaetz got crossways with Scott and paid a big price. Not only did the governor veto virtually every one of his priorities, but in 2016 he personally and successfully lobbied each member of the board of the University of West Florida to hire Martha Saunders as UWF president instead of Gaetz -- a job Gaetz was suited to and definitely wanted.
In February, Scott supporters said the governor was counting on Senate President Joe Negron to stand up against House Speaker Richard Corcoran's determination to defeat his priorities. But now Negron "sold his soul for a reservoir," as The Miami Herald put it, and cut a deal with Corcoran.
The future should get interesting for Corcoran and Negron, both of whom look to seek higher office -- Corcoran as governor in 2018, Negron perhaps as attorney general. The point is, they could be in for a rough ride: pursuing their dreams in the shadow of a powerful enemy with deep pockets and an 80 percent approval rating among Florida Republicans.
No one should underestimate Rick Scott. He -- not Corcoran, not Negron -- has the bigger bully pulpit.
"The governor has been very clear that this is the most important thing to him," said Sen. Jeff Clemens, D-Lake Worth, the next leader of the Senate Democrats, told the Herald. "If that's what matters to him, and the Legislature doesn't respect the governor's role in this process, why wouldn't he veto the budget?"
If Scott vetoes the entire budget -- a definite possibility -- legislators would have to return in June and fight through a re-do. A budget must be in place by July 1, or some state services would shut down.
Consider what Gov. Scott was asking for this year: $100 million for Visit Florida; $200 million for dike repairs (to be 100 percent reimbursed by the federal government); $85 million for economic incentives; and $618 million in tax cuts -- tax cuts, for heaven's sake, mother's milk for conservatives. Where are the Legislature's conservatives hiding?
In an $83 billion budget, we're talking about $1.003 billion. Minus out the $200 million dike money the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers would repay and you've got less than one-third of the this year's surplus. A surplus, by the way, largely created through Scott's maligned priorities.
If you can truthfully say the governor's priorities haven't been good for Florida, we're looking at different quantifiers.
Following Scott's first election, when a woefully deep recession had dragged on into 2010, his policies and focus saved the day for our triple-A bond rating, recorded positive job growth, improved jobless numbers and grew tourism, even when national headlines were unkind to Florida. Why would we put all that at risk?
Rick Scott has fulfilled every one of his promises during both election campaigns. He has increasing clout in Washington. Yet he hasn't stayed at home curled up in the fetal position while the Legislature acts. He has fought harder these past several weeks than any conservative governor with a conservative majority Legislature should have to, simply to hold onto the tools of Florida's post-recession success.
Now the governor has fallen quiet. Beware the calm before the storm. I'm just saying, beware a quiet Rick Scott.
Reach Nancy Smith at nsmith@sunshinestatenews.com or at 228-282-2423. Twitter: @NancyLBSmith
