Politics makes strange bedfellows, as demonstrated by an accord reached by The Florida Bar and alimony reform advocates.
But even though the one-time adversaries reached reconciliation over a controversial alimony overhaul, the proposal is dead for this year's legislative session.
Senate Children, Families and Elder Affairs Chairman Rene Garcia said he won't schedule the bill for a hearing.
"We have more pressing issues that we're dealing with as it relates to the safety and welfare of children than to tie up the committee with the alimony bill at this time," Garcia, R-Hialeah, told The News Service of Florida on Thursday.
Twice over the past four years, Gov. Rick Scott vetoed attempts at revamping the state's alimony laws.
A proposal vetoed last year would have created a formula, based on the length of marriage and the combined incomes of both spouses, for judges to use when setting alimony payments.
After years of disagreement on the issue, alimony reform advocates and The Florida Bar's Family Law Section supported the proposal, which would have also eliminated permanent alimony while giving judges some discretion to veer from the formula.
But the plan became hotly contested last year when it was amended to include a child-sharing component that would have required judges to begin with a "premise" that children should split their time equally between parents.
The proposed revisions "have evoked passionate reactions from thousands of Floridians because divorce affects families in many different ways," Scott wrote in a last year's veto message after people on both sides of the issue clashed outside his office.
Three years earlier, Scott vetoed a rewrite of the alimony laws because it was retroactive, an element that sparked an outcry from older women who had spent their lives as homemakers.
But this year, the Family Law section and alimony reform advocates appeared to reach consensus, agreeing that the issues regarding children should remain separate.
Sen. Kathleen Passidomo, a Naples Republican who's sponsoring the legislation this year, said she respects Garcia's decision.
"There's still a lot of misunderstanding and misinformation that the public has (about the bill)," she said Thursday. "So we just need to do a better job of educating them ahead of time."
EMBATTLED AGENCIES SAY THEY'LL BE MORE OPEN
Two of Scott's prized but besieged agencies say they'll be more open about deals involving public money, as the House continues to question the agencies' funding and, for one, the need to exist.
With Scott and House Speaker Richard Corcoran publicly sparring over the business-recruitment agency Enterprise Florida and tourism-marketer Visit Florida, the leaders of those agencies signed updated contracts Tuesday with the state Department of Economic Opportunity.
In the amended paperwork, both public-private agencies agreed to follow state travel policies and post employee salaries --- including performance bonuses --- online. Visit Florida also intends to cap employee base salaries at $120,000.
As part of its updated inner workings, Visit Florida intends to post all contracts worth more than $500,000 online at least five days before approval. Enterprise Florida has a similar online requirement for deals topping $1 million.
Corcoran derides economic incentives as "corporate welfare" and has criticized Visit Florida over million-dollar deals with Miami hip-hop artist Armando Christian Perez, better known as Pitbull, London-based Fulham Football Club and an IMSA racing team.
The amended contracts come as the House and Senate prepare to start budget negotiations. The Senate has proposed spending $76 million on Visit Florida, while the House has proposed $25 million. The House has already approved a bill (HB 7005) that would abolish Enterprise Florida.
Scott wants $76 million to continue marketing efforts by Visit Florida and $85 million for Enterprise Florida. The Senate is close to that mark for Enterprise Florida, although not all the money would go into incentives.
TWEET OF THE WEEK: "The Florida House just cheered for themselves because all 120 members are here today. They're all supposed to be here every day..." Michael Auslen (@MichaelAuslen), a reporter for the Tampa Bay Times/Miami Herald Tallahassee bureau on Wednesday.
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