As legislators return to their districts, priding themselves on a job well done, doubtless many of them are putting on a bright face, smarting over the losses of the 2013 Florida legislative session. Here are some of the bills that didn't make it -- but likely will return in one form or another after some tweaking:
1. Pension Reform
House Speaker Will Weatherford made no secret of the fact that pension reform was a major priority for him this year. His measure (HB 7011) to steer new state workers into 401(k)-style retirement plans failed in the Senate, by a 22-18 vote, with one-third of that chamber's Republicans joining every Democrat to oppose it.
One of the reasons they work for government is not for the salary, Sen. Jack Latvala, R-Clearwater, told the Miami Herald last Tuesday, after that vote. They havent had raises in six or seven years. Its for the pension and if we want to continue to have the quality of employees that we have, we need to continue to offer that pension. Latvala was one of the Republican votes against pension reform.
Weatherford and other fiscal conservatives argued the reform was needed in order to make sure taxpayers were not on the hook for a state retirement system that is less than 87 percent funded.
Latvala added that Senate President Don Gaetz had told him Weatherford promised Gaetz that in exchange for a Senate vote this year, the speaker would not bring the issue up again in 2014. Gaetz all but confirmed that.
But on Friday, as Weatherford, Gaetz, and Gov. Rick Scott gave their speeches closing the session on the fourth floor of the Capitol rotunda, behind them on one of the placards put up by the speaker's office were the words [Florida Retirement System] Reform: to be continued ...
2. Obamacare Medicaid Expansion, or Negroncare
Fiscal conservatives and libertarians might actually count this among the session's greatest victories: thanks to House Republicans, Florida isn't accepting a dime of federal money to grow its welfare system.
House and Senate Democrats wanted the state to adopt wholesale the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act's (i.e., Obamacare's) optional Medicaid expansion provisions, which would have made 1.1 million Floridians with income below 138 percent of the poverty line newly eligible to be drafted into the program. But when they saw that was going nowhere, they jumped on board a compromise proposed by Senate Republicans, led by Sen. Joe Negron, R-Palm City.
The Negroncare plan would have accepted the same Medicaid funds, but would have disbursed them as $2,000 stipends to help eligible families purchase their own health coverage. That measure was rejected by the House, which instead proposed its own state-funded alternative that granted those same vouchers, but only to the poorest or most disadvantaged of Floridians.
Proponents of accepting federal funds argued that these monies, if not spent on Floridians, would be disbursed and spent elsewhere. Opponents insisted that the increasingly insolvent federal government could not be trusted to keep to its funding commitments, and that as a matter of principle Florida should not cooperate, more than it has to, with a law that is flawed.
Neither plan prevailed, but the House at least succeeded in the face of opposition by Scott, the Florida Chamber of Commerce, and the Associated Industries of Florida in keeping Florida from participating in Obamacare more than the U.S. Supreme Court has said it has to.
Can we expect to see a revival of the Medicaid expansion debate next year?
The ships have been burned; there's no turning back for us in the Florida House, Weatherford told reporters when he first announced his state-based proposal, referring to the legendary destruction of his ships by the explorer Hern Cort, to fortify his troops' resolve to colonize the New World.
Then, last Tuesday, Weatherford blinked. He indicated for the first time he might be open to accepting federal money.
"You never say 'never' in this business, I've learned that," the Wesley Chapel Republican replied when asked about his willingness to accept some federal aid as part of a House alternative to Medicaid expansion.
House Democrats wasted no time Friday issuing a statement urging Scott to call a special summer session to give federally funded welfare expansion another shot.
Perhaps the most surprising defeat this year was of SB 862, Parent Empowerment legislation (frequently mischaracterized as Parent Trigger) that would have given parents of students at failing public schools the option to submit nonbinding petitions to their school boards to enact any of several turnaround options, including conversion of the school into a charter school.
Senior government sources, and others close to the issue, told Sunshine State News that Gov. Scott actively lobbied Republican senators even formerly sympathetic ones to vote against the measure. The reason? He didn't want it to get to his desk just before an election year. He didn't want to tick off unions, PTA, and teachers by signing it, or further disenfranchise his already frustrated conservative base by vetoing it.
The bill's sponsor, Sen. Kelli Stargel, R-Lakeland, has told SSN she will not be resurrecting the measure next year, though education reform geared toward encouraging more parental involvement remains one of her top priorities.
Stay tuned.
4. Taxpayer Dollars for Multibillionaire Sports Team Owners
Tens of millions of taxpayer dollars for multibillionaire Stephen Ross majority owner of the Miami Dolphins -- to renovate Miami's Sun Life Stadium went up in smoke Friday, with Speaker Weatherford declining to bring it before the House for an up or down vote.
Republicans themselves including the Miami-Dade GOP delegation were heavily divided on the bill, though notably the Dade Republican Executive Committee passed a resolution condemning the proposalas so much big-government corporate welfare.
In South Florida itself, the debate became a battle of the billionaires, with Ross going up against Norman Braman owner of Braman Honda car dealerships and former owner of the Philadelphia Eagles who had taken to radio, television, and the print media to voice his opposition to the measure.
I've never received corporate welfare, nor have I ever asked for it, Braman told Sunshine State News shortly before the Miami-Dade REC passed its resolution. I don't believe in using public dollars to subsidize an individual who is the 83rd richest American. I feel that like any other entrepreneur or business person who wants to improve an asset, he should pay for it himself.
It remains to be seen whether Ross and his lobbyists will pursue the funding again next year; if he does, Braman and Miami's staunchly libertarian Republican grassroots will surely have a thing or two to say about it.
5. Anti-Sharia Bill
HB 351, sponsored by Rep. Larry Metz, R-Yalaha, would have prevented foreign law from being enforced by American courts of arbitration in family law matters if doing so would violate constitutional rights or the policy of the state of Florida.
The law had been dubbed anti-sharia, because its text was based on model statutes drafted by activists who feared that certain elements of Islamic law which discriminates against women and non-Muslims were being applied in state courts around the country.
Critics charged the law was a solution in search of a problem, as American courts are already prohibited, by well over a century of precedent, from enforcing arbitration agreements that contradict U.S. or state policy. Metz, an attorney, had acknowledged as much, but argued that his bill would have been a useful tool for state judges, codifying those precedents in a single, go-to statute.
The House passed the bill, after which Rick Scott issued a statement praising the move and signaling his intention to sign it, but the measure died in the Senate. The year 2013 was the second in a row the bill had been introduced, and there's no word on whether it will come up again next year. If it does, expect the usual suspects Democrats and the American Civil Liberties Union to cry foul.
6. Medical Marijuana Legalization
HB 1139, the Cathy Jordan Medical Cannabis Act, would have allowed patients with certain specified medical conditions to possess and ingest medicinal cannabis under a doctor's supervision. The measure was sponsored by freshmen Rep. Katie Edwards, D-Plantation, and Sen. Jeff Clemens, D-Lake Worth.
Most years the failure of a Democrat-drafted drug legalization bill to move through the state's Republican-dominated Legislature would be uneventful: the pope is still Catholic, and water is still wet. But 2013 was different, or so activists hoped. Last November, Colorado and Washington became the first two states in the nation to legalize marijuana for recreational use, while Massachusetts became the 18th state to legalize it for medicinal purposes. A new bipartisan spirit seemed to be prevailing in the Legislature, and polls consistently show that overwhelming majorities of Floridians favor the legalization of medical cannabis.
Jodi James, executive director of the Florida Cannabis Action Network (FLCAN), had even gotten wind from a legislator that a workshop on the matter would be held. But House Health Quality Subcommittee chairman Ken Roberson, R-Punta Gorda, quashed it, purportedly (according to sources) on orders from Speaker Weatherford.
Though the bill did not come close to getting off the ground this year, it did garner a good deal of publicity, and Edwards has indicated to SSN that the issue remains a priority for her.
Reach Eric Giunta at egiunta@sunshinestatenews.com or at (954) 235-9116.
