A bill ending automatic deductions from government worker paychecks for union political uses will get a vote before the full Senate after making it through its last committee stop Friday, but the final vote is anything but certain.
Senate Bill 830, sponsored by Sen. John Thrasher, R-St. Augustine, received narrow majorities in its first two committee stops. An amendment allowing public-sector unions to automatically deduct from member paychecks for nonpolitical purposes was tacked onto the bill during its final hearing Friday in the Senate Rules Committee, chaired by Thrasher. The amendment garnered more support for the bill, but some senators are still skeptical.
It addresses some of the concerns that I have, Sen. Anitere Flores, R-Miami, who voted against the bill Wednesday during its hearing in the Senate Budget Committee, said of the amendment. If it continues to be that there will not be allowed any sort of payroll deduction, I will not be able to support it on the floor, she added.
The bill requires public-worker unions to get annual written approval from members to use their dues for political purposes, and calls on them to gather their own political funds from workers.
Union representatives decried the bill earlier in the week during a previous committee stop, saying it will harm money used to give to charities and fund legal defense for wrongly accused police officers. They also noted that many unions already offer their members the opportunity to prevent their dues from going toward political purposes with which they disagree, or to leave the union altogether.
But union members also claimed that the bill unfairly targets unions, while it doesn't target private-sector organizations that automatically deduct from worker paychecks for political contributions. Sen. Don Gaetz, R-Niceville, said that claim was a red herring that was confusing the issue.
I believe this amendment does address what I think was some misleading testimony in the budget committee, and some confusion, and even some demagoguery. It clarifies that the only intent was to get the government out of the business of collecting money for political purposes, Gaetz said.
Some union representatives, however, maintained their claim that government funds that go to private-sector organizations are sometimes then automatically deducted from worker paychecks for political uses.
We think its patently unfair because its directly aimed at labor unions, said Jim Tulley of the Florida Professional Firefighters.
Democrats, the usual beneficiaries of public-sector union political contributions, have consistently railed against the bill, and echoed the claim that the bill targets unions on the basis that government money paying for state worker health plans ends up in the hands of insurance companies heavily involved in the legislative process.
State money goes to an awful lot of places -- it goes to Blue Cross and Blue Shield, especially for our health care and HMOs -- that all give to political purposes. Maybe we should say we should ban all state money from places that contribute to parties, and then well be on a very interesting quest because nobody will give contributions anymore, said Sen. Gwen Margolis, D-Miami.
Thrasher brushed off criticism of the bill, as well as the specter of a poll purportedly showing public opposition to the bill.
Ive got polls, too. Ive got polls from the taxpayers of our district. I think theyll back me up when we say the state of Florida ought not be in the business of collecting dues for political purposes, Thrasher said.
Reach Gray Rohrer at grohrer@sunshinestatenews.com or at (850) 727-0859.
