No, Sen. Latvala, the governor didn't declare war on the Legislature. Let's be very clear.
In fact, Jack Latvala was in the thick of it, where he likes to be, on the one hand defending the governor, on the other helping to light the first fuse.
It was the Senate that declared war on Gov. Rick Scott and the Florida House, and it did so the minute it took up Medicaid expansion.
I said it before, I'll say it again. Scott lobbed Senate President Andy Gardiner a softball -- no, not even that ... more like a beachball. Could Scott have made it any more plain that he wasn't going to let Florida expand Medicaid with federal money?
And Gardiner got the message, too, because when he came to Tallahassee in February, Medicaid expansion was light years away from his radar gun. He mentioned not a word about it when he presented the Senate legislative agenda at the annual AP meeting. Not one. It wasn't until he was cornered by reporters that Gardiner, public relations specialist for an Orlando hospital, found the idea "intriguing." After that, Senate Democrats were emboldened, health-care lobbyists and business opportunists came out of the wordwork, and Gardiner & Co. seemed to circle the wagons and turn off the rest of the political world.
True, Don Gaetz presented leadership's argument eloquently this year. Of course he did. The Niceville Republican is nothing if not the loyal soldier. But last year, as Senate president, he and Speaker Will Weatherford and the governor were the Three Musketeers against Medicaid expansion. He did what he had to do to get as much as he could on the budget.
After Scott's vetoes Tuesday, Gardiner was angry. I don't know why, but he seemed surprised. "It is unfortunate that the messaging strategy needed to achieve the governor’s political agenda comes at the expense of the most vulnerable people in our state.” What, he didn't think there would be payback? Gardiner is like the big soft, family Lab that poohs on the living room carpet, then looks up with big puppy-dog eyes that say, "Huh? What'd I do?"
The Senate president has been in the Legislature for 14 years. That's a long time. Surely he knew there would be consequences. Didn't he know he was dealing with a governor who plays with real bullets? Scott's vetoes of $15 million for a new downtown Orlando campus of the University of Central Florida and $8 million for college scholarships and job training for people with disabilities -- backdoor additions to the budget or not -- were shots aimed straight at Gardiner's heart.
Latvala certainly was right about a couple of things: his assessment of Scott's staff and the inconsistency of the vetoes. Latvala told The Miami Herald Scott Chief of Staff Melissa Sellers didn't serve her boss well. I'll say. Actually, few of his chiefs of staff have, but Sellers -- who learned how to play hardball from the best -- landed Scott in a pickle this time.
She might have encouraged the governor to spend a few more days with the budget. She might also have given Scott's budget director Cynthia Kelly, one of the best in the business, better instructions.
Here's my best guess at the instructions Sellers gave Kelly:
Sellers: I want you to get me a list of every one of the projects that were put into the budget at the last minute. Then I want a list of every project that was brought up in conference without ever being heard in a committee.
Sellers takes a look at the lists, sees what sticks out like a sore thumb and -- to heck with finesse -- suggests wholesale vetoes for entire categories -- effectively applying a one-size-fits-all rationale to the governor's kill tactics. But here's the problem: there were projects there that Scott had OK'd previously.
I'm thinking Sellers never asked Kelly for that third column of information -- projects the governor had OK'd in the past.
So, now Scott looks inconsistent because he was inconsistent. Ask Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam, who was angry enough to issue his own post-budget-signing statement. The governor cut a pay raise for forestry firefighters, employees who put their lives on the line yet earn an average $27,475 a year. Meanwhile, the governor left alone pay raises for driver's license examiners and state troopers in six counties. Poorly thought out, damaging to Floridians when it needn't have been, damaging to the governor, damaging to the party in power in Tallahassee.
It's true, there are many Floridians who think the Legislature spends like a drunken sailor. They're going to look at $461 million in legislatively approved cuts as prudent, the governor as a fiscal watchdog and they're going to say, "Thank you, Gov. Scott."
For better or worse, in the end, the buck stops with Rick Scott. It's his budget now, his signature turned it into law, he owns it. But make no mistake, the Senate fired the first shot in the War of 2015. All we're doing now is trudging through the carnage.
Reach Nancy Smith at nsmith@sunshinestatenews.com or at 228-282-2423. Twitter: @NancyLBSmith.
