Would the Legislature include more average Floridians if the job paid more?
That was the idea behind a bill (SB 712), pitched this week by outgoing Senate Minority Leader Arthenia Joyner. The bill would have increased most lawmakers' pay by more than $20,000, to $50,000. The Senate president and the House speaker --- who already make more than their colleagues --- would have seen a smaller boost but still pulled in a higher income, at $57,000.
Joyner, D-Tampa, told the Senate Governmental Oversight and Accountability Committee that the Legislature needed "some teachers, some taxi drivers, some sales clerks, some restaurant servers, some bartenders, and maybe some candlestick makers." (The House and Senate do have some teachers, but no known professional candlestick makers.)
And it's true that the economic status of lawmakers doesn't resemble the demographics of Florida. Financial disclosure forms filed last year showed that about a third of lawmakers were millionaires.
"We have a lot of intelligent, bright, wealthy people in the Legislature," Joyner (net worth: $1,074,765) said Tuesday. "There is a dearth of folks who are the ones where the rubber meets the road, those who have the inability to get elected because they can't afford to leave their jobs and run because this job won't pay enough."
Lawmakers actually make less now than they did in 2007. That year, the average lawmaker pulled in $31,932; now, it's $29,697. That's a legacy of the financial downturn that hit the state in 2008, which prompted lawmakers to reduce their pay twice in a row, then freeze it at that level, despite a state law allowing annual adjustments.
Most of the committee didn't agree. Sen. Dwight Bullard, a Miami Democrat who has one of the smaller net worths at $63,700, was the only one to back the bill. The other three members who voted --- two of them millionaires --- opposed the measure.
Sen. Jack Latvala, R-Clearwater --- net worth $7,129,425 --- said he didn't think the measure would necessarily bring more working-class and middle-income Floridians to the House and Senate.
"It's a sacrifice to serve in the Florida Legislature," Latvala said. "I knew it was going to be a sacrifice before I ever signed up. And I've kept my mouth shut and taken it like an adult. And that's just the way it is."
Sen. Alan Hays, R-Umatilla ($644,621), didn't disagree with the idea behind Joyner's legislation. But he suggested most Floridians see the Legislature as a two-month job, because that's how long the annual session lasts and don't realize how much goes into holding office.
"From that standpoint, I think the pay raise is justified, but I think we need to get to a point of better understanding on the part of the voters before we do it," Hays said.
Committee Chairman Jeremy Ring, D-Margate ($13,739,135), even more clearly addressed the elephant in the room: the perception that lawmakers would be looking out for themselves by increasing legislative salaries. Joyner, who is leaving office at the end of this year, wouldn't benefit from the bill.
"I appreciate you doing this, because you're term-limited out," Ring said. "If anyone's going to do this bill, hopefully it's going to be someone who's termed out."
But the fate of Joyner's bill shows that, however pure the motives might be, it's likely to be a long time before any lawmaker pushes through a big increase in the pay for House members and senators.
BIG CITRUS PUTS SQUEEZE ON STATE AGENCY
Captain Citrus may have met his match for now.
Officials with the Florida Department of Citrus, which two years ago used $1 million from money generated by the sale of oranges and grapefruit to launch a marketing campaign with a muscled-up Marvel Comic superhero, last month streamlined some of its operations.
But a group of the state's largest growers implored --- in a letter on Monday --- that the agency make much deeper cuts as the industry is "in a struggle for our survival," facing its worst growing season in a half-century, due in large part to citrus greening disease.
The letter, first reported Tuesday by Jim Rosica of Florida Politics, asks Department of Citrus leaders to "idle" major marketing programs, new scientific, economic and market-research projects, and to scale back the box tax growers pay on oranges and grapefruit to 7 cents per 90-pound box until a cure for the disease is found.
"While these steps represent dramatic change, they are in line with economic reality and consistent with the scope of change among 'private enterprise' today," said the letter from the growers.
Among those signing the letter were Ben Hill Griffin III of Frostproof-based Ben Hill Griffin Inc., David Duda of Duda & Sons in Oviedo, Bill Becker of Vero Beach-based Peace River Citrus Products, and Bob Buker, the CEO and president of U.S. Sugar Corp. who is listed on the letter with subsidiary Southern Gardens Citrus.
Growers now pay 23 cents a box of juice oranges, while grapefruit for juice draws 19 cents per box.
The proposal by the growers would scale down the agency's annual budget from about $29.9 million to just over $7 million, trimming staff from 43 to 10, and reducing public relations efforts from $9 million to $2 million.
The growers' proposal would not impact research into citrus greening disease, which is considered one of the primary reasons the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Florida orange-harvest forecast for the 2015-2016 growing season stands at 69 million boxes, 29 percent off the prior season's output and the lowest for the industry since 1963-1964.
House Speaker Steve Crisafulli, whose family has spent several generations in the citrus industry, said he's supportive of cutting the box tax to help the growers. However, he believes a "fine balance" can be found to maintain the agency's operations.
"I think you still have to have marketing and promotions money to make sure that you're out there fighting the communications that are taking place in regard to defending the state," Crisafulli told reporters Wednesday.
Florida Citrus Commission Chairman Ellis Hunt released a statement that the growers' letter will be discussed at the commission's next meeting, which is scheduled for March 16.
"We recognize the unprecedented challenges citrus greening has posed for our industry; we fully expect to make difficult decisions," Hunt said.
Department Executive Director Shannon Shepp said in a statement that any reductions will be made "with an eye to preserving the growers' equity."
TWEET OF THE WEEK: "Last incumbent US President to visit Cuba was Calvin Coolidge 1928."---Michael Beschloss (@BeschlossDC), a presidential historian, on news that President Barack Obama would visit the island nation 90 miles away from Florida this year.
