Rick Scott is giving every state legislator in Florida the chance to weigh in on his or her2011 priorities. And while he's getting plenty of thoughts on the top issues and how to approach them, he's getting almost nothing when he asks how they plan to pay for it.
The meetings are fairly intimate, typically in small hotel boardrooms, with the governor-elect at the head of the table. A handful of lawmakers sit around the table discussing with Scott what they would like to see improved in the state. The latest meeting was Tuesday.
During the discussion, Rep. Richard Steinberg, D-Miami Beach, talked for a few minutes, somewhat passionately, about the need to improve Florida's education system.
"If we want to create jobs, the reality is, we first have to have an educated work force," he said. "And frankly, we can't do it on the cheap."
When he finished, Scott asked him, "Do you think we raise taxes, or is there something we cut?"
Steinberg didn't have an answer. He said he didn't know how the state should pay for it, then returned to stressing the importance of education.
The Miami Beach legislator's response to the governor wasn't unique.
Rep. Lori Berman, D-Boca Raton, also was caught off-guard when Scott suggested her constituents probably wouldn't want a tax increase to pay for her idea on a solar-power incentive program.
"People don't want a tax increase, including utility rates," Scott told Berman. "But if we're going to take it from the state budget, we've got to figure out what we're going to cut."
This pragmatic approach to budgeting and policymaking is proving a tough pill for some lawmakers to swallow.
"There are a lot of good programs out there," said Scott, "but there has to be a way to pay for them."
Paying for them will be a huge challenge for Scott. Despite the estimated $3 billion budget shortfall projected for next year, he has promised to phase out the business tax and cut property taxes by 19 percent.
Scott says he plans to do it, in part, by making government run more efficiently and getting rid of programs that aren't producing "a good return on the state's investment."
Virtually everything is on the table, from large, expensive programs like Medicaid and public education, to individual departments like Visit Florida, the state's machine for tourism public relations.
"We're going to go through every agency. We're going to look at how we can streamline government," he said.
Another top priority for Scott is the state employees' pension program.
"We have to fix it," he said. "What I'm trying to do is get everyone's ideas on how, but we have to fix it."
Rep. Perry Thurston, D-Plantation, was among the first to respond to Scott's request for ideas on the subject in Tuesday's meeting. He questioned why the governor-elect would "want to focus on that when the program is stable."
Scott responded that the pension program is not stable.
"Well, the pension program is underfunded. We've basically had no return over the last 10 years," he said. "Even with expectations of decent returns, we're still underfunded."
Rep. Jim Waldman, D-Coconut Creek, said the pension program does offer some potential for savings and suggested changing the time it takes for someone to be vested in a plan from the current six years to eight or 10.
"If we're going to look at the pension plan as something we're going to change, we ought to look at the time it takes for somebody to be vested in that plan."
Some lawmakers, like Thurston and Rep. Marty Kiar, D-Parkland, objected to the idea of changing the pension plan, but Scott assured them it would only be for state employees. He said local municipalities would have to figure out their pension problems in their own way.
Scott's goal is to meet with all of the state senators and representatives before he takes office in January. So far he's met with about 75 of the 160 lawmakers.
He's not revealing his hand yet on what he wants to see cut, but says it will all be in the budget he releases Feb. 4.
Lane Wright can be reached at lane@sunshinestatenews.com or 561-247-1063.
