Lawmakers begin an election year legislative session Tuesday looking to fill a $3 billion budget gap, tackle a perception of corruption in public institutions and somehow spur the economy into a rebound.
While trying to spur job creation to help put a dent in the state’s nearly 12 percent unemployment rate, lawmakers also have as a priority a postponement of an unemployment compensation tax increase that is expected to pass this week.
The bill (SB 1666) by Sen. Rudy Garcia, R-Hialeah, and the Ways and Means Committee will delay a scheduled increase in unemployment taxes for two years, avoiding for businesses what would have been an enormous increase in the tax that goes to pay jobless benefits. The increase was so large that, ironically, business owners said it could have forced them to lay off more workers. The bill is on the Senate’s Special Order calendar, available for a vote as early as Tuesday.
The budget shortfall and the poor economy, obviously related, will dominate nearly everything lawmakers do this session, from looking for ways to cut the budget to looking at schemes for raising money that don’t involve hiking taxes in an election year. Among those ideas – gaming and a pay-to-play oil drilling proposal, a version of which (SB 2622) was filed late last week.
Gov. Charlie Crist has recommended nearly $300 million in tax credits for businesses aimed at boosting job creation and an omnibus jobs bill is also moving in the Senate. Figuring out ways to get businesses to put Floridians to work – whether through tax cuts or easing regulations – will also play prominently in the session, which will be the last for Crist as governor as he runs for a U.S. Senate seat.
So without tax increases, filling a $3 billion hole in the budget will almost certainly entail some budget cutting, although lawmakers will be able to rely on some federal stimulus money that will continue to prop up state spending, and are hoping for a boost in the federal portion of Medicaid through the stimulus program.
Still, Senate President Jeff Atwater has said state job cuts may be needed, and legislators will consider making themselves and other top state officials pick up some of the cost of their own health insurance, which is currently free.
What else may be on the cutting board remains to be seen, but the usual suspects in Medicaid, including the Medically Needy program and the Meds AD program are likely targets, simply because they are nearly every year.
Lawmakers also want voters to give them a break on the class size requirement. Legislators have filed a proposed constitutional amendment (SJR 2) to relax the calculation methods for figuring how many kids are in a class – though they won’t be able to do that in time for next school year.
Also high on the agenda this year is addressing – or at least appearing to address – the unusually high number of high profile corruption scandals from the past year or two. One of the most public of those scandals involved the possibility of discussions between staff of the Public Service Commission and officials from utilities with rate cases before the commission. That scandal is being addressed with a Senate bill (SB 1034) that requires commissioners to abide by the Code of Judicial Conduct, and making other ethics changes for the commission. That bill, by Sen. Mike Fasano, R-New Port Richey, is also ready for a vote by the full Senate and backers say that could come this week as well.
Criminal charges against prominent political money men Scott Rothstein and Alan Mendelsohn, both of whom were prolific contributors, and the downfall of former Speaker Ray Sansom, who resigned from the Legislature last month, also have spurred the desire for ethics clean-up legislation. Other than the PSC proposals, though, there’s been little to suggest that major overhauls of the way lawmakers themselves conduct business will be passed, though there are some proposals out there.
One thing that won’t go forward is an inquiry into how Sansom stuffed money into the budget for a local college that later gave him a job. Sansom’s resignation just before the session began made an inquiry panel’s work moot and it disbanded.
Balancing the budget – and how it’s done – will also be the subject of another bill ready for a full floor vote by the Senate. The measure (SB 1158) by Sen. Charlie Dean, R-Inverness, would wall off one particular trust fund from legislative budget raids. The trust fund is the gun license fund that pays for concealed weapons permitting.
While that trust fund may be put off limits, legislators likely will look at others as they try to come up with the cash to balance the budget.
One wild card is the economy – and whether tax collections are improving enough to bail lawmakers out of their predicament some. Economists have said that a recovery has started, but whether it’s enough to erase the bulk of the budget deficit won’t be known until later this month when the consensus revenue estimate is updated.
One money-raising idea – getting a bigger cut of gaming revenue – may also return to the Legislature. Crist is urging lawmakers to approve a compact with the Seminole tribe that would mean money for the state and approval of expanded gambling – already going on – in Seminole casinos. Lawmakers also are going to consider a House proposal to help existing parimutuels better compete with the tribe by reducing the tax rate on slot machines and allowing them to expand their hours.
Source: newsserviceflorida.com
