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Local legislators bring limited agendas to 2010 session
Northwest Florida Daily News, March 3, 2010
Tom McLaughlin
With scant money to spend and election year propriety to be considered, the 2010 legislative session -- which begins Tuesday -- could be short on fireworks.
"I think we will try to do as little harm as possible," quipped state Rep. Brad Drake, a DeFuniak Springs Republican.
"I think this year we'll strictly hammer out a budget, hunker down, absorb the hard reality that we're in tough economic times and get out of town," Drake said.
Once again the 160 lawmakers who comprise the Legislature, more than 20 of whom are campaigning for office, will be faced with cutting back to balance the state budget.
This year, a $3 billion shortfall is projected.
Along with the cuts, emphasis will be placed on generating revenue, and state Sen. Don Gaetz, as chairman of the Policy and Steering Committee on Social Responsibility, will be in the middle of that battle.
"With 12 percent unemployment, small businesses along with families are facing tough times," he said. "A lot of that is caused by Mom or Dad losing a job or having their hours cut."
Gaetz's Jobs for Florida plan offers "about a dozen" job retention or job creation policy recommendations. Among those, he said, is his plan to eliminate some government barriers to job creation.
"A business looking to expand or move to our area often has to wait months or years to come in and create jobs," said Gaetz, R-Niceville.
The plan would delegate often redundant state/local permitting processes to local governments in an effort to do away with "paperwork delays," Gaetz said.
Gaetz's bill also calls for restructuring new business tax incentives to "put it on the back end."
Under the plan, businesses would realize negotiated tax incentives only after getting off the ground and employing people, Gaetz said.
Gaetz is also sponsoring a bill calling for a vote to change the constitution and allow some local control over how many students are allowed in a classroom.
He said that without changes, state mandates will force maximum classroom sizes of 18 students for kindergarten through third grades, 22 for fourth through eighth grades, and 25 for high school.
"The class size amendment would give teachers and parents limited flexibility over what most teachers are telling me would be chaos if we're allowed to carry caps to class size," he said.
Class size requirements would remain in place, Gaetz said, but under his plan they would be calculated by school average, thus providing local control.
Gaetz needs 24 votes in the Senate to nudge his proposal toward the ballot. He said he anticipates "some heavy lifting" required to succeed.
Sens. Peaden and Gaetz are working together on a bill to eliminate fraud in the state's Medicaid program. Peaden, chairman of the Health Care Appropriations Subcommittee, said lawmakers who think there's money to be squeezed out of Medicaid reform are mistaken.
"There are a lot of plans, a lot of illusions, and Medicaid's the whipping boy," he said. "I hope we get some new direction."
State Reps. Drake and Greg Evers, R-Baker, as well as Gaetz, have formulated bills calling for the elimination of last year's fee hikes implemented by the Florida Department of Motor Vehicles.
Drake said the cost increases for license tags and other necessities are anticipated to generate $800 million for the state, so "I'm less optimistic than I was six months ago" that a fee elimination bill would pass.
State Rep. Marti Coley, R-Marianna, said she'll seek this year to reinstate financing for the Bankhead-Coley Cancer Research fund.
The research fund gets its working capital from cigarette taxes, Coley said, so she's confident the Legislature will vote to reauthorize it.
Drake said he wants to encourage spending on transportation infrastructure as a means of stimulating the economy.
"Every dollar spent on transportation generates $5," he said.
"I'd like to do everything I can to grow transportation infrastructure in Northwest Florida -- looking forward to times of future economic prosperity," he said. "One of the best medicines a struggling economy can have is a good dose of transportation projects."
All of the delegation members pledged their support to the needs of constituents of state House District 4. Former state Rep. Ray Sansom resigned the seat under fire on Feb. 21 and won't be replaced before at least mid-April.
"I've actually received phone calls from residents of District 4 that I've helped in the past," said Evers, R-Baker. "They've said, ‘I feel we're under-represented.' I said, ‘Am I not here or what?' "
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