Final week of the session will be busy — and not final
This much is for certain: Florida legislators will end their regular session this week.
What they will do – or more important, what will be left undone – remains to be seen. So is when they’ll be back, to pass a state budget by June 30.
That’s the only thing lawmakers are constitutionally required to do every year. But hard-and-fast disagreements over health care spending have made this year’s House-Senate standoff more intractable than ever.
It’s been a busy 55 days since Gov. Rick Scott’s “state of the state” speech on March 3. But the House and Senate still have crowded calendars of non-budget bills to discuss before the May Day adjournment of the session.
The final days are always hectic, with scores of big and small bills pushed through the system while budget negotiators work toward compromise – under a legal mandate to deliver a deal 72 hours before they can go home. But they’ve long since given up crafting a compromise between the $76.2 billion House budget and the $80 billion Senate plan, and going home on time.
It wasn’t until Thursday that the House made its first budget overtures, and the Senate replied the next day. There was no noticeable progress on either side of the Capitol.
“The Senate is prepared to extend our session to June 30, if we’re unable to make allocations,” Senate Appropriations Chairman Tom Lee, R-Brandon, told members before they adjourned Friday. “There’s no way to get home on time, we all know that.”
Perhaps symbolizing the reduced pace of the final week, Senate President Andy Gardiner, R-Orlando, said the Senate will convene at 1 p.m. on Monday. No need to rush back for one of those marathon days that mark most final weeks, he said.
“We’ll finish strong through next Friday,” Gardiner said. “We will get all the policy done that we can.”
Scott last week proposed letting the clock run out while he creates a joint budget commission to work with the federal government on the big issues – expansion of the Medicaid program under the Affordable Care Act, and some way of restoring the “low-income pool” funding for hospitals treating indigent, uninsured patients. Scott and the House oppose those ideas, while the Senate has alternative plans for funding them.
That’s mainly why the two chambers are $4 billion apart on the budget.
Once the state has an idea whether Washington will accept a remade health plan, Scott could call a special session and legislators could pass a budget. In the interim, perhaps extending the current session, they could pass a “continuation” budget to keep the lights on in state agencies.
Also in the mix is a House-passed plan for more than $600 million in tax cuts, which Scott wants badly. The Senate has other plans.
House Speaker Steve Crisafulli, R-Merritt Island, offered a counter to the Senate suggestions late Friday. He added that “we believe an automatic extension to June 30 is unnecessary and we can begin negotiations as early as this weekend and accomplish our work in a manner that will not incur costs to Florida taxpayers associated with an unnecessarily protracted extended session.”
In either an extension or a special session, the agenda would be limited and anything outside the call of the resolution would take an extraordinary vote, just to get on the House or Senate floor.
Bill on bills: A final forecast
Here’s a look at some of what’s been done, and remains to be done, in the session:
GUNS: Bills to allow concealed-weapon permit holders to carry their guns on college campuses caused a lot of debate, but haven’t cleared either chamber. Ditto proposals to let school districts designate armed security guards on public school grounds.
The outlook: dead for the year.
GAMBLING: For a third straight year, plans for two giant “destination resort” casinos in the Miami-Fort Lauderdale area came up snake eyes. Even renewal of the Seminole gaming compact, a $250 million-a-year deal, looks like a bad bet.
The outlook: Nope.
“CONSCIENCE PROTECTION:” A bill to let private adoption agencies refuse child placement with parents whose lifestyles they disapprove of – that is, gays – passed the House but is stuck in the Senate Rules Committee, which won’t meet again.
The outlook: dead.
BEER: The House sent Scott a bill Friday allowing craft breweries of 64-ounce “growlers,” ending a three-year debate. Brewers can also open up to eight taprooms where beer lovers can sample brands, buy some or fill their growlers.
The outlook: Scott will sign it, since it’s good for jobs.
DEPARTMENT HEADS : This one is just good old politics. The Senate has so far confirmed two Public Service Commissioners, but has ignored hundreds of Scott appointees to everything from the Barber’s Board to Secretary of State. Gardiner insists no hostages have been taken, but some very important executives – the heads of the prison system, Agency for Health Care Administration, Surgeon General, Lottery Department, Children and Families, etc. – remain unconfirmed.
The outlook: They can serve through the end of the 2016 session, though, so nothing changes if the Senate doesn’t take them up.
STATE EMPLOYEES: No news is good news for Tallahasseeans, on two out of three personnel points. A bill to revise the employee health-insurance system, giving them Olympic-style choices of bronze-through-platinum plans with graduated premiums and coverage levels, made it through some committee talks but stalled in the House. Pension reform – the Republican idea of putting all new hires in a 401(k)-style retirement system – never got started this year, unlike previous sessions. And there were no general pay raises, to no one’s surprise.
The outlook: Nothing happens on these when they get back to the budget in a special session.
SINE DIE: The loveliest words in the legislative lexicon, this Latin term meaning “we’re out of here” will be heard Friday. In fact, a lot of people would like to knock off at mid-week, since they’re not going to get a budget, and they know they have to come back anyway.
The outlook: They will sine die, but it won’t be with the high fives and grinning photo ops that usually mark their departure – because they know it’s only temporary.