The Fine Print

Scott already headed to a showdown with Legislature?

The final year of Gov. Charlie Crist's term was one that featured a running series of skirmishes between Crist and the GOP-controlled Legislature.

Crist never had a strong show of support among his fellow Republicans to begin with and his populist style of governing consistently rubbed many of them the wrong way. Of course, once Crist switched parties to run as an independent for the U.S. Senate his relationship with the Legislature went from strained to outright hostile.

But at least got Crist got some sort of honeymoon when he first came into office. It seems like an eternity ago but Crist came into office with sky-high approval ratings and lawmakers were eager to work with him. Within days of taking office, the Legislature signed off on a major overhaul of property insurance in an effort to get rate hikes under control.

Now let's look at the situation between Gov. Rick Scott and the Legislature.

Scott hasn't even been in office the proverbial "100 days" and his style of governing is already creating friction.

First of all, there was his decision to try to sell his budget proposal by courting the Tea Party movement and not the people who have to pass it. Scott released his budget at a Tea Party rally in Eustis and repeatedly suggested that the current state budget was "bloated" even though Republicans have been in complete control since 1999.

This week's decision to scuttle high-speed rail without giving any advance notice to lawmakers appears to really have infuriated a number of Republicans. Sen. Paula Dockery, R-Lakeland and an early backer of Scott, gave him the ultimate knock and suggested that he didn't approach the decision like a "businessman." The Scott administration has done their own pushback by turning to conservative media outlets and looking to their Tea Party allies for support. A majority of the Senate, however, wrote a letter to U.S. officials asking that they give the state time to try to bypass the governor.

And then in a sign that the honeymoon is almost all but over Sen. J.D Alexander wrote a letter this week suggesting that how Scott sold off two state planes ran afoul of state laws regarding budgeting and the disposal of surplus property.

Senate President Mike Haridopolos on Friday sided with Scott on high speed rail against the majority of members in his own chamber, but the question is whether his decision is more about positioning himself in the 2012 U.S. Senate race then it is about siding with Scott.

This quick breakdown is not completely surprising. Here's what I wrote in the Florida Tribune back in December:

Dealing with the Legislature: There have been some comparisons made between Scott and former Gov. Bush. Both were businessmen who had never run for office before and found themselves in the thick of Tallahassee politics and government.

But that may be where the parallels end. Scott will likely get some sort of honeymoon with the GOP-controlled Legislature when he takes office. But it would seem unlikely he will get the same type of compliant Legislature that Bush got. Scott’s partners – Senate President Mike Haridopolos and House Speaker Dean Cannon – had a marriage of convenience after their candidate, Attorney General Bill McCollum, got bounced. But the two leaders have their own agenda – and own political futures – to consider over the next two years. And with a veto-proof majority, they don’t have to play nice.

Plus Bush was elected by a wide margin and enjoyed rock star status from day one.  If you were a Republican legislator, there were clear political reasons to remain loyal. Additionally, Bush’s first term was enhanced by House Speaker John Thrasher, who made it clear that his number one goal was helping the Republican governor succeed.

So the bottom line is this: The 2010 session was fairly unpredictable due to the hostility between the Legislature and Crist.

Yet it seems that the 2011 session could be even more dynamic. In the recent past, a governor usually triangulated against the Legislature by aligning himself with one of the chambers against the other chamber.

Right now, it's not clear that Scott will have that luxury. Cannon has his own agenda - like making changes to the state's judicial branch - but so far he has refrained from warmly embracing priorities of either Scott or the Senate. Haridopolos may support Scott because of his own political aspirations, but it appears that his own GOP senators may be unwilling to join him.

The next few months could be one heck of a ride.

 

 

 

 

Scott's dinner conversation with J.D., Don Gaetz and Andy Gardiner

Gov. Rick Scott - after flying to Eustis to roll out his budget proposal at an event set up by Tea Party leaders - spent dinner with Sen. J.D. Alexander, Sen. Don Gaetz and Senate Majority Leader Andy Gardiner.

Here's the main things that they talked about during the conversation that began in the famed Florida Room of the mansion before it shifted to the State Dining Room.

* Gaetz and the governor talked with the others about the recent decision of Vision Airlines to come to Florida.

* Gaetz expressed his disappointment to Scott regarding some recent Visit Florida ads airing in Palm Beach County. Gaetz told Scott the ads featured Northwest Florida officials. He said he didn't understand the logic of targeting people from Palm Beach County to come north to the beach. Scott seemed surprised by the ads as well.

* Alexander, the Senate budget chief, told Scott that he had had the chance to meet the new Department of Management Services Secretary Jack Miles and that he had the right professional qualifications for the job.

* Alexander also said that he just been taking a first glance at Scott's budget proposal. He was urged to "just pass it." Later in the night that theme would be repeated when one of Scott's top aides would suggest to all three senators that the nation will be watching to see if the Legislature enacts Scott's "fiscally conservative" budget.

* There was some general conversation about Scott's flight to and from Eustis being waylaid because of bad weather. Scott also talked about the crowd that showed for the event. He briefly mentioned that those in the Tea Party - who he said included Democrats and independents - don't want to be "disappointed' by those they have supported. Scott also noted that he has had bigger crowds at Tea Party events than at Republican Party of Florida organized events.

* Gaetz said lawmakers were likely to start looking this year at the operations of the Florida Housing Finance Corporation, which is responsible for providing money to help developers build low-income housing. Alexander said he has begun questioning why the corporation needs any more money right now when there are plenty of empty houses in Florida due to the recession. Scott noted that he did not recommend any additional funding for them.

* Scott and Alexander started talking about property insurance. The governor repeated his vow to make changes this year to Citizens Property Insurance Corp., the state-created carrier of last resort. "Everyone understands we need to fix Citizens this year,'' Scott said.

* During dinner, Scott repeated a line from his budget rollout where he said "we shouldn't have fiefdoms" in state government. This came from a discussion on why on Florida's highways there were separate weigh stations for Department of Transportation and interdiction stations for the Department of Agriculture.

* Scott expressed his amazement that the state does not have a unified e-mail system for all of state government.

* Scott also said he is a "few days" away from naming someone in state government to take control of economic development efforts. This was part of an overall discussion where Alexander asked questions about whether or not Scott has been successful in talking to companies moving here, and what kinds of things he is hearing about those who may, or may not, move to Florida.

Alexander also asked about Scott's proposal to have more control over economic development incentive dollars. Alexander asked if Scott would be opposed to some sort of provision that states that if a certain company promises a large number of jobs then Scott has the authority to use the dollars without additional legislative approval. Scott said he could go along with that concept and said he had no problem with having thresholds in place.

* Gardiner briefly mentioned to Scott concerns about the use of psychotropic drugs on foster children. He relayed how Sen. Ronda Storms cared very much about the issue and that she would be pursuing it again this coming session. Gardiner also said that Storms had already met the new head of the Department of Children and Families and "hugged him.'

* Gardiner also urged the governor to help Florida retain - and even attract - Major League Baseball teams to Florida. Scott, who once was a part owner of the Texas Rangers, said he wants to make sure the state doesn't lose any more teams and that he wants to "put a focus" on many things the state can to help its sports teams and have people come to the state because of the teams.

 

 

Make or break day for Gov. Scott?

Largely out of his own making, this could be a make or break day for Gov. Rick Scott.

Scott, after building up anticipation for weeks now, will finally unveil his ideas later today on how to balance the state's budget and rebuild the state's economy. And in an interesting and politically confrontational way the "outsider" governor has chosen to release his budget at a Tea Party event in Central Florida.

This is quite a turnabout from the days of Gov. Charlie Crist. That's because while Crist's budget recommendations generated about a day's worth of news it was quickly eclipsed by the actions of the Florida Legislature. In fact, some lawmakers resented what they considered Crist's optimistic outlook and proposals versus the bleak fiscal reality that has settled over the state since the recession pushed the state's economy into a tailspin.

This is why Crist's budget proposals, especially those in the later half of his time as governor, were somewhat ignored.

Now we have the bitter medicine likely to be recommended by Scott. Mammoth spending cuts of $5 billion as well as significant tax cuts that he says will respark the state's economy.

But unlike Crist the new governor has banked most of his entire legislative agenda for 2011 on the proposals that he says will be explained in his budget, whether it's his property tax cuts or his bid to reform the state pension plan. Scott last month even vowed that lawmakers would pass his budget.

On the one hand some lawmakers are amazed that Scott is willing to be the "bad guy" so to speak. In other words, he's come out with with the really tough proposals that could likely make the Legislature appear somewhat benevolent in return.

Scott, however, is trying for an interesting political gambit. Since he operated outside the traditional GOP infrastructure, he's turning to the Tea Party groups to help act as his constituency for his recommendations. In recent weeks, he has warned about the "special interest groups" that will complain loudly about his proposals.

This is in itself a tacit acknowledgement that the "interest group" that Scott has to battle could be the Republican-controlled Legislature. The unspoken truth here is that Scott doesn't owe his victory to them, nor do legislative leaders owe any true support to him.

There are other things, however, that could undercut Scott's budget proposal. First, it slipped out on Friday that Scott intends to propose a "two-year" budget. The argument highlighted in an Associated Press story was that Scott wanted to take a longer view on the state's fiscal conditions.

But the problem is the Legislature is required to pass a budget every year.

Additionally, if Scott is pushing money, expenses, cuts off into a second year in order to create an overall balanced budget than his proposals are going to get short-circuited very quickly. Lawmakers have spent the last four years complaining about "gimmicks" that came from Crist. If Scott does something similiar, he could risk losing his credibility with the Legislature.

Other things to watch for today: How Scott treats so-called "trust" funds and the use of non-recurring money.

Donna Arduin, the former budget chief for Gov. Jeb Bush and one of Scott's advisors, helped draw up the new budget. Arudin, while working with Bush, basically disagreed with some of the central tenets that lawmakers relied on when building a budget. Arduin would make the argument that taxpayer money is taxpayer money and it doesn't matter if it came from the state's sales tax or came from a highly specialized fee that an industry paid.

This goes against a deeply ingrained mindset - as evidenced recently by Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam comments on the Department of Citrus - that some taxes aren't "state tax dollars." Arduin's rejoinder was that money is money and if came out of someone's pocket and was sent to state government than the state has the discretion to spend wherever it's needed. But groups such as homebuilders, Realtors and road builders, view it in a much different light. They will argue that some of these trust funds help these industries create jobs.

Another thing that Arduin disagreed with lawmakers on: The use of non-recurring money versus recurring money. This is a bit of an arcane idea, but legislators compare it to using your savings account to pay the mortgage. Your mortgage is due every month so you should pay with a steady stream of income instead of utilizing a one-time source of cash. Arduin felt otherwise during her stint with Bush and the governor would recommend budgets that would rely on non-recurring, so-called one-time sources of cash, to pay for operating expenses. It was largely due to Arduin's influence that the Legislature placed a constitutional amendment on the ballot in 2006 that requires a three-fifths vote to approve a budget that uses more than 3 percent of non-recurring revenue for recurring purposes.

Of course, it's the budget cuts that will likely create a great amount of uproar and political consternation.

But if you put it all together this budget proposal could bring a quick end to Scott's honeymoon with the Legislature.

If lawmakers reject Scott's tax cuts, Scott's immigration proposal, and Scott's spending cuts, then it will be a long four years. Legislators do seem inclined to do some sort of pension reform - so that will be counted as a win regardless of the final design. Additionally, Scott appears to win approval of his bid bid to centralize economic development efforts.

Still if Scott gets about half of what he wants in his first year then how much will be get in his fourth year?