SUN SENTINEL EDITORIAL
Florida legislators finally figured it out: They don’t work for Gov. Ron DeSantis.
Now, they must follow up and override more of his unexplained budget vetoes of last year, especially to save the arts and worthy water quality projects.
When lawmakers last month restored $56 million cut from their budget, it was the first time in four decades that a Florida governor’s veto was overridden by his political party. This has to happen more often for the system to function properly.
As senators and House members gather in Tallahassee Tuesday, they need to remember that they work for us. That means, among other things, giving people fair notice of what’s coming up and allowing the public to weigh in remotely, by email or Zoom.
In the dark, on purpose
The Legislature is at its worst when it gives little or no notice of what it’s about to do and spares little or no time for committees to hear from the people. Public testimony too often gets short shrift because committee chairs have absolute control of the agenda.
Nasty surprises are sprung even after the people are heard.
In a notorious example from 2021, people drove all night from Key West to the Capitol to speak against legislation stripping cities of their right to regulate cruise ships. They were limited to 30 seconds each of speaking time.
The scheme to return huge cruise ships to Key West, overturning three Key West referendums and barring local control of all of Florida ports, was a done deal. The people lost.
Pay to play, period
DeSantis signed it despite a Miami Herald exposé revealing that the operator of Key West’s commercial pier had given or directed nearly $1 million to the governor’s political committee to bankroll his runs for re-election and for president. Pay to play, pure and simple.
Florida farmworkers got similar high-handed treatment when they protested a 2024 bill to prevent local governments from enacting heat protections and raising minimum wages on government contracts. They got no time to speak at one hearing and next to none after that.
“The practice has been to put our bills up last and let folks go on and on with everything else and then limit us to 30 seconds,” said Karen Woodall, a public interest lobbyist whose clients include the Southern Poverty Law Center. “We often had farm workers who had lost a loved one or a friend to excessive heat.”
Woodall said it’s hard to tell that story in 30 seconds.
Once upon a time …
“There was a time,” recalled Ben Wilcox of the watchdog group Integrity Florida in an e-mail, “when legislators on both sides of the aisle would talk about their respect and reverence for ‘the legislative process.’ I’m not sure that exists anymore.”
The rules generally require 24 hours’ notice on committee amendments — hardly enough time at that — but there are ways around everything during the final days of a session.
By a two-thirds vote, either chamber can waive any rule. That is why it’s so dangerous for either party to have a supermajority in both houses as Republicans do now.
Our state government is still a relic of an era when legislators met for 60 days every two years. Today’s 60-day annual limit still means that far too many decisions are compressed into the frantic final days when it’s easier to do bad things and hide them.
It’s senseless to conduct so much important business as if Tallahassee were not one of the nation’s most remote state capitals (like Albany, Sacramento and Springfield, Ill.)
Any notion of moving the capital to, say, Orlando died a half-century ago, even before the modern technology that can compress distance.
Committee meetings and floor sessions are already televised live by the consistently reliable Florida Channel. But the Legislature can do more. It should consider putting hearings on Zoom so people can register and speak remotely. The public should at least be able to send written comments electronically to lawmakers before they vote, the way local governments and school boards do.
The rules should be changed to preclude any floor amendment that has not been heard and debated in a committee. If that amendment was defeated in committee, it should require a two-thirds vote to revive it. There should be at least a 48-hour pause between publication and action on any late-blooming committee bill or substitute.
The Legislature belongs to the public, not the politicians. But to watch them at work, you might never know that.
The Sun Sentinel Editorial Board consists of Opinion Editor Steve Bousquet, Deputy Opinion Editor Dan Sweeney, editorial writers Pat Beall and Martin Dyckman, and Executive Editor Gretchen Day-Bryant. To contact us, email at letters@sun-sentinel.com.
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