New Florida legislature has inclusive tone

TALLAHASSEE ? With an increase in Democratic lawmakers and a governor now looking toward his re-election, a new Florida legislature convenes this week,? facing many of the same challenges of the past, from a tight budget to the rising cost of health care.

But there may be a new tone in Tallahassee, following an election in which President Barack Obama carried the state and Democrats picked up four seats in the 120-member state House and two seats in the 40-member state Senate.

Republicans remain firmly in control.

State Sen. Don Gaetz

Sen. Don Gaetz, R-Niceville, will be installed as the new Senate president in the one-day organizational session on Tuesday, presiding over a chamber for the next two years where the GOP controls 26 of the 40 seats.

Rep. Will Weatherford, R-Wesley Chapel, will take over the state House, where his party holds a 76-44 advantage.

Gov. Rick Scott, who faces re-election in 2014, will preside over his third legislative session when lawmakers return to Tallahassee in March for their annual 60-day session.

Weatherford, 33, the son-in-law of former House Speaker Allan Bense, R-Panama City, said he will deliberately try to include more Floridians as part of his leadership of the House.

?If there is one thing that I would like to try to achieve is to be an inclusive reformer for the Florida House,? said Weatherford, who will be Florida?s second-youngest speaker when he becomes the new House leader. ?I would like to make sure that we?re working with our friends across the aisle, that we?re allowing everyone?s voice to be heard and to participate. At the same time not let that stifle us from moving forward with real reforms and dealing with the challenges that Florida has before it.?

State Rep. Will Weatherford

Weatherford said his goal is for lawmakers to consider opinions from not only political opponents but from ordinary citizens outside the political process. ?As a legislature, we can do a better job of listening before we act,? he said.

In the Senate

Gaetz, 64, a former Okaloosa school superintendent and health care company executive, said the election outcome will not have much of an impact on the Senate, where members have a reputation for their independence.

?For me as a senator, what it has meant is that I can?t take a single vote for granted,? Gaetz said. ?I can?t assume my caucus is going to support me on a bad bill. You have to earn every vote.?

But following another Senate tradition, Gaetz said he is considering Democrats for several committee chairmanships.

State Rep. Perry Thurston, the 51-year-old Plantation attorney who will lead the House Democrats for the next two years, said he expects to see an increase in bipartisanship in the Legislature, although he noted that much of the funding for the Republican legislative races came from conservative sources.

?I still think you?re going to have a conservative Legislature,? he said.

But Thurston and other lawmakers do not expect to see a repeat of the 2011 session, when Republicans came back to Tallahassee, following the election of Scott, who ran on a very conservative, anti-government agenda, and the election of a so-called ?super majority? of Republican legislators.

That session saw a plethora of conservative measures and the biggest losers in the session were those groups most often linked to more liberal causes, including teachers, union members, state workers, abortion rights activists and environmentalists.

Several of the measures passed were challenged in court.

A moderated tone

Scott, faced with persistently low public approval ratings, has recently moderated his tone, and embraced increasing education funding as a priority after sharply cutting the budget his first year.

But GOP lawmakers in the next two years will continue to push issues that they think are needed to curb the cost and size of government.

Weatherford said he wants to end the traditional pension plan for new state employees, requiring them to use a 401(k)-type retirement plan.

?It?s time for us to get real and do what the private sector has done,? Weatherford said.

Lawmakers and Scott are waiting for a Florida Supreme Court decision on their 2011 measure that required public employees who participate in the state pension plan to contribute 3 percent of their salaries to the retirement fund. An adverse ruling from the court could present a huge financial challenge for the state budget.

Obama?s re-election has meant that the Affordable Care Act, which was opposed by Scott and legislative leaders, is here to stay. While lawmakers and the governor say they will now deal with that reality, they still question how much the federal health care act could cost the state.

One of the biggest issues facing lawmakers in their annual session will be whether or not to expand Medicaid coverage to provide health care for all Floridians up to 133 percent of the federal poverty level, which is a little more than $25,000 per year for a family of three.

Bipartisanship

While the state pension and Medicaid may provide a battleground for some partisan clashes, lawmakers will be looking at a number of other issues where bipartisan support can be found.

Weatherford, Gaetz and the Democratic leaders all say they want to review and possibly change Florida?s election laws and procedures in light of the problems in counting the votes in the 2012 general election.

The new legislative leaders said they will be pushing measures to strengthen the state?s ethics laws, with Weatherford also saying that should also include some campaign-financing reforms. He wants to eliminate political funds ? known as committees of continuous existence ? that some lawmakers have used to raise money.

Gaetz said the top priority he has heard from Floridians during the election remains job growth and the Senate agenda will be geared toward that goal.

He will be pushing efforts to revamp Florida?s state colleges and universities so that it ?lashes our higher educational system closer to the realities and the opportunities of the economy.? That is expected to include financial incentives for schools that promote technology and science degrees ? which lawmakers and Scott say have the most potential for economic growth.

Weatherford also said higher education improvements will remain one of his priorities, noting that he has been pushing efforts to expand the use of online education for college and university degrees.

The $70 billion state budget will remain a big challenge for the immediate future.

State economists have projected a modest $71 million surplus for the coming year, although lawmakers note that could easily be wiped out by other demands including rising costs for the Medicaid program or an adverse ruling in the state pension fund case.

?We face another year of budget blood, tears, toil and sweat,? Gaetz predicted.

Source: http://politics.heraldtribune.com/2012/11/18/new-florida-legislature-has-inclusive-tone/

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