Time running out for Weatherford's pension overhaul

Upon becoming Florida House Speaker last year, Will Weatherford said pension reform was going to be one of his top priorities.

But with a little more than a week left in session, Weatherford has for the first time acknowledged time is running out on passing his legislation.

“Nobody ever bats 1.000,,” Weatherford told reporters Tuesday. “No one ever expects to get everything single thing they asked for at the beginning of session.”

 

Fate of pet projects depend on Scott

The room was packed last Thursday with lobbyists and agency representatives when House Speaker Will Weatherford spoke with lawmakers before negotiations began on next year’s $74 billion budget.

“As I walked into the room and took a good look around, what’s abundantly clear is that there appears to be a budget surplus this year,” Weatherford, R-Wesley Chapel, said. “That’s a good thing. We haven’t seen that in a long time.”

Everyone laughed, including the lawmakers who jammed the stage. But everyone got Weatherford’s point: After six years of anemic budgets, next year’s spending plan is healthy enough to pursue money for projects back home.

Game on.

For the Miami-Dade delegation, that’s a good thing. It’s better organized than most other counties, with a funded position that oversees what local lawmakers are doing. Other counties, like Hillsborough and Pinellas, slashed that position years ago.

Among the delegation’s top priorities: $7.5 million for the senior centers known as comedores; $1.1 million for Farm Share, a Florida City nonprofit that collects food from farms and wholesalers to feed the hungry; and $1 million for La Liga Contra El Cancer, or the League Against Cancer.

Florida budget talks about as clear as gumbo

One of those watching state lawmakers discuss budget negotiations this weekend was Gov. Rick Scott’s spokeswoman, Melissa Sellers.

A newcomer to Florida, Sellers was the spokeswoman for Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal before joining Scott’s office last year. With this being her first legislative session in Tallahassee, Sellers said Saturday she was impressed after watching the Conference Committee on Transportation, Tourism and Economic Development Appropriations explain how they were divvying up $11.2 billion.

“In Louisiana, these meetings are held in smoky back rooms,” Sellers said. “The public never gets to see this.”

But for lobbyists, reporters, members of the general public, and even most lawmakers, there is more than just a hint of Cajun flavor in how lawmakers decide the budget.

Yes, the meetings are held in public. But the meetings are after the fact. The chairs merely announce the spending decisions that were made behind closed doors among the chamber leaders. If you weren’t in the room when that decision was made, good luck understanding the rationale for the spending, or, more importantly, what was swapped for it or who asked for it.

As Weatherford's pension bill stalls, concerns of blowback grow

It’s the “other” pension bill this session.

Sen. Jeremy Ring, D-Margate, thought he was sponsoring one of the most important bills this session, one that would address what he called a crisis with municipal and county pensions. Of the nearly 500 pensions, more than half were troubled, he said.

For years, the Florida League of Cities has been pushing a fix that would allow cities more revenue from insurance premium taxes now being used for extra pension benefits for police and firefighters. Ring and Sen. Rob Bradley, R-Orange Park, sponsored SB 458 that they said would give cities more flexibility in how they use those revenues to help pay down pension debt.

Their bill passed the Senate last week with wide bipartisan support. It was sent over to the House on Tuesday, where it has sat ever since. Meanwhile, the companion bill, HB 1399, has been stranded at the House Appropriations Committee since April 5.

On Thursday, Ring said he was growing frustrated by the inaction.

“I thought the House would have taken our bill and moved it by now,” Ring said. “This bill addresses a crisis, and I just hope it doesn’t get tied to what’s happening on the FRS bill.”

Ring is referring to the clash between two other pension bills. Florida House Speaker Will Weatherford is championing HB 7011, which would require new state, teacher, county and university hires after Jan. 1, 2014 to enroll in investment plans rather than the state’s current pension. Meanwhile, SB 1392, sponsored by Sen. Wilton Simpson, R-Trilby, would remove the requirement, but still encourage workers to enroll in investment plans.

State budget talks begin with glad tidings, but will good mood hold?

The size of teacher and state worker raises, a possible 6 percent university tuition increase, and whether or not millions will be spent on affordable housing are just some of the issues to be determined as the House and Senate begin budget negotiations this week and next.

On Thursday, House and Senate leaders agreed on general revenue allocations of $26.99 billion in general revenue, which makes up about a third of the state’s $74 billion budget. (General revenue comes from the sales tax, the corporate income tax, documentary stamps and various other taxes and fees. The other two thirds are federal grants and state trust funds.)

The proposed spending is about what the House proposed in its initial proposed allocation in March. The Senate initially proposed $26.8 billion.

House Speaker Will Weatherford and Senate President Don Gaetz say there are few major differences this year than in years past. Thank an overall surplus of more than $3 billion for that.

The mood was upbeat Thursday as lobbyists and agency officials packed the Capitol to watch Weatherford and Gaetz introduce the beginning of budget negotiations between the House and Senate.

“As I walked into the room and took a good look around, what’s abundantly clear is that there appears to be a budget surplus this year,” Weatherford said. “That’s a good thing. We haven’t seen that in a long time.”

 

Weatherford's pension overhaul appears in jeopardy

With a little more than two weeks left in the Legislative session, Florida House Speaker Will Weatherford’s plan to overhaul the state’s pension fund appears in doubt.

Since becoming Speaker last year, Weatherford, R-Wesley Chapel, has declared pension overhaul one of his top goals. He said the Florida Retirement System’s pension fund, which has about 1 million members, is a “ticking time bomb” in the state’s finances.

But he’s had trouble convincing union groups, Democrats and some Senators of the urgency in revamping a $132 billion fund that is generally considered to be on safe fiscal ground.

On Wednesday, Weatherford met with Sen. Wilton Simpson, R-New Port Richey, to discuss the status of negotiations in the Senate. Simpson, who is sponsoring the Senate version of the pension overhaul, said afterward they were far from agreement.

“He said he prefers the House version,” Simpson said. Asked if Weatherford wants the House version of the bill, and not Simpson’s version, to be voted on in the Senate instead, Simpson said: “The speaker would like to see his bill passed.”

Senate passes texting while driving bill

The Senate unanimously passed a texting while driving bill on Tuesday and sent it the House. For the first time, it looks like Florida could get a law restricting texting. Sen. Nancy Detert, R-Venice,  who has been trying to get a bill passed for four years,  said the offense "needs to stop, this is the year."

The bill (SB 52) makes texting while driving a secondary violation, which means a motorist would have to commit another offense, such as careless driving, in order to be pulled over. Once stopped, a driver could receive two tickets, one for the infraction and one for texting.

"Everyone is in support of this bill," Detert said. "The general public supports it by 89 percent. We really don't need the statistics... We see it every day as we drive."

Detert credits House Speaker Will Weatherford for allowing the bill to be heard in the House. This is the first time representatives have had the chance to vote on the measure, which has cruised  through committees this session.

The texting problem, Detert said, has become an "epidemic" with 11 teenagers dying every day in the country due to texting. Florida is one of five states without any type of texting ban.

Senate Democrats agreed to roll over a third reading of the bill and make it available for a final vote. "The bill is long overdue," said Minority Leader Sen. Chris Smith, D-Fort Lauderdale. "We've lost too many young people, too many people in general."

In budget debate, House Democrats stand down

Despite promises of a showdown, there won’t be much debate Friday between Democrats and Republicans over the proposed $74.4 billion spending plan.

Democratic leaders met with Florida House Speaker Will Weatherford before Friday’s floor vote and told him that only Minority Leader Perry Thurston, D-Plantation, would debate the budget.

“That’s quite a departure,” said Weatherford, who has made including Democrats in the budgetary process one of his top priorities as Speaker. In recent years, Democrats would spend hours hashing out their differences before a vote, a contrast that Weatherford’s office wants to spotlight.

Friday’s limited debate didn’t mean Democrats necessarily will vote for the budget. But it does show how divided they are on how much the Affordable Care Act should influence their vote on the House’s budget.

Thurston said Democrats decided to limit debate to ensure that the party was delivering a unified message that opposed the budget.

“It’s the best way to talk about the budget,” he said. “We’re unified as a caucus and we’ll have one strong message going forward.”

During a Democratic caucus meeting Friday morning, Rep. Mark Pafford of West Palm Beach told party members that he personally was voting against it and they should do too, if they felt that way.

But after Republicans released a health care plan that would provide additional coverage for about 130,000 uninsured Floridians, House Democratic leaders lifted a plan to oppose the budget en masse as a 44-member bloc.

That allowed Democrats like Alan Williams of Tallahassee, who has been in close contact with Weatherford throughout session, to vote for the budget. There’s much in there for Democrats to like, such as $1 billion extra in education funding, $300 million restored to higher education, $1.2 billion more on transportation projects that will surely provide jobs in their districts.

Williams didn’t like a vote Thursday that reduced a planned raise for state employees from $1,400 across-the-board to $1,000, with a $400 bonus for merit. But he said by voting on the budget, it gave Democrats leverage on the budget for the remainder of session.

With Democrats pinning their hopes on the conferences between the House and Senate as smoothing over differences, there was just no good reason to make such a fuss Friday, said Rep. James Waldman, D-Coconut Creek.

“We looked at it and decided there is no reason to fawn all over the budget,” Waldman said Friday. “With the largest budget in the state of Florida, there’s a lot of good things here. We didn’t look at (the lack of debate) as an olive branch. We said, let’s move on and get to conference.”

-- Mary Ellen Klas contributed

To make room for health care plan, House Republicans shrink state pay raises

House Republicans are shrinking a proposed pay raise for state workers -- the first one they’ve had in seven years -- to make room for future policy initiatives, such as a long-awaited health care plan that was unveiled Thursday.

Hours after Rep. Richard Corcoran, R-Land O’Lakes, released details on the plan, Republicans approved a budget amendment that lowered a planned automatic, $1,400 across-the-board pay raise to $1,000. The other $400 would be doled out in merit raises, a distinction that should save the state about $40 million.

Appropriations Chair Seth McKeel, R-Lakeland, filed the lower pay raise proposal on Tuesday -- after House Republicans had blocked time for next week to unveil Corcoran’s new health care proposal.

Asked several times on Thursday if this change was made to free up money for the Corcoran plan, McKeel responded with the vague answer that the change was made to free up millions for “further policy initiatives” and for any new proposals that might arise in budget conferences between the House and Senate.

“What’s happened here is (Republican leaders) had to find the money to pay for some program that they will later unveil today and at next week’s (Patient Protection and Affordable Act committee),” said Rep. Mike Fasano, R-New Port Richey. “Where they are taking it from? They’re taking it from state workers.”

After the vote, he stated: "Shame on them for taking the money out of the pockets of state workers to pay for another impractical idea," referring to Corcoran's plan.

Fasano joined the chamber’s 44 Democrats in opposing the lower pay raise.

“It doesn’t do any good for the public employees,” said Rep. Victor Torres, Jr., D-Orlando. “It takes away what you promised them.”

Because the raises don’t go into effect until November (the state’s fiscal year actually begins July 1), the $1,000 automatic raises will amount to about $666 next year.

But Republicans staunchly defended the lower pay, saying it was a prudent measure that shouldn’t be minimized.

“You know what I hear in this room right now?” Rep. John Wood, R-Winter Haven said. “The union bosses. They’re saying, ‘It ain’t enough.’ Let’s remember who we are representing. The necessity of the citizens over the necessity of government. It’s fair, it’s reasonable, and I will hold my head high when I explain it to my constituents.”

“Instead of joyously getting ourselves into position so we can do something for our employees, we’re nitpicking the approach,” said Rep. Dennis Baxley, R-Ocala.”

McKeel said the pay of $1,000 will be an average of a 2.5 percent raise for employees, outpacing the anticipated rise in the Consumer Price Index of 2 percent.

“The notion that we’re taking something away is confounding,” McKeel said.

But given the recent cuts that state employees have received, the new raises amount to peanuts, said Rep. Jared Moskowitz, D-Coral Springs.

“Last year we took $960 away from state workers,” Moskowitz said. “Now we’re going to give them $1,000. Divide that over a year and that’s 76 cents. And we’re celebrating that. I’d like to see you put that on your mailers when you run for office next year.”

Republicans approved another amendment that would tie 100 percent of $676 million for teacher raises to student performance. Previously, they had only planned to tie 50 percent of that money to performance. The other half would be distributed automatically.

Although Republican applauded it as holding strong to conservative principles that only those most deserving get raises, Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fort Walton Beach, said he was troubled it might allow districts to hold on to the money and not distribute it. Even so, he said, “it’s a step in the right direction.”

After Republicans release plan, House Democrats back down from budget standoff

House Democrats won’t automatically oppose the $74.4 billion budget when it’s voted on Friday.

Although House Minority Leader Rep. Perry Thurston, is “not enthralled” with the health care plan House Republicans unveiled on Thursday, he said it was enough for him to end a plan by Democrats to vote against the spending plan because it doesn’t address Medicaid expansion.

On Tuesday, Thurston and the 43 other House Democrats agreed to oppose the budget because, unlike the Senate, there was no plan proposed by Republicans to expand coverage for an estimated 1 million uninsured Floridians.

But Thursday, the chair of the House’s select committee on the Affordable Care Act, Rep. Richard Corcoran, R-Land O'Lakes, unveiled a new plan. It wouldn’t touch the federal money made available for the expansion. Dubbed Health Choices plus, the state would give each participant $2,000 each year to help them purchase coverage options, enrollees would  have to pay $25 a month in premiums, and adults without disabilities would be required to work at least 20 hours a week.

“Though personally, at first glance, I’m am not enthralled by the proposal,” Thurston said in a statement. “I recognize that it is at least a minimal attempt toward achieving a legislative compromise on the important topic of health coverage for Floridians.”

Thurston said he told caucus members that “I am relieving them of the caucus position we have taken on the state budget and they should vote as they deem appropriate.”

By no means, however, did this indicate Democrats would end up supporting the budget tomorrow, it’s just that they can vote as they deem fit.

“I am confident that House Democratic Caucus members stand with me in strong support -- and hope -- for health care coverage plan by the Legislature will rely upon federal resources to provide coverage for more than 1 million Floridians, save 5,000 lives a year, and provide good-paying, much-needed jobs throughout Florida.”