Florida’s lawmaking session was a mix of success, failure
In a normal year, it would have been big news when Florida lawmakers passed laws that give teachers big raises, allow college athletes to profit from their play and finally halt the plunder of affordable housing money.
Not in 2020, when coronavirus dwarfed even Florida’s vote for a Democratic presidential nominee.
The public health menace will continue to consume our attention through the rest of the year as the economic fallout takes on a firmer shape.
Still, depending on what Gov. Ron DeSantis signs or vetoes, Floridians have to live with the Legislature’s decisions for years to come, so it’s worth taking a look at five of the issues it got right, four it got wrong and several others that — happily — didn’t get anywhere.
Right
■ Affordable housing. At last, lawmakers kept their mitts off the trust fund that’s supposed to provide money for affordable housing. Until coronavirus came along, affordable housing was arguably the biggest challenge facing the state, and until this year the Legislature’s greatest failure. The budget currently has full funding for the housing that Florida’s working-class families need — $370 million worth.
■ Teachers. The Legislature approved $500 million to increase the salaries of Florida’s notoriously underpaid teachers. We suspect parents trying to teach their kids during this health scare are discovering the value of teachers.
■ Guardians. After a series of Orlando Sentinel stories, lawmakers approved an array of new requirements to protect vulnerable adults from abuse by private and public guardians, including a key provision requiring guardians to get judicial approval before they can sign do-not-resuscitate orders on behalf of incapacitated clients.
■ College athletes. Florida became one of the first states to pass a law allowing athletes to make money from their own name and image. Before now, universities could make a mint, but athletes were prohibited from even making money from YouTube videos about their athletic experience. This was a matter of basic fairness.
■ Sex crimes. Donna’s Law — sponsored by Orlando Sen. Linda Stewart and named for Orlando’s Donna Hedrick, a sexual assault victim as a teen — eliminates the statute of limitations for minors who were the victims of sex crimes. Hedrick was a Central Floridian of the Year finalist for her courage in coming forward.
Wrong
■ Vouchers. Some 29,000 new students will be eligible for scholarships under an expansion of the Family Empowerment Scholarship Program, but lawmakers rejected even simple common-sense attempts at transparency. They also rejected attempts to halt discriminatory policies against LGBTQ students and parents. They have zero curiosity about how these state-supported schools are doing.
■ Citizen amendments. The assault on your right to amend the state constitution continued with a bill that requires thousands more signatures from a greater geographic area, adding to the already expensive burden for citizens to exercise a constitutional right. Make no mistake, the Legislature’s goal is to limit citizens’ ability to place amendments on the ballot.
■ Sunscreen ban. This seemingly inconsequential move prohibited local governments from banning certain types of sunscreen thought to harm coral reefs. By itself, no big whup, but Florida’s Legislature is determined to chip away at home rule and this is the latest in a series of bills doing that.
■ Growth management. This might be small potatoes outside of Seminole County, but counties that have tried to limit urban development in rural areas would be undercut by a bill that’s now in front of
Gov. Ron DeSantis. It would leave sole authority over development decisions to cities if the developer’s property is in city limits. That means Seminole’s voter-approved rural boundary is all but meaningless. Even local Republicans are urging the governor to veto this bill, including one who voted for it (Rep. David Smith).
Bullets dodged
Here are some measures that didn’t get passed, to our relief: Keeping university president searches secret; doing away with two universities by merging them with Florida State; and millions in tax cuts for corporations.
The latter was a particularly smart move considering the state’s dismal economic outlook from the corornavirus fallout means the budget that passed will look much different from the budget Florida will end up with.