Scott renews fight with House as session opens

TALLAHASSEE — Gov. Rick Scott kicked off the first day of the legislative session Tuesday in a combative tone against Republican House leaders.

Scott focused on his ongoing feud with House Speaker Richard Corcoran, R-Land O’Lakes, over the future of Enterprise Florida, which steers taxpayer money to businesses that expand or move to the state, and Visit Florida, the state’s tourism marketing organization.

The governor cited his own childhood in a poor family as a reason to push for spending on economic development programs, which Corcoran wants to cut.

“It is probably more difficult for people who have never gone hungry, or gone through foreclosure, or seen their family car repossessed to understand this,” Scott said. “If you never lived through these experiences, it may be harder to under-

stand the urgency here. I will just leave it like this: I am fighting for our state’s job programs because I am fighting for the families just like mine growing up.”

But Corcoran also was in a fighting mood. He’s vowed to fight “special interests” and change the insider culture of Tallahassee.

Already, he has sued Miami rapper Pitbull over a secret $1 million contract with the state, sued to halt a large Lottery contract and “dusted off” the House’s impeachment power to clamp down on a judge who made racist remarks.

“For anyone waiting for us to slow down, to drop the big ideas, to stop shaking up the system, to cower in the face of attacks, or to cave to the demands of special interests, our message is simple: We will not,” Corcoran said in his opening remarks to the House.

He declared the House will fight Scott’s plan on property taxes, which Scott wants to use to help fund K-12 school spending increases. Instead, the House will push for a $25,000 increase in the homestead exemption that would save homeowners $730 million.

That’s a larger cut than Scott’s $618 million tax cut proposal, based largely on a reduction of the tax on commercial leases paid mostly by businesses.

Corcoran wants to cut property and business taxes, but in a tight budget year with a projected surplus of just $7.4 million, lawmakers will have to find large cuts to make room.

Moreover, Senate President Joe Negron, R-Stuart, has big plans to boost Florida universities and buy land to help clean up polluted South Florida waterways. Both will cost millions of dollars, putting more budget pressure on lawmakers.

Yet Negron and Corcoran insist there’s plenty of room to cut old programs that aren’t working or find money in the budget to make the numbers work.

Democrats point out that Florida is 49th among states in per capita mental health funding, is struggling to hire and retain state troopers because of low pay and thousands of elderly and disabled remain on waiting lists for state services.

“For all of [Scott’s] campaigning as an ‘outsider,’ his politics have been focused on the well-being of the insiders, his promised tax cuts mostly tailored for the welloff while the tax bills went to everyone else,” Senate Democratic Leader Oscar Braynon of Miami Gardens said in his response to Scott’s speech.

Scott briefly mentioned a series of tragedies that struck the state last year, including the Fort Lauderdale airport shooting, two hurricanes, the Zika virus and the Pulse shooting in Orlando.

Braynon criticized the governor for mentioning Pulse without talking about the issues that emerged from it.

“I continue to hear him talk about the terror attack in Orlando and how upset he is about it, but I have yet to hear him talk about any protections for the LGBT community, gun control or what happened in Fort Lauderdale,” Braynon said. “I hear him talk about problems and not solutions.”

Scott said he’s ready to battle for his priorities for the next 60 days.

“Florida is a state full of fighters, and I will never stop fighting for our families,” Scott said.

Corcoran suggested it might take longer than that to come to an agreement on the budget, and that a special session might be needed to resolve differences among Scott, the House and Senate.

“Even a special session isn’t a disaster; it’s just a longer, more complicated conversation,” Corcoran said. “And these issues are so important that sometimes they merit more time. It’s called the marketplace of ideas, and it makes our country the wonder of the world.”