Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Pre-coronavirus pandemic budget looks dead on arrival
You can’t go to the office. Schools are closed. You can’t eat in a restaurant. The neighborhood bar is dark, and the local gym is closed. No sports on TV. You can’t go to the beach. The shelves at Publix are bare.
But all is not lost. The Legislature is in an extended session to approve a budget, and the Florida Channel still works. There’s Sen. Tom Lee in the middle of a floor speech.
“I have constituents at home that are going to wonder, what were we thinking?” Lee asked Thursday afternoon. He was referring to the unanimous votes by 140 legislators, with 20 members absent, to pass a $93.2 billion budget as the economy was crashing all around them.
But that’s Tallahassee. The times suddenly require swift and decisive action that was incomprehensible two weeks ago, and the Legislature simply is not built for speed.
Weeks in the making, the budget was an uncommon example of bipartisan harmony at the close of a 60-day session, followed by one day of overtime, that had seen highly partisan battles on abortion restrictions, an expansion of school vouchers, debates over LGBTQ protections and other issues.
Democratic state Rep. Carlos Guillermo Smith, of Orlando, noted that there’s money for increased teacher salaries, affordable housing and needed environmental protection, but he also saw the folly of this prepandemic budget.
“The budget’s NOT REAL,” Smith tweeted. “It’ll be undone and hard choices will have to be made.”
In the weeks to come, the decision to pass that budget will look increasingly misguided as the cratering of the state’s tax revenues will require a massive realignment of priorities. With hotels and restaurants and the Magic Kingdom all shuttered, that $500 million set aside for teacher pay raises is suddenly going to look a lot more expensive. The budget they all celebrated Thursday looked dead on arrival Friday. It better be.
But as Lee, a former Senate president and one of the most experienced hands in Tallahassee, explained: “We do the best we can with the information we have at the time.”
Every legislative session has its winners and losers, but it’s premature to list them all now. Because of the mayhem caused by the coronavirus, anything with a price tag on it could be in jeopardy.
But here’s a partial list: State workers got a rare 3 percent raise (for the moment, anyway). The Constitution Revision Commission survived.
VISIT Florida got $50 million and a three-year lease on life. Gov. Ron DeSantis got a modified version of E-Verify. School board members won’t be subject to term limits. It will be much harder for citizens to amend the state Constitution.
New school safety standards faltered, despite a statewide grand jury and the work of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas Public Safety Commission. Allegations of widespread spending abuses meant the end of the line for the Florida Coalition Against Domestic Violence.
The impact of COVID-19 on Florida’s consumption-based economy is incalculable. Tourism is our biggest product, Disney World is the No. 1 employer and sales taxes pay for everything from teacher salaries to Florida Highway Patrol cars.
The session ended Friday after a gathering of less than two hours in an atmosphere of subdued apprehension. Barely one week ago, they were debating a variety of new specialty license plates and the deregulation of dieticians, and giddily sharing in a relaxed series of farewell speeches.
The pressure on lawmakers will intensify greatly in the days ahead to deal with a series of shocks from the coronavirus, especially the hemorrhaging of tax revenue, a dysfunctional unemployment benefits system and extreme strain on cities and counties across the state. Oh, yes. It’s an election year, too. Sounding far more optimistic than most, House Speaker Jose Oliva, R-Miami Lakes, said: “A vaccine could turn things around just as quickly.” But he also said signs point to the possibility of a “prolonged economic crisis.”
Lee struck a more urgent tone, telling senators: “All I can say is, if it’s necessary, that we waste no time getting back.”