Proposed reforms deserve serious review Not very representative

When Gov. Ron DeSantis looks in the mirror, he must still think he sees a president.

Barely a week after suspending his hopeless campaign for the White House, he was harping on federal issues, including four theoretical amendments to the U.S. Constitution.

The Florida House of Representatives had already pre-empted him on two of them, congressional term limits and a balanced budget. Both are the longest of long shots because the Constitution is almost impossible to amend.

Florida’s Constitution is not. If better government actually matters to DeSantis and the House, a splendid proposal that’s now collecting dust at the state Capitol could use their support.

Long-overdue reform ideas

It’s House Joint Resolution 1625, a 24-page proposed constitutional amendment asking voters to make the most comprehensive reform of the Legislature since the agrarian era, when it met for 60 days every other year.

Lawmakers now meet annually, but the 60-day limit still applies, leading too often to extended or special sessions. Every bill not passed dies on adjournment.

Those are two anachronisms that Tampa-area state Rep. Mike Beltran would eliminate in HJR 1625. It would allow the Legislature to convene every month, although not necessarily continuously, for the two-year cycle between elections. Bills not voted down would remain alive throughout, as they do in Congress.

“We would actually spend less time in Tallahassee with more time to scrutinize the bills,” says Beltran, a Republican.

Every bill is a rush job

In the current hothouse atmosphere, he says, “there’s always the sense of being rushed” amid peer pressure to not file amendments that would slow a bill’s progress.

Beltran’s proposal would rein in the exorbitant power of the two presiding officers by delegating to the House clerk and Senate secretary the duty of assigning bills to committees.

He would further democratize a top-down regime by allowing no one to hold more than one leadership office such as a party whip or committee chair. Members of committees would be required to approve and allowed to amend prospective agendas proposed by the chairpersons — a dramatic shift from the status quo. The two major parties would have proportional representation on all committees.

HJR 1625 would also fix an unintended consequence of previous “reforms” that requires the annual budget to be submitted to all lawmakers in its final form no less than 72 hours before the votes to enact it. In practice, that makes it impossible to amend budget bills for fear of restarting the clock and extending a session.

It protects wasteful or questionable spending items that shouldn’t be. Beltran’s measure would allow removal of spending items, but no additions, during the 72-hour period.

Limiting gamesmanship

The Beltran model would also require presiding officers to send bills to the governor as soon as they are passed. They sat on last year’s budget, reportedly at DeSantis’ direction, for 41 days, releasing it only barely two weeks before it was to take effect, as lawmakers with projects in the bill held their breath, fearful of retribution for not supporting the governor’s presidential campaign.

The most potentially controversial of Beltran’s changes would increase legislators’ salaries to one-half those of a U.S. Congress member, or $87,000, compared to the $29,697 they earn now, unchanged for three decades.

That’s still about $10,000 less than the average of the 41 states that pay their lawmakers, according to the

National Conference of State Legislatures. California and New York, the two largest states with full-time lawmakers, pay theirs $122,694 and $142,000 respectively.

If there’s any fault in Beltran’s proposals, it’s that they avoid calling for extending Florida’s brief term limits – eight years in most cases — or for cracking down on conflicts of interest.

The foundational fiction is that Florida has a part-time “citizen legislature,” whose members need to earn their living elsewhere.

In reality, the Legislature is about as representative of the population it serves as a convention of bank presidents. Nearly half its members have at least $1 million in net worth, according to a study by the Florida Phoenix news site.

In politics, as in all of life’s endeavors, you get what you pay for. Current salaries are too low to support a family, and they prevent many working people from running. Florida needs higher salaries and rules like those in Congress, where members cannot hold outside jobs.

In Florida, legislators who sell insurance can and do write the laws for insurance companies. Members are required to abstain only if an issue would directly affect them financially, not their entire industry. HJR 1625 would not change that — a glaring oversight.

The speaker referred Beltran’s amendment to the committee on rules and two others, which was meant to be last heard of them. That would be a disservice to Florida. Legislative reform is overdue for discussion.

“It’s rare to see someone take such a thoughtful assessment of the legislative process,” says Ben Wilcox, co-founder of the nonprofit Integrity Florida.

Beltran’s bill should start a serious debate The Legislature should at least create a joint committee study prior to the 2025 session, with hearings to let the public have their say. After all, whose legislature is it, anyway?

The Sun Sentinel Editorial Board consists of Opinion Editor Steve Bousquet, Deputy Opinion Editor Dan Sweeney, editorial writer Martin Dyckman and Editor-in-Chief Julie Anderson. Editorials are the opinion of the Board and written by one of its members or a designee. To contact us, email at letters@sunsentinel.com.