Backroom Briefing: Time to revisit term limits?

By JIM TURNER
THE NEWS SERVICE OF FLORIDA

THE CAPITAL, TALLAHASSEE, November 19, 2015.......... Eight has been enough for more than two decades.

Now, two state lawmakers think expanding term limits to 12 years is needed to reduce the influence of lobbyists and long-term staff.

But the proposal to give future lawmakers more time in office --- time that supporters say is needed to better learn the legislative process and to acquire more experience in handling leadership --- won't be easy.

Changing the 1992 voter-approved term limits in the state Constitution would again require voter approval. Also, it would require legislative support if backers hope to get the idea on the 2016 ballot.

Sen. Rene Garcia, R-Hialeah, and House Minority Leader Mark Pafford, D-West Palm Beach, held a news conference Thursday to pitch their proposal (HJR 711 and SJR 902) to ask voters to add four years to the eight-year terms now imposed on lawmakers.

Garcia said they are just getting started with the proposal, which he said could take several years and require media pressure.

"I think at the end of the day, as we are a representative democracy, we should be a representative democracy and we should live by that and ensure the elected officials are the ones that are moving the agenda forward and not the lobbyists," Garcia said.

While a spokeswoman for Senate President Andy Gardiner said in an email that Gardiner has "generally expressed support" for such a change, House Speaker Steve Crisafulli, R-Merritt Island, gave a sort of "good luck with that" response.

"The last time the Legislature tried to extend term limits, there was so much public backlash that they repealed the proposal before it ever made it to the ballot," Crisafulli said in a statement Thursday. "We'll see how it will fare this year."

Floridians in 1992, by a 3-to-1 margin, supported the term-limit measure pushed under the "eight is enough" banner.

Proponents of the 1992 constitutional amendment said the measure would bring about better government by eliminating career politicians.

Opponents argued it would put more power into the hands of lobbyists and staff and result in less-experienced lawmakers quickly moving into positions of power before churning out of office.

The Garcia-Pafford proposal would apply only to state lawmakers elected for the first time to an office in 2016.

"I don't think any process is going to be perfect, but we've got to look at ourselves sometimes in the mirror and determine whether or not we can make some changes," Pafford said. "This is really a subtle change. There's still term limits."

The 1992 voters also sought to impose term limits on Florida's members of Congress, but the U.S. Supreme Court ruled three years later that such an action would require an amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

In 2011 and 2012, proposals that would have expanded term limits to 12 years, while also increasing the length of terms for representatives from two to four years and senators from four to six years, never got a hearing in either chamber.

LIQUOR WALL WAR COMING DOWN TO A HEAD COUNT

Rep. Carlos Trujillo may have been joking when he quickly replied that he's still counting heads. But a day after postponing a vote on his bill to lift an 80-year-old state law requiring liquor stores and bars to be separated from other retail goods, the Miami Republican said he's still working on the heavily lobbied measure.

"It's still alive," Trujillo said while jumping on an elevator Wednesday.

A day earlier Trujillo asked for the bill (HB 245) to be temporarily postponed in the House Business & Professions Subcommittee as "one of my four votes" wasn't in attendance, adding that he was working on amendments with staff.

In mid-October, Publix, ABC Fine Wine & Spirits, the Florida Independent Spirits Association and a number of small liquor stores throughout the state joined forces as Florida Businesses Unite, seeking to block liquor-wall elimination bills by Trujillo and Sen. Lizbeth Benacquisto, R-Fort Myers.

A coalition backing the bill is called Floridians for Fair Business Practices and includes Target, Wal-Mart, the Big Bend Minority Chamber of Commerce and the Florida Restaurant and Lodging Association.

Similar heavily lobbied efforts during the 2015 session failed to get heard on the House floor, even after being watered down to allow interior doors to be built between liquor stores and other retailers.

TWEET OF THE WEEK: "Rep. @NeilCombee explains that ban on residential gun discharges would still allow people to shoot a 'snake in their yard.' " --- Associated Press reporter Gary Fineout (@fineout)