Hot-button issues and budgets

By BRANDON LARRABEE
THE NEWS SERVICE OF FLORIDA

THE CAPITAL, TALLAHASSEE, February 5, 2016..........Who says lawmakers never address thorny issues in an election year?

Whether any of the proposals that ate up time and energy this week are likely to become law remains a serious question, but the House spent two long nights arguing over controversial gun legislation. And both the House and the Senate were working on gambling bills that could be tricky to get through the Legislature --- "heavy lift" has become an overused way to describe the gaming initiatives.

Meanwhile, lawmakers also moved forward with the one thing they have to do every session: passing a budget for the spending year that begins July 1. It might not be the hot-button stuff of gun battles and casinos, but it's something the Legislature has to address. Election year or not.

PISTOLS AT 20 PACES TO DECIDE A VOTE? MAYBE

An already-tense gun debate ratcheted up a notch this week when House members added another bullet to an emotionally loaded gun bill: a provision that would allow lawmakers to carry firearms during committee meetings and on the floor.

The House voted 72-43 to allow members of the Legislature --- but not other citizens --- to pack heat as long as they have concealed-weapons licenses.

"I think it really applies to the fact that we allow the judiciary, a co-equal branch of government, to have that privilege, and I think it should be enjoyed by duly elected officials such as ourselves," said Rep. John Wood, a Winter Haven Republican who proposed the amendment.

The bill itself (HB 163) --- which was approved Wednesday --- was controversial enough because it would let anyone with a concealed-carry license openly display sidearms in most public places. That drew opposition from Democrats who argued it was a step towards turning Florida into the Wild, Wild West with flamingos.

"We don't need to resolve every dispute we have with a bullet, we're better than that," said Rep. Ed Narain, D-Tampa. "We can defend our communities without giving a gun to every Rambo or John Wayne to openly carry in public."

Supporters countered that they were just following the Second Amendment's guarantee of the right to bear arms.

"We are for more rights for everyone," said Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fort Walton Beach. "We are for more freedom for everyone. We are for more liberty for everyone."

The House also moved forward with a proposal that would allow people with concealed-weapons licenses to carry guns on state college and university campuses. But Senate President Andy Gardiner, R-Orlando, was already signaling that it might be hard for the gun bills to get through his chamber.

Gardiner said the measures "are in trouble." Neither has made it through the Senate Judiciary Committee, chaired by Miami Republican Miguel Diaz de la Portilla.

"They're in Judiciary, and I allow the chairs to make the decisions on what bills they want to hear," Gardiner said. "Sen. Diaz de la Portilla has already decided not to hear the campus-carry bill. It was his decision. And now I think he has some concerns about open-carry."

MO MONEY MO PROBLEMS

With the state preparing to spend a record amount on public education and lawmakers promising hefty tax cuts --- though perhaps not as much as Gov. Rick Scott's $1 billion proposal --- there are likely fewer fights to be had this session over the spending plan for the budget year that begins July 1. But that doesn't mean there won't still be some scuffles.

As both the House and Senate budget-writing committees approved their spending plans Wednesday --- while separated by just two floors of a Tallahassee building --- skirmishes focused on a hodgepodge of issues ranging from abortion to water projects.

In the House, some Democrats were miffed at fine-print in the budget that would bar Planned Parenthood, a health-care provider with clinics that offer abortions, from receiving funding.

It's not even clear how much money is at stake. A spokeswoman for the Senate, which didn't include the ban in its budget, said no state revenue went to Planned Parenthood, although a handful of county health departments used federal funds to contract with the organization. (Federal funds are not allowed to be used to cover abortions.)

Still, the provision caused a fight. Rep. Matt Hudson, a Naples Republican who chairs the House subcommittee that deals with health-care spending, defended the proposal by contrasting funding that makes its way to Planned Parenthood with the application process lawmakers go through to get projects funded in the budget.

"Nowhere along the line has Planned Parenthood, (a) submitted a form, and (b) nowhere along the line has the Legislature told the executive branch to contract with them either directly or indirectly," Hudson told reporters after the committee meeting Wednesday.

But House Minority Leader Mark Pafford, D-West Palm Beach, blasted the move.

"It's a politically derived stunt they're pulling against one non-profit organization who provides health care for women. ... To suggest it's anything else is hogwash," he said.

The plan moved to the House floor on a nearly party-line vote.

The Senate had an odd fight over a proposal to spend $7.5 million for a project to address an environmental "emergency" in areas around Lake Okeechobee. There was nothing that unusual about the idea itself --- lawmakers frequently try to get projects in the budget for local areas --- but it caused a rare, public rift between GOP leaders.

Sen. Joe Negron, a powerful Stuart Republican who is slated to become the Senate president in November, offered an amendment to the Senate's proposed budget to expand a water-storage project. The proposal was related to problems with polluted water leaving Lake Okeechobee and going into rivers in Southeast and Southwest Florida.

"This is an emergency,'' said Sen. Don Gaetz, a Niceville Republican who supported Negron. "What is going on in this particular area of our state is an environmental emergency."

Critics of the amendment said they were not opposed to the water-storage project --- but didn't like using $6.75 million set aside for state park facility improvements to help bankroll it.

"The concept I support,'' said Sen. Alan Hays, a Umatilla Republican who oversees the environmental budget. "The funding source I don't support."

The amendment --- and the full spending plan --- were approved and sent to the full Senate.

WHAT ARE THE ODDS?

There are no sure bets in the Legislature, and gambling bills are some of the shakiest propositions you can find. But lawmakers are trying to come up with language that would extend a gaming compact with the Seminole Tribe and bring in as much as $3 billion to the state over seven years.

House and Senate proposals include legislation that would authorize an agreement inked by Gov. Rick Scott and Seminole tribal chief James Billie last month. That deal would allow the Seminoles to add craps and roulette at each of the tribe's seven Florida casinos, on top of banked card games --- such as blackjack --- already in play at most of the Seminoles' facilities.

In exchange, the Seminoles have agreed to pay the state $3 billion over seven years --- triple a $1 billion, five-year deal that expired last summer --- in what is believed to be the largest tribal revenue-sharing agreement in the country. To make the bills more palatable to gambling-leery lawmakers, the proposals would do away with dormant pari-mutuel permits and eliminate some active permits.

Separate bills will address pari-mutuel-industry issues that are permitted, but not specifically authorized, by the proposed compact, according to Senate Regulated Industries Chairman Rob Bradley, R-Fleming Island, and his House counterpart, Regulatory Affairs Chairman Jose Felix Diaz, R-Miami.

Diaz said he could get the measures through his committee. But Bradley --- whose committee includes senators who are opposed to any expansion of gambling and some who have problems with the compact proposal --- wasn't as confident.

Like Diaz, Bradley said he expects committee members to propose amendments to the legislation next week. The fate of the bills could hinge on what gets added to the measures.

"Right now, it's a jump-ball," he said.

The flurry of activity around the bills at the end of the week came a few days after Scott headed to Broward County to press for the deal to be approved. Scott, who in the past has been criticized for failing to lobby the Legislature on his priorities, zeroed in on the potential for the gambling agreement to create and save jobs.

Sounding as if he were on the campaign trail, Scott --- the self-proclaimed "jobs governor" who, in his run for office in 2010, pledged to create 700,000 new jobs in seven years --- spoke of growing up in a "family that didn't have work," a common theme in both of his gubernatorial bids.

"It's a tough time. I don't ever want to go back to that time for anybody in our state," Scott said.

STORY OF THE WEEK: After several hours of debate on Tuesday and Wednesday, the House easily approved legislation that would allow people with concealed-weapons licenses to openly carry firearms and to take guns onto college and university campuses.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK: "It is like drinking broken glass. There's no other way to describe it. Again, if you don't understand what's going on I think that could be really, really frightening. The good news is it subsides after a few moments. And then, clearly, you drink lukewarm water."---Florida Surgeon General John Armstrong, speaking to The News Service of Florida about sensitivity to cold liquids that is a side effect of his chemotherapy treatments for colon cancer, the day before Thursday's commemoration of World Cancer Day.