House members get crash course at 'Legislator U'

By BRANDON LARRABEE
THE NEWS SERVICE OF FLORIDA

THE CAPITAL, TALLAHASSEE, December 6, 2016.......... There were no sorority rushes or intramural sports, but Florida House members returned to Tallahassee on Tuesday for "Legislator University," a two-day series of courses meant to discuss the finer points of maneuvering the Capitol.

In addition to pointers on how to, for example, balance life at home with spending a few months in North Florida, the sessions also provided lawmakers a chance to get a handle on sweeping rules changes introduced by House Speaker Richard Corcoran, R-Land O' Lakes, that deal with budget projects and lobbyist disclosure.

But on a basic level, the sessions were meant to make sure lawmakers know the ropes well enough to be effective --- something that could be particularly important for the 46 new House members in the 120-seat chamber.

"Regardless of your ideology, a legislator who knows what they are doing and who knows how to maneuver through this process is better than one who is easily affected by outside forces," said House Rules & Policy Chairman Jose Oliva, R-Miami Lakes.

Still, one of the focuses remained the new guidelines for how business should be done in the House. One of Corcoran's changes requires lobbyists to disclose which issues they're working on --- a departure from past practice, where they simply had to register to work for certain clients.

Don Rubottom, staff director for the Public Integrity and Ethics Committee, said the focus for now was on making sure that lobbyists follow the new rules, not cracking down on every small infraction.

"The mandate we've be given from the speaker's office as staff is that we want lobbyists to comply," he told one of the classes. "This isn't about punishment, this isn't about fines, this isn't about penalties --- it's about compliance."

He also noted that the extent of problems with the rules might not just be something for the Legislature to decide.

"The sad thing is going to be if lobbyists start filing a bunch of complaints against each other, because we're going to have a lot of administrative work to do," Rubottom said.

One of the more talked-about new rules requires any lawmaker who wants a local project to be funded in the budget to file an individual bill for the proposal. But House members learned some of the nuances of the rule on Tuesday; for example, a project requested by a state agency would generally not need a stand-alone bill to make the cut.

House Appropriations Chairman Carlos Trujillo, R-Miami, warned that a possibly tight budget means that any project proposal will need to be paid for. Lawmakers are currently expected to have about $7.5 million in extra funding to work with next year, against a budget exceeding $80 billion --- and Corcoran has already said he expects even that small surplus to evaporate.

"They have to be meritorious," Trujillo said of the projects. “And given the current state of our economy in the state of Florida and our flat-line projections, in order for you to add your project we have to take something out."

"We don't want this to turn into Lord of the Flies," he joked later. "But at the same time, we have to be cognizant of that."

The rules could discourage at least some groups from asking for additional money. The new projects will all be one-time funding that won't continue from year to year. And if a group that is receiving year-to-year money asks for an increase, all the state spending on that project would be converted to one-time money.

"Most of those constituencies are not going to want that," said JoAnne Leznoff, who leads the staff on Trujillo's committee.

Leznoff also told lawmakers they need to send the proposals to the House by Feb. 7 to guarantee that projects could be filed as bills by the time the legislative session opens in March.

Elsewhere, rhubarb-strawberry pie and chocolate cake were used to teach lawmakers about which amendments go first in debates over legislation, and lawmakers discussed ideas like civility in the process.

"Political civility is allowing the minority party a place at the table, but it is also the minority party not poking the majority party in the eye every chance that they get," said Rep. Kristin Jacobs, D- Coconut Creek.