Negotiations over pending issues collapse

CapeFish · April 30, 2004

King: Negotiations over pending issues collapse

Friday April 30, 2004

By BILL KACZOR

Associated Press Writer

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) Passage of key issues including measures to require parental notification when minor girls seek abortions, make it harder to amend the Florida Constitution and delay a telephone rate hike were threatened by legislative gridlock Friday.

Senate President Jim King announced as his chamber opened its session Friday afternoon that the House and Senate have ``agreed to disagree'' on those and other looming issues, adding that he doubted any would pass before the year's session draws to a close later that evening.

``The House at this point and Senate have agreed to disagree on the substantive issues that were being held out before us,'' said King, R-Jacksonville. ``It is safe to assume that none will pass.''

House spokesman Tom Denham said that chamber was optimistic progress could occur in the session's final hours. Gov. Jeb Bush said the budget should be the top legislative priority.

``The world won't come to an end if 500 bills aren't passed,'' Bush said.

Bush quickly entered the Senate chamber after King's announcement and the Senate went into an immediate 10-minute recess, but it was unclear if the two met during the break.

The only major pending issues King said he expected the Senate to consider were the $58 billion budget and a couple tax-cut bills. The budget vote was scheduled for later Friday, and the tax-cut measures implementing a sales tax holiday and a one-month gas tax break passed.

``(As) soon as we get the budget, we could get out of here,'' King said.

Should the standoff continue through session's end, the Senate would lose a package of proposed constitutional amendments including one to require parental notification when minor girls seek abortions and others to make it more difficult to change the constitution.

Issues at stake for the House are bills that would delay an already approved telephone rate increase until lawsuits challenging them are resolved and a public records exemption for an Alzheimer's disease research center.

``There are some issues here that are pretty good, but there's no defining line,'' King said, urging his chamber not to buckle to House pressure on critical bills. ``Once you do it, you can't stop.''

The House also wants a proposed constitutional amendment that would cap state spending a plan unacceptable to the Senate under any circumstances, King said.

``All of us from the very get-go said there's be no sense in any of us serving if you really had that in place because it (would) handcuff any future Legislature,'' he said.

Also at stake for the Senate was a separate bill bringing accountability to the state's two largest school voucher programs. And at stake for both chambers is the ballot measure dealing with parental notification when minor daughters seek abortions.

A Senate version of that proposal is pending in the House and could be passed if the House decided to accept Senate changes. Those include a provision to let judges bypass the notification requirement in some cases.

King also urged the Senate against waiving rules to accommodate House members desperately trying to get other bills passed in the session's final hours.

``Never say never, but I'm telling you that I don't want to do any of that,'' King said.

He blamed the House for delaying votes on those bills until the last week of the session, giving the Senate no time to hear them in committee or analyze their financial implications.

Accommodating the House members may be for the good of the state in many instances, but not all, King said. He said if the bills are so good, they can be introduced again next year.

House Speaker Johnnie Byrd and King have had a rocky relationship during their two years leading their respective chambers. The pair were scolded last year by Bush after the squabbling led to the state budget not getting settled on time and have disagreed on numerous issues.

Bush could get mad and call special sessions again. This situation is to be watched closely.