Every county in South Florida has big problems for the Legislature to solve this year. Some of them you may know about, some are pretty obscure. But all found their way on to lists of legislative priorities that the various county delegations brought with them this year to Tallahassee.
And, as usual, almost all of them are struggling for attention against huge and frequently unforeseen issues that are dominating the discussion in Tallahassee. For senators and House members, it's a balancing act to keep their local priorities on the front burner while not ignoring the issues in the headlines.
Sen. Jeremy Ring (D-Margate) is the chairman of the Broward County delegation for the second time. He arrived in Tallahassee a month and a half ago with a long list of local priorities -- beach nourishment, charter school issues, urban water management, to name a few of them. But that was then.
"Everything changes, and now I've got all kinds of new priorities," Ring said in a recent interview.
This year, their issues that made it hard for Ring to treat his original priorities like actual priorities were prison reform, school testing, spending environmental money from Amendment One and, above all else, expanding Medicaid. It's the priority Ring didn’t know he had until now.
"Billions of dollars could be lost. Whether it's Medicaid expansion or the low income pool and, from a Broward County perspective, I can't think of a larger priority because the north and south hospital districts are slated to lose $300 million. That is the priority," Ring said.
The low income pool is the expiring federal fund that expanding Medicaid was supposed to render obsolete. It repays hospitals for treating uninsured patients. Broward hospitals -- and, indeed all the state's safety net hospitals -- stand to lose millions if the low income pool goes away with Medicaid unexpanded.
Veteran legislators know to expect that there will be priority creep as the legislative session progresses. Still, Ring reports progress on his original priorities, although -- and this is more common Tallahassee wisdom -- nothing gets taken to the bank until the governor signs the bill.
Priorities For Florida Keys
One of the biggest and most daunting lists of priorities is riding on the shoulders of Republican State Rep, Holly Raschein of Key Largo. Half of her district is in lower Miami-Dade County, but her listcomes from the other half, the Florida Keys, which is represented in the House entirely by her. The first thing: getting some Amendment One money for an enormous sewer system that Monroe County has been ordered, with no funding, to build.
"Actually, we're going to cap out at $1.5 billion, just this wastewater project, amongst 72,000 people. You know that's a pretty hefty lift," Raschein said.
Raschein came for the $200 million the state promised seven years ago. Now she's been told to hope for $25 million, subject to whatever happens before the last day of the session.
And that's not the end of her big-ticket items. The Keys has 11,000 pieces of sensitive land in private hands, but only 3,000 building permits to allocate among them. Unless she can persuade the Legislature to buy the rest with even more Amendment One money, thousands of property owners will be stuck with lots they can neither sell nor develop.
It's a tough priority. Raschein says, "I am an ever positive person, and I think we’re going to come up with a solution."
Fair Funding
Miami-Dade County has the largest delegation, about a sixth of the entire Legislature. Its chair is Sen. Anitere Flores (R-Miami) who says its local priorities are broad with statewide resonance.
"The common theme is ensuring Miami-Dade receive its fair share of funds on issues that are important to us, like education and health care," Flores explains.
Miami-Dade's hyperlocal issues include renewing tax credits for employers who hire in blighted neighborhoods called "enterprise zones." Flores says the program has helped develop Wynwood, the Design District and South Beach. But the House is resisting the extension and the program could be in trouble.
And there's also a complicated problem with the property tax appeals system that basically impedes the flow of revenue from the tax collector to the agencies that need to spend it. It's very below-the-radar, but Miami-Dade County Mayor Carlos Gimenez has been seen in capitol hallways lobbying for the fix.
"I think we're going to get that one passed," Flores predicted.
Palm Beach County's priorities include most of the above plus a long list of local projects that includes regulating the "sober homes" that have proliferated in the south county and generated neighborhood complaints.
The county also needs a water management bill to clear the way for a spring training stadium for the Houston Astros and the Washington Nationals. State Rep. Lori Berman (D-Lantana) is a cheerfully fatalistic delegation chair who could speak for them all.
"There's no slam dunk in Tallahassee," she laughs. "I've been here for five years, and I don't think anything is a slam dunk. I come up here prepared for anything."
It's just a matter of doing your best, keeping your priorities straight. And waiting till the last day to see if anything worked.
Editor's note: The original version of this story incorrectly said state Rep. Holly Raschein's political party. We regret the error.
