What a difference a year makes.
In his first term, in 2007, Gov. Charlie Crist drew thunderous applause for his address to the Florida Legislature at the start of its 60-day annual lawmaking session. Much of that reception came from Democrats, as he outlined a greener, more just Florida. The economy was strong. Housing prices hadn't yet crashed.
In that long-ago time, Crist sounded progressive, and the legislators loved it. Florida must become less reliant on fossil fuels, he said. Higher ethical standards. A renewed commitment to open government.
It was a "Fix It Now" kind of speech, focused (like our recent cover story and newly introduced blog) on solutions to some of our long-running problems.
Last week, however, Crist got a noticeably less enthusiastic response as he took the podium in the Florida Capitol for his second State of the State. In the 12 months since his first oration, the housing market has crashed, the economy has hovered near (or at) recession, and the public continues a property tax revolt. As Crist readied his speech, state economists were estimating future budget shortfalls of as much as $4 billion.
Crist's answer? A set of rose-colored glasses.
"Pessimists see problems, while optimists see opportunities," the governor told the statewide television audience in a speech moved to a 6 p.m. start, later than its normal morning schedule to garner wider viewing audiences. "You know I am an optimist, but no matter the perspective, we can dare to be great."
Crist's upbeat tone about Florida's short-term future didn't sit well with some.
"I've got news for him; it's not going to be rosy next year," said first-term House member Ed Hooper, R-Clearwater.
"Its great to be optimistic and to be a glass-is-half-full as opposed to a glass-is-half-empty kind of guy," said fellow House first-termer Rick Kriseman, a Democrat from St. Petersburg. "But I think you've also got to be realistic that we got some tough problems to face."
Kriseman said he was struck by the tepid response to Crist's speech from Democrats and Republicans alike. But other local legislators said no one should fault Crist for his rosy tone.
"He sees things from that particular perspective," said Rep. Bill Heller, D-St. Petersburg and former dean of the University of South Florida's St. Petersburg campus. "I saw it as a very positive thing from his standpoint."
The dominant issue and news story for the next 60 days will clearly be the budget. "It is general knowledge that we are going to have to cut in some places where it is going to hurt," said Faye Culp, a Republican veteran House member whose district covers much of South Tampa. Cuts to the current year budget include $25 million less for Hillsborough and Pinellas public schools and $92 million in higher education funding. The tighter budget could also force temporary closings of courthouses and higher public college tuition.
That has some lawmakers scrambling to protect basic services such as the courts and public safety, as well as safety-net services such as funding for disability programs.
"We're going to have to focus on thinner budgets, but hopefully not all agencies or services that we provide will feel the pinch," said first-term House member Michael Scionti, who returned only a week ago from a tour of duty in Afghanistan as a U.S. Army reserve captain. "I know there are some in particular that can't afford it."
"It's just going to be a painful year, and I just think that there's going to be no fun," Hooper said. "Members aren't going to have a bill heard that has a fiscal aspect to it. This is going to be a pretty boring 60 days. If nothing gets passed, you're pretty assured that nothing bad is going to get passed."
Does that mean nothing good will get passed, either? Here's a look at how Crist and the legislative session are shaping up on some of the issues in our list of Tampa Bay's Top 10 civic problems, which can be found at fixitnowtampabay.com:
The environment: In 2007, Crist spoke of adding nearly $200 million to clean up the Everglades, polluted rivers and Lake Okeechobee. He mentioned those initiatives again in his second State of the State, as well as funding a successor to the land-banking Florida Forever program, bringing those totals to $500 million in the upcoming budget. There remain various bills, however, that would change wetlands protections in the state for the worse.
Outlook: Not bad if he can pull off the funding for his ideas. If. His plans to use $1.1 billion from designated trust funds and other one-time revenues and reserves to balance the budget and fund his wish list is finding strong opposition in the House of Representatives.
"I have a real aversion to trying to tap into trust funds," said Heller. "They were established for a specific purpose."
"I don't know if we're going to get into a confrontation with [the governor] or not," Hooper added. But "the [state] constitution doesn't allow deficit spending."
Transportation: Neither speech saw any bold initiatives for roads or transit, but Crist's proposed budget adds nearly $300 million for the Department of Transportation.
Outlook: Again, there is the question of whether Crist can get that funding. But even if he does, his proposed budget uses the vast majority of state transportation funds to build new roads and maintain the existing ones. There is not a major transit initiative, but a slight increase in grants and development funds for public transit and rail projects.
Suburban sprawl and urban density: Funding to agencies that handle community planning will be down in Crist's spending plan, from the regional planning councils to the Mayor Rick Baker-led Century Commission, which is studying how Florida can handle the coming decades of growth.
Outlook: Don't expect any big changes to the way Florida grows. And some legislation, most notably Sen. Ronda Storms' SB 1528, would limit urban redevelopment by shifting taxes out of community redevelopment districts meant to improve blighted neighborhoods.
Living green: Crist re-emphasized his love for biofuels, proposing "a $200 million economic development package for solar, wind and other renewable energy, and to promote biofuels in Florida and encourage alternative fuels such as ethanol. … [made from] sugar cane and citrus waste."
Outlook: Clearly, Crist is greener than his predecessor Jeb Bush. But his grander proposals likely will suffer from a lack of funding, and the green section of his speech last week was dominated by a video "ad" for Publix grocery stores, highlighting its efforts to go green. Of the $200 million proposed for green initiatives, only $10 million goes directly to consumers, in the form of rebates for installing solar energy devices. The rest of the funding would be a kind of green corporate welfare, rewards for companies doing biofuel research or ocean energy work or converting their companies to reduce carbon emissions.
More ominously for the green movement, this year Crist did not repeat the phrase "global climate change" from the 2007 speech, appearing to avoid the hot-button-within-the-GOP issue.
Check the "What you can do" section of fixitnowtampabay.com for a list of the legislation mention above. We'll be regularly tracking important bills that relate to our Top 10 civic problems list during the entire legislative session, as well as telling you how to contact legislators.
This article appears in Mar 12-18, 2008.
