At its conclusion, there were so many hardy hand clasps, high fives, fist bumps, embraces, man-hugs and cell-phone poses, you would have thought something celebratory had occurred at this year’s Florida legislative session. Frankly, it would have been more fitting if a Venezuelan Parliament fistfight had broken out.
But, yes, a required budget was passed and it was, indeed, balanced, as is constitutionally mandated. Gov. Rick Scott, who gave disengaged a bad name, now has 15 days to act on that $74.5-billion budget, which should be enough time to ponder any re-election calculus.
Basically, the Legislature’s biggest priorities were either ignored or passed in diluted form.
Medicaid expansion never escaped the ideological clutches of Won’t Weatherford’s GOP Safe House. In effect, so what if others–such as a majority of voters, the Florida Chamber of Commerce, Associated Industries of Florida, the health care industry and the Florida Senate–are in favor of this donor state accepting $51 billion over the next 10 years to help address the acute needs of a million low-income residents? It’s an absolute disgrace that ignores the reality that health insurance correlates with access to preventive care and a more productive workforce.
And speaking of workforce, Medicaid expansion would create thousands of jobs. Moreover, its absence puts business owners across the state in jeopardy of federal penalty costs. Thanks, again.
Nothing, of course, was done on internet sales taxes that remain uncollected, and Stand Your Ground still stands.
Texting-while-driving passed as a secondary offense, voting reforms were mainly a reversal of what the voter-suppressing Legislature did previously and campaign finance law came up half empty by targeting fundraising groups but not slush-fund-enamored political parties. Doing less than you could to save lives, not fully undoing an unconscionable effort to suppress votes and leaving political parties opaque are results well shy of celebration.
But there were also random acts of legislative conscience and common sense. To wit:
* When a child is conceived during a sexual assault, there will be no paternal rights for the rapist.
* Health providers will be required to provide emergency medical care to an infant who survives a failed abortion.
It speaks volumes that a society actually needs to codify such things.