Phil AmmannBrute force is one way things get done in politics. If a party has an overwhelming majority in the legislative and executive branches, it can simply ram everything through.
But the Founding Fathers deliberately made it difficult. Therefore, both left and right seek compromise, where possible.
In the last session of the Florida Legislature, there was a considerable amount of compromise on one of the major issues.
The House bill was changed to include stronger protections for Florida’s springs and the northern Everglades, which was a major priority of Florida’s powerful environmental lobby.
Yet the bill also included provisions favored by business interests. Rather than mandating new, strict water-use requirements statewide, it uses an existing successful model of industry farming practices — called best management practices — to improve water quality and reduce groundwater pollution.
More important, the new water bill links water use to growth management.
The final product should have passed, but it got caught up and left hanging in the dispute at session’s end. This week it is scheduled to come up again and should pass, but there are still obstacles.
Big Environment isn’t in a mood to compromise.
Fortunately, some responsible environmental organizations are being reasonable. The Nature Conservancy, Everglades Foundation and the Audubon Society are supporting the bill. That puts them on the same side as Associated Industries of Florida, the leading business organization.
Eric Draper of the Audubon Society told the Associated Press, “I can’t really find that many things that are objectionable in the legislation.”
But special interests are taking an extreme view, backed by the left-wing media.
Whenever conservatives are objecting to legislation, they are assailed by the media as being “obstructionists.” Not so when the objections come from the left.
In Congress, for example, if the left wants to spend $1 trillion and the right wants to reduce spending by that amount, a sixth-grader would know that a fair compromise would be to do nothing. But to liberals, a “fair compromise” would be to spend $500 billion.
Granted, there is extreme polarization in politics today because of nearly eight years of divisiveness by the president and his hard left allies in Congress.
But when all sides have agreed on a reasonable position on major legislation, it is time to move on. When the legislative makeup changes, make your case again.
In this case, the far left is complaining that the bill is not punitive enough on economic growth and that some provisions are not as stringent as they want.
It’s strange that these same editorial writers are ecstatic about the most recent global warming agreement — a wishy-washy collection of mushy maybes and possibilities that would accomplish nothing, albeit at high cost.
The water bill, on the other hand, will modernize existing water policies and use responsible, science-based solutions to tackle water-quality and water-supply challenges throughout Florida, according to House Speaker Steve Crisafulli.
That’s progress.
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Lloyd Brown was in the newspaper business nearly 50 years, beginning as a copy boy and retiring as editorial page editor of the Florida Times-Union in Jacksonville. After retirement he served as a policy analyst for Florida Gov. Jeb Bush. Column courtesy of Context Florida.
