Mitch Perry
As state lawmakers prepare to complete their unfinished business in a Special Session next month, among the Legislature’s most important members said Wednesday he’s not exactly sure what to expect.
The 120-member Legislature returns to Tallahassee in 12 days to hammer out a budget agreement.
“We really don’t know how this is going to play out,” said Brandon area Sen. Tom Lee, the Senate Appropriations Committee chairman.
He was one of eight members of the Hillsborough County legislative delegation to gather Wednesday at Maestro’s Restaurant inside the Straz Performing Arts Center. They spoke to the Greater Tampa Chamber of Commerce in what was to be a review of the Legislative Session aborted with three full days to go last month.
“All I can say is, ‘What’s your plan?'” Lee said of the House side, now in a bitter feud with the Senate on the loss of more than a billion dollars in Low Income Pool funding.
The Obama administration has countered by advocating that the Legislature to expand Medicaid to deal with the state’s health care financing problems. That idea, though, has been repeatedly rejected by the House of Representatives and Gov. Rick Scott.
“You can’t just keep on saying no,” Lee said. “Republicans control every office in Tallahassee, and no is not an answer.”
House Speaker Steve Crisafulli‘s decision to adjourn the House early has been denounced throughout the state by newspaper editorial boards, Democrats, and even some Republicans. However, Tampa Republican Rep. Dana Young defended the early departure date.
“Sometimes when you’re in a situation with a profound disagreement, it’s better to step back and let cooler heads prevail,” she said.
Lee said that with the LIP funding not coming to Florida after June 30, Tampa General Hospital is staring at a $90 million annual cut. After meeting with his counterpart in the House on appropriations last week, Trinity Republican Richard Corcoran, Lee said he’s “very confident” there’s now a “reality check” in the Legislature that the money isn’t coming from Washington after next month.
“Our uninsured health care is a problem,” Pasco County state Sen.John Legg said. “We need to find a way to solve it.”
Tampa Democratic House member Janet Cruz strongly rejected the contention made by Scott and some other Republicans that the federal government can’t be trusted to pay their end of the deal on Medicaid expansion. Beginning next year, the federal government has guaranteed to pick up 90 percent of the costs for such expansion in each state. Cruz contends it’s a “myth” that the feds will bail out of that agreement.
North Tampa Republican Rep. Shawn Harrison strongly defended his GOP colleagues on the issue. He insisted that “every single person” in the Legislature has the goal of providing quality affordable health care for those in need.
He repeated the message he offered in a letter to The Tampa Tribune this past weekend that he could be that rare House Republican in Tallahassee who is open to a “middle ground” on Medicaid expansion: “I’m a big believer that when the federal government has money to give to states, even if you disagree with how that fund of money was created, that we may be doing a disservice to some of our constituents if we don’t try to figure out a way take advantage of that.
“Is there some way that we can take advantage of this funding from the federal government, without obligating Florida taxpayers in the future, if it doesn’t work?” Harrison wrote, before seeming to hedge his statement. “There’s lot of evidence and empirical data, that Medicaid clinical outcomes aren’t what they should be.”
A bit of levity arose at lunchtime event.
Legg said it was appropriate that the meeting was held at the Straz Performing Arts Center, saying it was similar to watching the Legislature in Tallahassee.
“If there wasn’t drama, nobody would come and watch,” he said as the audience of several hundred people laughed. “There was some comedy this year, and several tragedies.”
