Associated Press
Sketching the outlines of their legislative agendas, Florida’s top Republicans pledged Wednesday to press for a bevy of tax cuts, more education spending and a review of controversial student testing in this year’s legislative session.
House Speaker Steve Crisafulli and Senate President Andy Gardiner outlined their proposals during the annual legislative planning meeting hosted by The Associated Press. The legislative leaders provided few details on the coming tax plans but said “there will be no shortage” of targets as lawmakers review levies.
Gardiner said the GOP-dominated Legislature is guided by “a belief that, at the end of the day, dollars are better with the taxpayer than government.” The comments echoed a long-running message from Gov. Rick Scott, who also pledged Wednesday to cut $673 million in taxes, largely by slashing levies imposed on cell phones and cable television.
Democrats cautioned that deep cuts would hurt social services that already struggle to keep up with demand from the poor and elderly. Minority leaders renewed their calls for expanding Medicaid, noting new support from two influential business groups, Associated Industries of Florida and the Florida Chamber of Commerce.
“There’s 800,000 to a million people who are going to require some health care and preferably not in a hospital setting. It’s a basic necessity,” said state Rep. Mark Pafford, the Democratic House leader. “We want a full debate.”
Crisafulli, however, said the House had no plans to revisit the issue after deadlocking with the Senate on Medicaid proposals in 2013. “We’ve been clear,” he said. “Why do we want to continue to put people into a broken system?”
On education, GOP leaders pledged to boost funding for public education, expand vocational training and apprenticeship programs for high-school students and keep down college tuition costs. Amid a backlash over high-stakes testing, they also pledged to review the state’s education accountability system, which uses testing data to evaluate students and teachers.
While Crisafulli labeled himself a strong backer of the current system, he conceded that parents, school boards and superintendents had raised valid concerns about the state’s emphasis on testing. Many schools are scheduled to dedicate on average at least a third of the 180-day school year to standardized testing. Some districts, including populous Miami-Dade, have begun to pare back the number of tests while others are in open revolt.
“We have to recognize that we produce remarkable results from that accountability, so I don’t think we can completely back down,” Crisafulli said, “but there’s certainly some common ground that can be found there.”
GOP leaders also said they would press to expand job-training programs for people with developmental disabilities and restore a subsidy for state and local government workers to promote adoption. In addition, they said lawmakers would spend a significant part of the legislative session developing a statewide water policy and determining how to implement new conservation measures mandated by a constitutional amendment approved by voters in November.
Republished with permission of the Associated Press.
