Meet The New Boss — Rick Scott Comes To The Capitol

November 10, 2010

Governor-elect Rick Scott made his first post-election trip Tuesday to the Florida Capitol, taking part in a pair of brief, closed-door meetings with outgoing Gov. Charlie Crist and incoming House Speaker Dean Cannon.

Scott then met the media.

A pair of availabilities, first with Crist – and then with the incoming chief executive flanked by Cannon – each spanned just over three minutes.

“Our goal is to have a smooth transition, and I’m looking forward to getting to work,” Scott said, with Crist looking on.

Scott offered little about his plans for governing, staffing or the Legislature’s upcoming special session to override several vetoes imposed by Crist. Instead, he seemed to stray little from the campaign themes which carried him to a 1.16 percent, wafer-thin margin-of-victory over Democrat Alex Sink last Tuesday.

“The reason I won the election is over one issue: And that’s getting us back to work,” Scott said. “My whole goal and the things I’m going to focus on when I take office is how we’re going to get this state back to work.”

The Legislature next week plans to follow its one-day organizational session with a brief special session where ruling Republicans intend to override Crist’s vetoes of nine bills and a budget item which took $9.7 million from Shands Teaching Hospital in Gainesville. The money was intended to serve an additional 18,000 uninsured Floridians and make the state eligible for another $12 million in federal Medicaid matching money.

Scott during his campaign had called for the Legislature to approve a tough new immigration law, similar to that approved in Arizona which required police and sheriff’s deputies to enforce federal laws. The governor-elect, however, said he wasn’t asking lawmakers to push a similar measure this month.

“I’m not suggesting they have anything on this special session,” Scott said.

Crist is clearly the target of the Legislature’s override session – which, if successful, would mark only the third time in 24 years that a Florida governor was unable to sustain a veto. But Scott could sustain some collateral damage.

Lawmakers are looking to revive a measure (HB 5611) that would take oversight of the state’s troubled Department of Management Services away from the new chief executive – placing it under the governor and the state’s three Cabinet members.

Scott shrugged-off the move.

“I don’t think anybody’s trying to go after my power,” Scott said of legislative leaders. “They’re following through on things they believe in.”

Lawmakers also are ready to use the special session to restore some spending provisions that may clash with Scott’s campaign push to shrink government and reduce state spending.

Along with the Shands funding, lawmakers are looking to resolve the state’s outstanding commitments to homeowners and businesses taking part in a pair of energy rebate programs.

Legislative leaders are calling for accepting $31.3 million of federal stimulus cash to cover rebates owed thousands of Floridians who installed qualified air-conditioning systems or made solar energy improvements.

Scott campaigned against the Obama administration and the federal stimulus – calling it wasteful spending that contributed to the nation’s mounting debt. He seemed to draw a distinction with the Legislature’s reaching for more Washington money.

“What I’m concerned about stimulus money is that it’s money that creates a long-term obligation and it’s just interim money….I don’t want stimulus dollars that cause us long-term to spend money that we don’t have,” Scott said.

Following his meeting with Scott, Cannon said “his vision and mine are very similar.”

The incoming governor said he would also drawn good advice from his predecessor, Crist.

“I asked him ‘what’s your best advice, and he said, `follow your heart,’” Scott said. “And that makes all the sense in the world to me.”

Scott also indicated he would stay out of another legislative drama which appears ready to unfold during next week’s session. Cannon, R-Winter Park, and incoming Senate President Mike Haridopolos, R-Merritt Island, have embraced a call by Sink to revive the vetoed SB 5603, a measure backed heavily by the state’s leading business groups, which would have reduced the cost of prescription drugs in workers’ compensation cases.

Crist’s veto was prompted, he said, by concerns the legislation would have made it “more awkward to get the medicine they need.” Urging a Crist veto were the Florida Orthopedic Society, Florida Medical Association and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME).

Also playing a key role in pushing the vetoes were a pair of South Florida doctors, Paul Zimmerman and Gerald Glass, who steered $1 million to political committees led by Haridopolos and Cannon – money that was used to finance TV ads against Scott during the Republican primary, when the two lawmakers supported Bill McCollum’s losing candidacy.

Automated Healthcare Solutions, a Miramar company headed by the doctors, also steered $605,000 to the Florida Republican Party in the weeks following the primary — this time, apparently to help Scott’s election. Similarly, Cannon seemed ready to make an easy transition back to the side of the state’s business lobby.

“That bill passed overwhelmingly in both chambers,” Cannon said. “We think it was good policy then, so we think it’s good policy now. It doesn’t really matter to me who supported it or opposed it.”

By John Kennedy
The News Service Florida

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Written by William Reynolds · Filed Under News