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Legislators To Constituents: Put A Lid On It

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By TOM JACKSON

tjackson@tampatrib.com

Published: January 25, 2009

NEW PORT RICHEY - Whittled to its essence, three messages emerged from Friday's annual summit of Pasco's state legislative delegation, where lawmakers entertained the concerns of local elected officials and agency chiefs.

To summarize: Stick it to smokers (and, while you're at it, dippers); tax the casinos; don't whack my budget.

Hmmm. Does anyone suppose the public will be satisfied if, come the end of the spring legislative session, lawmakers have achieved only one of those ambitions? Neither do I. Nonetheless, a third of a loaf - getting a deal on Seminole Indian gaming - may be the optimum outcome.

The recent quickie session that pared down a $2.6 billion gap - the discussion of which got New Port Richey Mayor Scott McPherson into a heap of trouble, as we shall soon see - will, compared to the promised bloodletting this spring, be as fondly remembered as a visit to the county fair.

A Tale of 2 Summits

Oddly, the takeaway by the senior members of the six members present, Sens. Mike Fasano and Victor Crist, could not have been less in synch. Fasano detected a mood of grim determination combined with a unity of purpose. "Everybody knows we're all in this together," he said.
Crist resembled the explorer who'd slogged 20 miles through an enemy swamp with starving alligators snapping at his backside. Said Crist, "I've never been through one of these where there was so much tension and so much hostility in the room."

Whoever had it more accurately pegged, there can be little doubt which of the 35-odd presenters triggered, or most completely symbolized, the sense of gloom that characterized the four-hour seminar. That singular, unenvied honor belongs to McPherson, the second-year city exec who, speaking second, committed the fatal error of not merely believing what he read in news accounts, but repeated them in the presence of those he had hoped to influence.

McPherson declared "concern" that lawmakers emerged from the aforementioned special session after taking "hundreds of millions of dollars from social services and education" claiming "victory ... that you didn't raise taxes."

Thus began a 10-minute dressing down of the Democratic firefighter-turned-lawyer-turned-mayor in which the entirely Republican delegation challenged every observation McPherson had made, up to and including his opening remark, "Good morning." Not for berry farmers, it wasn't.

Abandon Ship?

McPherson learned the hard way what doesn't sell in these prickly times, and that's broadcasting - as Rep. Will Weatherford said, "In front of the media, the public and this delegation" - that legislators have abandoned the practice of fair play.

It's a rough new world, one in which tension is a shared experience. Friday's snapshot suggests that, as the screws tighten, we will learn soon enough who's truly dedicated to getting through to the other side together.

Tom Jackson can be reached at (813) 948-4219.

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