TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

Weatherford's Will To Avoid Temptation Is Crucial To Budget Decisions

ADVERTISEMENT

By TOM JACKSON

tjackson@tampatrib.com

Published: March 1, 2009

WESLEY CHAPEL - From the moment he slid into the booth until the waiter received his order, Will Weatherford never cracked the menu that accompanied him to the table. He'd arrived determined to practice light eating, and he wasn't going to let images of burgers smothered in cheese and zesty sauces lure him off-track.

Weatherford's intentions were further rewarded when his lunch companion also went the salad route, for while scant joy exists in the practice of self-control, it becomes misery when in the presence of the sloppily indulgent.

Rendered of stern stuff, but no Puritan, Weatherford readily concedes that, while he appreciates misery's cleansing flame, he does not celebrate it. Understanding the difference will grow increasingly useful in the weeks ahead as Weatherford and 159 other Florida lawmakers convene for a legislative session quite without modern precedent, in a state capital that promises to be ripe with unhealthy temptation.

Gov. Charlie Crist already has succumbed, infusing his budget submission with several billion federal "stimulus" dollars, over which he is almost embarrassingly giddy. Come to think of it, considering what he means to spend some of them on - school lunch equipment, radios for prison guards, rebates for solar panels, obligations lasting far beyond the shelf life of the feds' largesse - embarrassment seems an underdone emotion.

More circumspect Florida citizens will count on their representatives to demonstrate the discipline and good judgment required to choose from less flab-inducing areas of the budget menu.

For openers, this is not - as many are quick to claim - simply the return of money Floridians already sent to Washington; these represent tax dollars extracted from paychecks not yet earned, from workers and business owners who spent most of last week honing their sandbox sociability skills.

Weatherford, a new dad, keenly understands his obligation to ensuing generations. The Republican from Wesley Chapel is also wary of the iron grip of the federal tentacles dangling the goodies before state legislatures desperate to avoid today's tough choices. Some "stimulus" offerings require states to restore targeted programs (education, for instance) to 2006's boom-time levels to qualify, but getting there - in the event the governor's petition for a waiver fails - would require slashing elsewhere to free up the necessary dollars, hiking taxes or both.

Says Weatherford, "Raising taxes in a recession is not my idea of good policy."

"Stimulus" dollars for unemployment benefits would force states to reconfigure employment law in ways onerous to employers. How new jobs would bubble up from this cauldron of obligation is not made clear. The "stimulus" bridge for Medicaid would require expanding the pool of eligible candidates, creating a constituency of dependence enduring long after the federal dollars would expire (in three years).

Legislative Miners

All the while, Weatherford keeps in mind nerve-wracked business owners who point to empty chairs once occupied by 30 percent, maybe 40 percent of their work force - trained, productive employees who, through no fault of their own, simply became unaffordable. By contrast, Weatherford says, "I look at state agencies, and I don't see anybody losing their jobs."

Not that Florida should go on a firing binge, he says, adding the obligatory, "Nobody wants to see anybody put out of work." But it begs credulity to poor-mouth the condition of the state budget when a government paycheck is accompanied by an ironclad sense of job security.

Weatherford, ascendant in the majority's leadership and pegged for the speaker's role in 2013-14, will urge colleagues to assume the role of legislative miners. Their goal: isolate the ore of core responsibilities.

"We need to maintain order - take care of public safety," he says. "We need to take care of people who can't take care of themselves - the disabled and elderly."

The list continues, but it isn't elaborate. What might go on hiatus? Land acquisition. Affordable housing. "We've got a three-year supply," Weatherford says.

The Department of Community Affairs. "We put mandates on counties to have land-use plans and to achieve concurrency," Weatherford says. The DCA seems redundant, and not like NASA-systems redundant.

"I'm not saying we eliminate it, but we could certainly cut it in half," Weatherford says.

Meanwhile, Weatherford means to push the agenda closest to his sense of the government's overarching responsibility: "We're coming out of this recession," he says, "and when we do, I'd like Florida to be the most business-friendly state in America."

That means some re- arrangement of the state's tax and fee structure; aggressively re-evaluating and, where legitimate, eliminating regulatory impediments; and reducing state-mandated impact fees assessed by local government.

Fasten Your Seat Belts

These are critical times, Weatherford concedes, but unlike Washington's career political class, reflected in President Barack Obama's cynical chief of staff - let no crisis pass unexploited, says Rahm Emanuel, even if it means putting the printing press into hyper-drive - Florida's options are rather more limited.

"We have to take a real hard look at how government is funded and how government functions," Weatherford says. "I hope we're up to the task."

And 50 years from now, when the nation teeters on the brink of its next financial disaster, Weatherford wants to be able to hobble back into the state Capitol, lean on his cane and announce, "OK, all you young bucks, here's what we did. And we got it right."

In the meantime, fasten your seat belts. It's going to be a bumpy ride - one that suggests eating light is the best imaginable policy.

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

Share this:

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT