House OKs deregulation bill, shifts funds from Moffitt

The Florida House on Thursday voted to deregulate more than a dozen professions and to shift cigarette tax revenue from H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center to services for the developmentally disabled.

Those were among more than a dozen bills the House approved, including a $66.5 billion budget that Democrats reviled for its cuts to everything from health care to transportation and Republicans praised as the responsible thing to do.

The House also voted to require state workers to pay 3 percent into their retirement funds.

Some of the most intense debate of the day was about a proposal to deregulate more than a dozen professions and business services.

It passed on Thursday over vehement objections from Democrats, who said it would leave residents and visitors vulnerable to rip-offs, physical injury, even death.

The bill reverses regulation of travel agents, motor vehicle repair shops, intrastate movers, interior designers and many others.

Those regulations include licensure fees, rules, and education and testing requirements. The education requirements the bill eliminates range from the 12-hour course required of body wrappers to four-year interior design degrees.

Loss of fees will cost the state money, but supporters said that getting rid of the burdensome rules will free up entrepreneurs and energize the economy.

"This is one of the most important bills that will pass out of this chamber this year," said state Rep. Doug Holder, R-Sarasota. People "want government out of their business."

But professionals don't want to be deregulated, said state Rep. Betty Reed, D-Tampa. "Think about the people who have spent so much money on education, and now you're telling them 'you're money doesn't count. You can do this without any education.'"

State Rep. Irving Slosberg, D-Boca Raton, focused on the danger of lightening education requirements for people who do mold and mildew cleanup.

"How will these facilities know if they're hiring a capable individual?" he asked. "Are they just going to dump bleach all over the place and hope for the best?"

But state Rep. Dorothy Hukill, R-Port Orange, said the bill keeps public safety protections intact, merely undoing outdated regulations and fees that do nothing but increase the cost of doing business, she said.

In the end, the bill passed 77-38, along party lines.

House Republicans also lined up to support taking money from Moffitt. The bill would use revenue previously allocated to three cancer centers to plug a $170 million deficit at the Agency for Persons with Disabilities.

State Rep. Ron Saunders, D-Key West, posed the strongest challenge, saying the state was reneging on a promise to use the cigarette tax to fund health care.

Rep. Jim Waldman, D-Coconut Creek, called it a "breach of trust."

Rep. Patrick Rooney, R-West Palm Beach, agreed it was difficult to cut money for cancer research. "It's Sophie's Choice," he said. "Cancer versus people with disabilities."

The House passed the bill 77-41.

The two chambers are at such odds over the deregulation and Moffitt issues, the Senate refused to concur and set up the issues for inter-chamber negotiations.

On the pension bill, Saunders argued that the forced contribution was actually an income tax, and that meant the House was required to seek an amendment to the state constitution.

He raised a point of order, but it was rejected and an appeal was voted down.

The pension contribution isn't a tax, Rep. Ritch Workman, R-Melbourne, said, because the money goes back to the workers. But Saunders still urged the lawmakers to tread carefully.

"Think before you vote for a bill that for the rest of your political career will be considered by many to be a state income tax."

Whatever it's called, the move will take 3 percent out of state employees' pay, which is "not economically smart," said Michelle Rehwinkel Vasilinda, D-Tallahassee.

In Hillsborough County alone it will reduce what teachers have to spend by more than $25 million a year, she said.

But the bill helps the states in many ways, said Workman, its sponsor. It helps balance the budget. "And it allows our employees to have a say in their pension."

The bill also ends the Deferred Retirement Option Program and raises the retirement age from 55 to 60 for police, firefighters and other high risk employees and from 62 to 65 for other public workers.

The Senate passed a required contribution bill on Thursday, but it bases the contribution amount on salary level. The two chambers will work out their differences in conference committee.

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