Special session near collapse

As a rocky special legislative session veered to the edge of collapse Thursday night, Senate President Joe Negron raised the stakes by demanding that the House restore $75 million in higher education vetoes by Gov. Rick Scott.

Negron aggressively refuted what he called a “fake narrative” — that by appearing in Miami last Friday with Scott and House Speaker Richard Corcoran, he had agreed to support terms of a special session budget deal, when in fact he had not.

To bolster his position, Negron said his staff asked that his name be removed from a special session proclamation and that a suggested quote attributed to Negron not be included.

“I wasn’t part of what was occurring here,” Negron said.

The Stuart lawyer spoke to reporters for 40 minutes and he all but assured that the session would collapse Friday. That’s because Corcoran is adamant that the House won’t agree with the Senate to override vetoes of 18 college and university building projects.

“We would be the first Republican Legislature that overrode a Republican governor on pork barrel spending. It’s not what we do,” Corcoran flatly told reporters Friday, putting the House and Senate on a collision course. “That’s a principle we’re not ready to violate.”

Senators have increasingly voiced their displeasure with the way the special session was convened, complaining they were being set up to rubber stamp a deal they had no part in making.

To appease some Senate Republicans, and hold the coalition, the Senate decided early Thursday to reverse its decision on allowing some property taxes to increase next year to fund K-12 funding.

There were signs of rebellion from senators, who see Corcoran as having gained too much of an upper hand by negotiating a three-part agreement that gave Scott much of what he wanted, reducing the Senate to bystander.

Negron noted that for a year it was Corcoran, not him, who battled Scott and promised to abolish Enterprise Florida and eviscerate the state tourism agency, Visit Florida.

Now, he said, Corcoran and Scott have to respect the Senate’s priorities, which also include a restoration of $260 million in Medicaid cuts to hospitals.

“We’re not just going to rubber stamp an agreement that two parties made without our priorities being taken into account,” Negron said of Corcoran and Scott.

Last Friday, when Scott announced the special session at Miami International Airport, Negron chose his words carefully and did not commit the Senate to any deal.

“We will consider any proposals that emerge,” Negron said in Miami. “Each individual senator has his or her vote.”

Fast forward to Thursday, and legislators are running out of time to agree on changes to classroom spending, jobs and tourism programs — issues that forced Scott to call a special session to ratify a behind-the-scenes deal.

If the chambers can’t bridge their differences, they can’t go home.

“The ball is in their court,” Sen. Oscar Braynon, D-Miami Gardens, said of the House.

Scott’s newfound ally, Corcoran, said earlier Thursday he was optimistic that a compromise can be worked out to avoid a meltdown.

“We’re talking about school children and jobs,” Corcoran told reporters. “It’s not over till the fat lady sings.”

The combative speaker from Pasco County said the House would never agree with the Senate to restore cuts in payments to hospitals or overturn Scott’s vetoes of $75 million in college construction projects throughout the state.

The Senate invited a new fight with Corcoran by adding new restrictions to its economic development bill (SB 2A), including a specific rate of return on investments and abolishing a new jobs incentive fund in 2019 unless the Legislature keeps it alive.

The current bill provides $85 million for state and local infrastructure projects and workforce training grants. It ends the practice of awarding tax money to specific companies as a reward for new jobs. But most new money would be controlled by the governor and a jobs agency he controls.

This story was originally published June 8, 2017 at 10:08 PM with the headline "Special session near collapse."