TALLAHASSEE · As ugly as the 11th-hour horse-trading and sausage-making are, it's the spin
that follows the Legislative session that's really hard to take.
Case in point: After failing to enact legislation on voter-mandated slot machines in Broward
County, House Speaker Allan Bense tried to lay the blame on lobbyists.
I collared Bense a few minutes past midnight Saturday and asked how he could justify this
ludicrous blow-off, considering he had told the South Florida Sun-Sentinel editorial board before
the March referendum that despite his personal opposition to gambling, the Legislature would
deliver a reasonable business plan if the measure passed.
"You can't pass everything in a session," said Bense, a Republican from Panama City. "We
just couldn't work it out."
But how, I asked, could he put the state in this position? Come July 1, the state could have
started taking in millions of dollars for education from slot taxes. Instead, thanks to the House's
recalcitrance, the state will now have to potentially spend millions of dollars in legal fees
fighting aggrieved pari-mutuel owners.
"It's a very complicated issue," Bense said. "It was heavily lobbied. In fact, if I had to say, it
might have been too heavily lobbied."
This is the part where I'm obligated to point out that you can't spell Bense without "bs."
Rep. Jack Seiler, D-Pompano Beach, rolled his eyes when he heard Bense's comment.
"Every year [telecommunications] is heavily lobbied," Seiler said. "I don't think that's ever
stopped that industry from getting the bills they want."
Seiler worked hard trying to broker a slots compromise between the House and Senate
versions. The Senate approved Class III Vegas-style slots. The House leadership, prodded by
Bense and Gov. Jeb Bush, kept insisting on Class II bingo machines.
Seiler called the slots failure "the biggest disappointment" of the session.
The Senate version never made it to the House floor for a vote Friday night, even though some
South Florida representatives felt it had the votes to pass. Apparently, theme-park-friendly
legislators from Central Florida, like Rep. Frank Attkisson, R-Kissimmee, made sure the bill
died.
But Bense wants us to believe it was aggressive lobbyists who did it in. Riiiight.
If Bense really was so turned off by large numbers of overzealous lobbyists, then maybe he
should have gotten on board with Senate President Tom Lee's crusade for greater lobbyist
disclosure and regulation.
Funny, but that didn't happen.
Instead, Bense and the House watered down Lee's proposals, partly in retaliation for Lee and
the Senate nuking Bense's pet cause, business-friendly lawsuit reform.
All the lobbyists crowding the Capitol rotunda breathed a little easier when Lee's initiatives
died.
Soon after the handkerchiefs dropped signifying the session's official end, Lee and Bense tried
to say how it was a good session in which everyone won.
But in reality, it seemed like everyone lost.
Gov. Jeb Bush didn't get the class-size repeal or sweeping Medicaid revamp he wanted. The
Marlins didn't get their new stadium tax subsidy. Broward voters didn't get slots legislation.
Bense didn't get full-scale tort reform. And Lee didn't get his lobbyist package.
Much as I hate the way big-money lobbying has subverted the political process, many of Lee's
proposals were off base. Lee wanted lobbyists to disclose how much they are paid, which seems
an intrusion into private affairs that's really none of the state's business.
Lee also wanted to ban former felons from lobbying, which sounds good but is really an
unconstitutional trampling of their First Amendment rights to freedom of speech and assembly.
What's really needed is more detailed oversight and regulation of the money lobbyists spend
influencing public officials.
Currently, lobbyists have to file general spending reports only twice a year. Requiring more
specifics of every dinner/party/outing, including which politicians attended, how much was spent
and the topics/legislation discussed, would lead to more transparency in the process.
With this Legislature in charge, don't bet on it.
Michael Mayo can be reached at mmayo@sun-sentinel.com or 954-356-4508.