A committee of the Senate's leading Republicans and Democrats, along with Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink, are urging Gov. Charlie Crist and the House to go beyond the debate over putting a constitutional amendment on the November ballot when they meet July 20-23 to including economic relief for thousands of businesses, individuals and governments.
``The urgency is that people are going bankrupt -- or about to go bankrupt,'' Sink said Tuesday.
But House leaders continued to stonewall. They are convinced that Crist's call for the July 20-23 session to ban oil drilling in Florida waters is a self-serving political ploy designed to help him garner attention for his U.S. Senate bid. They think it's illogical for anyone to pursue oil drilling now, in light of the Deepwater Horizon disaster.
``The situation in Northwest Florida deserves serious attention,'' said Rep. Dean Cannon, R-Winter Park, in a statement. Cannon is designated to be House speaker in 2011 and his Orlando-area district is land-locked and oil free.
``Our job, and our intention, is to develop public policy that will actually help Floridians and improve the ever-changing situation on the ground'' he continued. ``In my opinion, we aren't going to be able to do that responsibly in a four-day photo-op session.''
Crist said he is open to addressing the economic issues but they were ``not as time sensitive'' as meeting the Aug. 4 deadline to put an amendment on the November ballot.
Sen. Don Gaetz, R-Fort Walton Beach, hopes that the Senate can persuade House leaders and the governor to see things differently.
``I don't think we should let politics stand in the way of the economic pain and suffering,'' he said. ``What we're finding is a number of these issues really are very time sensitive.''
Gaetz expects to release a proposal Wednesday that outlines immediate changes lawmakers can make to state law that will streamline the claims process for oil spill victims, temporarily lower the property-tax burden and make it easier for the state to send BP the bill.
Gaetz chairs a Senate select committee that met for four hours in Pensacola on Monday hearing from economists, accountants, business organziations and government officials about the cascading economic effects the oil spill is having on the region. He agrees that dispite these appeals, it is difficult for many Republicans to overcome their animosity for Crist, who left the party in April to run with no party affiliation.
``If the governor wants to have a policy debate about a constitutional ban on offshore drilling, that's probably a valid public policy debate,'' he said. ``But I think the governor would have a greater chance to have the issue debated and discussed if he were willing to acknowledge the other real time-sensitive issues that are evident.''
One issue Gaetz believes the Legislature should address next week is a plan to give property appraisers the right to revise the notices that come out in August for property taxes due in November to account for the decline in property values, or provide rebates to property owners.
``There's no one I know that doesn't believe that property values in coastal Northwest Florida won't be affected by the oil spill,'' he said.
Sink agrees that legislators should modify the law to allow property tax appraisers to do what they have been allowed to do in hurricanes, and either re-value property or provide rebates.
In a letter to Crist on Monday, Sink outlined several proposals she would like lawmakers to address, including reguiring the claims forms to be written in plain language and establishing a time line for claims decisions to be completed and a dispute process for how to mediate disagreements.
Mary Ellen Klas can be reached at meklas@MiamiHerald.com
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