| 2002 Legislative Environmental Scorecard | (Back to the Index) |
Dear Activist,
The 2002 Legislative Session in Florida was particularly vicious against environmental protection laws as special interests influenced scores of legislators in an attempt to roll back the decades of environmental protection in Florida law. Some legislators did the right thing and challenged the leadership of both the House and Senate, who flashed a green light to hundreds of lobbyists whose corporate clients wanted to see our environmental and growth management laws gutted or at least weakened. The bottom line saw some of the anti-environmental onslaught at least neutralized, though one of the worst Anti-Citizen bills—dubbed by one reporter as "the environmental scandal of the session"—was stapled onto the Everglades funding bill on the final day of session, and was later signed into law by the Governor, despite the broadest veto campaign ever amassed (from more than one hundred organizations around the state).
Strong House leadership from both political parties polarized various issues, including several reported here in the Environmental Scorecard. The result shows an increase in "roll call" votes, since the minority party didn't give in to the overwhelming majority when "voice votes" were determining nearly all policy decisions in both committees and on the House floor. The Senate still relied on voice votes for amendments, depriving the public of disclosure of how our elected legislators voted on the most important changes to those bills that would eventually be passed on the floor of both chambers.
The other result of this year's increase in roll call votes is the dramatic difference in final scores for those legislators conscious of environmental issues, contrasting those who vote consistently against the pro-environmental positions. Never before have so many legislators—nearly half in the House of Representatives—ended the session with their individual voting percentages sadly languishing between zero and twenty per cent pro-environment.
We are pleased to have provided you another tool in your "activist" toolbox that you can use to hold your elected officials accountable for the choices they make while writing and passing public policy changes year after year. Many deserve hardy "Attaboys" and thanks for their brave votes and sponsorship of good bills or amendments.
Remember, the legislators rank themselves, while we rank the legislation. We research, catalogue, evaluate and rank hundreds of bills (legislation) and amendments. Each legislator earns an environmental score by sponsoring specific legislation and casting the votes that are actually recorded. (Unfortunately, 95% of the time, the major policy decisions and changes to bills are passed by VOICE VOTES, with no "recorded" action at all).
We try to offer you the most concise "tool" you can use. This scorecard emphasizes and features some key votes that occurred on several high priority and controversial pieces of legislation this particular session. We provided you with a brief synopsis/summary of what the overall emphasis/theme of the legislation was and then provided the key votes on that issue. So, when you review the "Featured Votes" chart, you will see the code for voting for "+" the environment or voting against the environment "-"; an "Sp" which indicates they sponsored a good or bad amendment or bill; and in the case of the Anti-citizen enforcement bills, the total number of times they voted correctly. For example, "6+; 1-," means the legislator voted correctly six times and incorrectly one time.
The most controversial environmental disputes this session were:
The MANATEE Protection Act. Don't you just love the way legislators name their bad bills? This "protection" was actually an assault on Florida's most lovable and endangered species. One statesman insisted there should actually be a cap on the number of manatees allowed to survive. Another wanted manatees fenced out of the state's northeastern power plants warm water discharges so they would have to go south to stay warm, and free up the protected areas for boating and fishing. This bill would have authorized local governments to determine where, when and if slow speed zones and manatee sanctuaries should be placed. Would you trust your local government to protect your local manatees?
Everglades funding/Anti-citizen enforcement legislation. The Governor and the legislature made a commitment to bond the much needed Everglades funding totaling $100 million annually over the next eight years. However, the legislature just couldn't leave a good bill alone, so on the last night of the 2002 session they amended onto the Everglades bill a spiteful bill that takes away many of the public rights of the 1971 Florida Environmental Protection Act.
It is a travesty of justice that puts a wall between government and citizens. Why would citizens need to challenge state-issued permits? Not infrequently permits are issued for political reasons, or a result of corporate pressures, or agency decisions to stretch statutory language, or all of the above. Florida citizens do have a vested interest in protection of land, air and water as well as their quality of life. This statute, now signed by the governor in spite of an avalanche of opposition, is unacceptable. On the bright side, a constitutional challenge has been filed in civil court to determine whether there has been a violation of the state constitution's 'single subject rule' that hopefully will invalidate this slap-in-the-face legislation.
Transportation. This bill essentially ends the Florida Turnpike system and replaces it with a "Turnpike Enterprise," which will pursue 'business opportunities' for hotels, conference centers and retail malls. Previously the DOT had relied on sound economic feasibility studies for new toll roads, based on projected ridership and expectation of payment in five years, while the new amortization schedule sees payoff in 22 years. This strongly implies toll roads to nowhere, commercialization at every new interchange and proliferation of urban sprawl. The governor defends this as "making DOT more like a business." We have learned a lot about "business" recently, and it ain't always pretty.
Corporate Welfare. The governor would have us believe that the present budget crisis is the result of spending so much money on our pitiful social services and other programs which are located in the bottom 40's of the 50 states. In spite of reduced state incomes, and a projected $4 billion deficit for fiscal year 2003/2004, at least $3 billion dollars has been given away in tax breaks to Florida's wealthiest citizens and corporations over the governor's first term. Florida continues to exempt more in sales taxes than is collected. We collect $17 billion dollars in sales taxes and exempt $23 billion a year. That is why the funding raids on Florida’s environmental programs continue year after year: Because everyone isn't paying their fair share.
We cannot address this year's tumultuous session without pointing out the blame due to Governor Jeb Bush's failure to veto the three most controversial bills: 1) transportation, 2) outdoor billboards and 3) the anti-citizen legislation stapled onto the Everglades bill the final day of session. At least, the Governor did veto the misuse of funds from the state's land-buying programs which legislators had re-appropriated into the general budget to make up for another round of tax cuts and revenue shortfalls.
We have also recognized dozens of pro-environment sponsorships
of bills and amendments, varying among such sponsors as:
The scorecard published by FLCV for more than two decades is widely recognized
as the most comprehensive scorecard in the country. This year the League is
offering the scorecard's summary scores on our website www.FloridaLCV.org
and individual legislators' sponsorship points are available from Florida LCV
at
If you want to read the bills or amendments in greater detail, or look up some of the votes on your own, you can access that information via the internet: www.leg.state.fl.us.
| 2002 Legislative Environmental Scorecard | (Back to the Index) |