TALLAHASSEE
One of the most contentious Florida legislative sessions in recent memory will quietly close at midnight Friday.
But the sound and the fury of a deep divide between the House and Senate will reverberate through the next two months as lawmakers scramble to put together a new state budget before a July 1 deadline.
Rep. John Wood, R-Winter Haven, left, confers with house speaker Steve Crisafulli, R-Merrittt Island during a session, Monday, April 27, 2015, in Tallahassee, Fla. (AP Photo/Steve Cannon)
At this point there are more unknowns than knowns in how the legislative scenarios will play out. The one certainty is that Florida must replace its current $77 billion state budget with a new spending plan before July or face an unprecedented government shutdown. No state funding would close parks and state offices, leave workers without pay and plunge schools, prisons and health care programs into financial limbo.
A shutdown remains a remote possibility.
Yet to avoid it lawmakers must bridge a chasm symbolized by the $4 billion difference in their budget plans. That divide is better exemplified by the raw emotions and actions that emerged in the collapse of the final week of the 2015 session, as the House abruptly left three days early and the Senate charged the House with violating the state constitution through its early adjournment.
“The culture is toxic right now,” Senate Appropriations Chairman Tom Lee, R-Brandon said. “I think it is becoming increasingly difficult for us to work collaboratively together and that troubles me greatly.”
A day after lawmaking essentially ended in the 2015 session, Gov. Rick Scott interposed himself into the impasse on the side of the House Thursday, releasing a long statement asserting he would oppose Medicaid expansion in the upcoming budget talks — describing it as “putting the cart before the horse by trying to grab the limited-one-time-only offer of so-called ‘free’ money from Obamacare.”
It is not a new position for Scott, who had announced mid-session that he opposed Medicaid expansion — reversing his 2013 position in support of using the federal Affordable Care Act to offer more health care coverage to Floridians.
Scott’s latest move will put more pressure on the Senate, which is alone in its support of a plan to use Medicaid to provide private insurance to 800,000 low-income Floridians. But whether it results in a positive response from the Senate remains unclear.
Scott, who is miffed that lawmakers could not agree on his $673 million tax-cut package, previously asserted himself in the eighth week of the nine-week session, calling senators into private meetings in his office and threatening them with his veto power. It didn’t go well, drawing sharp criticism from Senate leaders.
His embrace of the House position also runs counter to Sen. Jack Latvala’s advice earlier in the week that the governor ought to act as a mediator in the dispute between the House and Senate.
“If he takes one side and they try to stuff it, they’re not going to stuff something on the Florida Senate,” the Clearwater Republican told reporters. “The governor needs to be an honest broker. He needs to get people in the same room and say look we’re going to work this out.
“And in working something out, everybody should be a winner. Everybody should try to achieve some of their goals in the process.”
The most likely scenario is that lawmakers will take some weeks off — perhaps until June — to let emotions cool and then return to Tallahassee to try to pass a new state budget.
On Thursday, the Senate advanced a plan for a June 1-20 special session to pass a new state budget, with Medicaid expansion as part of the debate.
But exactly when and how they return and what their agenda will be is uncertain. Scott can call them back into a special session and eliminate Medicaid expansion from the agenda — which would please the House and irk the Senate.
Senate President Andy Gardiner, R-Orlando, and House Speaker Steve Crisafulli, R-Merritt Island, can call lawmakers back into a special session and set a joint agenda. But the stumbling block remains Medicaid expansion.
“We don’t know what is going to change,” Crisafulli said Tuesday when he sent the House members home. “Obviously this House is not interested in expanding Medicaid so that is going to have to be the first topic of conservation.”
Adding to the post-session drama, Scott, who made his fortune as health care executive, will be moving forward with a special commission looking at health care costs and hospitals. Scott has been a longtime critic of “taxpayer supported” hospitals.
Scott and lawmakers also are awaiting a decision from the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which is deciding the fate of a $2.2 billion federal program that funds uncompensated care at Florida hospitals. The Senate advanced its Medicaid expansion plan as a way to offset the potential loss of all or some of that hospital funding.
The CMS decision has been complicated by Scott’s lawsuit accusing the federal agency of trying to use the demise of the hospital funding program, known as the low-income pool (LIP), as a way to “coerce” Florida into expanding Medicaid.
But because Scott did not submit a formal application for continuing LIP until mid-April, state officials are not expecting a final answer from CMS before the July 1 start of the budget year. On Thursday, Scott proposed lawmakers work on a new budget for 2015-16 that includes neither LIP funding nor Medicaid expansion.
The Senate’s call for a June special session also assumes that lawmakers will have to build a new budget without the hospital funding.
But while tensions were high this week as lawmakers saw dozens of their bills die in the final week melee, legislative leaders say they believe House and Senate members will eventually put the bitterness behind them.
“You hope that people will reflect and perhaps consider doing the right thing,” said Lee, a former Senate president. “But there is a wide disagreement about what the right thing is in this session.”
HOW WILL IT UNFOLD?
Here are some scenarios in how Florida’s budget crisis will play out now that the 2015 session has ended without a budget agreement:
— Gov. Rick Scott can call lawmakers back to for a special session on the budget and set the agenda.
— House Speaker Steve Crisafulli, R-Merritt Island, and Senate President Andy Gardiner, R-Orlando, can agree on a joint agenda and call lawmakers back into a special session.
— The Senate has proposed a June 1-20 special session that includes a new budget as well as a debate on Medicaid expansion.
— Scott and the House oppose Medicaid expansion and may try to eliminate it from the special session agenda.
— Scott wants lawmakers to pass $673 million in tax cuts, which the House has supported but the Senate has balked on until health care funding is resolved.
— The fate of a $2.2 billion federal program that funds Florida hospitals remains uncertain and complicates the budget agreement.
Florida’s budget crisis by the numbers:
7/1/2015 — Deadline for a new state budget
$77 billion — Current state budget
$76.2 billion — Proposed House budget
$80.4 billion — Proposed Senate budget
$4 billion — Budget gap
$673 million — Amount in Gov. Rick Scott’s tax-cut package
$2.2 billion — Federal program that funds Florida hospitals for uncompensated care
800,000 — Number of low-income Floridians the Senate wants to cover through a Medicaid expansion
