By The Florida Times-Union Editorial Board
The Florida Legislature needs to allow city and county governments to meet virtually by phone or electronically.
State boards and commissions already have that ability. But the restriction for local governments was brought home when it was learned that City Councilman Sam Newby had come down with the COVID-19 illness.
Thankfully, Newby had not been to City Hall in about two weeks, so it appeared that council members and staff members were not at risk of infection.
But it seems that the virus has already spread in ways that are not fully recognized because testing kits have not been readily available.
With a vaccine over a year away, precautions like frequent hand-washing and social distancing are more important than ever.
For City Council, important business needs to be conducted. That business is most safely conducted electronically for the foreseeable future.
For instance, council needs to confirm new members of the JEA board and they need to pass a bill allowing for a referendum on a sales tax for the Duval County Public Schools.
Meanwhile, the Legislature should extend the session as long as necessary to take care of business resulting from the coronavirus epidemic.
And while legislators adjust the state budget to account for the economic impact of the epidemic, they should keep in mind certain priorities.
The health and safety of the people must come first. If additional funding is needed to set up testing centers, for instance, it must be found.
Also many Floridians stand to be hurt as the economy slows while people are staying away from public gatherings. The tourist industry is huge in Florida and stands to take a big hit.
Legislators need to make decisions based on the best estimates of return on investment. For instance, which state funds directly impact jobs?
One example is the trust fund that supports affordable housing, called the Sadowski Fund. Revenue is already in hand. When spent, it produces important affordable housing stock in the state and supports many jobs in the construction and real estate industries. Many of these funds have been swept into the general budget in previous years, which makes no sense on the basis of return on investment.
Other legislative issues
Key questions for the legislators: Is there something broken here? Or is the fix unnecessary? And is a problem so dire that home rule for all of Florida merits being overruled?
Constitution Revision Commission: This group only meets every 20 years but its last session was so distorted with political agendas that it may as well be disbanded. The commission tossed together several items into single votes — one vote included four issues — which made a mockery of the process.
College president searches: There is no end to legislative attempts to find exceptions to Florida’s Government in the Sunshine laws. One bill would allow early stages of searches for college presidents to be conducted secretly. Yet we have seen no difficulty finding good presidents for Florida’s colleges. The system is not broken.
Term limits for school boards: There must be some sort of conceit in the Tallahassee water. People get elected and think they know best for every one of the state’s 67 counties. Let counties decide if they want term limits for local school boards. An outstanding individual in a rural county may be hard to replace.
Voting by mail: Looking forward to the August and November elections, the coronavirus may be with us in some form. Expanding voting by mail and extended early voting may be needed. The Legislature should be prepared to provide additional funds.
Health care: The state budget currently protects health care for the less fortunate with funding for safety new hospitals like UF Health Jacksonville. These patients, many of them on Medicaid, must be served. These safety net hospitals see the sickest patients in the state and are needed most during public health emergencies. If private hospitals are serving Medicaid patients, let them receive additional funding on a pro-rata basis.
Article last accessed here on March 20, 2020. A print-ready PDF is available here.