Florida State Capitol orange juice? Not this year

The Latin motto of the Florida Supreme Court – “sat cito si recte” – translates to “if it’s right, enough,” but this year it will be a more appropriate slogan for the Capitol and the Senate.

Lawmakers will need to finish the 60-day session scheduled for May 2 without formulating a budget and punch through their spending plans during the extended session. History shows that these things blow up once or twice before normal payments.

Whether that is done correctly is a matter of opinion. Several senators and representatives are pleased with the spending plans generated by legislative overtime. But they are people who count the things that control all the big decisions, like the House Speaker, Senate Speaker, the Approximately stool and other key players.

Whether it was done immediately is a real question, and they have already demonstrated that they cannot do it in the 60 days allocated by the Constitution. It was an active session. It was also a $10 million effort that was made in the state contract settlement that lawmakers would first show Governor Ron DeSantis that they are equal branches of the government where they can say “no” to some of his plans.

During the extension session, lawmakers can only consider a limited number of bills (most bills including money) that will die until next year, improving operational efficiency. And once the Joint Negotiation Committee reaches a compromise, no amendments are permitted. The House and Senate must either pass the budget or send it back to the committee. The new budget must take effect on July 1st.

Postponed “Signed Die” – Another Latin term means “enough, already,” but has changed for more than a quarter century since the Republican took over. When Democrats did it all, they really didn’t expect the session to end on time. It was common to extend resolution terms or invoke special sessions.

As lawmakers were called at 7am last week and are working until 3am or 4am, Harry Muscle literally learns between the Chamber of Commerce and members may take less than 30 minutes of breaks for players’ ramp sessions on any issue.

As a young reporter, I sometimes saw the sun rise above the Appalachie Parkway, leaving the old Capitol. One budget standoff lasted several hours after June 30th, when Governor Lawton created a list of “non-essential” state employees if the fiscal year begins without transactions. They got one early on Saturday, and not everyone had run out of time just pretending to be some sort of thing.

However, the GOP took over midway to Chile’s second term, with House Speaker Dan Webster defining that they would end at 6 o’clock or so, like business. Chile set up a table in the rotunda on the fourth floor, toasted the postponement of the 1996 session and poured orange juice for Webster and Senate President Toni Jennings.

Traditional handkerchief drops, embraces and congratulatory speeches marked a happy ending for the 60th day for a while.

However, a decade ago, the house got mad and went home on Wednesday. The Senate left in the Senate for two days without doing anything other than passing or killing the bill approved by the home. The senators complained violently that they could not amend the House bill or hand over his letters, but they got through it.

It’s strange that political candidates always promise to run government like a business. They then have a huge two-part team of decision makers, come from hostile parties, take billions of dollars of action, set key policies in strict time frames, all massive deals are pushed up on the last day, giving the small inner circle of leaders the power to set the agenda.

Meanwhile, shareholders known as voters are largely unaware of the day-to-day progress. But they will get mad and never allow the harsh, unpopular votes that lawmakers have to throw at them from time to time.

Additionally, lawmakers must influence their decisions, leaving external interests known as lobbyists to decision makers with financial payments known as campaign contributions.

Do you run the government like a business? Which businesses run that way?

Bill Cottel is a retired Capitol Reporter for United Press International and the Tallahassee Democrats. He can be contacted at wrcott43@aol.com