Incoming Republican legislative leaders said they are considering calling a special session in the coming weeks to override some of Gov. Charlie Crist’s vetoes.
Crist’s veto of a property insurance bill could be on the list of vetoes to be reconsidered.
Senate President-designate Mike Haridopolos of Merritt Island said the potential overrides would not include hotly debated bills dealing with matters such as teacher merit pay, abortion and elections.
“We’re looking for bills that passed overwhelmingly in the Senate and the House, meaning in a bipartisan fashion,” Haridopolos said.
House Speaker-designate Dean Cannon of Winter Park agreed, saying he’d prefer to let those kind of issues wait until next year’s regular session.
Crist this year vetoed 18 bills and $371 million worth of spending in the state’s $70.1 billion budget.
The two incoming leaders said a prime override candidate is Crist’s veto of a $9.7 million budget item for the University of Florida’s hospital. It would pay for treating uninsured patients and draw down federal matching money.
“It just didn’t make sense,” Cannon said.
Crist maintained he vetoed the money because it was for a single hospital and other hospitals did not get the same kind of funding.
Haridopolos also questioned Crist’s veto of a bill that would have expanded a tax break on agricultural land. Crist said he vetoed it because it also would benefit developers.
The Legislature will convene a one-day postelection reorganization session Nov. 16, when Cannon and Haridopolos will be formally elected by their respective chambers and take office.
A special session could be held then or when lawmakers return the week of Dec. 6 for committee meetings. It will depend on how much they want to tackle, Cannon said. He said a longer agenda would probably mean waiting until December. A new governor is sworn in Jan. 4.
The legislative leaders haven’t yet developed a list of override targets, but Haridopolos said they are looking for measures that will put people back to work and remove barriers to business growth.
Crist vetoed several bills favored by some business interests after leaving the Republican Party to run for the U.S. Senate as an independent. He lost that race Tuesday to Republican Marco Rubio, a former House speaker.
The governor cited consumer protection as his reason for vetoing bills that would limit the liability of architects, engineers and other design professionals against negligence lawsuits and that would let property insurance companies raise rates up to 10 percent without going through the usual regulatory process.
Crist vetoed a bill to require legislative approval of agency rules that have an economic effect because he said it would infringe on executive authority.
He said another vetoed measure would have blurred the Department of Environmental Protection’s mission by requiring it to maintain an inventory of all state property including buildings.
Was this article valuable?
Here are more articles you may enjoy.
FM Global Rebrands As FM 
Surplus Lines Commercial Growth; Fla. Litigation Costs Reach New High in 2023 
Study Urges Rethinking of Disaster Management in Era of Compounding Events 
Allstate, State Farm Sued Over $4 Billion Maui Fire Settlement 
