More on the “Pendulum Swing” of Governance

By Lynn Tipton, Executive Director

After last month’s column, several members contacted me to share their similar frustrations and concerns about Florida’s fiscal and legislative issues. My family has been in the Sunshine State since 1978, and I cannot recall a tougher economic time (although the early 1990s were a time of state revenue shortfalls, budget cuts and lay-offs) for the state and local governments. 

This month, I want to focus on a positive “light” that we haven’t had before: the Center for Florida Local Government Excellence (nicknamed “the Center”) at FSU. This joint project between the FCCMA, FSU and the John Scott Dailey Florida Institute of Government will hopefully be a significant tool as we try to resolve the fiscal challenges facing us. When FCCMA approached the various schools of public administration to talk about the Center, we stressed that we saw three essential elements in the Center’s design: the academic needs of public administrators (including research); meeting the training and professional development needs of current and future local public managers and their management team members; and convening discussions statewide about the challenges and opportunities of Florida’s local governments. The third portion, serving as “convener” (maybe a better word is catalyst) for statewide issues and hosting the types of forums that lead to solutions. Several associations, like the Florida Chamber of Commerce, for example, have tried to hold statewide conferences on growth management, water policy, and the like. It appears that the “agenda” of the convener often gets in the way of actual outcomes, however. I believe our Center can be a neutral convener with a focus on genuine reform (or problem-solving). There is tremendous potential for state, regional, and local leaders to gather together and discuss these issues outside of the legislative session and its deadlines.

At our conference in Marco Island next month, please plan on attending the Center’s workshop. You’ll hear about the newest academic element: a Florida city and county management certificate, the plans for the training and outreach element; and the opportunities we have to convene across the state in the name of strengthening our state and her governments. I look forward to seeing you there!

Over the past couple of years I’ve noticed an increase in the number of Home Rule attacks across Florida. Whether these incidents started as legislation, attorney general opinions, or executive branch actions, it appears that Article VIII, Sections 1(f) and 2(b) of the Florida Constitution hold less interest or sacred position than a decade ago. In my 19 years of working with Florida’s local governments, I recognize the unfunded mandates and other legislative measures as Home Rule attacks, but what I see happening now is more than just legislation. It is an attitude among policy-makers that deeply concerns me. What has made counties and municipalities the enemy of the state?  It has to be more than the rise in property valuations that led to some jurisdictions having property tax increases, and it has to be more than shared ideas for Constitutional amendments like TABOR (taxpayer bill of rights), which spread from activist groups to legislators’ and governors’ associations across the country.  I don’t understand where the anger against counties and municipalities comes from.

This year I’m teaching master’s students at FSU, and we’ve read some of the Federalist Papers as background for the intergovernmental relations and management class.  In re-reading Madison’s writings, I’m struck by how deliberately he wanted (and succeeded!) to spell out what would be “federal” and what would be “national” in philosophy while being very careful to ensure that the respective states would hold their own powers. I think we need that same lecture on our national, state and local political philosophies today.

Some other efforts that have me concerned: citizen-led initiatives would turn a variety of governmental decisions into voter referenda (the proposed “Hometown Democracy” amendment, for example, or California’s statutory amendments that appear each year on the ballot); recall efforts for charter language that turn election terms into popularity contests (“we want to be able to recall the person on any given day, for any given reason—including a vote on an issue,” a citizen told me recently); several bills filed in this year’s Legislature that would severely curtail county or city tax and fee powers; last year’s required reductions to city and county millage rates; and a number of states facing TABOR-like amendments or legislation.

Are we in an era or headed into an era of greater state power and reduced local powers? Do citizens really want a state making decisions that have been locally determined for 100-plus years in some parts of the country (and closer to 40 years in Florida)? What these questions really lead me to is the question I’ve posed in this column already: do citizens really understand their governments, and what powers are given to each level?

Who is today’s James Madison?  I think it is time for another edition of the Federalist Papers.