Mr. Gaetz Goes to Tallahassee
What’s it like going from a tiny town like Niceville in the Panhandle to Tallahassee, Florida’s state capital, to be a freshman state senator?
That’s what we asked Don Gaetz. The Republican from Niceville won the District 4 Florida Senate seat unopposed in 2006.
Let’s be honest, though, he’s no ordinary freshman. He raised more than $756,000 during his campaign, which was more than Senate President Ken Pruitt or past Senate President Jim King Jr.
He’s also a successful businessman. Currently, he owns the 150-employee, Pensacola-based TLC Caregivers. And Gaetz was co-founder of the Miami-based VITAS Healthcare Corporation, which he and his partners sold for $410 million in 2004.
Once in Tallahassee, the former Okaloosa County School District Superintendent and school board member was named to eight committees, including chairman of the state Senate’s education committee.
Gaetz, his purple tie loosened and the sleeves of his light blue dress shirt rolled up, dropped in on the Independent News staff to just “shoot the breeze.” About two hours later, we think we got a pretty clear picture of what the freshman’s year with “the Titans on Mount Olympus,” as he calls it, was like.
ACT I “WELCOME, BOY”
Scene: (Gaetz shows up on his first day of the legislative session to find his assigned seat is in the front row. A veteran state Senator promptly saddles up and greets him.)
It didn’t take long for Gaetz to feel welcome on his first day in the Senate chamber. A veteran Senator walks over as soon as Gaetz finds his seat in the front row.
“I don’t want to tell you the name of the senator,” Gaetz says. “I don’t want to embarrass him. But he was a veteran senator. He has been there a long time.”
The unnamed veteran Senator approaches Gaetz, reaches out and shakes his hand.
“Congratulations Senator Gaetz. Welcome to the Senate.”
The veteran senator then clutches Gaetz shoulder, draws nearer, stares Gaetz directly in the eye and says in a low voice: “You don’t want to open your mouth for a year. You will not pass any bills for a year. The best thing for you to do is to sit down and be quiet for a year.”
Gaetz chuckles at his introduction to the Senate now.
He went on to be named chairman of the education committee. He passed 11 bills. In fact, Gaetz’s first bill was the first one to pass in the Senate in the 2007 session.
“I was able to get more legislation passed than some people thought,” he says, laughing.
But in his typical self-effacing and humble manner, Gaetz hastens to add: “That’s not saying anything good about me. It says something about the process. If you have a compelling idea, can build coalitions, understand the process and build a compelling case, you can overcome the odds. More than 3,000 bills are proposed. About 300 passed are mostly per functionary. Not many substantive bills get passed.”
ACT II “SORRY, CHARLIE”
Scene: (Gaetz is sitting in a chair next to Gov. Charlie Crist. They are almost knee-to-knee. Crist has invited Gaetz to his office to insist that he change his bill proposing merit raises for public school teachers by doubling the authorization to $300 million, instead of $147 million. Crist is persistent but Gaetz refuses.)
Gaetz says he likes working with Gov. Crist. “He likes to listen to your ideas, blend them with his ideas and then take a position.”
But Crist summons Gaetz about four days before the teacher merit raise bill he is sponsoring is scheduled for a Senate vote. Gaetz has promised teachers’ unions, school boards, Democrats, Republicans and others that a reasonable and doable bill will be passed.
In the meeting, Crist presses Gaetz to double the funding right off the bat.
“We have to have more bonuses for more teachers,” Crist argues.
“Governor, I don’t think we can do it,” responds Gaetz, who has known Crist for 10 years and led one of his campaigns in Northwest Florida.
But Gaetz says that Crist, after listening to Gaetz’s arguments, decides to allow the bill to move forward with less state funding.
“Charlie didn’t have to have it all,” Gaetz explains. “He wanted to make his point and he wanted to listen. He never threatened me. He never said, You should do it my way.’ Before he signed the bill he never said, Let me remind you that you owe me one.’ He’s not like that. There are areas where we don’t see eye-to-eye on. But he’s extremely generous to me and very, very thoughtful.”
In contrast, Gaetz laughs out loud at how the meeting would’ve gone under former Gov. Jeb Bush. He says Bush always had a stance on an issue and it was extremely difficult – to put it mildly – to convince him otherwise.
ACT III “PEOPLE FIRST”
Scene: (Three fat cat lobbyists are sitting outside Gaetz’s Senate room door waiting to see him. In walks a Boy Scout and his mother. Gaetz immediately welcomes them into his office to the chagrin of the lobbyists.)
What’s not to like about wielding power in Tallahassee?
“Here’s what I don’t appreciate: Having my life sliced up into five to 10 minute pieces,” Gaetz says.
With more than 3,000 bills and 6,000 lobbyists to consider, that leaves absolutely no time for the homey, laid-back, hour-long discussions, Gaetz liked to have as a school superintendent.
“You’re in the middle of a lot of issues,” says Gaetz, who often arrived at the capital building at 5 a.m. and left at 9 p.m. during the session. “You have to listen very carefully to get it right the first time. You have to do a lot of homework ahead of time and lots of fact checking afterwards.”
But Gaetz has one, simple rule: Any constituent from his home district who drops in on his Tallahassee office moves to the front of the line and gets seen first. The same goes for phone calls.
“Citizens can easily get lost in the shuffle,” he admits. “I much more like spending my time with these folks.”
One time, a mother and her son, who was dressed in his Boy Scout uniform, came to see Gaetz in Tallahassee. He already had three lobbyists in Brooks Brothers suits waiting to see him. The lobbyists include a former Attorney General, a former state education commissioner and former Senate president.
But Gaetz staff ushers the mother and her son into his office first because “that’s more important.” She wants to advocate for a bill Gaetz was sponsoring that allowed community organizations, like the Boy Scouts, to solicit funds on city streets and rights-of-way. Her son’s troop did roadside solicitations for various charitable groups as part of their community service work, the mother explains.
Gaetz ends up spending almost 30 minutes with his constituents, talking about the bill and explaining it. He didn’t give much thought to the lobbyists fuming outside his office.
“They are very powerful, high-paid lobbyists,” he recalls. “But I don’t feel bad. A Boy Scout and his mom should not get lost in the shuffle. They came all that way to be there. They’re from home. They’re first.”
Mostly, Gaetz got along with the lobbyists.
“I didn’t treat them like pond scum, unless they were pond scum,” he says. “Then, I used some barnyard language. But you really need them. I needed to stay late and come in early to listen to them. I didn’t feel like I had a grasp of all the facts, whether it was taxes, insurance or the environment. I’m on the Judiciary Committee. I’m not a lawyer. What do I know?”
Act IV “LESSON LEARNED”
Scene: (Four insurance lobbyist from the biggest insurance firms in the state drop in on the freshman senator from Niceville. Imagine the “Sopranos” making a house call. They don’t like Gaetz’s workers’ compensation bill, which would help small businesses form insurance pools. And they want, no, they demand an amendment to his bill, allowing them to keep $36 million in rebates to small businesses that have good records when it comes to workers’ comp claims. The message is loud and clear: Do it or we’ll crack your skull.)
Gaetz says on the campaign trail many of the plumbers, electricians and other subcontractors he talked to wanted to establish a workers’ compensation insurance pool that was affordable. Employing just a handful of workers, many of them found themselves frozen out of workers’ comp insurance programs.
Gaetz filed the bill and found a House sponsor to create a companion bill. Both sailed through the House and Senate “clean as a whistle,” he says.
That’s when the insurance lobby pays a visit near the end of the legislative session – when it looks like the bill is going to pass.
“Don, you’re a nice fella. You have a good future here,” the insurance lobby starts. “We raise a boat load of money and we got a little problem with your workers’ comp bill.”
They proceed to tell him that $36 million must be refunded to small businesses that had few workers’ compensation claims because of a bill passed three years earlier. They want an amendment allowing them to keep the money.
“You’re a freshman. You understand how the system works. If you don’t accept our amendment, your bill is dead,” the insurance lobby threatens.
But Gaetz won’t back down. He refuses to accept their amendment. He runs to Sen. Bill Posey, a Republican from Rockledge who heads the banking and insurance committee. Posey agrees to allow Gaetz’s workers’ compensation bill to move forward without the insurance lobby’s amendment.
“But you know, Don, you will probably lose the bill,” Posey warns. “I’ll tell them they shouldn’t do this to you and I won’t support it.”
Gaetz then runs to the House sponsor of the companion bill to his S. 1748 measure. Gaetz asks that he send the House bill over without the insurance lobby’s amendment, but says Gaetz: “the House sponsor gets a little squishy.”
The insurance lobby convinces the House to put its amendment on the workers’ compensation bill.
They send Gaetz a message: “We’re going to teach you a lesson. You have to work with people like us.”
On the last day of the session in May, with bills being voted on left and right, the House votes 116-0 to send the bill to the Senate with the amendment attached.
A livid Gaetz walks up to Pruitt’s podium with seven minutes left in the session, and asks the Senate president for three minutes to talk about the bill and the insurance lobby’s amendment. It’s an unheard of move, as Gaetz says, “You don’t walk up there unless it’s to report a death or the capital’s on fire. But Pruitt has been very supportive of me.”
Pruitt grants Gaetz his request. Gaetz then calls out the insurance lobby, reveals the dirty details of the story and calls withholding the $36 million in rebates “immoral.” He rejects the bill and sends it back to the House, asking them to take the amendment off and vote again.
Members of the House, which is outfitted with TV monitors to watch the Senate proceedings, all watch the outraged Gaetz make his impassioned plea for the workers’ compensation bill and conclude by saying, “I propose you reverse your vote and pass the bill.”
Again, Pruitt agrees to Gaetz’s request, this time to hold the Senate in session. Almost immediately after Gaetz finishes, the House strips the insurance lobby amendment from the bill and passes it 116-0 and sends it back to the Senate. The Senate then passes it 40-0.
It’s the last bill passed on the last day of the 2007 session.
Gaetz has just sent a message back to the insurance lobby: “Don’t you mess with me. And don’t mess with my bill.” Only he uses a different four-letter word than mess.
The passage of the workers’ compensation bill is a “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington-type” moment for Gaetz.
“I was willing to take it on the chin but I wanted to lose on the merits,” he says. “I was interested in doing the right thing. It restored my faith in the legislative process that good things could happen.”
ACT 5 “WHAT’S NEXT?”
Scene: (In 2008, the sophomore Senator promises to fight for more property tax relief and reform charter schools.)
His freshman year behind him, Gaetz promises to keep up the good fight in ’08.
One of his top initiatives is to help property owners realize more property tax savings by removing the so-called “presumption of correctness” in tax disputes with property appraisers. Under the current system, if property owners believe their tax assessment is wrong, they must prove the property appraiser has made an error.
It’s estimated that Florida’s coffers collect about $2 billion a year in incorrect assessments by state property appraisers, Gaetz reports.
“I want to put the taxpayer and the tax taker on a level playing field,” he says. “My argument is this isn’t our money. I will not fight for the presumption that we need to keep ill-gotten gains. It is immoral that the government gets this money.”
Gaetz says his bill in 2008 will allow more fair challenges of tax assessments. “There’s no incentive for property appraisers to find out the facts, other than wanting to be a good government steward.”
He also is proposing to reform property taxes by basing them on “actual use.” Currently, property appraisers can assess taxes based on “highest-and-best use.” That means if a $3 million mansion is built on one side of your house and a 20-story condominium on the other side, then property taxes on your house will go up, even though you haven’t made any upgrades or increased the actual value.
Gaetz says that rule is ridiculous. He compares it to the Internal Revenue Service charging you higher income taxes because they believe you could make more money in a different position in another city.
Gaetz, who is also the chairman of the Senate’s Education Pre-K-12 Committee, is promising to reform charter schools.
The schools, which Florida allowed in 1996, have come under fire during the past year in media reports and state investigations that showed financial mismanagement, poor academic standards and other problems.
The legislation will be based on the Committee on Education Pre-K-12 “Interim Project Report on Charter School Accountability,” which was released Tuesday, Dec. 11.
Among the reports recommendations are: Charter schools that do not receive a school grade must release some comparable information so parents and the public can judge the academic performance; schools meet the state class size requirements; the charter schools receive financial management assistance and schools shown in financial trouble get a full audit; charter schools’ board members be prohibited from receiving any compensation from the charter school; and the causes for non-renewal of charter schools be expanded.
“The legislation will be stronger than the report recommendations,” Gaetz says. “The bill will bring accountability, reign in financial excesses and provide some academic reporting and accountability.”
The number of Florida charter schools has increased steadily in number to 358 schools as of the 2007-2008 school year. Florida has the third highest number of charter schools in the nation and the second highest charter school student enrollment numbers.
In 2005, the state Office of Program Policy Analysis & Government Accountability expressed concern over a growing number of charter schools experiencing financial difficulties. It cited, high facilities cost, inaccurate enrollment projection, inadequate expertise in financial management, and the small size of some charter schools.
During the 2005-2006 fiscal year, the Auditor General noted several troubling findings, such as 14 of the 340 charter schools during that year closed; about 25 percent, or 79 of the 321 charter schools that filed an audit, reported a deficit; and 73 charter schools met one or more financial emergency conditions.
Despite some problem schools, Gaetz says charter schools do serve a crucial role.
“We have to be careful not to smother the butterfly,” he says.
Meanwhile, Gaetz reassures us that democracy and the Florida Legislature are working well in Tallahassee.
“Alan Simpson, a U.S. Senator from Wyoming, once explained that Congress is a representative body,” he says. “It has the same percent of heroes, villains, thieves, dummies and geniuses as you have in your hometown. Most who I’ve served with I would like to have as neighbors.”