The Political Whore

By Jim Johnson
PoHo contributor and founder of The State of Sunshine

In case you missed it, Gov. Charlie Crist made a slight step this week that could help in his Senate race. Especially when you add it to a measure from the 2008 session.

This week, Crist signed the 2009-2010 budget for the State of Florida. Florida’s governor has line-item veto power, a tool many governors use to nix budget provisions with which they disagree. This year, Crist vetoed two items: the first veto restored state workers salaries to current levels, undoing the 2 percent pay cut passed by the Legislature.

The second veto, however, was a bit more important to Crist’s political future.

Trust fund raids.

When the Florida Legislature passed the budget, it relied on taking extra funds from Florida’s various trust funds. A trust fund is a separate account that has both a dedicated source of revenue and explicit purpose for which the fund is to be used. A portion of the state’s gasoline tax, for example, go into a trust fund used for road construction. With the revenue from sales tax declining, these extra accounts funded by other taxes or fees were like raiding the kids piggy bank – to much for the Legislature to resist. (It should be noted, this is not the first time trust funds were used to offset revenue shortfalls – and it won’t be the last).

In general, taking excess money from a trust fund is not a bad thing. If the dedicated revenue that comes in from special taxes or user fees is more than is needed to fund the specific purpose, then why not take the extra money?

Ah, but one of those funds was used for the office that processes concealed weapons permits, funded by the fees paid by concealed weapons applicants. The fund has about $8 million, and the Legislature wanted to take $6 million of it. Out of their cold, dead hands said gun owners.

The NRA led the charge to urge the Governor’s veto of this “raid” – and he did. But this was the second act that solidified his bona fides with Second Amendment supporters.

The first act

For several legislative sessions leading up to 2008, various attempts had been made to recognize one of the many legal rights of gun owners – to have a weapon in a personal vehicle. It seems many employers don’t like the idea of some of their employees having a weapon in their car in the parking lot, despite their employees having a concealed weapons permit. So the NRA fought against the Florida Chamber of Commerce and other business groups to pass a bill.

In 2008, the Legislature finally passed the “guns at work” bill. Floridians who have a concealed weapons permit may leave their weapon in their vehicle when they commute to work. This was a difficult battle between two important, usually Republican special interest groups. The NRA finally won… and the Chamber pressed hard for Crist to veto the bill.

He didn’t. He signed the measure into law.

The NRA’s influence

Don’t discount the value of Crist’s actions. To be sure his Republican primary opponent, former House Speaker Marco Rubio, has been a strong advocate for Second Amendment rights. Moreover, he was speaker when the “guns at work” bill passed. But this veto action alone, nevermind the previous bill, was probably enough to secure the NRA endorsement for Crist.

The NRA support will benefit Crist among many more staunchly conservative voters who might have otherwise supported Rubio. The Second Amendment, perhaps as much as any other issue these days, can be a “single issue” for voters — they could disagree with a candidate on many other issues, but if the candidate supports their right to bear arms, voters look past those disagreements.

Crist has been known for sharp political aplomb. He showed it again this week.

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