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Raid on a legacy
Florida wrong to decimate Lawton Chiles fund
Broken promises.
A betrayal of the public trust.
A violation of a decade-old agreement.
All that and more.
One of the great failings of this year’s legislative session came home to roost last week — well deserving of a Chiles family condemnation. And ours.
Gov. Charlie Crist and the state Legislature pulled $700 million out of the Lawton Chiles Endowment Fund, a trust enshrined in state law as a “perpetual source” of funding in support of health and education programs for poor children and senior citizens.
Those were Gov. Lawton Chiles’ passions. And his legacy, from the billions the state won in a settlement with big tobacco companies. Gov. Chiles pushed that lawsuit and won an $11.3 billion settlement in 1997. A portion was set aside in the endowment.
As easy money and an easy target, shortsighted politicians decided to raid the trust fund — again — to help fill the state’s enormous budget hole.
Now the endowment’s balance sheet stands at an abysmal $560 million — in stark contrast to the $2.1 billion sitting in investments and earning dividends just one year ago. While the annuity lost a great deal when the stock market plunged, income will plummet much further now.
And that income will pay out much less for children’s health and welfare programs, community-based health and human services, and bio-medical research as outlined in the fund’s mission.
One of Gov. Chiles’ sons, Lawton “Bud” Chiles III, decried this raid as a betrayal of Florida’s children and elderly. U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson stood beside him in Tallahassee last week and described the action as a raid on the trust of the people. “This nonsense has to stop,” Nelson said. “Trust funds are exactly that — they’re set up in trust for a particular reason.”
Indeed.
This compounds last year’s raid of $350 million. Rhea Chiles, the governor’s widow, even gave Crist her blessing for the taking, then thought to be a one-time withdrawal.
When the idea of the $700 million raid came up in January, Anna Maria’s Ed Chiles said that there is no “heavy lifting going on in the Legislature.”
We could not agree more, as we opined then.
While the Chiles family threatened a lawsuit to compel the state to restore the endowment, they backed off last week. Lawmakers pulled a fast one by inserting obscure language into the budget that gives the governor permission to yank $700 million from the endowment, likely rendering a lawsuit unwinnable.
There’s little doubt that this new raid will only add to the cynicism among voters over politicians. The Lawton Chiles Endowment withdrawal is only a one-year answer to a continuing budget problem. Instead of legislators who follow the path of least resistance, Florida needs visionary leadership working toward long-term solutions.
Legislators also have a duty to rebuild the endowment, though because of term limits that responsibility will likely fall on the next band of politicians. We expect — and encourage — the Chiles family to keep reminding them. We’ll lend our voice to that, too.
