The Florida Legislature is legally required to do only one thing each year — pass a budget. Yet for the second year in a row, lawmakers appear unable do so on time.

That means that, once again, despite Republicans having an overwhelming majority in both chambers, they’re expected to burn through more of your tax dollars to stage an overtime session.

Now, normally, I’m fine when the Florida Legislature is inactive. It means your rights aren’t being trampled, books aren’t being censored and tax dollars aren’t being wasted.

But this year, I made the mistake of believing Florida legislators might actually do something good. Specifically, I was hopeful they might pass a bill making it easier for citizens to get public records.

I even wrote a column praising the Republican leaders who sponsored and backed the bill, describing their crusade as noble and overdue.

What a sucker I was.

Even though the bill received unanimous support in the House, sponsor Alex Andrade conceded last week that the bill was essentially dead because the Florida Senate hadn’t taken any action on it at all. That means that government officials will be able to continue hiding information about what they do and how they spend your money.

Let’s be clear about why this bill appears dead — because Senate President Ben Albritton and his Senate cronies decided to kill it by inaction. This is a common tactic in Tallahassee, a way to strangle a bill to death without any individuals leaving fingerprints. They likely did so as a favor to Gov. Ron DeSantis, whose administration has repeatedly been caught hiding public records.

I asked Albritton’s office if the Senate president wanted to offer any explanation for why he didn’t want this basic bill calling for transparency, accountability and the rule of law to pass. He did not.

That’s not surprising. Who wants to go on record as being on the side of secret-keepers and law-breakers?

That’s also why Albritton and his senate pals never even let this bill come up for a vote. None of them wanted to have to answer for votes against transparency.

The people who will celebrate the death of this bill are those who want to spend your money in secret. The ones who scheme in darkness. Those who serve in public office and yet who don’t have the public’s interest at heart.

What a sorry legacy for the outgoing senate president to leave behind.

As I wrote back in January, it was sorry that this bill was even needed in the first place.

For decades, administrations under both Democratic and Republican governors honored the Sunshine State’s Sunshine Laws, long regarded as among the best in the nation.

But under DeSantis, that ended. His administration has repeatedly tried to hide everything from COVID data to spending records.

He has been repeatedly sued, forced to cough up records and then spent tax dollars to cover the legal fees of groups that should’ve been given records free and immediately in the first place.

The Orlando Sentinel has been among the prevailing litigants. But it should never take lawyers for any of us to get records to which the law says we’re entitled.

That’s why a broad assortment of citizen groups from both the left and the right backed the bill pushed by Andrade and the Florida’s First Amendment Foundation. Because they were all sick of secrecy at any level of government.

House Bill 437 would have forced government officials to respond to record requests within three days and cracked down on agencies that tried to charge citizens excessive fees. It allowed public officials time if they received a complicated request, but said that officials must explain why they didn’t cough up the records if they didn’t do so within 15 days. And it allowed for punishment, including misdemeanor charges, for officials who don’t follow the rules. That last part was key, because laws without enforcement don’t mean much to people who don’t care about the laws in the first place.

The bill was such a no-brainer that the House voted unanimously — 111 to 0 — in favor of passing it on the heels of the DeSantis administration trying to hide and stonewall records from them in connection with the Hope Florida scandal.

Think about that last part: Florida legislators — the people who make the laws in this state — couldn’t easily get records. So what chance do you think you have if you run up against an obstructionist city official trying to hide records about development plans in your neighborhood? Or a school board that doesn’t want you to know if they’re planning to shut down your kids’ school?

Or a governor who won’t release details about millions of dollars in no-bid contracts?

There’s the slim chance Albritton (who can be reached by email at albritton.ben@flsenate.gov) and his Senate colleagues will show some spine and integrity and do the right thing.

But Andrade, the bill’s sponsor, didn’t sound optimistic as he delivered what sounded like a swan song for his doomed bill. Since he is term-limited, the Tallahassee Democrat reported that Andrade pleaded with some of his House colleagues to try again next year “after we send it over to the Senate and it dies… .”

That’s pretty much where we are in Florida nowadays — offering eulogies to transparent government.

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