Florida House speaker’s credo: get government out of the way

Author: The News Service of Florida
Published:
Florida House Speaker Jose Oliva. (CBS photo)
Florida House Speaker Jose Oliva. (CBS photo)

For new Florida House Speaker Jose Oliva, the way of looking at government is fairly simple: Get as much of it as possible out of the way so businesses and people are free to make their own decisions and pay less taxes.

“The greater the government involvement in something, the less there is true free market, the less that there’s competition and the price goes up,” the Miami Lakes Republican said recently, referring in this case to health care and education.

“A lot of these things are complicated because we make them complicated. That’s why the free market manages to do complicated things in ways that baffle us,” he added during an appearance at The Associated Press annual legislative conference.

Oliva, 46, will have the speaker’s gavel Tuesday when Florida lawmakers convene for their annual 60-day legislative session. His top two priorities are two issues that drive the annual state budget: health care and education spending. In both cases, Oliva said he will push for changes that corral spending on such programs as Medicaid and public schools — the latter in a way where the “money is following the child” allowing for more school choice.

“Can a child get an education that they deserve to have? If they can’t, can those dollars follow them to somewhere that they can? It’s really that simple,” Oliva said.

On the sensitive health care issue of abortion, Oliva issued an apology recently after using the word “host body” to describe a pregnant woman in an interview with Miami’s WFOR television station. In the apology, Oliva said he was attempting to use neutral medical terms to discuss a controversial topic — but instead drew much criticism.

“The reaction undoubtedly shows it had the exact opposite effect. I apologize for having caused offense, my aim was the contrary,” he said in the statement. “I strongly believe both mother and child have rights and the extent and balance of those rights remain in question.”

Rep. Kionne McGhee, the House Democratic leader, said in a tweet he likely will disagree “100 percent” with Oliva on the abortion issue but added he thinks the speaker is “a principled and respectful person who is committed to fair treatment of others.”

The Cuban-American Oliva grew up in Hialeah helping build his family business, Oliva Cigar. He was first elected in a 2011 special election and has worked closely with former Speaker Richard Corcoran, another GOP conservative. Oliva is the first speaker from the Miami area since now-U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio.

“You’ve got someone who is conservative, who is principled, who is willing to tear down the top-down structure and is willing to share power with his colleagues,” said GOP Rep. Ray Rodrigues said in nominating Oliva for speaker.

On another high-profile issue, Oliva said he is cautious about allowing medical marijuana to be smoked. Competing House and Senate bills permitting smokable pot have cleared committees, but it’s not clear when an agreement might be struck. Oliva said one issue is whether and how much qualifying children would be allowed to smoke medical pot.

“We should treat it is a medicine. I’ve been in the smoke business my entire life and I’ve never heard anyone say it’s good for you,” he said. “We would like to have something on the governor’s desk. The devil in the details is that there are two chambers, and people have to come to an agreement.”

Oliva also says he supports purchasing a new state plane for Gov. Ron DeSantis to quickly travel around Florida. The previous plane was sold by former Gov. Rick Scott, a multimillionaire who had his own private plane. DeSantis has been using a hand-me-down aircraft that was forced to make an emergency landing in January due to a mechanical problem.

“The governor of a state like this has to be responsive to the entire state,” Oliva said “I think it’s absolutely necessary that a governor have a way to get around a state.”

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