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What I’ve Learned ... Andy Gardiner … ABOUT BEING PRESIDENT OF THE FLORIDA SENATE: When you’re designated, which is a year before you’re actually president, it’s hard to really focus too much on being “the President” because you’re still running Senate campaigns, you’re still dealing with that whole (political) segment. Every once in a while I would joke around with Don Gaetz (the Senate president before Gardiner) and say, “Oh, you didn’t tell me about this part of being president!” I think that’s the piece that was quite a change for me. You go from really spending every waking moment hanging out with members, spending time with them, to a whole other way of running a pretty large organization, with the number of employees, not just the state budget but the Senate budget. Certainly, we had an extra amount of time with lawyers. I would joke with (Senate general counsel) George Levesque that sometimes I feel like I should have a Florida Bar admission. Not just for redistricting but, you know, the education adequacy laws too. Really just across the board, there was a lot more of that legal side than really you anticipate when you decide you want to be president. It’s not what you think 124 | INFLUENCE SUMMER/FALL 2016 about: “Boy, I want to spend a bunch of time with lawyers all day.” And you do. It’s just part of it. That was a little bit of a surprise, but it’s part of the business. … ABOUT CRAFTING A MULTI-BILLION DOLLAR BUDGET EACH YEAR: You spend a lot more time on budget than you ever anticipate. I had a great staff director (Cindy Kynoch) and Tom Lee, my chairman of appropriations, is a dear friend. We would spend hours and hours going over the budget. That started before the presidency because you’re trying to anticipate where the revenues are, what’s going to potentially change, and so that catches you off guard a little bit. I had chaired TED (the Appropriations Subcommittee on Transportation, Tourism, and Economic Development) for two years so I had a little bit of the understanding of how a budget works. But you really get deep in the weeds, especially when you’re looking at a three-year outlook, trying to anticipate health care funding, what you’re going to do on tax cuts. Those tend to be the big drivers, at least for the last two years. I think there’s a perception of, “Well, we’ll have a billion extra dollars this year over last year.” But expenses go up, in health care and things like that. A billion-dollar increase in revenue can be eaten away quickly. Even if you’re a CPA, or a financial guru, the way the budget is done can be so complicated, so convoluted, with so many variables … the federal draws, the Medicaid piece. … I was very blessed to have so many good staff (members) around us, with 20 or 30 years of experience in understanding these budgets that makes all the difference in the world. You can be the smartest member of the House or the smartest member of the Senate but if you don’t have that good, core competency in staff around you, it’s all for naught. I think everybody who has been in this position, even appropriations chairs, will probably tell you that they understood enough to get the job done but it’s still a very complicated issue to try to understand. Something will pop up and you’ll think, “This is a really good idea, but what silo does it fit in? Does it fit into education? Does it fit into health care? Can you have federal dollars to draw down? What’s the proviso language?” Proviso language is the piece that is most complicated and possibly the most dangerous. It could be something 47, Orlando Outgoing Florida Senate President, Fan of Empowerment, Family Man INTERVIEWED BY JIM ROSICA IN TALLAHASSEE


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