Ban State College and University Employees From the State Legislature?
By Randall Holcombe • Tuesday January 10, 2012 9:40 AM PDT • 4 Comments
Florida State Senator John Thrasher has introduced a bill into the Florida legislature that would ban state college and university employees from being state legislators. As a professor myself, I found Thrasher’s bill interesting (but I assure you I have no inclination to run for any government office).
Senator Thrasher’s concern is that legislators who are employees of state colleges and universities will use their political power to steer taxpayer dollars toward their employers. Isn’t this a potential issue regardless of where legislators work? (In Florida, being a member of the legislature is a “part time” job and pays $30,000 a year, so all legislators have income sources beyond their legislative pay.)
On the one hand, it might not be bad to have legislators who have first-hand knowledge of one of the larger items in the state budget, even if they are advocates. Most businesses tend to hire people into management positions who have substantial knowledge about the businesses they will be managing.
On the other hand, universities might use state money to hire legislators, perhaps hoping for a sympathetic ear when budgets are being determined. Maybe Senator Thrasher’s concern has some merit.
Florida has a number of state college and university employees in its legislature. The most visible, beyond a doubt, is Senate President Mike Haridopolos. Prior to his election to the legislature in 2000, Senator Haripopolos was a history instructor at Brevard Community College, teaching there with a Master’s degree in history. In 2008, as he was about to move into the Senate Presidency, he accepted a faculty position at the University of Florida in the Department of Political Science. This was controversial because the political science faculty were not consulted prior to his hire, and he did not have a Ph.D. degree. (He has since earned a Ph.D. degree in Public Administration at Florida State University.)
I single out the case of Senate President Haridopolos only because of its visibility, and what appears to be a connection between his university appointment and his position in the legislature. Senator Haridopolos has been a consistent fiscal conservative and I find myself in agreement with most of his legislative agenda. From my political perspective, he is the best Senate President we have had in Florida in at least a quarter of a century.
That makes Senator Thrasher’s bill more interesting from where I sit. The legislator who seems to best fit what Senator Thrasher is trying to prevent is one I like, but looking at the academic career history of Senator Haridopolos, I can see Senator Thrasher’s point.
Tags: Education, Elections, Morality, Politics, Power, The State, Transparency 
Randall Holcombe, 1/10/2012
Legislators who are employees of State colleges and Universities will use their political power to steer taxpayer dollars toward their employers.A bill then should be likewise introduced to ban nepotism.
Thanking you for this opportunity to comment.
James de Laurier | Jan 10, 2012 | Reply
Sounds like a “hard (exceptional) case making for bad law.” State workers (and some private-sector employees) get paid for serving on juries, sometimes up to six months (with grand jury service). While i would prefer the abolition of public universities and the emergence of fully private offerings, we don’t live in that world.
People who are truly ambitious in politics for the WRONG reasons will simply get a donor to set them up in a think tank while they are on leave from a university. The committed academics will want to do a few terms in elected office and then return to their vocation. I am wary of term limits but thsi might be one of those areas where they prevent the conflict of interest that occurs when our elected officials create state schools that pervade their jurisdiction from K-20!
Jonathan Bean | Jan 13, 2012 | Reply
Thanks for the comments, Jonathan. Florida does have term limits, and this is Senator Haridopolos’s last year in office before he is term-limited out. He came in as a community college history instructor and will be leaving as a political science professor at Florida’s top university. A hard case indeed!
I have no major complaints about Senator Haridopolos’s legislative tenure. He has been a committed fiscal conservative who has been a big part of keeping Florida’s budget balanced with (almost) no tax increases during tough times. And perhaps his political experience makes him a good candidate for that position at the University of Florida. One of my current colleagues at Florida State University (in the School of Public Administration) is former Florida Governor Reubin Askew, and I am delighted to have him as a colleague. Still, you can’t help but think that Florida’s hiring Senator Haridopolos had more to do with his political power than his potential as a political science professor.
Randall Holcombe | Jan 14, 2012 | Reply
Please correct me if I’m wrong, but doesn’t the following provision in the Florida constitution make this proposed legislation unconstitutional...
(Article 3 Florida State Constitution)
“SECTION 11. Prohibited special laws.—
(a) There shall be no special law or general law of local application pertaining to:
(1) election, jurisdiction or duties of officers, except officers of municipalities, chartered counties, special districts or local governmental agencies;”
Surely anyone has an interest to steer taxpayer dollars towards their friends and associates.
James Clark | Jan 16, 2012 | Reply