Editorial on HB 53 and Senator King

St. Johns River: Tribute for Jim King
Thursday, Nov. 5, 2009
Florida Times-Union/Jacksonville.com

Cancer ended the life and legislative tenure of Northeast Florida State Sen. Jim King this year - but not his influence.

Out of respect to King, a former Senate president and one of the Legislature's most revered members, one of his prize bills that failed shows signs of new life.

State Rep. Carlos Lopez-Cantera, R-Miami, filed a bill for next spring that would grant King's wish for a special license plate to help the 13-county St. Johns River Alliance raise money to help preserve the river.

State Sen. Dennis Jones, R-Seminole, has sponsored a Senate version.

Jacksonville State Rep. Lake Ray has signed on as a prime House co-sponsor and heads the Duval County delegation's support.

Such a plate sounds worthwhile and harmless. What's the rub about giving people the choice of buying a tag that could raise up to $350,000 to help the river?

But lawmakers in both houses - particularly the Senate - became weary of knock-down, drag-out political fights over other proposed tags involving the Confederacy and religious themes.

And lawmakers argued that more than 100 different tags were too many.

King's modest proposal to help the river was drowned out by controversies surrounding the number and messages of specialty license plates in general.

And not even King's political persuasion could keep his proposal from being rolled into all the others and left in the scrap pile.

End of life request

But King's pull didn't end with his life.

He earned respect and admiration from his colleagues for his negotiation and people skills, good nature and willingness to be a mentor to all who sought his guidance.

Ray said King had mentioned the license plate legislation as being important to him in one of the last conversations he had with Lopez-Cantera, who filed HB 53 on the river license plate shortly after King died on July 26.

The annual legislative session doesn't begin until March. Approval of the St. Johns River plate would be a fitting tribute to King.

An even better one would be a future hands-off approach by lawmakers regarding the educational funding reforms that King championed to correct funding imbalances for districts throughout the state.

http://jacksonville.com/opinion/editorials/2009-11-05/story/st_johns_river_tribute_for_jim_king