Dateline: Tallahassee- T minus 4 Hours Until Deadline....
Well, I'd like to say that Florida Governor Rick Scott read my recent blog noting that passage of the Florida Alimony Reform Bill (SB 718) might "help" individual past, present and potentially future alimony payers, an overall and (presumably) unintended effect would be a future taxation on the state's social welfare system. Essentially, when long-term marriages end and one spouse stayed out of the paying workforce to raise a family, that spouse would be entering (or re-entering ) the workforce at around age 50, and would not accrue enough social security benefits to ever stop working once alimony ended. That leaves the state to pitch in.
However, with all the publicity about the details of the bill, I'm sure Mr. Scott was bright enough to see through the "special interests" who vehemently promoted this bill, and tonight he vetoed it just hours before the midnight deadline.
But wait…it's not over until it's over. Under Florida law, once the Governor chooses to veto a bill, the Legislature can overturn his veto the next time they meet by a two thirds vote of both chambers.
What was the initial vote passing the law? The Senate passed SB 718 by a 29-11 vote, WAY more than 2/3rds, and the House passed SB by an 85-31 vote, still well over the 2/3rd. Even a lawyer can do that math.
So, where does that leave alimony in Florida? For now, the state of alimony remains with the same changes made over the past few years. I am not discarding my copy of the bill as of yet. It will be back. If it passes by the 2/3rd vote on the next round, I'll pull it out again….at least until someone raises a constitutional challenge.
