The first sign came during the special legislative session called by Gov. Jeb Bush to fix a $1.3-billion budget deficit. A rift between the House and Senate exposed at least one unintended consequence: Many of the newcomers lacked an understanding of the impact of deep program cuts.
The House, primed with 62 freshmen who had been swept into office last November after term limits took effect, was intent on repealing the final phase of the intangibles tax on stocks and bonds. In the Senate, where 13 of its 40 members had lived through the budget crisis of 1991 and 1992, leaders wanted the tax repeal delayed in the face of deep budget cuts in education and social-service programs.
Susan McManus, a professor of government at the University of South Florida, believes that many of the lawmakers who came into office when budgets were flush don't realize the impact of cutting programs they found so easy to enact.
"They all think it's going to be a quick temporary thing, but the fallout lasts more than one year," McManus says. "One of the problems with term limits is that in times of economic or political crisis, people have to make decisions over a short time with little experience at doing it."
Says Jim Krog, chief of staff for the late Gov. Lawton Chiles during the last budget crisis and now a Tallahassee lobbyist: "You can tell them and tell them what's going to happen, but a lot of these guys have to live through it to know it. They have to see it to understand it."
Rep. Joe Negron, a Stuart Republican, is a leading light among what lobbyists call "The Young Turks," a group of fiscally conservative young members, including many freshmen, who have taken a hard line in support of the tax repeal.
In defending that stance, Negron says House Speaker Tom Feeney "is supported by a number of freshman members who ran on the platform of no new taxes. We're trying to protect essential programs, but there are a substantial number of areas where we can reduce. If a family can cut back its budget during tough times, so can the state."
Sen. Ken Pruitt shares part of Negron's district, but his experience has taught him a new tune. Once a firebrand conservative, the Port St. Lucie Republican served as chairman of the House budget committee before he was forced out of office by term limits last year and was elected to the Senate.
Now, he says, some budget cuts aren't worth taking. "It took us five years to recover from the education cuts we made in 1992," he says. "I won't go back to those dark days."
House Republican Leader Jerry Maygarden is brutally candid about the effect of term limits on the Legislature: "The most serious problem we've got as a body is that people of my level and experience in the House or Senate are making the decisions."
Maygarden is no legislative amateur. A seven-year veteran of legislative politics, he has served in the inner circle of House Speakers Feeney and John Thrasher. He was a majority whip under Speaker Dan Webster before that. He has served in elective office 18 years, cutting his political teeth first on the Pensacola City Council, serving seven years as a councilman and three years as mayor.
Maygarden is so trusted by members of the Florida House that last summer when Feeney ousted his former majority leader, Rep. Mike Fasano of New Port Richey, for a heavy-handed style that had the rank and file in revolt, Feeney returned Maygarden to the post to heal wounds. Still, Maygarden concedes: "I lack the experience to be an optimum leader in the House."
It's not humility that humbles him, Maygarden insists. It's the size of the job and the time it takes for lawmakers to groom leaders for their complex jobs. "This is a $50-billion corporation," he says, referring to the state budget, which is written and approved by the Legislature. "We make the decision to hire a chief executive officer with about four years of experience. What organization in America would do that? It just doesn't give people enough time."
In contrast to the Senate, the House has only three members who lived through the budget crisis of 1992, including Feeney, R-Oviedo. Maygarden notes that some of the House's committee chairs have never been on a legislative committee before. Some of its budget leaders have never managed the appropriations process.
"This huge leadership vacuum is created," Maygarden says. The biggest problems are the mistakes of omission, he says. "I make mistakes simply because I didn't know. The only way to avoid that is to get more experience, and you can't get experience here."
Voters in several of the 19 states that have enacted term limits are now considering making changes.
A ballot initiative in California will ask voters to allow legislators to seek an additional four years in office if they can get 20% of the voters from the previous election to sign a petition authorizing the extension.
McManus doesn't expect those efforts to catch on in Florida, where close to 80% of voters continue to support term limits. But, she predicts, there will be more growing pains as newcomers learn the ropes.
"If you thought the budget was bad, just wait until they get thrown into redistricting," she warns. "These people have no idea what's going to happen."