How long should Florida’s guv be able to spend on a ‘State of Emergency’?

SB 700 takes aim at Alligator Alcatraz shenanigans
Florida lawmakers may finally be waking up and smelling the cortadito.
After years of the governor stretching “states of emergency” like chicle viejo to move money around with zero oversight, Sen. Carlos Guillermo Smith has filed SB 700— a bill that basically says “oye, enough of the permanent emergencies already.”
And make no mistake: this bill, filed Tuesday, has Alligator Alcatraz written all over it. In neon letters. Visible from the Turnpike.
Because what better reason to rein in emergency powers than the largest, most expensive, most secretive, most environmentally disastrous boondoggle Florida has cooked up in decades?
That’s right. Ladra is talking about the infamous, billionaire-sized swamp headache known as Alligator Alcatraz, the “temporary” migrant concentration camp that was built on an “emergency” order that just kept being extended… and extended… and extended… while the state signed enough no-bid contracts to make every lobbyist in Tallahassee salivate like a hungry pitbull.
Read related: Daniella Levine Cava finally takes a tougher stand vs Alligator Alcatraz
Under SB 700, a governor can’t just keep renewing an emergency forever — or for two years, or three, or however long it takes to funnel hundreds of millions of dollars into politically connected contractors. One year. That’s all the guv gets. ¡Y basta!
The bill says:

Any state of emergency renewed by the governor expires after one year.
After that, the only way to keep it going is a two-thirds vote of both chambers.
And the Legislature has to put a firm end date — before the next regular session ends.
Oh, and if lawmakers pull the plug? The governor has to immediately issue an order ending it.
AND he can’t declare a “substantially similar” emergency right after to get around it. Bravo.

Let’s remember how we got here.
Gov. Ron DeSantis declared an “immigration emergency” and, with that magic wand, bypassed standard procurement rules — you know, the boring democratic, open, transparent ones — and green-lit a massive detention camp in the Everglades on the Dade-Collier airstrip.
Within days — not weeks, not months, days — the state signed an avalanche of contracts:

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