By Ed Dean

Bob McClure, The CEO of the James Madison Institute (JMI) tells WBOB talk radio about a secret study slipped into the Florida budget on credit card interchange fees.

The topic has been a hot-button issue on the federal level and almost boiled over in Tallahassee in the 2023 legislative session when the Florida Retailers ran legislation to try and get rid of it, which ultimately met banker and credit card company opposition and ended up dead before the hankie dropped. 

Fast-forward to the 2024 session. McClure says there was no bill on this controversial topic and no debate on it when formulating the Florida state budget for 2024-2025. Then, suddenly—bam! The interchange fee is back again, but as a secretive study baked into the budget in a line called “Legislative Support Services” and tied to legislative staff funding.

“Can someone please explain to me how studying the controversial “credit card interchange fee” is a part of legislative support services? Nonsense,” says McClure.

But McClure tells the radio audience the legislature isn’t even the ones studying it. He points out the budget proviso language says they can “contract with a public or private institution of higher learning or nationally recognized organization. But again, this isn’t in the state budget and why hide it under “legislative support funds?”

“My guess is someone thought the Governor’s office would never see it,” McClures said.

Over the past week, JMI has been exposing this issue and is asking Governor DeSantis to veto it.

Florida Daily asked those who are familiar with the internals of the budget was this in part of the budget by mistake? But Florida Daily noticed the language also says “the study is due to the Speaker and President by “December 1, 2024.”

So how do you get a budget approved on July 1st and then a study turned in by December 1st? Five months to study a major national controversy affecting everyone who holds a credit card in the state.

One source told Florida Daily, “it seems like this thing is rigged for a certain outcome before it even gets off the launch pad.”

McClure says this does not belong in the budget. “Let’s hope the governor rips it out and sends a clear message—no budget secrets allowed here in the Sunshine State,” McClure said.