Butt out. No, fix it. Spend. No, cut!

Business and public-sector groups around Florida are sending loud -- and conflicting -- signals to state lawmakers this session. And, depending on who's talking, the Legislature is a savior or a devil swathed in potentially dangerous details. Expectations vary accordingly.

Down in Southwest Florida's Lehigh Acres, epicenter of the real-estate collapse, Ed Weiner is unabashed in calling for help.

"How about pooling all that pork and sending it to the counties most severely impacted by job losses?" asks Weiner, chairman of Lehigh Acres' Economic Development Commission. "Divvying up $50 million to the 10 hardest-hit counties for job creation could make a difference."

In this economy, Weiner says, "It's just like college. Send money!"

Tallahassee Mayor John Marks takes a more jaded view of legislative intervention.

"Many costly initiatives coming from state government allow state politicians to take credit for what may be good ideas. But, those same politicians do so with no risk, because they force local governments to find a way to pay for them," says Marks, who also serves as president of the Florida League of Cities.

Apparently subscribing to the axiom that no man, woman or child is safe as long as the Legislature is in session, Marks declares, "We will actively seek to decrease the involvement or interference of state government in municipal affairs."

The insurance industry knows that any solutions to its financial challenges must come through the Legislature.

"Citizens Insurance (the state-run insurer of last resort) and the state Catastrophe Fund don't have enough capital to cover potential claims," says Guy Marvin III, president of the Florida Insurance Council. But, lawmakers began bolstering those entities through rate hikes. Now private insurers want some of that tonic.

"(Private insurers) need modest rate increases and 'speed-to-market' rules that can implement those increases in less than a year."

Economically and politically, insurers know they're in a bind, and they need the Legislature to take the initial steps to capitalize the market and armor the industry for the next round of hurricanes. "We are not looking for anything big, just something the customers can afford," Marvin says.

The Florida Home Builders Association, meantime, just expects lawmakers to do what they said they would do. In a new policy brief, the FHBA states this:

"In 1992, the Florida Legislature, supported by the Florida Home Builders Association and others, increased the document stamp paid on real estate transactions with the agreement that these funds would be applied toward affordable housing programs. Recent years have seen the trust fund arbitrarily capped at $243 million, and hundreds of millions of dollars swept into General Revenue to balance the budget.

The Florida Retail Federation shares FHBA's call to lift the cap on the Sadowski housing trust fund, noting that renters, too, are suffering from rising housing costs.