Florida Tallies Up the Bills

The five-week battle for Florida’s decisive presidential votes may have served as a riveting civics lesson for the nation, but that lesson didn’t come cheap. The Sunshine State is adding up the bill: an estimated $6 million and rising.

In Palm Beach County, home of the notorious butterfly ballot, costs have topped $500,000, officials say. That included $331,500 in overtime pay for county employees, $28,000 for food and $60,000 to clean and maintain the emergency operations center where the hand recount was conducted.

Broward County’s extra expenses also are likely to top $500,000, said deputy county attorney Norm Ostrau. Volusia County officials estimated that postelection costs there will exceed $120,000, not counting the legal bills.

Most of Florida’s 67 counties have not come up with exact figures. “I just haven’t had time to do it,” said Miami-Dade County election supervisor David Leahy. “But we’ll be figuring in staff overtime, seasonal employees kept on past when we would normally have released them, police guarding and transporting ballots, other security, and the costs from the communications and building departments.”

In Tallahassee, the state capital, bills are piling up for both Leon County and the state government, which has received an invoice for almost $700,000 from the law firm hired to represent Secretary of State Katherine Harris.

In a 49-page bill that lists 3,724 hours of legal work from Nov. 12 to Dec. 5, the Miami firm of Steel, Hector & Davis also details other expenses that include $43 for pizza, $19,000 for photocopies and $9,223 for a private jet ride from Tallahassee to Washington.

Still to come is a bill for lead attorney Joseph P. Klock Jr.’s Dec. 11 appearance before the U.S. Supreme Court, where he twice addressed justices by wrong names.

In charging for the time of 30 lawyers to handle 42 separate cases in 20 different courts--from Miami to Houston to Washington--Steel, Hector billed at a rate of $175 an hour. That is considered a discount from the firm’s normal $250- to $500-an-hour rate.

Roger Magnuson, a Minnesota trial attorney hired by state Senate President John McKay, also offered a bargain rate, dropping his usual $600-an-hour fee to $425. So far, his bills to the Senate total $75,000.

The Florida House hired two Harvard law professors, Einer Elhauge and Charles Fried, who charged a flat fee of $60,000, plus expenses.

The Democrats and Republicans also incurred major expenses in the battle for Florida, but those costs will be covered by donations, not tax money.

“The amount we raised--$3.6 million to $3.7 million--will be roughly the amount we spend,” said Peter Knight, an advisor to the campaign of Vice President Al Gore. Many of the lawyers who worked in the election aftermath donated their time.

On the Republican side, the Bush campaign raised more than $8 million to cover postelection expenses, spokesman Ray Sullivan said. Some of that money went for travel, hotels, office equipment and legal costs; any unused money will be refunded, Sullivan said.

Yet, the economic fallout from the election wasn’t all bad. Hotels and restaurants in West Palm Beach, Fort Lauderdale and Tallahassee were packed with lawyers, political operatives and journalists for weeks.

Florida may have been the butt of late-night talk show jokes, but in a state that depends on a $43-billion tourism industry, almost all publicity is good publicity, officials say.

“On television, people who are freezing see our palm trees and the beaches,” said Greater Fort Lauderdale Convention & Visitors Bureau chief Nicki Grossman. “And while they don’t like the way we count votes, they love our sunshine.”

Times staff writer Elizabeth Shogren in Washington and researcher Anna M. Virtue in Miami contributed to this story.