SNEAKY BILLS JUST COMING TO SURFACE; NOBODY REALLY KNOWS EXACTLY WHAT WAS IN THE LAST-MINUTE RUSH OF OMNIBUS LEGISLATION.(A SECTION)

Byline: Mark Hollis CAPITAL BUREAU

TALLAHASSEE -- Susan Caplowe compares it to cleaning up after an earthquake.

"It's like the skyscrapers have fallen over and we're going through the rubble trying to find bodies," said the legislative lobbyist for the Florida Sierra Club.

The grisly task Caplowe describes is the work of trying to figure out exactly what was in the flurry of bills that sailed through the House and Senate during the final hours of the 1996 legislative session.

Dozens of measures were passed without discussion or debate. Few people - and in some cases, not even legislative sponsors - knew what was in them. But that doesn't seem to bother too many people in Tallahassee, where making law by the light of the moon has become somewhat of a tradition and where significant legislative reforms seem as hard to accept as the South's Civil War surrender.

"This was a rather typical conclusion to a legislative …