State economic forecasters added $324.3 million to expected tax revenues during the current budget year, which ends June 30, and the fiscal year that begins the next day. Because lawmakers have already passed a budget covering this year, all of the new money should be available for the spending plan that starts in July.
Ron DeSantis
Rick Scott Puts State Employees to Work On Re-Election Campaigning Veiled as “Outreach”
On-the-clock state employees from a number of agencies have been splitting shifts since Monday to call businesses and use talking points that are indistinguishable from the language of campaign ads to help Rick Scott’s re-election.
Rick Scott’s $11,370-Worth of “Congratulations” Letters Blur Line Between Applause and Electioneering
Scott views the missives as a means to applaud individuals and to promote Florida. His critics say some of the messages include language that deviates into campaign talking points. Don’t expect the letter-writing campaign to slow or the questionable language to disappear from such messages.
State Website for Florida’s Unemployed Still Plagued By Flaws, Delaying Urgent Checks
Claims by jobless people that are flagged for investigation or are under appeal continue to be a major hurdle to correct. The Department of Economic Opportunity’s goal is to complete the remaining conversion issues by Dec. 20.
Crist 7 Points Ahead of Scott in Latest Quinnipiac Poll; Floridians Overwhelmingly Favor Medical Marijuana
If the election for Florida governor were held today, Charlie Crist would be the likely winner over Rick Scott by a 47 to 40 percent advantage, a Quinnipiac poll released this morning found, and Scott’s negative ratings continue to weigh heavily on his chances. Florida voters support 82-16 percent allowing adults to legally use marijuana for medical use if it is prescribed by a doctor.
Charlie Crist’s Bailout Plan: Bill Nelson
Fanning the flames of uncertainty about former Gov. Charlie Crist’s viability as a gubernatorial candidate, Democrats close to U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson are letting potential supporters know the three-term senator is waiting in the wings if Crist’s campaign stumbles.
Sheriff Nick Finch Trial Under Way: He’s Accused of Destroying Documents to Protect a Gun Owner
A Florida Department of Law Enforcement investigation found that Nick Finch on March 8 released a local man who had been arrested for carrying a concealed firearm, a third degree felony, and altered or destroyed corresponding documents. Gov. Rick Scott removed Finch.
Masking Scott’s Low Approval, Republicans Launch Snide Website Ahead of Democrats’ Convention
In a new twist on rapid response, Florida Republicans today launched a tongue-in-cheek “Florida Dems” website the day before the Florida Democratic Party kicks off its annual convention in Orlando, ridiculing Democrats as the Party of No. Democrats have few answers in kind.
State Rakes In Cash From Seminole Casinos and Rethinks Gambling Landscape
Under the current deal with the Seminoles, which ends in 2015, the tribe makes the payments to the state in exchange for having the exclusive right to offer banked table games, such as blackjack, along with a monopoly on all slot locations outside of Broward and Miami-Dade counties. The Seminoles agreed to pay a minimum of $150 million in each of the first two years, $233 million in the third and fourth years and $234 million in 2015.
First of Three Common Core Public Hearings Brings Out Raucous Partisanship
The hearings were part of Gov. Rick Scott’s plan for dealing with the politically volatile issue. Scott has already begun distancing the state from a consortium developing tests for Common Core, and has suggested the hearing could come up with ways to amend the academic benchmarks.
Flagler’s Teachers Still Waiting on Their $1,900 Raise as District and Union Negotiate Contract
Flagler’s teachers are in the same situation as teachers in 53 other counties where negotiations with unions have delayed the raises. A sticking point in Flagler: the district wants the authority to renegotiate annual “step” raises, while the union wants those step increases to continue to be awarded automatically, as they have been to date.
Florida Voter Purge 2.0: More Complicated and Cautious, Less Brazenly Discriminatory
The complicated new voter-purge process comes after supervisors scrapped last year’s non-citizen purge — the brainchild of Gov. Scott — after learning that many of the voters flagged by matching the state’s voter registration database and driver’s license records were naturalized citizens. More than half of the voters on the list were minorities.
Texting-While-Driving Ban Goes in Effect as Do Food Stamps Limits and Other New Laws
An attempt to curb motorists from texting while driving goes into effect Tuesday, along with laws that put limits on funeral protests, late-night massages and the use of tax dollars at strip joints and liquor stores.
A Republican Abandons Rick Scott: Paula Dockery and Florida’s Fraying GOP
Democrats now look like a party united compared to the Republicans, Cary McMullen argues, as Paula Docker, one of Florida’s increasingly endangered moderate Republicans, announces her desertion of Gov. Rick Scott’s campaign for re-election.
Gov. Scott Defends Exiting Common Core Testing In Face of Criticism and Fact-Checks
Scott did not say specifically how he thought tests developed through a state-led initiative could be an instrument of federal intrusion, or cite an example of federal intrusion, as he defended his order to move Florida away from the Common Core testing consortium.
Gubernatorial Crist-al Clearing: There Will Be No Sink-Scott Rematch
Ending months of speculation, former Florida Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink said Friday she will not run for governor against incumbent Republican Rick Scott in 2014, further fueling “will he or won’t he” chatter about Democrat Charlie Crist.
FDLE Lays Down Florida Capitol Garrison Rule to Avoid Repeat of Summer Protests
Under the proposal by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, members of the public would be expected to leave the Capitol building by 5 p.m. each weekday or within 30 minutes of the end of public meetings. Capitol police could arrest for trespassing anyone who didn’t leave when they were told.
Sen. Dorothy Hukill Proposes Cutting Sales Tax on Commercial Rental Property to 5%
Senate Finance and Tax Chairwoman Dorothy Hukill of Port Orange’s proposal could cut $250 million a year from state revenue. Business leaders want the tax, currently at 6%, eliminated altogether as Gov. Rick Scott travels the state on a tax-cutting tour.
Resisting Obamacare, Florida Becomes National Aberration as Scott Battles Sebelius
Florida officials are callous and secretive, willing to keep information from citizens that could save their lives, according to the Obama administration’s top health official., while Gov. Rick Scott and other state officials are ramping up their attack on the federal online Marketplace and the “Navigators” who will help the uninsured use it to enroll in a health plan for 2014.
Pam Stewart Appointed Education Commissioner Amid Common Core Strife
Pam Stewart’s appointment came amid jockeying over the future of education in Florida and rumors that Gov. Rick Scott will soon issue an executive order on schools, possibly dealing with whether the state will go along with a common-core related multi-state test aimed at measuring new, national standards for learning.
Flagler Health Department Chief Defends Ban on Navigators, Citing Privacy and Logistics
Flagler County Health Department Director Patrick Johnson defended the state’s controversial ban from DOH property against outreach workers called Navigators, who help uninsured people sign up for subsidized health coverage under Obamacare–a law Florida officials have actively and chronically obstructed.
Supervisors of Election Weary of State’s Renewed Push for Voter Purges
Secretary of State Ken Detzner will go on the road next month to pitch for a revived voter scrub, but supervisors of elections, caught in the crosshairs of last year’s problematic purge, and voting-rights advocates remain skeptical.
Only in Florida: Attorney General Bondi Reschedules Execution to Avoid Conflict With Her Fundraiser
Marshall Lee Gore was to be executed the evening of Sept. 10 until Attorney General Bondi rescheduled the killing so it wouldn’t conflict with her “campaign kickoff” fundraiser in Tampa. She now says she shouldn’t have done that.
Another Red State Takes Medicaid Dollars, Contrasting With Florida’s Holdout
Michigan, which like Florida has a Republican governor and legislative majority, has voted to accept federal funds and expand its Medicaid program to the low-income uninsured. It is yet another GOP-dominated state that has done what Florida, which declined $51 billion over 10 years, did not.
Burnishing Green Creds Ahead of Election, Gov. Scott Wants To Give Everglades a Lift
Gov. Rick Scott is proposing $90 million to help lift a section of the Tamiami Trail, which groups such as the Everglades Foundation have called “one of the most prominent dams” blocking the natural flow of the River of Grass.
Gov. Scott Sets Education Summit Amid Direction’s Growing Uncertainties
The summit, which will last from Monday afternoon to Wednesday afternoon in Clearwater, comes after the resignation of former Education Commissioner Tony Bennett and as debates swirl about the state’s school-grading system and a move to “Common Core” standards.
Florida Cabinet Hypes Identity Thievery of Affordable Health Act “Navigators”
There is no danger that so-called “navigators” will steal people’s identities or feed information into a giant federal database, said Greg Mellowe, policy director for the consumer group Florida CHAIN. The group is one of the non-profits that will get a share of federal grant money for the “navigator” program.
Tallahassee For Sale: Six Lobbying Firms Collect More Than $1 Million Each
Bolstered by huge paydays from some clients, at least six lobbying firms, including the Southern Strategy Group, collected $1 million or more in legislative lobbying fees between April 1 and June 30.
After 31 Days, Dream Defenders
End Their Protest at the Florida Capitol
Dream Defender leaders said they’ll carry their campaign against the “stand your ground” self-defense law and what they consider other forms of racial bias to the polls, trying to defeat the elected officials who opposed their demands, including Gov. Rick Scott, who is up for re-election next year.
Not Enough Votes for a Special Session on Stand Your Grounds, But Protest Continues
Republicans have returned enough “no” votes in a poll of legislators to quash the idea of a special session to address the state’s stand your ground law, yet the Dream Defenders, a group of protesters whose around-the-clock sit-in at the Capitol stretched to a 30th day on Wednesday, are not quitting.
Sorry, Teachers: Don’t Yet Bank on Debit Cards for Classroom Supplies Gov. Scott Promised
Gov. Rick Scott touted the $250, tax-free debit cards as he talked about education issues across the state, but as of Tuesday, more than 130,000 teachers out of Florida’s 170,000 are not in line to get one of the Chase debit cards this year.
Stand Your Ground Special Session: Florida Democrats Invoke Unique Tactic in Hunt for Votes
Vastly outnumbered Democrats have a week to convince enough Republicans lawmakers to support a special session of the Legislature on the Stand Your Ground law. The Secretary of State’s office has to find 96 lawmakers to trigger such a session.
Cabinet Passes, for Now, on Pardoning Marissa Alexander, Pending Stand Your Ground Appeal
Alexander, a 32-year-old mother of three, was sentenced to 20 years in prison last year after firing a shot into a wall during a dispute with her abusive husband, a case that stands in sharp contrast with George Zimmerman’s not-guilty verdict after he shot and killed an unarmed teen.
Latest Education Scandal Buoys Critics Of High-Stakes Testing as Scott Scrambles
Critics of the state’s education policies are seizing on serial resignations in the education commissioner’s seat, arguing that the problem is less the person on the job than the state’s accountability system. Tony Bennett was a strong supporter of that system, adding a twist of irony to his resignation in the wake of reports that he tweaked the Indiana school report card formulas to help a school founded by a political contributor.
Hypertown: Jesse Jackson and His Detractors
But by the time Gov. Scott and his ilk were done demanding that Jesse Jackson apologize to all Floridians over hos comparisons of Scott to George Wallace and the Dream Defenders to the Selma march, lo and behold, we were back talking about the Dream Defenders and Stand Your Ground. That was Jackson’s goal.
Florida Education Commissioner Tony Bennett Is Resigning Over Favoritism Scandal
Florida Education Commissioner Tony Bennett is announcing his resignation today a year to the day after his predecessor, Gerard Robinson, resigned amid another controversy over school grades. The two resignations underscore the flammability of school grades resulting from high-stakes testing–a flammability opponents of such testing say belie the credibility of the testing and system.
Jesse Jackson Calls Capitol Sit-In “The Selma of Our Time.” Scott Calls It an “Insult” to Floridians.
Calling Florida “an apartheid state,” Jackson spoke ahead of an overnight visit with the Dream Defenders that has staged a sit-in at Scott’s office to demand a special legislative session to consider changes to the state’s self-defense laws, initiatives to end racial profiling and an end to zero-tolerance discipline policies in schools.
Florida Education Commissioner Defends Grade Inflation as Bush Rallies to His Side
In a conference call with reporters Tuesday, Bennett said it was “absurd” to believe he inflated grades to help a donor because of her political contributions to Bennett, but criticism of Florida’s education commissioner persisted.
Again in Flagler, Gov. Scott Headlines Aveo Co.’s 300-Jobs Groundbreaking at Airport
If the 300 promised jobs are produced, landing Aveo Engineering in Flagler County will prove to be the largest single gain of private-employer jobs in memory, and an unqualified success for the county administration’s new economic development department under Helga van Eckert. But the company is getting generous incentives beyond the $150,000 in cash for jobs retained.
Into Their Second Week of Protest, Dream Defenders Plan Their Own Special Session
Scott, who is expected to spend the next couple of days back on the road, didn’t pop out for a chat with those who want him to call a special session on the state’s controversial “stand your ground” law.
Florida Snubs Millions in Federal Health Grants That Could Help Workers and the Poor
in a pattern of politically motivated rejections by Florida itself, the state got the lowest amount of health-care reform act grant funding per capita – behind all 50 states and the District of Columbia – in 2011. While state agencies received the bulk of federal health grants in other states, it was the reverse in Florida.
Dream Defenders’ Stand Your Ground Standoff at Scott’s Office Continues Into Second Week
Members of the Dream Defenders, a student-led group that has protested at the Capitol since last Tuesday, said they’re busy making plans for the rest of this week and beyond as Scott reiterated Monday, before leaving Tallahassee for an event in southeast Florida, that there will be no special session to review the state’s controversial “stand your ground” law.
Flagler’s Unemployment Back in Double Digits While Florida’s Stalls at 7.1%, Mirroring U.S.
Flagler County’s unemployment rate shot back up to 10.2 percent as 830 fewer people had jobs, one of the sharpest drops of the year, though seasonal fluctuations account for much of that drop. Florida added just 2,300 private sector jobs.
Boycott Florida Movement Grows in Protest Of Stand Your Ground and Zimmerman Verdict
The boycott-Florida movement has quickly grown on social media and with such headliners as Stevie Wonder while Gov. Rick Scott and the state’s business groups downplay the effectiveness of the effort, which could nevertheless hurt the state’s tourism and convention business.
Students Stage Sit-In at Gov. Scott’s Office, Demanding Special Session on Florida’s Gun Laws
The students, part of a group called the Dream Defenders, said they’re responding to the “not guilty” verdict in the trial of George Zimmerman, want a special legislative session addressing laws such as Florida’s “stand your ground” self-defense provision they say unfairly affect minority youth.
Florida Cabinet Trio’s Combined Personal Worth: $9.76 Million
Cabinet members — Chief Financial Officer Jeff Atwater, Attorney General Pam Bondi and Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam — are now collectively worth $9,756,748, still a far cry from the $83.8 million Gov. Rick Scott reported last week.
As Democrats Dither, Local Republicans Hail Scott’s 4th Visits to Flagler in 2 Years
It wasn’t long ago that Flagler County Republicans were an embarrassment of internecine warfare as fringes and factions threatened to tear the party apart. Dave Sullivan, chairman of the Republican Executive Committee, has kept the local party cobbled together, capping the achievement with Scott’s visit for a fund-raising dinner this evening. Meanwhile, Democrats continue to be a non-entity.
Florida’s Political Scientist:
Five Questions for Susan McManus
Susan MacManus is probably Florida’s most-quoted political scientist. A distinguished professor at the University of South Florida’s Department of Government and International Affairs, she’s also a featured columnist on the Sayfie Review website and a political analyst for Tampa’s WFLA Channel 8.
If You’re Gay, Would Like to Legally Marry and Are Ready to Sue, Equality Florida Wants You
Equality Florida, the state’s the largest civil rights organization dedicated to securing full equality for Florida’s LGBT community, is looking for potential plaintiffs for a lawsuit to challenge Florida’s ban on gay marriage. Voters approved a ban on marriage equality in 2008, by a 62 percent margin.
The Agonizing Over, Gov. Scott Signs Bill to Restrict Gun Buying from Mentally Ill
Gov. Rick Scott defended his support for the Second Amendment as he signed a narrowly-focused firearms bill into law Friday, making it harder for the mentally ill to buy guns. The bill (HB 1355) blocks firearms purchases by some people who voluntarily admit themselves for mental-health treatment.