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U.S. Rep. Ron Klein, D-Boca Raton, whose district includes the Palm Beach Country Club where accused securities swindler Bernard Madoff found many of his victims, said at a hearing in Washington today that the scandal points out the need for “smarter regulation and greater oversight.”
Klein’s opening statement to the House Financial Services Committee is after the jump….

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Less than 30 minutes into the first session of the year, the partisan lines were already clear in the House.
After House Speaker Ray Sansom encouraged participation in the special session, Republicans rejected two Democratic proposals to open debate on potential revenue streams: a tax increase on cigarettes and another, pushed by Rep. Mark Pafford of West Palm Beach (who, pictured left, replaced Susan Bucher this year) to close the loophole on real estate taxes.
Sansom set the tone for the two week session, telling House members that they would be focused on cuts only: “It will be easy for some of us to increase the financial burden on families and small businesses,” he said. “However, I do not believe that is the right path for us to take.”
Rep. David Rivera, one of two Miami Republicans writing the House budget, told the chamber that “we’re going to be moving pretty fast.”
That gave Democrats an opening to argue that Republicans would not give the public enough time to weigh in on proposals.
Rivera, above, encouraged Democrats to craft their own proposals and assured them they’d have all the rulers and highlighters they need to walk through the Republican recommendations.
Listen here:

Florida fell another $100 million deeper in the red in December, meaning the state’s $2.3 billion budget gap could grow by another $700 million before the end of the fiscal year that ends on June 30.
Senate President Jeff Atwater said this morning during the opening of the special session on the budget that he intends to make far deeper cuts into state spending than Gov. Charlie Crist recommended early last month, in part because revenues continue to decline.
Crist recommended cutting about $550 million in state spending but Atwater said he is considering up to $1 billion to prepare lawmakers to reduce the budget by up to another $4 billion when they start crafting next year’s budget in March.
“If it s not absolutely critical to the teaching, to the housing, to the feeding, to the transporting, to the protecting, to the caring or the creation of jobs for Floridians, then now is the time to challenge it. Now may be the time to suspend it. Now may be the time to eliminate it,” said Atwater, R-North Palm Beach.
Unlike Crist, no area of spending is safe, Atwater said, including health care programs and services for the poor and elderly.
“I respect where the governor was at,” Atwater said. “But I don’t see there is any way that we would be responsible if we didn’t look further to find any other reductions that we could make at this time.”
Lawmakers are required by state law to balance the budget.

Opening the 12-day special session, the second time in 15 months that budget cuts have forced lawmakers back to Tallahassee, House Speaker Ray Sansom this morning sought to assure his chamber that Florida isn’t much worse off than the rest of the country.

“We are not alone in this effort,” said Sansom, R-Destin. “We see states all across the county that are having very difficult choices to make, much like Florida. In several cases across the county, many states have much deeper reductions that are set before them.”

In fact, only three states – Arizona, California and Rhode Island – are facing larger budget shortfalls than Florida, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.

A report from the budget center shows Florida’s $5.7 billion shortfall this year (including the mid-year, $2.3 billion shortfall) equals 22.2 percent of the state’s general fund. California’s shortfall is 35.6 percent of its general fund; Arizona, 30.8 percent; Rhode Island, 24.5 percent.

House Speaker Ray Sansom opened the special session this morning by announcing he would resign from a six-figure job he received from Northwest Florida State College.
“Unfortunately, some have disagreed with my decision to work at the college,” said Sansom, R-Destin. “While I do not question their motives, I strongly object to their conclusions. In all my years in public service, I have sought to act in a manner worthy of the trust that the people have placed in me.”
Sansom has come under fire since accepting a job from the college on Nov. 18, the same day he was sworn in as speaker last month. The job raised questions about Sansom’s relationship with the college, which he helped secure millions for in the state budget despite a historic round of budget cuts.
Questions were also raised about whether some of the school’s budget money was used to build an airport hangar for one of Sansom’s political backers and whether the speaker used his public office to secure the job.
After Sansom’s statement, the 120-member House chamber gave him a short standing ovation.
Listen to Sansom’s remarks here:

It’s already the fifth day of 2009 — which means the 2010 election season is well underway.
Click here to catch up.

We published a 2008 timeline of Charlie Crist’s year, but recently Palm Beach Post columnist Frank Cerabino looked forward to an equally eventful 2009.
Here are some highlights from his column:

June 12: Jeb Bush has last name legally changed, a strong sign that he intends to run for Mel Martinez’s U.S. Senate seat.

July 20: Florida’s state universities announce tuition hikes, class cancellations and 10 percent pay raises for top administrators.

Oct. 23: Alaska Gov. and 2012 presidential hopeful Sarah Palin visits Epcot Center at Disney World to bolster international experience.

Gov. Charlie Crist’s latest pick for the Florida Supreme Court — Palm Beach County’s Jorge Labarga — appears to have upset folks on both sides of the aisle.
Florida Democrats wanted to make sure we saw this letter to Crist, first reported here by the Miami Herald, which claims Labarga “will not perform judicial duties without bias or prejudice.”
Meanwhile, at RedState.com, Erick Erickson called the self-described moderate Labarga “very bad for conservatives.”

We must remember this in the future: Charlie Crist had the opportunity to put a conservative on the Florida Supreme Court and he chose not to.

Crist’s previous two picks for the high court were more clear cut: both were hailed as “home runs” by conservatives and derided as an “0 for 2″ by liberals.

Republican state Rep. Adam Hasner, right, and Democratic Sen. Ted Deutch, left, both of Boca Raton, will sponsor a resolution to urge the legislature’s support for “Israel’s right to self-defense from attacks by Hamas.”
The resolution probably won’t receive much opposition — to our knowledge, the Hamas caucus in the state legislature remains at zero members.
From Hasner’s press release today:

I am proud to lead the bipartisan effort in the Florida House of Representatives to express our firm solidarity with the people of Israel and support the government of Israel’s right to protect and defend themselves against terrorism and destruction from these ongoing attacks.

And as we begin the New Year, we pray for a peaceful end to these hostilities. May God Bless Israel, America’s democratic ally in the Middle East.

Jorge Labarga of Wellington today became the second Cuban-American appointed to the Florida Supreme Court, Gov. Charlie Crist announced at a press conference in St. Petersburg.
A self-described moderate with Republican roots, Labarga replaces Justice Harry Lee Anstead, a former Palm Beach County judge widely considered one of the more liberal members of the court. Anstead stepped down after reaching the state’s 70-year-old age limit.
LaBarga, 56, was first appointed a judge 13 years ago by then-Gov. Lawton Chiles. Expected to begin his term Tuesday, he is third of four appointments Crist is expected to make to the seven-member court within six months.
He would be the only Hispanic member of the court after Raoul Cantero resigned in 2008.
Labarga emigrated from Cuba with his family in 1963, eventually arriving in Pahokee, where his father worked in a sugar mill. The family’s first home was a shack that still stands today, he said.
After graduation from Forest Hill High School in 1972, Labarga attended both college and law school at the University of Florida.
He is probably most widely known for his role in 2000 presidential election, ruling that the constitutional rules did not allow for a re-vote following the butterfly ballot debacle.
The other cases cited in his application include tragedy and even danger. Labarga noted a divorce case he presided over where a father set himself on fire after losing custody of his children, but not before trying to hunt down Labarga, his ex-wife and child to take out with him.

Governor Charlie Crist is due to make a “major announcement” Friday morning, according to a media advisory put out Thursday night by his handlers.

It’s set for 10 a.m. at the governor’s office in St. Petersburg.
Could it be the naming of a new Florida Supreme Court justice?
And could it be Circuit Judge Jorge Labarga of Wellington?

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