Thursday, February 26th, 2009 by Michael C. Bender
The plan to give the Florida Board of Governors more control over college tuition is one of Gov. Charlie Crist’s priorities this year and the bills are being shepherded through the capitol by Republican heavies Ken Pruitt and Will Weatherford.
But the creator, above left, of the Florida Prepaid plan plan tells Palm Beach Post reporter Kimberly Miller that he’s prepared to spend what it takes to defeat the proposed changes.
“It’s going to cost a lot of money to do this, and I’ll spend as much as I need to because this is my legacy,” [Stanley] Tate said about the program, which in 2006 was renamed the Stanley G. Tate Florida Prepaid College Program.
It’s a bad accident of history that Scripps Florida will open formally today in Jupiter without former Gov. Jeb Bush, because without Gov. Bush there would be no Scripps Florida.
Gov. Bush committed $310 million from one-time federal stimulus money — sound familiar? — in 2003 to persuade Scripps President Richard Lerner to expand his La Jolla, Calif., operations into Florida. Mr. Bush won’t be at today’s ceremony because of a scheduling conflict. Instead, Gov. Crist, who wants to use the current, larger one-time stimulus from Washington to help balance the state budget, will preside.
Read more coverage on Scripps, including a special section Welcome to the Bioscience Century, here.
Wednesday, February 25th, 2009 by Palm Beach Post Staff
Don’t hold your breath for that new Palm Beach County commissioner to replace scandal-tarnished Mary McCarty.
McCarty’s old District 4 seat will remain vacant for “probably about two weeks” more as Gov. Charlie Crist’s office conducts background checks on four finalists, Crist spokesman Sterling Ivey said today.
McCarty resigned Jan. 8 and said she would plead guilty a federal honest services fraud charge. Crist will name a replacement to fill the remainder of McCarty’s commission term, which expires in November 2010.
The Palm Beach Post editorial board this morning urges the legislature to “reject Crist’s selfish budget,” calling the governor’s spending proposal, “the first Charlie Crist for Senate in 2010 commercial.”
At a time when Tallahassee needs to think years ahead, Gov. Crist is focused on his next office. He would use the federal stimulus money not to position Florida for the future but to position Charlie Crist in Washington, where he would think about running for president while those back home deal with the budget mess he left behind.
Wednesday, February 25th, 2009 by Palm Beach Post Staff
From Obama praise to Bush bashing to concern about tax hikes, the reactions are in from members of Palm Beach County’s congressional delegation after President Obama’s Tuesday night address to a joint session of Congress.
U.S. Reps. Robert Wexler, D-Boca Raton, and Ron Klein, D-Boca Raton, praised Obama for combining a sober assessment of the U.S. economy with optimism for the future.
U.S. Rep. Tom Rooney, R-Tequesta, applauded Obama’s “willingness to tackle the challenges we face,” but said he’s concerned about tax increases.
And U.S. Rep. Alcee Hastings, D-Miramar, offered support for Obama while taking shots at former President Bush and Republicans in Congress.
Read more after the jump…..
Secretary of State Kurt Browning spent almost an hour and a half with voting rights advocates this afternoon – including representatives of the Washington, D.C.-based Advancement Project, the NAACP and the union representing state, county and municipal workers.
But he wasn’t too keen on their ideas for elections reforms, he said later, and likely won’t include them in his legislative proposals.
Among the ideas he rejected: allowing voters who cast ballots in the wrong precincts have their votes counted in races in which they are eligible to vote, such as statewide races. Currently, provisional ballots cast in the wrong precinct are tossed and none of the votes are counted.
President Obama addresses Congress tonight at 9 p.m. He’s not calling it a State of the Union, but many expect to hear a “state of the economy.” Here’s what some of Florida’s political minds anticipate from the spech.
Add your thoughts below and let us know if Obama meets your expectations. “The President is going to try to bring the complexities of the stimulus package down to terms people can understand. The challenge he’s got is to convince the American people that the plan has the immediate relief they desperately need. Despite what the polls say, the jury is still out on the stimulus package because people are unsure how it’s going to impact them and when it’s going to impact them.”
–Adam Goodman, political consultant for Florida Republicans such as Senate President Jeff Atwater of North Palm Beach and House Majority Leader Adam Hasner of Boca Raton. He is currently working in the race for New York’s 20th Congressional District, the first U.S. House race since Obama’s election.
Former Miami Herald reporter Gary Fineout launched a new blog today, The Fine Print, which he says will offer “plain-spoken analysis” of state politics and policy.
In his first post, he dissects Gov. Charlie Crist’s budget proposal, pointing out this “sweetener for U.S. Sugar deal.”
Crist has included $5 million in his economic development funding recommendations to be used for “areas impacted by the South Florida Water Management District’s acquisition of land from the U.S. Sugar Corporation. Impacted areas include Hendry and Glades County and the communities of Belle Glade, South Bay and Pahokee.
Tuesday, February 24th, 2009 by Palm Beach Post Staff
With all the cheerleading Gov. Charlie Crist has been doing lately for Democratic President Barack Obama and the Dem-drafted $787 billion stimulus package, and with his nationally televised shout-out Sunday to Democratic U.S. Rep. Robert Wexler of Boca Raton, this qualifies as news:
“Governor Crist Visits the Republican National Committee,” declared a Monday night press release from the Republican Party of Florida.
Crist, who met with national GOP Chairman Michael Steele, said he’s “proud to be a Republican.”
Read the RPOF press release after the jump…..
Florida Gov. Charlie Crist and his wife Carole, right, arrive at the White House to attend a dinner hosted by President Obama. (AP Photo)
Gov. Charlie Crist hasn’t yet secured the state its share of education money from the federal stimulus package, but his support for President Obama and the plan might have helped score Florida First Lady Carole Crist a seat tonight next to Obama for the first formal White House dinner (here and here) of the Democrat’s term. Obama hosted the nation’s governors, who were in Washington for the National Governor’s Association meeting, in the State Dining Room.
After a brief welcome and a toast(“To the nation’s governors, to the United States of America, and to the certain hope that despite our current travails, that we will all emerge more prosperous and more unified than we were before.”), Obama took a seat between Mrs. Crist and Midge Rendell, the first lady of Pennsylvania, according to a pool report of the evening.
First Lady Michelle Obama ate at a nearby table, seated between California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, R-Calif, and Gov. Christine Gregoire, D-Wash.
Gov. Charlie Crist this morning refused to offer a name when asked to pick the national leader of the Republican Party, instead offering his support to Democratic President Obama.
“I don’t know if there is or is not at this time,” Crist said when Meet the Press host David Gregory asked if the GOP had a national leader. “And I think … Well, there is an actual leader. His name is President Obama. The people elected him and I’m willing to give him a good shot and try to help make this work.”
Crist spent most of his appearance on NBC’s Sunday morning politics show polishing his bipartisan image by supporting Obama’s stimulus plan. Crist’s interview on the show followed another popular Republican, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal who opposes parts of the stimulus.
Crist is one of the few high-profile Republicans to support the stimulus spending.
Gregory made that point by pulling quotes from South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford, who said Crist wasn’t a fiscal conservative, and Florida Republican consultant Alex Castellanos, who accused Crist of “batting for the other team” at a time when “we finally found our voice and remember who we are as Republicans.”
Friday, February 20th, 2009 by Palm Beach Post Staff
Unable to find an affordable rental in the “extremely expensive” housing market around Washington, D.C., freshman U.S. Rep. Tom Rooney, R-Tequesta, says he decided to buy a Gander Mountain cot and temporarily sleep in his Capitol Hill office.
About 40 House members have similar living arrangements, according to an ABC News report last month on cot-sleeping freshman Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah.
Gov. Charlie Crist would increase the state budget by about $1 billion, according to his recommendations for a $66.5 billion spending proposal released this afternoon. The plan includes about $120 million in fee increases, but also a host of property tax cuts (which would fall mostly on city and county governments).
Crist’s budget also anticipates tens of millions of income from a Seminole gambling compact, which lawmakers have shown much interest in, and a few billion in education spending from the stimulus package that the federal government isn’t sure Florida will receive. Go here to see how Crist’s past two budget recommendations have matched up with eventual spending plans.
And click here to see his proposal.
Sen. Larcenia Bullard is recuperating at a hotel suite after suffering from heart and lung problems caused, she said, by a new roof on her Miami home.
She said doctors have told her that mold from a new roof are the root of the problems and have branded the home “uninhabitable” until the mold is removed.
The former schoolteacher said she hopes to return to Tallahassee in time for the March 3 start of the regular session.
It’s the second time in six months Bullard, whose Senate District 39 includes part of Palm Beach County, has been diagnosed with congestive heart failure, said Bullard, who sounded upbeat.
“Right at this moment I’m breathing. That’s a blessing,” she said.
Friday, February 20th, 2009 by Palm Beach Post Staff
U.S. Rep. Tom Rooney, R-Tequesta, voted against the Democrat-drafted $787 billion economic stimulus bill. But he and eight other Florida Republicans who voted against it signed a Thursday letter to U.S. Education Sec. Arne Duncan asking the feds not to withhold $2.7 billion in stimulus money for education that’s in doubt because Florida has cut its schools budget in recent years.
The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, which has already bought anti-Rooney radio ads and paid for automated phone calls critical of the rookie Republican, today said Rooney belongs in the “Hypocrisy Hall of Fame” for “celebrating the benefits of President Obama’s eonomic recovery bill.”
Rooney spokesman Jeff Ostermayer said his boss isn’t being inconsistent. Although Rooney and the rest of the House GOP opposed the stimulus bill as too heavy on spending and too light on tax cuts and small-business incentives, Ostermayer said the bill passed and Rooney now wants to make sure Florida gets its share of the money.
While we await the latest budget recommendation from Gov. Charlie Crist, here’s a graph showing his previous two requests and where state spending plan eventually landed (click on the graph to get a better view).
The average difference between Crist’s request and the actual budget is $2.9 billion.
[Note that Crist's $66.5 billion budget for 2009-10 is the guess floating around the legislature right now. We'll update it after Crist's 1:30 p.m. press conference.]
Incoming House Speaker Larry Cretul, R-Ocala, announced this morning which members would be included in his Select Policy Council on Strategic and Economic Planning. Cretul created the committee days after replacing Ray Sansom as leader of the Republican caucus.
According to this list, the House now has 39 of its own councils and committees plus seven joint committees with the Senate.
From Post writer Paul Quinlan: “The list-making is just part of the bureaucratic scramble now under way to jump-start the nation’s economy by putting people back to work and repairing the national infrastructure with money from Washington. The rush has caught some local leaders by surprise, giving rise to frustrations and last-minute wrangling.”
More here.
Visit Florida execs could see their salaries plummet if the Senate majority leader gets his way.
Sen. Alex Diaz de la Portilla, R-Miami, wants Senate Transportation and Economic Development budget committee chairman Mike Fasano to cap salaries at Visit Florida $100,000.
Diaz de la Portilla also wants to do away with the bonuses the agency hands out to its execs.
Visit Florida president Bud Nocera earns $225,000 annually and at least one executive received a $50,000 reward last year, the committee learned last week. Five of the agency’s executives earn a collective $800,000.
“Much to the committee’s dismay we found that Visit Florida has consumed many of our taxpayer dollars in a way that we do not believe is responsible, frugal, or beneficial to the state,” committee members Diaz de la Portilla and Sen. Andy Gardiner, the majority whip from Orlando, wrote in a letter sent today to Fasano, R-New Port Richey.
The plan to give the Florida Board of Governors more control over college tuition is one of Gov. Charlie Crist’s priorities this year and the bills are being shepherded through the capitol by Republican heavies Ken Pruitt and Will Weatherford.
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