 |
Rep. Mary Brandenburg, D-West Palm Beach, gave House Majority Leader Adam Hasner, R-Boca Raton, a written apology today after this story appeared in the Palm Beach Post.
Here’s text of the note:
I apologize for yesterday’s ill-conceived remark. It was unprofessional and unkind. I hope you will forgive me.
UPDATE: This blog was updated to included the latest projections at 2:35 p.m.
St. Lucie County is already pacing the state in foreclosure and unemployment rates. Today, schools Superintendent Michael Lannon is telling 331 teachers they’ll be laid off and three two schools will shut down because of state budget shortfalls, according to fellow Palm Beach Post blog, Treasure Coast Talk. The school district, with about 5,000 employees, is the largest employer in the county.
Told of the development, Gov. Charlie Crist said, “I would encourage the superintendent to contact the U.S. secretary of education and get this waiver.”
Asked if he would veto a state budget that included a property tax increase for schools, Crist said, “Probably.”
Florida is not eligible for about $2.5 billion in federal stimulus money earmarked for schools, because of recent cuts to the state’s K-12 budget. Crist and others are waiting for the U.S. Department of Education to release this information about how the state can get a waiver from the requirement.
Georgia and Alabama have had their federally mandated Web sites up for days and Florida joined the group today when Gov. Charlie Crist unveiled FlaRecovery.com.
Crist billed the site as “a one-stop resource for citizens interested in learning more about assistance made available by the federal American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.”
Press release here.
The state’s flailing economy resurrected the disputed 2000 election this morning during budget discussions at a Senate TED meeting.
The ballots from the protracted election are stored on a floor of the state library that Secretary of State Kurt Browning is proposing getting rid of as part of an ordered 20 percent budget reduction exercise.
“We have gotten to the point where we cannot pay rent. We cannot pay rent and keep our doors open,” Browning told the committee. The rent goes to another state agency, the Department of Management Services.
The bulk of Browning’s proposed cuts would reduce spending on public libraries from $25.5 million to $17.5 million, including about an $8 million in federal funding.
A report commissioned by opponents of Gov. Charlie Crist’s plan to buy U.S. Sugar Corp. said the deal could cost as much as $9.1 billion instead of the estimated $3 billion to $5 billion, Post reporter Paul Quinlan writes today.
But one leading champion of the land purchase dismissed the study as propaganda by the opposition, which includes rival sugar grower Florida Crystals Corp.
“Their goal is to undermine this land acquisition,” said Kirk Fordham, CEO of the Everglades Foundation, a nonprofit group that pushed Crist to put together the deal. “The report has no credibility.”
Still, opponents say the figures suggest that the ecological benefits from the mammoth land deal remain too distant to justify putting existing restoration plans on hold to pay for U.S. Sugar’s property.
Hundreds of students, parents and teachers from around Florida gathered at the Capitol on Wednesday to take part in the Florida Education Association rally to protest cuts in education funding, as shown in this AP photo.
“Today’s been a day that’s been highly charged with so many people in the Capitol today talking about education,” House K-12 Appropriations Chairwoman Anitere Flores told the Palm Beach Post.
“I think it’s important that we didn’t make any decisions on amounts of (budget) allocations until after today’s events happened. There were 3,000 parents here.”
The national fight over ensuring secret ballots for union votes erupted Wednesday in an emotional quarrel between two Palm Beach County lawmakers that included one calling the other a “jerk” in a Florida House committee meeting.
Rep. Mary Brandenburg, D-West Palm Beach, called Rep. Adam Hasner, R-Boca Raton, a “jerk” from her seat in the House Policy Committee. Her microphone was turned off, but her comment was audible from at least the third row in the meeting room.
Listen to their dialogue during the committee here. Then read the rest of the story here.
Sen. Mike Haridopolos’ abhorrence of tax hikes apparently doesn’t spread to telephone charges.
Haridpolos, R-Melbourne, has sponsored a bill that would subject business and residential telephone customers to 20 percent rate increases within a year, according to an analysis of the measure.
Haridopolos’ sweeping telecom reform proposal (SB 2626) would also weaken the authority of the Public Service Commission, which regulates utilities, over telephone companies. For example, it would do away with the commission’s ability to resolve service quality complaints, according to the commission’s analysis of the bill.
(more…)
A proposal to require a woman view an ultrasound before receiving an abortion cleared its first House committee today on a partisan vote, but bipartisan opposition in the Senate may once again doom the measure.
The same bill last year died on a fairly dramatic 20-20 tie vote on the Senate floor when seven Republicans voted with nearly every Democrat to defeat the measure. This year, two of those Republicans did not return to the legislature due to term limits.
But the bill may not make it to the Senate floor this year. It’s first stop in that chamber is the Health Regulation Committee, which includes Sens. Dennis Jones of Seminole and Mike Bennett of Bradenton. Both Republicans voted against the bill last year, which means if the committee members vote the same way as last year the bill dies on a 5-3 vote.
“We’ve got some work to do,” said Sen. Andy Gardiner, an Orlando Republican sponsoring the Senate version (SB 1857)
With AIG Chief Exec Edward Liddy appearing before the House Financial Services Committee today, U.S. Rep. Ron Klein, D-Boca Raton, says in prepared remarks he’s “disgusted” by the $165 million in bonuses paid out by the troubled insurer while it was receiving $170 billion in federal bailouts.
Read Klein’s full remarks after the jump.
Also, click here to see the top Florida recipients of campaign contributions from AIG since 1989.
The state will have whopping $3 billion budget gap next year if it only spends money on “bare bones” items, according to Senate budget chief J.D. Alexander.
That would mean paying only for fluff-free things like constitutionally mandated programs and those required to bring in federal dollars.
And that’s including the addition of more than $3 billion in federal stimulus money over the next two years.
That leaves lawmakers no other choice than to raise revenues, the conservative citrus baron said, even if they cut back on spending.
And adding in Gov. Charlie Crist’s recommendation to take more than $200 million from the Seminoles from a gambling compact and sweep trust funds still leaves Crist’s budget proposal more than $1 billion short.
“I think it will be very difficult to find sufficient recurring cuts to make this $3 billion, or $2.5 if you count the compact revenues, without some revenues,” Alexander, R-Lake Wales said. “I tend to think we’ll ultimately have to have a mix of revenues and some reductions.”
Florida labor leaders said at a press conference today that a constitutional amendment (HJR 1013) from House Majority Leader Adam Hasner, R-Boca Raton, “targets working people.”
“The proposed constitutional amendment is not about the protection of secret ballot. It’s all about political gamesmanship in an effort to launch an anti-worker campaign in Florida, a campaign being disguised as a pro-worker effort,” said Mike Williams, president of the Florida Building & Construction Trades Council.
Gov. Charlie Crist interrupted his stimulus point man, Don Windstead, during a meeting today after Windstead pointed out that “remarkably” 49 out of 50 states attended a recent meeting with Vice President Biden in Washington D.C. to go through details of the stimulus package.
“I’ve had colleagues who have at least intimated that this money from Washington is not something they welcome with open arms, yet 49 out of 50 states show up to get it,” Crist said. “Noted.”
Crist took heat in the national media for welcoming President Obama’s stimulus proposal, which other Republican governors, such as Bobby Jindal of Lousianna and Mark Sanford, opposed and earned praise from conservatives.
Crist also used part of the meeting to point out that Florida cannot submit its list of eligible road projects for the legislature to approve until Palm Beach County finalizes its list on Thursday. We reported that story here.
Talk about taxing strippers and other XXX-rated activities spawned a few words of caution from Senate Democratic Leader Al Lawson during a caucus meeting at lunchtime.
During a presentation on sales tax exemptions — which lawmakers are considering repealing this year — Sen. Eleanor Sobel of Hollywood asked about doing away with the exemption for adult entertainment.
That drew laughs from some of the caucus members and a bit of skepticism on Lawson’s part.
“We may have some frequent users in the legislature,” Lawson, D-Tallahassee, joked. “We might have some resistance to that.”
Above: Dan Rooney/Obama photo from Pittsburgh Post-Gazette; U.S. Rep. Tom Rooney; six-time Super Bowl champions logo
Freshman U.S. Rep. Tom Rooney, R-Tequesta, has opposed President Obama on the economic stimulus bill and other measures, but he applauded today when Obama named Rooney’s uncle, Pittsburgh Steelers chairman Dan Rooney, as ambassador to Ireland.
Dan Rooney endorsed Obama just before the Pennsylvania Democratic primary last spring.
Here’s today’s statement from Rooney’s congressional office: “I am happy to hear President Obama has nominated my Uncle Dan Rooney to be our nation’s new Ambassador to Ireland, I wish him well and I know he will do great job representing the United States. For decades he has been working to help foster peace and reconciliation as well as fight poverty in Ireland as the co-founder of the American Ireland Fund which started 35 years ago.”
Florida is moving closer to launching a federally mandated website to let the public know how and where its $13-plus billion share of the federal economic stimulus package is or will be spent.
Thirty-five other states, including Sunshine State neighbors Georgia and Alabama, already have their recovery websites up and running.
Florida’s should launch “early next week,” Gov. Charlie Crist said during a meeting of his federal stimulus team this morning.
Crist’s “stimulus czar” Don Winstead, who met with Vice President Joe Biden and others in D.C. last week to discuss recovery plans, said that the nation is “learning from Florida’s example” regarding open government.
The White House has promised an “unprecedented level of commitment to reporting in a way that is open, accessible and I think the nation is really learning from Florida’s example,” Winstead said. “It’s very appropriate with this week to see that.”
Winstead was referring to Sunshine Week, a celebration of the state’s broad open government laws, that began Sunday.
Crist said Florida’s recovery site should be up early next week “which will be great.”
“Yes sir. We’re within days of that. That’ll be another great step forward,” Winstead replied.
As Congress gears up for a debate over the labor-backed Employee Free Choice Act, unions are touting a a new Gallup poll that finds 53 percent of Americans favor a law “that would make it easier for labor unions to organize workers.”
Beyond that fuzzy concept, however, it appears voters in Florida are uncomfortable with a key aspect of the proposed legislation.
The bill would make it easier for unions to form by allowing them to bypass current requirements that employee votes on whether to unionize be conducted by secret ballot. Instead, a union could form if a majority of workers sign authorization forms.
A new Florida poll commissioned by foes of the congressional bill finds that 86 percent of the state’s voters favor a proposed state constitutional amendment guaranteeing the right to cast a secret ballot in all elections, including employee votes on whether to unionize.
To read the polling memo, click here.
House Majority Leader Adam Hasner, R-Boca Raton, is heading efforts to get the constitutional question on the Florida ballot in 2010. If Congress passes the Employee Free Choice Act and Florida voters approve the secret-ballot amendment, courts would likely decide which measure would take precedence in Florida.
The latest grim news about the state’s emaciated economy is making it harder to get the federal stimulus money aimed at boosting Florida’s finances on the streets.
State transportation officials are taking longer to get their list of $1.3 billion worth of road projects to lawmakers to sign off on so the projects can get moving because economists predicted Friday that revenues would drop by another $3.4 billion by the end of next year.
That means a (coincidentally) $1.3 billion cut to the state’s five-year road plan. Transportation officials are now trying to figure out what that impact would be on the stimulus-backed projects.
Lawmakers had hoped to pass a budget bill to spend the federal money as early as this week, but chances of that happening now are unlikely.
Federal prosecutors may be unable to seize Bernie & Ruth Madoff’s $9 million Palm Beach mansion because the state constitution protects homesteads from a forced sale by creditors, Post reporters Sonja Isgar and Charles Elmore write today.
Ruth Madoff was turned down once for an exemption because her New York City penthouse was homesteaded in that state. After dropping the New York exemption, she applied again in September, three months before her husband’s arrest.
She was granted the Florida exemption on Jan. 12.
Investors burned by financier Bernard Madoff are incensed at the thought of her keeping the luxury home, Boca Raton attorney Guy Fronstin said.
“They’re furious about it,” said Fronstin, who said he represents 63 investors who lost a total of more than $200 million. “They are saying, ‘We are destitute and she’s still living a lavish lifestyle.””
Where's the money? Use The Post's interactive database of who wants and who's getting federal dollars.
Use these interactive graphics to find and contact Palm Beach County and Treasure Coast legislators.
House | Senate | Congress
See the faces and find the names of Florida's fallen heroes in Iraq and Afghanistan.
War dead database | Photos
