State CFO Alex Sink launched a new web site today — GetLeanFlorida.com — that will let citizens anonymously suggest ways to make government more efficient and cost-effective.

“I am enlisting the help of everyday Floridians to crack down on government waste and abuse,” Sink said in a prepared statement. “I’m asking the people of Florida to help me, offer their good ideas, and tell us how we can make Florida get lean.”

The site will be advertised around the state and send tips to the Department of Financial Services, which will track responses and report results, according to the press release, which you can read here.

The $1.3 billion in federal stimulus money approved for Florida to build new roads is purported to create or save 30,000 jobs. The federally-funded transportation projects are expected to be the first out of the stimulus to actually put unemployed workers back on the job.

But the 800,000 out-of-work Floridians banking on getting one of those construction or engineering jobs may be sitting on the sidelines until late summer or fall at the earliest before they start cashing in stimulus-related paychecks.

State officials are anxious to get shovels in the dirt and machines moving, but government bureaucracy may slow down the process.

Read the story here.

Gov. Charlie Crist this morning reiterated that he’s not feeling “warm and fuzzy” about a cigarette tax increase, but indicated his feelings may change Friday, when state economists give lawmakers an update on the budget.

“I’ll give a clear direction at the appropriate time,” Crist said.

Some argue that direction should have come during his state of the state speech last week (see some discussion about that speech here).

But today Crist said he was trying to strike an appropriate balance in that address.

Step down from office early and let a Republican governor appoint a commissioner in Palm Beach County’s heavily Democratic commission District 7?

Addie Greene criticized the idea in 2000, but she’s doing it in 2009.

Read about it here.

Florida would secure $2.4 billion in stimulus money for public schools if state officials can prove that education spending has not dropped faster than the total state budget, The Palm Beach Post has learned.

The state needs the option because of a requirement in the stimulus plan that education money be reserved for states that have maintained school spending levels. Florida’s K-12 budget was cut by $1 billion, or about 6 percent, over the past year.

But if Florida shows it has maintained proportional school spending in recent years, the U.S. Department of Education would waive the requirement, an adviser to U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan said.

Public schools spending, known as the Florida Education Financing Program, or FEFP, has grown from 26.5 percent of the state’s total budget in 2006-07 to 27.6 percent this school year. That’s because the overall state budget has dropped by about $6 billion in that time while lawmakers have relied on property taxes prop up the K-12 budget.

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The Palm Beach Post editorial board today throws it’s support behind a bill (HB 1397) from Rep. Julio Robaina, R-Miami, to require lenders pay, within 15 days of filing a foreclosure, all unpaid fees owned to condo and homeowners associations.

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A U.S. Department of Education spokesman said this afternoon that information about how Florida can secure its share of education money in the stimulus plan will have to wait until Monday.

“We’ll be able to fill in the blanks on Monday. We just don’t have that ready to go yet,” said Jim Bradshaw in the U.S. DOE press office.

Florida officials are concerned that recent cuts in state education spending puts about $2.4 billion in stimulus money in jeopardy. The state was hoping to get an update today.

But this morning in Miami, U.S. Education Secretary Arnie Duncan indicated that Florida will get the money.

“Let’s just say that we want to help,” he said.

State Sen. Ted Deutch, D-Boca Raton, says he’s been invited to testify on Capitol Hill next week on a federal bill aimed at helping states divest from companies that do business with Iran.

He’ll be addressing a House Financial Services subcommittee on Thursday.

Deutch led a successful Iranian divestment efforts in Florida in 2007.

The last two occupants of Deutch’s Senate seat — Democrats Robert Wexler and Ron Klein — are now members of Congress.

Just in case state lawmakers didn’t see the warning signs surrounding their education budget (see: $5 billion general revenue shortfall; $1.1 billion drop-off in school-related property taxes; $2.4 billion in K-12 stimulus money in jeopardy), a Coral Reef Senior High student paints a pretty vivid picture for them.

In an impassioned hand-written letter to House K-12 Appropriations Chairwoman Anitere Flores, R-Miami, the female student implores the legislature to avoid cuts to education spending, saying that school closings will leave the state’s youth with nothing to do but “go to the mall, movies and bowling.”

And you know those activities can only hold a teenager’s attention for so long.

[They're] going to get bored after a while. They’re going to allow other things to occur, you want to know what kids would do, have sex.

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A bill aimed at human smuggling (HB 123) reached its halfway point in the House committee process this morning after being approved by the House Criminal & Civil Justice Policy Council.

The proposal, from Rep. William Snyder, R-Stuart, would make it a 3rd-degree felony to transport an illegal immigrant into Florida. Snyder, who had a similar bill last year stall in committee, said his measure would allow local and state officials to investigate human smuggling along with federal authorities.

“Overwhelming caseloads often hinder the response time of Federal investigators, resulting in the loss of witnesses and physical evidence,” Snyder said in a press release. “This bill will be a significant tool for local and state law enforcement agencies, enabling them as first responders to preserve crime scene evidence, interview witnesses, and make on-scene arrests of the offending smugglers.”

Florida’s January unemployment rate is 8.6 percent, 1 percent higher than previously thought and the highest in 17 years.

More than 355,000 Floridians lost their jobs in January, bringing the state’s total non-farm-related unemployed to nearly 800,00. The number of Floridians still bringing home a paycheck is about 7.6 million.

More than 19 counties have unemployment rates in the double digits, including St. Lucie (12%) and Okeechobee (10.7%). Flagler County has the highest unemployment with 14.2 percent. Palm Beach County’s unemployment rate is 9.1%, up 4% from last year.

On Tuesday Gov. Charlie Crist insisted Florida can deal with a $2 billion spending gap without raising taxes.

Just two days later, he said he may be willing to do just that so the state can use federal stimulus money for unemployment payments.

Crist wants to get the $444 million to allow more Floridians to become eligible for unemployment benefits.

But that could cost businesses about $230 million in unemployment taxes and the state $51 million to meet requirements in the stimulus package.

Read the full story here.

Ending a week of speculation about her future, Palm Beach County Commissioner Addie Greene will announce today that she is resigning from the seat she has held for more than eight years.

Greene will hold a news conference at 11 a.m. outside the county’s headquarters in West Palm Beach. She confirmed Thursday that she is resigning but declined to comment further.

More here.

Remember this bunch?

Since this picture of the Palm Beach County commission was taken in 2003, three of seven commissioners have resigned. Commissioner Addie Greene (back row, second from right) confirmed today that she will become the fourth. Greene, who has said she’s concerned about the effects of job-related stress on her health, is scheduled to publicly discuss her plans Friday.

Her resignation will probably take effect at the end of April or early May, knowledgeable sources say.

The already departed commissioners are Mary McCarty (back row, left), Warren Newell (front row, left), and Tony Masilotti (front row, right). Unlike Greene, who appears to be leaving entirely on her own terms, the other three resigned after being targeted in federal corruption probes.

(Yes, there are eight people in this picture. In addition to the seven commissioners, that’s County Administrator Bob Weisman in the back row on the far right.)

Florida’s revenue collections are headed even further south, according to state economists.

Their latest projections estimate Florida’s ad valorem tax collections will be down by $800 million this year, nearly a 12 percent decline.

Gov. Charlie Crist’s budget chief Jerry McDaniel said that the new numbers, released late yesterday evening, won’t have an impact on Crist’s proposed spending plan that includes $7,044 per student.
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Gov. Charlie Crist’s budget guru Jerry McDaniel, under pressure from Democrat Ted Deutch, agreed that tax hikes and further budget reductions should be considered as lawmakers grapple with ever-declining revenues.

McDaniel defended the use of the Lawton Chiles endowment and other trust funds to bridge a spending gap, calling it less painful than raising taxes or making deeper cuts in services.

But, Deutch wanted to know: “Should all of those options be on the table?”

“Yes,” McDaniel replied.
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UPDATE: DNC puts five billboard slogans up for a vote. Read about that here.

The Democratic National Committee sent this e-mail to supporters this morning announcing plans to install a billboard in West Palm Beach to express their displeasure with Rush Limbaugh, the conservative talk show host who makes his home in Palm Beach.

The e-mail asks supporters for suggestions of 10 words or less “and we’ll chose the best one to put in Rush’s backyard!”

“If Republican leaders aren’t willing to tell Rush, then we will,” new DNC Executive Director Jen O’Malley Dillon wrote in the email. “Americans want President Obama to succeed. Our country’s future depends on it. Rooting for the President’s failure is rooting for our country to fail.”

Gov. Charlie Crist said today he will head to Miami, Daytona Beach and Tampa on Friday to promote a series of state web sites that are supposed to help Floridians find work, buy cheap prescription drugs and get health coverage.

“I know that people are hurting,” Crist said. “People can’t sign up for it if they don’t know it exists.”

Other tidbits from the press conference:

*The state’s 26,000 employees receive free health insurance, a perk that Crist said he wasn’t inclined to change.

*Crist shrugged off a suggestion that he oversold an unrealistic budget proposal to a legislature.

*And said he hoped that a possible tax on businesses would not prevent the state from accepting $444 million in unemployment benefits from President Obama’s stimulus package.

Lawmakers are moving closer to doing away with archaic and offensive words to Jews still included in the statutes.

The Florida Senate moved along a bill (SB 318) that would strike the words “shylock” and “shylocking” from the criminal usury laws dealing with unfair lending.

The word has its roots in the Shakespearean play, “The Merchant of Venice,” in which Shylock lends money at no interest but demands a pound of flesh if the loan is not repaid.

The use of the “discriminatory, offensive, pejorative” language in state law needs to stop, argued Sen. Eleanor Sobel, a Jewish Democrat from Hollywood who sponsored the bill.

Gov. Charlie Crist and Tim Tebow threw the football for a few minutes this morning before opening the gates at the governor’s mansion to celebrate the Florida Gators second football championship in three years. About 75 people were invited and twice as many showed up to collect autographs from Tebow, linebacker Ryan Stamper and coach Urban Meyer.

Meyer, while signing an autograph for Florida Supreme Court Justice Barbara Pariente, said that he and Tebow are heading to Atlantic City this weekend for the Maxwell award ceremony.

Tebow will then take off for the Philippines, where he’ll spend another spring break doing mission work.

“Very similar,” Tebow said about the two trips. “I’m not sure 100 percent sure about everything I’m doing yet, but it will be a mission trip.”

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