The Senate spent much of the afternoon in informal recess as budget negotiations stalled.

Some of the elected officials exchanged text messages or telephone calls with reporters observing from one floor above the chamber in the glassed-in press gallery.

“U r killing me,” a message sent from a reporter to a GOP leader read.

“Me too,” came the response.

As Gov. Charlie Crist met with House Speaker Larry Cretul, the Senate was again idle.

A group of senators huddled around Mike Bennett’s desk, where they watched this video – an international montage of street performers playing “Stand by Me.”

A few of the smiling senators sang along.

Bennett’s instructions as he e-mailed the video clip to similarly bored reporters:
“Sit back, turn up the speakers and enjoy.”

Senate budget chief J.D. Alexander said that the budget talks broke down because his House counterpart Dean Cannon introduced a new idea at the last minute: “premium tax financing.”

Asked to explain, a weary Alexander was curt, saying it had “something to do with more borrowing.”

“Ask Mr. Cannon. Maybe he could fill you in on it,” Alexander said, repeating his response when asked again.

By 8 p.m. Friday evening, Alexander had something a little less lofty on his mind than the $65 billion budget as he tried to exit the building but was waylaid by a handful of reporters and a lobbyist: Dirty clothes.

“I’m tired. We’ve been at it for 18 hours a day for several weeks,” Alexander said, adding that it was too late for him to drive home to Lakeland and make it home before his self-imposed midnight deadline.
“So I’m going to leave first thing in the morning. I’m going to go home and get my laundry done so I can get ready for another week,” he said.

Hoping to address concerns from Rep. Dean Cannon about potential budget shortfalls in 2011, Gov. Charlie Crist offered to refinance his deal with the Seminole Tribe that would funnel most of the gambling proceeds into that year.

“To the Seminoles great credit, they have been flexible in at least considering restructuring,” Crist said. “They’re willing to be flexible and others should to”

Cannon wasn’t interested, House officials said.

Crist reacted to news the legislature was taking the weekend off by saying the break could prove valuable.

“Sometimes taking a step back and taking a deep breath can have a very positive effect,” Crist said.

UPDATE: The House adjourned until 9 a.m. on Monday, with no acknowledgment of the budget standstill.

Senate President Jeff Atwater just told his chamber that House Speaker Larry Cretul suggested they “send members home for the weekend.”

Atwater said the Senate would return Monday at 1 p.m.

A similar announcement is expected shortly in the House.

“We continue to have conversations and the conversations are very constructive,” Atwater said.

Atwater said he still hopes to end on time on May 1, but veterans in the legislature say that will be nearly impossible without weekend budget conference committee meetings. Those meetings can’t start until Atwater and Cretul, both Republicans, agree on how much money the state should spend.

Gov. Charlie Crist is meeting with House (and possibly) Senate leaders as spectators and participants on the fourth floor of the Capitol hold their breath about budget negotiations.

“Pursuit of knowledge,” Crist said when asked what he was doing.

The House and the Senate are in recess while the private meeting goes on.

Budgeteers from the House and Senate are under pressure to reach agreement in time for the final document to be printed and placed on lawmakers’ desks by midnight Tuesday. That would give them the required time to presumably read it before passing it by Friday, when the session is scheduled to end.

Rep. Dean Cannon, R-Winter Park, says spending less than the Senate has proposed could save the state’s bond rating, which has been put on the “watch list for possible downgrade” by Moody’s Investors Service.

But Moody’s VP Mark Tenenhaus, who analyzes state finances, said a replenished reserve account may not save lawmakers from a possible downgrade. A downgrade could cost the cast-strapped state billions in interest payments.

“It’s really the extent of the economy and the revenue weakness,” Tenenhaus said. “That’s really what we’re talking about.”

The report seemed to target state’s depleted reserves as the reason for the possible downgrade. But Tenenhaus insisted the “draw down on the reserves is not the story.”

“The story is the weakness of the state economy reflected in lower-than-realized projections,” he said.

“Revenue projections continue to go down in 2010. Without any new enhancements to revenues, their projections in 2011 are lower than revenues in 2005.

“The downfall of the state economy has been pretty dramatic”

The Senate just gave preliminary approval for two Christian-based license plates, including one depicting Jesus Christ.

The Senate approved by a 22-13 vote an amendment sponsored by Sen. Gary Siplin that included the “Trinity” license plate.

Boca Raton lawyer Ted Deutch repeatedly asked Siplin, a fellow Democrat, to describe the image on the license plate.

“The Trinity license plate has the picture of my lord and savior Jesus Christ on it,” Siplin, D-Orlando, said.

Proceeds from the tag will go to the Toomey Foundation, a natural sciences organization.

The chamber also approved the “I Believe” license plate that features a cross on a stained-glass background.

Deutch, who is Jewish, argued that religious symbols of any type don’t belong on license plates produced by the state.

The Senate also gave a preliminary OK to several other license plates.

“From a law enforcement standpoint, it’s crazy. It’s great to support local organization and so forth but wow, enough is enough. We’ve got to seriously think about this,” said Sen. Steve Oelrich, R-Cross Creek, a former sheriff, before the Senate passed an amendment including a plate for the Fraternal Order of Police.

“Good thing we didn’t adopt that attitude when we adopted the Sheriff’s Youth Ranches,” retorted Sen. Mike Fasano, R-New Port Richey, the FOP plate sponsor.

Oelrich had sponsored that plate.

The bill (SB 642) has yet to get a full floor vote.

This gag is getting passed among some of the hundreds of Blackberrys buzzing in the state Capitol today:

VOICE MAIL SCRIPT DEVELOPMENT PROJECT 2009

DEAR CALLER,

REPRESENTATIVE ______________ APPRECIATES YOUR CALL. PLEASE KNOW THAT HE / SHE STANDS WITH YOU IN PREVENTING CROSS SPECIES SEX WHILE FISHING ON THE SHORELINE OF PARTIALLY SUBMERGED PROPERTY ACCESSIBLE ONLY BY SUN RAIL. FURTHERMORE, REP. _________________ SUPPORTS THE EFFORTS TO LIMIT THE ABUSE OF PRESCRIPTION DRUGS PURCHASED SALES TAX FREE ON THE INTERNET.

HE / SHE IS ALSO WATCHING THE DEBATE ON THE TAX ON SMOKING WHILE DRINKING AT TRIBAL CASINO’S ACCESSIBLE ONLY BY AIRCRAFT PURCHASED OUTSIDE THE STATE USING BIOFUELS AND / OR SOLAR POWER AND WILL TAKE YOUR CONCERNS ABOUT SUCH INTO CONSIDERATION.

FURTHERMORE, SHOULD WE HAVE A SPECIAL AND / OR EXTENDED SESSION IN (insert month here) TO PASS THE BUDGET AND / OR THE SEMINOLE COMPACT AND / OR THE 3,467 BILLS LEFT ON SECOND READING AND / OR HOW TO USE THE FEDERAL STIMULUS MONEY, HE / SHE WILL ALWAYS WORK TO PROTECT THE CONSTITUENTS OF DISTRICT _________.

Post writer Jane Musgrave reports today that the crusade from state Rep. Juan Zapata against high fructose syrup may inspire the Miami Republican to take down enriched flour next.

Meanwhile, Zapata’s budget amendment to strip fructose-filled food from school cafeterias may cost youngsters their lunch money:

The cost of catsup alone has school food service workers seeing red. For small districts, the proposal would increase the cost of catsup from about $26,350 annually to as much as $144,680. For behemoths like the Miami-Dade School District, the cost increase is even more eye-popping – from $225,100 a year to as much as $1.2 million, according to an analysis done by Julie Hedine, nutrition services supervisor for the Pasco County School District.

And, catsup is only one of 84 items – ranging from salad dressing to gravy mixes to gelatin – that would be affected by the measure that Zapata attached to the Senate appropriations bill, said Judy Laster, executive director of the association.

Where can you find “bodies beautiful,” “erotic encounters,” “happy endings,” and “models, girls or escorts to act out your fantasies”?

The Florida House, of course.

State Rep. Rachel Burgin, R-Brandon, offered this steamy amendment to ban advertising that would “suggest to a reasonable, prudent person” that something other than an innocent massage would be provided.

The amendment goes on to give examples of words that might indicate that “sexual stimulation or sexual gratification is offered,” including head-scratchers like “fox hole” and “maid service.”

Burgin also suggest banning images, including any that show “the female breast below the top of the nipple with less than a fully opaque covering” or “covered male genitals in a discernibly turgid state.”

Burgin withdrew the amendment when the chamber couldn’t come up with a on a definition for a “reasonable, prudent person.”

Kidding, actually.

She withdrew it saying the proposal needed more work.

From friend-of-the-blog Kim Miller over at our sister site, Extra Credit :

Leaders of Florida’s 11 universities mobilized Thursday to wage war against statewide budget cuts one school president likened to “Armageddon.”

On Friday they continued to plan their attack on a 30-minute conference call where suggestions ranged from organizing a mass e-mail campaign, calling lawmakers at home during the weekend and seeking help from a higher power _ God.

When asked toward the end of the meeting if anyone had any other advice, someone blurted out “Pray!”

“Yes, pray, that’s a very good idea,” said Board of Governors chairman Sheila McDevitt.

Another university representative (it was hard to know who was speaking on the call) made the dire prediction that they have 36 hours to save the university system.

Budget negotiations should be more open, Senate President Jeff Atwater said this morning.

Atwater said that the Senate rules governing which talks should be public and when that should happen might need to be changed to at least give the appearance of openness.

“It’s necessary,” the North Palm Beach Republican told reporters after a briefing with the Senate Democratic caucus. “It’s important for us to be as open as we can in this process.”

Atwater held a meeting with Senate budget chief J.D. Alexander, Sen. Mike Haridopolos and Senate Democratic Leader Al Lawson this weekend inside the Capitol.

Meetings between three or more senators are required to be noticed and open to the public. The Capitol was locked over the weekend.

Atwater said the meeting was unplanned and the group happened to be in the Capitol at the same time and that he ran into Lawson after the Democrat grabbed some ice cream in the Senate member lounge.

Budget leaders have yet to order a public conference committee to begin hashing out their differences.

But throughout the week, House and Senate leaders have traded written budget offers dealing with “allocations,” or how much revenue they will have to spend. The back-and-forth proposals have included high-level proposals in which the House agreed to a cigarette tax, a measure which was never heard in committee.

The longer the behind-closed-doors negotiations drag on, the more questions are being raised about the lack of transparency in crafting the state’s $65 billion budget.

A grand jury last week condemned the budgetary process, saying it was not open enough and gave powerful lawmakers the ability to sneak items into the budget with little or no oversight. That grand jury indicted former House Speaker Ray Sansom for putting money for an airport hangar into the budget during a private meeting with his Senate counterpart when he was the House budget chairman.

“Part of the concerns that have been raised is that people think we’re running a parallel side-by-side track, that I might just be having conversations on allocations when someone else is actually getting into specific line items and trading bills.
That’s not going on. The longer that thins has gone on the greater that perception may be created that people think that’s actually taking place and it’s not,” Atwater said.

“If it would be helpful that the allocation process could be more open I don’t think that’s a bad thing,” he said.

He said that his conversations with House Speaker Larry Cretul about the cigarette tax were not “in any way some kind of mysterious kind of conversation.”

“I think everyone in Florida knows we’ve been discussing the tobacco surcharge,” Atwater said.

A seemingly innocuous bill that would make it easier for foster kids to look at their own records is stuck in limbo.

The Senate version of the measure (SB 126) passed three committees without a single ‘no’ vote and was asked to be withdrawn from its final committee last week. Senate health care budget chief Durell Peaden signed off on the request but that’s as far as it’s gone.

Now it’s up to Senate Ways and Means Chairman J.D. Alexander to send the bill to the floor for a full vote.

Alexander, R-Lake Wales, said he was unaware of the bill when asked about it today but would look into it.

The bill’s sponsor, Sen. Paula Dockery, tried but failed to get a similar measure passed last year despite a blessing from the Department of Children and Families.

Gov. Charlie Crist’s open government commission included the measure in its recommendations, and it should cost the state little or nothing to open the records to the kids who’ve aged out of state care.

House Rules Chairman Bill Galvano said he likes the policy in the measure but won’t fast-track the House version until the Senate bill moves.

A $400 million cut to state colleges and universities and an $120 million difference in state workers pay cuts are holding up agreement on budget talks.

Senate budget chief J.D. Alexander said he and House leaders are narrowing in on their budget disagreements but the higher ed cuts appear to be a sticking point.

The Senate had spent the same amount for community colleges and universities this year as it did last although enrollment at community colleges has spiked and is expected to continue to climb.

But the House wants to slash about $400 million from higher ed.

Earlier in the day, Alexander told Senate Democrats that he doesn’t like the House’s higher ed proposal.

“I think that would be devastating to those institutions in these days,” Alexander, R-Lake Wales, said.

House leaders also want to cut state workers’ salaries by $140 million, between 4 and 5 percent depending on how much employees earn.

The Senate is willing to cut state workers who make at least $100,000 but wants to keep the lower-paid workers’ salaries off-limits.

Presidents from 10 of Florida’s 11 universities stormed the state Capitol today to urge lawmakers to keep the college’s budget whole. The issue over how much to spend on higher education is holding up the closed-door budget negotiations between the two chambers.

Lawmakers will probably hand them the power to raise tuition up to 15 percent next year, but the presidents said that was not enough. Further cuts, the presidents said, would force colleges to shut down programs, lay off teachers and furlough staff.

Cut would also kill the state’s efforts to pull through the economic recession.

Here’s a sample of their comments today (click on the links to hear their full statements).

UF President Bernie Machen

“If we are crippled to the extent that we’re unable to be responsive, everybody suffers. It’s a clarion call from the presidents to try and make sure the entire state understands the seriousness of the situation.”

FIU President Modesto A. Maidique

“This is not just another budget reduction, another cycle that we emerge from in a year or two and things will be fine … This is armageddon.”

“It takes generations to build universities, but they can be destroyed in a very short period of time – a period of two or three years.”

UCF President John C. Hitt

“This indeed a grave situation. The fact that 10 of us are here today speaks to that.”

FAMU President James H. Ammons

“Jeopardizing our future by failing to continue to invest in higher education in this budget is not the path to a bright future … This would drastically change the way Florida A&M operates.”

UNF President John Delaney

“We’re not trying to attack or be critical, but we’re very, very concerned about where the numbers are at this point in time.”

A weary J.D. Alexander, the Senate budget chief, spoke to Senate Dems this morning about the stymied budget situation as negotiations with the House appear to have stalled.

Alexander, R-Lake Wales, said he’s been working 18 hours a day for weeks to try to bring the budget in for a landing but is running into resistance from House leaders who insist on cutting higher ed by more than $400 million.

“Whether we like it or not, we are married to them and there isn’t any divorce and there isn’t any separation,” Alexander said.

Senate President Jeff Atwater skipped a scheduled budget update at Democratic caucus meeting this morning.

Why? According to Atwater’s aide, he didn’t have much to report.

“His schedule just got a little backed-up, plus, he was going to give a budget update and at this time we don’t have much of an update,” Atwater’s press secretary Jaryn Emhof wrote in an e-mail.

Atwater, R-North Palm Beach, is slated to address the Dems tomorrow morning instead.

Maybe the stalemate between House and Senate budget negotiators will have thawed by then.

Senate budget chief J.D. Alexander did attend as promised.

“It’s been challenging,” he said of trying to reach a deal on what revenues the $65 billion will rely on and where to spend them.

Alexander didn’t reveal whether the session would end on time next Friday as scheduled.

“We’re not walking away. We’re going to stay and talk until we can work this thing out,” Alexander, R-Lake Wales, said.

The Seminole Indian Tribe of Florida would loan the state up to $1.1 billion over the next two years in return for offering more casino games, including the exclusive right to blackjack.

But the deal would leave the state with no gambling money in year three of the 25-year deal. In year four, the state would receive “very little money,” according to Gov. Charlie Crist’s budget director.

The deal, which needs legislative approval, would let pari-mutuels in Broward and Miami-Dade counties – but not Palm Beach – install ATMS on casino floors, remain open 24 hours a day and increase poker limits.

“Do it for the children,” Crist urged lawmakers. “We have a duty here as elected official to do everything we can for their future.”

Read the proposal here.

(more…)

State CFO Alex Sink just sent this comment following our report earlier today that Gov. Charlie Crist dismissed a warning from Moody’s that the state’s credit rating could suffer if reserves are not replenished:

“I believe the Moody’s analysis is accurate, and I share their concerns about depleting the budget stabilization fund and sweeping trust funds to cover recurring expenses, among other issues. I have consistently criticized decisions by the Legislature that look for quick fixes to a longer term economic problem, and recognize that this downgrade could result in increased borrowing costs and limit our access to the credit markets.”

Senate budget chief J.D. Alexander agreed to more than double a hike to motor vehicle fees and raid more than $400 million from trust funds to bring the House and Senate budgets closer in alignment.

Alexander said he made the offer to House leaders this afternoon, shortly after the Senate floor session ended.

No formal budget conferences have yet taken place and negotiations between the House and Senate were said to have stalled Sunday evening.

But Alexander, R-Lake Wales, must be meeting privately with House budget leaders.

The latest document Alexander left with the House budget team includes a column headed “Senate Offer #4.”

House Speaker Larry Cretul said yesterday that he would agree to the buck-a-pack cigarette tax hike in exchange for the Senate conceding on further spending cuts and putting more money aside.

Alexander’s latest offer also includes $165 million to pay for new prison construction. The Senate budget had no money for that.

Meanwhile, Gov. Charlie Crist and the Seminoles are negotiating a new gambling deal in which the tribe will agree to pay more than $1 billion over two years to be able to continue to run Las Vegas-style slot machines and tabled card games, including blackjack and baccarat, at its casinos.

That’s more than triple the amount the tribe had originally agreed to give the state for public schools under a deal struck with Crist but later thrown out by the Florida Supreme Court.

Alexander’s offer also includes a seemingly watered-down version of a must-have bill for Democrats that would have closed a doc stamp tax loophole. The original Senate plan would have brought in $87 million. The revised offer would only reap $18.7 million.