Blackjack and slots are off the table for Palm Beach County but a second dog track is now in the cards.

The PBC provisions are included in a House counteroffer on gambling offered this afternoon that would also allow Broward’s dog track and two horse tracks to offer blackjack. The proposal would limit blackjack at the Seminole Tribe’s casinos to the Hollywood Hard Rock.

But the tribe could not run the card game anywhere else and the state’s other pari-mutuels wouldn’t be able to offer it either under the House’s counteroffer on gambling.

Allowing blackjack anywhere was a big move for the House, the chamber’s chief gambling negotiator said.

“This is not the time in the game to just be taking nibbles so we made a decision to make a move pretty much to the brink of where we can,” said Rep. Bill Galvano, R-Bradenton. “But if we are to get some resolution that that provision would have to come into play.”

The House rejected the Senate’s opening bid that would allow the Palm Beach Kennel Club to have slot machines if voters approved it.
(more…)

The Florida House just approved a bill that would cap annual property insurance increases at 10 percent for Citizens policy holders. But the 80-35 vote didn’t come easy.

Rep. Alan Hays, R-Umatilla, tried to blow up the bill (HB 1495) with a series of amendments he said would force the state to be more honest about the risks associated with the state-run insurer.

“I don’t know why I waste my breath, but I’m not going to be hushed,” Hays said, saying his fellow Republicans should be “embarrassed” by the bill.

At one point during debate, Hays called “bull-crap” three times on House Majority Leader Adam Hasner, R-Boca Raton. Hays’ microphone was not on and Rep. Carlos Lopez-Cantera, R-Miami, pulled Hasner away from the confrontation.

After the vote, Hays then confronted Reps. Dean Cannon and Will Weatherford, who are expected to eventually succeed Larry Cretul as the top Republican in the House. Hays pointed at the pair several times, while staffers stood in front of the group, trying to block the view from the press gallery.

Eventually, the conversation moved to the side of the chamber, where Hays received a talking-to from Cretul and House Sergeant Ernie Sumner.

Today is supposed to be the state legislature’s “Sine Die,” a Latin term signaling the final adjournment in session.

But while lawmakers failed to reach a budget agreement in time for today, they will have to wrap up all non-budget issues. (Lawmakers will return to the Capitol for a final budget vote on Thursday.)

 Loading ...

A bill to streamline the Florida KidCare program is on the way to Gov. Charlie Crist after it won unanimous approval from the House this morning.

The bill (SB 918) comes with an estimated $15 million cost, but supporters argued the state needed to find the money. The measure has struggled through fits-and-starts for several years.

Crist has said he would sign the bill into law.

Sponsored by Sen. Nan Rich, D-Sunrise, the bill would cut the amount of time that uninsured families must wait before joining the health care program. It also would shorten the time that families must wait before reapplying.

Florida KidCare is an umbrella program that includes the Healthy Kids program, which provides subsidized health insurance to families to those who make up to 200 percent of the federal poverty line, or $44,000 for a family of four. There are nearly 176,000 children enrolled in the Healthy Kids program, which also gets matching federal money.

The Senate unanimously signed off on a bill that was supposed to include a bail-out for South Florida’s TriRail commuter system.

But a controversial component that would have spent more than $500 million to create the controversial SunRail commuter rail system near Orlando ultimately threw TriRail under the bus.

A $2 rental car surcharge that would have gone to pay for TriRail was the carrot to lure opponents of the SunRail deal – where the state would pay transportation behemoth CSX more than $500 million to purchase track and make improvements on its rail lines – to support the measure (HB 1021).

But Sunrail backers did not have enough support and quietly withdrew amendments on a Department of Transportation package with no discussion this morning. Bye-bye, TriRail.

Watch for it to come up on other transportation bills. Backers have until the end of the day to push both or either rail deal through.

The package does include a provision allowing state transportation officials to pay losing bidders on high-dollar contracts, which they have been doing for years without the authority.

DOT says they need to pay the losers so they can use components of their plans in other projects.

Although they’ve spent millions of dollars paying losing bidders on “design/build” contracts, transportation officials have no record of how many of the “stipends” they’ve paid for have been actually used or for which projects.

“So as I understand the stipend is we pay the losing bidders?” Sen. Ronda Storms, R-Valrico asked the bill’s sponsor, Sen. Andy Gardiner.

“I think that’s subject to interpretation,” Gardiner, R-Orlando, replied.

The Senate made a slight change to the bill and it goes back to the House.

A promise made to tens of thousands of Florida students more than a decade ago was shattered Thursday as lawmakers ruled that Bright Futures Scholarships would not pay for an increase in base college tuition next year.

The move was practically unthinkable in years before the current economic calamity when Sen. Ken Pruitt protected the program so fiercely. University leaders desperate to change the money-hungry plan dared not push it when the Port St. Lucie Republican ruled as Senate president.

Yet in the waning days of a dizzying legislative session for higher education, lawmakers agreed not to extend the scholarships to cover hikes in base tuition next year because of state budget shortfalls.

More here.

House and Senate negotiators are getting nowhere settling a gambling deal with the Seminole Tribe of Florida and making changes for dog and horse tracks.

They met only once since given the task Wednesday of bringing the chambers closer together on schismatic proposals that on the Senate side opened gambling wide open and on the House side clamped down.

The House never responded to the Senate’s opening bid Wednesday night and it appears doubtful the committee will get much further, if at all, today.

They’ll bump the issue to Senate budget chief J.D. Alexander and one of the House chiefs, Alexander said.

Alexander said he’s one of the “few folks that’s not beholden to any of the interests” angling for help on gambling. Some Miami-Dade County lawmakers are looking for a way to reopen Hialeah Race Park. They and some Broward County lawmakers want something to help their pari-mutuels compete with the Seminoles, as do some Tampa Bay officials. The Palm Beach Kennel Club hopes to add something to its gambling arsenal. Central Florida pols want to keep the state’s multi-billion thoroughbred industry alive.

On top of that, lawmakers are trying to come up with something the Seminoles will agree to that will also be lucrative for the state. The Senate is counting on using money from a gambling deal with the tribe to put into savings.

Earlier in the week, Senate President Jeff Atwater said the task would be a “very, very heavy lift.”

It doesn’t appear lighter thus far.

“Hope springs eternal but all I can do is my best,” said Alexander, R-Lake Wales.

Florida has sent eight suspected cases of swine flu to the Centers for Disease Control for testing, include at least one from Palm Beach County, Gov. Charlie Crist said this morning.

Florida still has no confirmed cases of the virus, Crist said. And all eight suspected cases are “mild.”

“They are mild cases, as they are in most of the cases in the United State,” Crist said.

The state is hoping to receive the test results today or tomorrow. The other suspected cases are from Broward, Alachua, Lee, Orange and Pinellas.

To deal with a potential outbreak, the state has sent protective gear, including masks, to hospitals and clinics, and has stockpiled about 500,000 doses of anti-virals.

Viamonte-Ros urged Floridians to use “common sense,” such as coughing or sneezing into arms instead of hands, washing hands and staying home from work or school if they feel sick.

“Right now, with the diseases we’ve seen in our community, we feel confident we’re able to provide all the providers and hospitals with the medications they need,” she said.

Circulating around the Capitol this morning on what was supposed to be the last day of the 2009 legislative session is bit of comic relief for those stuck here for another week.

The “Top Ten Shovel Ready Signs it’s time to Sine Die” probably won’t get a chuckle from those outside the Capitol complex but here they are anyway.

10. SunRail compromise: train now runs one way on Alligator Alley
9. Revised Gaming Compact: Seminoles get the Knott Building
8. New Director of OPPAGA: Brian Pitts
7. Bright Futures now consists of vaccine shot and a pack of Marlboros
6. Chris Smith says it looks like rain.
5. Tobacco tax revenue earmarked for the Sorenson/Detert outdoor lounge
4. Florida’s unemployment phone # now 1-800-ask-gary
3. Technical amendment deregulates phone service and traditional marriage
2. Drafting error: Trinity plate now has picture of Obama
1. Carole’s pregnant