UPDATE:Folks connected to the ad say its running in the West Palm Beach and Tallahassee markets.
The ad is from No Tallahassee Takeover Inc., a group registered to teachers union attorney Ron Meyer. It’s in response to a merit-pay plan approved by Jeff Atwater‘s chamber last week — the same plan that forced House Speaker Larry Cretul’s office to add extra phone lines to handle all the calls coming in from irate teachers.
Oil and gas rigs could drill 105 miles closer to Florida beaches under a plan President Obama said today would strengthen national security and boost the depressed economy.
“In order to sustain economic growth, produce jobs and keep our businesses competitive, we’re going to need to harness traditional sources of fuel even as we ramp up production of new sources of renewable, homegrown energy,” Obama said at Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland.
The news stunned environmentalists in Florida and emboldened some Republican lawmakers, who pushed a measure last year to let the governor and state Cabinet approve oil and gas leases as close as three miles from Florida’s beaches.
The federal judge overseeing Everglades cleanup issued a ruling Wednesday that could be the death knell for Gov. Charlie Crist’s controversial Everglades restoration land deal with U.S. Sugar Corp.
Chief U.S. District Judge Federico Moreno ordered that construction of a $800 million, city-size reservoir in the canefields south of Lake Okeechobee must now go forward, despite South Florida water managers’ decision to cancel the project to free up money for the Crist land deal.
Republican U.S. Senate hopeful Marco Rubio has spent much of his campaign criticizing President Obama’s agenda and tying his GOP primary rival, Gov. Charlie Crist, to the president. But our Andrew Abramson reports that Rubio today applauded Obama’s proposal to allow expanded offshore drilling.
“We don’t want to do anything that impacts the environment, and the military trains in the Gulf region so we don’t want to endanger that,” Rubio said. “But it has to be on the table, and the president’s announcement hopefully means it’s now on the table and we can do it in a cost-efficient way.”
We’re still waiting to talk with Senate President Jeff Atwater, whose opposition to offshore drilling has his fellow Republicans lawmakers making plans for 2011. But in the House, incoming Speaker Dean Cannon, R-Winter Park, says he hopes President Obama’s announcement today will jar something loose in the other chamber.
Cannon introduced a measure last year that would have allowed drilling up to three miles of the coast. His bill this year could be introduced as soon as next week. “And then we’ll see how our partners in the Senate are doing and make a decision from there,” Cannon said.
Democratic state CFO Alex Sink, who hopes to be governor next year, said 125 miles would be fine, but… “I have long been opposed to the near-beach drilling proposal currently in the Florida legislature that puts our tourism economy at risk,” she said in a statement.
The Senate unanimously passed a $69 billion budget this afternoon setting in motion negotiations with the House that is expected to sign off on its plan tomorrow.
The Senate’s plan uses about $3 billion in federal stimulus funds to plug most of a $3.2 billion budget deficit and spends about $1 billion more than the House does.
The plan also relies on more than $880 million in federal funds for Medicaid not yet approved by Congress and more than $400 million from the Seminole tribe in a gambling deal still in the works.
“It’s no doubt one of the most challenging assignments I’ve ever run into. I hazard to guess you all feel the same way,” said Senate budget chief J.D. Alexander, R-Lake Wales.
Alexander backed off a plan that could have shut down up to five state prisons and opened the private Blackwater prison built and to be operated by Boca Raton-based Geo Group. The revised plan would allow the Panhandle private prison to open without shutting down state prisons.
But the compromise orders corrections officials to pare back their costs by 5 percent in some areas or outsource some functions.
Also still on the table: a $23 million cut to the county clerks of court. Palm Beach County clerk Sharon Bock said that would amount to a $2.7 million cut to her office and force her to fire 100 employees on top of the 101 she laid off last year.
Alexander said that the clerk issue would be dealt with later in negotiations with the House but did not promise all of the money would be put back in.
The Senate approved a sweeping overhaul of Medicaid that would require some Medicaid recipients to pay deductibles and co-payments and give vouchers to others for medical care.
Sen. Joe Negron, R-Stuart, introduced what he called the “transformative” change as an amendment to the budget (SB 2700), which drew criticism from Democrats who objected the major changes should have been debated in committees.
The proposal would give state health care officials the authority to develop a new waiver program for Florida’s $18 billion Medicaid program. Federal officials would have to approve the waiver.
Negron said the time is urgent because the federal health care reforms signed into law by President Barack Obama could significantly increase the state’s spending on Medicaid, the health care program for the poor.
“The reason we can’t put money into education into other areas of the budget is because…they just come hand us an invoice, you owe us $1.8 billion more this year.
I don’t know why it should be entitled to preferential treatment over all the other needs of the state,” Negron said. “The time right now is urgent.”
The proposal is “a wholesale change of one of the largest and most important programs in this state,” objected Democrat Nan Rich, vice chairwoman of the Senate Health and Human Services Appropriations Committee.
“This is a huge policy and appropriations issue. It does not belong passed or defeated on this floor today. It needs to go to substantive committees,” said Rich, D-Weston.
The Rev. Don Roberts, the president of Goodwill Industries Manasota in Sarasota, kicked off the Senate’s budget debate this morning with a somewhat tongue-in-cheek prayer that included the observation that “our economy sucks.”
The funny preacher has cracked up Senators with the prayer dating back to former Senate President John McKay’s tenure at the podium beginning in 2000.
“In this session, some of our bills have suffered the death of avenging angels, some of our bills remain hung upon a cross, some of our bills will never leave the darkness of their committee’s burial cave and some of our bills will experience the miracle of a resurrection. For such is the process we call politics, Lord,” Roberts said.
He also took a swipe at Gov. Charlie Crist, who has tried to assume a more conservative posture in his U.S. Senate race against former House Speaker Marco Rubio: “Gov. Crist marches to the right in an attempt to be right; experiencing your divine wisdom that you cannot be right and in relationship at the same time.”
And Roberts criticized the tax system that “remains mired in 19th century purgatory with no clear consensus on how to get out of this mess.”
Overall, the reverend noted, “Our economy sucks, if you will excuse the expression Lord, and like all the families in Florida we are trying to figure out how to pay the bills. Other than that Lord, this session is turning out to be just more fun than any legislator can stand.”
After intense opposition to a prison privatization plan linked to disgraced former House Speaker Ray Sansom and slipped into the budget late last week, Senate budget chief J.D. Alexander has apparently backed off his proposal to shut down up to three prisons and outsource another.
Alexander’s plan drew allegations of foul play from the Police Benevolent Association, the powerful union that represents prison guards and frequently backs GOP candidates, and Gov. Charlie Crist’s Secretary of Corrections Walt McNeil.
The privatization plan would have shut down enough prisons to fill the Blackwater facility in the Panhandle that the state hired Boca Raton-based Geo Group Inc. to build and operate. But the prison population hasn’t grown as anticipated and there aren’t enough inmates to fill the 2,224-bed Blackwater without shutting down other state-run prisons and putting guards out of work.
Under the new plan, expected to be introduced as a budget amendment today by Democratic Leader Al Lawson, the department would gradually fill Blackwater by closing 17 dorms in other prisons, something McNeil favors.
Critics of the proposal also filed complaints with State Attorney Willie Meggs and U.S. Attorney Thomas Kirwin, both in Leon County, alleging that the Blackwater deal was done in secrecy and questioning Sansom’s association with it. Sansom put the original $110 million to the build the prison into the 2008 budget in a floor amendment and tried to guarantee that it would be built as an annex to the Graceville prison that Geo operates.
“I proudly endorse Marco Rubio for the U.S. Senate and look forward to working with him in Washington. His genuine principles and proven record are evidence that he will come to Washington and be a consistent advocate for fiscal responsibility, individual liberty and the traditional values that have made America great.” –Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla.
Here’s the breakdown so far for endorsements from the 41 Republicans in the U.S. Senate:
Sen. John Thrasher, R-St. Augustine, center, with fellow Republican Sens. Don Gaetz, left, and Sen. Mike Haridopolos on the Senate floor on Thursday. AP
The bill requires progress — what students learn during the year should be considered. Teachers can’t control what their students know when they show up on the first day of school, but they do influence what they learn.
Finally, opponents say the bill cuts teacher pay. Rather than cutting pay, the bill sets aside more than $900 million a year that must be used to raise salaries for teachers in high-poverty schools and teachers of subjects that are in high demand, such as math and science, and teachers whose students are making progress.
Gov. Charlie Crist says he’s scheduling a trip to The Villages (pictured right) as soon as possible after FOX News Sunday host Chris Wallace indicated that Marco Rubio may have a problem brewing with some tea party folks there. “At The Villages, they’re not happy with you, sir,” Wallace told Rubio.
“It was a bit surprising to me,” Crist said about that moment in their debate. “Maybe the speaker has miscalculated again as it relates to the electorate.”
Sounds like the problem is Rubio hasn’t responded to some questionnaires, according to the Talking Points Memo.
But Rubio received the message. From the minutes of the Tri-County Tea Party (Villages) meeting on Monday:
[President Pam Dahl] asked for a show of hands from all who had written letters and emails to Fox, and many hands went up in the air. Pam said those letters and emails really were heard and she received a call from Fox News to find out what was going on, and Joe Angione had received a call, too. When Marco Rubio’s campaign manager heard about TCTP sends out messages to over 1,000 people and those communications go out to over 35,000 people, they said they would like to arrange to Marco Rubio to come to one of our meetings to address TCTP in person.
Rubio is already scheduled for a visit to The Villages, when he and U.S. House candidate Allen West are “special guests” April 13 on Sean Hannity’s book tour. (And speaking of tea parties, Rubio is headlining the April 15 Tax Day Tea Party at the 10,000-seat Sun Dome at University of South Florida.)
So many angry teachers called House Speaker Larry Cretul’s office late last week his staff had to add four additional telephone lines and four workers to field the complaints, Cretul spokeswoman Jill Chamberlin said.
Most of the calls objected to the proposal, Chamberlin said.
“It’s hard to generalize, but many people did not seem to know what the bill does (they thought it would reduce current teacher pay—it won’t) (they thought it would affect current teacher retirement and benefits—it won’t, etc.) and many thought we were taking a poll (which we were not.) It is certainly possible that some people didn’t get through or got voice mail—considering the volume,” Chamberlin said in an e-mail.
In a tongue-in-cheek hint of what will likely take place during a budget debate on the floor tomorrow, House Democratic Leader-to-be Ron Saunders filed an amendment on a transportation bill that sweeps nearly $150 million from road projects to fill a $3.2 billion spending gap.
The veteran Key West lawmaker’s amendment renames the transportation bill the “Job Killer Act of 2010.”
Look for Democrats to try to amend the budget mainly in the House but without much success.
As evidence, House Majority Leader Adam Hasner offered his own amendment to counter Saunders’.
Hasner, R-Delray Beach, wants to name the bill (HB 5503) the “Protecting Healthcare and Education Funding Act of 2010.”
The Senate is expected to debate and amend its budget and pass it out so they can cancel session on Thursday and get in a longer Easter weekend.
The money gun owners pay to the state to process their concealed weapons permit applications won’t be used for anything else no matter how bad Florida’s budget crisis gets, thanks to GOP lawmakers and Gov. Charlie Crist who signed the bill (SB 1158) into law today as promised.
The concealed weapons trust fund is now the fifth of the state’s 400-plus similar funds that are off limits to legislators who grabbed $500 million from them last year to fill a $2.3 billion budget gap. Like the concealed weapons trust fund, money for the trust funds comes from fees related to their specific purpose.
Of all the trust fund raids that the legislature attempted last year, the $6 million raid on the gun permit fund was the only one Crist singled out for a veto.
Stopping the gun permit fund raid was one of NRA lobbyist Marion Hammer‘s election-year priorities this session. The Senate passed out the measure on the second of session.
Some Democrats complained that the money from the trust fund should be available like others to help cover critical health and human service needs for Floridians.
“Access to justice has already been severely compromised in Palm Beach County,” Bock wrote. “Further cuts will cause court cases to languish without any foreseeable resolution.”
Senate budget chief J.D. Alexander cut the clerks’ budget $23 million statewide – a $2.7 million cut in Palm Beach County – in a last minute amendment filed less than an hour before his budget meeting began on Thursday.
The Senate is expected to vote on the budget tomorrow. Palm Beach County Democratic Sens. Dave Aronberg and Ted Deutch filed an amendment to restore the clerks’ $23 million Alexander cut using a complicated formula that bases their budgets on per-case costs.
Bock said she would stop offering walk-in service at courthouses in Belle Glade, Palm Beach Gardens and Delray Beach, forcing the downtown courthouse to handle another 324,000 customers if the cuts go through.
Bock axed 101 workers last year after taking a $7.1 million budget hit and said she will have to lay off another 100 under the current plan, a 23 percent reduction in staff.
Palm Beach County Sheriff Ric Bradshaw, a registered Democrat whose office is nonpartisan, is endorsing Republican Sharon Merchant’s bid for a state Senate seat that’s expected to be a partisan battleground in November.
Bradshaw said his endorsement of Merchant is for both the GOP primary and for the general election if Merchant advances.
Former state Rep. Merchant faces a tough GOP primary against former Wellington Councilwoman Lizbeth Benacquisto for the seat of state Sen. Dave Aronberg, D-Greenacres. Aronberg is leaving the seat to run (also with Bradshaw’s endorsement) for attorney general.
Gov. Charlie Crist and then-House Speaker Marco Rubio embrace in this 2007 photo from the state archives. The two celebrated the ‘Largest Tax Cut in Florida’s History,’ after a special session devoted to property taxes.
UPDATE:Rubio spokesman Alex Burgos just e-mailed: “After Sunday’s strong performance, Marco looks forward to debating Charlie Crist again, whether it’s in the GOP primary, or in the general election with Crist running as an independent.”
We have yet to hear back after several inquiries to Marco Rubio‘s campaign about whether Rubio wants to wait until May for a second debate with Charlie Crist. (AP‘s Brendan Farrington tweeted Sunday that Rubio wants to wait until after both candidates officially qualify for the race, which can happen anytime between noon on April 12 and noon on April 30.)
Such a tactic enables Rubio to fan speculation that Crist will either abandon the race or switch his party affiliation. But it’s also a departure from his position in June when Rubio called for about a debate per month before the primary. “One debate is not enough,” Rubio wrote at the time.
Crist, who has repeatedly denied any plans to switch parties, accused Rubio of trying to “run and hide.” Of course, Crist didn’t show much interest in lining up debates before the roles reversed in the race and he was cast as the underdog.
“This is a guy who says he’s willing to stand up to Barack Obama, but he won’t sit down with David Gregory on Meet the Press?” Crist said in an interview, referencing an invite Rubio declined for the NBC show. “The hypocrisy and inconsistency from Marco Rubio is appalling.”
Palin doesn’t mention West’s opponent, U.S. Rep. Ron Klein, D-Boca Raton, by name, but calls the two-term incumbent “a leftwing ideologue who’s marched to the beat of Nancy Pelosi on every issue from cap-and-tax to the stimulus, TARP, and, of course, Obamacare.”
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