House and Senate Democratic leaders want the state auditor general to investigate Attorney General Bill McCollum after he filed a lawsuit challenging the federal health care reforms approved by Congress and signed into law by President Barack Obama.
Democrats accuse McCollum, a Republican who is running for governor, of using his office as the state’s chief legal eagle to promote his candidacy for governor.
“When a state official can deploy not only the vast resources of his office, but hire outside counsel at taxpayer expense to try and block millions of Floridians from finally getting access to health care, it’s time to stop and demand some accountability,” Senate Democratic Leader Al Lawson, D-Tallahassee, said at a press conference this afternoon. “When the same state official, who happens to be a Republican, leads the charge on a national Republican mission to use health care reform as a rally cry in the upcoming elections, it’s time this legislature stops and asks how much in taxpayer money is being diverted from critical issues to advance a political agenda.”
The Dems complained that McCollum should be protecting consumers by going after pill mills and mortgage foreclosures and instead is using state funds to appeal to conservative Republican voters with the lawsuit.
“This is…for the rank political ambitions of the candidate,” Sen. Dan Gelber, D-Miami Beach, said. Gelber is running for attorney general in a Democratic primary against Sen. Dave Aronberg of Greenacres.
State Sen. Don Gaetz, R-Niceville, questioned a Palm Beach Post story from the Senate floor this morning, saying his proposal would not let state tax credits be sold out of state. The story does not say tax credits would be sold outside Florida and it’s not clear what out-of-state companies could even take advantage of a Florida tax credit.
Don Gaetz
But brokerage companies that could buy and sell film tax credits created by the bill are from out-of-state.
Gaetz, however, said on the floor that these investment companies, such as New Jersey-based Tax Credits, LLC (whose president said he helped craft the current bill), could not buy state tax credits and sell them to other companies. In at least 14 other states the let the film industry sell its tax credits, brokers generally buy a tax credit for about 85 percent of the value, mark it up a few points, and sell it to another company, like a WalMart or Bank of America, that can pocket the remaining savings. Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland, a Democrat, criticized this process as inefficient and vetoed a bill last year. Rhode Island’s Republican governor is urging legislators there to repeal their with “transferable” tax credits program.
“There’s nothing in law that would allow it,” Gaetz said in an interview after the Senate session this morning.
“And if somebody established a brokerage business of the kind that has been criticized, and I think properly so in other states, I’d be the first one to do what I could to eliminate it,” he said. “We’re not trying to create business for brokers. We’re trying to create competitiveness for our film and digital media industry.”
But House Republican Reps. Kevin Ambler of Tampa and Stephen Precourt of Orlando, the architects of the film tax incentive package, both said in interviews that sparking business for the brokerage companies is an added benefit of their bill.
Their $55 million package (HB 697) is up for a vote this afternoon in the House Finance & Tax Council. Gaetz’s three-year, $193-million “jobs bill” (SB 1752) which includes $20 in film tax credits, passed the Senate, 38-0, this morning.
Sen. Dan Gelber, a Democrat running for attorney general, sparked a mini-debate on the national health care package after he accused Attorney General Bill McCollum of political gamesmanship by filing a federal lawsuit over the reforms.
Gelber filed an amendment on an attorney general-related bill that would bar the AG from hiring private lawyers to challenge the constitutionality of the federal health reform act.
In what sounded a lot like a campaign speech of his own, Gelber accused McCollum, a Republican running for governor, of using his office to launch a headline-grabbing “ideological escapade” and “political frolic” to boost his popularity.
“This is nothing other than a political fraud,” Gelber, D-Miami Beach, said. “Yes, the the attorney general may have been the first one (to file the lawsuit). But he had a press conference every single day on this. It was nothing but a political issue…
The question we should ask ourselves is why is the attorney general…on this political frolic whose only purpose is to simply get headlines? It is wrong.”
McCollum is simply trying to “defend us from a mandate that has never before in the history of our country been done wherein we have to purchase insurance and if we don’t we have some kind of statutory violation,” said Sen. John Thrasher, R-St. Augustine, the bill (SB 712) sponsor.
Thrasher said that if the attorney general stops defending the rights of Floridians, “then we ought to get a new one.”
“I share your view that we ought to get rid of the current attorney general if that’s what you just said,” Gelber quipped.
Gelber’s amendment failed, but the state senator-attorney general candidate debate didn’t stop there. (more…)
The Florida Senate passed a proposed change to the constitution that would keep the class size limits at the school level instead of the classroom level as the constitution now requires.
In 2002, voters changed the constitution to cap class sizes at 18 for kindergarten through third grade, 22 for grades 4 -8 and 25 in high school.
The joint resolution would hold those caps at the school level and put new caps on the number of kids in classes by adding three students to PK-3 and five for students in grades 4-12.
Sen. Alex Villalobos, the lone Republican who opposed the measure, delivered an eloquent speech to a rapt chamber before the 26-12 vote was taken. He said the voters put the restrictions in the constitution because they wanted them.
“We didn’t get elected to come up here to have a nice chair or go to parties or have a bunch of lobbyists tell us how good we look or how smart we are or how witty we are,” Villalobos, R-Miami, said. “I believe the public is really sick and tired of politicians. We come up here and we pontificate all the time and it’s almost like we know better than anyone else. We don’t.”
Most of the tax credits that Florida Republicans would use to attract film companies to the state would be cashed in by well-established corporations such as Wal-Mart, Sherwin-Williams or Bank of America.
“At least 50 percent of those credits,” said Rep. Kevin Ambler, R-Tampa. “And quite honestly, based on my knowledge of the film industry, it’s probably going to be more like 80 to 90 percent.”
Ambler’s bill, which could be worth up to $75 million, would thrust Florida into what one investor described as the “exploding market” of sellable, or “transferable,” tax credits.
Legislative leaders would be allowed to raise campaign cash and give it out to candidates outside of the state political parties’ coffers under a measure on its way to Gov. Charlie Crist for signature.
The proposal would essentially renew a law barred two decades ago that permitted the House Speaker, Senate President and minority leaders in both chambers to have “leadership funds” used to dole out money to candidates.
The measure would also crack down on “electioneering communication organizations,” or ECOs, in the aftermath of a recent court decision that allow the political groups to run attack ads without revealing much of who’s behind them.
Sen. Ted Deutch, a Boca Raton Democrat who is running for Congress, and other Democrats objected to that portion of the election reform (HB 1207) because they don’t want “to let people see the six figure contributions that are coming in from special interests. We should ban them.”
The bill creates “affiliated party committees,” or APCs, much like the old leadership funds lawmakers outlawed 20 years ago because they gave lobbyists too much influence in the legislature.
Republicans argued that the change would shed light on a practice that’s already taking place in the shadows.
“Money’s being raised,” said Sen. Mike Haridopolos, R-Merritt Island, who is slated to take over as Senate President next year. “We want to make it so the funds aren’t in one big pool. We want to separate it out so people can be accountable…. this is sunshine. People deserve to know when they see the commercials on TV where the money came from. We are opening up the books.”
Sens. Paula Dockery, a Lakeland Republican running for governor, and Alex Villalobos, R-Miami, were the only Republicans to vote against the measure.
Senate Democratic Leader Al Lawson, D-Tallahassee, and Democratic Sens. Jeremy Ring of Margate and Gary Siplin of Orlando joined Republicans in the 25-11 vote.
The tussle between a gun shop-owning senator and the former president of the National Rifle Association is heating up over a controversial driver license handbook.
And the prospect looks bleaker every day for the vendor who prints the driver license handbook for free in return for the exclusive ability to advertise his “National Safety Commission” driver education courses.
First, Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles chief Julie Jones canceled Ken Underwood’s controversial contract with the state effective at the end of the year.
Then an effort by a seemingly unwitting Sen. Carey Baker that would have given Underwood a leg up on a new contract went nowhere after a senate committee balked at the proposal, saying it appeared to be aimed at rescuing the sole source vendor.
The Senate passed a measure that would have a far-reaching impact on teachers’ salaries and job security after a heated debate by Democratic opponents and an angry defense of the bill by Republicans.
Four Republicans – Sens. Charlie Dean of Inverness, Paula Dockery of Lakeland, Dennis Jones of Seminole and Alex Villalobos of Miami – joined Democrats on the losing side of the 21-17 vote.
Attorney General Bill McCollum’s lawsuit against Democrat-controlled Congress and President Barack Obama’s administration has sparked a political feud not only in the nation’s Capitol but in the state’s as well.
Senate Democratic Leader Al Lawson took offense at Senate President Jeff Atwater’s congratulatory press release lauding McCollum’s legal disparaging of the president’s health care reform.
The president’s office issued an unusually partisan release entitled “Florida Senate Leaders Support AG McCollum’s Legal Challenge to Unprecedented and Unconstitutional Government Health Care Scheme.”
The GOP leaders are “like little boys who are playing marbles and the ones who lost went home,” Lawson, D-Tallahassee said.
Sen. Carey Baker’s effort to rescue the vendor who has printed the state’s driver license handbook for five years went nowhere today and seems to be destined for the cutting room floor.
Baker had originally proposed a bill (SB 2342) that would keep Ken Underwood in the running for a contract with the Department of Motor Vehicles and Highway Safety which he now prints for free in exchange for advertising his National Safety Commission driver’s ed schools.
Baker, R-Eustis, rewrote the bill to appease opponents, including Underwood’s competitors, but he asked the Governmental Oversight and Accountability Committee to skip a vote on it today, as he did last week, because it was clear the revisions didn’t pass critics’ muster.
DHSMV chief Julie Jones, who canceled the contract after the end of the year, told the committee that “We need to overcome the perception of an endorsement of one company.”
NRA lobbyist and political heavyweight Marion Hammer’s targeting a bill that ostensibly has nothing to do with weapons except that the bill’s Senate sponsor Carey Baker owns a gun shop.
A controversy over the state’s drivers license handbook has the former president of the National Rifle Association loaded for bear.
Baker, R-Eustis, is backing a bill (SB 2342) that would force the state to extend a contentious agreement with Ken Underwood, the Ponte Vedra Beach owner of a driver ed school, in which he prints the drivers license handbook for the state’s Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles for free.
In return, Underwood gets to advertise his businesses in the handbook.
Gov. Charlie Crist released this statement through his Republican U.S. Senate campaign today:
“The Democrats refused to pass meaningful, bipartisan health care legislation with real solutions, and instead passed a bill that includes an extensive government overreach and intrusion into our citizens’ personal freedoms.
“That is why I fully support Attorney General Bill McCollum’s efforts to challenge the Constitutionality of a provision in the bill that mandates all Americans to purchase health insurance or face a fine.
“Any individual mandate of this kind from the federal government is unconstitutional, a direct attack on our essential personal liberties, and vastly increases the power of Washington bureaucrats that far exceeds the proper role of government.
“As I’ve stated before, once in the U.S. Senate, I will fight to repeal this government takeover of health care.”
Senate President-designate Mike Haridopolos, the Merritt Island Republican who is the GOP’s Senate campaign honcho for 2010, announced today he’s backing state Rep. Ellyn Bogdanoff, R-Fort Lauderdale, in the Republican primary for the Palm Beach-Broward seat of current Senate Prez Jeff Atwater.
Bogdanoff faces state Rep. Carl Domino, R-Jupiter, in the GOP primary to replace Atwater, who’s running for chief financial officer. The GOP winner will face Democratic state Rep. Kelly Skidmore of Boca Raton.
Also endorsing Bogdanoff: state Sen. Joe Negron, R-Stuart, whose district includes some of Domino’s northern Palm Beach County constituents, and Sens. Andy Gardiner, R-Orlando, and Don Gaetz, R-Niceville.
The Senate budget published tonight spends $68.6 billion which is:
*2.1 percent more than the House’s $67.2 billion proposal,
*3.1 percent more than the $66.5 billion budget and
*0.8 percent less than Gov. Charlie Crist’s recommendation.
Looking only at bottom-line numbers, here are some major differences between the chambers: (more…)
If you count Florida’s Bill McCollum (and we always do), three of the 12 Republican attorneys general who say they’re suing over the Democratic health care reform bill are also running for governor of their respective state next year (Michigan’s Mike Cox and South Carolina’s Henry McMaster are the others).
Of the remaining nine, five are seeking re-election in 2010 and four don’t have to run again for two more years.
McCollum, whose gubernatorial platform to lower health care costs is to limit lawsuits, said his lawsuit is not political. Perhaps he should remind his campaign, which has sent seven press releases about health care reform in the past seven days.
The changes that would allow counties to go beyond current state law in fines and jail time for county officials and staff who violate local ethics ordinances or financial disclosure requirements.
Under the measure, counties like Palm Beach could double the current fine from $500 to $1,000 and extend jail time from 60 days to one year for corrupt officials.
The House Public Safety and Domestic Security Policy Committee unanimously approved Rep. Kevin Rader’s bill (HB 1301) today.
Rader, D-Delray Beach, and fellow Palm Beacher Sen. Dave Aronberg, D-Greenacres, sponsored the proposals at the request of Palm Beach County officials.
A $1,000 fine may not seem like much of a price to pay for politicos who’ve been convicted of taken thousands of dollars in bribes, steering hundreds of thousands of dollars in contracts to their buddies or voting on multi-million dollar deals in which they have a financial stake.
But, Rader said, the fine “and a year in jail is a step in the right direction.”
Palm Beach County recently established an ethics panel in an effort to shed its “Corruption County” image. In the past four years, three former county commissioners and two West Palm Beach city commissioners were sent to prison on corruption charges.
The Republican-led Florida House Health Care Regulation Policy Committee approved an amendment for the November ballot that would prohibit Floridians from being forced to buy health insurance.
The bill (HJR 37) was approved on a strictly partisan vote, 10-3. It has three more committee stops.
On a similarly partisan 7-5 vote earlier today, the House Health & Family Services Policy Council approved nonbinding resolution (HR 1561) urging Republican Attorney General Bill McCollum to sue the federal government and challenge constitutionality of the individual mandate within the health care reform bill that passed the U.S. House last night.
How do you find $455 billion in Medicare savings without cutting benefits to seniors?
The health care legislation approved by the U.S. House of Representatives Sunday assumes Medicare spending will increase by $455 billion less than current projections over the next decade, but the bill’s supporters insist seniors won’t see a reduction in benefits.
The issue has especially big political consequences in senior-heavy South Florida.
The Medicare cuts are key to Democrats’ claims that the $940 billion health care bill will actually reduce the deficit by $138 billion over the next decade. But a look at the Congressional Budget Office estimates raises questions about whether Medicare savings of that magnitude can be achieved.
Where's the money? Use The Post's interactive database of who wants and who's getting federal dollars.
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