A month after firing his predecessor, Gov. Rick Scott on Monday named a Mississippi economic development executive to lead the public-private partnership, Enterprise Florida.

“Bringing new energy and expertise to Florida’s economic development activities is an ideal task for which Gray Swoope is well suited,” Scott said.  “I am excited to have him leading the job creation and economic development mission in Florida.”

Scott last month abruptly fired Enterprise Florida’s CEO, John Adams, shortly after concluding the agency’s annual meeting. Scott gave no reason publicly. But the new governor clearly has ideas about how the state’s job recruitment should be conducted — beginning with his proposal to establish an economic development agency controlled by his office.

How Swoope figures in those plans wasn’t clear from Scott’s announcement Monday. But Scott may have hinted he plans to maintain a commanding role in bringing industries to Florida when he concluded that Swoope “will be a tremendous complement to my efforts as governor.”

In Mississippi, Swoope worked for Gov. Haley Barbour, and is credited with having helped woo such manufacturers as Toyota and GE Aviation to the state. Swoope also was part of a redesign of Mississippi’s package of economic incentives and help cut the workforce and budget of the Mississippi Development Authority, sure to draw raves from his new Florida boss.

The state’s pension fund has consistently met its investment goals – fairly average compared to other states– but also is “financially sound,”  a report released Monday shows.

The state’s Office of Program Policy Analysis and Government Accountability (OPPAGA) gave the $114 billion Florida Retirement System generally satisfactory marks in its review of the fund, which covers almost 1 million government workers and retirees. 

 The pension fund is a big target for lawmakers this spring, with Gov. Rick Scott proposing that employees contribute 5 percent of their paychecks to help finance their retirement benefits — saving the state $1.3 billion.

 The money could help lawmakers patch a budget shortfall of at least $3.6 billion. But it also could help Scott make good on his campaign promise to reduce property taxes by $1.4 billion, something the GOP governor says he’ll do over the next two years.

As part of his push for changing the fund, Scott warns that the pension fund is on shaky financial footing.

 OPPAGA disputes that. Anaysts acknowledge  the FRS has a so-called funding ratio of 87.9 percent and currently does not have ”sufficient assets to pay current and future expected benefits for participants and their beneficiaries.”

But, OPPAGA points out, “experts generally consider public pension plans with funding ratios at or above 80 percent to be fiscally sound.”  

 

Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson told The Palm Beach Post in January that his 2012 reelection fortunes will likely be tied to the economy and President Obama.

“The economy is improving, albeit slowly in a place like Florida. And (President) Obama’s faves are likely to go up,” Nelson said at the time.

On Friday, Nelson is scheduled to appear with Obama in Miami at a fund-raiser for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.

With environmental spending under fire in Tallahassee and Washington, a survey Monday showed two-thirds of Floridians support Everglades restoration, with a majority also opposed to reducing dollars flowing to the effort.

The Everglades Foundation released the survey, saying it supports the organization’s push for state lawmakers to steer clear of Gov. Rick Scott’s proposal to reduce restoration funding from $50 million to $17 million. Scott also wants water managers, including the South Florida Water Management District, to reduce property taxes by 25 percent, which environmentalists say could further drain dollars needed for Everglades work.

“Our message to the governor is that he can partner with the conservation community to create jobs and protect our water supply at the same time,” said Kirk Fordham, the foundation’s chief executive officer. “If we want to grow that supply of fresh water, the only solution out there is Everglades restoration.”

President Obama’s budget blueprint increases spending on restoration. But the Republican-led U.S. House has proposed sharp cuts in environmental programs and funding for the Army Corps of Engineers, which is responsible for much of the Everglades work.

The Everglades survey was conducted by the Tarrance Group, which does polling for Senate President Mike Haridopolos, R-Merritt Island, other Republican senators, and GOP members of the Florida congressional delegation.

The survey showed that 84 percent of voters rank maintaining Florida’s fresh water drinking supply as “very important.”  Seventy-nine percent agreed that to attract new business and industries to the state, access to a stable water supply is necessary.

The survey of 607 voters was taken Feb. 13-14. It has a 4.1 percent margin-of-error.

Florida economists have released new data showing individual income rebounded slightly last year after enduring a rare, recession-driven drop of almost 2.5 percent in 2009.

Per-capita income hit $38,929 in 2010 — up .55 percent from a year earlier, when the $38,715 earned by the average Floridian represented the first income decline in at least 20 years.

 The state’s Economic and Demographic Research Office, in a new report also forecast that individual income levels will top $40,000 this year for the first time — a 3.8 percent rise that would be the sharpest spike in four years.

The bullish EDR economists also apparently sees nothing but blue skies in the decade ahead, with annual income gains ranging from 2.7 percent to 4.7 percent through 2020. 

Republican Gov. Rick Scott won election over Democrat Alex Sink last fall by running on a campaign theme of creating jobs. And as the state’s chief executive, Scott has proposed overhauling state agencies and cutting regulations to make Florida more business friendly.

Meanwhile, state analysts also have unveiled findings from a new survey of economic incentives offered by cities and counties to businesses looking to re-locate or expand. The average giveaway by the 37 counties that responded to the state survey: $279,611 per-business, in tax incentives, fee-reductions, below-market leases, grants or loans.

Palm Beach County reported $2.1 billion in incentives — well below the $32 billion claimed by state-leading Orange County — but generally in line with other South Florida counties.  Miami-Dade County reported $3.2 billion in business incentives, and Broward County just under $1 billion in business handouts.

U.S. Rep. Ted Deutch, D-Boca Raton, pitched a bill to create a new unit in the Federal Trade Commission to focus on scams against seniors during a town hall meeting at Century VIllage that drew 200 or more constituents.

Deutch also used the phrase “reckless Republican budget” three times to describe the House-passed measure cutting more than $60 billion in spending for the remainder of this year. But Deutch said it does not appear the federal government will shut down Friday because the House and Senate appear to be nearing a two-week measure to keep the government running.

Read more by clicking here.

Gov. Rick Scott will lead a two-day tour of  ‘Sunshine Ambassadors,’ barnstorming across five cities in two days this week to prod tourists toward visiting Florida.

Scott, a relatively recent transplant to Florida, himself, regularly punctuates his speeches with praise for the state’s weather. But beginning in Orlando on Tuesday, Scott will lead an entourage of Visit Florida officials touting Florida’s vacation potential during planned stops in Washington, D.C., New York, Philadelphia and Chicago.

“We know that every 85 visitors create one Florida job, so I urge all Floridians to join with me in supporting this effort to increase jobs and grow the state’s economy,” Scott said Monday.

During the two-day tour, the Floridians will be giving away prizes and vacation packages to the state during promotional events. The trip’s last stop will be at Chicago’s Midway Airport, where Scott will board a charter flight with 120 prize winners en route to a four-day stay in Orlando.

Scott may seem an unlikely sunshine ambassador these days in his home state.

 His $65.9 billion budget proposal cuts $4.6 billion in state spending and 8,681 jobs. Scott’s rejection of $2.4 billion in federal money for high-speed rail also prompted Senate Democratic Leader Nan Rich of Weston to claim that instead of being on path to create 700,000 new jobs, the new Republican governor was imposing more damage on Florida’s economy in his first weeks in office.

Some Democrats were aghast at Republican Allen West’s references to bayonets during his successful 2010 congressional campaign. West (as at this West Palm Beach tea party rally) was invoking Union Col. Joshua Chamberlain, who helped change the course of the Civil War at Little Round Top during the Battle of Gettysburg.

Another Chamberlain fan, Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Chairman Steve Israel of New York, was in Palm Beach last week recruiting potential West challengers for 2012.

Read about it in this week’s Politics column.

Gov. Rick Scott and the Florida Legislature’s ruling Republicans have kicked over a political hornet’s nest by promoting budget cuts, pension overhauls and civil justice changes, which are now emerging as targets for statewide rallies by Democratic-allied organizations.

The GOP’s tough medicine for a state pocked by foreclosures and almost 12 percent unemployment may be breathing life into a Florida Democratic Party, virtually left for dead after wholesale election defeats last fall. It also may effectively prove the opening round of the 2012 presidential contest in the nation’s biggest battleground state.

“Democrats last fall were down and outspent,” said Susannah Randolph, campaign manager for defeated Orlando Democratic U.S. Rep. Alan Grayson and now an organizer of the March 8 rallies.

“Now we’re seeing that we have to respond to a threat level like DEFCON 1,” said Randolph, who also is a leader of Florida Watch Action. “And sure, we want to keep this energy going.”

Using a Facebook page, “Awake The State,” organizers are planning events in most major Florida cities on the legislature’s opening day. Although locations are still being determined, teachers and public employees’ unions, including police and firefighters, are forming the core of those protesting expected cuts in education, pensions and government workforces.

Counter-punching, tea party supporters are rallying behind Scott, and looking to converge on the state Capitol for the session’s launch, which coincides with the new governor’s first State of the State address.

Florida’s spring training season goes beyond baseball.  The parties are gearing up for the 2012 campaigns by energizing their political bases around Scott and the Legislature’s plans.

Republicans hold super-majorities in the state House and Senate, and Republican Gov. Rick Scott will get to deliver his first State of the State speech on the Legislature’s opening day.

But House Democrats have still found a way to bring a little drama to March 8. They’ve got a contested race for the caucus’ top leadership spot in 2012 — and they’ll choose their champion about an hour before the scheduled start of the legislative session.

The contenders: Reps. Joe Gibbons of Hallandale Beach, and Perry Thurston of Plantation.

It’s an intra-Broward County contest that will be decided by the House’s 39 Democrats. Current Democratic Leader Ron Saunders of Key West called the election Friday. If it counts for anything in handicapping, Gibbons is the current Democratic leader pro tempore.

Technically, the winner is the party’s designee for House speaker. But given that Democrats have a long way to go to gain a majority, “leader” may be the fanciest monicker the eventual winner ever gets.

UPDATE: Lest there be any confusion about where Gov. Rick Scott stands on the issue, the governor used the Web’s social networks to make it clear.

@FLGovScott directed followers to his Facebook site with this Tweet: “My position remains the same on High Speed Rail http://on.fb.me/eaEoiD”

Here’s Rick Scott’s Facebook message:
“My position on High Speed Rail remains unchanged. I believe High Speed Rail is a federal boondoggle, as I said more than a week ago. This morning I communicated to Secretary LaHood that as long as Florida remains on the hook for cost overruns, operating costs and paybacks in the case of default, I will vigorously oppose this project.
Since that time, Secretary LaHood has extended his own deadline for coming up with a way to alleviate Florida’s risk on High Speed Rail. While I appreciate his continued efforts to keep the project alive in Florida, it is important to note that I have yet to see any proposal that accomplishes my goal of eliminating risk to Florida’s taxpayers.”

Florida’s still on track to get $2.4 billion in federal funds for a high-speed rail project from Tampa to Orlando, the latest twist in a tea party-related transportation tale.

Gov. Rick Scott, who rejected the money last week, met with U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood this morning in Washington.

Today was supposed to be the deadline for Scott to change his mind and accept the funds, something he insisted he would not do up – until today.

After the meeting, LaHood agreed to give Scott another week to consider alternate proposals.

“This morning I met with Governor Rick Scott to discuss the high speed rail project that will create jobs and economic development for the entire state of Florida. He asked me for additional information about the state’s role in this project, the responsibilities of the Florida Department of Transportation, as well as how the state would be protected from liability,” LaHood said in a statement.

“I have decided to give Governor Scott additional time to review the agreement crafted by local officials from Orlando, Tampa, Lakeland and Miami, and to consult with his staff at the state Department of Transportation. He has committed to making a final decision by the end of next week. I feel we owe it to the people of Florida, who have been working to bring high speed rail to their state for the last 20 years, to go the extra mile.”

Scott said he refused the funds because he remains convinced that the state would be on the hook for some – if not all – of the costs of the $2.7 billion project. He’s relying in part on a conservative think tank’s ridership analysis. And he’s come under pressure from tea party activists who see the project as symbolic of government waste.

Read reactions from Florida lawmakers and officials scrambling to come up with a proposal that meets Scott’s muster.

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Sen. Arthenia Joyner of  Tampa and Senate Democratic Leader Nan Rich of Weston on Friday renewed Democratic call for Attorney General Pam Bondi to drop her push to tighten Florida’s standards for restoring civil rights to felons after they completed their sentences.

 ”With a staggering unemployment rate of 12 percent, I’d think the attorney general would want to support any effort to help Floridians who have fully paid their debts to society, to find work,”  Rich said.

In a shocker for civil rights advocates and Democrats, Attorney General Pam Bondi is looking to undo Florida’s limited automatic restoration of rights for felons. Bondi said she was likely to have a proposal to put before Gov. Rick Scott and the Cabinet next month.

“I don’t believe any felon should have an automatic restoration of rights,” the Republican Cabinet member told reporters Thursday morning. “I believe you should have to ask, and there should be an appropriate waiting period” of three to five years.

Joyner, though, said she felt Bondi’s move was aimed at placating tough-on-crime tea party advocates.

“From fighting Floridians access to family doctors, to withholding civil rights, it seems the Republican politicians are more interestedin hurting Florida than helping her,” Joyner said Friday.

Sen. Mike Fasano is demanding that a public records link be reinstalled on the Public Service Commission Web site.

The link disappeared after new chairman Art Graham took over the regulatory panel in January.

Fasano, a harsh critic of the PSC for years, wrote Graham a letter asking that the link to the public records requests and the agency’s responses go back online.

“Given the systemic problems over the past few years regarding the demonstrated lack of access to public records, the wrongful denial and unacceptable delays in providing such public records, and the questionable conduct of some who have served on the commission, this is not the time to remove the general public’s access to commission records,” Fasano, R-New Port Richey, wrote.

The PSC was embroiled in a BlackBerry scandal two years ago involving messages exchanged between the PSC and an FPL attorney that sparked a myriad of ethics complaints and an investigation that found no laws were broken.

T

If he runs for president, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich told reporters Thursday night it’ll be a “citizen-led and citizen-focused effort.”

Gingrich, 67, was a Republican congressman for 20 years and House speaker for four, but he bristled at the suggestion he might be viewed as an inside-the-Beltway establishmentarian.

“I don’t know of anybody who thinks the Contract With America was inside-the-Beltway,” Gingrich said before his Palm Beach County GOP Lincoln Day speech at the Kravis Center.

“I think you’re allowed to be an experienced citizen. You don’t have to be a permanent amateur. Incompetence and lack of knowledge is not necessarily a good base for the presidency,” Gingrich said.

In his speech, Gingrich hinted at an unconventional, outside-the-Beltway campaign.

(more…)

WEST PALM BEACH — Former House Speaker and potential 2012 presidential candidate Newt Gingrich, arriving at tonight’s Palm Beach County GOP Lincoln Day dinner, says several Floridians could end up on the Republican presidential ballot next year.

“Florida has two and maybe three potential vice presidential candidates right now, maybe four if you count Jeb Bush,” Gingrich said. He mentioned Sen. Marco Rubio, U.S. Rep. Allen West, R-Plantation and Gov. Rick Scott.

Gingrich says he’ll announce his presidential plans within a few weeks.

Asked about Florida’s 2012 primary date, Gingrich said Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina should be the first states to hold 2012 presidential primaries or caucuses. After that, he said, “it’s up to Florida. At that point Florida has to negotiate with the RNC.”

The Republican National Committee wants Florida to move its primary from January to March.

Republican Attorney General Pam Bondi’s call Thursday to erase Florida’s already restricted system for automatically restoring civil rights to felons is leaving some Democrats shaking their heads — and blaming politics, of both the tea party and presidential election variety.

Sen. Chris Smith, D-Fort Lauderdale, said he plans to sponsor legislation that runs counter to the Republican attorney general’s stance – effectively making it easier for felons to obtain occupational licenses after they complete their criminal sentences.

Smith said Bondi was appealing to conservative voters with her calls for slowing down rights restoration.

“It’s tough on crime, bumper-sticker politics,” Smith said. “But that flies in the face of what we’ve seen in other states – even Texas – where people are looking at the economics of crime. Corrections is costly, and the quicker you can integrate someone back into society after they serve their time, the better.”

Controversy surrounding civil rights restoration has clouded Florida before. Thousands of Floridians – including many Democratic-leaning black voters – were purged from state rolls before the 2000 and 2004 presidential elections, sparking widespread criticism of then-Gov. Jeb Bush, whose brother was on the ballot both years.

Republican Gov. Charlie Crist relaxed the rights restoration process during his term. But Smith said Bondi appears poised to turn back the clock on the eve of another big presidential year.

“I think it’s somewhat motivated by that,” Smith said. “But maybe more by the perception that you have to pander to the tea party, which wants tougher sanctions on crime.”

PALM BEACH — The head of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee is here looking for a 2012 challenger to freshman U.S. Rep. Allen West, R-Plantation.

U.S. Rep. Steve Israel, D-N.Y., chatted with Tax Collector Anne Gannon today at the Four Seasons Resort about running in Palm Beach-Broward District 22. Israel breakfasted today with former Democratic U.S. Rep. Ron Klein, who lost to West in November, and said he has a “strong interest” in talking to term-limited West Palm Beach Mayor Lois Frankel.

Israel and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi met Wednesday in Boca Raton with Patrick Murphy, a Coastal Construction VP who lives in Fort Lauderdale and is getting consulting advice from veteran Democratic strategist Eric Johnson.

(more…)

Senate President Mike Haridopolos should get a “letter of admonition” but not be fined for failing to accurately file his state financial disclosure forms for five consecutive years, the Senate Rules Committee said Thursday.

Haridopolos, R-Merritt Island, didn’t attend the rules meeting. But the Republican-dominated panel took about 10 minutes before deciding the Senate chief’s fate in an 11-0 vote.

Asked if he had any second thoughts about casting a vote because he had already endorsed Haridopolos for U.S. Senate, Rules Chairman John Thrasher, R-St. Augustine, said, “Hell, no.”

The Florida Commission on Ethics in December reached a legal stipulation with Haridopolos, in which he acknowledged that he filed flawed forms and later submitted amended copies of the disclosure documents. (more…)

Attorney General Pam Bondi wants to do away completely with the state’s limited automatic restoration of rights for felons even as civil rights groups are seeking an expansion of it.

In Florida, certain felons automatically get their rights restored upon completion of their sentences and restitution.

But Bondi, a Republican and former prosecutor, says the current system goes too easy on criminals.

“I don’t believe any felony should have an automatic restoration of rights. I believe you should have to ask and there should be an appropriate waiting period,” Bondi told reporters after a clemency meeting this morning.

Bondi said she wants a three-to-five year waiting period before convicted felons can appeal to have their rights restored.

The years-long waiting period will help clear up a backlog of more than 100,000 convicted felons trying to get their rights back.

Gov. Charlie Crist and the Florida Cabinet, acting as the board of clemency, approved new rules nearly four years ago making it easier for felons convicted of nonviolent crimes to have their civil rights restored.

Bondi’s predecessor Bill McCollum cast the lone dissenting vote on the rule change.

Now, felons convicted of nonviolent crimes who have fulfilled their sentences will be allowed to vote, hold public office, apply for occupational licenses and sit on juries without applying for clemency, a cumbersome process that can take years. The 2007 change also expedited the process for felons convicted of some violent crimes.

Florida first banned voting by felons in 1845, and the ban was put into the state constitution in 1868.

Voting rights for felons was one of the issues in the disputed 2000 presidential election, when many people, mostly black, were wrongly purged from voter rolls because of an error-riddled state voter database that misidentified them as felons.

Attorney General Pam Bondi called President Obama’s administration’s request for clarification in a ruling overturning the federal health care law a delay tactic and urged the president to file an appeal to move the case along to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Bondi yesterday asked U.S. District Court Judge Roger Vinson to reject the Justice Department’s request for clarification of his ruling that the health care law is unconstitutional. Some states, including Florida, have halted implementation of the law while awaiting an ultimate decision by the Supreme Court.

“Department of Justice’s motion to clarify is merely an attempt to delay the process when the order clearly required a halt to implementation,” Bondi said in a statement.

Vinson’s order amounts to an injunction on the health care law in Florida and the 25 other states in the lawsuit, Bondi said.

“Our memorandum states that time is of the essence in this matter, and the Court should deny the defendants’ motion for clarification as well as their thinly disguised request for a stay,” she said. “Everyone knows this case will ultimately be decided by the U.S. Supreme Court, and the Department of Justice should join us in seeking an expedited appeals process. This issue is too important for delay, and we urge the
President to file an appeal in the appropriate appellate court, as was done in Virginia and Michigan. It is in the country’s best interest to present this case before the U.S. Supreme Court as soon as possible.”