Scott transition e-mails: Budget, politics and prayers
by Dara Kam | August 29th, 2011One of Gov. Rick Scott’s closest advisors wanted to keep the newly-elected governor out of meetings about the state budget, a recently released batch of e-mails from Scott’s transition team revealed.
Mary Anne Carter – one of Scott’s two key players in his transition – tried to keep Scott out of preliminary meeting with the Office of Policy and Budget staff in an attempt to insulate him.
Donna Arduin, a long-time budget director for several governors including Jeb Bush, served as Scott’s budget advisor during his campaign and transition. She was trying to set up a meeting with Scott and the budget staff to give the newly elected governor and his aides an inside look at how the budget is crafted.
But writing to Arduin on Dec. 15, Carter (who calls Scott “RLS” in her messages) asked, “Are we not better off going through it without RLS and then determine what decisions need to be made? If there are going to be areas where policy and politics collide, I think it’s best to know ahead of time and not have him involved in initial conversations.”
Arduin didn’t back down.
“You will see how budget meetings go by observing tomorrow,” Arduin wrote. “The meetings are the governor meeting with his opb staff and making decisions.”
The politically-savvy Arduin then sent Susie Wiles, Scott’s campaign manager who later became his legislative liaison, a more pointed note: “Keep the governor out of his budget decisions because we don’t want him involved in political decisions….really??!!!”
“This process is beyond amazing to me,” Wiles, who has since left Scott’s administration, responded. “I am praying hard for Rick.”
Tags: Donna Arduin, Mary Anne Carter, Rick Scott, Susie Wiles
August 30th, 2011 at 6:24 am
Anti-Federal Spending Gov. Rick Scott Wants To Accept One Federal Grant So That He Can Apply For Another
Gov. Rick Scott (R-FL) has made his opposition to federal funding — for everything from the Affordable Care Act to high-speed rail — extremely well known. As Igor Volsky has noted, Scott’s opposition to federal grants makes no sense, but that hasn’t stopped him from refusing them while claiming that they “ultimately create obligations that our taxpayers can’t afford.”
However, Scott may be slowly changing his mind when it comes to federal funding. As the Orlando Sentinel noted, Scott may direct the Florida legislature to accept funding from the Affordable Care Act that it had previously rejected in order to free Florida up to compete in the latest round of the Education Department’s Race to the Top program. The current round of RTTT allows states to apply for funding to enhance early childhood education programs:
Florida plans to compete for $100 million in the federal government’s latest Race to the Top program, assuming the Florida Legislature is willing to accept other federal money it had previously rejected.
To apply for the Race to the Top Early Learning Challenge, which is designed to improve the care and education of young children, states must be taking part in a federal home-visiting program meant to prevent child abuse.
Florida won an earlier round of the Race to the Top program that it entered before Scott took office, earning itself $700 million, which Scott at the time made some noise about rejecting.
Meanwhile, the Sunshine State could undeniably benefit from additional investments in early childhood education. According to the National Institute for Early Education Research’s State of Preschool 2010 report, “Florida has one of the nation’s highest percentages of 4-year-olds in preschool programs…but state and local spending on those programs is among the worst in the nation.” “The problem in Florida isn’t quantity, it’s quality,” said W. Steven Barnett, co-director of the National Institute for Early Education Research.
Scott has already made it quite clear that his opposition to federal funding is much more about politics than policy. In this case, if Scott is willing to look past political games for just a moment, Florida’s children may see the benefit.
August 30th, 2011 at 10:06 am
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Insulate him from looking STOOPID!