Last year, Democratic CFO Alex Sink forged a friendship with Republican House Speaker Marco Rubio over their shared goal of returning some of the state’s hurricane risk to the private insurance market.

This year, it sounds like Sink is the conservatives’ sweetheart again.

On Thursday, Rep. Alan Hays, R-Umatilla, opened the House Government Operations Appropriations Committee by praising her for doing “what I think is a great job.”

Hays, however, flubbed the start of the meeting when he didn’t notice Sink waiting in the room.

Later, Rep. Clay Ford, R-Gulf Breeze, tried to cover by noting that Sink was “small and delicate.”

After appealing to Warren Buffett to bankroll potential hurricane-related losses last year, Gov. Charlie Crist and other state officials will look to the federal government to help cover costs from a major storm this year.

“From the federal government’s standpoint, it would be one of the least risky things they’ve embarked on here in the last few months,” said John Forney, Florida Hurricane Catastrophe Fund financial adviser.

Crist, Attorney General Bill McCollum and state CFO Alex Sink all agreed Tuesday to push for a federal line of credit in case a major storm hits the state.

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Gov. Charlie Crist this morning reiterated that he’s not feeling “warm and fuzzy” about a cigarette tax increase, but indicated his feelings may change Friday, when state economists give lawmakers an update on the budget.

“I’ll give a clear direction at the appropriate time,” Crist said.

Some argue that direction should have come during his state of the state speech last week (see some discussion about that speech here).

But today Crist said he was trying to strike an appropriate balance in that address.

Gov. Charlie Crist said today he will head to Miami, Daytona Beach and Tampa on Friday to promote a series of state web sites that are supposed to help Floridians find work, buy cheap prescription drugs and get health coverage.

“I know that people are hurting,” Crist said. “People can’t sign up for it if they don’t know it exists.”

Other tidbits from the press conference:

*The state’s 26,000 employees receive free health insurance, a perk that Crist said he wasn’t inclined to change.

*Crist shrugged off a suggestion that he oversold an unrealistic budget proposal to a legislature.

*And said he hoped that a possible tax on businesses would not prevent the state from accepting $444 million in unemployment benefits from President Obama’s stimulus package.

Gov. Charlie Crist is pushing lawmakers to embrace the federal stimulus plan, but CFO Alex Sink said this morning that Florida could be losing billions by not aggressively applying for federal grants.

Sink put some of the blame at the doorstep of the governor’s office in Washington D.C., which she said was created in part to help coordinate the grant process.

“We’re not sure what they’re doing,” Sink said.

Read Sink’s report here.

House Speaker Larry Cretul, R-Ocala, told reporters today that he would entertain debate on a temporary sales tax increase.

“One of the graet things about being part of this process is there are always ideas,” Cretul said. “Those ideas do need to be vetted out.”

That comment, however, came just minutes after Cretul spoke about the dire state of Florida’s taxpayers, who he said are “struggling to meet their obligations.”

“With the sacrifices that are made at home with the families and the businesses, you know, government will probably have to do the same,” Cretuls said.

Read a copy of Atwater’s speech here or listen here.

Senate President Jeff Atwater’s opening day speech was NOT written by political consultant Randy Nielsen, said an Atwater advisor.

A copy of the speech distributed to the media bore the author “Public Concepts,” Nielsen’s consulting firm based out of Palm Beach County.

But Rick Wilson, a GOP political consultant who played a major role in Atwater’s reelection campaign, said Atwater wrote most of the speech himself with a few suggestions from Wilson.

“Jeff gave me a draft. I did my wordsmithing on it and Jeff polished and worked it up into a pretty good speech I thought,” Wilson reluctantly conceded to quell rumors about Nielsen’s involvement.