The 60-day 2010 legislative session began with the usual pageantry as Senators, their families, Gov. Charlie Crist and the Florida Cabinet and the Florida Supreme Court crowded into the Senate chambers for Senate President Jeff Atwater’s opening day speech.
The chamber was filled with opening-day flowers, one of the only exemptions in the gift ban law barring lawmakers from accepting presents of any kind, including food.
Among the guests attending this morning: Linda King, widow of the late Sen. Jim King, the Jacksonville Republican who died earlier in July after a bout with pancreatic cancer and who once served as Senate President.
The Senate dedicated a committee room to King and read a resolution honoring the veteran lawmaker who was instrumental in getting end-of-life legislation passed.
Stay tuned for audio of Atwater’s remarks and other opening day treats, including the House’s session kick-off, winding up with Crist’s 6 p.m. state-of-the-state address.
Senate President Jeff Atwater said he is more than willing to hand over his Republican Party of Florida-issued American Express credit card statements but that the party’s new chairman, Sen. John Thrasher, won’t do it.
Reporters asked Atwater, who is running statewide for chief financial officer, about the notorious AmEx spending that’s embroiled former House Speaker and U.S. Senate candidate Marco Rubio and former House Speaker Ray Sansom.
“I asked Chairman Thrasher if he would release the statements of the RPOF credit card that was assigned to me and he said no,” Atwater, R-North Palm Beach, said. “He said he has his internal process going on…I have asked him and he has said no. That is the party’s card. It is not my card. I do not have the statements.”
When pressed about why Atwater did not request the statements, he insisted he could not.
“I’m not the card. That would be RPOF. It’s RPOF’s card. So if RPOF were to request those statements I assume they could get them. At this point, it is the party’s card. And I have asked the chairman would you release any card statements that were associated with me? I have no qualms about what anyone would see on that and he said no, we’re doing our process.”
Atwater had one of the AmEx cards while he was recruiting Republican Senate candidates and raising money for the party in 2007 and 2008. He says he used the card strictly for party-related business.
The cards, issued to an undisclosed group of top elected Republicans and party officials, have been a continuing source of embarrassment as details have emerged of lavish spending by former Chairman Jim Greer (including that $3,600 meal at Brasserie L’Escalier), indicted former House Speaker Ray Sansom (his $173,000 in AmEx charges included a family trip to Europe and an $893 Starbucks tab) and former exec director Delmar Johnson ($133,763 in a single month last summer).
Rubio got his turn in the AmEx spotlight last week when someone, presumably a supporter of opponent Gov. Charlie Crist’s slumping GOP Senate bid, leaked records of Rubio’s $125,000 in charges from 2006 to 2008. No Greer-scale extravagances emerged, but the records showed a $133.75 visit to Churchill’s Barber Shop in Miami that Rubio said he paid himself.
After taking billions of dollars in federal economic stimulus money to balance the state budget last year, Senate President Jeff Atwater and House Speaker Larry Cretul along with other GOP lawmakers are demanding that the federal government balance its budget to put an end to the escalating federal deficit now surpassing $12 trillion.
“Unless something is done with Washington’s irresponsible fiscal behavior, Florida’s economy will drown in debt,” Atwater, R-North Palm Beach, said at a press conference this morning.
Atwater and his cadre want the feds to balance the nation’s budget as Florida lawmakers are constitutionally required to do in the Sunshine State.
But that didn’t stop the legislature under Atwater and Cretul from accepting at least $12 billion in federal stimulus money - more than $3 billion used to balance this year’s Florida budget and nearly another $6 billion plugged into next year’s. That money helped add to the nation’s rising debt.
“It’s a gaping inconsistency to take that money happily to fill giant holes in our budget and then turn around and criticize the very people who gave you the cash,” said Rep. Keith Fitzgerald, D-Sarasota.
Sen. Joe Negron, R-Stuart, is sponsoring a joint resolution that, if passed by two-thirds of the Florida legislature, would have the state joining 19 other states asking Congress to convene an amendments convention to propose a constitutional amendment requiring the balanced budget and limit federal lawmakers’ ability to pass mandated spending down to the states.
But Florida lawmakers have done the same thing to local governments over the past decade, forcing them to take up a large share of education spending by passing down mandates and making counties pick up the tab for other items.
Congress would have to call the amendments convention if 34 states make the request. Passage of the constitutional amendment would require ratification by three-fourths, or 38, of the states.
Senate President Jeff Atwater, R-North Palm Beach, had one of those notorious Republican Party of Florida American Express cards. He says his spending was all legit and he has “no qualms” about his records becoming public. But Atwater, who’s running for chief financial officer this year, says he doesn’t have copies of his own and it’s up to the state GOP to decide whether to release credit card records.
Senate President Jeff Atwater sent a letter to the state’s Congressional delegation today asking them to back legislation requiring a balanced federal budget like Florida’s own laws mandate.
Atwater, a North Palm Beach banker, is running for chief financial officer.
“Unfunded mandates, insurmountable debt, and unconscionable spending are mortgaging our children and grandchildren’s future. Therefore I ask for your help to protect our Nation’s economic liberty. A strong economy is nothing short of the very foundation on which our Republic stands. That is why we need a Federal Balanced Budget Amendment,” Atwater wrote to Florida’s Congressional delegation leader U.S. Rep. Lincoln Diaz-Balart.
Atwater asks the Florida delegation to sign a “Pledge for America’s Future comprised of spending-related “whereases” that Atwater and his staff crafted on their own, Atwater spokeswoman Jaryn Emhof said.
Here’s a sample:
“WHEREAS, the Federal Government has for too long relied on revenue increases and borrowing against our future rather than on prudent spending decisions within the limits of current revenues, and
WHEREAS, lasting resolution of this nation’s budget deficit can be achieved only by addressing the spending habits of our Federal Government, not by increasing the tax burden under which our citizens already labor.”
Gov. Charlie Crist’s proposed $500 million boost to education spending based on an unlikely gambling agreement is unrealistic, Senate President Jeff Atwater said this morning.
“The numbers that I would see at this moment that were included in that release did seem to be a bit optimistic,” Atwater, R-North Palm Beach, said at a meeting of reporters and editors.
Crist’s $22.7 billion public education budget, released Monday, relies on about $433 million from the Seminole Tribe of Florida now sitting in the bank as part of a deal with the state allowing certain types of gambling at the tribe’s casinos.
But the legislature has refused to sign off on a deal inked by Crist and the tribe and early indications show that an agreement this year remains in doubt.
“We worked hard on a gaming compact and we’re not done but to just plug in the numbers that I saw was rather optimistic,” Atwater, who is running for chief financial officer said.
First, the good news: Florida’s economic woes have hit bottom, the legislature’s chief economist Amy Baker told the Senate yesterday.
Now, the bad news: The state’s unemployment rate is expected to climb to 12 percent as early as Friday when the most recent job numbers are released, Baker said.
And more bad news for lawmakers as they struggle to craft a budget with up to $3.3 billion - about 4 percent - less than they had for this year’s $66.5 billion spending plan.
Although the national recession is over, Florida’s not going to show an economic recovery for at least another year, Baker and University of Florida economist David Denslow told the Ways and Means Committee, which about 30 of the 40-member chamber attended after Senate President Jeff Atwater asked them to sit in.
“We think we’ve hit bottom and we’re going to hover around the bottom for a wile before we start picking up,” Baker said.
The economy will start picking up next spring, she said, but even with normal growth rates, the recovery is coming off a very low base level so the turn-around will be very slow.
It will be three years “before you’re going to be out of the hole on a lot of measures,” Baker said.
On the other side of the fourth floor rotunda, House Democrats wrote a letter to GOP leaders saying they don’t like their approach in determining what the state’s critical needs are.
They want to look not only at expenditures but at revenues as well. (Translation: higher taxes?)
But that’s not likely to happen on the Senate side.
Atwater, R-North Palm Beach, told his members yesterday he “won’t extract another dollar” from Floridians.
Atwater contradicted questions about how to close what could be up to a $3 billion spending gap this year, saying the premise was incorrect.
Florida will not spend more than what it brings in, Atwater, R-North Palm Beach, said.
“The people of Florida do not have one more dime to send us. So let me be clear. When it comes to constructing a state budget to meet the critical needs of the people in this state, I am not starting in a hole. I am starting from scratch,” said Atwater, who is running for chief financial officer. “We will not extract one more dollar from the small business owner of the state or from any Floridian’s wallet to accomplish the task.”
Atwater delivered his campaign-sounding remarks to a Ways and Means Committee meeting that he asked each of the Senate’s 40 members to attend. Most of them showed up.
“We should not allow the shrieking cacophony of special interests to drown out this simple fact. We have faced up to and made the difficult decisions. What we have not done and what we will not do is leave our sons and our daughters and future generations of Floridians with an intolerable burden of taxes and debt,” Atwater said, drawing the applause of the GOP members in attendance.
The committee is now hearing from university of Florida economist David Denslow and will hear from the legislature’s economist Amy Baker later.
Former Gov. Jeb Bush is supporting Senate President Jeff Atwater in his statewide run for chief financial officer, even though Atwater has a Republican opponent in the primary.
Atwater’s campaign released the announcement Wednesday, along with a link to a YouTube video in which Bush, still influential in GOP politics in Florida, says of Atwater, “It’s his life experience of being a committed family person, of being a successful businessman and also having served in positions of increasing responsibility in the Florida Legislature that have made Jeff uniquely qualified to handle this job.”
Bob Butterworth, a Florida Democratic icon who served as attorney general, is backing Senate President Jeff Atwater’s statewide campaign for chief financial officer.
Atwater’s campaign sent out a press release about Butterworth and other Democratic supporters today, the same day Democrat Loranne Ausley, a former state representative, announced her candidacy.
Butterworth said there may have been some confusion about his endorsement of Atwater. When he wrote a $500 check to the campaign three months ago, Butterworth said, there wasn’t a Democrat in the race and he didn’t specify that it was for the primary.
“I probably should have been clearer with the aide. I don’t blame the campaign,” Butterworth said.
Back in 2002, Atwater, a relative unknown at the time, trounced Butterworth, then on the Cabinet as attorney general, in the election for Senate District 25.
Atwater, a North Palm Beach Republican, also nailed down endorsements from three other Democrats today - James Harold Thompson, Lee Moffitt and Hyatt Brown, all former House Speakers. Moffitt and Thompson are now lobbyists.
Palm Beach County Sheriff Ric Bradshaw, also a Democrat, is also supporting Atwater.
Butterworth’s latest endeavor places him as the fix-it man for Florida Power & Light Co. The Juno Beach-based utility hired Butterworth to try to repair its image in the wake of reports that company executives, their wives and guests flew on the customer dime on corporate jets. The revelations about the flights and other corporate spending came out as FPL seeks a $1.2 billion rate hike that will be decided on tomorrow.
Senate Democratic Leader Al Lawson wants Sen. John Thrasher stripped of two important committee assignments if he is annointed chairman of the state GOP as expected.
Lawson asked Senate President Jeff Atwater today to remove Thrasher as chairman of the Ethics and Elections Committee and off the powerful reapportionment committee if he is also chairman of the Republican Party of Florida.
“The conflict is evident: Senator Thrasher’s primary job as RPOF head is to see that Republicans win and maintain office through the elections process – a process in which his committees - one of which he controls – play a critical role,” Lawson, D-Tallahassee, wrote Atwater this morning.
Thrasher, a former House Speaker, returned to the legislature in a nasty special election to replace the late Sen. Jim King of Jacksonville. The trial lawyers’ association political arm targeted Thrasher in a racially-charged mailer that resulted in a shake-up at the Florida Justice Association leadership and forced former executive director Scott Carruthers to resign.
Thrasher’s special election drama was one of the reasons why Atwater appointed him to chair the committee, Atwater said at the time. Campaign reforms are at the top of Thrasher’s agenda this session, the Jacksonville lobbyist said late last year.
Along with members of the Senate Democratic Caucus, I was deeply troubled by the announcement earlier this week that Republican Senator John Thrasher may take over as head of the Republican Party of Florida, while maintaining his seat in the Florida Senate.
“As you know, the task of the committee he chairs is to set public policy on maintaining fair and unbiased elections. The task of the second of which he is a member is to oversee the drawing of legislative districts. To allow Senator Thrasher to remain in dual chairmanship roles and/or as a member of a committee holding sway over fair representation would threaten the integrity of the process as a whole,” Lawson wrote.
Florida Senate President Jeff Atwater’s son, John, is a member of the fraternity that could be permanently barred from Florida Atlantic University because of a hazing incident in the fall.
John Atwater — a 21-year-old senior, homecoming prince and president of the university rugby team — is a member of Sigma Phi Epsilon, the fraternity known as Sig Ep that has been suspended from campus activities pending the outcome of an investigation into an Oct. 17 hazing incident.
The Palm Beach County State Attorney’s Office is conducting a review of the hazing ritual in which a 19-year-old frat brother wound up in the emergency room after being bound with duct tape and forced to binge drink, according to FAU police.
Sen. Atwater, R-North Palm Beach, said he was unaware of the incident or of the fraternity’s suspension.
“I know he’s a member of the fraternity but I’m not aware of any incident or that they’ve been suspended,” Atwater said in a telephone call on Christmas Eve. “This is the first I’m hearing about it. If you weren’t telling me this I wouldn’t be up to speed on this at all.”
Nicholas Letteri, a Sigma Phi Epsilon member from the Tampa area, told police he was the victim of a “kidnapping” prank at an off-campus home of a fraternity brother.
Letteri said he was bound and forced to drink a liquor and beer concoction from a cereal bowl while Sig Ep members drew on his back with markers and others used squirt guns to drench his crotch, face and chest.
He was forced to chug beers and repeatedly threw up, he said. Letteri said he was still sick the next day and a friend took him to the Boca Raton Community Hospital emergency room.
Campus police have closed their investigation and forwarded the case to the State Attorney’s Office for review, Police Chief Charles
Lowe said.
Lawmakers have beefed up anti-hazing laws to discourage hazing, which frequently involves fraternity brothers forcing initiates to drink alcohol. Hazing – rituals that involve a risk of bodily harm or death - can be a first-degree misdemeanor or a third-degree felony.
A law passed in 2005, based on a bill filed by House Majority Leader Adam Hasner of Delray Beach, expanded misdemeanor hazing crimes to include high school students and increased to a third degree felony hazing rituals that result in serious injury or death.
The university temporarily suspended the Sig Ep chapter and is conducting its own review. A decision on chapter’s fate is expected in January. Discipline can range from suspension to banishment from campus.
The college does not tolerate hazing and the chapter of the national fraternity, known as Sig Ep, could face severe consequences, said Charles Brown, FAU’s vice president for student affairs.
“I don’t tolerate it. I will close the chapter down,” Brown said, if its members are found to be at fault.
Palm Beach County Republican Chairman Sid Dinerstein says his party let down taxpayers this week when the GOP-controlled legislature approved a multimillion-dollar package of rail spending that he considers wasteful.
“If the Republicans aren’t willing to defend the taxpayers, then nobody is,” Dinerstein said in an interview before Wednesday night’s county GOP meeting.
The Senate kicked off the special session this morning setting into motion a financial fix for Tri-Rail, a thumbs-up on a Central Florida commuter line and the possibility of bringing in billions of federal dollars for high-speed rail projects.
This is the third time around for the controversial Central Florida commuter project known as “SunRail.” The Senate killed the deal - already signed off on by the Department of Transportation - twice, most recently in May.
Critics in the Senate, led by Paula Dockery, objected to the deal in which the state will pay transportation giant CSX Inc. more than $500 million for 61 miles of track for the commuter line. CSX will still be operate its freight on the line in exchange for a payment to the state of $1 per year.
The SunRail deal died in the Senate during the regular legislative session by a 23-16 vote. Atwater, R-North Palm Beach, now apparently has 21 of the 40 senators on his side - just the amount he needs to get the bill passed.
Atwater said the legislation will bring thousands of jobs to the state and boost its flagging economy.
“This is indeed time for visionaries,” Atwater said during a brief opening session this morning. “A time when the people of florida are demanding action and are desperate for relief.”
The Senate is expected to vote on the bill on Tuesday.
Democrats in the House, Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink and black state lawmakers are asking legislative leaders to put the brakes on a special session on rail until Monday to accommodate the black lawmakers’ national conference being held this week in Ft. Lauderdale.
Many of the state’s black House and Senate members will be at the event as hosts of the National Black Caucus of State Legislators’ annual conference. The conference has been in the works for two years and many members have already plunked down the cash to attend the fete that runs from Wednesday through Saturday.
Too bad, House Speaker Larry Cretul wrote in a memo today sent to all House members.
He said the black lawmakers - all but one of whom are Democrats - can get an excused absence but that’s about it.
“We all share the burdens of public office, which can be especially frustrating during this season. However, it is our duty to assemble when the needs of our state require it. I am confident that this Session is important to Florida. The issue before us means jobs for Floridians and building part of our state’s transportation future. I appreciate your willingness to undertake these important duties,” Cretul, R-Ocala, wrote.
House Speaker Larry Cretul issued a memo this afternoon saying he plans for the House to vote on the bill on Monday and for the Senate to vote on it on Wednesday.
Cretul, R-Ocala, said he and Atwater have agreed in principal on the proposal, which apparently exists but has not yet been distributed to most lawmakers, if any.
Money for Tri-Rail will come from the state road project fund and money for Sunrail and other rail projects will come from doc stamps from home sales.
Next week’s special session to prove the state’s commitment to commuter rail could go nowhere without concessions to unions.
Senate President Jeff Atwater is trying to round up support for a Central Florida commuter line by linking it to a financial fix for the flailing Tri-Rail to draw down federal money for a third project, a high-speed line linking Tampa, Orlando and Miami.
The bill’s been negotiated by House and Senate leaders and the governor’s office behind closed doors throughout the month.
But Atwater’s ability to pass the measure in the Senate could hinge on two key Democratic senators: Democratic Leader Al Lawson of Tallahassee and Tony Hill of Jacksonville.
The labor unions were part of a coalition that killed the Central Florida SunRail deal despite backing from powerful GOP lawmakers and Gov. Charlie Crist.
Now the unions are pressuring Lawson and Hill to oppose the measure that is expected to include a provision that would allow SunRail to operate without union workers and do away with some Tri-Rail union jobs.
It might be hard for Lawson and Hill to turn their backs on the unions next week.
Senate budget chief J.D. Alexander is setting up a new office to help him figure out if the state is spending money wisely.
Alexander and his House counterparts have grappled with the state’s plummeting revenues and are facing a $2.7 billion projected spending gap in next year’s budget.
Alexander said he’s willing to pay an expert up to $170,000 a year to provide a detailed analysis of state spending
“I’m going up against lobbyists who can pay a whole lot more than that,” said Alexander, R-Lake Wales. “I need people who can really get into what’s going on here.”
Alexander said he doesn’t have anyone in mind for the job but is hoping to get someone who with expertise in the state’s annual $18 billion spending on Medicaid.
Asked when he plans to bring the new hire on board, Alexander quipped: “Yesterday. I need help tomorrow.”
The “Senate Budget Office” will be “responsible for providing independent analyses of state government agency operations, including overlapping agency jurisdictions and functions, the financial structure of agencies, sources and uses of revenues, expenditure patterns and whether programmatic performance measures exist and are being met,” Senate President Jeff Atwater’s office said in a press release announcing the new office today.
Aggressive drivers could get hit with a $120 fine under a proposal the Florida Department Highway Safety & Motor Vehicles will take to the state legislature in the spring. No telling yet what the proposal would mean for state coffers, but Miami was pegged as the "least courteous city" in a national 2008 road rage survey.
The department will present their legislative priorities on Tuesday to the Florida Cabinet. Left off the list: a ban on texting and driving. But department officials say that’s only because the issue has already captured lawmakers’ attention. “I think there are 12 pieces of legislation at last count,” department spokesman David Westberry said.
The department is also hoping lawmakers clarify that two DUI offenses in the same day count as multiple offenses. Right now, if a driver is pulled over twice in a day for drunk driving, it’s treated as one conviction.
For aggressive driving, the department wants a new category of traffic offense for “aggressive careless” driving to let law enforcement issue a single citation for multiple violations. The proposal mirrors recommendations from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
Sen. Mike Haridopolos will be named the 2011-2012 Senate President on Dec. 8 at 5 p.m.
The Melbourne Republican will assume the post after the two-year tenure of current Senate President Jeff Atwater ends next fall.
Atwater
Atwater, R-North Palm Beach, is leaving the Senate to run for Chief Financial Officer.
Haridopolos’ ascension is a trifecta for the Palm Beach and Treasure Coast region and continue its domination of the top of the Senate for a total of six years.
Pruitt
Atwater’s district includes part of Broward and Palm Beach counties. He was preceded by former Senate President Ken Pruitt, a Port St. Lucie Republican whose district included Martin, St. Lucie and Palm Beach counties.
The southeastern portion of Haridopolos’ Senate District 26 dips into St. Lucie County.
The three political leaders each previously served in the Florida House before joining the Senate.
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Sentenced to die for crimes judged heinous and cruel, inmates await execution in a 9 feet by 6 feet cell.
