The Florida Commission on Ethics found probable cause to believe that Sen. Maria Sachs, D-Delray Beach, failed to properly disclose a Tallahassee condo along with her state legislative income on three years’ worth of financial disclosures.

But, since Sachs amended the forms, the panel is not recommending any further action unless Sachs requests a hearing, according to a press release issued by the Commission this morning.

Former Palm Beach County Republican Party Chairman Sid Dinerstein filed the complaint against Sachs last fall in the lead-up to the November election as the Democrat was embroiled in a bitter campaign battle against former Sen. Ellyn Bogdanoff, R-Fort Lauderdale. Sachs defeated Bogdanoff in the chase for a newly drawn District 34 seat in one of the state’s most hotly-contested Senate races.

Sachs has also been questioned about a separate condo-related arrangement. was also embroiled in a separate condo-related dispute earlier this year about whether she lives in her district or not.

Barbara Stern and her mother, lobbyist and longtime Sachs friend Judy Stern, are listed as owners of the 740-square-foot unit in Fort Lauderdale in Sachs’ Senate District 34. Sachs owns a house with her husband just outside District 34 in Boca Raton, but rents the condo and lists it as her residence. The Florida Constitution requires legislators to live in the districts they represent.

The conservative MediaTrackers.org website said in in April that it visited Sachs’ Fort Lauderdale address on April 2 and was told by a neighbor that the unit had been vacant for at least six months.

Sachs, who has said she pays $950 monthly rent for the unit, disputed the MediaTrackers report.

“I have fully met the requirements of the law regarding legal residency in District 34,” Sachs said in an April email.

Five Palm Beach County Democrats earned “Champions of the Florida’s Middle Class” status from progressives for their votes during the 2013 legislative session that ended in May.

The scorecard is a counterpoint to business-backed Associated Industries of Florida and the Florida Chamber of Commerce ratings in which, as expected, the Democrats received mostly failing marks.

Florida Watch Action, Progress Florida and America Votes identified 18 Florida lawmakers members – all Democrats – who voted with the left 100 percent of the time, according to a press released issues by the groups today.

The 18 include Palm Beach County Democratic Sen. Jeff Clemens of Lake Worth and Reps. Lori Berman, D-Lantana; Dave Kerner, D-Lake Worth; Mark Pafford, D-West Palm Beach; and Irv Slosberg, D-Delray Beach.

“These eighteen lawmakers deserve Floridians’ thanks for their unwavering support and leadership on the issues that matter most to middle class families,” said Progress Florida Executive Director Mark Ferrulo.

House Democratic Leader Perry Thurston, D-Fort Lauderdale, also made the progressives’ top 18 list; his Senate counterpart Chris Smith, D-Fort Lauderdale, did not.

A federal judge on Tuesday refused to block a ban on Internet cafes sought by senior arcade owners, who say they’ve unfairly been lumped in with the predatory storefront casinos.

Lawyers for Broward County adult arcades Boardwalk Brothers, Inc., and Play It Again FLA, LLC, claimed the law is unconstitutional in part because it is vague and arbitrary and denied seniors who gamble at the arcades their First Amendment rights of association.

The plaintiffs failed to show how the law would prevent seniors from gathering someplace else, U.S. District Judge James Cohn wrote in a 19-page order.

“Moreover, there is no evidence before the Court that enforcement of the statute would force Plaintiffs out of business and prevent patrons from associating at their establishments. Instead, the statute merely limits the types of games that might be offered. And even if the statute did force Plaintiffs out of business, no citizen enjoys a constitutional right to play amusement games,” he wrote.

Cohn did not rule on the merits of the law hurriedly passed by the Legislature in response to a multi-state gambling sting in April.

Gov. Rick Scott signed the bill on April 10, less than a month after state and federal authorities arrested 57 people in connection with Allied Veterans of the World, a St. Augustine-based nonprofit accused of posing as a charity while running a $300 million illegal gambling ring. The gambling bust also prompted former Lt. Gov. Jennifer Carroll to resign. Carroll had worked as a consultant for Allied Veterans while a member of the Florida House.

The arcades also failed to convince Cohn that the statute goes too far. The “state has a significant interest in proscribing the behavior regulated in the statute” and “an important public interest in limiting gambling and preventing minors from gambling.”

Seniors from Palm Beach and St. Lucie counties traveled to Tallahassee to plead with lawmakers to spare the gambling establishments, arguing that the centers offer relatively inexpensive entertainment and spare them from being lonely.

A Republican-allied campaign research and consulting firm surrendered more than 1,800 pages of records this week but asked a judge Thursday to block a demand by Democratic-leaning groups for more emails and documents in a lawsuit over last year’s legislative redistricting battle.

Data Targeting, Inc., a Gainesville-based political affairs firm, said in a motion filed with Leon Circuit Judge Terry Lewis that organizations seeking the records are on an “old-fashioned fishing expedition.”

Lawyers for the company add that documents sought may include “proprietary” information that could threaten relationships with clients and reveal business secrets.

Lewis is expected to rule Friday in the matter, part of a post-redistricting clash that is already in the Florida Supreme Court. There, justices are being asked to dismiss the lawsuit before Lewis, which was filed by the Florida League of Women Voters, Common Cause and the National Council of La Raza.

The voter groups contend that redrawn Senate districts should be thrown out because Republican leaders shared data and
maps with political consultants. The voter-approved Fair District amendments to the state constitution prohibit districts from being drawn to help or hurt incumbents.

But the organizations suing say such communication has become evident in the first rounds of data already provided by the Legislature and various consultants subpoenaed in the lawsuit.

Court documents filed earlier with Lewis show that emails were exchanged between aides to Senate President Don Gaetz,
House Speaker Will Weatherford and consultants who analyzed proposed maps.

The emails also show that in 2010, Rich Heffley, a Florida Republican Party consultant advising Gaetz, then the Senate’s
redistricting chairman, organized a “brainstorming” meeting at the state  party headquarters in Tallahassee.

Other documents in the case show that Sen. Andy Gardiner, R-Orlando, and Sen. Jack Latvala, R-Clearwater, who are both angling for Senate presidency in coming years, emailed district information to consultants for review.

The  Supreme Court last year ruled the Senate’s initial proposal for redrawing the 40-member chamber unconstitutional. The 5-2 decision found  the Senate plan protected incumbents, packed minority voters into districts and numbered Senate districts in a way to give incumbents more time in office.

It marked the first time since the court was brought into that stage of redistricting in 1972 that justices overturned a legislative map. The House map was approved by justices.

Gov. Rick Scott is ready to make Florida the nation’s 40th state to smackdown smartphones — saying he will sign legislation next week to ban texting while driving.

“As a father and a grandfather, texting while driving is something that concerns me when my loved ones are on the road,” Scott said Friday. “The 100 days between Memorial Day and Labor Day are known as the deadliest days on the road for teenagers. We must do everything we can at the state level to keep our teenagers and everyone on our roads safe.”

Scott plans to sign the texting ban, SB 52, on Tuesday at Alonzo and Tracy Mourning Senior High School in Miami.

The legislation would make texting while driving a secondary offense. Motorists could be ticketed only if law enforcement officials stopped them for another reason, like careless driving.

A ticket could cost first-time offenders $30, plus court costs. But the bill includes exemptions that allow motorists to use phones to check maps, use voice-commands or listen to the radio through their phones.

Drivers also could text while stopped at a light, under the legislation. Talking on a cell phone would not be restricted.

In a move that may sound a little like rain on your wedding day, a leading online reputation-building company announced Wednesday that former Florida House Speaker Dean Cannon has joined its board of advisors.

ReputationChanger.com, whose website says it is dedicated to “protecting and advocating for our clients’ online images,” is part of a growing industry of digital message-shapers.

Cannon, R-Winter Park, ended his two-year stint as House Speaker last fall and since has opened a Tallahassee lobbying firm, Capitol Insight, with another Republican ex-speaker, Larry Cretul, among his employees.

Cannon’s path from being on the receiving end of lobbying to actually doing lobbying himself isn’t uncommon at the Capitol. But the trajectory became harshly condemned by senators this spring as they crafted a new state ethics law.

The measure approved by lawmakers and signed into law earlier this month by Gov. Rick Scott extends a current, two-year ban on former legislators lobbying the Legislature to include a new, two-year restriction on ex-lawmakers lobbying the executive branch and state agencies.

In a statement, ReputationChanger.com president Michael Zammuto said there was a ”natural synergy” between ReputationChanger.com and Capitol Insight.

“Online reputation management is critical across the political process, and indeed, political campaigns worldwide are won and lost on the basis of online reputation and the effectiveness of their online strategies,” Zammuto said.  “As such, ReputationChanger.com has been busily gearing up for the
next election cycle, and expanding our services in the political realm.”

In the company statement, Cannon said, “The usefulness of online reputation management in the political campaign process is difficult to overstate.”

“Just imagine,” he added, “If an unflattering news headline or erroneous accusation come to light, a company like ReputationChanger.com can help political campaigns get the facts of their message out aggressively, and even push those unwanted headlines off the first page of an online search results page. This can be a huge potential advantage for any political campaign.”

 

 

The ever-acerbic Senate President Don Gaetz spared no venom for Florida TaxWatch in a response to the business-backed group’s budget “turkey” list released earlier today.

The self-proclaimed government watchdog’s method of targeting the turkeys – which include $14 million for a Gulf Coast State College Panama City campus – that haven’t been approved by state agencies “is built on the unconstitutional perversion” that Gaetz, R-Niceville, said in a statement.

“This is an arrogance of the elite who spend too much time in Tallahassee and Washington listening to the echoes of their own invented wisdom and thinking they’re hearing the voice of God,” Gaetz went on.

Read Gaetz’s rant after the jump.
(more…)

The Florida Supreme Court was asked Thursday to let a lawsuit proceed in circuit court on whether Republican legislative leaders violated new redistricting standards by sharing critical data and proposed maps with political consultants.

But a lawyer for the state House and Senate said the challenge by voters groups including the Florida League of Women Voters, Common Cause and National Council of  La Raza, should be dismissed.

Former Justice Raoul Cantero, representing the Legislature, said the state constitution allows only the Supreme Court to rule on the state’s redistricting plan — and validated the once-a-decade rewrite last year.

Cantero said that allowing the voters’ group challenge to proceed “opens up the possibility for serial redistricting litigation.”

Justice Charles Canady agreed.

“There can be a succession of claims and this can go on and on and on,” Canady warned. “We can be litigation the redistricting plan for the next decade.”

But Justice Barbara Pariente said that the voter-approved Fair District amendments to the constitution, which prohibit districts from being drawn to help or hurt incumbents, have complicated the existing constitutional standards for redistricting.

The “intent” of legislators is a factor courts must consider. That’s not likely possible to determine in the narrow time-frame given the Supreme Court for review of redistricting plans, she said.

“It may be a little messy until we get the law straightened out,” Pariente said.

The voters’ groups want a lower court to determine whether the Senate and congressional maps are invalid, because Republican leaders violated the Fair Districts standards. Court documents in that case filed in Leon County Circuit Court show that emails were exchanged between aides to Senate President Don Gaetz, House Speaker Will Weatherford and consultants who analyzed proposed maps.

The emails also show that in 2010, Rich Heffley, a Florida Republican Party consultant advising Gaetz, then the Senate’s redistricting chairman, organized a “brainstorming” meeting at the state party headquarters in Tallahassee. Other documents in the case show that Sen. Andy Gardiner, R-Orlando, and Sen. Jack Latvala, R-Clearwater, who are both angling for Senate presidency in coming years, emailed district information to consultants for review.

 

 

Senate Democrats quietly elected Arthenia Joyner to take over as chairwoman of the caucus next year in a behind-closed-doors meeting on the last day of the legislative session.

Joyner, a Tampa lawyer, will become the first black woman to chair the caucus, now chaired by Sen. Chris Smith, a Fort Lauderdale lawyer.

Joyner was selected without fanfare and during an unannounced meeting, a departure from how House Democrats handled a contested election won by Rep. Darryl Rouson, a St. Petersburg lawyer, in February. The House caucus election, broadcast on The Florida Channel, resulted in a tie vote. Rouson won by a single vote in a second round of balloting.

Florida Democratic Party Chairwoman Allison Tant called Joyner “a tireless advocate for Democratic values and ally to Florida’s middle class families” in a press release announcing her election.

The secretary of state won’t be able to punish elections supervisors under a modified elections package approved by the Florida House and sent to the Senate for final passage.

The Senate is expected to finalize the measure, which requires supervisors instead to post online a report of their preparations three months prior to the election, in one of the last actions before the 2013 session ends later this afternoon.

The Senate had wanted to give the secretary of state, appointed by the governor, the authority to put the locally elected officials on probation and force them to pass a test before being able to be removed from “noncompliant status.”

But House Speaker Will Weatherford, R-Wesley Chapel, sided with the supervisors, who objected that Detzner already has the authority to review the local officials’ preparedness, give them written directions and take them to court if he believes they aren’t complying with the law.

Before the session began, Gov. Rick Scott, Weatherford, and Senate President Don Gaetz, R-Niceville, pledged to do something to fix the long lines and up to eight-hour waits encountered by many voters last fall.

Under the plan expected to go to Scott for signature, supervisors can choose from between eight and 14 days of early voting and stay open from eight to 12 hours per day. The 2011 law, HB 1355, shrank early voting from 14 to 8 days. GOP insiders said the 2011 law was designed to cut back on Democratic turnout in the 2012 election, a reaction to Florida Democrats’ support for President Obama in 2008 that helped him into the White House.

This year’s proposal also gives supervisors more options for early voting sites, and would allow add civic centers, fairgrounds, courthouses and government-run senior centers to the city halls, public libraries and elections offices they can now use.

“Reform is never final…We should be ready always to come here and make adjustments if we can make things better,” said Rep. Dennis Baxley, R-Ocala, the sponsor of HB 1355.

Democrats applauded the effort but said it didn’t go far enough to reverse a 2011 elections package they blame for many of the problems.

Rep. Janet Cruz, who was the lead Democrat on the elections bill, called the effort “a very, very good big, big first step in solving the difficulties that our voters have faced.”

But, she added, “I want our citizens to know that we are not finished.”

Democrats contend that voters should still be allowed to change their addresses at the polls on election day. Current law, changed in 2011, requires voters who move outside of the county to cast provisional ballots – which have a greater likelihood of being tossed – if they don’t update their address before Election Day. Democrats contend that kept many college students from casting regular ballots in the fall.

The bill takes “solid steps” to “reform the deform that had happened” with HB 1355, incoming House Democratic Leader Darryl Rouson, D-St. Petersburg, said. The bill isn’t “where we want to be but it’s better than where we are,” he said.

“Some of us feel like the bill hasn’t gone far enough. We want to go back to pre-1355,” Rouson said.

The Florida House and Senate began making their first moves toward the exit Friday, debating a $74.5 billion state budget set to be approved on the 60-day session’s final scheduled day.

The budget for the year beginning July 1 is poised to be the largest in state history. In House closing speeches, there was plenty of praise for $1 billion increase in school spending, pay raises for state employees for the first time in seven years, and dozens of hometown projects scattered throughout the budget.

There was also a measure of relief. Legislators were helped by the first budget surplus since before the recession.

“Because of fiscally sound management and making hard decision, today we can celebrate a great time of restoration,” said Rep. Dennis Baxley, R-Ocala.

Most of the outnumbered Democratic caucus, which fought unsuccessfully to expand health care to uninsured Floridians, sided with ruling Republicans on the spending plan.

“There’s light at the end of the tunnel, and it’s not another train,” said Rep. Joe Gibbons, D-Hallandale Beach.

But several Democrats called for Gov. Rick Scott to veto the budget and call lawmakers back into a later special session. Scott had allied with Democrats and the Republican-led Senate in looking to position Florida to draw $51 billion in federal Medicaid money to cover more than 1 million uninsured Floridians.

Rep. Mark Pafford, D-West Palm Beach, was among those who indicated they will vote against the measure.

“The budget is not plugged into the reality that exists outside this chamber,” Pafford said.

Tuskegee Airman Cornelius Davis, a 92-year-old Blountstown resident, posed for photos with Florida senators who honored him with a resolution on the final day of the 2013 legislative session.

Senate President Don Gaetz, R-Niceville, praised Davis, part of the group of the U.S. War Department’s experiment to prove blacks were able to serve as military pilots, for his heroism.

“You know the story. Mr. Davis and those with whom he fought broke the color barrier. They broke the records for skill and kills. And then they broke the teeth of the Nazi air fleet of the skies of Europe.
If you want to say that you’ve been in the presence of a hero, you were this morning,” Gaetz said before the chamber gave Davis a standing ovation.

With less than 72 hours left in the session and two priorities of House Speaker Will Weatherford and Senate President Don Gaetz hanging in the balance, the Senate overwhelmingly approved a manufacturing equipment tax break, one of just two items on Gov. Rick Scott’s wishlist.

The modified tax break approved by a 37-3 vote late Wednesday would exempt manufacturers from paying sales tax on manufacturing equipment for three years. Scott’s original proposal would have cost the state about $100 million per year, but the plan approved by the Senate would shrink that to about $18 million, according to the amendment’s sponsor, Sen. Dorothy Hukill, R-Port Orange. Senate Democratic Leader Chris Smith of Fort Lauderdale and Democratic Sens. Jeff Clemens of Lake Worth and Arthenia Joyner of Tampa voted against it.

“(Scott’s) had modest requests this session. I think we need to get behind him,” Sen. Rob Bradley, R-Fleming Island, said before the vote.

Lawmakers moved closer to Scott’s other priority – a $2,500 across-the-board pay raise for teachers – yesterday.

Meanwhile, Scott has until midnight tonight to act on two of the GOP leaders top priorities: ethics and campaign finance measures.

Scott has repeatedly voiced concerns about the campaign finance changes, pushed by Weatherford, which would increase current $500 campaign contribution limits for statewide candidates like Scott, who is running for reelection, to $3,000 and to $1,000 for legislative and local candidates.

Teachers and other school personnel could get a pay raise earlier than next year under a budget agreement reached Wednesday between the House and Senate.

But the deal still would require Palm Beach County and many other school districts to develop a teacher evaluation system required before the pay hikes can be distributed. The county and teachers’ union representatives have been working on an evaluation system, talks that could accelerate with the latest budget deal.

“It helps that the counties are being given this flexibility,” said Vern Pickup-Crawford, lobbyist for county schools.

Under the Legislature’s initial plan, teachers graded “effective” would be eligible for a $2,500 pay raise, beginning in June 2014. Those rated “highly effective” would be eligible for $3,500.

But Wednesday, House and Senate budget negotiators agreed to allow districts to hand out the raises before that date — as long as they were based on teacher evaluations.

The Legislature in 2011 required that teacher evaluations be shaped heavily by student performance and be in place by next year. The Florida Education Association has sued to overturn the requirement — but linking pay raises to the evaluation system could complicate that challenge.

Lawmakers had already agreed to spend $480 million this year on the pay-hikes sought by Gov. Rick Scott. But legislators insisted they be give out based on job performance, not across-the-board, as the governor recommended.

The Legislature also expanded the pool of those eligible to tap into the $480 million pool to include guidance counselors, librarians, school psychologists, social workers, principals and assistant principals. The FEA has criticized the move as likely reducing the amount available to teachers.

Scott, though, has said that all teachers should be able to get pay raises of at least $2,000 each, under the pay plan.

David Abbott is making a last-ditch effort to get lawmakers to save his father’s life.

Abbott set up easels with photographs of his father, Carl Abbott, on the fourth floor of the Capitol rotunda Wednesday afternoon as the clock winds down until the legislative session ends on Friday.

Abbott says the clock is ticking on his father as well.

Carl Abbott desperately needs the $1.9 million the Palm Beach County School Board agreed to pay him when he was run over by a school bus in 2008, Abbott’s doctor said in a letter to House Speaker Will Weatherford, R-Wesley Chapel, and Senate President Don Gaetz. The money, that the Legislature has withheld for three years, would enable Abbott to get rigorous medical treatment to regain some semblance of a normal life. Without it, “his life expectancy will in all likelihood be reduced,” Dr. Pierre Deltor wrote.

The Senate is refusing to act on any claims until the system is reformed and an attempt by a House committee to revamp the system went nowhere this year.

“Reform is not my issue. Getting my dad the help he needs is the issue. It’s my only concern. Reform is going to take years. My dad doesn’t have the time to wait,” Abbott said Wednesday.

When asked about Abbott’s bill last week, Gaetz said he was unaware of the specifics of his case and called the 72-year-old North Palm Beach man’s condition a perfect example of why reforms are needed.

“That’s tragic. That makes it all the more important that we have a claims bill process that does not rely upon who the lobbyist is or what the emotion is and doesn’t make the Senate into a finder of fact,” Gaetz said.

Under the principle of “sovereign immunity” the state limits the amount people can collect from the government for wrongdoing. The only way around what is now a $200,000 cap is persuading the Legislature to lift it. Critics of the system, including Gaetz, say the system is flawed in part because powerful lobbyists have too much influence – and make too much money – in the process.

David Abbott said he was aware of Gaetz’s opposition to the claims bills process but traveled from Palm Beach County to Tallahassee anyway to make Gaetz and Weatherford aware of his father’s situation.

“The squeaky wheel gets the grease,” he said. “My dad’s a victim here. He was a victim when he was hit by the school bus. And now he’s a victim because he can’t get the help he needs.”

Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz blasted Gov. Rick Scott for failing to use his clout to push the House to approve a Medicaid expansion that could cover 1 million uninsured Floridians.

The U.S. congresswoman from Weston also accused House Speaker Will Weatherford and the GOP-dominated House of “slavishness ideological dogma” behind their rejection of the Senate plan crafted by Sen. Joe Negron, R-Stuart.

“Sickness, illness and death…will be their legacy,” Wasserman Schultz told the Senate Democratic Caucus this morning.

Wasserman Schultz, a one-time Florida legislator who served in both the state House and Senate, also blamed Scott for “having a deathbed conversion” about the Medicaid expansion and failing to use his bully pulpit to push the House to pass it.

With three work days left until the legislative ends on Friday, Scott has focused primarily on his two priorities – $2,500 across-the-board pay raises for teachers and a manufacturing equipment tax break – and is scheduled to work from 8 a.m until 2:30 p.m. today, including photo opportunity for the last half hour of the day.

The final week is “the most frenzied, intense time of the entire legislative session,” Wasserman Schultz said.

“The governor and his staff should be in the trenches working the phones, working the halls, doing everything they can to pass their priorities,” she said. “It’s just demonstrative repeatedly of his utter lack of leadership.”

Scott, who is running for reelection, is “trying to have his cake and eat it, too” by publicly supporting the proposal to provide health insurance for the poor, which has broad support from voters, but doing nothing to force the House to act, Wasserman Schultz said.

“Leaders take the initiative. They don’t wait to be asked. We’ll need to elect somebody else.”

She sidestepped a question about whether former Gov. Charlie Crist, a Republican-turned-independent-turned-Democrat, would be a better replacement.

“I have no idea and I’m not here to talk about that,” she said.

Wasserman Schultz also praised Florida House Democrats for “rightfully” slowing down the session with a procedural maneuver forcing all legislation to be read in full in retaliation for the GOP’s refusal to support the Senate Medicaid plan.

Former U.S. Sen. Bob Graham, who also served as governor, also appeared at the Senate Dems meeting this morning.

He congratulated them for joining with several GOP lawmakers to defeat a controversial “parent trigger” bill and a pension overhaul for state workers.

Teachers may not have to wait to get performance-based raises included in the state budget, according to Senate President Don Gaetz.

Gov. Rick Scott had wanted $2,500 across-the-board pay raises for teachers. House and Senate budget leaders this weekend agreed to $480 million for raises but with some limitations. Teachers graded “effective” will be eligible for a $2,500 pay raise, beginning in June 2014. Those rated “highly effective” would be eligible for $3,500.

Gaetz, R-Niceville, said Senate budget conforming bills due out later this week will make it clear that pay raises can be based on a “formative” teacher assessment instead of one based on student performance that won’t go into effect until 2014 and that would have held up the raises.

“In my experience as a school superintendent, we were able to evaluate students and evaluate effective teaching based not just on summative assessments at the end of a school year but based on formative assessments as we go along,” Gaetz, a former Okaloosa County superintendent, told reporters late Tuesday afternoon.

“As far as I’m concerned, teachers who earn their increases in pay ought to be able to get them as soon as school districts develop a plan to do so, collectively bargain that plan with their unions, submit the plan to the commissioner of education and have it confirmed,” he said.

Gaetz blamed Scott for the delay.

“We simply followed the governor’s proposal as to the timing of the pay increase…But I’m sure that the governor didn’t mean to unnecessarily delay the pay increase,” he said. “My hope is we ought to go forward and give Florida teachers the pay increase that they deserve especially because we have a pay increase…which is based on performance.”

The Senate defeated one of House Speaker Will Weatherford’s top priorities of the session Tuesday, refusing to go along with a dramatic overhaul of the Florida Retirement System.

The 22-18 vote followed emotional speeches by several senators — including Sen. Jack Latvala, who fought back tears as he recalled a pair of state firefighters killed two years ago while battling a wildfire.

The Clearwater Republican said the men earned $26,000-a-year for the jobs that cost their lives.

Latvala said the House’s pension proposal not only diminished the service of state workers, it threatened the retirement plans of the teachers, police, firefighters and other government employees in the plan.

“We’re talking about 623,000 Florida lives,” Latvala said. “That’s who’s in this retirement system today.”

Sen. Wilton Simpson, R-Trilby, had proposed a Senate plan that included incentives for employees who chose to join the FRS’s 401(k)-style investment plan instead of its traditional pension plan.

But on Tuesday, Simpson sought to replace his approach with one favored by the House, which closed the traditional pension plan to new employees. To soften the impact, Simpson’s proposal wouldn’t take effect until January 2015, giving the state time to consider steps the improve the investment plan.

Simpson said his revised proposal would be good for younger workers — many of whom don’t work for governments long enough to qualify for the conventional pension. Shifting more workers into an investment plan also would ease the state’s pension costs, freeing more dollars for lawmakers to pump into education, health care and other programs, Simpson said.

“The more we have to put into a defined benefit plan now, the less we can do…in what our priorities are,” Simpson said.

But a majority of the Senate was clearly wary.

“This is kind of unconscionable. It’s not the right thing to do,” said Sen. Gwen Margolis, D-Miami Beach.

After the vote, Simpson said the House-Senate struggle over revamping the Florida Retirement System had ended. No changes will be made this spring.

“It’s dead. It’s over,” Simpson concluded.

House Democrats declared a tactical war Tuesday on ruling Republicans.

Outnumbered Democrats demanded that legislation be read in full — a retaliatory move stemming from the GOP’s refusal to support a Senate plan that would draw federal Medicaid dollars and expand health coverage for poor Floridians.

House Speaker Will Weatherford, R-Wesley Chapel, huddled with members of his leadership team after word of the Democratic plot began circulating early Tuesday.  But he couldn’t stop it.

“There needs to be some clarity on the bills, so we need to read them in full,” Weatherford grimly told the House by early afternoon.

House Democratic Leader Perry Thurston of Fort Lauderdale made the rarely used motion that launched the slowdown. Weatherford, anticipating Thurston’s ploy, had House staff dust off an “auto-reader,” which was used to begin reading the lengthy legislation at slow speed.

The machine was last used several years ago, during a similar stand-off between then-House Democratic Leader Dan Gelber of Miami Beach and former House Speaker Marco Rubio.

Earlier Tuesday, the Senate approved its health care proposal on a 38-1 vote. The proposal positions Florida to draw $51 billion in Medicaid dollars over the next decade for creating a Healthy Florida plan that would cover 1.1 million low-income Floridians.

In a mostly partyline vote, the House earlier voted down an amendment that reflected the Senate proposal. The House said it is wrong to rely on the federal dollars and has approved its own plan to use $237 million in state taxpayer dollars to cover 115,000 Floridians.

Democrats, the Senate and Gov. Rick Scott have dismissed the House proposal as mostly worthless.

But the House-Senate deadlock virtually assures that the session will end this week without any consensus on how to expand health coverage in Florida, where almost 4 million are uninsured.

The slowdown also threatens legislation. Reading lengthy bills by machine absorbs time — and Democrats seem willing to let the session expire without much more action.

Amid the slowdown, Thurston issued a statement.

“It’s unfortunate that we have had to take such unusual action today, but my Democratic colleagues and I believe that
a drastic situation requires drastic tactics. The 1.2 million people who can be provided medical coverage under proposed legislation may not be aware of what’s transpiring in Tallahassee. Today, I want them to know that the 44-member House Democratic Caucus stands in support of them.”

Weatherford later said, “It’s a little disappointing and frankly unbecoming for some members to want to slow down the process. We have a lot of work to do. The citizens of Florida sent us here to get work done.”

 

A texting-while-driving ban hit a rough patch Tuesday after the Florida House agreed to sharply restrict law enforcement’s access to phone records.

The amendment, pushed by Rep. Jose Oliva, R-Miami Lakes, was approved 73-46. But many text-ban supporters said the timing of the provision threatens the bill as lawmakers race toward the legislative session’s scheduled Friday finish.

Rep. Jim Waldman, D-Coconut Creek, also warned that the change in the bill (CS/SB 52) also would eliminate the possibility of prosecuting anyone for texting behind the wheel.

“From a policy standpoint, this really takes away the ability of the prosecutor to prove the case,” Waldman said.

Oliva’s amendment prohibits a motorist’s cell phone records from being used by prosecutors, except in a case involving a crash resulting in death or personal injury. The Senate approved the legislation two weeks ago on a 36-0 vote.

But with the session winding down, the bill – with the new House provision — must go back to the Senate for approval.

Oliva defended his amendment as aimed at safeguarding the rights of Floridians.

“It only speaks to civil liberties,” Oliva said. “It does nothing to the core functions of the law.”

Under the legislation,  texting while driving would be a secondary offense. Motorists could be ticketed only if law enforcement officials stopped them for another reason.

A ticket could cost first-time offenders $30, plus court costs. But the bill includes exemptions allowing people to use phones to check maps, use voice-commands or listen to the radio through their phones.

Drivers also could text while stopped at a light, under the legislation. Talking on a cell phone would not be restricted.

Florida would become the 40th state in the nation with a text-while-driving ban, if the legislation resurfaces and is approved in the session’s closing days. Gov. Rick Scott has indicated he supports the ban.