Gov. Rick Scott signed into law a $74.1 billion state budget for the year beginning July 1 — vetoing $368 million Monday from the proposal approved by lawmakers earlier this month.

Erased with the vetoes was $6.5 million sought by Palm Beach State College for a new campus in Loxahatchee Groves — the third time such funding has been wiped out by a Florida governor. Another $325,000 in projects along the Lake Worth Lagoon sought by Palm Beach County officials also was vetoed.

Sheriff Ric Bradshaw also lost $1 million he had sought to form a special unit to head off potential violence by what law enforcement considered unstable residents.

In statewide issues, Scott vetoed a 3 percent tuition increase proposed for college and university students — a hike the governor has criticized for months. Meeting with reporters after signing the spending plan, Scott touted the budget’s additional $1 billion for public schools, including $480 million for teacher pay raises.

He also laid out his rationale for reviewing spending items in the budget.

“One, is it going to help our families get more jobs? Two, will it help improve our education system in our state? And three, will it help make government more efficient so we keep the cost of living low in our state?” Scott said.

Singling out the tuition increase, Scott said, “I worry about the cost of higher education…some people think I shouldn’t get involved in that.”

But he added, “I am absolutely committed to keeping tuition low. This is not a political decision, this is a decision for Florida families.”

The state budget for 2013-14 will $4.1 billion bigger than the one that expires June 30, a roughly 6 percent increase.

Along with the $1 billion boost for public school spending; pay raises and bonuses for 160,000 state workers and higher education employees are included for the first time in seven years. Lawmakers also included $2.8 billion in budget reserves, that will swell now to more than $3 billion with the $368 million in vetoes.

In Palm Beach County, lawmakers and county officials had been optimistic that Scott would allow several hometown spending items become law. Instead, Scott swept through most of the county’s take-home list.

County officials lost $1 million budgeted for Glades Utility Authority pipeline improvements, $75,000 for the masterplan for Torry Island, a Lake Okeechobee marina that also was vetoed last year by Scott. Also lost was $200,000 for shoreline work in Lake Park and $1 million for two road projects in Riviera Beach.

Among the bigger single-item vetoes was $14 million for a new science, technology, engineering and math building at Gulf Coast State College in the home district of Senate President Don Gaetz, R-Niceville.

Gaetz was generally stoic.

“While many will disagree with some of Gov. Scott’s line item vetoes, that is his constitutional role as chief executive,” Gaetz said. “The next budget and policy cycle begins at sunrise tomorrow and we in the Senate look forward to our role as partners with the House…and the governor.”

 

Gov. Rick Scott is scheduled to sign the state budget into law shortly after noon today, likely trimming back the $74.5 billion spending plan approved by lawmakers with a few million dollars worth of vetoes.

A 3 percent tuition hike for college and university students already looks doomed. Scott’s staff has leaked to a wire service details about the governor’s intention to veto the increase — which he has signaled for months.

In Palm Beach County, much of the focus is on the fate of $6.5 million approved for Palm Beach State College to begin work on a new Loxahatchee Groves campus. Scott vetoed money for the western campus two years ago — as did former Gov. Charlie Crist before him. But college officials hope the third time proves the charm for the campus cash.

PBSC last fall spent $4.5 million finalizing the purchase of land for the new site. Supporters think that could make a difference when it comes to dodging the governor’s veto pen.

“Hopefully, this is the year,” PBSC spokeswoman Grace Truman told the Palm Beach Post last week.

Scott vetoed $142.7 million in spending last year, a year after he set a record by vetoing $615 million just months after taking office. The state budget year begins July 1.

While not exactly rivaling Times Square on New Year’s Eve, anticipation is mounting across Florida over Gov. Rick Scott’s pending action on the state’s $74.5 billion budget.

Scott is heading to Chile next week for a trade mission. While Scott has until May 24 to issue vetoes and sign the spending plan into law, speculation is centered on Scott likely acting this week.

In Palm Beach County and across Florida, advocates are making a final defense of hometown items included in the budget. The budget, approved by lawmakers earlier this month, is for the year beginning July 1.

“We’ve got a lot of people working on it,” Todd Bonlarron, the county’s lobbyist, said Tuesday. “In some cases, we’re asking the governor’s office to look at some of these issues with a fresh set of eyes.”

A similar tactic is being used by Palm Beach State College, which is eager to have Scott endorse $6.5 million in state funding for the school’s Loxahatchee Groves campus.

PBSC officials have been in this spot before. Money for the new, western campus has been twice vetoed — once by former Gov. Charlie Crist and also two years ago by Scott.

But PBSC last fall spent $4.5 million finalizing the purchase of land for the new site. Supporters think that could make a difference when it comes to dodging the governor’s veto pen.

“Some of our board members have been trying to talk it up to the governor and his staff,” said Grace Truman, a PBSC spokeswoman. “Hopefully, this is the year.”

Bonlarron said the county has similar hopes for its projects. Scott last year vetoed $50,000 state lawmakers included for the county to develop a master plan for the Torry Island marina on Lake Okeechobee. It’s back this year, at $75,000.

Another $1 million in the budget is set to help the county make pipeline repairs for the Glades Utility Authority. While three projects in the financially-strapped Belle Glade-area have been vetoed by Scott in the past two years, Bonlarron said, “the county is still committed to seeking help.”

Also likely to draw a close look from the governor is $1 million budgeted for Sheriff Ric Bradshaw’s “violence prevention” unit.

Bradshaw said the program can help law enforcement intercede before a mentally unstable or violence-prone individual causes mayhem.

But Scott’s office in recent weeks has received more than 200 emails from citizens urging he veto the money. Many critics liken the program’s anonymous tip hotline for reporting suspicious neighbors to something derived from Nazi Germany or George Orwell.

For his part, Scott and his advisors have been keeping a poker face.

At visits to Miami and Jupiter today, the governor said only that he is still reviewing the budget and wouldn’t be pinned down to acting before flying to Chile.

With Gov. Rick Scott stopping at a Palm Beach County school Monday to tout teacher pay raises, the Florida Republican Party launched an internet strike on Democratic Rep. Mark Pafford of West Palm Beach, one of 11 lawmakers voting against the state’s proposed $74.5 billion budget.

‘Why Did Pafford vote against Governor’s budget that’s a win for public schools,’ was one of the headlines in a Florida GOP release that interlaced newspaper stories on the teacher pay raise with stinging words for Pafford.

Pafford was accused of being part of a ‘(Dis) appreciation week for teachers.’

“They apparently didn’t listen to my debate,” Pafford said Monday of the GOP criticism.

Pafford said he voted ‘no’ on the budget because it failed to adequately serve poor Floridians, the elderly and disabled. Mostly, he centered his opposition on the Legislature’s failure to expand health insurance to low-income residents, a battle that consumed much of the session and ended in a stalemate between the House and Senate.

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

The GOP blast on Pafford came shortly after Scott toured Wynnebrook Elementary School in West Palm Beach, among a handful of school stops the governor plans to make this week. The budget includes $480 million that could give teachers a $2,500 pay raises by next June.

 

 

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.”

House and Senate budget leaders have awarded Palm Beach County Sheriff Ric Bradshaw $1 million for a new violence prevention unit aimed at preventing tragedies like Sandy Hook from occurring on his turf.

It’s just one-third of what Bradshaw had sought from the Legislature, but it’s a ten-fold bump from what was originally in the budget before House and Senate budget leaders finalized the state’s $74 billion budget this weekend.

Bradshaw wants to use the money for a 15-person “prevention intervention” unit made up of five deputies, five mental health professionals, five caseworkers and a 24-hour hotline where citizens can report neighbors, friends or family members they fear may harm themselves or others.

Bradshaw told lawmakers last month he hopes the hotline and the unit can stop potentially dangerous people before they act out.

Bradshaw’s proposal is a first-of-its-kind in the nation, and he hopes it will become a model for the rest of the state like his gang prevention and pill mill units.

It’s part of the magical budget conference process where House and Senate budget negotiators hash out their differences that items can get increased. In Bradshaw’s case, both the House and Senate had included $100,000 in the criminal justice budget. But over the weekend, Senate budget chief Joe Negron, R-Stuart, added another $450,000 in the Senate’s “supplemental budget” list and his House counterpart Seth McKeel, R-Lakeland, added the same amount.

The proposal still needs the blessing of Gov. Rick Scott, who has a line-item veto authority.

Palm Beach State College is positioned to draw $6.5 million for its new and controversial Loxahatchee Groves campus under state budget decisions reached late Saturday by House and Senate negotiators.

Also set to be included in the state’s $74-billion-plus spending plan is about $3 million for water projects across Palm Beach County, including $1 million for utility upgrades in financially-strapped Belle Glade and $400,000 for drainage work in Riviera Beach.

“We’ve pretty much wrapped up the numbers portion of the budget,” said Senate Budget Chief Joe Negron, R-Stuart.

Negron and his House counterpart, Rep. Seth McKeel, R-Lakeland, will continue efforts tomorrow to reach consensus on legislation and technical provisions needed to implement the budget for the year beginning July 1.

Lawmakers have been flush with cash this spring for the first time in seven years, and it showed in Saturday’s homestretch negotiations. When the House and Senate offered rival lists of utility projects and college and university building efforts, Negron and McKeel found money to finance them all.

Among spending getting the go-ahead is $1.3 million for environmental improvements on the Loxahatchee River and $475,000 for seagrass, reef and other work on the Lake Worth Lagoon.

But the Palm Beach State College money has the potential to have the biggest effect on the county.

PBSC has been working on getting a fifth campus for five years and, with Saturday’s budget agreement, looks close to landing state cash to accomplish that goal this year in Loxahatchee Groves.

Whatever is approved by lawmakers, remains subject to review by Gov. Rick Scott. He hinted this week that he may freely wield his veto pen after lawmakers vote on the budget — which is expected Friday, the legislative session’s final scheduled day.

PBSC spokeswoman Grace Truman earlier told the Post that school officials feel they have made a strong case for receiving state funds.

“We’ve had the money proposed before, even had it vetoed once, but when we spent $4.5 million last fall for the land, I think that showed our commitment to the new campus,” Truman said.

But a petition drive by almost 300 Loxahatchee Groves residents opposing expansion, and the commercial development it will bring, continues to cloud the site.

Opponents want the expansion put to a voter referendum. But the town clerk has ruled the petition failed to meet terms of the town charter. The clerk’s ruling is now subject of a lawsuit by a residents group opposed to the campus.

The opening prayers delivered in the Florida House have become what critics call the “J.C. moment,” said Rep. Jim Waldman, D-Coconut Creek, who Friday told Speaker Will Weatherford that many Jewish members are offended by frequent references to Jesus Christ.

“I can’t tell someone how to pray,” Weatherford, R-Wesley Chapel, told Waldman before the start of Friday’s session.

The House opening prayers are typically given by clergy from around the state, who are invited by individual lawmakers.

Before speaking, those giving the prayer are provided a one-page guide from House administration suggesting they refrain from “preaching or testifying to the public.”

They also are urged to “be especialy sensitive to expressions that may be unsuitable to members of some faiths.”

Waldman said he and other Jewish House members have heard enought. He said Rep. Kevin Rader, D-Delray Beach, whose wife is a rabbi, typically enters the House chambers only after the prayer is completed — to avoid an uncomfortable moment.

“There’s just statements about the father, son and holy spirit,” Waldman said. “It’s just not non-denomination. I don’t care that it’s optional. That shouldn’t be the limit test. It should be inclusive. And it’s not inclusive.”

Weatherford said he would consider the criticism.

Complaints about the style of prayer delivered in the House and Senate have cropped up before.

One of the most contentious periods occured in 1997, the first year Republicans controlled both the House and Senate since Florida’s Reconstruction period.

Orlando evangelist William Bright, founder of Campus Crusade for Christ, that year delivered benedictions before the Senate and a joint session of both legislative chambers in which he attacked abortion, divorce and cited Jesus Christ as, ”the true God, the only God.”

Jewish legislators were joined by several non-Jewish moderate and liberal lawmakers in tarring the prayer as ”insensitive.”

Amid the criticism, then-House Speaker Daniel Webster’s staff researched prayers delivered during the previous Democratic House Speaker’s two-year tenure and found 11 instances where Jesus was mentioned, none of which apparently drew any objections.

Former Secretary of State Kurt Browning called a provision included in the Senate’s election package yesterday allowing the secretary of state to dock election supervisors pay and essentially put them on probation “bad public policy.”

Browning served more than two decades as the Pasco County supervisor of elections before going to work for Gov. Charlie Crist as secretary of state in 2006. Browning stepped down from the post for the second time last year and was elected Pasco County schools superintendent in November.

Browning was in the Capitol on Wednesday for school superintendents’ meeting with his one-time boss, Gov. Rick Scott.

The provision included in the Senate plan on the floor Wednesday would allow Browning’s successor, Secretary of State Ken Detzner, to put supervisors on a minimum one-year “non-compliant status” if they don’t meet certain standards. And he could make them ineligible for yearly $2,000 bonuses available to all constitutional officers who meet certain annual training requirements.

“Show me another constitutional officer that has that kind of penalty. Granted, supervisors need to do their jobs just like superintendents, sheriffs, clerks, tax collectors, property appraisers. But (the state department) need to deal with individuals. They don’t need to be putting sanctions on an entire group. That’s my opinion,” Browning said.

Supervisors had supported the bill (HB 7013) but were livid over the amendment sponsored by Sen. Miguel Diaz de la Portilla, R-Miami. He said he came up with the plan in response to problems in five counties, including Palm Beach and St. Lucie, deemed “low-performing” by Detzner after the November elections.

Progressive groups decried another provision in the bill limiting voter assistance. Under the measure, someone could only give assistance to voters they know personally before Election Day and caps the number of people they can assist at 10. Advancement Project and other voting rights groups believe the provision is a violation of the Voting Rights Act. The restriction would keep ministers and civil rights volunteers from helping out at the polls, Advancement Project spokeswoman Jennifer Farmer said. The left-leaning Florida New Majority scrambled to find Creole interpreters to fill a shortage in Miami-Dade County in November.

“There is no rationale, moral or legitimate argument for this amendment. This amendment hurts some our most vulnerable citizens – the elderly, people with disabilities, people who don’t speak English, and voters who are unable to read or fully understand ballot language,” Farmer said in an e-mail.

Florida cities, counties, public hospitals and other “sovereign” entities have put the brakes on an overhaul of the state’s claims bill process that allows people who have been harmed or injured by local governments to get paid more than $200,000 without the Legislature’s approval.

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Tom Lee, R-Brandon, said a House plan to revamp the system is too contentious to tackle this year.

“It’s very, very controversial. It’s a total change of direction,” Lee said. “That’s going to take a lot of time and energy.”

As a result, the Senate won’t hear any claims bills this year at the direction of Senate President Don Gaetz, R-Niceville, who has said he won’t allow any of the bills to come up without a reform.

The House Select Committee on Claims Bills last week approved a plan that would raise the current $200,000 caps on individual payments to $1 million and $300,000 per-incident cap to $1.5 million to encourage local governments to purchase insurance or self-insure. The proposal would also impose a “hard cap” on payments for those with insurance by barring individuals who get those payments from being able to seek additional money.

No action on claims bills this year means that the family of Carl Abbott, a North Palm Beach man who was badly injured when a Palm Beach County school bus ran him over 2008, will have to wait at least another year for a $1.9 million settlement reached with the school board in 2009.

Abbott’s son, David, wants to use the money to move his father, now living in a nursing home and unable to eat on his own, into a facility where he can get rehabilitative care.

Lee said the claims bill process is troubled and inconsistent.

“My perspective has always been if we’re going to have sovereign immunity, then let’s have sovereign immunity. Why are we up here waiving it all the time just because there’s a difficult political situation?
I’ve never really understood the subjectiveness of the claims bill process and why somebody with the right lobbyist and the right lawyer and the right legislator behind it all of a sudden gets a huge payout for somebody when somebody else doesn’t,” he said. “It’s an imperfect process. We’re going to try to make it better. But it’s a heavy lift to try to reform that system. And until we do, we’re not going to be hearing any claims bills.”

Palm Beach County Sheriff Ric Bradshaw convinced state lawmakers that his “prevention intervention” plan is worth funding, at least for now.

The Florida House has included $100,000 for Bradshaw’s plan to identify potentially dangerous people before they cause harm. The state Senate has allocated $50,000 as the two chambers get to work on Florida’s $74 billion budget.

In either case, it’s just a fraction of the $3 million Bradshaw is seeking for a 15-person unit that would include five deputies, five mental health professionals and five caseworkers. He also wants to set up a 24-hour hotline so neighbors and friends can report on those they suspect may be dangerous.

“I believe very strongly this program will become a statewide model for violence prevention and intervention, and I am honored our state leaders in Tallahassee share our vision for this innovative approach to prevent violent acts and protect our citizens,” Bradshaw said in a statement.

Senate Criminal Justice Appropriations Chairman Rob Bradley, R-Fleming Island, said he put the $50,000 in his budget as a “place holder” but he still has some questions about Bradshaw’s plan.

It’s too soon to know whether the money will actually end up in the budget, or if it will grow.

The Florida House would increase school spending by $395 per-pupil next year while also allowing Florida colleges and universities to boost tuition by 6 percent, under an education budget released Wednesday.

Education Budget chairman Erik Fresen, R-Miami, said the spending plan is also likely to include $2,500 teacher pay raises — a priority of Gov. Rick Scott. Details are still being worked out.

“Right now, we are exceeding it,” Fresen said of the pay-raise effort.

But there are clear areas of friction.

Scott has recommended a $412-per-pupil increase — bringing spending to $6,800 for each of Florida’s 2.7 million students. That’s edging closer to the state’s high-water mark, $7,126 reached during the pre-recession 2006-07 school year.

Scott also reiterated his opposition Tuesday to tuition increases.

“I’m against tuition increases. This is a tax, this is a tax on students, it is a tax on families. We can’t be raising the cost of getting a higher education in this state,” Scott said.

Among the more controversial provisions of the House budget is what Fresen called a recalibration of the state’s school funding formula. The rewrite changes how students taking online classes are calculated — a move which supporters of Florida Virtual School — condemed Wednesday.

Florida Virtual School is the nation’s largest K-12 online system. It’s been used by many students to take a seventh class — above the standard six offered by many school districts — and in rural counties where online students can access classes not available in classrooms, supporters said.

Vern Pickup-Crawford, lobbyist for the Palm Beach County School Board, said the revamped formula would likely cost the county about $5 million.

 

Palm Beach County Sheriff Ric Bradshaw made a $3 million pitch for a violence prevention unit and hotline he believes could help avert tragedies like Sandy Hook and Aurora by identifying potentially violent citizens before they act out.

Bradshaw needs the money for a 15-person “prevention intervention” unit, including five deputies, five mental health professionals and five caseworkers and to fund a 24-hour hotline where citizens can report neighbors, friends or family members they fear may harm themselves or others. Bradshaw said his office can identify whether the person or the residence has a history of violence and wants to be able to send “low-key” teams out to determine if they need help.

“At least we can put this person on our radar screen,” Bradshaw said. “It’s not about arrest. We cannot arrest our way out of this. This is about prevention intervention.”

At least one committee member expressed concern about attaching a mental health stigma to individuals and about ensuring that, once identified, the individuals get follow-up care. The sheriff said local mental health agencies support his proposal. But the majority of the panel, including Palm Beach County Sens. Jeff Clemens of Lake Worth and Joseph Abruzzo of Wellington, praised Bradshaw.

Bradshaw pointed to several incidents in Palm Beach County he said may have been averted if his teams had been in place.

“A young man stabbed his mother to death. Three days before that, the deputies had been to that house. But the kid knew enough to say the right things…the deputies didn’t have enough to Baker Act him.
If that team of professionals had gone there with him, he couldn’t have talked long enough to talk his way out of it. We had a guy that guy fired from work, went home, killed his live-in boyfriend, shot himself. Two days before that, his coworkers knew that he’d bought a gun and was angry. If they’d had this system to call, we could have gone to that house, talked to that person and maybe we would have stopped that,” he said. “There’s all these people in the community that know things are going on. We’ve got to give them an avenue to get to us and feel comfortable about the fact that we’re going there to help these people.”

Bradshaw said he hopes his program will become a model for the state as did his gang prevention and pill mill units.

“The emphasis is to prevent these things from happening so I don’t have somebody go to a school and kill 25 people, I don’t have somebody go back to their workplace and shoot everybody there or I don’t have something happen that almost happened at the University of Central Florida,” he said. “The information is out there. This will work…This is a first of its kind. And I believe we have an opportunity here to make a difference in preventing violence.”

But committee Chairman Rob Bradley, R-Fleming Island, told Bradshaw that he supports his idea but made no promises about funding it.

“The purpose, as I expressed it, was to get this conversation started. I’m not sure we’re going to be able to fund this in this year’s budget,” Bradley said. “But because this is such an issue that is on the forefront of our citizens’ minds, on our minds, I think it’s imiportant that this committee address this issue.”

Bradshaw said later he intends to get the program off the ground with or without the Legislature’s help.

“We ask for the best, and if it’s less than that then we’ll scale it down. Instead of having it 24 hours a day, maybe we’ll have it 12 hours a day and they would be on call,” he said. “I’m pretty hopeful that I’m going to get some assistance. If it doesn’t work here, then we’ll try other sources. But I’m not going to give up.”

About 400 health care workers crowded the Florida Capitol on Thursday, singing, chanting — with even a few in costume — to urge legislative leaders to endorse the Medicaid expansion allowed under the federal Affordable Care Act.

Margie Forrest, a 35-year nurse who works at Palms West Hospital in Loxahatchee, was among those who addressed the gathering, pointing out that many of the  certified nurse assistants, aides and food service workers who came to the Capitol are uninsured themselves.

The group’s rally pivoted around a Wizard of Oz theme, with three attendees dressed as the Tin Man, Scarecrow and Cowardly Lion. Forrest used that imagery in calling on House Speaker Will Weatherford, R-Wesley Chapel, to drop his opposition to expansion.

“Speaker Weatherford, find your brain. Pass the legislation needed,” Forrest said.

The rally was organized by the Service Employees International Union, a potent contributor to Democrats both in Florida and on the national level. On Medicaid expansion, however, SEIU’s biggest ally in Florida at the moment is Republican Gov. Rick Scott, who has endorsed the initiative as a ”common sense” thing to do.

If lawmakers endorse expanding Medicaid to 138 percent of the poverty level, another 1 million Floridians are expected to become eligible for health coverage. Many would be lower-income workers in service and tourism industry jobs, said Monica Russo, president of SEIU Healthcare Florida.

Under the expansion,  individuals earning roughly $15,000 would qualify for Medicaid coverage. A family of three earning $26,300 would be eligible.

“These are workers…who provide care but cannot afford insurance on their own,” Russo said.

None of Florida’s Republican leaders came out to meet with workers at Thursday’s rally.

But earlier in the day, Scott told reporters that he wasn’t worried about the House’s stance. He also didn’t indicate that he planned to press hard for passage of the legislation, maintaining that a $2,500 teacher pay raise and a tax break for manufacturers amounted to his only session priorities.

“I let everybody know my position with regard to Medicaid expansion. My position I think it is the right position for
Florida families,” Scott said.  “Now the legislative process is just starting.  Hopefully they’ll do the right thing.”

A House committee unanimously approved legislation Thursday backed by the powerful sugar industry that extends a $25-per-acre tax on growers for Everglades restoration, but which environmentalists say puts the largest share of cleanup costs on South Florida taxpayers.

The measure (PCB 13-01) cleared the State Affairs Committee on a 17-0 vote. Sugar lobbyists told the panel the legislation sets the stage for completing an $880 million Everglades effort advanced by Gov. Rick Scott — with growers paying their fair share.

“We are optimistic this plan is going to be successful,” Phil Parsons, representing the Florida Sugar Cane League, told the committee.

Scott, however, supports a Senate bill that doesn’t readdress the Everglades Agricultural Privilege Tax. The $25-per-acre levy has been paid by growers since 1994, but is slated to fall to $10-per-acre in 2016.

Sugar growers say the legislation makes them pay an extra $6.6 million to the South Florida Water Management District — and that’s an appropriate amount.

Environmental organizations, however, want to shelve the House bill. They point to research which shows 60 percent of the pollution in waterways feeding the Everglades stems from farms in the region around Lake Okeechobee.

Setting the new tax rate now — rather than reviewing it later, before it expires in 2016 — will prove a good deal for the sugar industry. They fear it will shut off any discussion of whether sugar it paying its proper share.

Meanwhile, the bulk of the $880 million cleanup project will fall on taxpayers, said Eric Eikenberg, CEO of the Everglades Foundation.

“That’s an inequity that should be addressed,” Eikenberg said.

 

Acknowledging their proposal to close a “gun show loophole” is a long shot, two Democratic Palm Beach County lawmakers are hoping their identical bills will at least create a debate about the issue during the 2013 legislative session now underway.

Sen. Maria Sachs, D-Delray Beach, and Rep. Lori Berman, D-Lantana, pitched their identical “Universal Background Check Act” bills (HB 1343, SB 1640) that would require background check every time a gun is sold.

“I am not so sold on the idea that this bill is going to pass. I’m being very candid with you,” Sachs told reporters after a press conference Wednesday afternoon. “But let’s have the discussion. Let’s bring everybody to the table and let’s have this discussion so that we have a gun policy in this state that’s reflective of the diversity of the state.”

Currently, a person buying a weapon in a gun store must pass law enforcement background checks, but persons buying arms at gun shows or privately from an owner do not, meaning they could be felons or otherwise prohibited from owning weapons.

Sachs and Berman, joined by county commissioners Mary Lou Berger, Paulette Burdick and Shelley Vana, former commissioner Burt Aaronson and state Rep. Bobby Powell, D-Riviera Beach, said they both support Second Amendment rights.

But Berman cited figures from the Coalition to End Gun Violence that showed that background checks are only completed on about 60 percent of the gun sales in the country.

“The issue is that we need to stop the proliferation of people having guns and we need to make sure it’s all being done in a correct, proper and legal manner and that anybody who’s buying a gun has to do it through the proper channels. And that’s what this bill tries to address,” she said.

The bill would require anyone who wants to transfer or sell a gun to use a licensed gun dealer to conduct the transaction. The dealer would be responsible for the background check. If the buyer is ineligible to purchase the gun, the dealer would have to run a background check on the seller in order to return it.

If neither person passes the background requirements, the dealer would have to turn over the gun to the local sheriff within 24 hours.

“This is not a gun show loophole bill. It is a universal background check bill. And it is so brazen it even includes confiscation of firearms,” said National Rifle Association lobbyist Marion Hammer, a former president of the national association.

But Vana, a former state representative, said the bill makes sense.

“This is a no-nonsense, non-radical method of trying to rein in the terror that has rained down on our citizens,” Vana said.

Hammer says federal law already makes it a felony to sell a gun to anyone a seller knows or reasonably should have known is prohibited from purchasing a firearm.

The bill goes way beyond “fixing a perceived problem,” Hammer said.

“It’s not about keeping guns out of the hands of criminals. It’s about making criminals out of law abiding people and taking their guns.”

A Palm Beach County pioneer, Lillie Pierce Voss, was among three women named Monday to the Florida Women’s Hall of Fame by Gov. Rick Scott.

Voss, who died in 1967, is considered the first non-native child born between Jupiter and Miami. Her father, H.D. Pierce, was keeper of the Orange Grove House of Refuge in what is now Delray Beach. Voss was born in 1876 in the house, which served shipwreck survivors and other travelers.

In naming Voss, Scott’s office said her “impact on the state of Florida stemmed from her courage and stamina.” Palm Beach County was a wilderness, and Voss and her family lived off what could be caught in the sea or salvaged.

Histories report that Voss regularly unholstered a gun to ward off rattlesnakes and the occasional thug.

She and a brother later compiled a 260-page manuscript titled Pioneer Life in Southeast Florida, that remains a vibrant chronicle of life in the coastal communities, where fewer than 1,000 people lived between Stuart and Miami as late as the 1890s.

Also named to the hall of fame are Clara Frye (1872-1936), who established the first black hospital in the Tampa area, and Aleene Kidd Mackenzie, 92, of Ocala, a founder of the Florida Commission on the Status of Women.

Scott chose the three women from a list of 10 nominees selected by the commission for making significant contributions
to the improvement of life for women and all Floridians. A formal induction ceremony is expected to be held at the Florida Capitol in coming weeks.

 

 

An effort to give cities and counties authority to limit smoking at beaches and parks cleared its first legislative test Thursday — earning unanimous approval from the Senate Regulated Industries Committee.

The measure (SB 258) is similar to one sponsored by Rep. Bill Hager, R-Boca Raton, who two years ago successfully got lawmakers to give school boards power to enact tougher anti-smoking restrictions than those contained in state law.

Since it was first approved in 1985, the state’s Clean Indoor Air Act has been focused on smoking inside public buildings and workplaces. It also bars local governments from enacting any measures stricter than what is allowed under the state law.

Sen. Eleanor Sobel, D-Hollywood, said smoking doesn’t have a place on the beach or in public parks. Eliminating it, could save cities and counties cleanup money, she said.

“This will save a lot of money, besides people won’t have smoke blowing in their faces,” Sobel said.

Representatives of local governments, anti-cancer groups, and other health advocates endorsed the Senate measure Thursday. The only caution came from Richard Turner of the Florida Restaurant and Lodging Association, who said his organization is still trying to gauge the proposal’s possible effect on restaurants.

Turner said many of his group’s members spent a lot of money a decade ago to comply with state law after voters extended the smoking ban to restaurants. Although the legislation would only affect publicly-owned facilities, Turner said some cities and counties lease space to restaurants, which could face broader prohibitions.

 

Beach cleanup volunteers throughout Palm Beach County say they see the evidence every time they walk the sands.

“Cigarette butts are the number one item we pick up,” said Todd Remmel, county chapter chairman for Surfrider Foundation, an environmental activist organization. “Beaches are supposed to be a playground. But people use them as ashtrays.”

State Rep. Bill Hager, R-Boca Raton, wants to change that.

Hager is pushing legislation (HB 439) this spring that would give cities and counties power to enact anti-smoking measures on publicly-owned property that are tougher than those in place at the state level.

State law, which has barred local controls since first enacted in 1985, is aimed chiefly at barring smoking indoors.

The legislation, which so far has been ignored by the influential cigarette industry in Tallahassee, is drawing some pushback from cigar enthusiasts.  A Senate version (SB 258) is scheduled to get its first hearing Thursday in the Senate Regulated Industries Committee.

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