Florida cities said Monday that they are poised to make another attempt at revamping costly pension requirements that emerged under former Republican Gov. Jeb Bush.

The current Republican-led Legislature may be wary of antagonizing police and firefighter unions, a frequent election-year ally. But Florida League of Cities officials said they hope a pocketbook appeal might drive changes when lawmakers reconvene in January.

“Pension reform is by far the issue that has garnered the most attention,” among city leaders, said Scott Dudley, a league lobbyist. “It’s important to preserve and protect pensions into the next generation of police and firefighters.”

A report released last month by the Leroy Collins Institute gave mixed reviews on the health of pension plans in 100 Florida cities. In Palm Beach County, plans in six cities earned failing, or near-failing grades.

Boynton Beach’s police plan and Palm Beach Gardens’ police and fire pensions were among the 15 percent of municipal plans drawing F’s. Plans in Riviera Beach, Boca Raton, Jupiter, Boynton Beach and Lake Worth earned D’s in the Collins Institute analysis of  financial strength.

The League of Cities is promoting legislation (SB 910, HB 365)  that would effectively lift a standard in place since 1999 that has improved city police and fire pensions. The provision requires that growth in dollars flowing to cities from state taxes on property insurance premiums go to additional benefits for police officers and firefighters.

Cities next responded with such pension sweeteners as cost-of-living adjustments, lower retirement age, or an increased “multiplier” used in determining pensions based on years-of-service, all of which the league says have forced cities to spend an additional $460 million on pension costs since 1999.

Now, as the economic slump has put added strain on city pension investments, taxpayers are paying more in property taxes to meet the demand of the public safety providers’ extra benefits.

This pro-union law also has the tantalizing history of being the first measure enacted by Bush and Republican legislators in Florida, then the first GOP-controlled government of any state that had been part of the Confederacy.

Bush eagerly signed the measure ­- relishing the symbolism of making good in a hurry on a campaign promise made while getting the endorsement of the Florida Police Benevolent Association and Florida Professional Firefighters Association.

Bush and Republican leaders, however, are rarely thought of as being allied with unions. Indeed, Bush earlier this year co-authored an Op-Ed in the Los Angeles Times, decrying the financial woes of states, putting much of the blame on union contracts.

Bush’s co-writer was Newt Gingrich, now a front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination.

Matt Puckett, lobbyist for the Florida PBA, said collective bargaining negotiations can resolve some of the deeper financial issues clouding local pensions.  But he said that no legislation is needed that would go so far as to remove the insurance premium tax standard in place since 1999.

“The cities just want to have total control of those moneys,” Puckett said.

Gov. Rick Scott today will call for a $1 billion increase in dollars for public schools – blunted by deep reductions in health and social service programs — in his 2012-13 budget proposal to the Legislature.

Scott touted the increase in a conference call Tuesday with school superintendents, saying he sees education as key to his goal of creating 700,000 jobs in Florida over the next seven years.

The fragile economy, though, has left Scott and lawmakers facing a $2 billion budget shortfall. And boosting money for classrooms will erode the amount of cash available for such big-ticket programs as Medicaid, which already absorbs close to one-third of the this years’s $69.1 billion budget.

“That’ll help schools,” Vern Pickup-Crawford, lobbyist for the Palm Beach County School Board, said of the proposed increase. “But we’ll have to see how he makes it work.”

Florida schools struggled this year after lawmakers cut funding by $1.3 billion, bringing poor-pupil spending to its lowest mark in six years. Scott’s proposal would help bring school districts out of that hole, but even the governor’s staff acknowledges the $1 billion boost would hike the average $6,267 per-student spending by no more than about $100.

Florida schools face a 30,000 student increase in the coming year, forcing whatever dollars are approved to be stretched further.

Educators, though, say they are buoyed by Scott’s focus on schools. In presenting his first budget proposal as governor in February, Scott recommended that lawmakers slash $3.3 billion from education — a dramatic reduction that lawmakers eventually softened when completing the budget in May.

Florida’s debt level dropped this year for the first time in at least 20 years — helped along by Gov. Rick Scott’s veto of some $135 million in university construction borrowing and a two-year halt on environmental land buys, the governor and Cabinet were told Tuesday.

Florida’s debt level slid to $27.7 billion this year — down $500 million from last year’s record high. That’s a sharp contrast from a year earlier, when $2 billion in additional borrowing pushed state debt to double what it was in 2000, according to the state’s Division of Bond Finance.

Ben Watkins, head of the division, said the state still will have to spend $2.2 billion in next year’s budget just to cover payments on the IOUs. That’s actually up $100 million from last year because of timing of the state’s bond issues. But refinancing of existing debt has saved the state millions this year, Watkins told Scott and the Cabinet.

Fifty-seven percent of what the state owes stems from school, college and university construction. Scott last year, took steps to rein-in that spending with his veto of university building projects, including $3.2 million for new roofing and other work at Florida Atlantic University.

 The only significant university construction work Scott allowed to become law was $35 million for work at the University of South Florida Polytechnic’s Lakeland campus, which was advanced by Senate budget chairman J.D. Alexander, R-Lake Wales.

Scott, who was elected with strong tea party support, has been outspoken in his push to stem Florida’s rising tide of red ink. 

Since former Gov. Jeb Bush took office in 1999, ushering in a dozen years of Republican leadership, Florida’s borrowing has climbed by $12 billion. Roughly $10 billion more debt is expected to be issued through 2019, to cover currently authorized programs, the bond finance division said.

Public school and university construction projects, roadwork and environmental land purchases have driven much of the borrowing, records show. Major tax cuts enacted during Bush’s two terms and recession-forced budget reductions also helped steer lawmakers away from a pay-as-you-go approach in many spending areas.

The economy, however, has helped change the state’s spending policies. The Florida Forever land-buying program, which formerly used to borrow $300 million annually to preserve environmentally sensitive lands, has been mostly on hold the past two years.

The state’s gross receipts tax, which supports school construction projects, also has been declining. The tax is built on levies imposed on utilities — but the economic downturn and societal shift away from land-line telephones has dramatically reduced the dollars available for campus construction.

House Redistricting Chairman Will Weatherford, R-Wesley Chapel, has reached an accord with Senate counterpart Don Gaetz, R-Niceville, on redrawing political boundaries for the Legislature.

The Senate this week unveiled plans only for the Senate and Congress. And the House next week will follow suit with proposals that rework lines only for Florida’s congressional seats and the House.

 In other words, the House will accept senators’ proposals for redrawing their own boundaries — and the House expects the Senate to accept its proposal for reshaping those districts. Only the state’s congressional lines would be subject to competing plans from the two chambers, under this approach.

Weatherford made the deal known Friday in a letter to members of the House’s redistricting panels. The House proposals are slated to be showcased Tuesday.

Palm Beach County Tax Collector Anne Gannon’s office said Friday it was sent more than 12,000 spam email message by Gov. Rick Scott after corresponding with his office about a resident’s issue.

Gannon’s spokeswoman, Max Sonnenschein, said the office was sent 12,658 auto-response emails acknowledging a message that a tax collector employee sent to the governor’s office on Thursday.

The auto-reply messages were sent to Gannon’s “client advocate” email address. The account normally receives about 100 messages a day.

“It is kind of funny,” Sonnenschein said. “Governor spams tax collector.”

Gannon’s staff said they contacted Scott’s office about the computer glitch this morning after the automatic messages stopped.

Lane Wright, a Scott spokesman, said technical staff at the governor’s office is trying to get to the bottom of the problem. But he conceded it may take time to resolve the cyberspace mystery.

“We’re looking into it,” Wright said. “But it may be Monday before we know what’s happened.”

                                                                                                                                                    —- Jennifer Sorentrue 

Former Florida Gov. and U.S. Sen. Bob Graham led a gathering of activists Wednesday calling for Gov. Rick Scott and legislative leaders to preserve the state’s water resources, while renewing its longstanding commitment to the environment.

“We need strong gubernatorial leadership to reverse the damage that’s been done,” Graham told a rally at the state Capitol.

Graham debuted Wednesday as leader of the Florida Conservation Coalition, which includes Audubon of Florida, 1000 Friends of Florida, the Nature Conservancy, Sierra Club, Trust for Public Land and League of Women Voters. The coalition plans to lobby Scott and the Republican-led Legislature to restore funding to water quality programs, the Florida Forever land-buying program, and Everglades restoration, which supporters say have been staggered by budget cuts since 2007.

Graham was joined by state Sen. Paula Dockery, R-Lakeland, Nathaniel Reed of 1000 Friends of Florida and representatives of environmental groups, which generally praised Scott’s environmental stance, but blasting legislative moves which reduced oversight and dollars for green programs.

Advocates derided the Legislature for approving a $210 million cut in water management district property taxes, which has led to wholescale staff layoffs and program reductions, the most profound occuring at the South Florida Water Management District. Graham said taxes were “reduced by the amount of two pizzas a year,” but that the cuts did wide-ranging harm to existing programs and services.

Environmentalists, though, withheld direct criticism of Scott, who campaigned for the reduction and embraced the  cuts. Instead, Graham, apparently buoyed by recent Scott comments which underscored the need for effective environmental policy and Everglades restoration, urged conservationists to “join Scott’s army.”

Graham also warned the coalition planned to hold lawmakers accountable for actions which hurt Florida’s environment.

“We want to alert the voters in 2012 who was responsible for what happened in 2011,” Graham said.

The state Capitol has its Black Caucus, Hispanic Caucus and even Tea Party Caucus, with likeminded legislators forming loose-knit groups to promote their cause.

Beginning next week, a Florida Everglades Caucus will dawn — launched Monday at an event scheduled in Boynton Beach.

Rep. Steve Perman, a Boca Raton Democrat, and Sen. Thad Altman, R-Viera, are the founding members of the caucus. They’ll be joined by the Everglades Foundation, Everglades Coalition, and other environmental activists at Monday’s 1 p.m., kick-off event, planned for Bedner’s Farm, west of Boynton on U.S. 441.

Goals of the caucus aren’t immediately known. But Gov. Rick Scott is likely to be seeking state cash and legislative backing for his plan announced last month for Everglades restoration.

After demands from federal officials for more action from the state, Scott unveiled a proposal that calls for building reservoirs, expanding wetlands and removing dams and other obstacles to freshwater flow in the Everglades region.

The Republican governor also is looking to extend the latest federal deadline for restoration to 2022 — another two years. For those with long memories, the initial plan for completing Everglades restoration was 2006, under a federal court settlement reached in 1992.

A day after Gov. Rick Scott and Chief Financial Officer Jeff Atwater urged lawmakers to overhaul Florida’s personal injury protection auto insurance standard, House and Senate panels began Wednesday what is likely to prove months of wrestling with the issue.

Rep. Jim Boyd, R-Bradenton, had his proposal (HB 119) dissected by the House Insurance and Banking Committee, with legislators quizzing him about efforts to limit lawyers’ fees, expand clinic regulations, and limiting the number of visits an accident victim can make to massage therapists and chiropractors.

Two lawmakers, Rep. Bill Hager, a Boca Raton Republican, and Rep. Evan Jenne, a Fort Lauderdale Democrat, urged lawmakers to consider scrapping personal injury protection completely — saying the system was beyond repair.

“Have we arrived at a point where we say this sucker is such a rotting carcass that we’ve got to throw it out?” Hager said.

Boyd, however, said the Legislature should make one more attempt at repairing PIP — the $10,000 mandatory insurance coverage which critics say for years has spawned a lucrative industry of staged auto accidents, unneeded medical treatments, and frivolous lawsuits.

“We still think we have a chance to salvage this thing,” Boyd said.

While Boyd was pitching his bill, the Senate Banking and Insurance Committee was hearing testimony from a wide-range of industry representatives. Among them: Gary Brown, who runs Choice Medical Centers, operating in Palm Beach and Broward counties.

Brown said lawmakers could help shrink what critics say is almost $1 billion in higher insurance and legal costs borne by Floridians, if they more strictly regulated clinics. He said legislation should demand tougher licensing requirements and bar clinics from referring patients to lawyers.

But Brown also said the insurance industry needs to be a focus for any legislation.

Boyd’s bill, and others being developed, chiefly target those making money off insurers. Brown, though, gave the industry low marks.

Sen. Joe Negron, R-Stuart, asked Brown to grade on a 1-to-10 scale how responsive companies are to paying PIP claims.

“I’d say zero,” Brown said, saying the industry’s cold shoulder fuels lawsuits.

Dean Colson

 With higher education poised to take center stage in next year’s Legislature, the State University System’s Board of Governors elected a new chairman Thursday — Miami attorney Dean Colson.

Colson will succeed Jacksonville’s Ava Parker, whose term on the 17-member board expires next year. Colson served as former Gov. Charlie Crist’s adviser on higher education, helping shape eventual limits on the state’s Bright Futures program and a push to bring Florida’s low-tuition rates more in line with those seen nationally.

Gov. Rick Scott has already targeted higher education for the kind of systemic changes that he and lawmakers last spring imposed on K-12. Scott is pushing the state university system to embrace science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) programs, while de-emphasizing liberal arts education. He’s also considering trying to loosen the grip of tenure at Florida universities.

Colson, elected by fellow board members meeting Thursday at Florida Atlantic University, sounds like he’s ready for the hot seat.

“At this challenging time for our 11 public universities, I look forward to continuing the strong commitment that I share with my fellow Board members to ensuring our State University System has the resources its needs while serving our more than 320,000 students at all levels,” Colson said. “The Board of Governors’ mission and its constitutional responsibilities have never been more tested nor more important.”

The West Palm Beach TV market is one of the locations for a new ad by Republican-allied Crossroads GPS that looks to drive a wedge between President Obama and former President Clinton.

The spot, titled Two Presidents, begins airing today across Florida, Colorado, North Carolina, Ohio, and Pennsylvania as part of a $2.6 million buy. Crossroads was formed by Republican strategist Karl Rove and former GOP national chairman Ed Gillespie. It was the biggest outside spender in the 2010 election and plans to pour $240 million into next year’s campaigns against Obama and congressional Democrats.

 “President Obama has launched a tax attack on American jobs that hits Main Street businesses, home mortgages, school and road repair funds and even charities,” said Crossroads GPS president and CEO Steven Law. “Former President Clinton and bipartisan majorities in Congress agree that Obama’s tax hikes won’t solve the problem.  The ad aims to get Obama to stop attacking and start listening.”

 Here’s the ad: http://bit.ly/vFGGp0

UPDATE:  Clinton has come back with a statement:

“The Republican Group American Crossroads has used a quote from me in a video opposing President Obama’s jobs plan and the “Buffett Rule.”  The advertisement implies that I opposed the “Buffett Rule”.  In fact, I support both the American Jobs Act and the “Buffett Rule”.  I believe that it’s only fair to ask those of us in high-income groups — who have received the primary benefits of the last decade’s economic growth and the majority of its tax cuts as well — to contribute to solving our long term debt problem.  What I did say was that the “Buffett Rule” cannot solve the problem alone.”

Calls for revamping Citizens Property Insurance Corp., the state-run carrier for those who can’t find private coverage, has been a rite of spring in Tallahassee for years.

But Gov. Rick Scott on Tuesday is looking to accelerate that discussion — even as he still looks intent on finding a private company willing to take over Citizens, which now has 1.4 million policies statewide.

About half the homeowners’ policies in Florida are held by Citizens, which also is dealing with what actuaries say is 70 percent of the risk.  Coastal homes and condos, which face a high hurricane threat, form the bulk of the company’s line.

Meanwhile, Citizens is adding 4,000 to 5,00o policies a week — with private carriers continuing to cold-shoulder high-risk Florida homeowners, officials said.

“This is not something we can continue to do,” Scott told the Cabinet on Tuesday.

Scott wants the Citizens governing board to meet later this month and present a blueprint for Citizens’ future Dec. 6 to him and the Cabinet. The goal, he said, is simple:” “to shrink exposure.”

A couple weeks after Gov. Rick Scott approved a $45.6 million loan for the financially strapped state court system, a workgroup of judges and county clerks of court Friday recommended some sweeping changes to stabilize the system.

The workgroup doesn’t call for increasing filing fees, fines, charges or court costs. Instead, the group, which included Palm Beach County Court Clerk Sharon Bock basically found there is plenty of money now in the system to finance core court functions.

But courts are drawing 80 percent of their basic financing through foreclosure fees, which have rollercoastered the past couple years. And the group is recommending that as much as $22.6 million in fees, fines and other court-related revenue — now scattered across other state agencies — be confined in the court system to help cover costs.

The report is here:   http://www.floridasupremecourt.org/

Florida’s 1,633 special districts — which range in scope from behemoth water management districts to small town community development authorities — are being dragged slowly under the microscope of the state’s biggest government entity, the state Legislature.

Gov. Rick Scott has targeted the authorities for action, acknowledging that he’s stunned by the fact they command $15.5 billion of taxpayer money. The Republican governor wants to rein them in– somehow.  And legislative committees also are struggling to craft legislation that shrinks their ranks.

Sen. Mike Bennett, R-Bradenton, has introduced a measure (SB 192) aimed at merging some districts or abolishing those seen as having outlived their usefulness.

But special taxing districts go back to log cabin Florida. Hospital taxing authorities, which draw a lot of ire from Scott and lawmakers, date to the 1920s. Finding a one-size, fits-all fix won’t be easy, lawmakers concede.

On Monday, the Joint Legislative Auditing Committee heard a couple hours worth of testimony on the districts. At least 23 of these government units, including the West Palm Beach Downtown Development Authority, are listed as being in a state of financial emergency by Scott’s inspector general, mostly for debt or cash-flow problems.

Dozens of other districts have drawn letters from the handful of state agencies which oversee them — usually for a snafu involving their financial audits or annual reports.

Sen. Evelyn Lynn, R-Ormond Beach, questioned whether these letters ever result in penalties.  Ken Reecy, an administrator within the state’s Department of Economic Opportunity, acknowledged that doesn’t happen. But he defended the current oversight system, saying, “it works pretty well.”

Still, Sen. Jim Norman, R-Tampa, seemed unconvinced — and incredulous.

“With all these agencies watching them, and there’s still no penalties?” Norman said.

Gov. Rick Scott drew cheers from Presidency 5 delegates Saturday, saying he expected the winner of the Florida Republican primary to emerge as the party’s nominee — with a key first step on that path being the upcoming straw poll.

“You will send a very strong signal about who will be America’s choice,” Scott told the 3,000 delegates. ”As Florida goes, so goes the nation. And as you go, so goes Florida.”

Scott pointed out that victories in straw polls at earlier installments of the party convention gave an important push to Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush and Bob Dole.  Later though, speaking to reporters, the governor conceded that Saturday’s outcome may not prove so decisive.

Texas Gov. Rick Perry, who is close to Scott. is narrowly leading in Florida over second-place Mitt Romney, according to a poll this week. But Perry stumbled in Thursday night’s nationally televised debate, and his struggle to explain his stance on illegal immigration seems to have cost him support among at least a portion of  P-5 atttendees.

“There’s all these expectations games, I didn’t have to deal with that in my race,” Scott said. “If he doesn’t win, he’ll be frustrated. But I think the positives are that whoever wins, it shows what people in this state are thinking about. If you want people to be active in your campaign, these are the issues you need to focus on, and have a message.

“I personally believe that the most important message is going to be jobs,” Scott added. “But we’ll see….this is the real group of activists, the people who care about this race today.”

While Florida delegates may not send as clear a message as they have in past conventions, Scott drew cheers from the crowd with a direct attack on President Obama. He recalled the 2000 presidential election, marked by hanging-chad and voter confusion.

“There were all those Palm Beach voters who couldn’t believe they voted for Pat Buchanan,” Scott remembered. “Well, since 2008, I’ve met people all over the country who can’t believe they’ve voted for Barack Obama. I’m absolutely convinced, they’ll get it right next year.”

Scott described Saturday’s speech as among the three biggest of his short political career. His inaugural address, his State of the State speech to open this year’s Legislature also are up there, the governor said.

For Scott, the speech also placed the one-time political outsider firmly within Florida’s Republican establishment.

Scott also brought many in the crowd to their feet by boasting that he had not wavered from his stance that “businesses create new jobs, not government and for “sticking to my principles.”

“I did not run to be voted most popular, I ran so that Florida could be most likely to succeed,” Scott said.

West Palm Beach Democrat Mack Bernard earned a shout-out Monday for being among only a handful of lawmakers attending all 26 public hearings this summer on redistricting.

The grueling tour spanned from the Pensacola to Key West, with stops rural and urban along the way. “We learned a lot. And saw a lot,” said Bernard, after the House Redistricting Subcommittee noted his wide-ranging schlep.

With lawmakers returning to the Capitol for a week’s worth of committee hearings, recapping those redistricting hearings consumed much of the House’s day.

When it comes to redrawing district lines for the 120 House seats, members of the public, community groups, and local elected officials often urged lawmakers to strive to keep municipalities whole, without dividing them across more than one district.

Boca Raton and West Palm Beach were among the communities making such pitches; of course, some areas — like rural Jackson County in North Florida — sought to be divided among two state House seats, in hopes of gaining more oomph in Tallahassee.

Singled out during the summer’s hearing in Boca Raton were a couple districts – held by Rep. Steve Perman, a Democrat and Bill Hager, a Republican. Perman’s District 78 was criticized as unwieldy, stretching from the Fort Pierce area to Boca Raton; Hager’s district should be confined to Palm Beach County, some of those testifying said, rather than stretching as it does now, into Broward.

For Senate districts, Palm Beach County commissioners this summer also urged lawmakers when they begin creating maps next year, at least keep the current compliment of three Senate districts with a majority of their population in the county — out of the six districts that now touch the county.

Fresh from cutting $210 million in taxes and scores of jobs at Florida’s water management districts, Gov. Rick Scott is sizing up a new target in his drive to shrink government.

The rest of Florida’s more than 1,600 special districts, and the $15.5 billion in taxpayer money they command, are suddenly in Scott’s cross hairs.

“I was shocked that it was $15 billion,” Scott said last week of district revenues. “On behalf of the citizens of the state, we have to look at what return we’re getting for those dollars.”

The little-understood agencies trace their roots to log-­cabin Florida and provide a variety of environmental, health care, community development and other services. Palm Beach County has 94 special districts, among the most in the state.

Critics deride special districts as “shadow governments” that burden Floridians with taxes, fees and costly bond issues to finance big projects. Members of the tea party movement, an influential supporter of Florida’s Republican governor, have grown increasingly wary of districts’ authority.

Full story here:  http://bit.ly/qkRKCi

Sen. Joe Negron, the Stuart Republican whose district includes parts of Palm Beach County and the Treasure Coast, was named “legislator of  the year,” by the Florida branch of Americans for Prosperty, the conservative advocacy organization.

Negron shared the title with Rep. Scott Plakon, R-Longwood, both of whom were feted for their efforts to tilt the state Legislature further to the right. AFP, which has emerged as a guide and financial backer of the tea party movement, was founded by conservative billionaire energy titans, David and Charles Koch.

Seventy-nine legislators — all Republicans – received A+ scores from the group. Every Democrat drew a failing grade — except Rep. Leonard Bembry, D-Greenville, who was given a D by AFP.

Slade O’Brien, AFP’s Palm Beach County-based state director, said Negron was pivotal in the Legislature’s efforts to revamp Medicaid, while also steering the state toward reducing the size of government and cutting taxes.

Democrats drawing lousy marks, “show hostility towards the free market and protecting the individual liberties on which our country was founded,” O’Brien said.

Florida TaxWatch, the business-backed research group, issued a stinging report Wednesday on Palm Beach County’s higher-than-average financial reserves, saying county property taxes could likely be cut if officials drew down these dollars.

“There is no excuse for a county government to hoard excessive levels of reserves over time,” said Dominic M. Calabro, President and CEO of Florida TaxWatch. “This continued trend has resulted in an unreasonable shift of taxpayer dollars to government coffers with no apparent benefit to the public at a time when counties need to find ways to maximize all opportunities to fund core services without raising taxes on its residents.”

TaxWatch found that the county has kept uncommitted reserves at 50 percent or more of its total spending from 2005 through 2010. By comparision, Hillsborough County has kept reserves at between 13 percent and 24 percent during the same period. The disparity hasn’t made much difference, TaxWatch concluded, since both counties have earned Triple A bond ratings from Wall Street.

Here’s the report: http://bit.ly/osfGh0

When Florida State University agreed to bring its much-honored film school to West Palm Beach, it was a Hollywood-style story, glittering with images of students getting hands-on experience in big-budget movies.

But a year before classes even begin in temporary quarters at CityPlace, FSU and its partner, Port St. Lucie-based Digital Domain Media Group, already have produced their first blockbuster.

Call it “The Civil War.”

FSU’s arrival in the backyard of Boca Raton-based Florida Atlantic University has sparked a fierce turf battle among the state’s 11 public universities, stirring age-old rivalries among schools that compete not only on the football field, but also for lucrative business partnerships, well-heeled donors and faculty-friendly locations.

FAU has cried foul over FSU’s arrival.

Spurred by the bad feelings, a panel of the State University System’s Board of Governors is scheduled to consider a new regulation today that would assign schools to specific regions and require them to get approval from the schools in another region before offering programs in that region.

“It’s a tough issue,” said Ava Parker, a Jacksonville lawyer and Board of Governors chairwoman. “The world has become more mobile and global. But a lot of this is about bricks and mortar, and where they are placed.”

Florida Democrats teed-off on Republican Gov. Rick Scott on Friday over July unemployment numbers, which showed the state losing 22,100 jobs that month.

The statewide  jobless rate held steady at 10.7 percent in July from a month earlier. In Palm Beach County, unemployment climbed to 11.2 percent that month, up from 11 percent in June.

Jobs, meanwhile, vanished.

Scott has been boasting of the state’s job creation levels, which had climbed by 85,500 positions since he took office in January. But with July’s drop, that level is down to 64,300 jobs, according to the state’s Agency for Workforce Innovation.

 Earlier this week, he told the Orlando Sentinel editorial board that he was well on his way to making good on his campaign promise of creating 700,000 jobs in seven years — even though he also made it clear to the paper that he was casting his pledge differently than last fall. 

Last fall, Scott promised to add the 700,000 positions on top of what economists forecast as a roughly 1 million additional jobs that will come with Florida’s population growth. Now, Scott said he’s counting every job toward his goal.

But Friday, he had to get out the eraser with July’s shrinkage.

Florida Democratic Party executive director Scott Arceneaux said the decline was “another indication that Rick Scott and the Republicans care more about promoting their Tea Party agenda then creating the jobs they promised and Floridians need.”