Attorney General Pam Bondi sent the Legislature’s redistricting plans to the Florida Supreme Court on Friday — a move that will start justices’ review of the maps.
Under state law, Bondi had 15 days to act. But she sent the proposals to the court about 24 hours after they earned final approval from the state Senate.
Justices will have 30 days to examine the plans. The court is asked to determine if the plans for redrawing the state’s 40 Senate districts and 120 House seats complies with state law, including new constitutional standards requiring that boundaries be drawn without concern for incumbents or either political party.
The Florida Democratic Party has already filed suit in Leon County Circuit Court against the congressional map, also approved Thursday.
Gov. Rick Scott is expected to sign the plan into law next week. Scott’s action is expected to bring another lawsuit by the League of Women Voters, La Raza and Common Cause of Florida, which contend the Legislature’s ruling Republicans designed the plan to help the party maintain its majority in the congressional delegation.
Senate President Mike Haridopolos will next week resurrect a prison privatization plan he set aside twice, indicating he may have garnered enough support to pass the controversial measure.
Haridopolos said today the Senate will take up the privatization plan (SB 2038) and amendments on Monday, including a proposal that prompted Haridopolos last week to put the brakes on the bill that would privatize all Department of Corrections operations – including prisons and work camps – in an 18-county region in the southern portion of the state. Haridopolos stopped debate before an amendment that would have stripped out the privatization and instead ordered a study of the outsourcing.
When asked if putting the bill on the calendar meant that he now has the votes to pass the plan, Haridopolos, R-Merritt Island, smiled.
“We’ll see,” he said.
Haridopolos may have garnered more support for his priority issue since stripping outspoken critic of the plan Sen. Mike Fasano, R-New Port Richey, of his committee chairmanship after Fasano’s privatization study amendment appeared to likely to pass and gut the bill. Haridopolos, Gov. Rick Scott and other GOP leaders have urged senators to go along with the plan because of an estimated minimum $16.5 million annual savings.
The Senate will likely have an up-or-down vote on the privatization plan on Tuesday, Haridopolos said.
“I think some people have been impressed by the facts,” he said.
Senate budget chief JD Alexander said this morning he’s “seriously considering” matching the House’s $35 million line-item for Everglades restoration. Gov. Rick Scott tucked away $40 million for the clean-up, and the money will almost certainly show up late in negotiations between the two chambers over their spending plans.
“We’re looking at it. We’re trying to figure out if we can afford it this year,” Alexander, R-Lake Wales, said, adding that he’s supported that and the Florida Forever land-buying program for his 14 years in the legislature soon coming to an end. “So it’s something I’d love to see us be able to do.
I would hope we’d be able to eventually get there…If we can do something it won’t be a lot, but we’d certainly like to provide some funding for preservation of Florida’s ecological needs.”
Alexander said he doesn’t foresee much trouble reconciling the two spending plans. The Senate’s proposal includes deeper health and human services, more spending on schools and road projects and dips into state universities’ reserves.
“There aren’t a lot of differences. It should be fairly easy to get to something we both can agree to,” Alexander said.
The Florida Senate hasn’t included any money for Everglades restoration in its spending plan, but the money may soon flow to the “River of Grass.”
Sen. Oscar Braynon, a Miami Democrat, questioned Senate General Government Appropriations Committee Chairman Alan Hays about the absence of the money during a meeting late Wednesday afternoon.
“It’s definitely in play,” Hays, R-Umatilla, assured him. “It’s an open issue.”
Gov. Rick Scott included $40 million for Everglades restoration in his budget proposal, and the House wants to spend $30 million on clean-up and another $5 million for northern Everglades projects.
The Senate’s plan prompted an outcry from Everglades Foundation CEO Kirk Fordham, who urged the Senate to go along with Scott’s $40 million allocation.
“We are disappointed that the Florida Senate has decided to risk the future of Florida’s water supply by refusing to provide any funding for Everglades restoration,” Fordham said in a press release. “This is not the time to delay the vital work that needs to be done. More than 7 million Floridians depend on the Everglades for fresh water. Any delay threatens the welfare of 1 in 3 Floridians and the economic well-being of our state.”
Senate President Mike Haridopolos, feeling a bit more upbeat about Florida’s economic outlook, said his chamber will likely pass its spending plan late next week, setting the stage for negotiations between the two chambers over the $69.2 billion spending plan.
“If we can find allocation agreements between the House and Senate, we’ll get done on time. If we don’t, we’ll be here for a while,” Haridopolos, R-Merritt Island, said. “We’re not too far apart. This is about putting egos aside and doing what’s right and not playing games.”
Because session started two months early this year due to redistricting, Haridopolos originally floated the idea of holding off on the budget until state economists had more certainty about the state’s financial health.
But Haridopolos said today he’s feeling a little more confident in part because the state’s unemployment rate has continued to drop and is now at its lowest in three years.
“I think we all have to feel a little bit better about it with the unemployment rate where it is,” Haridopolos said, adding that the Senate budget provides “flexibility” by setting aside $1 billion in reserves along with money from the tobacco settlement and state universities’ reserves.
But Haridopolos remained cautious.
“Anyone who says that they’re confident about the economy I think is living in a dream world. But we’re all encouraged that the stock market’s up. We’re all encouraged that the unemployment rate has dipped a bit. But we still have a heck of a long way to go,” he said.
Gov. Rick Scott said Tuesday he has little interest in a fellow Republican’s plan that guts the state’s Department of Health, while also closing Lantana’s A.G. Holley Hospital.
Even before he was sworn-in, Scott’s transition advisers gave him a blistering review of the DOH, dismissing it as a wasteful bureaucratic agency ripe for change. Legislation by Rep. Matt Hudson, R-Naples, would decentralize most of the department’s services, and give county commissions authority to run county health departments.
So far, though, the proposal looks like a no-sale with Scott.
“I’m trying to figure out what it does,” Scott said. “Does it improve quality? Does it reduce costs? Does it improve service? If if it doesn’t do something that makes the lives of Florida’s citizens better, why would we think about doing that?
“I haven’t seen anything — the way it’s been explained to me — in the bill that does any of those things,” Scott concluded.
Several public health advocates blasted Hudson’s proposal Monday when it cleared a House subcommittee.
The measure would largely get the state out of the business of running county health departments, turning them over to county commissions to operate. State and federal dollars would be steered in block grants to county governments, based on population, which would gain more control over how the dollars are spent.
About 12,000 state Health Department jobs would be slashed, although supporters of the move said many would convert to county positions. A.G. Holley’s closure, seen as another cost-saving move, would shutter Florida’s last remaining tuberculosis hospital, most likely by January.
The deep, $1.3 billion budget cut imposed last year on Florida public schools would be largely offset with a similarly sized increase in classroom dollars proposed Tuesday by the Florida Senate.
Senate Pre-K-12 education budget chief David Simmons, R-Altamonte Springs, said he was looking restore school funding this election year after many districts absorbed thousands of layoffs and program cuts when per-pupil dollars were dragged to their lowest level in six years last fall, by budget-slashing lawmakers.
“It’s not 2005-6, but it sure is good,” Simmons said Tuesday.
The Senate has been slow to release details of its budget proposal and Tuesday mostly just dribbled out its education package. The House, by contrast, is poised to approve its full $69.2 billion spending plan later this week.
But for starters, the Senate has trumped the House in school funding. The House is recommending a $1 billion boost, which amounts to a 2 percent increase per-student. The Senate plan tops 3 percent and would bring per-student dollars up an average $192.70 — about $51 more than what the House is offering.
For Florida’s 28 colleges, the Senate proposed a 3 percent tuition boost. But for universities, the Senate appears to be more closely alligned with Gov. Rick Scott — who has dismissed a call from university presidents for higher tuition.
The Senate’s proposal calls for no base tuition boost. The House would give Florida’s 11 public universities authority for an 8 percent base increase that can be raised to 15 percent for universities, with approval from the State University System’s Board of Governors.
Even with the the Senate snub, universities could still seek as much as a 15 percent hike from the board. But if Scott digs in, it’s likely the governor-appointed board may be reluctant to OK higher tuition.
The Senate proposal cuts university dollars by 4 percent — about double the cut leveled by the House. Both sides, though, look on track to continue a trend in which state dollars for Florida universities have dropped 24 percent since 2008. Florida’s average tuition level ranks 45th in the nation — and administrators have been clamoring for more authority to shift costs onto students.
Gov. Rick Scott acknowledged Tuesday that he’s been lobbied by Florida members of Congress on the redistricting plan expected to be sent his way soon.
But the Republican governor didn’t want to mention any names.
“Oh, I don’t think anybody wants me to talk about any of those conversations,” Scott said, when asked if U.S. Rep. Allen West, R-Plantation, was among those contacting him.
West last week announced that he would leave his battleground congressional district, straddling Palm Beach and Broward counties, to run this year in a proposed new district, which includes Martin and St. Lucie counties, and part of Palm Beach.
West’s decision emerged as part of a GOP three-step dance – touched off by U.S. Rep. Tom Rooney, R-Tequesta, who said he’d run in a newly drawn, mostly rural and interior Florida district.
Former House majority leader Adam Hasner of Boca Raton completed the moves by announcing he was abandoning his U.S. Senate run to run in the district that West was exiting.
House and Senate redistricting leaders say they have kept their distance from members of Congress, mostly in an effort to comply with constitutional amendments approved by voters in 2010, which ban new electoral boundaries from favoring incumbents or parties.
Scott, though, said at least some in Florida’s delegation have reached out directly to the executive office. While Scott isn’ authorized to act on legislative maps, he can veto the congressional plan.
“I’ll review it when I get it,” Scott said of the congressional proposal. “I’ve had a few phone calls from some people that have had questions about it. My response is, ‘send me what your proposal is, and I’ll review it at the time.’
Senate Reapportionment Chairman Don Gaetz, R-Niceville, said Scott’s contacts with unnamed members of Congress doesn’t strike him as out of line — or unconstitutional.
“Any citizen is entitled to petition their government for the redress of grievances,” Gaetz said.
Gov. Rick Scott will speak at this week’s Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington, joining a lineup that includes encore performances by Sen. Marco Rubio and U.S. Rep. Allen West, R-Plantation.
CPAC is the conservative movement’s premiere annual showcase. Rubio’s status as a rising star of the right was confirmed when he was booked for a featured 2010 speaking gig while former Gov. Charlie Crist was still the establishment favorite for Florida’s GOP Senate nomination. Tea party megastar West keynoted last year’s conference.
Mitt Romney‘s 2012 presidential bid arguably began four years ago at CPAC when he chose the venue to announce he was dropping out of the 2008 Republican nomination hunt. Romney, who has had his troubles firing up the GOP conservative base this year, was considered the conservative alternative to John McCain in 2008.
Romney, Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum are all scheduled to speak at this year’s CPAC, which begins Thursday and ends Saturday.
Despite emotional testimony from county officials and prison employees, the House budget committee rejected a bid Wednesday to stop Gov. Rick Scott’s plan to close Jefferson Correctional Institution in rural North Florida.
The move was similar to the decision last December to close the state’s oldest lockup, Glades Correctional Institution, which similarly caused further economic upheaval in western Palm Beach County.
“This may be a 100-year event for this county,” said Rep. Leonard Bembry, D-Greenville, whose district includes the prison, told the House committee.
The Republican-led panel, however, sided with the decision by Scott and the state’s Department of Corrections, to close JCI, one of 11 lockups and work camps the administration plans to close because of a declining inmate population. Bembry sought to direct $10 million from the state’s prison privatization funding to avoid closing the facility, which is the county’s largest employer.
Close to 200 jobs will be lost — or about 6 percent of the county’s workforce. Jefferson County, which adjoins the state capital’s Leon County, has a population of 14,000. Dozens of residents packed the budget committee’s hearing room Wednesday.
“I’ve already cut the private prisons 9 percent in our budget,” said Rep. Rich Glorioso, R-Plant City, chairman of the criminal justice section of the House budget panel. “If I cut them again, it would throw my budget out of whack.”
Julie Conley, Jefferson County’s economic development chief, and a former mayor, pleaded with the committee to find other areas to cut — saying there are few job prospects in her community. Conley said she understood the need to save money.
“But we ask that you do it some place that can more easily absorb the impact,” she said.
Gov. Rick Scott and the Florida Cabinet are putting pressure on lawmakers to approve an all-out ban on Internet cafés now on its way to the House floor but facing a doubtful future in the Senate.
The House Economic Affairs Committee approved the bill (HB 3) this morning, drawing the praise of the Republican governor and Cabinet who want the so-called “casinos on the corner” shuttered.
Critics of the cafés, an estimated $1 billion industry which operates under state “sweepstakes” laws and are largely unregulated, say they prey on the state’s poor and vulnerable. But the café operators say they provide good jobs for their employees and a place to socialize for seniors and others.
Scott believes the store-front casinos found in strip malls throughout the state are already illegal but wants lawmakers to officially ban them.
“These store front casinos are impacting Florida’s neighborhoods and families,” said Governor Scott. “They are and should be illegal. Representative Plakon’s bill closes this loophole and I commend his dedication to shutting down these establishments,” Scott said in a statement released by Rep. Scott Plakon, the Longwood Republican who’s sponsored the bill.
Attorney General Pam Bondi, Chief Financial Officer Jeff Atwater and Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam joined in the chorus demanding the shut-down.
But the Senate is moving forward with a separate measure that would regulate the cafés and impose a $100 fee per computer terminal for operators. Estimates of the number of cafés in the state range from 800 to 1,400 but all agree they have mushroomed in the past few years. Palm Beach County commissioners recently barred new cafés from opening in unincorporated areas.
The Senate Regulated Industries Committee approved a regulation measure and set aside a bill that would make the cafés illegal.
Gov. Rick Scott said Tuesday that he’s ready to put the brakes on tuition hikes for college and university students across Florida.
“I don’t believe in tuition hikes,” Scott said.
He added, “We have to do what the private sector has done, what every family has done. We have to tighten our belts to see how we can save money. That’s the first thing I want to focus on: How do we reduce our costs, rather than how do we raise tuition.”
Last week, 300 Florida university students rallied at the Capitol to oppose what looks like another push by the Legislature to approve a tuition increase. Tuition at five Florida universities has climbed 60 percent over the past four years, while students at the other six public universities have weathered a 45 percent boost in that time.
The presidents of the University of Florida and Florida State University earlier this month urged a House committee to give schools authority to begin charging higher tuition for science, technology, engineering and mathematics programs — the STEM degrees that Scott says are the path to employment in the evolving economy.
The House budget committee Wednesday looks set to approve another potential 15 percent boost in university tuition as part of its $69 billion state spending plan. College tuition would climb 8 percent, under the plan.
Florida’s tuition has been climbing even as state support for universities has dropped 24 percent since 2008, shifting more school costs onto students and their families. The state’s tuition remains the 45th lowest rate in the country.
But while universities have been cutting programs to reduce costs, Scott thinks more reductions can be made at the administrative level.
Six-figure salaries paid to high-level administrators seem to have endured Florida’s prolonged economic slump. Over the past year, they’ve become a rallying point at campus protests.
“I want the cost of living in this state to be lower than other states, I don’t want it to be higher than other states,” Scott said. “Would you think that way in business? You’d wouldn’t say, ‘Oh, gosh. The other business, it costs them more to do things, so let me raise my prices.’ You don’t do that. You figure out, how can we be efficient.”
Gov. Rick Scott declined to say who he voted for in Florida’s Republican presidential primary, after casting his ballot early Tuesday at a community center a couple blocks from the Governor’s Mansion.
Florida’s chief executive, who had declined to endorse or campaign with any of the contenders in the race, continued to keep his distance.
“It’s a secret ballot, fortunately,” Scott said.
He acknowledged though, his favorite had “less than 10 letters in their last name,” a standard that covers the field.
Gov. Rick Scott told FOX Business Network today that tomorrow’s Sunshine State GOP primary could be make-or-break for Newt Gingrich, trailing Mitt Romney in recent Florida polls by double digits.
“It looks like Florida is going to choose. It’s going to be tough, I think it will be hard on Newt, if he doesn’t win Florida, to go forward, because Governor Romney has a good campaign going from the standpoint of good organization and he’s raised a lot of money,” Scott told FOX Business Network’s Follow the Money host Eric Bolling in a show to be aired at 10 p.m. tonight.
Scott hasn’t endorsed any of the candidates in the primary, but he’s talked up Romney in recent interviews, praising the former Massachusetts governor’s business acumen and opining that Latino voters prefer Romney to the twice-divorced and admitted former lady’s man Gingrich because Romney is a family man committed to his wife.
Tomorrow’s election defining the GOP nominee is exactly what Republican lawmakers hoped for when the moved Florida’s primary up from its previously scheduled date, incurring the wrath of national GOP leaders. State Republicans are being punished by losing half their delegates to the GOP convention, and because of the early date, Florida is now a winner-take-all-delegates match.
Scott also told FBN that the winner needs to sell his jobs plan – as Scott himself did (with the help of his own $73 million) in his gubernatorial campaign – to Floridians.
Romney, who with Gingrich and “Super-PACs” on both sides have traded nasty ads, has done a better job of getting his message out, Scott told Bolling.
“I hope it has nothing to do with the negative ads. But somebody, one of these two, is going to go out there and really sell that they’ve got a better jobs plan than the other one. That’s who I think is going to win tomorrow,” Scott, who will vote in Leon County tomorrow morning at 8 a.m., said. Unlike most of his predecessors, Scott has registered to vote with his new address at the governor’s mansion.
Asked if he was leaning toward endorsing Romney, Scott remained coy.
Scott ordered the inquiry after Florida Highway Patrol officials announced this afternoon they are also investigating. Two FHP supervisors reopened the highway early Sunday morning, less than three hours after the highway had been shut down because of reduced visibility caused by smoke from fires in Paines Prairie.
Shortly after the highway was re-opened, a string of car crashes began, killing 10 people and injuring 21 others.
“Following this weekend’s tragic automobile accident on Interstate 75 in Alachua County, I have asked the Florida Department of Law Enforcement to investigate the circumstances leading up to this incident. I will make available any and all resources from the Executive Office of the Governor, as well as any agency under my supervision, as needed. We will also fully cooperate with any federal investigation which may occur. During this tragic time, our thoughts and prayers should be with the victims and their families,” Scott said in a statement late this afternoon.
Once the anti-establishment candidate, Gov. Rick Scott is full of praise – without officially endorsing – Mitt Romney, who’s garnered the support of some of the Sunshine State’s top GOP insiders.
Scott has defended Romney’s business background and today told CNN‘s Candy Crowley that Hispanic voters prefer the former Massachusetts governor because of his family values.
Scott’s comments come as Romney and Newt Gingrich sweep the state hoping to nail down the all-or-nothing convention delegate prize on Tuesday’s primary, with a lot of the focus on the state’s Latino voters crucial to the GOP primary.
This morning on CNN’s State of the Union, Crowley asked Scott about a recent poll show Romney outstripping Newt Gingrich among Hispanic voters by 49-23 percent.
“Look, the Latino vote cares about family. I mean, if you look at Gov. Romney’s family, he’s been very successful. He’s built a great family, very committed to his wife,” Scott said. “He’s somebody that’s been successful in life. So I think if they look at his background, it’s what they want. They care about their families. They care about, you know, somebody that’s been successful in business. That’s what they care about. So I think that’s part of what his attraction to the Latino vote.”
Gingrich’s campaign recently yanked a Spanish-language ad accusing Romney of being “anti-immigrant” after U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio blasted scolded the former speaker of the House over the ad.
And Romney scored one of his best lines on the thorny immigration issue during Thursday night’s debate in Jacksonville after Gingrich said Romney’s immigration stance would result in rounding up grandmothers who’ve lived for years in the country illegally.
“Our problem isn’t 11 million grandmothers,” Romney said. “Our problem is 11 million people getting jobs that many Americans, legal immigrants, would like to have.”
With recent polls showing Romney surging in the polls on Florida, Scott told Crowley “it sure looks like Gov. Romney’s going to win” and again said the candidates should be discussing their jobs plans instead of trading barbs.
Scott lauded Romney’s business background but did not say whose jobs plan he prefers.
Doug Darling, the head of Gov. Rick Scott’s “Department of Economic Opportunity,” is leaving the post six months after the governor appointed him to lead the newly-created agency at the end of July.
Agency for Workforce Innovation chief Cynthia Lorenzo will fill in as interim director beginning Wednesday, Scott said in a statement announcing Darling’s resignation. Darling, who cited “personal reasons” for his departure in a letter to the governor dated yesterday, will stay on the job until Tuesday but pledged to help with the transition for another month.
“I am incredibly grateful for Doug’s 15 years of service to the State of Florida and the contributions he has provided to numerous state agencies and my office. I appointed Doug in July to lead the new agency, and I thank him for his invaluable efforts in getting DEO off the ground. He has been a tremendous asset during these first months of the agency and has been instrumental in promoting Florida as the top place to do business,” Scott said, wishing Darling “the best in his future endeavors.”
Darling was forced out as a top aide to former Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink – who lost her bid for governor to Scott by a hair – over an audit that found his division lacking in internal controls. Darling also served at the departments of Environmental Protection and Education.
Darling generated some controversy in the fall when he revealed that Florida has paid tens of millions of dollars to lure companies to the state for jobs that were never created. After Darling initiated a review of the economic development incentives, his office later backed away from his critique of the jobs return on the tax breaks, saying the situation wasn’t as bad as it first appeared.
With the House already including a potential 15 percent tuition increase in its budget, 300 Florida students rallied at the Capitol Thurday to oppose shelling out more even as lawmakers reduce the state’s share of higher education spending.
Michael Long, chairman of the Florida Student Association, told the crowd that tuition has climbed 60 percent over the past four years, while the state has reduced general revenue support for schools by 24 percent.
“We do not mind contributing to our education as long as its reasonable,” Long said. “But 60 percent in four years is not reasonable.”
In his role as FSA chairman, Long also sits as a member of the State University System’s Board of Governors. Along with opposing the tuition boost, students are opposing separate legislation that would give the governor authority to appoint the BOG’s student representative.
For his part, Gov. Rick Scott didn’t include a tuition increase in the $66.4 billion budget proposal he unveiled last month. He also has questioned the spending priorities of the state’s 11 public universities — nudging them to promote for science and technology programs that employers are said to want.
The Senate so far hasn’t begun serious budget work. But Senate President Mike Haridopolos, R-Merritt Island, was among those speaking to the student group Thursday. He pointed out that even with the steady increases, Florida has the fifth lowest average tuition in the country among state systems.
Haridopolos, though, told the crowd that one of the reasons the Senate was moving slowly on the budget was so that it could hear more from those — like the students — affected by the Legislature’s budget building in a year when lawmakers are trying to close a $2 billion shortfall.
Alexander Press, a 22-year-old Florida Atlantic University senior, was among those at the rally.
“It’s a lot of money,” Press said of the tuition hikes. “We’re just starting to make a recovery from this recession, and it’s not easy for families to have to keep paying more.”
Mitt Romney gets more support from Florida’s independent voters than Newt Gingrich and would be a stronger Republican presidential nominee against President Obama in November, a new Quinnipiac University poll says.
Romney and Obama are tied at 45 percent in the poll while the president would defeat Gingrich by a 50-to-39 margin in Florida the poll says.
The big difference between the Republican frontrunners: while Romney and Obama are virtually tied among independent voters, the president would defeat Gingrich by a 50-to-33 percent margin among independents in Florida.
Obama’s approval rating remains underwater in Florida, with 46 percent approving of the way he handles his duties and 52 percent disapproving. Only 43 percent of independents give Obama a positive job approval score, with 53 percent negative.
A fired-up Gov. Rick Scott gave proponents of changes to the state’s no-fault insurance laws a lesson in politics, urging them to knock on lawmakers’ doors and let them have it.
Scott joined a crusade led by business industry leaders and Chief Financial Officer Jeff Atwater pushing legislation intended to crack down on personal injury protection insurance fraud the governor said is costing Floridians $1 billion a year.
And today Scott came out in favor of the House’s PIP fix, that would require people injured in auto accidents to be treated in emergency rooms within 72 hours, cap attorneys’ fees and prohibit chiropractors or massage therapists from providing follow-up care.
“This is how laws get changed. Show up and let your legislators know what you want. You’re sick and tired of this $1 billion a year of fraud. You’re tired of it. You’re tired of scammers taking advantage of you. You’re tired of attorneys taking advantage of you. Enough is enough. We need to change this,” Scott told dozens of PIP reform advocates at a press conference on the fourth-floor rotunda in the Capitol. “Now. How do you do it? You do exactly what you’re doing here. You show up and then you go to everybody’s office.”
The press conference came on the heels of a House committee’s approval of HB 119. Proponents of the changes – including Scott – say they’re needed to cut back on fraud like staged auto accidents that are causing auto insurance premiums in some areas to skyrocket.
But critics of the House measure who favor a Senate version sponsored by Stuart Republican Joe Negron say the bill is anti-consumer because it limits consumers’ choices.
“This bill is the thing of consumers’ nightmares and of insurance bigwigs’ dreams,” Bill Newton, executive director of Florida Consumer Action Network, said in a statement.
Even with Scott’s support, the House bill, passed by the House Civil Justice Committee along partisan lines this morning, is in trouble, however. Even some GOP committee members said they can’t support the measure in its current form, setting the stage for an ongoing battle between doctors, chiropractors, massage therapists, insurers and attorneys.
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