Despite a credit rating downgrade and more than 100 layoffs, Gov. Rick Scott said Tuesday he supported the dramatic changes occuring at the South Florida Water Management District, saying “absolutely the right things are happening.”

Legislation signed into law by Scott cuts property taxes across Florida’s five water management districts by $210 million. The South Florida district, the state’s largest, is slicing spending by $120 million, or about 30 percent of its property-tax collections, sparking scores of layoffs and buyouts.

The financial hit also led the ratings agency, Standard & Poor, to downgrade the district’s credit rating a notch, to AA+. Although the district has no immediate plans to issue bonds, S&P’s action could raise the future cost of borrowing by water managers.

“Why should they be out borrowing more money?” Scott said. “They should be doing what the state is doing…especially in tough times like this. What would you do in your own house? What do Floridians have to do now? They have to watch every penny.”

“That’s exactly what they should expect out of government,” Scott concluded.

 

Gov. Rick Scott overstepped his authority and violated the separation of powers by freezing state agency rulemaking, the Florida Supreme Court ruled today.

Shortly after he was sworn in as governor on Jan. 4, Scott suspended agency rulemaking and required the proposed rules be vetted by his office. He later created the “Office of Fiscal Accountability and Regulatory Reform” to review the rules, saying he wanted to make sure they did not slow down government, create barriers for businesses or cost taxpayers money.

But in a 5-2 ruling, the court found that Scott’s executive orders “infringe upon the very process of rulemaking and encroach upon the Legislature‘s delegation of its rulemaking power as set forth in the Florida Statutes.”

Chief Justice Charles Canady and Judge Ricky Polston, both appointed by Gov. Charlie Crist, dissented. Scott acted within his constitutional authority as the state’s chief administrative officer whose duty is “to manage, plan, and hold agencies under his charge accountable to State laws, including the APA. The actual facts before us do not demonstrate otherwise,” Polston wrote.

Canady called the majority opinion an “ill-conceived interference with the constitutional authority and responsibility of Florida‘s Governor.”

Scott also saw it that way.

“It doesn’t make any sense to me,” Scott said of the court ruling. “I don’t think it follows the constitution. It’s a disappointment.

“Think about it, the secretaries of these agencies report to me, they work for me at will, and I’m not supposed to supervise them? It doesn’t make sense,” he added.

(more…)

Florida officials have opened the gates at a Panhandle prison to MSNBC‘s “Lockup” film crew for two months, according to a Department of Corrections press release.

A team from 44 Blue, the production company in charge of the series about life behind bars, began filming this week at Santa Rosa Correctional Institution in Milton this month, the release said.

DOC Secretary Ed Buss worked with the production company in his previous post as head of Indiana prisons.

“I have no qualms about them coming into our prisons. I’m proud of our staff and how well our facilities are run, and I hope this will help Floridians understand the challenges we face with our inmate population, as well as the benefits prisons provide to their communities through our programs and re-entry efforts,” Buss said in the release.

The film crew will have “unprecedented access” to inmates and staff who want to be on film, the release said. The prison houses up to 1,614 adult males of all custody levels, including some with mental health issues, according to the release.

The series is expected to go on the air sometime next year.

Chief Financial Officer Jeff Atwater said Monday he will sign off on a $5,000 payment to cover funeral expenses for Eric Perez, an 18-year-old who died in state custody in West Palm Beach on July 10.

The Palm Beach Post and The Miami Herald reported this weekend that Atwater blocked the payment. His office told Department of Juvenile Justice officials they lacked statutory authority for the payment although the agency has had a policy for two years to pay up to $5,000 for funeral costs of children who die while in their custody and has issued the payments twice before.

On Monday, Atwater blamed Department of Juvenile Justice officials for what he called “a tragic delay” in a press release Monday afternoon. Atwater promised to send a check to the Perez family’s attorney within 48 hours.

“Regrettably, this tragic delay would not have occurred if the Department of Juvenile Justice had not blatantly ignored guidance from my office,” Atwater said in the release. “In the future, I would hope that DJJ would be more transparent in its dealings with the public and with taxpayer monies.”

Chief Financial Officer Jeff Atwater’s office has blocked a payment to cover the costs of the funeral of Eric Perez, the 18-year-old who died while in state custody in a Palm Beach County juvenile detention facility on July 10.

The Department of Juvenile Justice had promised to pay $5,000 towards the cost of Perez’ funeral, as it has done twice before in the past two years.

Atwater, in charge of the state’s check book, had gone so far as to print a $5,000 check for Tillman Funeral Home in West Palm Beach on July 13.

But before DJJ officials released it to the funeral home, Atwater’s office asked that the money be returned.

“Since the agency does not have statutory authority to make the payment, we are requesting a warrant cancellation for the following vendor payment,” Mark Merry, head of the Department of Financial Services auditing department, wrote to DJJ in an e-mail on Tuesday.

DJJ has had a policy of paying up to $5,000 towards funeral costs for children who die in their custody since 2008, department spokesman C.J. Drake said. Since then, the department has twice paid families the maximum amount – once in November 2008 and again in January 2009.

Discussions are now underway between the two agencies about how the payment can be made, Drake said.

“So far everyone’s been very cooperative and agreeable. We just have to resolve it. I’m confident that we’re going to make the payment,” he said.

Once known for its robust growth, Florida’s government is bracing for what has become a new annual tradition — the 10 percent budget cut exercise.

Budget directors for Gov. Rick Scott and legislative leaders have sent a memo to state agencies demanding that they produce budget proposals for next year that reduce spending by 10 percent. The spending plans are due Sept. 15.

Florida’s $70 billion budget this year is down from a peak of about $77 billion achieved during the last go-go pre-recession year, 2007. Since then, spending reductions have become the norm — with agencies asked to submit leaner proposals each year.

Last year, House Republicans upped the ante — asking committees to examine how agency budgets could be cut by 15 percent, an approach that sparked rebellion from House Democrats, who refused to take part.

 Cuts came anyway last spring. Lawmakers struggled to close an almost $3.8 billion budget shortfall by slashing deeply into education and health and human services, while pulling more than $1 billion in employee pension contributions from those in the Florida Retirement System.

For weeks, child welfare officials statewide have been celebrating the news that more than 9,000 children under the state’s care were reunited with their families in 2010. Noting that 9,134 children were reunited with their families from Jan. through Dec. 2010, Gov. Rick Scott signed a proclamation declaring the period between May 8-June 19 as Florida’s Family Reunification Celebration.

It turns out that only 5,877 children were reunited with their families in 2010 – 3,257 less than originally reported by the state Department of Children and Families, a DCF official said after The Palm Beach Post inquired about irregularities in state numbers.

Apparently the person in charge of crunching the numbers at DCF chose an incorrect data category to calculate the amount of child reunifications, the official said.

A legislative panel rejected a federal grant that could have brought Florida $35.7 million over the next five years to help patients move from nursing homes to community care, warning it could lead to state costs lawmakers don’t want to shoulder.

The Legislative Budget Commission, a 14-member panel authorized to make mid-year budget adjustments, voted 8-6 against giving state health care officials authority to accept $2 million in federal funds to plan for the program. A majority from both the House and Senate members was needed for approval, and House members dug-in against the spending.

Some leading Republican lawmakers said the program duplicated state efforts underway and could force the Legislature to pick up the tab for costs once the grant expired.

“I realize these are federal dollars, but they’re still taxpayer dollars,” said House budget chair Denise Grimsley, R-Sebring.

House and Senate Democrats on the panel voted in favor of the grant. And even a pair of prominent Republicans, Senate budget chief J.D. Alexander, R-Lake Wales, and Senate Health and Human Services budget chairman Joe Negron, R-Stuart, were on the losing side, hinting they thought accepting the grant was worthwhile.

House HHS budget chief  Rob Schenck, R-Spring Hill, said Florida was already doing a good job getting nursing home patients out of costly facilities and back home or with relatives, when appropriate. Since 2009, House officials said the state’s Agency for Health Care Administration with other agencies has moved 1,900 patients to community services — and no patients who wanted to move were denied.

“It’s unnecessary, duplicative, and when you couple that with an estimated $6 million in administrative costs for the program…I would argue that it’s always dangerous to accept federal money,” Schenck said.

Florida is one of 13 states awarded what the federal government called a demonstration grant for the program. The money comes from Congress’ federal health care overhaul, which the state is suing to have overturned. The House earlier this year blocked Senate efforts to include funding to launch the program in the state budget.

Gov. Rick Scott downplayed the implications of his decision to suspend his order that all state employees undergo pre-employment and random drug testing, saying Thursday he remains committed to screening.

The move came two weeks after the ACLU of Florida sued the governor, claiming testing was an unconstitutional invasion of privacy. Scott sent a memo last week to agency heads saying that only the Department of Corrections should go forward with implementing his March testing order until the outcome of the lawsuit, now in Miami federal court.

“We’re going forward with it,” Scott said. “We’ll continue to go forward…It’s just the process now.”

Scott also brushed off questions about whether he was concerned about the court overturning his order.

“The private sector does this all the time,” Scott said. “Our taxpayers expect our state employees to be productive…this is the right thing, and we’re going forward.”

Gov. Rick Scott erased some of the last vestiges of his predecessor on the board of  Enterprise Florida, removing a pair of former Gov. Charlie Crist’s big fund-raisers and replacing them with two advisers of his own.

Gone are Marty Fiorentino, a Jacksonville fund-raiser, and Scott Peelen, a financial manager from Winter Park, who was among the few Republican rainmakers who stuck by Crist during his failed, independent run for U.S. Senate.

Fiorentino and Peelen were both appointed from the Crist bunker to Enterprise Florida, being named to three-year terms only eight days before Scott was sworn in.

Replacing them are Chris Kise, a lawyer who worked for Crist, but who lately helped direct Scott’s transition team. Joining Kise on those directing the public-private agency charged with selling Florida to national and world business leaders is Adam Hollingsworth, chief-of-staff to outgoing Jacksonville Mayor John Peyton.

Kise and Hollingsworth were named to the unpaid posts for terms that expire July 1, 2014.

Gov. Rick Scott signed into law 48 bills Thursday, including measures that would add new muscle to Palm Beach County’s obscure Lake Worth Drainage District, overhaul Florida’s $22 billion Medicaid program, and sharply reduce state growth management laws.

The Lake Worth law (HB 741) was sponsored by first-year Rep. Lori Berman, D-Delray Beach, and gives the drainage district authority to issue taxpayer-backed bonds to pay for canal improvements and construction of a 25-billion-gallon reservoir in western Palm Beach County to hold stormwater.

The water would then be treated and moved through existing canals to South Florida’s thirsty shoreline communities from Wellington to Fort Lauderdale.

Supporters have touted the project as a common sense solution to the region’s environmental and growth management problems. But Scott’s office earlier raised questions about taxpayer liability stemming from the plan, called the C-51 Reservoir Project.

The Lake Worth Drainage District was created 96 years ago to provide water control and supply from Okeechobee Boulevard south to Broward. The district has historically been limited to weed control, maintaining canal banks, monitoring water levels and issuing permits.

But as owner and operator of a reservoir that helps quench South Florida cities and shapes development, while negotiating contracts with other utilities, the district would emerge as a major player in the region’s water management. (more…)

The ACLU is challenging in federal court Gov. Rick Scott’s executive order forcing all state workers to undergo drug testing.

The civil rights organization filed the lawsuit in federal court in Miami yesterday accusing Scott of violating the constitution’s guarantee to be free from unreasonable searches by the government. The lawsuit also asks federal judge Ursula Ungaro to issue an injunction immediately stopping all drug-testing of the state’s 250,000 state workers.

ACLU of Florida executive director Howard Simon called Scott’s order “profoundly un-American” because it is conflicts with the Fourth Amendment put into the Bill of Rights in response to warrantless searches by King George’s troops during the American Revolution.

“It could not be more invasive of privacy,” Simon told reporters during a conference call this afternoon.

In 2004, the courts struck down a Florida Department of Juvenile Justice random drug testing policy. The court found that drug testing of state workers without reasonable suspicion was unconstitutional and awarded the plaintiff in that case $150,000.

Yesterday, Scott signed into law a measure requiring welfare recipients to undergo drug screening. That new law is unrelated to the executive order and to the case filed yesterday.

The lawsuit is the first in what is expected to be a slew of challenges to state laws passed by the legislature during the session that ended last month regarding abortion, elections and freedom of speech.

“It’s a tsunami of anti-civil liberties legislation,” Simon said.

Welfare recipients, mostly women with children, will now have to be drug-free to receive cash benefits under a bill signed into law by Gov. Rick Scott today.

Under the new law, applicants for the benefits will have to pay for the drug tests but will get reimbursed if they are drug-free. If they’re not, their children will still be able to receive benefits through another family member or someone else designated by their parent.

More than 21,000 Floridians now receiving benefits as heads of households will now have to pay for and undergo the screening.

Scott and state lawmakers contend Florida needs the new law to stop welfare recipients from using the money to buy drugs. Opponents of the measure cite studies have shown that there’s no more widespread drug abuse among welfare recipients than the general public.

“While there are certainly legitimate needs for public assistance, it is unfair for Florida taxpayers to subsidize drug addiction,” Scott said in a press release. “This new law will encourage personal accountability and will help to prevent the misuse of tax dollars.”

The ACLU of Florida blasted the new law.

“The wasteful program created by this law subjects Floridians who are impacted by the economic downturn, as well as their families, to a humiliating search of their urine and body fluids without cause or even suspicion of drug abuse,” said Howard Simon, the civil rights organization’s executive director.

A federal court in 2003 struck down a similar law, finding that it violated Fourth Amendment rights to be free from unreasonable searches.

Scott is also requiring state workers to undergo random drug tests, prompting threats of lawsuits. The ACLU is making an announcement regarding that policy tomorrow morning, indicating a lawsuit is likely.

Perhaps not coincidentally, Scott today also signed into law a bill banning certain bath salts that have resulted in a rash of overdoses in Florida and other states.

Attorney General Pam Bondi in January issued an emergency order criminalizing the sale of “bath salts” made up of the dangerous synthetic drug Methylenedioxypyrovalerone, or MDPV. The drug cocktail apparently gives users super-human strength.

Florida poison control centers have reported 61 calls of “bath salts” abuse, the second-highest volume of calls in the nation, according to Scott’s office.

Gov. Rick Scott vetoed a record $615 million Thursday from the budget approved earlier this month by lawmakers — saying he was holding “special interests accountable.”

With Scott’s action, the budget shrinks to $69.1 billion, and reserves swell to about $2.8 billion.

“I campaigned on making the tough choices to turn our economy around,” Scott told a crowd at The Villages, the Central Florida retirement community Thursday.

College and university construction projects took a big hit in Scott’s veto list, with most of a more than $220 million approved list eliminated. Among those vetoed was $7.3 million for a Wellington campus classroom building at Palm Beach State College and $3.2 million for roofs and other work at Florida Atlantic University. 

Scott, who earlier called for even deeper cuts for education, urged lawmakers to redirect some of the vetoed dollars back into public schools — which face a $1.3 billion cut.

Representatives of business groups, lawmakers and Florida Republican Party Chairman Dave Bitner were the warmup act for Scott’s budget signing and vetoes under a sweltering midday sun. 

Speakers praised Scott and ridiculed Washington for overspending.

“The people in Washington, D.C., need to use Florida as an example of fiscal responsibility,” said Sen. Alan Hays, R-Umatilla.

The budget approved by lawmakers cuts $2.6 billion from schools, health and social service programs, bringing per-pupil funding to its lowest level in six years, while imposing deep cuts to hospitals, nursing homes and HMOs. Some economists warn the spending plan, which takes effect July 1, could slow the state’s recovery by adding more Floridians to the jobless ranks.

But among conservative tea party voters, who helped vault Scott to a narrow victory over Democratic opponent Alex Sink last fall, the Legislature’s spending plan was a failure.

The budget reduces the state’s workforce by 4,500 positions, to 122,236 employees. It also privatizes prisons in the state’s 18 southernmost counties, including Palm Beach and the Treasure Coast, clouding the future of about 3,000 corrections workers.

School districts also are looking to cut jobs in the face of a drop in state dollars. Palm Beach County is poised to close a $35.4 million budget hole by eliminating more than 700 positions, including custodians, classroom monitors and school police officers.

But in his budget proposal, released in February, Scott wanted more. He called for cutting 8,681 jobs across state agencies, while reducing $4.6 billion in spending.

Florida Democrats spent Wednesday firing off several thousand e-mails to the governor’s office, demanding that he veto the entire 406-page document.

“It is a budget that eliminates, and does not create, jobs for Floridians,” said Rep. Mark Pafford, D-West Palm Beach. “It is a sorely deficient budget that is inappropriately balanced on the backs of our middle class.”

With Rick Scott poised to sign into law a new state budget, the focus Thursday morning remains on whether the first-year governor might also be out to set a new state record.

Scott has said — without providing details — that he plans to veto portions of the $69.7 billion spending plan approved earlier this month by lawmakers.

Tea party activists are expected to form a large share of the audience at today’s signing ceremony. And leading lawmakers think Scott could make a political statement by axing hundreds of millions of dollars in proposed spending.

Could he top former Gov. Charlie Crist’s $459.2 million record for vetoes?

“That wouldn’t surprise me,” said Sen. Joe Negron, R-Stuart, chairman of the Senate’s Health and Human Services budget committee. “I think there’s a real possibility that the veto amount exceeds $459 million.”

The budget approved by lawmakers cuts $2.6 billion from schools, health and social service programs, bringing per-pupil funding to its lowest level in six years, while imposing deep cuts to hospitals, nursing homes and HMOs. Some economists warn the spending plan, which takes effect July 1, could slow the state’s recovery by adding more Floridians to the jobless ranks.

But among conservative tea party voters, who helped vault Scott to a narrow victory over Democratic opponent Alex Sink last fall, the Legislature’s spending plan is a failure.

“We were all disappointed that the House and Senate came out with a much higher budget than Gov. Scott proposed,” said Robin Stublen, a leader of the Charlotte County Tea Party, who helped draw supporters to Thursday’s signing event at The Villages, the Central Florida retirement community.

“But I think (Scott) will do what he thinks is right,” Stublen added. “He’s not concerned with his poll numbers or his next election.”

Florida TaxWatch, the business-backed government spending watchdog, spotted $203 million in “turkeys” in the $69.7 billion budget awaiting Gov. Rick Scott’s signature – and line-item vetoes.

That’s the most pork in the budget the group, which conducts the exercise annually, found since 2007, according to a press release.

Unfortunately for Palm Beach County, included in the pork projects is $7.3 million for a Wellington-area campus of Palm Beach State College. Gov. Charlie Crist last year vetoed $19 million – the total cost of the project – for the new campus.

Also on the list: $1.4 million for the Glades Senior Community Center. The county wants to convert the existing senior center to a homeless resource center.

Both projects are Palm Beach County priorities.

Here’s the full list.

Gov. Rick Scott unsuccessfully tried to privatize Florida’s three remaining state mental hospitals.

But Monday, those same facilities in Gainesville, Chattahoochee and Macclenny look like they’re going to absorb the brunt of some 500 layoffs planned by the Department of Children and Families to cover a $48 million agency reduction, included in the $69.7 billion budget now before Scott.

DCF Secretary David Wilkins sent a memo to the agency’s 13,000 employees Monday outlining the effort to spare “front-line” employees “who are acting as first responders for children, adults and families in need.”

“However, we have many opportunities to improve our administrative operations. By consolidating many back office services, improving automation and simplifying many of our processes,” he added.

The layoffs are expected to take place by June 30, Wilkins pointed out. That’s the end of the state budget year. (more…)

The $69.7 billion state budget now before Gov. Rick Scott will send tremors through Florida’s struggling economy, with school districts, hospitals and other big employers soon cutting jobs and programs because of a sharp drop in taxpayer dollars, economists say.

Scott has generally praised the spending plan for shrinking government, cutting regulations and reducing taxes. He says it will spur private business expansion and fulfill his campaign pledge to create 700,000 jobs over seven years.

Many analysts aren’t so sure.

More certain, they say, is that state government’s pullback will lead to at least a short-term reduction in dollars coursing through Florida. It could add to the state’s 10.8 percent unemployment rate, they warn.

“A reduction in state spending? Well, first, that’s just going to reduce jobs,” said David Denslow, head of the University of Florida’s Bureau of Economic and Demographic Research.

“It’s going to be another headwind in the economic recovery,” said Denslow, an occasional adviser to the Republican-led legislature. “You’re cutting employment, reducing infrastructure spending and lowering the amount of money going to communities. That’s going to have a negative effect.”

On the same day Gov. Rick Scott fretted about the state’s rising tide of red ink, Florida lawmakers Tuesday sent him the $69.7 billion budget they approved earlier this month.

Scott has until June 1 to sign it and issue his vetoes — which he hinted Tuesday he plans to do, maybe with some gusto.

“I can tell you, though, there will be additional savings,” Scott said – hinting at vetoes that pour more money into state reserves, already at the $2.2 billion level.

 “In these economic times, we must ensure that every hard-earned tax collar is used wisely in a way that we get Florida back to work.”

State government debt climbed to $28.2 billion last year – up almost $2 billion from a year earlier and double what it was in 2000, according to the state’s Division of Bond Finance.

While lawmakers struggled to close an almost $3.8 billion budget shortfall – enacting deep cuts to schools and health and social services programs – almost $2.1 billion had to be taken from the budget just to finance the state’s debt.

 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. 

Those who helped write this year’s spending plan know the governor has the ball now.

 

“I suspect there will be some vetoes, but we have a responsible budget,” said House Appropriations Chair Denise Grimsley, R-Sebring.

 ”The governor will come in and look at different issues, different items. He’ll bring a fresh eye to it.

Working into the night on the legislative session’s 60th and final day,  the House and Senate debated the $69.7 billion budget — the lone bill by law the Legislature must pass each year.

The rhetoric flew in both chambers, with the partisan lines clearly marked. A final vote isn’t expected until after 10 p.m.

Ruling Republicans praised the spending plan for closing a $3.8 billion shortfall, including no-new-taxes, and managing to avoid deep cuts to programs serving critically ill, elderly and disabled Floridians.

“Contained within this budget is the seed for a money tree,” said Rep. Lake Ray, R-Jacksonville, touting the blueprint’s economic development potential.

Democrats, though,  ridiculed the plan for cutting $1.3 billion from schools, reducing dollars for environmental programs, and imposing 3 percent pay cuts on 655,000 government employees who will have to contribute to the Florida Retirement System for the first time since 1974.

Rep.  Jeff Clemens, D-Lake Worth, has stung House Republican leaders several times this session by accusing them of “sticking it” to various segments of Floridians.

He used the phrase to criticize Republicans for enacting new pay standards for teachers, and changes Clemens and other critics said were aimed at reducing womens’ access to abortion.

“It’s a great day in the state of Florida,” Clemens told the House on Friday afternoon, “because this is the last day I can ask ‘who are we sticking it to today?’ Unfortunately, the answer is Floridians.”