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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Gaetz was generally stoic.

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

 

Back when Marco Rubio was a long shot anti-establishment Republican candidate for U.S. Senate in 2009, the William F. Buckley-founded National Review certified him as a national conservative star by featuring him on its cover.

It helped boost Rubio’s fundraising and popularity with GOP primary voters.

He eventually overtook heavily favored Gov. Charlie Crist in Republican primary polls, sending Crist to a failed no-party Senate bid and, eventually, the Democratic Party.

The National Review isn’t showing Rubio any love with it’s latest cover, calling his push for bipartisan immigration reform “Rubio’s Folly” and depicting him yukking it up with two figures who are reviled by many on the right — Democratic Sen. Charles Schumer of New York and Republican Sen. John McCain of Arizona

Gov. Rick Scott’s legislative agenda headed further into the ditch Friday night, as the Senate finally bent to the House’s will and accepted a 3 percent tuition increase for college and university students.

Scott has long opposed a tuition increase. And he had an ally in the Senate for the course of the legislative session, even as the House pushed for a 6 percent hike.

But as the two sides labored into a second weekend on differences in a $74-billion-plus spending plan, the Senate finally offered to meet the House halfway, recommending a 3 percent boost. The House accepted.

Senate Budget Chief Joe Negron, R-Stuart, and his House counterpart, Rep. Seth McKeel, R-Lakeland, also agreed to $70 million for Everglades funding, settling on the Senate’s starting position and slightly more than Scott requested in his budget proposal.

Scott also continues to face a challenge from lawmakers on his bid for $2,500-across-the-board teacher pay hikes.

Negron and McKeel agreed to meet Scott’s $480 million pot of money for the raises, but they want the money distributed based on job performance and to include a larger pool of instructional personnel that would shrink what goes directly to teachers.

The two sides plan to continue talks tomorrow.

Palm Beach County Administrator Bob Weisman said Friday that county commissioners have an “overwhelming case” to try to fire Inspector General Sheryl Steckler, citing her unsuccessful attempts to intervene in a lawsuit challenging required payments for her office.

In an email to commissioners, Weisman called Steckler’s push to intervene “an egregious error of judgment/abuse of authority” that “merits her termination.”

Weisman said that the inspector general’s office would have to be its own “separate taxing district” to give Steckler the independence “that some members of the community desire.”

Weisman has said Steckler’s push to intervene in the lawsuit filed against the county by 14 cities and towns was a waste of taxpayer money and only delayed a resolution in the case.

The cities are challenging required payments to fund Steckler’s office.

The county attorney’s office is representing Steckler, but Steckler had sought to have her office intervene and represent itself in the suit, rather than rely on the county administration, which has been critical of her.

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The White House declassified intelligence today that indicated the Syrian government likely gassed its people.
The revelation is important not only on humanitarian terms. It could spark the beginning of a more robust intervention on the part of the United States. President Barack Obama has said he would drawn a “red line” and not tolerate the Assad regime using biological weapons on the Syrian people.
The White House said it has what it called “physiological” evidence that sarin gas was used. It is now seeking United Nations assistance to prove it was the Assad government that used it. The country is in the midst of a civil war.
“It’s precisely because we take the red line seriously that we feel there has to be a clear, factual evidence (basis) for our decision,” said a White House official in a background call with reporters this afternoon.
“Given our own history with intelligence assessments, including intelligence assessments related to WMD (weapons of mass destruction), it is very important that we are able to establish this with certainty.”
Obama is trying to avoid the kind of intelligence gaffe he believes led the nation into war in Iraq.
Already Obama is being pressured by both Republicans and Democrats to commit to military intervention.
“It’s clear the ‘red line’ drawn by President Obama has now been crossed. The time for passive engagement in this conflict must come to an end,” Sen. Marco Rubio said in a press release.
He urged the removal of Assad, whom he called “a tyrant who has been murdering his own people for more than two years, while threatening regional stability.”
Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, also said it was clear the red line had been crossed.
“I am very concerned that with this public acknowledgement, President Assad may calculate he has nothing more to lose and the likelihood he will further escalate this conflict therefore increases. It is also important that the world understands the use of weapons of mass destruction, such as sarin, will not be countenanced, and clearly Assad must go,” she said.

Breaking environmental regulatory news from our Christine Stapleton:

A late-filed amendment to a swiftly moving environmental regulation bill (HB 999) would block communities from regulating fertilizer-use on lawns until 2016 and would create a 15-member Fertilizer Regulatory Review Council to perform “a comprehensive review of existing scientific data relating to the environmental fate of nutrients in urban settings.”

The Council must complete its review by Jan. 15, 2016. Until then, “local governments may not adopt new ordinances to regulate non-agricultural fertilizer or its use.”

Local restrictions on the use and sale of fertilizers containing nitrogen and phosphorus have become increasingly popular since Sarasota County became the first community to enact such rules in 2007. Polk, Manatee and Pinellas counties also have restrictions, along with Tampa.

Rockledge, in Brevard County, adopted a fertilizer ordinance on March 20 that bans the use of fertilizers containing nitrogen and phosphorus between June 1 and September 30. However, the amendment filed on Tuesday bars local ordinances adopted after March 4, 2013 from being enforced until July 1, 2016.

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An ethics watchdog group is calling on Palm Beach County commissioners to take action against County Administrator Bob Weisman for saying this week that Inspector General Sheryl Steckler should be fired.

In an email to several county attorneys, Weisman on Monday said Steckler should be “terminated for bad judgment” in what he called an “outrageous legal power play.” Weisman said Steckler’s push to intervene in a lawsuit filed against the county by 14 cities and towns was a waste of taxpayer money and only delayed a resolution in the case.

The cities are challenging required payments to fund Steckler’s office.
The county attorney’s office is representing Steckler, but Steckler had sought to have her office intervene and represent itself in the suit, rather than rely on the county administration, which has been critical of her.

The courts have repeatedly turned down her request.

In an email message, The Palm Beach County Ethics Defense Alliance on Wednesday called on ethics activists to contact county commissioners and ask them to reprimand Weisman for “overstepping his authority.”

“We think this outspoken campaign against the IG is calculated and unseemly,” the email said. “Every citizen of Palm Beach County who cares about corruption in public office and the existence of an independent watchdog should be outraged by this and loudly calling for Mr. Weisman to cease and desist. One wonders if attacking the Inspector General is a diversion to throw the OIG off the scent of some wrongdoing in his fiefdom.”

Records show that the defense alliance’s website is registered to South Florida Grassroots Research, a limited liability company run by ethics activists and Palm Beach Gardens residents Fred and Iris Scheibl.

Palm Beach County Inspector General Sheryl Steckler should be terminated for “bad judgment” in her fight to represent herself in a lawsuit filed by 14 cities and towns over required payments to her office, County Administrator Bob Weisman said today.

In an email to top county attorneys, Weisman called Steckler’s repeated legal challenges in the case an “outrageous legal power play.”

“She should be terminated for bad judgment, failure to follow the principles espoused by her own Association of IG’s, for putting us through this and for delaying the really important funding case,” Weisman wrote in the email message.

Weisman’s comments came as Steckler lost her latest legal battle. It was the most recent in a string of legal defeats for the inspector general’s office.

“It is unfortunate Mr. Weisman made those statements,” Steckler said this afternoon.

An appeals court today denied Steckler’s request for a rehearing on a motion she filed to intervene in the lawsuit filed by 14 of the county’s 38 cities and towns. The loss came after the 4th District Court of Appeal last month upheld a lower court’s ruling and denied Steckler’s request to intervene in the case.

Steckler’s office is currently being represented by the county, which says has not been entirely supportive.

Steckler has argued the case could significantly affect the amount of money her office receives, potentially limiting her ability to investigate corruption and waste.

The 14 cities, however, have challenged that the method by which they were required to help fund Steckler’s office. They say the payments are an “illegal tax” barred by Florida’s constitution.

In an unusual legal move, Steckler asked the appeals court to force the entities to turn over the money before the case had been heard by the lower court.

The 4th District Court of Appeal denied that request earlier this month.

The appeals court’s rulings have been limited to a few sentences.

Steckler said it is unfortunate the court did not provide more information on why it denied her requests.

Without a written order, Steckler said it is unclear how much independence she has from the county. “We don’t know what the courts were thinking without an opinion,” Steckler said. “Are you just saying we can’t intervene on this particular case, or are you saying that we don’t have independence? It is a huge question.”

The inspector general post was created in 2009 as part of an ethics reform package to help the county shed its corruption-tainted image, after scandals sent three county commissioners to federal prison.

An amendment to the county charter approved by voters in 2010 extended the office’s reach to all 38 cities and towns.

After most Senate Republicans and a few red-state Democrats blocked legislation to expand background checks for gun buyers last week, GOP megadonor Al Hoffman blasted those in his own party who oppose “reasonable” gun control.

Hoffman, a former Republican National Committee finance chair and ambassador to Portugal who lives in North Palm Beach, says Democratic President Barack Obama is right on gun issues and the GOP could suffer because of it in 2014.

“I think this has given Obama a perfect position, a perfect ploy to claim the higher ground. And the higher ground is based upon appealing to the grass roots … who feel that the majority of Americans want reasonable gun control,” Hoffman said.

Hoffman’s analysis is disputed by many, including Tallahassee-based Republican strategist Rick Wilson, who maintains that even though polls show most Americans support background checks, most of those voters don’t regard gun control as one of their top issues.

Regardless, Hoffman’s opinion carries some weight within the GOP. He has personally given more than $272,000 to Republicans over the last five years and helped the GOP raise far more than that. And Hoffman says he’ll be reluctant to raise money in the future for candidates who don’t share his views on guns.

If a Republican who opposes “reasonable” gun measures comes to him for financial help, Hoffman said, “it would be a tough sell for them…I would have to really think hard about it before I would choose to support them financially.”

Read about it in this week’s Politics column.

In a press conference this morning, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry addressed the bombings in his hometown of Boston.
“I think it’s fair to say that, for this entire week, we’ve been on a pretty direct confrontation with evil,” Kerry said.
He congratulated the work of law enforcement and added: “In the past few days, we’ve seen the best and we’ve seen the worst of human behavior.”

The FBI is searching a suburban Maryland home where they believe
the uncle of the Boston bombing suspects lives.
The agency is inside the house, hunting for information about Dzhokhar and Tamerlan Tsarnaev.

President Barack Obama was in a briefing this morning on the progress in the Boston Marathon bombing.
He was updated throughout the night. And this morning, his team met in the Situation Room to get the latest report.
Obama and Vice President Joe Biden met around 9:45 a.m. with his national security team. Participating were Attorney General Eric Holder, FBI Director Robert Mueller, Chief of Staff Denis McDonough, National Security Advisor Tom Donilon, Assistant to the President for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism Lisa Monaco, Deputy National Security Advisor Tony Blinken, Deputy Chief of Staff Alyssa Mastromonaco, Deputy National Security Advisor For Strategic Communications Ben Rhodes, Deputy Counsel to the President Avril Haines and National Security Advisor to the Vice President Jake Sullivan. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, Secretary of State John Kerry, and CIA Director John Brennan joined by video conference.

RIVIERA BEACH — Gov. Rick Scott, at a morning event promoting a sales tax break for manufacturers, said he has called Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick‘s office to offer help in the aftermath of Monday’s Boston Marathon bombings.

“Everybody in Florida, all of our hearts go out to everybody that was injured yesterday and the families that lost their loved ones,” Scott told reporters during an appearance at Baron Sign Manufacturing.

“I’ve called the governor up there and I’ve let them know that whether it’s FDLE (the Florida Department of Law Enforcement), whether it’s our emergency management team, Highway Patrol, National Guard, we will do anything we can to be helpful,” Scott said. “I’ve talked to them, all our agencies today, to make sure our state’s safe.”

U.S. Rep. Lois Frankel, D-West Palm Beach, announced Friday that she is supporting a bill that would prevent federal aviation officials closing the air traffic control tower at the Boca Raton Airport.

The Federal Aviation Administration announced last month that it would close air traffic control towers at 149 small airports across the United States as a result of forced federal budget cuts, known as the sequester. The towers, including the one at the Boca airport, are set to close on June 15.

Frankel’s office announced that she has signed on to support the Air Traffic Control Tower Funding Restoration Act (HR 1432). The bill would use money the FAA has set aside for facilities and research to keep the towers operating.

“This legislation will keep Boca Raton and other local airport towers across the country operating without additional cost to the federal budget,” Frankel said in a new release issued by her office. “Hopefully Congress will act soon to end the budget squabbling that led to this situation.”

The Palm Beach County Commission on Ethics is posting all of the correspondence it receives about the state’s audit of its operations on its county website.

The commission has links to 12 letters, emails and other documents related to state review on its website, palmbeachcountyethics.com. The information is listed under the tab “OPPAGA review.”

The Legislature’s Office of Program Policy Analysis and Government Accountability, known as OPPAGA, said last month that it had launched a review of the commission’s $500,000 budget, its operating procedures and the methods it uses to enforce the county’s ethics rules. State Sen. Joseph Abruzzo, D-Wellington, asked the Senate president’s office to order the audit.

During a meeting last week, Ethics Commissioner Ronald Harbison alleged that Abruzzo called for the audit because the board did not hire his legislative aide and former boss to serve as its new executive director.

In a letter sent Monday to Ethics Commission Chairman Manuel Farach, Abruzzo said he asked for the audit on Feb. 13. His aide, Philip Massa, did not interview for the commission’s executive director job until March 21.Massa was notified on April 1 that he was not chosen for the position, Abruzzo said in the letter.

In a one-page written response, Farach invited Abruzzo to speak to the ethics board on June 6, and urged the senator to share specific concerns about the commission with its members so they can be immediately addressed.

“I respectfully request that you share with us any specific instance where you believe the commission failed so we can immediately address your concerns,” Farach wrote Wednesday.

Farach said the ethics commission has unanimously endorsed the state audit.

“We are very proud of our record of transparency and placing all facts before the public,” Farach wrote.

State Sen. Joseph Abruzzo, D-Wellington, has called for a meeting with the Palm Beach County Ethics Commission, saying it has “never been more apparent” that an audit is needed to review how the three-year-old board “conducts itself.”

The Legislature’s Office of Program Policy Analysis and Government Accountability, known as OPPAGA, said last month that it had launched a review of the commission’s $500,000 budget, its operating procedures and the methods it uses to enforce the county’s ethics rules. Abruzzo asked the Senate president’s office to order the audit.

During a meeting last week, Ethics Commissioner Ronald Harbison alleged that Abruzzo called for the audit because the board did not hire his legislative aide and former boss to serve as its new executive director.

In a letter sent Monday to Ethics Commission Chairman Manuel Farach, Abruzzo said he asked for the audit on Feb. 13. His aide, Philip Massa, did not interview for the commission’s executive director job until March 21.
Massa was notified on April 1 that he was not chosen for the position, Abruzzo said in the letter.

“It has never been more apparent to me that an audit is necessary to obtain information and have a thorough review for how the board conducts itself,” Abruzzo wrote in the letter. “It is irresponsible that someone in a position representing high ethical standards would make allegations in contradiction to a factual timeline without making any attempt to verify the negative assertions.”

Abruzzo said it is “imperative” for the county’s ethics commission to be “properly trained, free from influence and one that never holds prejudice.”
Abruzzo requested a meeting with the board at the end of the state’s legislative session.

Gov. Rick Scott spent an hour this morning meeting with The Palm Beach Post editorial board.

Highlights included…

- Scott touted the state’s shrinking unemployment numbers and credited it to his administration. Scott said unemployment rose from 3.5 percent to 11.1 percent in the four years before he took office and is now at 7.7 percent, which he said is around the national average.

- Scott defended his decision to intervene in the issue regarding FAU professor Deandre Poole’s class exercise that had students voluntarily step on a piece of paper with Jesus’ name on it as a lesson in the power of symbols. A student said he was asked not to return to class after refusing to do the exercise and Scott then said he would look into the suspension. Poole, also the Democratic county vice chairman, later said the student was disciplined only because he physically threatened the professor.

“I heard about what happened to the student and I was concerned about the student,” Scott said. “When something like that happens we ought to make sure it doesn’t happen again. I was primarily concerned about how the student was suspended. … From my understanding it didn’t make any sense that he’d be suspended based on what I read. I asked for an inquiry. I asked Chancellor Brogan to look into it. I don’t want this to keep happening at our universities.”

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A nonpartisan research institute is urging state Sen. Joseph Abruzzo to withdraw his request for a state audit of Palm Beach County’s three-year-old ethics commission.

In a letter to Abruzzo on Friday, Dan Krassner, executive director of Integrity Florida, said the review would be a “massive waste of taxpayer resources.”

The Legislature’s Office of Program Policy Analysis and Government Accountability, known as OPPAGA, said this week that it had launched a review of the commission’s $500,000 budget, its operating procedures and the methods it uses to enforce the county’s ethics rules. Abruzzo, D-Wellington, asked the Senate president’s office to order the audit.

“If there was a legitimate reason for a review of the Palm Beach County Ethics Commission, then a transparent and accountable approval process should have been followed as is utilized for other OPPAGA projects initiated by the Joint Legislative Auditing Committee,” Krassner wrote in the letter.

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Tweets by @LGreenonthehill

A Florida Atlantic University student says he’s been told not to return to his intercultural communications class after he complained that the instructor, who’s also a Palm Beach County Democratic Party official, asked students to write “Jesus” on a piece of paper and stomp on it.

Ryan Rotela of Coral Springs says that after he complained about instructor Deandre Poole‘s request, FAU accused him of threatening Poole and told him not to return to Poole’s class. Rotela’s story was first reported by WPEC-Channel 12.

Poole is also vice chairman of the Palm Beach County Democratic Party.

Poole and FAU officials have not responded to requests for comment today.

Palm Beach County Democratic Chairwoman Terrie Rizzo said Poole was merely following an exercise in a textbook used in the course.

“The whole purpose of the exercise is to encourage discussion among the students about how different cultures apply different meanings to symbols…It encourages a healthy discussion. That’s my understanding,” Rizzo said.

She added: “Deandre himself is a Christian. He goes to church.”

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