Andel

Andel plans an official announcement Tuesday morning at the Juno Beach Town Center.

The district has a slight Republican registration edge and voted 51.5 percent for Mitt Romney, so several Republicans have been eyeing the seat. Alan Schlesinger, a former mayor of Derby, Conn., who was the GOP’s 2006 Senate nominee in Connecticut, has declared he’s running and lined up Tallahassee-based consultant Rockie Pennington for his campaign.

Other Republicans looking at the District 18 race include state Rep. Gayle Harrell, R-Stuart, St. Lucie County Commissioner Tod Mowery, former state Rep. Carl Domino, former Tequesta councilman Calvin Turnquest and businessman Gary Uber. Former state House Majority Leader Adam Hasner has not ruled out running.

Read the rest of this entry »

The state of Florida erred when it licensed barrel racing at two North Florida racetracks, an administrative law judge ruled today.

Judge John G. Van Landingham’s 85-page ruling is the latest twist in a drawn-out legal battle over whether barrel racing, until two years ago typically a rodeo event, is a legitimate gambling activity in Florida.

Van Landingham’s final order is a victory for the Florida Quarter Horse Racing Association and the Florida Quarter Horse Breeders and Owners Association, which challenged the Department of Business and Professional Regulation that oversees gambling in the state over issuing the license for barrel racing under a quarter horse permit to Gretna Racing in 2011.

Barrel racing was never contemplated by the Legislature or by voters when they approved other horse racing in a constitutional amendment in 1968, Van Landingham ruled. Instead, DBPR issued the license without adopting a rule authorizing barrel racing, he found.

“Florida administrative law does not allow an agency to establish such a policy stealthily by the issuance of expedient licenses; this is equally true whether the policy is highly controversial or widely praised,” Van Landingham wrote.

DBPR spokeswoman Sandi Poreda said the agency is reviewing the ruling.

Florida is the only place in the country where gamblers can legally bet on barrel racing, where horses race against the clock instead of each other at the same time. DBPR also issued a barrel racing license to Hamilton Downs Horsetrack near Jacksonville.

“A race ‘between’ horses, therefore, is a contest pitting horse against horse that takes place during the same span of time, beginning for all with a single starting signal and ending when the last horse crosses the finish line. The horses must perform simultaneously, not sequentially, which means that they are connected, not only by the fact of being opponents, and not only by the fact of competing on the same race course, but also temporally,” Van Landingham wrote.

The ruling raises questions about not only the barrel races at the Gretna track, about 25 miles from Tallahassee, but about the more lucrative cardroom at the track. And it also casts doubt on whether the facility will be able to offer slot machine gambling despite voters’ approval of a local referendum allowing the slots.

Gov. Rick Scott made an across-the-board $2,500 pay increase for teachers one of his top two priorities for this year’s legislative session. Lawmakers added some strings, but approved $480 million for pay increases, so Scott is declaring victory.

Scott is embarking on a five-city “victory tour” to promote the raises today, Tuesday and Friday.

The governor will be in Sunrise this morning, then at Wynnebrook Elementary School in West Palm Beach at 11:45 a.m. before heading to Ponte Vedra this afternoon.

He’ll also tout the raises in Ocoee on Tuesday and Tampa on Friday.

After more than 30 minutes of at times brutal debate, the Florida Senate reconfirmed Public Service Commissioner Lisa Edgar despite concerns that the regulator sides with utilities more often than consumers.

The Senate voted 26-13 to give Edgar, the longest-serving commissioner on the panel another four years on the panel that oversees utilities and approves utility rates.

Edgar was first appointed by Gov. Jeb Bush in 2005 and reappointed by Govs. Charlie Crist and Rick Scott.

But Edgar’s votes in favor of utility rate hikes, a personal bankruptcy and her involvement in a PSC dust-up involving Blackberry messages prompted a drawn-out debate on the final day of the legislative session about whether she should be replaced.

“My personal belief on this nominee is that she does not do an adequate job of representing the ratepayers and the consumers of the state of Florida,” said Senate Ethics and Elections Committee Chairman Jack Latvala, R-St. Petersburg. “My personal belief, based on my observations…is that she is fairly consistently on the side of the regulated entities as opposed to the consumers, especially with regard to electric rates.”

Latvala said he had planned not to submit her name for a vote and instead force Scott to either reappoint her or select someone new.

“I’m grateful to Governor Scott and the Legislature and am excited about working with them for the next four years!” Edgar said in a statement shortly after the vote.

Sen. John Legg, R-Lutz, questioned Edgar’s rate-making decisions and their impact on “working class people” and the state’s economy.

“Give her a gold watch and say thank you for your eight years of service…Hit the reset button,” Legg said.

But incoming Senate Democratic Leader Arthenia Joyner, D-Tampa, defended Edgar, pointing out that she had been vetted and appointed by three governors and passed the scrutiny of Latvala’s committee.

“She’s human and fallible and unfortunately she and her husband had to undergo a bankruptcy,” Joyner said. “Nobody’s perfect. Her record is exemplary.”

Edgar weathered a PSC scandal involving BlackBerry messages exposed during a proposed Florida Power & Light rate hike in 2009. Edgar was cleared of wrongdoing by the Florida Commission on Ethics after an investigation into whether she broke state law by communicating through her aide with a Florida Power & Light Co. executive during a hearing. The ethics panel found no probable cause that Edgar violated state ethics laws.

Sen. Jeff Clemens, D-Lake Worth, said that the eight-year term limit for lawmakers should apply to Edgar.

“It’s about your constituents who have to pay these rates. I would love to see us put someone a little more consumer friendly on this commission,” he said.

Senate Democrats quietly elected Arthenia Joyner to take over as chairwoman of the caucus next year in a behind-closed-doors meeting on the last day of the legislative session.

Joyner, a Tampa lawyer, will become the first black woman to chair the caucus, now chaired by Sen. Chris Smith, a Fort Lauderdale lawyer.

Joyner was selected without fanfare and during an unannounced meeting, a departure from how House Democrats handled a contested election won by Rep. Darryl Rouson, a St. Petersburg lawyer, in February. The House caucus election, broadcast on The Florida Channel, resulted in a tie vote. Rouson won by a single vote in a second round of balloting.

Florida Democratic Party Chairwoman Allison Tant called Joyner “a tireless advocate for Democratic values and ally to Florida’s middle class families” in a press release announcing her election.

The secretary of state won’t be able to punish elections supervisors under a modified elections package approved by the Florida House and sent to the Senate for final passage.

The Senate is expected to finalize the measure, which requires supervisors instead to post online a report of their preparations three months prior to the election, in one of the last actions before the 2013 session ends later this afternoon.

The Senate had wanted to give the secretary of state, appointed by the governor, the authority to put the locally elected officials on probation and force them to pass a test before being able to be removed from “noncompliant status.”

But House Speaker Will Weatherford, R-Wesley Chapel, sided with the supervisors, who objected that Detzner already has the authority to review the local officials’ preparedness, give them written directions and take them to court if he believes they aren’t complying with the law.

Before the session began, Gov. Rick Scott, Weatherford, and Senate President Don Gaetz, R-Niceville, pledged to do something to fix the long lines and up to eight-hour waits encountered by many voters last fall.

Under the plan expected to go to Scott for signature, supervisors can choose from between eight and 14 days of early voting and stay open from eight to 12 hours per day. The 2011 law, HB 1355, shrank early voting from 14 to 8 days. GOP insiders said the 2011 law was designed to cut back on Democratic turnout in the 2012 election, a reaction to Florida Democrats’ support for President Obama in 2008 that helped him into the White House.

This year’s proposal also gives supervisors more options for early voting sites, and would allow add civic centers, fairgrounds, courthouses and government-run senior centers to the city halls, public libraries and elections offices they can now use.

“Reform is never final…We should be ready always to come here and make adjustments if we can make things better,” said Rep. Dennis Baxley, R-Ocala, the sponsor of HB 1355.

Democrats applauded the effort but said it didn’t go far enough to reverse a 2011 elections package they blame for many of the problems.

Rep. Janet Cruz, who was the lead Democrat on the elections bill, called the effort “a very, very good big, big first step in solving the difficulties that our voters have faced.”

But, she added, “I want our citizens to know that we are not finished.”

Democrats contend that voters should still be allowed to change their addresses at the polls on election day. Current law, changed in 2011, requires voters who move outside of the county to cast provisional ballots – which have a greater likelihood of being tossed – if they don’t update their address before Election Day. Democrats contend that kept many college students from casting regular ballots in the fall.

The bill takes “solid steps” to “reform the deform that had happened” with HB 1355, incoming House Democratic Leader Darryl Rouson, D-St. Petersburg, said. The bill isn’t “where we want to be but it’s better than where we are,” he said.

“Some of us feel like the bill hasn’t gone far enough. We want to go back to pre-1355,” Rouson said.

The Florida House and Senate began making their first moves toward the exit Friday, debating a $74.5 billion state budget set to be approved on the 60-day session’s final scheduled day.

The budget for the year beginning July 1 is poised to be the largest in state history. In House closing speeches, there was plenty of praise for $1 billion increase in school spending, pay raises for state employees for the first time in seven years, and dozens of hometown projects scattered throughout the budget.

There was also a measure of relief. Legislators were helped by the first budget surplus since before the recession.

“Because of fiscally sound management and making hard decision, today we can celebrate a great time of restoration,” said Rep. Dennis Baxley, R-Ocala.

Most of the outnumbered Democratic caucus, which fought unsuccessfully to expand health care to uninsured Floridians, sided with ruling Republicans on the spending plan.

“There’s light at the end of the tunnel, and it’s not another train,” said Rep. Joe Gibbons, D-Hallandale Beach.

But several Democrats called for Gov. Rick Scott to veto the budget and call lawmakers back into a later special session. Scott had allied with Democrats and the Republican-led Senate in looking to position Florida to draw $51 billion in federal Medicaid money to cover more than 1 million uninsured Floridians.

Rep. Mark Pafford, D-West Palm Beach, was among those who indicated they will vote against the measure.

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

Sen. Joseph Abruzzo, D-Wellington; Tuskegee Airman Cornelius Davis; Sen. Maria Sachs, D-Delray Beach

Senate President Don Gaetz, R-Niceville, praised Davis, part of the group of the U.S. War Department’s experiment to prove blacks were able to serve as military pilots, for his heroism.

“You know the story. Mr. Davis and those with whom he fought broke the color barrier. They broke the records for skill and kills. And then they broke the teeth of the Nazi air fleet of the skies of Europe.
If you want to say that you’ve been in the presence of a hero, you were this morning,” Gaetz said before the chamber gave Davis a standing ovation.

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

It could soon be against the law to text and drive under a diluted ban on its way to Gov. Rick Scott.

Sen. Nancy Detert, R-Venice, asked her colleagues to support the House version of the bill (SB 52) despite a provision that prohibits a motorist’s cell phone records being used by prosecutors except in cases involving a crash resulting in death or personal injury. The Senate passed the measure with a 39-1 vote, with Sen. Joe Negron, R-Stuart, casting the only “no” vote.

For three years, the Florida House has refused to sign off on the texting and driving ban.
“For the first time ever they have a speaker over there that allowed them to speak on this bill. That was the good news. The bad news was I didn’t like what they said,” Detert said this afternoon.

Critics of the modified bill say it will make it harder for law enforcement to prove drivers were texting. The measure makes texting while driving a secondary offense, meaning drivers would have to be pulled over for something else in order to get a ticket for texting.

Drivers who do get ticketed for texting can voluntarily bring their own records to court to prove they weren’t breaking the law, Detert said.

“And frankly they probably won’t do that over a $30 ticket,” she said.

Sen. Maria Sachs, D-Delray Beach, asked if the amendment regarding the phone records “doesn’t take all the meat and potatoes” out of the bill, approved unanimously in its original version by the Senate earlier in the session.

But Detert said it was better to pass the ban instead of changing it and sending it back to the House where it could risk languishing before the session ends tomorrow.

“Basically this bill is still a good bill. It still will allow parents today to say to their kids don’t text while driving it’s against the law,” Detert said. “It really will save lives and it boils down to it’s either against the law or not.”

Gov. Rick Scott has been catching heat for failing to lobby hard on behalf of his call for a Medicaid expansion.

But on the second-to-last day of session, Scott went hand-to-hand with lawmakers, schmoozing his way across the House floor. The rare visit looked mostly genial — and likely included a few thank-yous to House members for approving a version of his manufacturers’ tax break late Wednesday.

Still, Scott said he was not abandoning hope that some version of a health care expansion was still possible in the session’s waning hours.

“As you know, there’s still time left in session,” Scott said earlier Thursday. “A lot of things happen the last week in session. We’ve got a little over a day left in session. So we’ll see what happens. As you know I’ve said making sure we take care of the uninsured and the legislature said no.”

From the House, Scott headed across the hall to the Senate.

Gov. Rick Scott did not say what made him reverse his opposition to a campaign finance measure he signed into law last night that increases contributions from the current $500 cap to $3,000 for statewide candidates like himself and $1,000 for legislative and local candidates.

Scott announced he had signed the measure into law half an hour after lawmakers delivered a modified version of one of the governor’s top priorities, eliminating the sales tax on manufacturing equipment.

As late as this week, Scott said lawmakers hadn’t made their case for lifting the caps.

When asked what changed his mind, Scott responded: “Like everything, you listen to a lot of people and try to make the best decision I can for every citizen in the state. So I made the decision to sign the bill last night.”

When asked if his approval was linked to the manufacturing tax break, Scott still gave no insight.

“Look, I look at everything. But I made the right decision for all Floridians with regard to that individual bill,’ Scott said. Asked again, he reiterated: “Look, I review every bill. And I reviewed the bill and decided it was in the best interest for the citizens of the state.”

The manufacturing exemption House with a 68-48 vote, smaller than the two-thirds margin required by the constitution for tax breaks, prompting confusion over whether the tax break can be implemented or not. House Speaker Will Weatherford, R-Wesley Chapel, and his staff insisted the tax break did not require the 2/3 majority. House Democrats contend it is invalid and does.

When asked if Scott was concerned about the kerfuffle over one of his top two priorities, the governor again gave nothing away.

“I’m excited. I’m excited for our jobs. this is a reduction in our taxes so we get more manufacturing jobs. as I travel the state, people are excited about it. I’ve been traveling the state for the last two or so months just talking about this,” he said.

Ed Bender of Pompano Beach protests Sen. Marco Rubio's stance on immigration outside the St. Lucie County GOP's Lincoln Day dinner tonight.

Members of the group Floridians for Immigration Enforcement say Rubio is breaking a 2010 campaign promise to oppose amnesty because Rubio has become a key supporter of legislation that includes a pathway to citizenship for people who are now in the country illegally.

“I expended shoe leather and time and energy helping Marco Rubio become the senator in Florida and now he’s gone back on his campaign promises on amnesty,” said Ed Bender of Pompano Beach. “You want to call it a path to citizenship…the net result is people get to call themselves citizens on some level and the reality of it is billions and billions of additional dollars that this country does not have to support new citizens.”

Rubio, in a brief interview with the Politics column before his speech, said the bill he and other members of the bipartisan “Gang of Eight” have drafted does not grant amnesty to the estimated 11 million people in the country illegally.

“I think their definition of amnesty is anything that doesn’t deport 11 million people. And I say ‘theirs’ – that specific group, I’m not saying everybody has that same definition,” Rubio said of the demonstrators.

“When you’re asking someone to pay a $2,000 fine, an application fee, undergo a background check and a national security background check and all the other elements that are involved in this and wait 10 years before they can even apply for a Green Card and not qualify for any federal benefits – when you’re asking someone to go through all of that, that’s not amnesty. That’s a significant undertaking,” Rubio said.

Rubio has repeatedly called the Senate legislation a “starting point” and says he’s open to amendments and changes to the bill.

“I never pretended that eight senators could come up with a piece of legislation that we could offer to everyone as a take-it-or-leave-it proposition,” Rubio said.

To win support in the Republican-controlled House, Rubio said, “I think where we still need to do a little bit of work is on firming up the border security things to ensure that the border security happens.”

With less than 72 hours left in the session and two priorities of House Speaker Will Weatherford and Senate President Don Gaetz hanging in the balance, the Senate overwhelmingly approved a manufacturing equipment tax break, one of just two items on Gov. Rick Scott’s wishlist.

The modified tax break approved by a 37-3 vote late Wednesday would exempt manufacturers from paying sales tax on manufacturing equipment for three years. Scott’s original proposal would have cost the state about $100 million per year, but the plan approved by the Senate would shrink that to about $18 million, according to the amendment’s sponsor, Sen. Dorothy Hukill, R-Port Orange. Senate Democratic Leader Chris Smith of Fort Lauderdale and Democratic Sens. Jeff Clemens of Lake Worth and Arthenia Joyner of Tampa voted against it.

“(Scott’s) had modest requests this session. I think we need to get behind him,” Sen. Rob Bradley, R-Fleming Island, said before the vote.

Lawmakers moved closer to Scott’s other priority – a $2,500 across-the-board pay raise for teachers – yesterday.

Meanwhile, Scott has until midnight tonight to act on two of the GOP leaders top priorities: ethics and campaign finance measures.

Scott has repeatedly voiced concerns about the campaign finance changes, pushed by Weatherford, which would increase current $500 campaign contribution limits for statewide candidates like Scott, who is running for reelection, to $3,000 and to $1,000 for legislative and local candidates.

Teachers and other school personnel could get a pay raise earlier than next year under a budget agreement reached Wednesday between the House and Senate.

But the deal still would require Palm Beach County and many other school districts to develop a teacher evaluation system required before the pay hikes can be distributed. The county and teachers’ union representatives have been working on an evaluation system, talks that could accelerate with the latest budget deal.

“It helps that the counties are being given this flexibility,” said Vern Pickup-Crawford, lobbyist for county schools.

Under the Legislature’s initial plan, teachers graded “effective” would be eligible for a $2,500 pay raise, beginning in June 2014. Those rated “highly effective” would be eligible for $3,500.

But Wednesday, House and Senate budget negotiators agreed to allow districts to hand out the raises before that date — as long as they were based on teacher evaluations.

The Legislature in 2011 required that teacher evaluations be shaped heavily by student performance and be in place by next year. The Florida Education Association has sued to overturn the requirement — but linking pay raises to the evaluation system could complicate that challenge.

Lawmakers had already agreed to spend $480 million this year on the pay-hikes sought by Gov. Rick Scott. But legislators insisted they be give out based on job performance, not across-the-board, as the governor recommended.

The Legislature also expanded the pool of those eligible to tap into the $480 million pool to include guidance counselors, librarians, school psychologists, social workers, principals and assistant principals. The FEA has criticized the move as likely reducing the amount available to teachers.

Scott, though, has said that all teachers should be able to get pay raises of at least $2,000 each, under the pay plan.

David Abbott is making a last-ditch effort to get lawmakers to save his father’s life.

Abbott set up easels with photographs of his father, Carl Abbott, on the fourth floor of the Capitol rotunda Wednesday afternoon as the clock winds down until the legislative session ends on Friday.

Abbott says the clock is ticking on his father as well.

Carl Abbott desperately needs the $1.9 million the Palm Beach County School Board agreed to pay him when he was run over by a school bus in 2008, Abbott’s doctor said in a letter to House Speaker Will Weatherford, R-Wesley Chapel, and Senate President Don Gaetz. The money, that the Legislature has withheld for three years, would enable Abbott to get rigorous medical treatment to regain some semblance of a normal life. Without it, “his life expectancy will in all likelihood be reduced,” Dr. Pierre Deltor wrote.

The Senate is refusing to act on any claims until the system is reformed and an attempt by a House committee to revamp the system went nowhere this year.

“Reform is not my issue. Getting my dad the help he needs is the issue. It’s my only concern. Reform is going to take years. My dad doesn’t have the time to wait,” Abbott said Wednesday.

When asked about Abbott’s bill last week, Gaetz said he was unaware of the specifics of his case and called the 72-year-old North Palm Beach man’s condition a perfect example of why reforms are needed.

“That’s tragic. That makes it all the more important that we have a claims bill process that does not rely upon who the lobbyist is or what the emotion is and doesn’t make the Senate into a finder of fact,” Gaetz said.

Under the principle of “sovereign immunity” the state limits the amount people can collect from the government for wrongdoing. The only way around what is now a $200,000 cap is persuading the Legislature to lift it. Critics of the system, including Gaetz, say the system is flawed in part because powerful lobbyists have too much influence – and make too much money – in the process.

David Abbott said he was aware of Gaetz’s opposition to the claims bills process but traveled from Palm Beach County to Tallahassee anyway to make Gaetz and Weatherford aware of his father’s situation.

“The squeaky wheel gets the grease,” he said. “My dad’s a victim here. He was a victim when he was hit by the school bus. And now he’s a victim because he can’t get the help he needs.”

Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz blasted Gov. Rick Scott for failing to use his clout to push the House to approve a Medicaid expansion that could cover 1 million uninsured Floridians.

The U.S. congresswoman from Weston also accused House Speaker Will Weatherford and the GOP-dominated House of “slavishness ideological dogma” behind their rejection of the Senate plan crafted by Sen. Joe Negron, R-Stuart.

“Sickness, illness and death…will be their legacy,” Wasserman Schultz told the Senate Democratic Caucus this morning.

Wasserman Schultz, a one-time Florida legislator who served in both the state House and Senate, also blamed Scott for “having a deathbed conversion” about the Medicaid expansion and failing to use his bully pulpit to push the House to pass it.

With three work days left until the legislative ends on Friday, Scott has focused primarily on his two priorities – $2,500 across-the-board pay raises for teachers and a manufacturing equipment tax break – and is scheduled to work from 8 a.m until 2:30 p.m. today, including photo opportunity for the last half hour of the day.

The final week is “the most frenzied, intense time of the entire legislative session,” Wasserman Schultz said.

“The governor and his staff should be in the trenches working the phones, working the halls, doing everything they can to pass their priorities,” she said. “It’s just demonstrative repeatedly of his utter lack of leadership.”

Scott, who is running for reelection, is “trying to have his cake and eat it, too” by publicly supporting the proposal to provide health insurance for the poor, which has broad support from voters, but doing nothing to force the House to act, Wasserman Schultz said.

“Leaders take the initiative. They don’t wait to be asked. We’ll need to elect somebody else.”

She sidestepped a question about whether former Gov. Charlie Crist, a Republican-turned-independent-turned-Democrat, would be a better replacement.

“I have no idea and I’m not here to talk about that,” she said.

Wasserman Schultz also praised Florida House Democrats for “rightfully” slowing down the session with a procedural maneuver forcing all legislation to be read in full in retaliation for the GOP’s refusal to support the Senate Medicaid plan.

Former U.S. Sen. Bob Graham, who also served as governor, also appeared at the Senate Dems meeting this morning.

He congratulated them for joining with several GOP lawmakers to defeat a controversial “parent trigger” bill and a pension overhaul for state workers.

The Florida House lurched into Day 2 of a slowdown Wednesday, initiated by Democrats angry over Republican leadership’s rejection of a plan to draw federal Medicaid dollars to provide health insurance to more than 1 million Floridians.

House Speaker Will Weatherford, R-Wesley Chapel, advanced the session’s scheduled 9 a.m. start by an hour. And an auto-reader continued to be used to read the full text of bills before the House.

House Democratic Leader Perry Thurston of Fort Lauderdale made the rarely used procedural move Tuesday — demanding the full readings to underscore the party’s frustration. A new tactic emerged Wednesday, when Democrats began using floor debate on virtually every bill to highlight the health care expansion.

Environmental bills, water management legislation and even a measure involving the mapping and monitoring of agricultural lands seemed to remind Democrats in debate about the failed health coverage.

Rep. Lori Berman, D-Lantana, was among those speaking. She grabbed her microphone to debate on an otherwise routine bill involving a state organ and tissue registry.

“Unfortunately, we’re not going to allow some people to take advantage of the organ and tissue registry because we’re not going to allow them to receive health insurance coverage,” Berman said.

Florida Gov. Rick Scott and Texas Gov. Rick Perry touting low taxes in West Palm Beach last month

When Texas Gov. Rick Perry visited West Palm Beach last month, he and Florida Gov. Rick Scott touted low state taxes as a key to economic growth.

Perry said he wanted to “drive a conversation in this country about Red State vs. Blue State policies.”

Palm Beach Post business writer Jeff Ostrowski drives the conversation some more today with a look at job growth, unemployment and other indicators in four low-tax states — Texas, Florida, Nevada and Washington — and three high-tax states — New York, New Jersey and California.

Click here to read the red-vs.-blue analysis.

Teachers may not have to wait to get performance-based raises included in the state budget, according to Senate President Don Gaetz.

Gov. Rick Scott had wanted $2,500 across-the-board pay raises for teachers. House and Senate budget leaders this weekend agreed to $480 million for raises but with some limitations. Teachers graded “effective” will be eligible for a $2,500 pay raise, beginning in June 2014. Those rated “highly effective” would be eligible for $3,500.

Gaetz, R-Niceville, said Senate budget conforming bills due out later this week will make it clear that pay raises can be based on a “formative” teacher assessment instead of one based on student performance that won’t go into effect until 2014 and that would have held up the raises.

“In my experience as a school superintendent, we were able to evaluate students and evaluate effective teaching based not just on summative assessments at the end of a school year but based on formative assessments as we go along,” Gaetz, a former Okaloosa County superintendent, told reporters late Tuesday afternoon.

“As far as I’m concerned, teachers who earn their increases in pay ought to be able to get them as soon as school districts develop a plan to do so, collectively bargain that plan with their unions, submit the plan to the commissioner of education and have it confirmed,” he said.

Gaetz blamed Scott for the delay.

“We simply followed the governor’s proposal as to the timing of the pay increase…But I’m sure that the governor didn’t mean to unnecessarily delay the pay increase,” he said. “My hope is we ought to go forward and give Florida teachers the pay increase that they deserve especially because we have a pay increase…which is based on performance.”