Florida TaxWatch, the business-backed public policy group, has come up with more than $4.1 billion in potential state savings — if lawmakers and state government implement 135 cost-cutting recommendations.

Among the highlights: increasing good-behavior gain time for prison inmates, expanding electronic monitoring of criminals, and cutting back on stiff penalties for marijuana and cocaine possession. Reducing Medicaid fraud — which has bedeviled officials at the state and federal levels — could save $223.8 million alone, a TaxWatch cost-saving task force found.

TaxWatch said similar recommendations made since 2009 have saved the state more than $1 billion.

Some of the recommendations appear obvious: urging state agencies to buy generics over name-brand products could save $305 million, the organization said. And some of the ideas show some out-of-the-box thinking: selling ads on some DOT road signs could pull in $75 million, TaxWatch estimated.

Some proposals also carry plenty of controversy. Boosting eligibility requirements for students earning Bright Futures scholarships, eliminating the state’s traditional pension plan, ending the state’s Deferred Retirement Option Program for public employees are put in play, but would surely face stiff opposition from some fronts in the Legislature.

The full report is at www.FloridaTaxWatch.org

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

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

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

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

 

 

Sen. Joe Negron slammed Florida TaxWatch’s annual budget “turkey” list, calling it a “media gimmick” based on the “mistaken rationale that budget decisions originating from the executive branch come clothed with a presumption of correctness while ideas from the elected representatives of the people should be viewed with suspicion.”

TaxWatch released the list to help Gov. Rick Scott with his veto pen. Scott is expected to sign the budget and red-line items of his choice Thursday afternoon.

Negron, a Stuart Republican who chairs the Senate Health and Human Services Appropriations Committee and was once the House’s budget chief, called out TaxWatch staff for the manner in which they arrived at $203 million in pork.

TaxWatch’s turkey criteria include items – more than half the total turkey list – that landed in the budget during or after conferences where budget negotiators from the House and Senate resolve differences between their two spending plans. Many of the items that eventually wound their way into the budget that way had never previously been discussed or proposed by either chamber.

TaxWatch’s “added in conference” category is “a flimsy basis to disparage a budget expenditure,” Negron said in a statement.

“The conference process is a meaningful and significant component of the appropriations enterprise. Conference provides an open and transparent opportunity for the House and Senate to negotiate an agreed upon budget and to take a concluding look at the Appropriations Act to determine final priorities. Many proposed funding items are reduced or eliminated during this review process,” he wrote.

Conservative icon Grover Norquist is in Tallahassee pitching the national “Smart on Crime” agenda, a prison reform movement that’s got the support of other “center right” politicos including Newt Gingrich and William Bennett.

Hosted by business-backed Florida TaxWatch, Norquist spoke for more than half an hour at the tony Governor’s Club to a crowd of lobbyists, criminal justice providers and policy makers.

TaxWatch is pushing the reform agenda aimed at cutting back on prison spending. The reforms include revamping mandatory minimum sentences, something House Speaker Dean Cannon said is a no-go this session.

But Norquist said elected officials don’t have to be afraid to support reforms because conservatives like Texas Gov. Rick Perry have proven the reforms work and save taxpayers money, something that could win points with tea party activists.

“They need to feel it’s potentially safe, that they won’t get hit in the back of the head with a 30-second ad saying they’re soft on crime,” Norquist said.

Whether he’s able to move the House remains unclear.

Only three lawmakers – GOP Sens. Paula Dockery of Lakeland and Thad Altman of Viera and Rep. Dennis Baxley of Ocala – attended Norquist’s speech.

House criminal justice appropriations committee chairman Rich Glorioso, R-Plant City, almost made it. He was spotted smoking a cigar outside a local watering hole steps away from the venue as Norquist wrapped up.

PALM BEACH — Attorney General and 2010 Republican governor candidate Bill McCollum called for low taxes, “common-sense regulation,” improved education and “meaningful, significant litigation reform” in remarks to Florida TaxWatch’s annual meeting this morning at The Breakers.

Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink, the presumed Democratic nominee for governor next year, couldn’t attend the meeting because of a scheduling conflict but plans to appear by video, a spokeswoman said.

Former Florida House Speaker Marco Rubio is scheduled to deliver the luncheon keynote speech today. His GOP Senate primary rival, Gov. Charlie Crist, was invited but can’t appear because he’s getting ready for the special legislative session that begins Thursday.

Floridians so far have received less federal stimulus money than any of their fellow Americans, despite an unemployment rate here that ranks among the highest in the country and a budget crisis that few states can match.

“It just shows how inept Florida’s government officials are,” Florida TaxWatch President Dominic Calabro said. “Relying on Washington has always been a bad deal for Florida.”

Florida has received more total dollars than all but three other states from a stimulus pot of about $198 billion so far for infrastructure projects and social services, according to figures reported this week by The Wall Street Journal.¹ That total includes money Congress left for states to divide among themselves and other dollars that federal departments have already disbursed.

But Florida received just $505 per person, which ranks last among the 50 states, all U.S. territories combined and Washington, D.C., according to a Palm Beach Post analysis of the Journal’s data.

The numbers raise significant questions about the stimulus program, which President Obama said during a February stop in Fort Myers would help curtail the state’s rising unemployment rate.²

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1. Wall Street Journal, 06/30/09: Stimulus Spending, Breakdown by State
2. Remarks of President Obama, 02/10/09, Fort Myers.