Welcome to

Hundreds of Millions of dollars in property are sitting in a high security vault in Tallahassee, waiting for owners to claim.

Tangible items like diamond necklaces, historic dollars, silver bars and various valuables were once forgotten. They are now snugged away in a state vault in the state capital. “If it fits in a safe deposit box, we get it,” said Florida Bureau of Unclaimed Property Chief, Walter Graham.

Every year the Bureau of Unclaimed Property receives the contents of forgotten safe deposit boxes, utility deposits along with many items. “We have to identify every single item we get, we have to describe it,” said Graham.

After the items are identified, the office tries to find the proper owners. If they succeed, they tell them how to claim their lost treasures.  “Eventually we’ll sell these items because, as you see, we can’t continue to keep these things forever,” said Graham.

But, the auction doesn’t happen for years after an item is discovered. First, banks where the property is found have three years to find the owners. If they can’t be located, the items are sent to the vault.

Even if an item is sold, rightful owners are still entitled to the value of the item. “Our goal is to sale these items for as much as possible to give back to the owner should they come forward,” said vault supervisor, Liz Tatum.

Since the bureau opened in 1961 more than 2-billion dollars worth of property has been returned to the proper owner.

If you think you have unclaimed property you can go to FLTreasureHunt.org; the annual auction will be held in Tampa on June 8^th.

It’s been four days since a winning Powerball Lottery ticket was sold in Zephyrhills. Now people are waiting for that lucky ticket holder to come forward.

Media crews have been holding out for the winner to come forward at the Florida Lottery Headquarters in Tallahassee. The winner of the 590-point-5 million dollar ticket was sold at a Publix Grocery Store.

It is the largest single ticket in U-S history.

Secretary of the Florida Lottery, Cindy O’Connell says they are excited to see who that winner is, “We all very excited to meet our winner, winners or the entity that will soon, I hope very soon come and claim their winning jackpot prize.”

This is the sixth time there has been a Powerball winner in the state since Floridians were able to play.

Less than a month after state lawmakers passed a ban on texting and driving, the Florida Highway Patrol is gearing up for a deadly summer focusing on distracted drivers.

There are more fatal accidents during the 100 days between Memorial Day and Labor Day than any other time of the year.

Through commercials the National Transportation Safety Board and AT&T continue to step up “It Can Wait”; a campaign against texting and driving. The people in the commercials talk about how texting while driving dramatically changed their lives.

This past legislative session, lawmakers approved Florida’s first ever ban on texting and driving in the state. “We’re talking about an activity that is equivalent to drinking four beers very quickly,” said Representative Doug Holder.

The texting ban, if signed into law, will take affect October1st. went to the governors desk Tuesday, but even before he signs it, police have begun focusing more on distracted driving.

“It has deadly consequences; we have crashes everyday that are from distracted driving,” said FHP Captain Nancy Rasmussen.

In the most recent Florida statistics, more than 2,200 people died in car crashes; officers are doing everything they can to curve those numbers.

During the summer more officers will be patrolling the roadways to keep an eye out for distracted drivers. “Our numbers increase during this period of time just because we know the motorists are increasing, the more people we have patrolling the roads the better we’ll be,” said Capt. Rasmussen.

If the law passes, drivers caught texting face a thirty dollar fine.

The county with the highest number of fatal accidents was in Miami-Dade County, followed by Hillsborough County.

Florida teachers could see raises as soon as July first under the budget signed by Governor Rick Scott. State lawmakers fought Scott over whether the raises would be merit based as they wanted or across the board. The Governor won, but not on the final amount.

In March, Rick Scott told lawmakers in no uncertain terms that he wanted across the board pay raises for teachers. “Florida’s education systems is making tremendous progress. The best way we can build on this progress is to reward our hardworking teachers with a 2500 dollar pay raise.”, said Governor Rick Scott back in March.

Lawmakers fought tooth and nail, passing the plan to base raises on merit. “There are a lot of reasons that go into why a teachers would get a raise.”, says Sen. Don Gaetz, R-Niceville.

Teachers mobilized. “It appears that the legislative leaders really don’t like teachers and they don’t want to pay them any more money.”, says Andy Ford, FEA President.

They reversed the decision to award merit raises. Scott signed the budget with across the board raises on Monday. “It’s the right thing to do for our teachers.”, adds Governor Scott.

But the amount of the raises is still up in the air because lawmakers expanded the group that gets it. “The legislature came in and added charter schools and principals and vice principals and they never adjusted the money. So, it’s not going to be the 2500 dollars that everybody is running around talking about.”, says Andy Ford.

The amount will now  be negotiated at the local level. “We’re going to try to make it as close to the 2500 as we can and use other parts of the budget to make up the difference.”, says Wayne Blanton, Florida School Boards Association.

In addition to pay raises teachers are also getting a swipe card worth 250 dollars good for classroom supplies. Insiders says the support for teachers is based on two things. An improving economy, and polling that shows parents value their kids’ teachers

The winner of the largest Powerball Jackpot in U-S history is right here in the Sunshine State. While everyone anxiously awaits for that person or group to step forward, the Powerball host talks about what the experience was like leading up to the announcement this weekend.

Every Wednesday and Saturday night, millions of Americans around the country watch Powerball host Sam Arlen announce what will hopefully make someone a very happy person. After Saturday night, the excitement moved to a Tampa suburb. A still unknown person purchased a single ticket worth 590-million dollars at a Publix grocery store.

We talked to Sam via video chat. “It never escapes my mine that everyone watching is clinging on to hope,” said Powerball Host Sam Arlen. >

As the excitement looms in Zephyrhills, things have appeared to return to normal in Tallahassee at Florida Lottery Headquarters. That’s where the ticket must be turned in to claim the cash. The winner has up to 60 days to claim the jackpot if they want the lump sum. They have up to 6 months if they want the annual payment.

Eight of every ten possible number combinations were purchased for the drawing. “We had tickets selling at a rate of almost 45,000 per minute or 745 per second,” said Secretary of Florida Lottery, Cindy O’Connell.

Even though the ‘big-winner’ hasn’t stepped forward, there were hundreds of other winners across Florida. “We had over 643 players that actually won prizes, two $1-million tickets were sold in addition,” said O’Connell.

This marks the 6th time the winning Powerball ticket has been sold in the state.

If you do have the winning ticket, the lottery suggests you to do four things. Sign the back of the ticket, put it in a safe deposit box; and get a lawyer and a CPA.

Governor Rick Scott today signed the new state budget into law. It provides for pay raises for teachers, law enforcement and state workers. This is the first time in six years there was extra money, but Scott also axed hundreds of millions in pet projects.

Scott signed the 450 page spending plan behind closed doors. Then he used a 58 page letter to explain why he objected to hundreds of millions in spending, much of it parochial for powerful lawmakers. “I’m responsible for 19.2 million people. I’m not responsible for one region by itself. I want to take care of all Floridians.”, says Governor Scott.

Gone are college buildings, courthouses, Sheriff’s stations, and most notably, tuition hikes for colleges and universities. “I worry about the cost of higher education.”, adds Rick Scott.

The tuition veto is seen as  favorable by students who offered opinions. “That’s really good. I think it’s really good. I think it’s great because tuition is expensive enough and I think raising it is ridiculous.”, says Kaela Coch, Spring Hill. Another student, Adriana Sanchez, adds “That’s good. I think we’re paying enough tuition.”

Scott tuition vetoes are legally questionable, but no one challenged the last governor who did the same thing.

“Well, I don’t anticipate a challenge, but if there is we’re going to fight it. This is the wrong thing to be raising tuition on Florida families.”, says Governor Scott.

Scott more than tripled the dollar amount for vetoes sought by the watchdog group Florida Taxwatch. But one item he left in the budget was four million for a film about Winter, the tailless dolphin in Clearwater.

“The decision for this was jobs, improve education, get the cost of living low.”, says Governor Scott.

And listing those three criteria is a statement he repeated seven times during his nine minute availability.

Excitement around the Powerball Jackpot is soaring across Florida as the jackpot is at 600-million dollars, and is expected to rise before Saturday evening’s drawing.

Prior to the current record, the highest jackpot was $587.5 million, which was set in November 2012.

Deputy Secretary of the Florida Lottery, David Bishop says state schools are already winning as more and more people spend money on the Powerball.

“The Florida education is already a winner. The series of draws generated an additional forty-one million dollars for education,” said Deputy Secretary of the Florida Lottery, David Bishop. “That means that’s more money in the classroom, more money for k-12, more money for colleges and universities.”

Florida has traditionally been one of the top selling states for the jackpot.

Internet giant Amazon.com was poised to build at least one fulfillment center and likely more in Florida. It negotiated with the state over several months to delay collecting  sales taxes on Florida purchases until the centers were up and running, but Governor Rick Scott eventually said no.

The Governor was in Tampa on Friday, touting a three-tenths of a percent drop in the state’s jobless rate. “As you know Hertz is moving their corporate office down to Lee county.”, says Governor Scott.

But what Scott wasn’t talking about was the 25 hundred jobs he turned down. Internet giant Amazon.com wants to build fulfillment centers in Florida in their quest to offer same day delivery. Under current law, the moment they closed the deal, Amazon would have had to start collecting sales taxes. They hoped to delay collecting taxes on internet sales until the centers opened in February.

After months of talking, Scott said no. “My job is to make sure I do the right thing for taxpayers of our state, and based on the opportunity I had at the time it didn’t make sense.”, says Rick Scott.

The talks are continuing. Scott is optimistic. Governor Scott says, “I haven’t seen something that I think is good for Florida’s tax payers, but I’m hopeful that Amazon will be here with their warehouses soon.”

Florida’s Retail Federation has been pushing for fairness between brick and mortar stores and internet sellers for almost a decade. They were actively involved in the Amazon negotiations; surprised when they fell apart. They say they won’t have anything to say until next week.

Legislation to allow the collection of taxes on internet sales, was amendment during the legislative session to accommodate the February date sought by Amazon. In the end, nothing passed. “It’s something that should probably have been done a decade ago.”, says Sen. Nancy Detert, R-Venice, Internet Collection Bill Sponsor.

And because nothing passed, Florida will continue to  lose an estimated one to two billion dollars a year. A copy of the form can be found here: http://dor.myflorida.com/dor/forms/2010/dr15mo.pdf.

Governor Rick Scott has until next Friday to sign off on the state’s 74 billion dollar budget. His staff has been sending letters to organizations set to receive state money, asking for justifications. And government watchdog says at least one hundred million of spending ought to be axed.

When the ceremonial handkerchief fell ending the legislative session, lawmakers took home the biggest budget in state history – 74 point five billion dollars. “We actually think the legislature showed some restraint with member projects,” says Kurt Werner, Taxwatch Budget Analyst

For more than 20 years, Florida Taxwatch has been combing through the hundreds of pages of detail and recommending which budget items are unusual, didn’t go through a process, or are just plain wasteful. “A 107 individual appropriations worth a 106 million dollars in tax payer money.”, says Rob Weisert, Taxwatch VP for Research.

On the list is 9 million for Embry Riddle, a private aeronautical university in Daytona Beach.14 million for a building at Gulf Coast State college in Panama City that ranked low on a priority list, and four million for a film project in Clearwater. “This is a hundred million dollars that could have gone to things like schools or healthcare. “, adds Weissert.

The 100 million plus could have been used to hire three thousand more teachers added three more days of back to school sales tax holidays. Almost completely fund the Governor’s manufacturing tax cut. Or the money could have been used to add thousands of kids to the early learning program.

Governor Rick Scott has the final say.

When lawmakers were still in session, Scott used the threat of vetoing budget items as leverage to get his priorities. “And we know that that horse trading has a role.”, says Werner.

But that could mean that Scott will have to let some money be spent that would’ve otherwise been vetoe

Senate President Don Gaetz responded with ascathing statement.

For Immediate Release

May 16, 2013

Contact:

Katie Betta

(850) 339-7087

Betta.Katherine@FLSenate.gov

Statement from President Gaetz Regarding Florida TaxWatch

Tallahassee–Florida Senate President Don Gaetz (R-Niceville) today released the following statement regarding Florida TaxWatch releasing their 2013 Turkey Watch Report.

“The TaxWatch list is built on the unconstitutional perversion that if an appropriation isn’t recommended by unelected agency officials it shouldn’t be considered in conference by elected legislators.  This is an arrogance of the elite who spend too much time in Tallahassee and Washington listening to the echoes of their own invented wisdom and thinking they’re hearing the voice of God.

“No agency put in its budget a $3,500 raise for Florida’s most effective teachers, yet that was funded.  No agency testified before the Legislature asking for a raise for state employees who had been without one for six years, yet we passed it.  No bureaucrat in the Department of Education asked for a career-technical pathway to a high school diploma or an online pathway to a university degree, but we funded them.  Not a whisper of criticism from TaxWatch on any of these and a hundred other similar items.  So, apparently, their indignation is not only ill-informed but selective.

“TaxWatch has dismissed as ‘turkeys’ mobile medical and dental units to bring health care to poor people in rural areas, documentation and education about the Holocaust, housing for disabled veterans, rehabilitation for severely wounded soldiers who want to return to duty, and replacement of 50 year old educational facilities that produce workforce for companies bringing jobs to Florida.  In most cases, those who put together this list couldn’t find these projects on a map and haven’t put five minutes into finding out anything about them.

“If our founders had shared the slavish devotion of Taxwatch to unchallenged decisions and dictates of faraway bureaucrats, we’d all be drinking English tea and singing God Save the Queen.  A good song.  But not an American song.  The Constitution obligates and empowers elected legislators, who come from communities and go home to communities, to write the state’s budget.  If TaxWatch staffers want to test their budget theories in the public square, let them stand up in front of conference committees and testify in public.  More than thirty public, open conference committee meetings were held during the recent legislative session.  Every item in the state budget was proposed and adopted during those public meetings.  Testimony was requested and welcomed at every meeting.  Not once did any person from TaxWatch ask one question, offer one idea or say one word.

“It is little wonder that TaxWatch is irrelevant 364 days a year.”

# # #

An improving economic climate nationwide is good news for Florida. That’s because a record number of people are checking out Florida’s attractions. “We try to get here as much as we can,” said tourist Cleveland Wrighty.

Visitors are spending billions of dollars, helping revive the states economy. “There is no secret the Florida tourism industry is experiencing some incredible momentum,” said VISIT FLORIDA President & CEO, Will Seccombe.

Coming off of two record years, the first three months of 2013 have seen an almost 5-percent increase. Last year: 21-point-8 million tourists have already visited the state this year. “That momentum is pretty hard to stop,” said Seccombe.

Travelers we talked with say they have been coming to Florida more frequently. “Once a year, twice a year. Something like that,” said Seguin, Texas resident, Ronald Miller.

Last year just over 91-million people visited the Sunshine State, up 2-point-3 percent. With an increase in tourism, it equals more jobs, because every 85 visitors support one Florida job. “(It’s a) huge impact to jobs,” said Seccombe. “We had an additional 35,000 people employed in the hospitality industry.”

Those jobs all created in the first quarter of this year, marking the 36th month of job growth in the tourism industry. It’s a trend likely to continue as people continue to visit. I like Florida, its where I plan to retire,” said Miller.

The number of international visitors is increasing even faster than domestic tourists with an increase of 11.3-percent increase.