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Let’s Make a Deal

April 26th, 2011 by Mike Vasilinda

State lawmakers have agreed to a broad outline for a deal on the state budget. It includes allowing a vote on increasing the size of the Supreme Court while stripping the court of some of its authority. The deal also assures that the Tampa-Hillsborough Expressway Authority, Orlando-Orange County Expressway Authority, and the Mid-Bay Bridge Authority will remain independent of the Florida Turnpike. Senate Budget Chairman JD Alexander says not yet spent is a three hundred million dollar pot of money that might be used to lower auto tag fees.

“There is still some dollars we have held in reserve to be able to do something like the tag fees, potentially. I don’t know. Those decisions aren’t made. they’ll be made as we move into conference to try and find the right set of answers,” says Alexander.

Final agreement between the House and Senate must be complete by next Tuesday at midnight for lawmakers to go home on time.

Posted in State News | No Comments »

Corporate Tax Breaks in Limbo

April 25th, 2011 by Mike Vasilinda

Governor Rick Scott continues to push for corporate tax breaks as lawmakers struggle to fund schools, the medically needy, prisons and everything else. As Mike Vasilinda tells us, the tax breaks are on life support, as lawmakers failed to hear legislation today that could have moved the tax cuts through a committee.

Schools are facing a seven percent cut. The medically needy are out of the Senate budget, and Medicaid patients could see a one billion dollar cut. With this backdrop, Governor Rick Scott continues to say in his weekly radio address, “I will not compromise,” when it comes to corporate tax breaks. The Center for Fiscal and Economic Policy says those breaks would do little to create jobs.

“So, there’s a very small percentage of corporations in this state that are for-profit corporations that are actually paying any income tax at all because of the loopholes,” Karen Woodall, with the Center, said.

Former U.S. Senator and two-term Governor Bob Graham says the four billion a year tax breaks for the wealthy over the last decade have hurt schools and produced few, if any, jobs.

A version of the governor’s corporate tax cutting plan was up before a Senate committee Monday morning. The committee temporarily passed it without taking any action.

But the tax cuts can be revived with a two-thirds vote to waive the rules.

Scott supporter Representative Rich Glorioso says a plan under discussion could lead to compromise.

“I would hope that we would have something to give the governor, that we can show a framework of how we can do these tax cuts as the economy gets better,” Glorioso said.

And passing a plan for future tax cuts could let the Governor save face and claim victory, all without hurting schools or anyone else more than they are already being hurt this year.

Scott’s plan to eliminate the corporate income tax comes in two waves.  Scott wants to get rid of close to half of the 5.5 percent tax this year, and the rest next year.

Posted in Business, Legislature, Rick Scott, State Budget, State News, Taxes | No Comments »

Citizens Attack

April 25th, 2011 by flanews

If Governor Rick Scott has his way, the 1.3 million customers of Citizens property insurance will be looking for new coverage before he starts a second term. Reports over the weekend claim Scott wants to dismantle the state run property insurance company. As Whitney Ray tells us, there’s legislation to scale back Citizens but lawmakers say their plan isn’t as aggressive as the governors.

After Hurricane Andrew rocked Homestead in 1992, destroying thousands of homes, many private insurance companies stopped writing insurance altogether, others in just in high risk areas.

The state responded with Citizens property insurance. Lawmakers then called it the insurer of last resort. Today some call it Socialism.

“It’s nothing more than Socialism and we need to stamp out Socialism in this country as soon as we can,” said Hays.

State Senator Alan Hays is sponsoring legislation that would force citizens to drop million dollar properties in 2012 and properties over half a million by 2016.

Hays says his legislation would return Citizens to its insurer of last resort status, but Governor Rick Scott may have other plans.

Over the weekend reports began to circulate of the governor’s plan to kill citizens in four years. Senator Mike Fasano says ending Citizens would force some people out of their homes.

“Those who have mortgages, there would be a forced insurance policy put on them by their mortgage company and it would windup being a surplus lines company and those individual, those home owners, those condo owners would windup losing their homes because they wouldn’t be able to afford to keep it any longer,” said Fasano.

There are 1.3 million Citizens customers. If a major hurricane destroys a lot of Citizens homes, the state insurer could go belly up. And the burden to pay claims would fall on Florida policy holders in the form of assessments.

There’s an amendment to the Citizens bill that would rename the state insurer, Taxpayer Funded Property Insurance Corporation. The bill’s sponsor called the proposed name change truth in advertising.

Posted in Insurance, Legislature, State News | 2 Comments »

Children Rally against Immigration Reform

April 25th, 2011 by flanews

Close to three hundred kids gathered at the state capitol today, asking lawmakers to stop immigration reform.

Most of the kids are US citizens but some of their parents aren’t. They fear immigration reform legislation would break up their families. Sixteen year old Cecilia Perez traveled to Tallahassee from Clearwater Florida. She says if the bill passes there’s a bigger chance that her mom would be deported.

“My dad is a citizen and my mom is not. I’m an American citizen. I was born here I was raised here and I don’t want to be separated from my family,” said Perez.

The legislation would make it easier for local law enforcement officers to become immigration agents through the federal 287 (g) program. Once the officers are federalized they could then check the immigration status of people under criminal investigation. Many of the protestors oppose the bill because they fear it would lead to racial profiling.

Posted in Legislature, State News | 7 Comments »

Abortion Permission

April 25th, 2011 by flanews

The Florida Senate moved today to make it harder for girls under 18 to get an abortion.

A bill requiring minors to get written permission from their parents before they could have an abortion passed a senate committee. Bill sponsor Alan Hays says it’s harder for a student to get medication at school than it is for them to get an abortion.

“The state will not allow a school nurse or a school teacher to give that student a Tylenol or an Advil with out parental permission yet they’re willing to let them terminate a pregnancy without parental permission. I just find that completely unacceptable,” said Hays.

In 1999 the Florida legislature passed similar legislation, but the Florida Supreme Court said it violated a minor’s right to privacy.

Posted in Legislature, State News | No Comments »

Mental Health and Substance Abuse Cuts

April 22nd, 2011 by flanews

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Mental health advocates and economists say spending cuts in the senate’s budget plan would cost the state more in the long run. The Florida Senate wants to cut 210-million dollars from mental health and substance abuse programs. As Whitney Ray tells us, economists say those cuts would force the state to spend more on prisons, hospitals and emergency services.

140-thousand Floridians suffering from addiction, anxiety and other mental illnesses would lose services under spending cuts in the Senate’s budget. The Senate wants to cut 210-million from mental health and substance abuse programs.

Bob Sharpe, the president of the Florida Council for Community Mental Health, says those cuts will force the state to spend more down the road.

“Spend more for corrections, jail admissions; health care the child welfare system, more people will be homeless,” said Sharpe.

Rob Weissert, the Vice President of Research at Florida TaxWatch, says cutting programs that help former felons beat addiction increases the chances those who are denied treatment will end up back in prison.

“Addressing these issues up front can not only save money, but really can reduce future crimes, so it’s a very positive way that the state can focus resources to actually reduce the overall costs and enhance public safety,” said Weissert.

The state house holds mental health and substance abuse programs harmless in its budget. For the next two weeks they’ll be negotiating with the senate to keep those cuts from going through and if the governor has his way, he’ll side with the house. Governor Rick Scott says funding the programs is a priority.

“We’ve got to make sure we spend the money as wisely as possible, so when we put our budget together, we tried to allocate the dollars because that’s part of your job as governor to try to allocate the dollars to the biggest issues you have,” said Scott.

Monday the House and Senate start the budget negotiations. If the Senate moves to restore the cuts, something else will have to go. Mental health and drug abuse advocates say along with the loss of services, there will be a loss of jobs. They estimate 5-thousand people will be laid off if the Senate gets its way.

Posted in Amendments, Business, Cabinet, Charlie Crist, Children, Criminal Justice, Economy, Education, Elections, Environment, Ethics, Gambling, Gas Prices, Gulf Oil Spill, Health, Highways, Housing, Hurricane Season, Insurance, Legislature, McCollum, Oil Drilling, Politics, Property Taxes, Religion, Rick Scott, Sansom, Sink, State Budget, State News, Supreme Court, Swine Flu, Taxes, Tourism, Transportation, Unemployment, Unions, Utilities, Voting, Weather, Wildlife | 2 Comments »

Court Charges Untrue

April 22nd, 2011 by Mike Vasilinda

During debate a week ago, numerous Florida House members blamed Florida’s Supreme Court for delays carrying out the death penalty as a reason to add judges to the court. But as Mike Vasilinda has been able to uncover since the debate, any delay in justice has little to do with the state’s highest court.

64-year-old Gary Michael Hilton was sentenced to death on Thursday.

“You are hear by committed to the custody of the Department of Corrections,” circuit court Judge James Hankinson said.

But once on death row, Hilton has a better than equal chance of dying of natural causes than lethal injection.  During debate on adding  more judges to Florida’s highest court, more than one House Republican justified adding the justices because of death penalty delays.

“There are people sitting today, waiting for justice to be delivered,” Representative James Grant (R-Tampa) said. “Victims who can continually be delayed because of a backlog inside the court.”

But it’s not true. The Commission on Capital Cases provided a list of 47 inmates who appeals are complete. All 47 are eligible for a death warrant any time Rick Scott chooses to sign one. On Friday he didn’t offer a timetable.

“We’ll be dealing with it this year I’m sure,” Scott said.

But even if Scott signed a black bordered warrant tomorrow, it would be futile.

Controversy over one of the three drugs used in the lethal injection has the Department of Corrections rewriting its procedures. It will be months before those are finished.

Former Supreme Court Chief Justice Harry Lee Anstead calls the effort to add judges political.

“The facts don’t back them up. The reality is that the court is super efficient,” Anstead said.

So while Gary Michael Hilton will die behind bars one way or the other, how he goes will have nothing to do with a Supreme Court that took too much time.

393 people are on Florida’s death row as of today. Because of delays, more died of natural causes last year than by lethal injection.

Posted in Amendments, Criminal Justice, Legislature, Rick Scott, State News, Supreme Court | No Comments »

ID Cards for Five Year Olds

April 22nd, 2011 by flanews

Kids as young as five can now get a state issued ID card.

Parents are being encouraged to sign their kids up as a way to help law enforcement identified lost children. Today Ann Howard, bought a card for her son Vincent, just one day after his fifth birthday. Howard says knowing Vincent has the card will help her rest a little easier.

“We travel a lot because we have family in Virginia, we’ll be getting on planes and things like that. Its just some comfort to know that he has identification with him,” said Howard.

Howard is also a spokesperson for the Florida DMV. The cards cost 25 dollars and hold
the same information as a drivers license as well as emergency contact information.

Posted in State News | 6 Comments »

Scott’s take on Elections Bill

April 22nd, 2011 by flanews

Last night the House passed an elections bill many Democrats and voter groups say will cut down on voter participation. The Senate is scheduled to take it up next week. The Senate’s version is expected to shorten early voting by a week. Traditionally more Democrats vote early than Republicans. Republican Governor Rick Scott says some changes are needed to ensure the integrity of Florida elections, but he’s not for any measure that would curb voter turnout.

The bill would also force people to cast a provisional ballot if they update their voter registration information on Election Day. In 2010, just half the provisional ballots cast were counted.

Posted in Legislature, Rick Scott, State News | No Comments »

Gov Tour Fish and Wildlife Commission

April 22nd, 2011 by flanews

Fresh off his fishing trip in the Gulf of Mexico, Governor Rick Scott toured Florida Fish and Wildlife and applauded their work. The trip was part of the rookie governor’s plan to visit every agency and department to better understand their mission and their budget. Scott took questions from Wildlife employees and spoke about his plans to one day shoot an alligator.

“Anything that we can do to promote what you do, well do it. I like, I love fishing, I’ve never shot an alligator but I’m receptive to that…or hunted alligators is a nicer way of saying it,” said Scott.

To shoot an alligator you must have a state license and a special gun. Only 50 permits are awarded every year.

Posted in Rick Scott, State News | No Comments »

College Students Fear Elections Bill

April 21st, 2011 by flanews

The House is poised to pass legislation aimed at reducing voter fraud this afternoon. The bill forces people who update their voter registration information on Election Day to cast a provisional ballot and as Whitney Ray tells us, college student fear that change would keep their vote from counting.

Dozens of college students from three Florida campuses marched to the state capitol, angry over how their elected officials are representing them.

“We vote for our representatives and expect them to do a good job,” said Rachel Walsh, a FSU Senior.

The students came with a laundry list of changes being pursued by the governor and state lawmakers; among them a bill they say would make it harder for college students to cast a traditional ballot.

These students come from all corners of the state and many of them are still registered to voter in their hometowns, not in Tallahassee. Because of the statewide voter database right now they can change their address and vote on the same day. The election bill would stop that.

It would force students who update their information the same day they vote to cast a provisional ballot. The students fear those provisional ballots wouldn’t be counted.

“This is a Democracy. If you are making it harder for people to vote I don’t see the point in that,” said John Saullo a TCC Freshman.

“It’s a blatant effort to silence the voter base for progressive candidates,” said Patrick Shepard a FSU Senior.

The bill’s sponsor, Representative Dennis Baxley, says the changes will cut down on voter fraud and says if students want to make sure their vote is counted they should update their information sooner.

“It’s very easy to change your address. You can call in. You can do it online. But you need to be doing these things during the registration period, not during the voting event,” said Baxley.

The students are also worried about a measure in the Senate version of the bill that would cut early voting in half. They say the change would silent the youth vote.

Posted in Elections, State News | No Comments »

Bath Salts Ban

April 21st, 2011 by flanews

An emergency ban on bath salts is running out, but today the Florida House moved to make the ban permanent.

Bath salts are synthetic drugs similar to PCP. For years they’ve been sold in convenient stores and head shops until early this year when Attorney General Pam Bondi issued an emergency order outlawing the drugs. State Representative Jimmy Patronis took the torch from there, and today his bill to permanently outlaw the drugs passed its final committee stop.

“The Attorney General and my own Sheriff Frank McKeithen in Bay County have been on top of this and thank goodness the Speaker of the House and the Senate President understand the magnitude, the significant and importance of passing this and codifying it in law,” said Patronis.

Right now selling or possessing an ounce of bath salts carries the same penalties as carrying the same amount of cocaine. The full House will take up the bill next week.

Posted in Criminal Justice, State News | No Comments »

Pregnant Inmates Avoid the Cuffs

April 21st, 2011 by flanews

Pregnant inmates may soon be guaranteed the ability to wave their arms or grip a bed post while they give birth. Right now prison guards, if they see fit, can handcuff the inmates while they’re in labor so the women don’t try to escape. Representative Betty Reed is sponsoring legislation that would prohibit guards from handcuffing in labor inmates unless there was a serious escape risk.

“I can imagine what it’s like to be handcuffed and not be able to move around freely because that’s what you need. You need to hit somebody or something. Just kidding, but you need to be able to have your hands and your feet free to move around,” said Reed.

Every year there are an estimated 80 babies born in prison. Since 2001 there have been no complaints from pregnant inmates about being restrained while giving birth.

Posted in Criminal Justice, State News | No Comments »

Drilling Support Rises on Spill Anniversary

April 20th, 2011 by flanews

Just weeks after the worst oil disaster in US history, support for coastal drilling in Florida dropped to 40 percent. Today, one year after the beginning of the disaster, drilling support has climbed to 60 percent. As Whitney Ray tells us, the fear of four dollar a gallon gas has changed minds.

If gas were cheaper, Don Heath might be running his air conditioner. But to save money he’s changing his habits.

“I don’t just ride, you know. I go do what I have to do and stop my vehicle,” said Don.

Don Heath used to work on an oil platform. Today he’s owns his own taxi business. He says gas prices could be cheaper if drivers conserved more, and some offshore drilling bans were lifted.

“Any way that we can break the price will help,” said Don.

Don’s not alone. Poll numbers show 60 percent of Floridians support offshore drilling. But one year ago, the BP oil spill had people singing a different tune. At that time, just 40 percent supported drilling.

The spill changed Clara Hampton’s mind. She’s struggling to pay high gas prices, but says drilling is not the answer.

“I don’t believe in offshore drilling anymore; I just don’t trust it,” said Clara.

Governor Rick Scott isn’t looking to lift a state ban on drilling anytime soon. Make sure we take care of our beaches; we need to take care of our environment so we’re not going to be doing drilling here unless we can do it safely.

Leaders in both the House and the Senate have promised not to take up drilling legislation for at least this year and the next, but they’re not willing to put a ban in the state constitution.

They’re also not moving quickly to expand alternative forms of energy or issue rebates for people who put solar panels on their homes. A petition to put a drilling ban amendment on the 2012 ballot is being circulated by the Florida Wildlife Federation. If they can get enough signatures it will make the ballot, but as of right now, getting the 60 percent needed to pass the measure may be tough.

Posted in Gulf Oil Spill, Legislature, Oil Drilling, State News | No Comments »

Voting Changes Backlash

April 20th, 2011 by flanews

Florida’s election laws are under major scrutiny at the Capitol. In an effort to rewrite the rules, lawmakers may make it harder to vote. The bill inhibits the ability to correct address information at the polls which opponents say targets voters with low incomes, military, and students. Vice President of Florida College Democrats Erin Murphy says if the bill is passed the youth vote will suffer.

“The legislature as a whole is looking at 2012 and they’re anticipating you know, Obama, and you know others really working the youth turnout. And they want to suppress that and I think that’s tragic because first off not all students are Democrats,” said Murphy.

Those who change their address on Election Day will have to cast a provisional vote. In 2008, 50% of those votes were not counted.

Posted in Elections, Legislature, State News | No Comments »

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