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Florida schools face a billion dollar loss next year because of falling property values, but that isn’t stopping some lawmakers from suggesting more property tax cuts. Republican lawmakers say Floridians should be allowed to keep more of their own money, but as Whitney Ray tells us, cutting taxes could come at the expense of seniors, students, and first responders.

Teachers, firemen and police officers depend on your tax dollars to provide education and protection. The core services have already been reduced because of dwindling sales and property tax revenues. Governor Charlie Crist is supporting legislation that could cut revenue even further.

“When property taxes don’t go down there’s less money in the pockets of Florida families,” said Crist.

Representative David Rivera is pushing a constitutional amendment to cap property taxes at 1.35 percent of a home’s value.

“We need to create jobs. We need to put money back in taxpayer’s pockets. That’s exactly what this proposal does,” said Rivera.

After state economists read the economic tea leaves later this week, Florida could see five billion dollar budget shortfall. The shrinking budget is causing distress among educators.

Next week a group of a thousand parents and teachers will be here at the capitol to rally against further spending cuts to education. Advocates for children and seniors say the vulnerable will pay the price of more tax cuts.

“I don’t think that’s what a majority of Floridians want for their children, for their grandparents, for their parents and the future of the state of Florida,” said Child Advocate Karen Woodall.

Another plan to cap government spending, known as the Taxpayer Bill of Rights, is being pushed through the Senate. Florida’s Chief Financial Officer called the plan “Dangerous.”

Another property tax cutting plan facing less opposition would provide property tax cuts to first time home buyers. The Florida Association of Realtors and the Florida Home Builders Association are supporting the legislation. The groups say the plan would help absorb the 300-hundred thousand empty houses currently on the market and put builders back to work.

The Florida Senate will spend half a million taxpayer dollars to shed light on state spending.

The Senate is building a website to provide in depth details about how the state is using your tax dollars. The website will be called “Transparency Florida,” and will be accessible to anyone with a computer and an internet connection. Senator J.D. Alexander said as the economy gets worse people want more bang for their tax buck.

“In these tough budget times when we have close to ten percent of Floridians out of work, we’ve got close to ten percent of people on food stamps, I think we owe a duty to Floridians to make sure every dollar we get is spent as effectively as possible,” said Alexander.

The site will go live this summer.

Florida’s Chief Financial Officer is backing legislation to keep insurance agents from ripping off seniors by twisting their annuities.

Twisting happens when an agent convinces a client to take money out of one investment and put in a new one for the sole purpose of making a commission. The switch normally costs the investor a huge fee. Legislation to make twisting a senior’s investments a felony is gaining support in Tallahassee. Florida Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink said agents involved in twisting can rip off dozens of people before they’re caught.

“The bar is set very very high to identify. It’s kind of like you know them when you see them. The guys who are out to scam seniors, they’re not out scamming one, there is a pattern of behavior here and so it’s pretty easy. The line is not that fine,” said Sink.

Since Sink began pushing this legislation dozens of seniors have reported being ripped off by their agents. Just this week two Florida men accused of cheating seniors out of thousands of dollars were arrested.

The Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation is enlisting teens in the fight against underage drinking.

The department asked students ages 14 – 20 to make videos about why drinking on spring break is a bad idea. Andrea Likens and Kiersten Lampe from Deltona High School won second place. Kiersten said she hopes their video will inspire her classmate to stay away from alcohol.

“We really wanted to get the message out. Being in high school we hear about a lot sororities that go around our peers and what they do on spring break, so with this contest we though we could deliver a strong message about why not to drink and why it’s so important not to drink alcohol on spring break,” said Kiersten.

The students won Best Buy gift cards. They plan to buy laptops for college with the prize. The winning videos can be seen at www.myfloridalicense.com.

Florida leaders are calling for improvements to the state’s mental health system after receiving low marks from a national advocacy groups.

A report card released today by the National Alliance on Mental Illness gives Florida a ‘D’ for the treatment of mental health patients. Advocates say Florida is spending too much money locking up the mentally ill and not enough money providing treatment. Department of Children and Families Secretary George Sheldon said the state is wasting money locking up mental health patients.

“A quarter of a billion dollars we’re spending on deep-end beds at a 140,000 dollars a bed is insane. We can’t do that. But if we can take 10 or 12,000 dollars to provide that person treatment in the community, it makes sense. As our budgets start to get more and more tight, it’s the practical thing to do,” said Sheldon.

Mental health advocates and Secretary Sheldon are supporting legislation that would use money from the criminal justice budget to create more community based care programs.

An African American who decided to become a lawyer on the night Martin Luther King was assassinated today became Governor Charlie Crist’s fourth pick for the Florida Supreme Court. As Mike Vasilinda tells us, the new judge says he doesn’t want his views pigeonholed.

The sun was shining brightly as Governor Charlie Crist named Circuit Judge James Perry from Seminole and Brevard counties to be his historic fourth pick to the Florida Supreme Court.

“This is a man who is humble”, says Crist. “A man from rural roots in North Carolina, a generous heart, a dedicated hard working man who truly believes in justice”.

Perry is also the fourth African American to be named to  serve on the high court, which has never been more diverse. The new judge says diversity comes in many forms.

“Diversity doesn’t necessarily mean color. It means the difference in people who have a different life time experience to have a different perspective on things” said the nominee.

No other Governor has had four appointments in their first term, but unless one of the current judges resigns, Charlie Crist may not get another appointment, even if he wins another term.

Crist’s first two picks were ultra conservative. Long time court watcher Larry Spalding from the ACLU says Crist could have turned the court sharply right and didn’t.

There are going to be some key issues that continue to come before the court where these appointments could make a bug difference” says Spalding.

Age forced two of the judges Crist replaced into retirement. Two others left to practice law. After practicing law for 21 years, Justice Perry was appointed to the bench by Governor Jeb Bush in 2000. His wife of 37 years is a professor at Stetson University in Deland.

Thousands of Altel cell phone users have had their calls to the states unemployment hotline blocked.

The agency became aware of the glitch last week and it has been fixed. Robby Cunningham at the Agency for Workforce Innovation says the agency is checking to see if other companies have been blocking the calls as well.

“It appears this was going on since April of last year” says Cunningham. “Which means hundreds if not thousands of people who tried to call from their cell phones to our 800 number to get information about their unemployment claim could not get through to the line”

“and if they only had a cell phone?”

“If they only had a cell phone they had their calls blocked at times.

If you have had trouble reaching the unemployment hotline, the agency suggests you check on your claim on line at www.floridajobs.org

You may be eligible for unemployment benefits if you are placed on an unpaid furlough. You must meet all of the requirements such as having worked in four of the last five quarters and earned a specific amount of money.

You also won’t get paid for the first week you are on furlough, although, Robby Cunningham from the Agency for Workforce Innovation says you can file the claim anyway and have that first week be what is called a “waiting week” so that if you are laid off later in the year, you won’t have to wait another week to receive payments.

“If you are laid off or furloughed for a short time, you may be able to receive unemployment compensation payments”.  If, as Cunningham says “You fall under the same guidelines as anyone who was actually terminated. So you would have to meet certain criteria, like the number of weeks you have been working for this company or organization, the amount of wages you have received from them, You have a waiting week like all unemployment compensation recipients have as well”.

Applications for unemployment can be made at www.floridajobs.com

Lawmakers are looking at adopting random drug testing for people who apply for unemployment benefits. People who failed the drug test would be denied unemployment. As Whitney Ray tells us, the unemployed fear random testing would slow down the payment process.

With half a million Floridians receiving unemployment benefits, lawmakers want to make sure none of the money is used to buy drugs. Senator Mike Bennett filed legislation to create drug testing for people seeking unemployment.

“I do believe that the people who are taking that money should be qualified and ready and able to work. I want to make sure that we’re not supporting somebody else’s drug habit who is not willing and able,” said Bennett.

The bill requires random testing for one out of every ten people who apply for unemployment. The drug tests cost about 30 bucks. The person applying for benefits would have to foot the bill.

The unemployed fear drug testing would slow down the process and increase the waiting time for benefits.

Ether Hunter was laid off from her house-keeping job two months ago. She says random testing isn’t fair because the people who have been laid off have paid into the plan shouldn’t be barred for any reason.

“I’m not a drug person, but I can say, I don’t think it’s right people got to go through that just to get the money they worked for, I don’t think it’s right,” said Ether.

Governor Charlie Crist said the idea is worth debating.

“Whether or not it’s a good idea, I think it is certainly worth considering,” said Crist.

One consideration lawmakers will take into account is whether or not the state’s unemployment fund can keep up with the growing number of jobless and if drug testing could save the fund money.

There’s 860 million dollars in the state’s Unemployment Compensation Trust Fund. Last week the fund paid 60 million dollars in claims. Unemployment benefits are a federal entitlement program, so if the fund runs dry, people would still get their money.

Governor Charlie Crist says he’s fine allowing the rate freeze to expire on Citizen Property Insurance.

Policy rates for the state-run property insurer have been frozen since 2006. Lawmakers don’t seem poised to take up a bill to extend the freeze until 2010. Crist said lifting the rate increase ban could make Citizens stronger.

“I’m confident in Citizens, I think they are viable. I think they are stable. I think they are a lot better than some other insurance companies, but I want to make sure they continue, that’s all,” said Crist.

If the freeze sunsets Citizens’ rates could go up 20 percent next year.

Republican Lawmakers are trying to resurrect a tax cap plan, killed by the State Supreme Court last year.

The Senate Community Affairs Committee passed a joint resolution today aimed at allowing the plan on the 2010 ballot. If approved by the legislature and voters, property taxes would be capped at 2010 levels. Then, yearly increases would be limited to 1.35 percent a year. Resolution sponsor Mike Bennett said capping taxes would boost housing sales.

“You have a huge glut of houses in our market. We want those people from Illinois and Michigan to take that inventory off the market and if they know their property tax increases are going to be capped at some level, it provides a little more certainty in their life,” said Bennett.

Many County and city governments, as well as schools, oppose the plan because it could reduce their budgets.

The state’s first ever Muslim Day at the capitol wasn’t without controversy.

About 200 Muslim-Americans toured the Capitol and met with lawmakers Tuesday to discuss education and healthcare reform. While the group ate lunch in Capitol courtyard, a coalition of Jews and Christians held a news conference to speak out against radical Islam. Kelly Cook a spokesman for Act for America, an anti-terrorist group said some Muslims are trying to fool state lawmakers.

“They want our Florida lawmakers to trust them; well here’s what violates trust, Islamic organizations who refuse to acknowledge that there are a lot of people in their community of faith who want to hurt America, kill Americans and impose Sharia law on America,” said Cook.

Mohammad Sherif, a spokesman for United Voices for America, said Muslims want the same things from state government that Jews and Christians.

“What’s important to do is to have people who understand our view point and understand that we are constituents and that we are not necessarily Muslims that live in America, but that we are American Muslims and in this state we are Floridians first and foremost,” said Sherif.

Speakers at the anti-terrorism news conference said they support Muslim Day at the capitol, but they want Muslims to admit that some people claiming Islam hate America.

Hundreds of corrections and probation and parole officers worried about their jobs demonstrated in Tallahassee today. As Mike Vasilinda tells us,  66 probation officers were laid off in January, and more layoffs could be on the way.

66 Prole and probation officers cut loose in January were fired because the Department of Corrections is over budget.  State Senator Arthenia Joyner told a crowd of officers that fewer of them means higher case loads.

“You can’t keep me safe if you got 120, 130,40,50 people to monitor”.  Says Joyner.

One of the 66 let go was Brian Seals. Brian joined several hundred other officers at the state Capitol who are worried tight budgets could mean their jobs too.

“There was no indication that this was coming up’ says Seals. We were called on Thursday and told Friday afternoon we are laid off”.

One good sign is the growth in the prison population is slowing. Still, Corrections spokesperson Gretl Plessiinger  the state is planning more prisons. “We had originally thought we would have to build nineteen prisons over the next five years. But the Criminal Justice estimating conference…their latest estimates show we are not growing as fast”.

Money spent on hundred million dollar prisons can’t be spent on salaries. One alternative being discussed is to identify inmates who got busted here..have no ties to Florida and ship them out. State Senator Victor Crist is the man in charge of prison funding, and he says the idea could helps Florida and other states.

“It helps them because it gives them cash flow for beds that wouldn’t otherwise be productive” says Crist. “And it helps us because that means we don’t have to build an expensive cell”.

As the officers swarmed the capitol, they found sympathetic lawmakers, but few who would promise that more cuts and higher caseloads weren’t on the way. Brian Seals will begin work next week as a correctional officer at a prison in Volusia County. He would prefer to be on the outside supervising parolees.

Efforts to boost the cigarette tax by up to a dollar got major support today from the Florida Hospital Association.  FHA told reporters it could no longer sit on the sidelines when the real issue is public health. Association president Bruce Rueben says many people, including non smokers, don’t know how much the habit is costing them.

“There are no butts about it. Annually, Florida businesses and families absorb more than six point two billion dollars in tobacco related costs, and that amounts to five hundred and eighty six dollars per household”

Estimates are that for every ten percent increase in price, smoking declines by four percent for adults and seven percent for teens. Hospital President Lars Houmann says Florida sells more cigarettes than any other state.

“In the US, tobacco use is responsible for almost one in five deaths. It kills more people than alcohol, crack cocaine, heroin, homicide, suicide, car crashes, fires and aids combined”, says Houmann. “We know raising the price of cigarettes will prevent many of those deaths”.

The current cigarette tax is 33 point 9 cents.  Only five staets have lower cigarette taxes than Florida, which was last raised in 1990.

The man considered by many to be the best governor Florida has ever had, LeRoy Collins, would have been 100 this week. Collins served from 1955 to 1961 and his moderate stand on segregation is widely considered to be the reason Florida did not erupt in civil rights battles like other states.  Collins went on to be the president of the National Broadcasting Association and under Lyndon Johnson as the first director of the Community Relations Service. His lead of a civil rights march to ensure non violence in Selma Alabama is considered the key reason Collins failed in a bid to be Florida’s US Senator. In later years, Collins practiced law in Tallahassee and came to believe the death penalty was wrong, calling it “Florida’s Gutter of Shame”.