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Florida is still fighting for 2.4 billion federal stimulus dollars to spend on education. The money is in limbo as punishment for deep spending cuts to Florida schools. Governor Charlie Crist is confident Florida will receive the money and as Whitney Ray tells us, he’s asking lawmakers to use the money to save teaching jobs.

Because of its poor funding history, Florida must get a waiver to qualify for a total of 3.4 billion federal dollars to spend on education. The State has yet to receive the application. Governor Charlie Crist says the money should be used to save teaching jobs.

“It would forestall any layoffs,” said Crist.

But teaching salaries are an annual expense. Some lawmakers say using the stimulus money on reoccurring cost will simply make the budget problem worse in the future.

“I don’t like to do it. I don’t think the governor wants to do it, but it’s a necessity this year, because the alternative is to raise taxes in the middle of a recession, or to cut education further,” said State Senator Dave Aronberg.

Neither the Governor’s Office or the Department of Education know exactly how the money will be spent. Lawmakers will have a big say-so in divvying up the funds. If lawmakers side with three student groups that rallied at the state capitol last week teaching positions would be saved.

The money could also be used to renovate schools, update technology, and save programs. But Florida’s largest teachers union says the money will do the most good if it’s spent to prevent layoffs.

“If those teachers, if those bus drivers, those cafeteria workers, aren’t in school, if they aren’t earning income that way then they have to find a job some place else,” said FEA Spokesman Mark Pudlow.

Out-of-work teachers would likely end up in need of state assistance programs. The US Department of Education will try to figure out if Florida cut education deeper than it cut spending other areas of the budget over the last two year. If the state did, the waiver could be denied.

Human rights advocates say people are being forced to work for little or no pay on some Florida farms.

The Coalition of Immokalee Workers hosted a rally and a play at the state capitol Monday. The play depicted two migrant slaves being beaten and chained to a truck. About 50 members of the coalition traveled to Tallahassee in to ask the governor to step up efforts to stop slavery. They never got a chance. Marc Rodrigues a member of the Student Farm Workers Alliance said the state needs to do more because people are suffering.

“They’re being held against their will, being force to work against their will under climate of threats, intimidation, and violence. You’re watch 24 hours a day to keep you from escaping,” said Rodrigues.

Since 1998 police have busted seven slavery rings in the state.

Pending legislation at the state capitol would transfer some court clerk duties to the state’s circuit judges to save money.

Sponsors say the state could save 200 million dollars by allowing circuit judges to handle fees and filings instead of the state’s 67 clerks. Clerks say taking the duties away from them would destroy the checks-and balance system that’s been in place for more than 170 years. Sarasota County Clerk Karen Rushing said the system is working well the way it is, and there’s no guarantee moving the duties to the circuit courts would save money.

“Well were saying, not only if its not broke don’t fix it, but if there’s no credible argument that its going to save money. Taxpayers right now need their elected officials to work to reduce expenses and to collaborate together and this will not reduce the taxpayers dollars coming into the office, and it won’t reduce the expenses. In fact there’s credible arguments to be made that it will increase expenses,” said Rushing.

Florida’s Clerks receive funding from the court-related revenue they collect. If the revenue duties are moved to the circuit judges, clerks fear they’ll lose funding.

State Farm Insurance is objecting to the state’s order allowing the company to stop selling homeowners insurance in the state. In a 76 page response filed late this afternoon, State Farm says the state cannot force the company to allow its agents to write homeowners from other companies, nor can it prohibit State Farm from putting policies in Citizens. Both were key concessions sought by the state in allowing the company to stop doing business. The state has 15 days to respond.

Meanwhile, State lawmakers are asking the Office of Insurance Regulation why more wasn’t done to keep State Farm from leaving Florida. Regulators say State Farm’s 47 percent rate hike request was just too high. As Whitney Ray tells us, the insurance industry says the state needs to reconsider its tough stance on rate hikes to keep companies in the state.

Last year, State Farm asked regulators for a 47 percent rate hike for financial protection against a huge storm. The Office of Insurance Regulation didn’t bite. Now 1.2 million State Farm policyholders will have to find a new insurer.

“This was the last thing we wanted to do. This was our last option. We made this move to avoid further financial weakening that would keep us from meeting our contractually obligations to our property insurance customers,” said Michael Grimes, a State Farm Spokesman.

With State Farm preparing to begin phasing out policies in November, reports of people not able to find affordable insurance with other companies are beginning to surface.

Lawmakers are questioning the state’s Office of Insurance Regulation to find out whether or not it did enough to keep State Farm in Florida.

OIR Spokesman Ed Domansky said State Farm’s request was too high.

“State Farm’s rate filing was simply not approvable. That decision made by our office was affirmed by an administrative law judge,” said Domansky.

Insurance lobbyist says the state needs to loosen its rate hike restrictions, or more insurers could leave.

“We can’t take these kinds of losses in this market. We need more companies here, not less, and when you lose this huge about of capital that State Farm represents, it’s just difficult to replace it. I don’t know if we can do it another time,” said Bob Lotane, FAIFA Spokesman

State Farm customers will be given six months notice before their policies are dropped.

Another victim has come forward in a state investigation into brutal child abuse at a state school for boys.

67 year old minister Charles Rambo was sent to the Marianna Dozier School for Boy in 1955. Rambo was giving a hundred lashes with a leather strap in the White House, a building staff used to beat students. A group of former students calling themselves the White House Boys began telling their stories late last year. Rambo said all the students had it bad, but almost every black student was abused.

“I believe others are coming forward. But when you hear the White House Boys, all I see is the whites, and I’m not discrediting anything, that they said, but I didn’t see an African American. I did not see me. Anyone I can identify with,” said Rambo.

Some of the White House Boys say they saw one black student put into a dryer. Others say several black students were taken to the White House for beatings and were never seen again. The state is trying to find out if 32 unidentified graves behind the school hold any clues to the alleged deaths.

Florida convenient store owners and some wholesalers say raising the cigarette tax would cut their business and lead to layoffs.

The groups held a new conference at the state Capitol Friday protesting a bill to raise the cigarette tax a dollar. They say the increase would lead to more cigarette smuggling, because surrounding states have a much lower tax. Michael Lafaive, a researcher for the Mackinac Center in Michigan, said if the tax goes up, so will organized crime.

“Organized crime is probably salivating. The mobsters are probably salivating, for the next state excise tax increase. They’ve made a fortune on the East Coast trafficking cigarettes. In fact Teflon Don John Gotti’s very first arrest in New Jersey was for hijacking a semi-tractor trailer load of cigarettes,” said Lafaive.

Right now about seven percent of all cigarettes sold in Florida were brought into the state illegally. Lafaive said if the tax is raised, the percentage would be closer to 25 percent.

The jobless ranks in Florida jumped by a full percentage point in January and now numbers 8 hundred thousand people. As Mike Vasilinda tells us, economists now believe it will be 2010 before the numbers start shrinking.

91 thousand Floridians were added to the jobless rolls in January. One of them was Danika…who lost a medical technician job when the facility closed. She didn’t want to share her last name, but 15 applications later, she says finding a job hasn’t been easy.
“You know, we’re not hiring at this time, or check back in a couple weeks. It’s always something of that nature” is what Danika says have been the responses.

8 hundred thousand Floridians are now looking for work. At 8.6 percent state economist Rebecca Rust says the jobless rate hasn’t been this high since September 1992. “We are down over the year by almost 356 thousand jobs, which is a negative job growth rate of 4 point 5 percent”.

In 2008 the state paid out 2 point 2 billion in unemployment claims. That’s double the year before. For the first time in state history, jobless payments topped a hundred million dollars a week.
Economist Rust now say the worst is yet to come.

”and we expect improvements in the second quarter in 2010, and the unemployment rate is forecasted in early 2010 to reach ten point one percent” says Rusts.

One job growth sector is the Unemployment Compensation division. 400 people have been added to keep up with the crush of new applications.

Tourism, and restaurants and bars have been a bright spot in the unemployment numbers, but not this month. The sector is now showing significant job losses.

You can read the state’s release here, compete with county by county data: release

Last year the state spent 17 million dollars on cell phones, PDAs and other wireless communication devices. The Florida Office of Government Accountability is asking lawmakers to adopt statewide policies to cut down on the expense. As Whitney Ray tell us, some state employees are cancelling their service to save taxpayer money.

Your state representative is just a phone call, text message, or Blackberry IM away. You can even catch them texting during state business.

In the past lawmakers depended on landlines at their desk that dialed straight back to their office, the came pagers, cell phones, and Blackberries and the ways to communicate keep changing.”

Tax dollars don’t pay for Senator Dave Aronberg’s Blackberry and that’s probably a good thing, given how much he uses it.”

“I’m now BBMing, which is a special kind of messaging on Blackberry, I’m Facebooking and Twittering, and I think to my self only two years ago I wasn’t doing any of those things,” said Aronberg.

Senator Aronberg supports a call to cut down on the number of state cell phones. The state spends 17 million dollars a year on wireless communication devices. CFO Alex Sink assembled a tax force to investigate cell phone abuse.

“We found out that people that left the department and we’re still paying their cell phone bill,” said Sink.

CFO Spokesman Kevin Cate cancelled service to his state issued blackberry.

“This is not something where police offices should give up their Blackberries, but those of us who are blessed with our own personal Blackberries, we’re paying the fee anyway,” said Cate.

A report from the Office of Government Accountability found state cell phone policy is so loose; some agencies are spending much more on contracts because they don’t even ask for a bulk discount.

The agency with the most cell phones is the Department of Corrections with more than 7,000. The Department of Health has the next highest number with 3,100.

President Barack Obama is nominating Craig Fugate, Florida’s Director of Emergency Management to take over FEMA. Fugate has been running Florida’s Division of Emergency Management since 2001 and helped the state through some of the worst storms in recent history. Governor Charlie Crist says having Fugate in Washington is good for the state.

“It shows great wisdom by the new administration to pick someone of this quality and I think it’s going to work to Florida’s benefit as well. I mean imagine, I hope we don’t, but if we have a hurricane or other natural catastrophe having Craig Fugate at the head of it for our country is good for Florida and good for America,” said Crist.

Fugate’s nomination is being praised by the International Association of Emergency Managers.

The state is celebrating the University of Florida’s 2008 National Football Championship. This morning Gator Quarterback Tim Tebow played catch with Governor Charlie Crist outside the Governor’s Mansion. Later in the day Tebow and Coach Urban Meyer were honored in the House and Senate. Tebow, who will come back for his senior season, said he passed up the NFL draft to set a good example for his young fans.

“The reason I did come back wasn’t to win another championship, which we are trying to do, it wasn’t to try to go higher in the draft, it was to have an impact on today’s youth, that’s something that most athletes don’t take the time to think about,” said Tebow.

Governor Charlie Crist, a former Wake Forest Quarterback, praised Tebow for his selflessness.

“What a great role-model. Obviously Tim is an accomplished player, but he’s an even more accomplished human being. I talked a little bit the other night about being a decent human being and that’s really what we need now. Tim Tebow exemplifies that in great fashion,” said Crist.

Tebow was honored at the State Capitol last year, after he became the youngest player ever to win a Heisman Trophy.

Students from eight state universities are asking lawmakers to vote for funding and scholarship changes. The ENLACE Student Delegation walked the halls at the state capitol today trying to get their message to lawmakers. The students want lawmakers to support a bill allowing universities to raise tuition 15 percent. They also want the state to raise GPA and SAT standards for the Bright Futures Scholarship program. University of South Florida Senior Frank Hernandez said if Bright Futures standards remain low the scholarship program run out of money.

“I think because of the current status, right now, the numbers are showing 80 percent of students enrolled in college right now are receiving Bright Futures. That number is way too high, not to say these students aren’t showing great merit, but the program, it might fail to the point were it might be eliminated completely and that’s not what we want to happen,” said Hernandez.

The students say they only support the tuition hike because of provisions that require the money to be spent on undergraduate programs and financial aid. They are urging lawmakers to leave those provisions in the bill.

A number of high powered lobbyists arguing to keep tax exemptions on skyboxes, eyeglasses and yacht repairs made their case before sympathetic lawmakers today, but just as the meeting was breaking up, Mike Vasilinda tells us their efforts were overshadowed by a mother of three.

35 year old Pamela Hemmen is a mom on a mission. She drove 3 hours from St. Augustine to the Capitol, then waited for two hours as lobbyist after lobbyist made their case to keep their tax exemptions. After a presentation about exemptions on American Flags, Committee Chair Ellyn Bogdanoff asked rhetorically “Does anyone want to touch this one?” The comment brought laughter.

With just four minutes left in the 2 hour meeting, she got up, told lawmakers she’d never testified before, then blasted them for even considering allowing some exemptions to remain.  ”When you are on the fence about some of this issues and whether it is really and truly going to help the people as a whole…not just this one certain class who drives a Mercedes.” Lectured Hemmen.

Hemmen has already organized her kid’s elementary school and brought dozens of hand written notes. She described one which said  ”I watched President Obama last night and he urged all of us to get more education. Why are you cutting our education. Didn’t you watch the President?”

The mother of three is fighting an up hill battle. The GOP stacked committee and Chairwoman Bogdanoff like most of the exemptions it is reviewing.

“I think this is an important exercise” says Representative Bogdanoff, “because I believe the public perceives that these sales tax exemptions are just give away, and very often they are not.”

The chairwoman was quick to note the exemptions under review total just 500 million..when the state faces a deficit 10 times bigger. Hemmen says she plans to keep coming back weekly until someone listens.

Hemmen is from St. Augustine, is a realtor, has an MBA and has children ranging from Pre School to 3^rd grade. All total, Florida exempts more from the sales tax than it receives each year.

Low cost health plans under the new “CoverFlorida” plan went on sale in early January, but with no money to market the plans it is uncertain how any have been purchased.

That’s prompting Governor Charlie Crist to hit the road and market the plans today and tomorrow. The Governor began in Tallahassee where he told reporters there is a plan for everyone.

“People can choose preventive coverage only at an average of about twenty-four dollars a month” says Crist. “Or you can choose coverage that includes catastrophic and hospital care. Typically the preventive plans are cheaper. Fourteen of the 25 cover Florida plans that are available today have monthly premiums averaging $155.00 or less.”

The Governor was joined by State Senator and medical doctor Durell Peaden, a Republican from Pensacola. Peaden’s message is that the plans are working. “There are thousands of people all over Florida. These small preventative policies, these maintenance policies, and these more complicated policies for more complicated disease processes are overwhelmingly helpful for those people in everyday Florida” says Peaden.

The CoverFlorida Plan was approved by lawmakers last year. The policies are cheaper than most traditional plans because they do not always cover every medical condition.

Today was Florida A & M University day at the state capitol. The event was scaled back like many others because of financial concerns.

The goal was to let lawmakers know the school is still strong and to thank them for not cutting more. But President James Ammons also came with a warning: More cuts could be devastating.

“The thing I am really concerned about is the quality in what we do” says Ammons. “We have been able thus far to protect our academic enterprise as much as possible. We haven’t laid off and regular faculty members. Everyone is still intact, but if we continue to have these cuts, three is going to be tremendous impact on our ability to provide the courses and the programs to keep students on track for graduation.”

Florida A&M is facing 15 to 17 million in cuts from is 100 million dollar budget. The school has already cut 16 million this year.

New calculations show Florida is getting 13 point 4 billion dollars, a 1 point 2 billion dollar increase over what it thought it would get in stimulus cash. That will only intensify a brewing battle in Tallahassee over if and how lawmakers should spend stimulus money. As Mike Vasilinda tells us, many are worried the money will run out while there is still a need.

Many conservative state lawmakers don’t want to spend stimulus dollars on expenses that will still be around when the money is gone.

“We cannot tie our hands and accept money from the federal government with the mandate that we spend money next year, when the economy could continue to be slowing down,” Rep. David Rivera (R-Miami) said.

Last night, the Governor’s call during the State of the State to use the money fell on deaf ears.

“This money will help us avoid tax increases,” Governor Crist said. “It will also prevent deep cuts.”

Even 3rd party groups like AARP are warning that without tax increases, the money could create more problems than it solves.

“We’ve got a fundamental, underlying revenue problem and we need to address that.  When the stimulus goes away those problems are still going to be there,” David Bundy with the Children’s Home Society said.

Despite their reluctance, in the end lawmakers may have little choice but to accept the money.

Governor Charlie Crist called agency heads together to introduce his new Stimulus Czar. Don Winstead will coordinate the state’s spending of the money.

“We are at our best when we respond to crisis and this is a crisis,” Winstead said.

And Charlie Crist is finding it hard to believe some don’t want to take the money.

“At the end of the day, you really don’t have a whole lot of choices.,” Crist said. “The other choices besides using the stimulus money are not that great.”

Indeed, it could prove difficult for lawmakers to refuse some of the cash while cutting programs it could have otherwise saved.

The divide over whether to use the stimulus money is more philosophical than along party lines.