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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”.

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.