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The Seminole Tribe says it is exploring all of its options for card games at its Hard Rock Casinos in Florida. The Tribe’s deal runs out in July, and as Mike Vasilinda tells us lawmakers have been slow to act.

A June Special session on the budget is the last chance for lawmakers to approve a yet to be negotiated deal to keep the cards being dealt at Hard Rock Casinos across Florida. Barry Richard drafted the original deal for the tribe.

“The Tribe’s main concern is to not only preserve its legal rights but also to avoid having to fire thousands of people who are employed because of the card games” says Richard.

The Seminole deal could also be derailed by another lawsuit. Back in 2012 three counties voted to legalize slots. The state refused all o them a license. Now, a horse track in Gadsden County is challenging the states denial. If they win, it could violate the exclusivity deal with the Seminoles.

Attorney Marc Dunbar thinks otherwise, but says his case could impact the Seminole deal. “The clock is ticking. We have between now and October where they have to decide if they want to continue the exclusive black jack for the Seminole tribe. And a case like this only increases the pressure in those negotiations” says Dunbar.

And as the clock ticks, no legislative panel has been named to negotiate with the Seminoles. That increases the chances the deal with die. That doesn’t mean, though,  the games will stop right away.

There is precedent to keep the games running past the expiration of the compact. Weeks after the Seminoles started the card games in 2008, the Florida Supreme Court said the first compact was illegal. The cards kept flowing, and once there was a real deal, the Seminoles sent the state a check.”

But no deal does mean the money will stop..temporarily, or permanently if the deal goes bust.

Governor Rick Scott turned negotiations with the tribe over to state lawmakers after they failed to take up a deal he had negotiated in 2014. The Seminole Tribe predicts payments to the state could reach 450 million a year by 2030.

Lawmakers will be back at the Capitol in a little over two weeks to finish what they need to do and pass a state budget. But as Matt Galka tells us, a lot of people have been left hanging in the meantime.

Schools would typically be taking the time after legislative session to be crafting their own budgets for the next school year.  But the lack of state budget has left districts in limbo.

“The majority of schools are working on what you and I would probably call a continuation budget which means they’re starting assumption is “what if nothing changes” and “what if we have exactly the same budget that we had last year?” said Flordia School Boards Association Interim Executive Director Bill Graham.

If the assumption holds true, per pupil funding will be far from the record spending that was promised.

“It means that they probably start with less per student or their jargon per FTE because the enrollment increases during the current school year that ends June 30^th actually exceeded original forecasts,” said Graham.

The lack of a budget has also left critical social service agencies hanging as well.

Mike Watkins with the Child Welfare agency Big Bend Community Based care says he expects critical services like his will be fine, but they’ll still be scrambling at the end of June.

“The cost is that we’re probably going to get a budget at the 11^th hour and we will be working with the executive branch and the department of children and families to try to maximize the allocation the legislature passes. And we’re going to be doing this in the middle of the night,” he said.

Lawmakers start working on the budget on June 1^st. The budget is expected to be completed on June 20^th, That gives Governor Rick Scott 10 days to review it before the current year’s budget expires on July 1^st.

The availability of low cost or free legal services for the poor and middle class has never  been as  scarce as it is in  Florida today.The State’s Chief Justice has formed a commission to come up with solutions, but as Mike Vasilinda tells us, those in the trenches worry the answers won’t come soon enough.

Mary Lewis bought this modest home in 2009 so she could be near her now 98 year old mother. Then Mary was hospitalized, couldn’t pay her mortgage, and the bank started foreclosing.

“And I was trying to handle it myself” says Mary.

Mary got nowhere with the bank until she turned to Legal Services.

“And I was able to save my house. Even got the payments down a lot lower so that I could handle it” said Mary as she praised Legal Services of North Florida,

But thousands of other families aren’t so lucky. Funding for legal aid lawyers has dried up. The funding is tied to interest rates, Low rates mean fewer dollars.

“Totally, we’ve lost over 67 percent of our funding. This last cut was over 40 percent, and we lost half of our staff.”

The Chief Justice of the State Supreme Court has named 27 member Commission to find solutions. It meets again on Friday.

Here’s the problem. The court’s first report isn’t due until October, with a final report not due until next summer.

“The system doesn’t have two years. I mean its going to get close to being barely there” says Sphuler.

Meanwhile, Mary Lewis is happy to still have her home.

“Nobody should have to go through what I went through to try to save their home.”

But thousands like Mary are already finding legal help harder to find, with no solution in sight.

A case pending before the Florida Supreme Court would allow lawyers bar dues to climb by a hundred dollars a year to plug the legal services funding hole. The bar says the problem belongs to all of society and needs a broader solution.

The Governor has named his team for the newly created Commission on Healthcare and Hospital Funding, but as Matt Galka tells us, critics are quick to point out the lack of hospital experience among them.

Rick Scott is in Washington, D.C. for the second time in two weeks.  He’s meeting with members of Congress as he continues to rail on the feds for their role in Florida’s budget meltdown.  Scott won’t expand Medicaid and there’s a 2 billion dollar hole in the state budget because there will be no more federal money for hospitals serving low income patients.  The Governor had strong words on Fox News Monday night.

“You ruined my budget. I went through my session, I don’t have a budget, I have to have a budget by the end of June through the House and Senate. We have a fight between the House and Senate on what to do, you have sat there and not done anything so your decision to not do anything for poor families is a “no,” Gov. Rick Scott told Greta Van Susteren on her show “On the Record.”

The D.C. trip comes in the wake of Scott naming 9 members to his Commission on Healthcare and Hospital funding.  Their mission: analyze hospital spending. But none of the nine names include any hospital executives. You’ll also find only one actual doctor.

Democrats were quick to slam the Governor’s choices for the commission.

“I think they have a banker, a builder, and a beef consultant. These aren’t the people who should be fixing Florida’s healthcare system,” said Democratic Party Spokesman Joshua Karp.

Agency for Healthcare Administration Secretary Liz Dudek and Florida’s Surgeon General John Armstrong will be co-executive directors of the commission. We reached out to both to see what they would like to accomplish with the commission – but we were told both were travelling on Tuesday.

The commission meets for the first time in Tallahassee on May 20^th. The Governor would like them to provide recommendations for lawmakers as they take part in their special session from June 1^st through June 20^th.

Lawmakers say they’re trying to keep kids out of jail by giving law enforcement more authority to issue citations, rather than throw minors behind bars. Matt Galka tells us about the new bill that passed expanding juvenile civil citation program.

Florida had more than 70,000 arrests involving minors last year.  While the number is trending downwards, lawmakers are hoping an expanded citation program will help even more.

A bill passed the legislature this year that would expand a police officer’s authority to issue a citation for a non-violent crime. Justice reform advocate Barney Bishop says the numbers make the case.

“Law enforcement officers would arrest those kids, it could be for something rather innocuous maybe an open container, maybe truancy from school, and while they’re on probation they get in trouble again and go deep into the juvenile justice system, and the statistics show that about half of all the kids that went deep in the JJ system would end up in the adult prison system,” said Bishop.

The original bill didn’t provide a cap for the amount of citations that could be issued, something that didn’t sit well with the Florida Retail Federation.

“We needed a message in the law that said there are consequences that said at some point, you have to learn your lesson and there is a stopping point,” said the FRF’s General Counsel Samantha Padgett.

The bill was amended to include a three strike limitation.  The Florida Retail Federation says that without it, a minor could repeatedly shoplift in organized crime rings with little penalty.

“Organized retail crime is a $2 billion dollar industry in the state of Florida, there are very sophisticated rings, that target items, they go into stores and steal them,” said Padgett.

The bill also doesn’t mandate an officer to give a citation. They have the discretion to increase a penalty as they see fit.

Church and state joined together at Florida’s Capitol Thursday on the National Day of Prayer. As Matt Galka tells us, religion played a major role this past legislative session.

Prayer and song filled Florida’s Capitol on Thursday. The 64^th annual national day of prayer was a faith gathering at public buildings across the country. Florida Governor Rick Scott prayed with the group.

“We are very blessed to live in this unbelievable country. We’re blessed to live in the greatest state in the nation. You’ve blessed each of us to have the opportunity to live here,” said Gov. Scott.

Religion had a strong role in high profile bills during 2015’s legislative session. The legislature voted to repeal a ban on gay adoption that is no longer enforced. The bill is awaiting government approval. It also prompted the House to pass a religious freedom proposal that would have allowed private adoption agencies to refuse services to same sex couples based on religious beliefs. It never passed the Senate.

Advocates say faith should be the guiding force for legislators.

“All of us should let our faith guide us in everything that we do. Lawmakers do not have to check their faith at the door, we’re going to legislate somebody’s morality, aren’t we, in everything that we do in government. So I think it’s great that they do what’s right,” said Pam Olsen with the Florida Prayer Network.

A 24 hour abortion waiting period bill also cleared both chambers this year.  Pro-choice groups fought it every step of the way, but it cleared easily. The Governor hasn’t committed to vetoing or signing either bill.

The national day of prayer has been held at Florida’s capitol for the past two decades.

In the middle of a fight between state lawmakers over health care dollars, Governor Rick Scott has created a Commission on Healthcare and Hospital funding. As Mike Vasilinda tells us, Scott has outlined 9 things he wants the yet to be named commission study.

Governor Rick Scott has outlined nine things he wants the Commission on Healthcare and Hospital funding to look at. Near the top of the list: political contributions.

“How do we make sure the dollars are spent well? How do we make sure the costs are as low as we can? How do we make sure citizens have good access to health care,

good outcomes from healthcare” that need to be considered says the Republican Governor.

Fueling the commission is an expected loss of 1 point two billion in federal matching money for hospitals. It covers the cost for people that can’t pay. The loss is triggering a civil in the legislature. Senate President Andy Gardiner  says the commission is inconsequential.

“They’re attacking hospitals, in general regarding what they make and don’t make. I think its a bit of a distraction. It really doesn’t address the uninsured problem here in the state of Florida.”

Serving on the Hospital Commission has become a big ticket ask for most of the states major business groups.

This is not the first time the former hospital executive has wanted to look at costs. Scott named a commission soon after taking office in 2011. Florida Democratic spokesman Joshua Karp was quick to criticize the latest commission.

“So he already tied this idea in 2011, so what viewers need to know is that this Governor has already tried this idea and it didn’t work” says Karp.

Scott says he wants the new Commission to make recommendations in time for a special session. That session needs to wrap up by the end of June, or  the state won’t have a budget.

Scott traveled to Washington D.C. today to meet with Federal officials and ask the loss in health care money be restored. He did not get an answer. A statement from the Florida Hospital Association reads in part “Florida hospitals welcome the discussion. Also important, is the need to increase access to health care coverage for uninsured Floridians, including disabled and low-income, working individuals

Reports of a troubled prison system rocked the state’s department of corrections and it looked like there would be legislative changes made this year. But as Matt Galka tells us, that didn’t end up happening, and just this week, there were more prison guard arrests.

Donald Sims was one of two Columbia Correctional guards arrested Tuesday after allegedly beating inmate Shurick Lewis at Columbia Correction Institution.

It’s another mark against the state’s troubled prison system. Corrections Secretary Julie Jones faced tough questions during legislative session after multiple reports of prisoner abuse and deaths.

Legislative action looking to correct the problems failed this year after session turned chaotic and ended early. Measures including forming an oversight commission and increasing penalties for guards failed to clear both chambers.  Barney Bishop with the Florida Smart Justice Alliance thinks the relatively new secretary needs some time.

“She’s only been here for about 4 months now, we need to give her a chance and we’ve always given every new secretary of every agency a chance,” he said.

The Senator who was leading the charge on prison reform says they won’t stop trying to fix the department.

“Look how far we’ve come with just actually the Senate’s criminal justice committee diving in and finding the things involved,” said Sen. Greg Evers (R-Pensacola) before session ended.

Prison reform advocate Allison Defoor says at the very least, people are aware of the problems now.

“Everybody is serious about Florida’s governance, understands that this thing’s broken. Now we’re just talking solutions and a year or two ago that wasn’t the case.” he said.

Defoor says it took a while for the system to dig a hole this big and it will take a while to get out of it.

The arrests this week come about a month after three other corrections employees were arrested in connection with a prison inmate murder plot. Those employees were also linked to the Ku Klux Klan and the alleged victim was an African-American male.

Governor Rick Scott is on his way to meet with Federal officials over funding for Hospitals know as the Low Income Pool, or LIP funding.  The Feds have said they will not continue the program and Florida is suing. As Mike Vasilinda tells us, the same funding is keeping lawmakers from balancing the state budget.

Federal officials have said they will not send more than a billion dollars to Florida unless the state agrees to increase Medicaid options for the working poor. It has promoted Attorney General Pam Bondi to file a lawsuit alleging cohesion.

“Because we’ve had it for nearly a decade and they said in writing that they would take it away if we did not expand Medicaid. If that’s not coercion I don’t know what is” says Bondi.

The money in question is used to reimburse hospitals who treat people who can’t pay.

What’s unusual here is that Low Income Pool or LIP funding is voluntary. The state doesn’t have to take it, the Federal Government doesn’t have to offer it.

On Tuesday Governor Rick Scott left for Washington to meet with federal officials to convince them to keep the money flowing,

“Today my goal is just focus again hoping to reconsider, the reason I’m doing this is that we’ve got to get a budget done”  Scott said in a response to a question about the law suit.

The battle for increased health care funding has created a civil war in the Florida legislature…it led to last weeks premature adjournment that the Supreme court has said was unconstitutional. The Senate wants to take federal money to expand health care. The House doesn’t. Scott is again siding with the House.

“There’s no support in the House, I’m not going to support it, it’s not a program that has worked” says Scott/In Washington, Scott says he will float the idea of a block grant, or lump sum of money to provide care on the state’s terms.

Governor Scott also today issued an Executive Order creating a yet to be named commission to study hospital profits.

Lawmakers have all gone home with multi-billion dollar disagreement hanging over their heads. As Matt Galka tells us, the state is inching closer to the next fiscal year without a budget.

Governor Rick Scott opened May’s Florida cabinet meeting applauding his latest lawsuit against the President.

“It’s wrong for the federal government to coerce us by ending a Low Income Pool for low income families to try to coerce us to expand Obamacare,” said Gov. Rick Scott (R-Florida).

The battle over healthcare money forced lawmakers to adjourn this year’s regular session without a budget.

Florida’s current fiscal plan is good until June 30^th. If there’s nothing in place July 1^st the state could face a Government shutdown similar to federal one in 2013. Even though the clock is ticking, agency heads aren’t sounding the alarms yet.

“At the very least we’ll fund programs like re-employment assistance which is essential to citizens across the state, but we are looking at what would happen, of course, and being responsible, but I’m pretty confident we’ll have on July 1^st the funds we’ll need to keep operating,” said Department of Economic Opportunity Executive Director Jess Panuccio.

Ash Williams was with the State Board of Administration in 1992; the last time Florida was this close to not having a budget.

“There’s a focus on what are critical services, what cannot be interrupted and how can we make sure we have continuous service, particularly in the realm of public safety and health,” he said.

The Governor says he’s working on a plan for lawmakers.

“I’m looking at special session, I’m looking at a base budget, I’m working on our own base budget because I want to make sure the state continues to operate after June 30th,” he said.

There’s no date for a special session yet, but Florida is still on the clock.

The state budget includes funding for things like hospitals, schools, and transportation. Not having one in place by July 1^st could cause some programs to make cuts. The state is also working with a $1.8 billion dollar surplus this year.

Tears of remembrance filled the Capitol courtyard today as the families of slain police officers and hundreds of officers remembered those who have died in the line of duty. Six Florida officers died in 2014, and as Mike Vasilinda tells us, some worry heightened relations between citizens and police could result in more officers down.

A sea of police motorcycles, surviving family, and bagpipes led the annual parade of officers to the State Capitol.

This was the 33rd year they have come to remember those lost doing their duty. It was the first time no statewide elected officials were in attendance. James Preston, President of the Fraternal Order of Police says each year brings new hope.

“We’ve stood upon these grounds for 33 years, with the hope that next year there will be no more names to all to the walls. Sadly, in 2014, Florida lost six officers in the line of duty.”

One by one those six families planted a rose on a floral map of Florida.

Orange County Sheriff Jerry Demings has lost nine officers in his career.

“Law enforcement officers have come under fire in this nation” warned Demings.

He worried out loud that increased animosity between police and the public could lead to an increase in officers down. “If law enforcement officers are unduly criticized, sometimes it may cause them to second guess themselves in a split second. That hesitation is what might get them killed” said Demings.

One of the last acts of the legislature before they abruptly quit was to increase the burial benefits for slain officers from a thousand to five thousand dollars.

Florida has already lost one officer in 2015, guaranteeing these and other officers will be back again next year.

Governor Rick Scott, who has attended all four of the memorials during his first time was on the road for today’s memorial, holding two jobs related news conferences.

Scorned ex boyfriends or girlfriends who try to shame their former partners by sharing nude photos could soon face criminal charges. As Matt Galka tells us, a Florida State student, and victim herself, was instrumental in the bill passing.

Senator David Simmons (R-Altamonte Springs) told a story on the Senate floor last Wednesday while debating his revenge porn bill – a proposal that would make maliciously sharing an intimate picture of someone a crime. He said a girl approached him at the gym that morning to talk about it.

“This is the only way I know I can talk to you and this is a serious, serious problem,” said Sen. Simmons, describing what the girl told him.

That girl was Florida State student Carly Hellstrom. Hellstrom is a victim of revenge porn. Her ex-boyfriend shared intimate photos of her online without her permission. She has been following the bill through every committee stop and talked to us during the process.

“It’s long overdue,” she said back in April.

Carly graduated from Florida State last week and was watching online as the bill passed.

“I just hadn’t been nervous for something like that, and then I started crying when they passed it, I was just so happy, and I called my Mom,” she said.

The Senate was forced to pass the House’s version of the bill.

“Even though it doesn’t provide the kind of protections that oughta be provided to the victims of these crimes,” said Sen. Simmons.

The House had already stopped working by the time the Senate wanted to amend it.  Hellstrom is still hopeful the bill can be tweaked in the future.

“I don’t know if it’s going to be next year, I don’t know if it’s going to be the following, but hopefully one day the first offense will be a felony, I’m still a firm believer in that,” she said.

The bill still makes revenge porn a misdemeanor. It is currently awaiting the Governor’s approval.

The bill that passed only criminalizes revenge porn that appears on websites. The Senate sponsor said he wanted to broaden that to include things like sending out nude photos via text.

Friday is the constitutional scheduled end to legislative session – but work stopped earlier this week because of a healthcare budget battle. As Matt Galka tells us, even with both chambers not getting anything done, there’s still plenty of political drama, and no love lost, between the two sides.

Day 60 of legislative session typically is filled with celebration, but that’s not the case in 2015.

The House quit early on the Senate Tuesday which deepened the divide between two Republican controlled chambers. It also prompted Senate Democrats to file suit with the state’s Supreme Court over the early adjournment and tried to force them to reconvene.

Sen. Darren Soto/(D) Kissimmee

“We face a constitutional crisis of can one chamber just leave early and leave the other in the lurch to do whatever they want?” said Sen. Darren Soto (D-Kissimmee).

The State’s supreme court denied their petition late Friday.

But it was Twitter sparking more drama between the two sides.  Prominent House Republican Matt Gaetz tweeted “the lawsuit reads like it was researched and drafted by Senator Joyner and spell checked by Senator Bullard.”

The tweet created a social media firestorm over whether or not it was racially motivated. Senators Arthenia Joyner and Dwight Bullard are both African-American.

“This is the work of a person who is immature and does not respect race, in my opinion,” said Sen. Arthenia Joyner (D-Tampa).

The riff was one of many between the two sides who can’t agree on much this year.

So we won’t be getting the ceremonial hankey drop that ends regular session. An odd session ends with the state waiting for lawmakers to return and craft a budget.

The Supreme Court did say that what the House did was unconstitutional but forcing them back before midnight was fruitless. Senators say they will technically remain in session until 11:59 p.m. Friday night.  Meanwhile, Senators Joyner and Bullard say they’ve received no apology from Matt Gaetz over his comments, but he did tweet that he was sorry for another message he sent out about Obamacare.

Capitol chaos may have overshadowed what actually got done this session. Matt Galka looks at some of the bills that are only the governor’s signature away from becoming law.

It’s quiet at the Capitol. The last two days of legislative session are usually filled with a flurry of last minute lawmaking. But the House quit Tuesday and the Senate says it doesn’t plan on meeting again. Before both chambers left, they did manage to get work done.

Maybe the most controversial measure of the year was a 24 hour waiting period for abortions proposal. The bill had feverish opposition outside the chambers but passed easily among lawmakers.

Craft Beer lovers can raise a glass after a multi-year battle to allow a 64 oz container called a growler was finally approved.  32 oz and 128 oz containers had already been permitted.

“To try to explain to them why we can’t fill the 64 oz but we can do a 32 or a gallon was probably the hardest part,” said Michael Carbonell, the co-owner of Growler Country, a store that caters to craft beers.

And quirkier bills pass every year, too. Like the one this year giving about 600 voters in the Panhandle town of Panacea the chance to incorporate.

Residents in the small town about 30 miles away from Tallahassee say incorporating could help the economy.

“We need to put this into jobs, we can do that, that’s why we need to be self government, self government, that’s the issue here,” said Panacea resident Ron Crum.

All 600 voters, and 20 million other floridians, will have to sit back and wait for lawmakers to figure out one more thing: a budget.

The final tally: Just 231 bills passed both chambers this year, the lowest amount in at least the past 15 years. Senate President Andy Gardiner proposed starting a special session June 1^st to attempt to pass a spending plan.

Here’s their latest release: