Welcome to

Opposition to an insurance reform bill sitting on Governor Rick Scott’s desk is growing. The bill would allow insurance companies to raise rates, deny late filed claims and demand proof repairs were being made before they paid policyholders. As Whitney Ray tells us, insurers say the changes will help cut down on fraud. Opponents say the bill will fatten the pockets of the insurers.

A 60 page bill changing the way Florida does insurance is awaiting action from Governor Rick Scott. It’s the only bill on his desk as hurricane season approaches.

“What I’ve read about so far I like, but I’ve got to look at it a little closer,” said Scott.

The bill is full of reform supported by the industry; a two year deadline to file a claim, 15 percent rate hikes without state approval, the bill even requires claimants to prove their making repairs before the insurer has to make final payments. The Industry calls it fraud prevention.

“We are paying out hundreds of millions of dollars in fraudulent sinkhole claims and hurricane claims that are filed five years after a hurricane and an awful lot of those are fraudulent,” said Sam Miller with the Florida Insurance Council.

Last year Governor Charlie Crist vetoed similar legislation. Calls are already mounting for Scott to follow suit. The group Policyholders of Florida is leading the charge.

“We know that the legislature is willing to sell out to the insurance company. Our hope is that Governor Scott sees that this is an anti-consumer bill, it’s going to raise rates and hurt our economy,” said Kevin Cate with the Policyholders of Florida.

If Scott signs the bill and rates go up Martha Rodeseike will feel the pain. Retired and budgeting her money, a rate increase would have her reworking her budget.

“If I had a flood or something like that I would want the insurance to pay for me, but 15 percent is not good,” said Rodeseike

If Scott signs the bill, the changes will take hold July 1st. The industry says the changes will help insurers better prepare for hurricanes. Governor Scott is attending hurricane preparedness events this week, which could provide a backdrop for a signing ceremony if he choose to sign the legislation.

Elected officials, law enforcement officers and health care administrators are working together to cut down on Medicaid Fraud.

Chief Financial Officer Jeff Atwater chairs the Medicaid and Public Assistance Fraud Strike Force. The force is reviewing new legislation to see how it will help the state fight fraudsters. Atwater says the group will also order a study to see just how much money the state loses to Medicaid fraud.

“We are actually going to have over the next two months, a group of consultants, strong backgrounds in accounting and economic work, to quantify what is the fraud issue in Florida,” said Atwater.

The state is spending 20 billion dollars a year on Medicaid programs, a rough estimate suggests 10 percent of that money every year is being stolen.

State Budget
Cuts education by 1.3 billion
Cuts taxes by 300 million
Saves one billion through pension contributions
Eliminates 4,500 state jobs.

Governor Rick Scott spent the weekend reviewing the spending plan lawmakers sent him at session end. The 70 billion dollar budget cuts education spending by 1.3 billion, cuts taxes by three-hundred million, saves a billion by forcing state workers to contribute to their retirement and eliminates 45-hundred state jobs. Scott wants to analyze every line before singing off on the spending plan.

“So, it’s supposedly three thousand lines, or different items, so I’ll go through it to make sure it’s helping build jobs or at least not killing jobs,” said Scott.

Scott could veto parts of the budget and sign it, sign it without changes, or veto the entire spending plans and call lawmakers back to Tallahassee to work on another budget.

The legislature has given Governor Rick Scott a toolbox of incentives to attract businesses to the state. And Scott is wasting no time using them to promote Florida worldwide. As Whitney Ray tells us, Scott pitched a more business friendly Florida to trade delegates from China today. He’s also sending his message into cyberspace.

Fresh off huge legislative victories and in his element among entrepreneurs, Governor Rick Scott greeted trade delegates from China Friday. Using a translator, the delegates thanked Scott and praised a new partnership with Bing Energy a company creating jobs in Florida and China.

“It will bring wealth to both countries, and those countries, and the city, and to the people,” said Translator.

Bing Energy moved to Florida, enticed partly by Scott’s promise to lower taxes.
But lawmakers didn’t give Scott much of a break. They voted for a 30 million dollar corporate tax cut. Bing’s CFO Dean Minardi says it’s a good start.

“We have no expectation of it disappearing overnight. He’s still got seven more sessions, to get that done,” said Minardi.

In his first session Scott lifted dozens of regulations and secured 200 million dollars in property tax cuts.

And those accomplishments are being sent into cyber-space by the Republican Party of Florida. They launched a website with a video of Governor Scott, boasting of his legislative victories and promising more to come.

“In the coming months I’ll begin putting these first pieces of my 7,7,7 plan into action and together we can make the phrase lets get to work a reality,” said Scott on the web video.

That phrase doesn’t mean much to these workers from the DeSoto Juvenile Correctional Facility. The budget closes the detention center.

“If this closes over 400 hundred people will be without a job. And it’s not like there is any place else we can go,” said Jan Jackson, a teacher at the juvenile facility.

They crowed the governor’s office Friday to ask Scott to save their jobs. The group of 30 teachers, correctional officers and community leaders meet with a representative from the governor’s office this afternoon. They’re hoping Scott will hear their cries and spare their jobs.

Thirty employees from the DeSoto Juvenile Correctional Facility and the Dual Diagnosed Correctional Facility are asking Governor Rick Scott to save their jobs.

Budget cuts will close the facilities in July, unless Scott issues a line item veto to save them. The employees traveled to Tallahassee Friday to plea with Scott. They spoke to a representative from his office. Jan Jackson teaches are the facilities and says without the services they provide high risk kids will suffer.

“I feel like it’s a very important facility, that there are services there for the students that they can’t get anywhere else in the State of Florida. A lot of these children are hard to manage and they receive a variety of services there: medical and therapeutic and educational on the whole and a lot of other things there,’ said Jackson.

If Scott signs the budget with out eliminating the spending cut, four hundred people will lose their jobs.

The state Ethics Commission says Florida’s multi-millionaire governor is doing no wrong by investing millions in companies that might profit off decisions he makes while in office. The reason; Scott’s investments are in a blind trust, which means brokers handle his investments without consulting him. Scott says he always thought his investments were on the up and up, but it was good to get a second opinion.

“I’m glad that they did that. As you know I’m trying to do everything the right way and organize all my business investments that way; so I’m glad that they did. I believe that was doing the right thing when they did that,” said Scott.

The ethics commission didn’t take into account Scott 60 million dollars investment in Solantic, the health care clinic Scott co-founded. The reason; Scott is selling his shares, after reporters raised concerns over how much the company could profit from the new governor’s policies.

Citizens Property Insurance is buying reinsurance and bonding so it will have enough cash if a major storm hits Florida this hurricane season. The purchase will allow the state run insurer to absorb more than seven billion dollars in damage, but as Whitney Ray tells us, critics say it’s not enough protection. They want lawmakers to dismantle Citizens in a special session.

Every year Citizens Property Insurance gambles. The board weights its risk, and places its bet on how bad the hurricane season could be.

This year, the board voted to buy 400 million dollars in private reinsurance and issue 900 million dollars in bonds in order to have cash on hand to pay claims.

“The catch 22 is if we buy reinsurance and there is no storm that money that we’ve spent on that reinsurance is not recouped,” said Christine Ashburn, Citizens Director of Legislative and External Affairs.

Christine Ashburn, Citizens Director of Legislative and External Affairs, says the purchase will allow citizens to pay more than seven billion dollars in claims.

“Citizens paid out in all eight storms in 04, 05, about 5.5 billion dollars so this would put us in a much better position,” said Ashburn.

But critics of Citizens aren’t satisfied. They say if one major storm hit a large Florida city, Citizens would be on the hook for more than 15 billion dollars.

“I mean if there is a one-hundred year storm this year, no that’s not going to be enough,” said Sam Miller, Spokesman Florida Insurance Council.

Lawmakers could have passed Citizens reform legislation when they were here last week, but they went home with no reform. Now opponents are working behind the scenes to get Governor Rick Scott to call lawmakers back for another shot at Citizens.

But there are still concerns over how lawmakers would vote, and calling the legislature back to Tallahassee without a deal would be viewed as a waste of money.

Legislation passed in 2010 allows Citizens to raise rates up to 10 percent a year. The legislation that failed this session would have raised the cap to 20 percent and also would have allowed the state run insurer to begin dropping its most expensive policies.

A bill drafted to end sinkhole insurance fraud is on Governor Rick Scott’s desk.

The bill would require claimants to prove they were using their insurance money to fix their homes, before the full payment was made. Florida Insurance Council Spokesman Sam Miller says the bill is in response to more than 1.6 billion dollars in sinkhole claims paid out over the last five years.

“There should be mechanisms in the insurance payment system to encourage, if not in some cases require, that the repairs be made. It should not take money from what you claim as “sinkhole” and then pay-off your mortgage,” said Miller.

Scott is expected to sign the bill. Opponents of the legislation say if he does it would be harder for lower income families to get their houses fixed because the claims money would be awarded in phases.

Drivers in 14 Florida counties can now blast their stereos as loud as they want and not worry about being fined.

The 2nd District Court of Appeal ruled the state’s noise law passed in 2007 unconstitutional. The law says drivers can be fined if their stereos are heard from 25 feet away. The first and fifth DCAs have already upheld the law in previous rulings. Jennifer Meale, a spokeswoman with the Florida Attorney General’s office says the Attorney General may go to the state supreme court to put the issue to rest.

“The attorney general’s office is reviewing the ruling we have approximately a month to bring it before the Florida Supreme Court,” said Meale.

If the Attorney Generals Office does appeal, the Supreme Court will have to take on the case because it deals with a state statute.

A bill to repeal mandatory septic tank inspections died in the Florida legislature, but some last minute maneuvering by legislative leaders froze the inspections for one more year. The calls to end the inspections are coming from tank owners who say the cost is too high. As Whitney Ray tells us, water quality expects say the longer the state puts off the inspections the more sever the impact to our environment.

Septic tank inspectors say it’s common sense to pump and test a tank at least once every five years, but once the state mandated inspections the backlash was swift.

A bill repealing the inspections died in the legislative process, so influential lawmakers stuck language in the budget delaying inspections for another year. Former septic tank inspector, turned water quality expert Anthony Guido says the delay puts Florida’s waterways at risk.

“Postponing for another year taking this action which will improve environmental quality and public health,” said Guido.

There are an estimated 2.7 million septic tanks in Florida, many are more than 30 years old. And no one knows how many have been inspected.

Water Resources Engineer John Buss says faulty tanks can pose a major risk to Florida’s waterways, because they leak nitrates into rivers and kill sensitive plant and animal life.

“Nitrate is an active fertilizer and as it comes out of the spring, the water is rich in nutrients and you get a lot of growth of aquatic weeds which can chock the spring,” said Buss.

To pump and inspect a septic tank costs about six hundred dollars. Opponents of the mandatory inspections, mainly septic tank owners, say the mandate is a tax.

Faulty septic tanks can also harm drinking water, especially water from wells. It’s very rare, but when the concentration of nitrates gets too high babies can get what’s known as blue baby syndrome, which can be fatal.

Home sales in Florida increased 13 percent during the first quarter of 2011.

45-thousand homes were sold in Florida from January through March of this year. That’s up by nearly six thousand houses. At the same time, the median price fell from 130-thousand to 123-thousand. Realtors say if you’re in the market now is a great time to buy.

One of the victors of the 2011 legislative session is the nonpartisan research group Florida TaxWatch.

Every year TaxWatch submits more than a hundred cost saving tips to the state legislature. This session lawmakers adopted more than a dozen of the group’s policy and budget ideas for a savings of more than a billion dollars. Vice President of Research Rob Weissert says the TaxWatch cost saving ideas help government run more efficiently.

“There are ways in our procurement system, in our prison system that we’re looking to modernize. We are looking to public, private partnerships to focus more on results to achieve cost savings by better outcomes, not by just slashing budgets,” said Weissert.

Some of the proposals backed by TaxWatch this session include pension reform, Medicaid reform, privatizing state prisons, increasing the use of drug courts, and more civil penalties for juvenile offenders instead of criminal charges.

A spending plan full of spending cuts and tax breaks is awaiting the governor’s approval. The state legislature didn’t give Governor Rick Scott his entire jobs budget, but many are still hopeful the new budget will spur economic growth. But as Whitney Ray tells us, before jobs are created… jobs will be eliminated.

In the waning hours of the 2011 legislative session, state lawmakers had a hard time pinpointing the jobs. Lawmakers passed a budget that cuts taxes by three-hundred million dollars. Governor Rick Scott had asked for two billion.

Rob Weissert with Florida TaxWatch says even though the cuts were smaller, they will have an impact.

“A number of businesses won’t be paying corporate income tax, again they’ll have more money in their pocket to invest in their business which will create jobs in Florida,” said Weissert.

But before this budget creates any economic growth there’s going to be some pain. 45-hundred state positions will be eliminated and state workers will be forced to contribute three percent of their salaries to their retirement plans.

The Florida Center for Fiscal and Economic Policy says businesses will suffer once the 650-thousand state workers start seeing smaller pay checks.

“That’s more than a billion dollars a year that has been spend at the grocery stores, the convenient store to buy clothes that will no longer be available to be spent,” said Alan Stonecipher, a spokesman with the center.

But Dr. Bob McClure at the James Madison Institute say the message being sent is more important than the lost sales.

“I think both the legislature and the governor understand that there are more things that can be done in tax policy to create jobs, but more importantly what it does is it says to everyone across the country Florida is ready to do business,” said McClure.

The state jobs will be eliminated in July, but it’s still unclear when any jobs created by the budget cuts will emerge. Lowering taxes and cutting state spending are key components of the governor’s plan to create 700-thousand jobs in seven years, but it will likely be a year before there’s a mechanism in place to keep track of the job creation.

Tucked inside the 400 page state budget is a provision requiring more than a hundred thousand state employees and retirees to order their prescriptions by mail from out of state. The provision has more than 900 locally owned drug stores crying foul.

There are fewer calls these days to this family owned Pharmacy. That’s because a little debated provision in the state budget requires the 3 thousand state employees  to order their prescriptions 3 months at a time from a national mail order supplier. The change is putting a pinch on small neighborhood pharmacies like the one Lynn Massey has operated for more than 25 years.

“I’ve not laid anyone off, but I’ve had to cut hours” says Massey.

Mail order contractor CVS’s website shows one facility in South Florida, but the pharmacists say it is just as likely the prescriptions are being filled in Rhode Island or Illinois, sending jobs out of state.

Representative Jimmy Patronis has taken concerns about the plan to the highest levels. “It’s a fine line between the fiduciary responsibility of getting the best bang for our buck, for those resources, and challenging somebody’s ability to make a living,” says Patronis.

The nine hundred locally owned pharmacies in Florida say they weren’t even given a chance to compete on price

Missing from the budget language is the phrase “any willing Provider.” Had those words been in the bill, Massey says she and the 900 other local pharmacists could have competed on price. “Potentially even cheaper” she says, adding,  “I don’t know what the state is sending out of state as far as the money goes.”

While Massey has cut employees hours, others pharmacies have left staff go. With the mail order requirement in the budget for the second year in a row, the lost business is likely to have a cumulative negative effect on locally owned drug stores.

The Department of Management Services, which administers the program, says it does not have actual cost savings, but provided a CVS Caremark estimate of four point one million in 2010.The mail order mandate has been in effect since January 2011 and will run through June 2012. (Read more on the DMS website:  http://www.myflorida.com/mybenefits/Tools/FAQs_PPO.htm

Governor Rick Scott is walking away from his first legislative session with big victories. The session got off to a shaky start for the rookie governor, with legislative leaders refusing to take up tax breaks and two senators suing Scott for single-handedly killing high speed rail. As Whitney Ray tells us, Scott never blinked and lawmakers caved.

Just minutes after releasing his first budget plan in early February, Governor Rick Scott began to hear from the critics.

“The notion that somehow we can cut five billion dollars out of this budget is just very unreasonable,” said Karen Woodall, the Director of the Florida Center for Fiscal and Economic Policy on February 7th, 2011.

Lawmakers told Scott they couldn’t cut property taxes or corporate income taxes, but in the end he got some of what he asked for: a 30 million dollar break for corporations and two-hundred million dollars for property owners.

After session ended, Scott gloated on an online political talk show.

“We’re on the path to 700-thousand jobs and we are on the path to turning the economy around,” aid Scott on SayviewReviewTV.

Lawmakers also sent him bills to end teacher tenure, expand school vouchers, drug test welfare recipients and force state workers to contribute to their retirement.

Scott had asked for a five percent contribution he got three. He also asked lawmakers to eliminate 85-hundred state jobs, lawmakers settled on 45-hundred.

Still, Scott’s mark on the 2011 legislative session is undeniable.

“He’s been incredible. He’s quietly, but very effectively, moved a number of pieces of legislation through the process, but I think the biggest thing he’s done is the budget,” said Thrasher.

The real proof of the Governor’s success will be determined over the next year, as everyone watches to see if his legislative victories create jobs. Scott’s impact on the session is still a little up in the air. There are 3-thousand spending items in the budget that Scott can veto. There are also more than 2-hundred bills he has yet to take action on.

Session Losers

While Governor Rick Scott may have been the biggest winner of the 2011 legislative session, opponents say the public is losing. Thousands of state workers will be laid off, insurance rates will likely go up, and telephone companies will be able raise rates on landline customers. Democrat House Member Evan Jenne says the rich are the only winners.

“I don’t even think this stuff going on here is conservative. I think it’s elitist. I think it pits the richest five to three percent in our state against the other 97 and 95 percent of the people out there,” said Jenne.

Brad Ashwell with Florida Public Interest Research Groups says property owners and landline customers lost.

“The industry definitely didn’t get everything it wanted, but the industry, whether it is the insurance industry, the telecom industry, you name it, they largely won out big time this session and largely at the expense of the public,” said Ashwell.

Immigrants and their supporters walked away from the session as winners. At the start of the session, lawmakers were poised to pass an Arizona style immigration bill. After a full two months of lobbying by Hispanics, the bill died.