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Hundreds of state, county and municipal employees rallied at the state capitol today, demanding that state lawmakers take a look at ending special interest tax breaks before considering pay cuts, furloughs or layoffs. Karen Woodall of the Coalition for Tax Competitiveness and Fairness says there are at least three things lawmakers could do to bring in billions of dollars.

“Currently, many Florida businesses are at a competitive disadvantage because of internet sales that are not taxed, multi-state corporations that do not pay taxes on profits made in Florida, and exemptions granted to certain businesses,” Woodall said.

State workers have already gone two years without a pay increase. Many are on food stamps and receiving other assistance.

Florida parents and teachers are bringing more than two point six million pennies to Tallahassee tomorrow. Each penny symbolizes a student in public schools. The idea is to graphically depict the teachers and parents push for a temporary three year, one-cent hike in the sales tax to fund schools. Florida Education Association President Andy Ford says the three year hike will buy time to fix the state’s tax structure.

“What this does is it buys us time to be able to seriously take a look at Florida’s tax structure because we have to modernize,” Ford said. “The system that is in place right now was created in the 1940s. Florida is a vastly different society today than it was in 1940s.”

Busloads of parents from around the state will bring their pennies to the capitol for an 11am rally on Wednesday.

Progress Energy customers will see some rate relief beginning with their April bills. In January, rates spiked by as much as 25 dollars for a thousand kilowatts. The increase was to cover increased fuel costs and the building of two new nuclear power plants. After public outrage, the company went to the state Public Service Commission today and asked for rates to decrease. PSC spokesperson Cynthia Muir says customers will see a fifteen dollar saving beginning in April.

“Progress does have a significant increase in their rates beginning on the first of the year, about a 24 percent increase in their rates,” Muir said. “The commission did hear a lot of complaints regarding that.”

Progress is the first company to take advantage of a 2006 law that allows companies to collect nuclear construction costs up front before a plant is ever built. Consumer advocates have been arguing that many customers will have moved or have died before the plant is finished.

The clock is ticking for the state to spend its cut of the federal stimulus money. Florida has 120 days to allocate half of the 1.3 billion dollars it’s receiving for roads. Critics are blaming the governor for slowing down the spending process, but As Whitney Ray tells us, most of the spending needs legislative approval.

Tuesday Governor Charlie Crist officially committed to spend the 13.4 billion federal stimulus dollars from Washington, but how that money will be spent is raising more questions than answers.

“’Do you need the legislature to actually write bills and pass them,’ asked a press corps reporter. ‘Well, we may,’ Crist answered. ‘Are you going to ask them to do that,’ the reporter asked. ‘We’ll see,” responded Crist.

House Democrats say legislative leaders won’t even tell them if they plan to accept the money.

“We can’t get a clear answer from the Republican leadership in the legislature whether they’re going to use any of the money,” said Representative Ron Saunders.

Critics say the Governor isn’t acting fast enough to spend the stimulus dollars. The state still hasn’t set up a website to outline where the money is going and road projects are still on hold.

Florida’s cut of the federal stimulus package includes 1.3 billion dollars to spend on road projects and the state already has 7 billion dollars in projects ready to go. Transportation lobbyist Doug Callaway said the state will use it or lose it.

“You have 120 days to use up 50 percent of that allocation. If you don’t, Florida or any other state, if they don’t use that, those dollars that they don’t use will be recollected back to Washington and redistributed,” said Callaway.

Some money, like dollars earmarked for unemployment and food stamps, will begin flowing soon. Spending on roads and schools still needs legislative approval. Governor Charlie Crist says the state will launch a website early next week showing how the stimulus money will be spent. Twenty-nine other states have already launched similar sites.

Florida State University will appeal its punishment from the NCAA over a cheating scandal involving 61 athletes.

The NCAA is putting FSU on four years probation and cutting scholarships in ten sports. They also want to strip the Seminoles football team of 14 wins. The penalty would knock legendary coach Bobby Bowden out of the running for the winningest college football coach of all time. FSU President TK Wetherell said the school’s appeal has nothing to do with Bowden’s record, but said it’s not fair to hold the football coach accountable.

“To hold coaches accountable for something they had nothing to do with, they didn’t know anything about. To penalize teams two years later, when people have already graduated, and don’t know that they were involved in that just isn’t right, just flat isn’t right,” said Wetherell.

FSU plans to file the appeal by Saturday.

There is a new website for Floridians who want to know how their tax dollars are being spent.

Florida’s Chief Financial Officer launched the Sunshine Spending website today. The site allows people to search state contracts by agency and vendor. CFO Alex Sink said the site will be updated frequently.

“This gives Florida citizens the ability to see just exactly where your taxpayer dollars are going and who’s getting them. People within my agency will update the sunshine spending site every night, and you can know in real time where the money is going,” said Sink.

The site was built with no extra cost to taxpayers. To visit the site go to www.myfloridacfo.com/sunshinespending.

The state is missing out on an estimated two to four billion dollars in sales tax revenue. The reason: some internet shoppers aren’t paying the tax. As Whitney Ray tells us, lawmakers are considering streamlining the state’s tax code to make it easier for businesses to know how much money to collect from shoppers.

With every click of the “buy now” button, Florida stands to lose money. Many online stores don’t require shoppers to pay sales tax and many shoppers don’t seem to mind. Internet shoppers are supposed to fill out this form and pay state taxes on things they bought online; the only problem, few know they’re supposed to.

Lawmakers are reviewing a plan to streamline Florida’s tax code with 22 other states. The plan would give online merchants a better idea of what is taxable. Larry Fuchs, the former Director of the Department of Revenue, said the plan would level the playing field for instate stores.

“The money that is spent in a local store, that goes to its employees, to rent, to utilities, to local property taxes. It pays enormous residual benefits for the people of the state of Florida,” said Fuchs.

The plan would bring in an estimated 16 million dollars a year, but it could cost the state 40 million to implement. While streamlining our tax code would cost upfront, it could pay off in the long run.

“It really encourages Congress to act on this. When Congress acts, then we are talking about billions of dollars in additional sales tax revenue,” said Rob Weissert, a spokesman with Florida TaxWatch.

Even If the state adopts the plan, paying the tax would still be left up to the online merchants and shoppers, until Congress steps in.

Forty-five states collect a sales tax. If Florida joined the 22 other states in the streamlining agreement, then more than half of states that collect sales tax would be on board. Tax experts say having a majority could go a long way in swaying Congress to act.

A plan to merge the Department of Community Affairs with the Department of State to save money has environmentalists outraged.

The Department of Community Affairs oversees land development. Environmental groups say a merger would weaken the department and lead to reckless building. Florida Wildlife Federation Spokesman Manley Fuller said the merger would endanger some of the state’s most protected animals.

“Where the growth occurs and where the wildlife occurs, there needs to be a thoughtful process. If you just start running highways willy-nilly and building towns scattered throughout the countryside, you’re not going to be able to maintain animals like the Florida Panther and the black bear,” said Fuller.

Environmentalists say the plan to merge the two departments has been in the works for years. They say lawmakers are using the state’s budget crisis as an excuse to weaken the Department’s authority.

Trial lawyers are throwing a monkey wrench into the fight raging between judges and clerks.

Lawmakers want to take financial oversight duties from county clerks and delegate the task to the circuit courts in an effort to save money. Monday trial lawyers filed a suit with the state Supreme Court saying county clerks should have the right to decide how filing fees are spent. Last year fee money was used to fund state prisons. Attorney Sid Mathews filed lawsuit.

“I’m a user who just spent my user fee for access to the courts. My fellow lawyers paid good money as users of the system and our money got spent on the prisons, now we’re just a little bit upset about that and we’re mad as you know what and we’re not going to take it anymore,” said Mathews.

Lawmakers have been increasing court fees to make up for the budget shortfall. Mathews says since all the money isn’t being spent on courts, the fee is actually a secret tax.

The price of bibles, bottles of water, and Super Bowl tickets hangs in the balance as lawmakers continue to review cutting the tax exemptions on 50 goods and services.

Eliminating the tax loopholes could generate close to 400 million dollars in state revenues. It could also hurt the businesses that depend on the tax breaks. Eliminating the exemptions is gaining support from Democrats and the Senate, but House Democrat Scott Randolph said his chamber is more skeptical of the plan.

“I would rather close loopholes rather than close schools, and I don’t think the leadership in the House is on board with that,” said Randolph.

Monday marks the sixth week the House Finance and Tax Council has spent reviewing the exemptions.

Hundreds of gay and lesbian people converged on the State Capitol today to seek greater rights for gay and lesbian couples. As Mike Vasilinda tells us, Florida is among the states that allow discrimination against gays.

They came chanting. The rally fell short of the hoped for one thousand people, but what it lacked in numbers it made up in enthusiasm.

Foremost, the group wants to repeal a state law forbidding gay couples to adopt.

Florida is the only state that prohibits gay adoptions and it provides few other protections for gays.

Matin Gill, who has been with his partner 8 years,  won a lower court ruling in December throwing out the gay adoption ban. It is being appealed.

“It doesn’t matter how good of a parent you are, if you are gay or lesbian, you can not be considered for adoption in this state,” Gill said. “It is shameful.”

Others want the same rights to adopt.

“If you could look inside our hearts as a community and see the pain that we have over this issue,” Rachelle Cliche said. “How could you deny anyone?”

Stuart Milk is the nephew of slain gay rights activists Harvey Milk. He says discrimination against gays is rampant.

“It is legal in Florida if you are an employer to say to an employee, I heard you’re gay and I don’t want a gay person working for me,” Milk said.

The group is also pushing for domestic partnerships and basic anti-discrimination laws for housing and employment.

At least four bills are pending before lawmakers to allow adoptions and provide employment and housing protections.

The State Board of Education helped a budget workshop at the Capitol today. The Board is looking for ways to get through tough economic times. Among the ideas being pushed by school superintendents is more flexibility. They want to be able to use construction dollars for the classroom or text book dollars to pay teachers. Marion County Superintendent Jim Yancie says if he’s lucky, he’s facing a 27 million dollar cut and it will mean many students doing without.

“We would have to eliminate all extracurricular activities. In our case we would have to eliminate art and music from our elementary school curriculum and probably middle school curriculum,” Yancie said. “We’d do everything we could to do reading, math, science, and social studies and the writing requirements. And continue to do the best job we can.”

In Gulf County, residents are being asked to approve higher property taxes to fund schools. The mail in vote takes place tomorrow.

State lawmakers will have to decide how to fill an estimated 3.4 dollar budget deficit. State economists released their latest predictions this afternoon, and the debate over how to balance the budget is already raging. As Whitney Ray tells us, deep spending cuts, new taxes, and stimulus dollars could all be used to fill the budget gap.

The state is still collecting billions of sales tax dollars. But it’s not enough money to keep up with current government spending.

State economists met Friday to predict how bad the budget will get. Revenue collections will fall millions by year’s end. The new budget starting in July will be even worse.

Lawmakers will have to make tough choices to fill the budget hole. The debate of deeper spending cuts versus new taxes is already raging. Republicans says government could be more efficient.

“We might have to take some reductions,” said Representative Carl Domino

Democrats say cuts alone won’t do the trick.

“We do have to look at all additional revenue sources that may be out there,” said House Minority Leader Franklin Sands.

Governor Charlie Crist isn’t panicking about the predicted shortfall.

“I caution they are only estimates. I’m also aware that we’re in line to get about 13 billion dollars from the stimulus package so I think we should be in pretty darn good shape,” said Crist.

Whether or not stimulus dollars alone will fill the budget gap is the battle lawmakers will fight for the remaining six weeks of the legislative session. Lawmakers are looking at the state’s more than 200 sales tax exemptions as one way to fill part of the budget gap. About 50 of the exemptions, including bottled water and dry cleaning are getting strong consideration.

The battle to eliminate some of the state’s more than 200 sales tax exemptions is picking up steam.

Florida TaxWatch, a nonprofit government watchdog, came up with a list of 17 sales tax exemptions they consider ripe for elimination. Bottled water, dry cleaning and valet parking made the list. TaxWatch President Dominic Calabro said it’s time to eliminate some of the tax breaks and adopt new ones to spur growth.

“If we tax some of those we may be able to exempt others that may be able to produce more jobs, more value in Florida. So it’s making sure our tax system is build for the 21st century, not the 20th century of the past,” said Calabro.

The TaxWatch plan is being praise by the Senate, but the House has been slow to jump on the band wagon. House Minority Leader Franklin Sands said the Republicans in his chamber aren’t taking a good enough look at the exemptions.

“I think in the House it’s more, in my opinion, a dog and pony show and I think we have to get down to the bottom of it and take a look and see where is the real bill. What are we suppose to really be doing,” said Sands.

TaxWatch isn’t asking lawmakers to eliminate all 17 of the exemptions it listed, but if all 17 were eliminated, they would generate an estimated 600 million dollars a year in state revenue.

Since Governor Charlie Crist pushed Automatic rights restoration for non violent felons two years ago, 130 thousand have gotten their rights back, But as Mike Vasilinda tells us, more than twice that many are still waiting and will have to wait a long time.

They come wearing suits, sweaters, or plaid shirts and sneakers. These are the people seeking Clemency, their files stacked high in front of the governor.

“I’m sorry” said one applicant. They come  with stories of woe and rehabilitation.
“No more honkie tonks. No more ever for me” says another.

Keith Day hired a lawyer, only to find out he was one of the people who had  already gotten his rights back. He left with a full pardon.

“Nobody contacted me” says the Gainesville man. “I had no idea, I would not have come down here probably if I had know that. I would have saved a lot of money on a lawyer”.

Keith’s Wife Kellie says the pardon will make life easier. “What it means to us as a family is it will open doors for him so he can get his contractors license and provide for our family” she says.

Many others are told no by the Governor. Too many say activists. By some estimates there are three hundred thousand former felons who have paid their debt to society, and are still waiting for their rights back.

Civil rights groups say the state is wasting millions investigating people, only to determine if they are fit to vote. Mark Schlakman from the Collins Center for Human Rights has been a leading voice protesting that clemency is being made too difficult.  “Funds that are being expended to conduct these background investigations” says Schlakman “could be directed toward higher priority needs”.

But besides speeding the process up, Charlie Crist says the hearings are worthwhile.
“Some of these cases are so violent and so heinous that I think its important to have the opportunity to hear what the facts are before you automatically grant” says Crist.

The board meets four times. It handles a 100 cases each meeting. With over 3 hundred thousand cases, tight budgets, and fewer than 600 heard each year, many former felons will never get a chance to make their case.