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A program to help Florida’s working poor get the medical attention they need was resurrected in the latest budget turn. The Medically Needy Program helps about 20,000 Floridians who’ve suffered serious injuries or need an organ transplant. Earlier this week Lawmakers decided to cut funding for the program. Wednesday lawmakers changed their tune and voted to dip into state reserves to keep the program funded.

“We put a large widget in the right place to make sure that those people that have been unfortunate enough to have transplants and those that have problems with affording pharmaceuticals and immunological medications will have a place in our program,“ said Senator Durell Peaden.

The announcement to fund the Medically Needy program came as healthcare officials were planning on delivering thousand of petitions to lawmakers. The petitions asked lawmakers to save the program.

Parents of missing daughters want lawmakers to extend the search for missing people. Wednesday in Tallahassee Hilary Sessions, whose daughter disappeared almost 20 years ago, met with lawmakers. Sessions along with Joyce and Drew Kesse, whose daughter Jennifer was abducted in Orlando, want the Department of Missing Children to take on cases involving missing people up to the age of 25. Drew Kesse said increasing the age could help more people be found.

“It’s a very difficult thing to deal with. Laws just don’t support it. We are trying to strengthen and enhance the existing laws that you see for children, and bring them up into a more conducive state for adults too,” said Kesse.

The Senate Passed the bill, now the families are waiting to have the bill heard by the House.

The most important commission that you have never heard of is on the verge of asking you to make the biggest change in state tax policy that has ever occurred. The proposal could eliminate the property taxes you pay for schools, But as Mike Vasilinda tells us, not without a major loss of services.

Voters may be asked to trade the taxes they pay on schools in exchange for a one cent hike in the state sales tax. The problems say opponents, is that the swap leaves a big hole in the state budget.

“A penny generates about four billion,” Senator Mike Haridopolus said. “Where do you get the other seven billion dollars from? No one knows. It’s a mystery.”

If the plan makes it to voters and they say okay, Lawmakers may be forced to take drastic action and tax everything from dry cleaning to legal fees.

The only thing not on the table is a personal income tax. Yet.

And even an income tax could be put forth in the future, if separate plans moving through the state House to severely limit local tax collections. The League of Cities says the tax cutting fever has no direction.

“There just seems to be this sort of zeal to put a bunch of things in a pot and throw spaghetti at the wall and see what sticks,” Rebecca O’Hare with the League of Cities said.

The few lawmakers brave enough to vote against the tax cuts being pushed by GOP house members say there isn’t enough information.

“Good question,” Rep. Scott Randolph said. “Nobody’s ever given us a run. I have no idea.”

Under any of the proposals, drastic cuts in core services are likely. But voters do have the final say.

As state lawmakers finalize budget cuts, Education leaders say schools will be shut down and teachers will be laid off. It could get worse. Amendment one, the property tax cut plan approved in January, hasn’t affected the budget yet and as Whitney Ray tells us a campaign promise to hold education harmless could be harder to keep.

Bus loads of kids from across the state toured the Capitol Tuesday to learn more about the legislative process.

“I saw Charlie Crist,” said 4th Grader Gregory Nye

Part of the process is making good on campaign promises. Education is facing a billion dollar cut this year and that’s after Governor Charlie Crist promised to hold education harmless while campaigning for amendment one, which will take more away from schools. House Speaker Designate Ray Sansom back pedaled when asked about the change of tune.

“Harmless means not raising taxes, and we’re not raising taxes,” said Sansom.

Teachers brought their umbrellas to the Capitol to send a message to lawmakers. Teachers Union President Andy Ford said dipping into the rainy day funds is the only way the Governor can keep his promise.

“Schools are not being held harmless,” said Ford. “The legislature has the ability to hold us harmless by dipping into the rainy day funds and that would get us back to where we need to be.”

Governor Crist said lawmakers still have time to save schools.

“Anything’s possible. We have nine days to do what’s right,” said Crist.

But doing what’s right means keeping your promise, which is hard when there is no money. Amendment one is saving home owners an average of 250,000 dollars a year in property taxes.

Governor Charlie Crist continues to push his plan to provide insurance to the state’s nearly 4 million uninsured. Tuesday Crist met with representatives from several insurance companies. He said the companies are prepared to offer policies for as little as 150 bucks a month. Crist was asked why he though people would buy the minimum coverage insurance when they can use hospital emergency rooms and not pay the bill.

“They understand if they don’t get health coverage from one of these reportable companies, who have a great corporate ethic obviously, then they would do so instead of going to emergency rooms and costing their fellow taxpayers millions of dollars to do it. I believe in their goodness,” said Crist.

The Senate unanimously approved the Governor’s plan. A vote from the House is still pending.

A plan to trade 25 percent of property tax for a penny increase in sales tax is days away from a final vote. Earlier this year the Taxation and Budget Reform Commission gave preliminary approval to the plan. Thursday they’ll have a final vote. Governor Crist said he’s not ready to weigh in on the issue, but part of the plan sounds good to him.

“I’d like to see what the final version is before I announce whether I’ll work hard for it or not, but I like the 25 percent property tax reduction,” Crist said.

Opponents of the plan said the tax swap would actually raise taxes. If the plan gets final approval from the commission then it will be on the November Ballot.

Allstate was our of the business of writing new policies late yesterday, but only for about 15 minutes. The First District Court of Appeal agreed the state could suspend Allstate’s certificate, then almost immediately withdrew the order. As Mike Vasilinda tells us the final outcome could turn out to be in Allstate’s favor.

It was business as usual at Allstate offices around the state. But at 5:15 Monday night, it didn’t look like any of them would be open.

“I have in my hand, a ruling from the District Court of Appeals, first district,” Insurance Commissioner Kevin McCarty said.

Minutes later, the order allowing the state to suspend Allstate’s certificate to sell new policies was abruptly cancelled. A press release from the court said merely that the order was released too early.

For Allstate agents like John Cheney, the three month battle over records has been a roller coaster ride.

“There certainly have been some ups and downs,” Cheney said. “We’re just taking it one day at a time, trying to keep our purpose where it needs to be– taking care our customers.”

No one but the judges here really knows what happened

Court policies allow any of the 15 judges to ask for a vote to decide to hear the case. Stephen Grimes spent 24 years as an appellate and then supreme court justice. He speculates one of the judges on the court may want to hear the case.

“So far, no one had decided to call for a vote,” Grimes said. “But that doesn’t mean that somebody might not because any judge would know he has ten business days to do it.”

Court rules say no decision will be announced for another week. And Allstate agents are hoping the court will be forgiving.

Major changes to the state’s KidCare program will be discussed tonight in Tallahassee. Lawmakers want to expand coverage to every kid and as Whitney Ray tells us they also want KidCare to pay for autism treatment.

Twelve years ago Laurie Staples gave birth to a seemingly healthy baby girl.

“She seemed normal, she walked, she talked, she played,” said Staples.

But by the age of two it became obvious something was wrong.

“She screamed bloody murder and I took her to doctors told me it was autism,” said Staples.

After a few years of treatment, Laurie’s daughter Caitlyn began to improve, but her progress was halted. Laurie’s insurance company stopped paying for therapy. Thousands of Floridians have similar stories. Now lawmakers are joining the battle.

“If we just addressed the private insurance market through a mandate we would only be addressing 43 percent of this population,” said Representative Bill Galvano.

Galvano serves on a select committee trying to expanding KidCare. The committee will look at adding autism treatment to the services paid for by the program and offering the insurance to everyone in the state.

Some people on the insurance pay 20 bucks or less for coverage, that could soon change. If the program is expanded statewide, premiums could be raised, slightly. Galvano said expanding KidCare would send a message to insurance companies.

“If they’re not able to come up with a solution, show us new product line, show us how you’re going to regulate your own industry, then a mandate will be coming,” said Galvano.

Lawmakers hope leading by example will persuade insurers to follow, so they don’t have to force the industry’s hand.

Black men have the lowest life expectancy in the country. They have higher rates of cancer than white men and die more frequently of the disease. Lawmakers joined doctors and professors at FAMU Monday in Tallahassee to announce the launch of the Coalition on African American Men’s Health. The coalition will try to figure out why black men have a harder time fighting cancer. House Representative Curtis Richardson said the state is already spending money looking for an answer.

“We’ll spend millions of dollars over the next several years on biomedical research and we included language in our biomedical research legislation that would cause them to focus specifically on minority health disparities while trying to recruit minority health practitioners,” said Richardson

Doctors and lawmakers agree that education is important in the fight against cancer. The coalition will try to educate high risk groups.

Lawmakers and people in the movie industry gathered to honor a fallen legislator. The late Don Davis arguably did more than any other lawmaker in his time to bring film crews to Florida. The former state representative helped pass an incentive package for film crews who choose to shoot movies in Florida. Today at the Capitol Film Florida announced the “Don Davis Film Finishing Fund.” The fund would provide completion funds to independent producers and filmmakers working in the Sunshine state. One of Davis’ longtime friends and fellow lawmaker Dick Kravitz said the fund keeps Davis’ dream alive.

“He would be so happy,” said Kravitz. “He’d be so happy if he were here today to see this great honor that you’re bestowing upon him.”

Davis died earlier this month. Forty-Eight films are slated to be shot in Florida this year compared to just eight last year.

A property tax cut you could vote on in November is being challenged by a state senator. Later this week the Taxation and Budget Reform Commission will vote on a plan that would cut property tax by 25 percent and raise the state sales tax by a penny. Cutting property tax by 25 percent would reduce school funding by more than 8 billion dollars, while early estimates show a penny sales tax increase wouldn’t raise near as much. Senator Mike Haridopolos said the plan will actually increase taxes in the long run.

“People are going to think this is some major tax decrease in exchange for a one penny sales tax. That’s far from the truth and we just want to make sure all the information is out there so people can make an informed decision and it doesn’t get framed as a tax break when in fact it is just the opposite,” said Haridopolos.

If the Taxation and Budget Reform Commission approves the plan, then it would be in the hands of voters in November.

Casting your ballot and having it counted this fall could be problematic say several voting rights groups. The NAACP, The ACLU, and others say Florida is the most hostile state in the nation to new voters. But as Mike Vasilinda tells us, the state argues that just because they say it, doesn’t make it true

Under Florida law, former felons still face huge hurdles registering to vote. Supervisors of elections are forbidden from hand counting paper ballots, and new identification standards make it easier to deny someone the right to vote. Leon supervisor Ion Sancho says that’s just the beginning.

“We seem to be more concerned with keeping people away from the voting processes, making provisional voting harder, making it more difficult to early vote,” Sancho said.

The ACLU says big changes are needed.

“Being Bill and having a social security card registered as William should not prevent a person from exercising the right to vote,” Courtney Strickland with the ACLU said.

But the state says it goes out of the way to make sure votes are counted.

“I think we’re smart enough to know Mike and Michael are the same person,” Secretary of State Kurt Browning said. “So we would, in fact, clear that on through as a match voter registration.”

The state argues people have plenty of time to make sure things are right.

“You have 23 months in which you can register to vote,” Browning said. “We go to great lengths to insure that the voters are on the list.”

In May, the Florida Supreme Court will hear this Sarasota case, which could result in more power shifting to the state.

The suit involves Sarasota wanting stricter audit procedures than called for in state law.
It is a continuation of a fight over who controls elections…the state or local supervisors.

Nine families who bought land for their dream homes from the states largest landowner have had their dreams smashed.  The homes were built at a time when St. Joe Company did not need a permit to fill a low lying area and as Mike Vasilinda tells us, the fill the company used is creating a nightmare for residents.

In the mid 1980’s St. Joe Paper Company filled this low lying area in Port St. Joe. It used scraps from the company’s nearby paper mill. It then sold the lots with the help of  Federally insured loans.  Today, 9 homes sit on the filled area, but they are sinking.  This water meter was once flush with the ground.

Vernell Bailey raised six kids here, but the house is collapsing and condemned.

“Like this, the wall was coming away from the corner,” Bailey said. “All this here.”

The once solid wood fill underneath has since rotted, creating a mush under the homes. Driveways are cracked.  Windows are falling out. Walls inside and out have split.

Some residents use a rag to keep bugs and snakes out.

“Insects are coming in your house,” Charlie and Dorothy Ash said. “[Grandkids are] afraid. When they go to sleep, they have to leave the lights on.”

Federal money guaranteed the loans for the houses, so U.S. taxpayers may be out if the homeowners default. So far the company is giving the lawyer hired by the families a cold shoulder.

“They’re not saying that we didn’t sell you bad land,” Attorney Ben Crump said. “They’re saying for technical reasons, you can’t hold us responsible.”

Tougher standards are in place today which would have specified what fill the company could use.

Lawmakers want to ban a truck accessory some find offensive. They’re called “Truck Nutz.” “Truck Nutz” are plastic replicas of bull genitalia and as Whitney Ray tells us, drivers hang them from their bumpers.

For some people their truck is their most prized possession. They raise the cab, upgrade the tires, and even give their truck a gender. Today’s masculine vehicles have “Truck Nutz.” While some people think the plastic testicles are offensive, other just think they’re funny. Truck driver Lee Wagner isn’t laughing.

“You can’t ban stupidity,” said Wagner.

But Thursday Senators took a step toward clipping the potentially offensive accessory. If signed into law, drivers would have to neuter their vehicles or face a 60 dollar ticket. Men, who decided not to emasculate their vehicles, may face a stiffer penalty.

“Would you ever date a guy who had a pair of these on his truck,” a Capitol News reporter asked FAMU Sophomore Ava Virella.

Virella considered the question, but then decided.

“I doubt it, I really doubt it,” said Virella.

Opponents of the bill say these are just an expression of free speech and banning them would violate the constitution.

“If you want to put them on then put them on, but I wouldn’t put them on my car, nah, not on my car,” said Shivaya Way.

Some say just the fact that lawmakers are debating the issue proves they’ve gone nuts. A ban on “Truck Nutz” was added as an amendment to a transportation bill. The main purpose of the bill is to allow hybrid drivers unlimited access to the carpool lane.

Senator Mike Haridopolos held a public hearing to talk about a plan approved by the Taxation and Budget Reform Commission. The tax swap plan would trade a 25 percent cut in property tax for penny sales tax increase. Haridopolos said the plan would actually raise the amount of tax Floridians pay, because a one cent sales tax increase wouldn’t raise enough money to fill the gap left by the property tax cut.

“The best way to describe this plan is it’s unstable, it’s uncertain, and it does not bring jobs into this economy. And without question it overtaxes what I think are already over-taxed Floridians under the guise of a property tax cut, which we’re all for. But you’re taxing them through the back door,” said Haridopolos.

The Taxation and Budget Reform Commissions will have a chance to revote on the issue. If no one changes their original vote the plan will be put on the November ballot.