Time to Recall Rick Scott

Florida's Governor Rick Scott has made the decision in April 2011 to not sue BP for its role in the oil spill of 2010. This brings rise to the question of who is Rick Scott working for; this move proves his intentions are not aimed at the good of the state.

"By Ralph De
La Cruz Florida Center for Investigative Reporting

Rick Scott came into the governor’s office without having ever governed. Not even a term on a school board. He never even had to get folks to reach consensus in a precinct. Scott’s main qualification to be governor was that he was CEO of an HMO found guilty of the worst case of Medicare fraud in U.S. history. He’s such a newbie that he doesn’t grasp the most fundamental concept about governing: Politics is the art of compromise. FCIR relies on grants from foundations and donations from readers. Donate today to support investigative journalism in Florida. Academics Donald J. Boudreaux and Dwight H. Lee, writing for no less a conservative voice than the Cato Institute, can explain: “Regardless of the terms employed, few doubt that politics is indeed the art of compromise. Politicians unwilling to compromise are typically labeled ideologues — a label not regarded as a badge of honor among members of the political class. Moreover, politicians who refuse to compromise seldom win and hold on to office …” Being CEO, on the other hand, is the art of applying force and pressure. Running a company is nothing like running a state. And that’s becoming clearer with each passing day of Scott’s term. The tea party’s governor came into office in January like a man possessed — and unconcerned about anyone but his business buddies and the tea party set. He showed little interest in building compromise or coalitions, immediately going after teachers and county and state workers as if they were his employees. Pawns to be moved and sacrificed as only he sees fit. He has shown a disinterest in working with minorities. When Scott met with black lawmakers who were concerned he does not have a single minority in his cabinet, he tried to ingratiate himself by saying he could relate to them: He had grown up in public housing with a parent who had a sixth-grade education. How charming. Scott, who was viewed with suspicion by Hispanics during the campaign because of his promise to bring harsh Arizona-style immigration enforcement to the state, briefly softened his stance — at least until after his brief appearance at the Hispanic Leadership Network. Then he reverted back to his old rhetoric. His budget, presented to a tea party rally as if the rest of the state didn’t matter, pushed corporate tax cuts onto the backs of teachers, county and state workers, and correctional officers. Maybe if those correctional officers had contributed $100,000 at his inauguration, which was a dolled-up fundraiser for him and the Florida Republican Party, things might have been different. But instead, it was the Geo Group — which runs private prisons and employs Scott’s close chum, Bill Rubin, as its lobbyist – handing out the checks. And surprise, one of the first targets of Scott’s decimation of the state infrastructure was … the state prison system. Scott campaigned against the hiring of state lobbyists, then hired state lobbyists. The difference, he explained, was that these were his lobbyists. He threw state Sen. Paula Dockery, one of his earliest political supporters, under the political bus (or train) by rejecting $2.4 billion in federal money for a high-speed rail project that she had been working on for years. That decision reportedly occurred after he met with tea partiers in his office. Hey, appeasing those loyal tea partiers by making an anti-Obama statement comes before political loyalty — or creating upwards of 20,000 Florida jobs. It is as if we suddenly have en emperor in Tallahassee, issuing policy by decree. That might be the way to run a corporation. But it’s no way to run a state. The way Scott has acted, running roughshod over constituents and supporters alike, you’d think the man had won his election by a massive margin — what politicians call a “mandate.” But actually, Scott beat a Democrat in a ruby-red Republican state by one percentage point. Less than 62,000 votes gave him the keys to the mansion. And that sliver of a margin came after spending $73 million of his personal fortune, avoiding the press and opponents until the very end of the campaign, and relying on his mother and wife to be his political face during the campaign. Looking back, it was an impressive blueprint for how to win an electoral victory. Not so much for how to be successful at governing. Now, he occupies office with few allies other than tea partiers and the business elite. Even Republicans and early political supporters — burned by Scott’s sudden, bizarre and illogical decisions such as killing a database tracking addictive pill prescriptions — seem perplexed. Last week, the Senate, overwhelmingly controlled by his party, voted by a veto-proof majority to continue going after the money for the Central Florida rail project. Republican Sen. J.D. Alexander questioned whether Scott had the legal authority to do what he had done, and another Republican senator, David Simmons, vowed to lobby fellow legislators to overturn Scott’s decision. It’s hard to find anyone other than tea party zealots who have a kind word to say about Scott. The other day, a short story in a Treasure Coast/Palm Beach County publication simply announcing a Scott appearance at a Republican fundraiser in Martin County drew a rash of angry comments, such as, “I wonder if Gov. Scott will share the fact that his budget proposal includes increasing his executive office’s budget by over $300 million?” And, “If you’re a senior citizen attending this event, hide your medicare card. Just saying …” Citizens have now formed a Facebook group to advocate his recall. This after less than two months in office. But they should probably speak with Rep. Rick Kriseman first. Last week, Kriseman introduced a bill that would allow the recall of state officials. I know what you’re thinking: Scary that we don’t already have that right. Yep. It’s past time. Thank you, Rep. Kriseman. HB 787 should be automatic, considering the legislature is controlled by Republicans, who often tout accountability as a cornerstone of their party. We’ll soon see whether for them (and their tea party supporters), accountability only applies to teachers and welfare recipients. Or whether it’s for all Floridians, regardless of position, pocketbook or political persuasion."

Must Florida pay for felled citrus trees?

"FORT LAUDERDALE - A jury is set to begin deliberations Monday in a case that could cost the Florida Department of Agriculture tens of millions of dollars for cutting down backyard citrus trees over the objections of homeowners.

At issue in the three-week trial is how much compensation the state should pay to 58,225 Broward County residents who lost 133,720 orange, grapefruit, tangerine, lemon, and lime trees in a controversial program aimed at preventing the spread of citrus canker disease.
The case is being closely watched because it is the first of five class-action lawsuits seeking full compensation from the state government for its canker eradication program. More than 577,000 backyard citrus trees were destroyed from 2000 to 2006 in Broward, Miami-Dade, Palm Beach, Lee, and Orange counties, although the trees were never determined to have the canker disease.
Instead, state officials ordered that every citrus tree within a 1,900-foot radius of a confirmed diseased tree be cut down and removed. Residents received a $100 payment for the first tree cut, and $55 for each additional citrus tree destroyed.

The state justified the expansive eradication zone as a precaution to bring the canker outbreak under control before it spread to the 65 million trees in Florida's commercial citrus groves.
Homeowners fought the action in court, complaining that their beloved backyard citrus trees were being destroyed without any proof that the trees were, in fact, diseased.

In February, Circuit Judge Ronald Rothschild rejected the Department of Agriculture's defense that it was using the government's police powers to protect the state's food supply from a public nuisance. The judge said the state has the power to remove diseased trees, but that the Florida constitution requires the government to pay "full compensation" when healthy trees are removed as part of the program.

A jury was empaneled to decide how much compensation would be full compensation for the destroyed trees.

Agriculture Department lawyer Wesley Parsons told the jurors in closing arguments on Friday that residents should receive "zero" compensation because their trees were exposed to canker and had no value. "The trees within the 1,900-foot-radius were doomed," he said, because it was only a matter of time before they, too, would become diseased.

Mr. Parsons likened the spread of citrus canker to the spread of wildfire. Trees in the path of the flames have no value, he said. "A menace is approaching. It is not only going to debilitate the tree in the backyard, it is also going to debilitate other trees in the neighborhood," he told the jurors.
Nancy LaVista, a West Palm Beach lawyer for the residents, told the jury that the state had no evidence that the destroyed trees were infected. "If they truly believed those trees were infected a new arc would be drawn at 1,900 feet," she said. "

Source: http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0505/p02s04-usju.html

Economic cloud over sunny Florida

"By Tom Brown

MIAMI (Reuters) - Economic data continues to suggest that fears of a new "Great Depression" in the United States are overblown. But in places like Miami and Fort Lauderdale, where the housing bust has bitten hard and prices are rising fast, the specter of economic stagnation twinned with inflation looms all too real.

"Since the 1970s we haven't really seen this simultaneous threat of an economic slowdown, and recession, side by side with the threat of inflation," said Sean Snaith, an economics professor at the University of Central Florida.

Nationally, inflation was flat in February, according to the U.S. Labor Department's consumer price index, the most widely used gauge.

But in Miami and Fort Lauderdale, prices were up by 5.3 percent that month, according to the department's southeastern office, in Atlanta, the highest of any metropolitan area in the country.
The department gives national figures for March on Wednesday. The regional figures are released every two months, with the next ones out in May.

For many in Florida, a state that people are leaving in droves because of high property tax and home insurance rates, the biggest and harshest rise has been in energy costs, up 18 percent in the 12 months to the end of February.

And they could continue surging amid Energy Department warnings that gasoline prices could soon hit $4 a gallon in some areas.

"Everything is high. Everything is going up," said Cookie Elias, a Miami-based mother of three as she packed her young children into a minivan after shopping at a local Costco discount retailer in Miami."

Gov. Charlie Crist chops millions

The honorable Charlie Crist is hell of a governor. Let us pray that he stays on this path. Crist budgetary decisions simply make sense. His comments also show a sincere understanding for the economic concerns of Floridians. Students should especially applaud his veto of tuition increases. Kudos to Governor Charlie Crist!


"Crist chops millions, halts hike in tuition; Gov. Charlie Crist signed a $71.5 billion budget into law after slashing a record $459 million in spending. FLORIDA BUDGET

Source: The Miami Herald 05/25/2007

If the hundreds of millions in pet projects state lawmakers tucked into the budget were a test of how far they could push the new governor, the response was sharp Thursday: Not far.
Gov. Charlie Crist, striking back at legislators who refused to pay for many of his top priorities, axed a record $459 million from the state budget, which takes effect July 1.

Most significantly, he rejected a 5 percent tuition increase at state universities and community colleges, provoking the state's top education official to threaten a challenge.
''Honoring the fact that the people across the state are pinching their pennies, so are we,'' Crist said, noting what he called the ''crushing'' effects of property insurance, property taxes and gas prices on citizens and the economy. ``We're asking local governments to tighten their belts, too. We are tightening ours. We can do no less.''

The vetoes caught some lawmakers off guard. Nevertheless, legislative leaders said they will not buck the governor's decisions on the $71.5 billion budget.
In a short statement, Senate President Ken Pruitt said the work on the budget was now done and that he had ''no intention'' of supporting any effort to override Crist's vetoes.
There are questions over whether Crist overstepped his authority when he nixed the tuition hike for community colleges and universities, including Broward Community College, Miami-Dade College and Florida International University.

State University System Chancellor Mark Rosenberg said universities need the money to hire faculty and keep up with enrollment growth and predicted the governor's veto ``in all likelihood will be challenged.''

Florida's Board of Governors, the panel that oversees state universities, may consider a legal challenge at its June meeting.

''We thought [the tuition increase] was a very modest initiative by the Legislature to help us close the gap in funding to keep our doors open,'' said Rosenberg.

Crist, however, said it was the wrong time to hit families with a tuition hike.
He also said that a separate bill that authorizes higher tuition at the University of Florida, Florida State University and University of South Florida was ''doomed'' and that he will veto it as well.
''I feel for our students and I feel for their families,'' Crist said. ``They are paying higher insurance rates. They are paying higher property taxes. They are paying higher gas prices. I don't think it's right to make them pay higher tuition, too.''

Crist's vetoes cover every aspect of state government, from road projects to reading programs, to school construction, to programs that help minorities, seniors, the disabled and children. At least $24 million was cut from Miami-Dade -- which did get to keep tens of millions in the budget. Broward lost $13.9 million; Monroe $250,000.
Among the items cut: $1.3 million for streetscape improvements for Las Olas Boulevard in Fort Lauderdale; $840,000 for Exponica International, a three-day Latin America cultural and trade festival in Miami, and $900,000 for a gospel music museum planned in Broward.
''I don't think there's any ink left in his veto pen,'' said Rep. Dan Gelber, a Miami Beach Democrat and House minority leader. ``This was his chance to be a fiscal conservative.''

Crist said many of the projects he killed were ''meritorious'' but that some were more appropriately funded by local governments or private charities. The governor also vetoed projects viewed as likely to benefit a single private vendor, a rationale used to cut millions that legislators set aside for pilot reading programs.

Crist did give some leeway to items sought by top legislative leaders such as Pruitt and House Speaker Marco Rubio.

Crist left intact $20 million for Jackson Memorial Hospital that was a top priority for Rubio and did not touch more than $40 million to help Florida Atlantic University take over the troubled Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institution.

''They are leaders in the legislative branch, and they don't ask for things unless they think they are very, very important,'' Crist said. ``I tried to honor that.''
Miami Herald staff writer Mary Ellen Klas contributed to this story. "

Tragedy drive folks to fight

Source: The Miami Herald 05/08/2007
TALLAHASSEE

They were average people who watched the news occasionally, too busy with family and work to pay attention to their representatives in Tallahassee.

Then tragedy intervened: A son hanged himself with his backpack strap; a daughter was abducted, raped and buried alive; an undetected eye disease sent a toddler to his grave.

Soon they became advocates, the suitless oddities of the state Capitol, working harder than the well-heeled lobbyists to try to get their legislation passed. After years of driving, telling their stories and begging, they bridged the disconnection between Tallahassee and the real people of Florida, learning more about the Legislature than they ever wanted to know.

''I was always raised to believe in the legal system and in justice,'' said Debbie Johnston, a Cape Coral woman whose son, Jeff, hanged himself in a closet two years ago at age 15 after relentless bullying in school and on the Internet. ``I guess I had a very idealized view of government.''
For two years, she has sought legislation to create a statewide ban on bullying. As the session ended nearly eight hours before deadline Friday and her bill died, she wept in the public gallery above while senators congratulated themselves and their staff for the session's hard work.
Last year, the legislation died as representatives debated whether Key lime pie should be the state's official dessert. She still won't eat it.

REGULAR AT HEARINGS
Johnston, who once thought the lawmaking session lasted all year rather than 60 days, quickly became a regular at committee hearings and in the labyrinthine halls of the Capitol. Last year, her first session, she packed Jeff's friends into a bus, rented two hotel rooms and put it on her credit card. They stared up at the 22-story Capitol building, she said, like ``the Clampetts go to Beverly Hills.''
''I used to ride horses, and they can't see the jump before they come to it,'' she added. ``They say throw your heart over the fence and go for it. I just closed my eyes, gritted my teeth and put $4,000 on my credit card.''

Now she rattles off the names of legislative leadership. Speaker Rubio. President Pruitt. She calls her bill sponsor, Rep. Nick Thompson, a Fort Myers Republican, by his first name. She says she will be back in the special session on property taxes in June, and if that fails, next year.

''We're not quitting,'' she said.
Her tenacity is common for this special class of lobbyists, but not all have had to return year after year.

When Jessica Lunsford was killed in 2005 by her neighbor, sex offender John Couey, it sent her father, Mark, of Homosassa on a crusade to toughen state laws to include electronic monitoring and minimum sentences for child molesters. That was accomplished in one legislative session -- the girl's body was discovered in March 2005, and the bill was signed two months later.

Mark Lunsford wore a tie with 9-year-old Jessica's picture on it as Gov. Jeb Bush signed the legislation into law. Lunsford called the tie his ''hug'' from Jessica.
''Every time I asked for something, from the beginning to now, people did it and they did it quickly,'' he told The St. Petersburg Times after the signing.
Not so for Pam Bergsma, a Lake Worth woman whose grandson didn't have a basic eye test that she says would have saved his life. He died in 2000 at age 3 from a rare cancer that wouldn't have been life-threatening if it had been caught earlier. She has been fighting to pass legislation requiring the eye test for retinoblastoma since the 2002 legislative session -- five years ago.
Bergsma, who can't count the number of times she has been to Tallahassee, used to sleep in her car but now stays in a Motel 6, the cheapest place she can find.
''What I have experienced and what I have seen up there, I never would have believed,'' Bergsma said. ``I always had an open mind.''
She has seen senators fight for her bill and against lobbyists for pediatricians, who don't want the requirement. But she says the lawmakers should feel ''shame'' for lengthening her quest, which she swears she will see to the end.
Every year, she truly believes the bill will pass. After no one sponsored it last year because it had failed so many times before, she believed the support she got this session meant it was time. But the bill died again.
''I was so sure'' it would pass this time, she said, then couldn't speak for sobbing.

MUCH TO LEARN
Jodi Walsh, a newcomer to the process who was ''appalled'' at how lawmakers dealt with her when she first visited them in January, said she took action after her ex-boyfriend encouraged her then-6-year-old son to steal a knife from the kitchen and stab her.
She recorded the conversation, and the boy's father was convicted of child abuse, but the decision was overturned because the judge said the legal definition of child abuse didn't include verbal manipulation. So, this session, she tried to convince lawmakers to include mental abuse in the law.
Her bill failed, too, but Walsh says she has learned a lot about the Legislature, which she used to follow only in the newspapers. She believes citizens should hound their representatives throughout the session to remind them of who really holds the power.

''It's personality that comes into play and not principle or priority or issues,'' Walsh said. ``It's their own personalities at each other's throats. That's what it boils down to. That really sickens me.''

FL WRONGLY ACCUSED NOT COMPENSATED

PROCEDURAL TIE-UP IN COMPENSATION BILL MAY LEAVE CLEARED INMATE EMPTY-HANDED
Source: The Miami Herald 05/02/2007
TALLAHASSEE
Alan Crotzer, who is seeking state compensation for the 24 years he spent wrongfully imprisoned, is about to go home penniless this week as he searches for a job and a rational explanation from a state Senate that won't take up his cause.
With just four days to go in the two-month lawmaking session, Senate President Ken Pruitt all but forced his counterparts in the House to kill a measure Tuesday that would have given the St. Petersburg man about $1.25 million for his lost years.
''They call themselves Christians but speak with a forked tongue,'' Crotzer said, referring to Pruitt and the Republican leader of the Senate, Dan Webster.
Pruitt said the ''process'' is to blame, as well as a tight state budget of $72 billion -- which nevertheless has about $1 billion in unspent money.
Pruitt noted the Crotzer measure had stalled in a Senate committee -- in part, because of Pruitt's own rules -- and didn't belong on a separate bill to spend $4.8 million to compensate the family of 14-year-old Martin Lee Anderson, who died after he was violently subdued by Panama City boot camp guards.
Crotzer said he learned how to ''do time'' in prison, but he still reacted angrily to what's happening in the Senate.
Barring a last-minute change, Crotzer, 46, will have to come back to seek state compensation next year. It would mark the third time the former inmate has sought legislation since he was released last year on the strength of DNA evidence showing he didn't commit two rapes.
Many House members were outraged. And Gov. Charlie Crist said ''justice is crying out'' for compensation of both the Anderson family and Crotzer. Nearly all of the 120 House members approved a measure to compensate Crotzer. Then, on Monday, House members tacked Crotzer's language onto the high-profile Anderson relief bill sought by the governor.
But Pruitt insisted the two bills be separated because he and fellow Republican House Speaker Marco Rubio had agreed ahead of time to approve 14 compensation bills, including a measure sought by Rubio to give $8.5 million to former Fort Lauderdale resident Minouche Noel, who was crippled by botched state-paid surgeries when she was an infant 19 years ago.
BACK AND FORTH
In the waning days of the session, when loads of legislation pour on the floor of both chambers, any friction can kill a bill if it has to bounce back and forth between the two chambers as they agree on identical language. The House members then separated Crotzer from the Anderson bill, which passed with just 10 ''no'' votes and heads to the Senate for final approval. The House changed the bill to limit lawyer and lobbyist fees.
''I'm not going to give an opinion on what's fair and not fair,'' Pruitt said. ``The Senate is not going to be put in a position where we're doing it at the last minute. Nothing good ever happens whenever you're rushed or you work late.''
A separate measure compensating Crotzer never made it out of a Senate criminal justice budget committee, whose chairman said he's waiting for Pruitt to bring it to the floor. The Republican leader, Webster, said he prefers the failed bill because it seeks to set up a court-like process that gives all exonerated inmates a flat amount of money based on the number of years wrongfully spent in prison.
Last year, the Legislature awarded $2 million to Wilton Dedge, who spent less time -- 22 years -- wrongfully imprisoned than Crotzer.
The difference between the two: Dedge had a clean record and is white. Crotzer was convicted after stealing beer as a young man and is black.
BUILDING THE FUTURE?
Rep. Terry Fields, a Democratic black caucus leader from Jacksonville, noted that there's about $1 billion in unspent money in the budget and that the Senate wanted to spend half of it on a massive public-works road-paving binge called ``Building Florida's Future.''
''How can you talk about building Florida's future when you don't right the wrongs of the past?'' Fields asked.

Law will let you take Fido to the grave

Florida legislators find it more important an issue to debate bills allowing citizens to be buried with their dogs, rather than making legal domestic partnerships. Pets over people. A backward set of priorities in my opinion.

Law will let you take Fido to the grave; Legislators passed a wide-ranging bill on the funeral industry that will give pet owners a new burial option. Source:
The Miami Herald 05/02/2007

TALLAHASSEE

Thanks to a senator's love for his dog, Floridians will soon be able to be buried with the encased ashes of their pets.

A bill in the Legislature that includes wide-ranging provisions on the industry known as ''deathcare'' originally said nothing about dogs and cats. But Sen. Jim King, a Jacksonville Republican, wanted to make sure that he can be buried with the ashes of his favorite black Lab, Valentine, who died about a decade ago.

The Senate voted for the measure 38-1 on Tuesday, sending the bill to the governor.
''Valentine was a very special dog,'' King said, adding that the pet helped him get through the deaths of his parents and was with him in his first campaign for office. ``She was the one living thing that was predictable in my life.''

Besides clearing the way for pet burials, the bill prohibits hospices from owning funeral homes and helps protect funeral directors from lawsuits brought by estranged family members who dispute a cremation. But nothing grabbed more attention than King's ''Felix and Fido'' amendment, which he said has drawn all kinds of comments from constituents.

LOTS OF ATTENTION
''I've got meaningful legislation here that probably never will see the light of day,'' King said, adding that the most praise he's received is for this minor pet amendment.
Sen. Victor Crist, the Tampa Republican and bill sponsor, said he had no problem accommodating King's request.

''The love for your pet is almost as great as the love for the other members of your family,'' Crist said. ``The focus should be on what is important to the deceased.''
Under current law, a licensed cemetery can house only human remains. Burial grounds that have wanted to allow pets usually set aside a plot outside the official cemetery. However, Florida's many unlicensed cemeteries have been allowed to bury pets.
Crist said there's no health issue because the bill allows only remains that have been cremated and encased to lie next to their masters.

A SURGE IN LAWSUITS
The other provisions in the bill are the result of changing societal attitudes on death. Funeral homes have been plagued in recent years by increasingly complex family situations, and cremation is becoming more popular, now accounting for about half of the dispositions in Florida.
The combination has culminated in more lawsuits against funeral homes when they cremate remains based on the wishes of the deceased or family. The bill specifies that funeral homes aren't liable when an estranged family member disputes the decision to cremate.
The hospice provision came out of a scare when a Fort Myers hospice applied for a license to operate a funeral home in December, causing a stir over what many said was a conflict of interest.

The bill passed with just one ''no'' vote. That came from Sen. Steve Oelrich, a Cross Creek Republican, who said he thought the bill placed too many regulations on the industry. To the pet provision, he had no objection.

Actually, he may use it to be buried with his dog, he said: ``Bobby Ray Boykin and I can snuggle up.''