Jacksonville & Jaguars will fund stadium renovations without state funding

From the News Service of Florida:

Without new state subsidies in play, the Jacksonville Jaguars and city officials announced Wednesday they will jointly proceed with $63 million in upgrades to EverBank Field, including the installation of two massive end-zone video scoreboards that the team says will be the largest in the world.

The announcement came a day after International Speedway Corp. unveiled plans to proceed on its own with $375 million to $400 million in upgrades to Daytona International Speedway. Both venues, along with a proposal for a soccer stadium in Orlando and improvements to the Miami Dolphins' Sun Life Stadium in Miami Gardens, failed to win legislative approval to direct state sales taxes into the planned construction or upgrades.

Besides the new 301-foot-long, 55-foot-high end zone scoreboards at EverBank Field, other work at the publicly-owned stadium will include additional sideline display boards and a new concession area beyond the north end zone that is to feature pools and interactive activities.

"Our determination to see this concept brought to reality was matched by Mayor (Alvin) Brown, and his impressive work on this project is why we're able to move so quickly," Jaguars owner Shahid Khan said in a release. "This is what can happen when two parties are committed to a common goal."

The two sides are sharing the cost of the $26.5 million video scoreboards, with the team covering 75 percent of the bill. The city is picking up the tab for the rest of the work from its capital projects funds.

With universities embracing small tuition increase, Scott focuses on fees

Gov. Rick Scott did some intense campaigning, but only two state universities -- Florida Gulf Coast University and Florida Atlantic University -- have agreed to forgo the 1.7 percent tuition increase required by state law. Now the governor is tweaking his message, asking the state Board of Governors to think long and hard about the modest fee increases that universities have proposed. 

Here is more from Thursday's paper:

Despite Gov. Rick Scott's pleas, tuition is going up slightly at all but two of Florida's universities.

So Scott is returning to the board that oversees state universities with a new request: Be tough on fee increases.

Scott on Wednesday asked the Florida Board of Governors to carefully consider fee hikes for students next year. The board will decide what to do Thursday as it wraps up three days of meetings at the University of South Florida.

In a letter, Scott stopped just short of asking board members to reject increased fees, saying Floridians need to be able to afford a degree in order to get a good job.

Big business coalitions: failure to expand Medicaid hurts business

Two business-backed health insurance coalitions sent a warning signal Wednesday to Florida’s employers about the effects of rejecting Medicaid expansion for the uninsured.

In a nutshell: brace yourselves, this is bad for business.

They argue that if lawmakers continue to turn away an estimated $51 billion in federal money to pay for expanding Medicaid coverage, companies will restrict growth, businesses will flee to states with more competitive health insurance markets, and any company left standing that pays for health insurance will see its premiums rise as hospitals and doctors shift their losses from the uninsured to them. 

“It will further the upward pressure of the cost shift to the commercially-insured patients,’’ said William Kramer, health care policy expert from the Pacific Business Group on Health in a conference call with reporters. The coalition represents large businesses in 50 states -- from Walt Disney Company, Target, Walmart and Boeing to Wells Fargo. 

Alex Sink surfacing: blasts Citizens' 'sweetheart deal' and is sounding like a candidate

In an op-ed in today's Tampa Bay Times, former Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink details the reasons why she believes Citizens Property Insurance should reject what she calls a "sweetheart deal" with take-out company Heritage Property and Casualty.

And as Adam Smith reports today, Sink is not ruling out another run for governor -- but she's not quite ruling it in yet either.

In the editorial, she says "the recent Citizens Property Insurance deal with start-up insurance company Heritage Property and Casualty of St. Petersburg must be stopped immediately and thoroughly reviewed by our elected officials who appoint the Citizens board members. These officials include Gov. Rick Scott, Chief Financial Officer Jeff Atwater, House Speaker Will Weatherford and Senate President Don Gaetz." More here. 

Banks score incomplete grade in mortgage settlement case

Wednesday was report card day for the five largest banks that agreed to a $25 billion settlement with the 49 attorneys general, but they received mostly incomplete scores from the government-appointed monitor passing out the grades.

Joe Smith, the monitor, released a report on Bank of America, JP Morgan Chase, CitiMortgage Inc., ResCap Partiers (formerly GMAC) and Wells Fargo. The banks were tested during two separate periods:  July 1-Sept. 30 and Oct 1. to Dec. 31. According to a report by Smith last month, the banks have reported distributing $50.6 billion in direct relief to more than 620,000 homeowners through the settlement.

Smith found that the banks failed eight servicing standards they agreed to in the settlement, mostly related to processing loan modifications, a sure sign that the banks aren’t providing enough staff to manage the cases.

The banks did pass the majority of the standards they were tested on, but they weren’t tested on all of the 29 areas outlined in the settlement because of delays in providing documents and agreed upon services. Bank of America was tested on only a dozen, Chase on only 11, CitiMortgage on 15, ResCap on 11, and Wells Fargo on 20.

The incomplete gaps led to some considerable holes in reporting. For instance, Bank of America has come under fire in Florida and other states for not providing timely documents or alerts during the foreclosure process. In a June 6 letter, Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi slammed Bank of America and threatened to sue over the bank’s alleged failure to modify mortgages in an efficient manner.

Of the 17 categories Bank of America wasn’t tested on were two addressing this very issue.

Poll: Florida voters not happy with Tallahassee, give gov and Legislature low marks

Maybe it's the out-of-sight, out-of-mind placement of the state Capitol. Maybe it's the sluggish economy and the stubborn unemployment numbers. Whatever the reason, the latest Quinnipiac University poll sends the signal that Florida voters are not happy with Tallahassee these days -- not that they really ever are.

When asked how voters feel about the job the state Legislature is doing, voters disapprove 49 to 32 percent. The numbers are predictably partisan for the Republican-led chamber: Democrats disapprove of the job lawmakers are doing 64 to 18 percent while Republicans approve 47 to 34 percent. But the telltale signal comes from crucial independent voters, who determine the fate of all statewide races in Florida. They disapprove of the job legislators are doing 48 to 33 percent.

On controversial issues, Florida voters are pretty clear where they stand:

    *They support expanding Medicaid to cover Floridians without health insurance by 49-40 percent, virtually unchanged from a similar March poll, a clear contradiction from the firm rejection of the issue by Republican legislative leaders.

    * Voters continue to support the state’s “Stand Your Ground” law, allowing people to fight back with deadly force when threatened, 57 to 36 percent. The issue remained untouched in the last legislative session.

    * Voters want to allow path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants 58 to 24 percent, a federal issue that Florida lawmakers can only tinker with.

    * And they oppose the governor’s veto of a non-controversial bill to make it easier for children of undocumented immigrants to get driver’s licenses, supporting the issue 59-32 percent. The governor surprised legislators by vetoing the bill which won near unanimous support. 

As for Gov. Rick Scott, voters are warming to the Republican governor but are still not thrilled: 43 percent approve of the job the governor is doing and 44 percent disapprove. That's up from a March Quinnipiac poll when 36 percent of voters approved of Scott's performance and 49 percent disapproved.

 

Q poll: Rubio's approval remains steady, Clinton leads in match-up for prez in 2016

Florida voters give Sen. Marco Rubio’s bad reviews for his mixed signals on immigration, don’t like his opposition to requiring background checks for gun buyers and both of those positions haven’t done much to win over voters in a 2016 match-up against former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released Wednesday.

Despite that showing, Florida’s junior senator still gets a 51-35 percent job approval rating, little changed from his 48-33 percent approval by a March 20 poll from the independent Quinnipiac University.

Rubio’s numbers show that as the nation’s best-known Hispanic-American politician, he “has a  tightrope to walk between keeping the folks back home happy and serving as a high-profile symbol for the GOP nationally,” said Peter A. Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute in a statement.

“A mark of an able politician is one who can keep his support among the electorate even when that politician follows his own path rather than the public’s preference on a high-profile issue like immigration or gun control,” he said.

No decision from Miami-Dade commissioners on leftover Dolphins elections cash

@PatriciaMazzei

Deciding what to do with left over cash from the Miami Dolphins’ short-lived referendum on stadium improvements proved too much Tuesday for Miami-Dade commissioners.

After delaying a vote earlier this month and considering three competing spending proposals at length, board members declared a stalemate, conceding they could not agree on any of the plans.

Instead, they asked the administration to bank the windfall — about $2.3 million — in the county’s general fund. They will decide during the next few months how to spend the money in next year’s budget.

The anticlimactic conclusion came after a tug-of-war among commissioners on the dais. At one point it appeared that practically each one had a different idea of where the dollars should go.

“Before the budget, it’s very easy for us to give money away,” Chairwoman Rebeca Sosa said. “But then when the budget time comes and we have to talk about either increasing taxes or asking our employees to make sacrifices, that is when things get hard on this table.”

The money was left over from the nearly $4.8 million nonrefundable payment the Dolphins made to the county to cover the costs of a proposed May 14 special election. The referendum was called off after the Florida House of Representatives concluded its annual legislative session without taking up a bill required for the election to take place.

More here.

Amazon giveaways popular, even if company doesn't need them

When Amazon expands, like it wants to in Florida, state and local governments practically line up to offer to pay the company to move.

Virginia officials approved $4.4 million in taxpayer subsidies so Amazon could build two warehouses in the state. California reached a deal where the online company was free from sales taxes for a year, saving about $200 million. Texas officials forgave $269 million in back sales taxes to get a new warehouse. New Jersey officials put up millions more in breaks.

All the deals were cut in the past three years. All for a company that had $61.1 billion in sales last year.

On Wednesday Hillsborough County commissioners will consider a package that could include up to $7.5 million in local and state tax breaks for Amazon to build a new warehouse in Ruskin for 1,000 employees. Hillsborough's offer was disclosed last week, shortly after Gov. Rick Scott announced that Amazon wants to create 3,000 jobs in the state by 2016.

Yet enticements are so small in relation to Amazon's multibillion-dollar business that analysts don't even bother studying their affect on expansion.

"They are a spec on the radar," said Matt Nemer, a retail analyst for Wells Fargo Securities in San Francisco. "They're just not big enough to make a difference."

Here's the rationale for why Amazon gets the incentives, at considerable public expense, anyway.

Dems aren't ready to measure their candidates but they do have metrics on -- the JJ dinner

Here's a new one -- an infographic touting a dinner. This one is about the Florida Democratic Party's annual Jefferson Jackson dinner, held Saturday at the Westin Diplomat in Broward.

The party offers up on its web site its metrics for what says was an unprecedented number of attendees and $850,000 in money raised (compared to last year's $600,000.) It even measured the applause, with a decibel meter. 

Then there's what the graphic didn't measure:

* the rift between House Democrats;

* the rejection of former state Sen. Nan Rich, who is running for governor, from the speaker's platform;

* the reaction to Alex Sink, former CFO who narrowly lost to Rick Scott and is considering entering the race again; 

* or the crowd's receptiveness to likely-Democratic candidate and former Republican Gov. Charlie Crist.

 A new Quinnipiac University poll out today did take a measurement on some of those folks. Respondents said that if the election were held today both Crist and Sink would defeat incumbent Gov. Rick Scott while too few people know about Rich to judge her.  Download 061813 FL GOV POLL + BP

Update: Republican political consultant Brian Burgess notes that, based on a report published in the Palm Beach Post last year, Democratic Party organizers in 2012 actually reported a higher number of people in attendance (1,000) and a fundraising threshold of $750,000. 

"Either the Florida Democrats are lousy at math, or they're lousy at telling the truth,'' he said. 

Democratic Party spokesman Joshua Karp, who wasn't with the Florida party last year, responded that the actual number of attendees in 2012 was closer to 900 and the amount reported as raised was based on amount pledged. This year's number, he said, was based on checks delivered and he stands by the percentages reported.

 

Ex-Sen. Dockery: Florida GOP 'scared of Charlie Crist'

Former Republican state Sen. Paula Dockery of Lakeland says it was "kind of silly" and "dumb" that the Republican Party of Florida mounted a campaign urging that Democratic candidate for governor Nan Rich be given speaking time at last weekend's Jefferson-Jackson Dinner in Hollywood.

Dockery said that by promoting Nan Rich, Republicans showed their true colors.

"It looks like they're scared of Charlie Crist," Dockery said on the weekly public affairs program Florida This Week on WEDU-Channel 3 in Tampa. "They want to pump up Nan Rich, who was not getting much traction on her own ... I think it just sends the message that they're worried about Charlie Crist and it was kind of a dumb thing."

Puzzled by a Republican effort in support of a little-known Democratic candidate, Dockery said she fired off an email to party headquarters in Tallahassee, asking: "Who's your audience on this?"

-- Steve Bousquet

Kentucky governor hits back at Scott's job-poaching efforts

Gov. Rick Scott is targeting yet another state in his effort to poach out-of-state jobs -- and this time the other governor is firing back.

Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear, a Democrat, took issue with Scott's characterization of the Bluegrass State as a land of high taxes and anti-business regulation.

"Gov. Scott's description of the business climate in Kentucky is so far from the existing reality that one wonders whether he's had too much of that Florida sun (and the high property taxes that go with it)," Beshear said in a statement released Tuesday.

Beshear cited praise of Kentucky's business climate from Area Development magazine and a drop of 2.4 percentage points in the state's unemployment rate. Kentucky's unemployment rate is 7.9 percent; Florida's is 7.2 percent.

On his official web site, Beshear is touting the news that Toyota plans to soon begin assembly of the popular Lexus ES350 sedan at a plant in Georgetown, Ky.

Earlier, Scott sent letters to governors of California, Connecticut, Illinois, Maryland and Minnesota, criticizing those states' business climates and seeking to persuade CEOs to move south.

Scott and Beshear have a history. Two years ago, Beshear lobbied Scott to support a prescription drug monitoring system in an effort to reduce the high number of fatal drug overdoses caused by "pill mills" in Florida. Scott initially refused, but later did support the drug database.

-- Steve Bousquet 

Gov. Scott gains ground in new statewide poll, but trails Crist by 10

Gov. Rick Scott's poll numbers are showing signs of progress, but he would still lose to former Gov. Charlie Crist by 10 points if the 2014 election were held today, according to a new Quinnipiac University poll.

Still one of America's least popular governors, Scott trails Crist 47 percent  to 37 percent in a face-off between the Republican governor and his possible now-Democratic rival.

But the poll contains a glimmer of hope for Scott: Voters are closely divided in their assessment of his job performance, with 43 percent approving and 44 percent disapproving. That's a significant improvement over the previous Quinnipiac poll in March, when 36 percent of voters approved of Scott's performance and 49 percent disapproved.

The percentage of voters who have a favorable view of Scott is up to 40 percent, the highest since he took office nearly two-and-a-half years ago. But he has persistent problems with women, who favor Crist by 51 to 32 percent, and Hispanics favor Crist over Scott, 40-33 percent.

Crist's 13 percent share of Republican crossover votes is slightly higher than Scott's 8 percent share of Democrats.

Voters still say by a margin of 50 percent to 35 percent that Scott does not deserve to be re-elected, but that too is an improvement over the previous survey in March, when 55 percent said he didn't deserve a second term and 32 percent said he did.

"It is an indication of how far down Gov. Rick Scott's numbers have been that he can take some solace from a poll that finds him losing by 10 points to his predecessor in the governor's office," said Quinnipiac's Peter Brown. "In addition to cutting the deficit between himself and Crist, Scott sees his tepid job approval and favorability numbers and still-negative re-election numbers as notably improved. That doesn't mean that happy days are here again for the governor, but if he is going to make a comeback, these are the kinds of steps that would be required."

Voters have a favorable view of Crist by a margin of 48 to 31 percent. For Scott, that number is 40 percent favorable, 42  percent unfavorable.

By a margin of 47 to 44 percent, voters said Crist's switch to the Democratic Party is a positive thing, including 53 percent of independent voters. Speaking of independents, they favor Crist over Scott for governor by 45 percent to 33 percent.

The poll also shows that U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson would defeat Scott, 48-38 percent, but that Scott would defeat former Senate Democratic leader Nan Rich, 42-36 percent. Rich is one of three announced Democratic candidate for governor in 2014, and Nelson has repeatedly said he has no intention of running for governor. Quinnipiac did not ask voters about Alex Sink, the Democratic nominee in 2010 who is considering another bid.

Nelson does slightly better with independent voters against Scott (48-33 percent) than Crist.

Scott travels the state extensively claiming credit for improvements in Florida's economy, and the poll suggests that message is slowly getting through to Florida voters. One-third of them said the economy in Florida is getting better, and 14 percent said Scott deserves "a lot" of credit for that and 44 percent say he deserves "some" credit.

The bottom line: Scott's numbers were close to rock bottom and they had nowhere to go but up. The headline on Quinnipiac's news release summed it up nicely: "Gov's grades are low, but best ever."

Quinnipiac surveyed 1,176 Florida voters from June 11-16. The survey has a margin of error of plus or minus 2.9 percentage points.

-- Steve Bousquet

Poll: Absentee-ballot scandal makes Miami Rep. Joe Garcia vulnerable in reelection

@PatriciaMazzei & @MarcACaputo

A leading rival of U.S. Rep. Joe Garcia released a new poll Monday that shows the incumbent has a double-digit lead but a major vulnerability: the absentee-ballot fraud scandal haunting his campaign.

The poll shows Garcia, a Miami Democrat, leading 46 percent to 34 percent in a potential 2014 matchup against Republican Carlos Curbelo, the Miami-Dade School Board member who commissioned the survey.

But among those who had heard about the Garcia campaign’s involvement in the fraudulent absentee-ballot requests scheme, the race is a “dead heat,” the poll says, with Curbelo leading Garcia 40 percent to 39 percent.

Garcia’s office said he is not worried about poll numbers but rather about building a track record as a first-year congressman.

“Even in a skewed partisan poll the Congressman remains very strong and likely to be re-elected,” Raul Martinez Jr., Garcia’s district director and political advisor, said in a statement. “Congressman Garcia is not focused on partisan politics. Congressman Garcia remains focused on serving the community by dealing with immigration reform, getting the country’s fiscal house in order and fueling the economic recovery.”

Garcia has been in damage control since May 31, when Miami-Dade state attorney’s office investigators raided three locations associated with his campaign manager and a former campaign worker who also served as his congressional spokesman.

More here.

Supreme Court agrees to expedite briefs in redistricting case

The Florida Supreme Court has agreed to partly expedite the review of the redistricting challenge brought by the League of Women Voters and a coalition of  individuals and voter groups this month by giving the parties until June 21 to file their briefs.

The court did not say whether it would also conduct an expedited hearing in the case, thereby interrupting the court's traditional summer break, but it did not deny the request for the fast-track hearing either.

The League and several other plaintiffs are asking the court to review a precedent-setting appellate court decision issued last month that allows legislators to be shielded from discovering proceedings in a redistricting challenge.

Lawyers for the House and Senate successfully argued before the First District Court of Appeals that legislators and their staff enjoy blanket immunity from being forced to turn over their work papers or testify regarding redistricting. 

 

Citizen's top defender, long-time CFO Sharon Binnun, resigns

A top official at Citizens Property Insurance, chief financial officer Sharon Binnun, resigned Monday, the company president Barry Gilway announced Monday in a note to employees.

Binnun served the company as a steadfast defender of some of Citizen's most controversial policies and faced withering criticism from lawmakers and consumer advocates over those ideas as well as over travel expenses racked up by Citizens executives.

Binnun, who joined the state-run insurance company in six years ago and made $255,000 a year, said in her resignation letter she has accepted a job in the private sector effective July 5. She is credited with helping to transfer 430,000 policies from Citizens to private insurers over the past two years, resulting in an estimated 47 percent decrease in potential assessments on Citizens customers and all Florida policyholders in the event of a catastrophic storm.

Binnin was often the voice of Citizens before the legislature, calmly defending ideas that were later rejected by policy makers as too controversial -- such as a proposal from Citizens to offer loans to companies to take out Citizens policies and to remove caps on rate hikes.

Remembering this day in (Rick Scott) history

Florida Republicans are having a lot of fun pointing out the contradictions in Charlie Crist's record with a feature called "This Day in CRIST-ory," with a logo that resembles the History Channel. But this day, June 17, is historic for a very different reason.

It was on this day in 2010, three years ago, that Rick Scott walked into the state Division of Elections in Tallahassee, wrote a check and got his name on the Republican primary ballot for governor of Florida. It was also the first time Scott held a press conference, and his performance is memorable for a lot of reasons. The Buzz recently reviewed the videotape, courtesy of our media partners at BayNews 9.

Scott talked about the need to turn the state's economy around, create private sector jobs and "getting results by holding people accountable." After a brief statement and fielding a single question, he tried to get away, saying: "I've got to get to another meeting." 

But a cooler head prevailed. Press aide Jennifer Coxe Baker brought Scott out into the hallway where he answered questions for 10 minutes, an experience he summed up near the end by saying: "This is hard!"

Under the hot TV lights, Scott was visibly perspiring as he fielded one question after another. Several were about his personal finances, his fund-raising strategy and his views on a variety of issues -- such as immigration. "I think the Arizona law is a law that we ought to have in Florida," Scott said.

That never happened. But on that day, Scott began to change the course of history in Florida.

-- Steve Bousquet

New GOP web ad attacks Rep. Joe Garcia over absentee-ballot fraud investigation

@PatriciaMazzei

National Republicans, who have seized on the fraudulent absentee-ballot request investigation engulfing Democratic Rep. Joe Garcia's campaign, plan to attack the Miami congressman in a new online ad.

The National Republican Congressional Committee ad, slated to be posted on the web Tuesday, features a clip of a television spot from Garcia's 2010 campaign in which he said, "Scandals, corruption, partisan infighting -- no wonder people have lost faith in Congress."

Now it's Garcia involved in scandal, the ad notes, cutting to recent news clips about the dismissal of the congressman's chief of staff for apparently directing campaign staffers to submit phony absentee-ballot requests. The ad calls on Garcia "to come clean" in the probe or resign. Garcia has said he had no knowledge of or involvement in the scheme, and prosecutors from the Miami-Dade state attorney's office have so far backed him up.

Here's the ad:

Equality Florida 'condemns Marco Rubio's bigoted comments on immigration reform and ENDA'

Statement from Equality Florida crossposted from Gay South Florida:

MEDIA STATEMENT BY NADINE SMITH, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF EQUALITY FLORIDA

EQUALITY FLORIDA CONDEMNS MARCO RUBIO’S BIGOTED COMMENTS ON IMMIGRATION REFORM AND EMPLOYMENT NON-DISCRIMINATION ACT

Rubio on Immigration Reform:  "If this bill has something in it that gives gay couples immigration rights and so forth, it kills the bill.  I'm done.”

Rubio on ENDA (the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, which would protect LGBT people from being fired because of their sexual orientation or gender identity): "By and large I think all Americans should be protected but I’m not for any special protections based on orientation."

Online ballot fraud marks the ‘e-boletera era of Miami politics’

@MarcACaputo & @PatriciaMazzei

The election scandal dogging Congressman Joe Garcia’s campaign and two state House races makes it clear: Computer techies are supplementing old-school, block-walking ballot-brokers known as boleteras.

Over just a few days last July, at least two groups of schemers used computers traced to Miami, India and the United Kingdom to fraudulently request the ballots of 2,046 Miami-Dade voters.

Garcia said he knew nothing of the plot that recently implicated three former campaign workers, two employed in his congressional office. Investigators, meanwhile, have hit a dead end with a larger fraud involving two state House races.

A third incident cropped up Thursday in Miami’s mayoral race, but the case appears unrelated to last year’s fraud when two groups appeared to act separately from each other. They employed different tactics to target different types of voters, a University of Florida/Miami Herald analysis of election data indicates.

The ultimate goal was the same: get mail-in ballots into the hands of voters, a job that many boleteras once handled on the streets of Miami-Dade.

Now, it’s electronic.

“This is the e- boletera era of Miami politics,” said Daniel Smith, a UF political science professor who analyzed the voting data previously examined by The Miami Herald.

More here