What they’re saying: Reaction to Scott’s budget, vetoes

Lawmakers, lobbyists and lookers-on chimed in Monday after Gov. Rick Scott signed the state’s $74.1 billion spending plan for the coming year. Some applauded the governor for making historic investments in education, ports and business development. Others, smarting after Scott vetoed $368 million in spending projects endorsed by the Legislature, were none too happy. 

Here’s a roundup of some of the comments:

 --Senate Minority Leader Chris Smith, D-Fort Lauderdale, said he and the Senate Democrats were “extremely disappointed” by Scott’s budget vetoes. He referred to Scott as a “newcomer” who “misses a critical understanding” about the Legislature’s role in crafting a spending plan. 

Smith summed up his feelings in a tweet: “Gov. Scott fought hard to give 400 million tax break to manufacturers while cutting critical road and water projects for cities. SMH.”

--Senate President Don Gaetz, R-Niceville, kept a cordial tone, despite the fact that some of the major projects in his district were slashed by Scott’s veto pen. 

“Unlike the deficits and dysfunctions in Washington, today our Chief Executive signed a budget that lives within our means, meets the critical needs of the people of Florida, raises the salaries of state workers and effective teachers, pays down obligations instead of piling on more, puts aside money for a rainy day, and doesn't raise taxes by one dollar,” he said. 

Will Weatherford on failed Dolphins stadium vote: Told ya so

@MarcACaputo

Last night's crushing defeat of the Miami Dolphins stadium effort was a matter of some vindication for House Speaker Will Weatherford, who has taken a measure of heat from the club and a few fans for refusing to resurrect a bill that would have fully authorized a referendum.

As a result, we only have partial results. But it's a big part: nearly 61,000 counted ballots and a 43-57 percent rejection.

So the Dolphins looked headed for defeat had the Legislature voted on the bill that stalled in the House.

"As I said all along, public financing of the SunLife Stadium had significant challenges. The referendum result was just one more example," Weatherford, a Wesley Chapel Republican said. "The Dolphins are a great Florida team, and I hope the leadership will focus their energy on constructive and collaborative solutions."

Keep hoping, Mr. Speaker.

Dolphins owner and billionaire Steve Ross threw a tantrum when he didn't get his way, hurled a veiled threat at Weatherford and others and paid no attention to his own complicity in his own failures.

Indeed, this deal had problems from the start. An early poll showed how troubled the initial stadium deal was with Miami-Dade voters. The Dolphins ignored the results and attacked the pollster. Ross said he didn't want a public vote. There's a reason for that.

Since the May 3 session ended, the Dolphins have shown anything but a desire to be constructive, at least regarding public dialogue about what happened to its bill in the Florida House. And the portion of its fans or the general public who are utterly clueless about how the Legislature works are all stirred up by the Dolphins-spread myth that Weatherford killed the bill.

That's an exaggeration. The Dolphins bill stalled in the House.

First: it never was put on the agenda in the House budget committee by Chairman Seth McKeel. The budget committee was its last committee stop. Technically, under legislative process, that's a major killer.

Second: a similar measure that passed the Senate cleared that chamber too late in the session to make it easy to take up in the last week in the House without a two-thirds vote. I said as much in this column and repeatedly indicated in blog posts and on Twitter that the Dolphins' had problems. I was ignored. Had the bill arrived in time (on Monday before about 5 p.m. in this case) the House Rules Committee could have put it on the agenda to be voted on. It didn't. The rules committee, chaired by Rep. Rob Schenck could have made a special effort to agenda the bill "if received" by the Senate. But it didn't. So blame Schenck, too, as well as Dolphins-opposing members of his committee like future speakers Richard Corcoran and Jose Oliva.

Third: Oliva is a good example of the real nexus of opposition: Miami-Dade's Republican delegation in the House. A majority opposed the Dolphins bill. Why? Perhaps because, under the structure of representative government, they held the office most-close to constituents in the Legislature and realized that the people of Miami-Dade didn't want this (cf. the results last night). And they were stirring up opposition among other Republicans of the Florida House, where the GOP has a majority. The ring leaders: Carlos Trujillo, Michael Bileca and Jose Javier Rodriguez (who's a Democrat).

Now there's a good chance that, had the bill hit the House floor, it would have passed by a simple majority vote of the 120 members if nearly all the Democrats stuck together and about 20 Republicans had gone their way.

But to get the bill there, Weatherford would have had to go out of his way to resurrect the bill. That's not so much as killing as refusing to render aid. And it happens with hundreds of bills every lawmaking session. It's the process. It's can be ugly sausage-making. It sucks for advocates. But it is what it is. What made the Dolphins so special is that a rich guy lost and then attacked a fellow Republican.

So let's review: McKeel, Schenck, Corcoran, Oliva, Bileca and Rodriguez all played a role. They have a four major things in common:

1) They're members of the House.

2) They opposed the Dolphins deal and worked to kill it

3) None is named Will Weatherford.

4) All can say: I told ya so

As I said all along, public financing of the SunLife Stadium had significant challenges. The referendum result was just one more example. The Dolphins are a great Florida team, and I hope the leadership will focus their energy on constructive and collaborative solutions.

Dolphins stadium proposal was failing at the polls, vote tally shows

@PatriciaMazzei and @MarcACaputo

The Miami Dolphins’ short-lived campaign for a subsidized Sun Life Stadium renovation appeared doomed from the start.

A majority of Miami-Dade voters who cast ballots in the special stadium election before it was called off opposed the $350 million makeover, according to a count the elections department released late Tuesday.

The tabulation showed that among the 60,678 voters who voted by mail or at early-voting sites, 34,780 — about 57 percent — opposed the Dolphins’ proposal, compared to 25,898 — or 43 percent — who favored it.

The vote tally, though revealing partial results for an incomplete election, provides a snapshot of the opinion of voters who voted early, despite not knowing whether their ballots would ultimately count.

The Dolphins were foundering at the polls at the time the referendum was canceled, the count shows, but a team spokesman dismissed any notion that the proposal would have failed.

More here.

State announces new initiatives to crack down on fraud

Fighting fraud that costs the state millions of dollars and impacts poor residents who rely on public assistance payments,The Department of Children & Families on Tuesday announced a new system to crack down on cheaters.

“Florida has the highest per capita rate of reported identity theft nationally,” with more than 70 percent of ID theft tied to government-related services, said DCF Secretary David Wilkins, speaking at a a press conference with Deputy CFO Jay Etheridge and Tallahassee Police Chief  Dennis Jones.

Miami Dolphins spent big bucks on campaign for canceled election

@PatriciaMazzei

The Miami Dolphins and their owner, Stephen Ross, spent a staggering $10 million over the past six weeks on a special election that never happened.

Leading up to a planned May 14 referendum asking voters to help pay for renovations of Sun Life Stadium, the Dolphins’ political action committee, Friends of Miami First, raised $4.97 million and spent $4.49 million since April 1, according to a campaign finance report filed Friday. All contributions came from the Dolphins and Ross, through South Florida Stadium LLC, the corporate entity that owns the stadium.

Taken together with the nonrefundable $4.8 million payment the Dolphins made to Miami-Dade County last month to cover election costs, the team spent nearly $10 million in publicly reported funds on its failed push for state and county tax dollars to pay for some of the $350 million in stadium upgrades.

That total does not include expenses that do not have to be reported because they were not part of the election campaign, including lobbyist and public-relations consultant fees incurred before county commissioners agreed to hold the referendum.

Even without the cost to cover the election, the Dolphins’ sprint of a campaign ranks among the most expensive waged in Miami-Dade. A successful, months-long effort to approve Las Vegas-style slots in 2008 spent more than $6.6 million.

“We were committed to making sure voters had all the information necessary before they cast their votes, and that costs money,” campaign spokesman Eric Jotkoff said in an email Monday.

More here.

Movers & Shakers

New executive editor at News Service

Jim Saunders has been named the new executive editor of the News Service of Florida. Saunders replaces founding executive editor David Royse, who will become the News Service’s associate editor of special projects.

Along with his role as associate editor, Saunders, 47, has also reported on health care and other issues for the News Service. He was previously capital bureau chief of The Florida Times-Union in 1998 and held similar positions for The Daytona Beach News-Journal and Health News Florida. He is a graduate of Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill.

Royse, 43, left the Associated Press to help start the News Service in 2008. He’s moving to Chicago where his wife, Jessi Bishop-Royse, is taking a post at the Social Science Research Center at DePaul University. Royse, who will work on special projects for the News Service either remotely or in Florida, will remain involved with the growth of the News Service of Florida and its parent company, Affiliated News Services, which also runs Statehouse News Service in Boston.

New public information officer for FDLE

Linda McDonald is now the main spokesman for the Florida Department of Law Enforcement as part of her new role as the communications coordinator in the FDLE’s Office of External Affairs.

McDonald was most recently a state purchasing operations communications analyst with MyFloridaMarketPlace. She has also served as the communications deputy director and communications director for the Florida Department of Management Services and she was the communications director for First Professionals Insurance Company in Jacksonville.

Budget lands on Scott's desk, is tuition hike on the chopping block?

It was only Friday that lawmakers passed the $74.5 billion budget.

Now, it's Gov. Rick Scott's turn. The 450-page document landed on Scott's desk Thursday. He has until May 24 to sign it -- and veto anything he doesn't deem appropriate.

In his first year in office in 2011, Scott vetoed $615 million in member projects. Last year, Scott vetoed $143 million in various projects. He's been coy so far about what he's going to reject this year, but he'll have a lot to choose from. It's stuffed with hometown spending on cultural centers, water projects and college and university funding.

The biggest single veto drama is whether Scott will deep-six the proposed 3 percent tuition hike.  University leaders are expecting Scott to veto it. Former Gov. Charlie Crist did the same thing in 2007. Although some questioned the legality of Crist's actions, Scott's general counsel says it set a precedent that puts Scott on solid ground if he does the same this year.

Weatherford hit "right" tone in first session as House Speaker

TALLAHASSEE — Few Florida politicians were known for being more likable and reasonable than House Speaker Will Weatherford.

But that was before the 2013 legislative session thrust the 33-year-old Wesley Chapel Republican to the forefront of the state's most contentious issues.

By last week, Weatherford was better known for being the roadblock to accepting $51 billion in federal aid to expand Medicaid. Or to government workers, the man who pushed hardest to dissolve the state's pension system. Or to public school teachers, the champion of a proposal that would allow parents to demand that some public schools be transformed into charter schools.

Story here.

Movers & Shakers

 It's been a busy session for movers and shakers.

Capitol TV reporter becomes new DCF press secretary

Whitney Ray, a reporter for the Capitol News Service, has been named the new press secretary for the Department of Children and Families. Ray, a graduate of the University of Arkansas, has had 12 years experience in the TV news business. He's replaced by Matt Horn, previously with KSNW-TV in Wichita, Kansas.

And there's lots more shuffling in Capitol communications.

Alexis Lambert, who was the communications director for Chief Financial Officer Jeff Atwater, is the new DCF Communications Director, replacing Joe Follick, a former reporter who left the DCF job in April to take the top communications job at the Florida Department of Education.

Follick, who had been with DCF since October 2009, replaced Cynthia Sucher, who has become communications director for the Florida Office of Early Learning. Laura Woodard, who previously held the job, is now president of a Tampa marketing and communications firm.

Thousands of gun owners email Gov. Scott seeking veto of NRA-backed gun law

More than 4,000 people emailed Gov. Rick Scott on Friday, telling him to veto the only gun bill that passed through the Florida Legislature this year.

The bill, HB 1355, aims to keep guns out of the hands of the mentally ill, and received the blessing of the National Rifle Association. It passed the Senate unanimously and passed the House on a 117-1 vote.

 Gun owners--who have sent Scott more than 20,000 emails in the last two weeks opposing any new gun legislation—are urging Scott to use his veto pen on HB 1355.

“I am opposed to any expansion of gun control, of any kind,” wrote Douglas Elliot, of Polk County. “Mayor (Michael) Bloomberg is bent on disarming every American in this country. I am an American citizen and am a responsible owner.”

The bill would close a loophole in Florida law that allows people who voluntarily commit themselves to a mental institution to buy a gun once they leave. People who are involuntarily committed under the state’s “Baker Act” laws are currently prohibited from buying firearms.

Most people who are committed into mental institutions in Florida do so voluntarily. Officials from the National Rifle Association worked with a Miami Gardens Democrat, Rep. Barbara Watson, to try and close the loophole.

Watson’s bill was one of more than a dozen gun control laws proposed by Florida Democrats this year, the first session after the mass shooting of 20 children and six educators in Newtown, Connecticut. Other than HB 1355, none of the bills received a hearing in Florida’s firearm-friendly Legislature.

 However, for the first time in several years, the Legislature did not pass any controversial bills to expand gun rights—perhaps a side effect of the national firestorm over gun crime.