Gun rights Marion Hammer, who for decades has fought laws that restrict firearms in Florida, is mounting a campaign to urge Gov. Rick Scott to sign a bill that will ban gun purchases –- for the mentally ill
Hammer, the powerful lobbyist for the National Rifle Association and United Sportsmen of Florida, has started an email “alert” to about 200,000 of the group’s members urging them to “Please email Governor Scott right away and urge him to sign HB-1355.”
The blitz is necessary, she said, to “counter the barrage of emails” loaded with “patently false” information filling Scott's “Sunburst” email inbox.
Since the bill’s passage, the governor’s office has received at least 17,008 emails and 2,711 calls in opposition to the bill (as of June 19). Many of the emails are identical, except for names of the senders. In contrast, Scott has received a dozen calls and one email in support of the bill.
The Florida Commission on Ethics has found probable cause to conclude that Sen. Maria Sachs failed to properly disclose a Tallahassee condominium on her annual financial disclosure forms for three years but, because Sachs amended her forms to correct the omission, the commission chose not to pursue any further action.
The complaint alleging alleging that Sachs violated state financial disclosure law by failing to include her Tallahassee condominium on her annual report for three years was filed by Palm Beach County Republican Party chairman Sid Dinerstein on Oct. 15.
Sachs, a Democrat, was embroiled in a hotly contested race against former state Sen. Ellyn Bogdanoff, R-Fort Lauderdale at the time, which she won. They were forced to run against each other because of redistricting.
Rep. MikeFasano and Dr. JackNicholson, who runs
the state-backed reinsurance organization (the Florida Hurricane Catastrophe Fund), are
in a bit of a back-and-forth over what should and shouldn’t constitute a “residential
property” for insurance purposes.
It’s a bit wonky, but Fasano says Nicholson’s interpretation
of Florida’s
statutes could cost condo associations thousands of dollars in rate hikes, if the Cat
Fund stops covering their buildings.
According to Fasano (R-New Port Richey), a change to the Cat Fund’s coverage
policy would disqualify condominium buildings where units are being rented for more than six months
of the year from receiving state-backed reinsurance.
He said the change could force some condo associations to see their
insurance rates double, as private insurers and state-run Citizens Insurance rely on the Cat
Fund for low priced back-up insurance.
Fasano believes Nicholson and the Cat Fund have gone beyond
the scope of the Florida Statutes by implementing the restriction on condos
that have units rented out for more than half the year.
“Distinguishing between policies for condominium structures
and condominium units based on rental criteria also seems to be contrary to
Section 718.1256, Florida Statutes,” he wrote in a letter to Nicholson, outlining statutory language that states condos should be classified as residential property. The
Cat Fund is required to provide coverage for residential properties.
Nicholson responded Friday, arguing that he was complying with the
law because the rented condo units are “transient rental property,” and
therefore not considered “residential property” eligible for Cat Fund coverage.
“An exclusion of transient rentals from the term ‘residential
property’ is consistent with other statutory provisions,” wrote Nicholson.
More than a dozen local politicians from Miami-Dade County—including
Miami Mayor TomasRegalado—say they are “outraged” that
the Florida Legislature wants to pass down another mandate on local
governments.
In a letter to Gov. Rick
Scott, Regalado and other local mayors, commissioners and council members,
say HB 655—a ban on local “sick time” ordinances—is a “Tallahassee power grab.”
“Preempting local governments from exerting local control is
bad public policy,” the letter states, before telling Scott to veto the
bill. It also says: “It is unconscionable that legislators would pass a bill
that diminishes the quality of life for our residents.”
HB 655 bans local governments from mandating that private
employers provide sick-time leave and other benefits to their workers. If Scott
signs it, it would stop Orange
County from moving ahead
with a ballot initiative that would mandate businesses to provide sick time
benefits.
Initially, the bill would have also struck down “living
wage” ordinances currently on the books in places like Miami-Dade
County and Miami Beach. Those ordinances require
companies that contract with the local government to pay wages that are higher
than the state’s minimum wage. During the legislative process, lawmakers
stripped out the language that would have affected the Miami-Dade ordinance. It
passed the House 76-41 on a partyline vote, with the support of Miami-Dade’s
Republican House members.
Florida’s Department of Economic Opportunity
is accusing the federal government of targeting it with a politically driven
investigation, after the U.S. Department of Labor slammed the jobs agency for
denying access to jobless benefits.
Perhaps building upon the
IRS's targeting scandal, DEO is asking for Congressional hearings and an Inspector General
investigation into “improper politicization at the United States Department of
Labor.”
“DEO has concluded that the USDOL
investigation appears to have relied on insufficient evidence, fell far below
professional standards, and may have been politically motivated,” the state
jobs agency said in a statement.
In 2011, Gov. Rick Scott and the
Legislature slashed jobless benefits and created new requirements for
applicants, including an online-only application and a 45-question skills
review. DOL initially approved of the changes, which eventually led to a sharp
increase in the number of rejected applications.
Civil rights groups filed
challenges with the federal government over the changes, and the first ruling
came in April. DOL’s Civil Rights Center sided
with the pro-worker groups, finding that DEO’s unemployment aid program
discriminated against people who speak Spanish and Creole, as well as those who
were blind or otherwise disabled.
DEO is now saying that the DOL
findings were “flawed” and based on politics rather than facts. In letters to
Congress and the U.S. Inspector General’s Office, DEO general counsel Robert
Sechen accuses DOL of collaborating with the group that filed the challenge
(the Miami Workers Center).
Sechen also accuses a key DOL official of admitting to having a political
agenda, citing a biography that states the official had worked to “keep the
evil overseers of the Bush administration from dismantling U.S. federal
civil rights laws.”
Once again, some lucky constituents have two, not one, elected fighting their battles in Tallahassee — while some unlucky schmucks have none.
State Rep. Eddy Gonzalez (R-Hialeah), senior member
and chair of the Miami-Dade Legislative Delegation, is still living in
his old home, which was drawn into his colleague buddy’s district, even
though Gonzalez was elected in a new number to which he said he was
moving.
After redistricting last year put his home in another incumbent’s
district, Gonzalez, who is termed out in 2014, “volunteered” to move out
of his home at 7625 W 14th Ct. — where he represented District 102 in
West Hialeah for the last six years — and into a relative’s East Hialeah
house in District 111.
Well, he sorta had to volunteer — either that or run against his ally and campaign cigar supplier, State Rep. Jose “Cigar Czar” Oliva (R-Miami Lakes), after his property was included in the newly-redrawn District 110, which would have been uncomfortable, especially seeing as how everyone is pushing to make Oliva a future House Speaker.
In 2010, state Rep. Darryl Rouson bought a townhouse in Tallahassee.
Since then, he has missed three years of property tax payments, falling so far behind that the unit soon could be put up for auction.
That's not all. Last fall, Rouson borrowed $20,000 from a relative using his already heavily mortgaged St. Petersburg home as security.
And this spring, Rouson parted ways with the Tampa law firm of Morgan & Morgan, which had been paying him as much as $565,000 annually.
Is Rouson, the future House Democratic leader, in financial straits again?
"No, other than someone who just loses their main source of income in the last couple of weeks,'' Rouson, 58, said Tuesday.
A hard-charging lawyer who said he was once addicted to crack cocaine, Rouson declared bankruptcy in 2002 while owing $360,000 to the IRS. He was still in bankruptcy proceedings when he and his wife Angela borrowed money to build a two-story, 4,400-square-foot home that they later refinanced for more than $550,000. More here.
The state’s largest private property insurance company has
been violating state law, mistreating customers and shifting profits to
affiliates for years, according to an order released Thursday by the Office of
Insurance Regulation.
Universal Property and Casualty Insurance Company has been
fined $1.3 million for a laundry list of violations ranging from mismanaging
its money to wrongfully denying insurance claims to failing to maintain
appropriate records. Many of the violations are repeat offenses for the
company, since regulators flagged the much of the misconduct in 2005.
The fine, if it holds, would be one of the largest ever
levied against a property insurer.
Fort Lauderdale-based Universal has more than 542,000
policyholders, and is 15 times as large as it was in 2004. During that rapid
growth span, regulators say, it built up a habit of breaking insurance rules
and using questionable financial practices. Universal officials did not respond to requests for comment Thursday.
The company was blasted last year by the Insurance Consumer
Advocate, Robin Westcott, for it’s practice of “post claim underwriting.” After
homeowners filed insurance claims, the company scrutinizes the initial policyholder
application, to see if any mistakes had been made. If the homeowner failed to
report a credit issue on the initial application, Universal denies the
claim and cancels the policy.
“This practice is reprehensible and should cease immediately,”
said Westcott last month, urging the Office of Insurance Regulation to
investigate.
OIR found that Universal was indeed cancelling policies
after policyholders made claims, leaving homeowners who thought they had insurance with
huge repair bills and no coverage.
"For far too long, this company unjustly denied claims and forced consumers into financially devastating situations," said Chief Financial Officer Jeff Atwater, in a statement.
The company also made several other violations, cited in the 19-page OIR order (which is subject to challenge by Universal before it becomes final).
They include:
--
Canceling policies without justification (a “repeat
violation” from a 2005 order)
-- Requiring homeowners to produce multiple “notarized
proof of loss” documents after making a claim.
-- Not keeping a copy of consumer complaints, as required
by regulators and Florida
statutes
-- Several money-management issues, some of which are
detailed below.
After Gov. Rick
Scott’s highly prioritized manufacturing tax cut passed the Florida Legislature
without receiving a two-thirds vote majority, legislative staff analysts have had a change of
heart and now believe such a supermajority was not necessary.
Last month, staff analysts in the
Florida Senate said emphatically that a two-thirds vote was required, because
the proposed sales tax exemption for manufacturing equipment would put a
significant dent into local government revenue.
“Therefore, this bill requires passage by 2/3 of the
membership of each chamber,” the legislative
analysis dated April 2, 2013 states. The House analysts also raised the
two-thirds vote as a possibility, and a top official in Scott's office told the Herald/Times in February he believed a supermajority vote was required.
On May 2, an amended version of the bill cleared the
House in a hurriedly cast 68-48 vote, with all Democrats and a few Republicans voting against it. Despite falling short of the 80-vote
supermajority previously cited, House Speaker Will Weatherford, R-Wesley Chapel, quickly declared the bill
passed, and brushed aside concerns about its constitutionality. Democrats
immediately promised
to sue.
“We think it is extremely constitutional,” Weatherford said
after the contentious
vote, stating that he had discussed the issue with legislative legal staff.
He followed up with a statement asking “Who would sue to stop a tax cut”?
Now, the non-partisan legislative analysts in the Florida House have
backtracked from their initial claim that the bill might need a two-thirds majority
and have fallen in line with the House Speaker’s position on its constitutionality.
An updated
staff analysis from the Florida House, dated May 15, strips all references to Article VII, section
18 of the Florida Constitution (the portion protecting local governments from
unfunded mandates). All previous staff reports had at least cited the
constitutional clause, highlighting the requirement for a two-thirds majority
vote when local government revenue is at stake. The Senate had been more definitive about the 2/3 vote requirement than the House, and a new analysis was not done by the Senate.
A spokesperson for Weatherford said final bill analyses traditionally do not include information about constitutionality.
Whereas initial staff analyses mentioned Department of
Economic Opportunity estimates of up to $115 million in lost revenue for the state, the updated review does not cite any cost figure. DEO has estimated that the tax cut could cost cities and counties up to $26 million per year.
The final bill analyses does not cite those numbers, or any others, only stating that “it is not anticipated the provisions would
significantly affect the authority of the counties and municipalities to raise
revenue in the aggregate.”
The words “significantly” and “aggregate” are key, because the
Constitution requires a two-thirds vote for any bill that has a significant impact
on local governments revenue-collecting abilities. A sales tax cut for
manufacturers will likely reduce the amount of revenue coming in to local government
coffers.
Under the bill, the revenue loss for local
governments—estimated at $13 to $26 million per year—far exceeds the $1.9 million
threshold needed to qualify as a “significant” impact. But the Legislature's legal team has seized on the term “in the aggregate” to justify the bill’s
constitutionality.
"Based on our staff's estimate, it does not have a significant impact," said Ryan Duffy, a spokesperson for Weatherford.
Case law on the issue is not definitive, so a lawsuit could
set a legal precedent for the future.
Of note, the bill has changed since the first staff analyses,
but the final version would still have a annual impact on
local government revenue. Under the original bill, the sales tax cut would have
kicked in this year and lasted forever. The updated bill creates a three-year
tax cut period starting in 2014. It could save manufacturers more than $140 million per year, when state and local tax savings are combined.
The proposal was one of Scott’s top priorities for the 2013
session, as the governor said eliminating taxes on machinery will help “build
up” manufacturing jobs in Florida.
Scott, who is expected to sign the bill soon, recently
wrapped up a “victory tour” across the state to celebrate the bill’s passage.
“Manufacturers in Florida
have been disadvantaged for too long because we were one of few states that
taxed the purchase of manufacturing equipment,” Scott said in a statement. “With
this legislation, Florida
is now on a level playing field.”
He added “I look forward to signing this bill into law.”
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.
