A Panhandle Republican has an outsized role to
play in deciding whether the Miami Dolphins’ quest for a taxpayer-supported
stadium renovation is successful—and he’s getting an earful from both sides of the debate.
Rep. JimmyPatronis, a Panama City Republican
who chairs the Economic Affairs Committee, said the team’s bill was more likely
to get a hearing after the Dolphins have agreed to “concessions,” but
acknowledged that opponents of the bill have his ear as well.
“I
don’t know yet,” he said about whether he’d bring the Dolphins bill up for a
vote soon. “I have had [many] meetings about the Dolphins bill with the
stakeholders—both opponents and the proponents—and it seems like the
negotiations on behalf of putting forward a package that there’s a consensus on
everyday gets better and better.”
The Dolphins are backing HB 165, hoping get as
much as $200 million in taxpayer aid for the renovation of Sun Life Stadium in Miami Gardens.
The team said a stadium upgrade would help lure a Super Bowl to South Florida—and recently agreed to make some of the
taxpayer support contingent on doing just that.
“I
am enthusiastically a big fan of Super Bowls being in the state of Florida and
understanding if this is what it takes to get one, then great,” said Patronis. “But
can the state afford it?”
It was the equivalent of the tax break Olympics in the
Florida Legislature on Wednesday as a range of different sports teams scored
approval for new tax subsidies.
The House Finance & Tax committee approved more than $150 million in new subsidies for Major League Soccer, the Jacksonville
Jaguars football team and the Daytona International Speedway.
The sports teams join the Miami Dolphins in seeking taxpayer help
for building or renovating sports stadiums--and the success of other sports franchises across the state bolsters the Dolphins' chances of getting approval for a new tax subsidy.
The concept of giving taxpayer support to sports facilities
has been controversial nationwide, but a stronger budget picture in Florida has given lawmakers more leeway to endorse new tax breaks.
Lawmakers emphasized that the stadium tax deals would help
spur economic development in the state by increasing tourism and construction
jobs.
"I think it's going to increase tourism throughout the state of Florida," said Rep. David Santiago, R-Deltona, who is supporting the Daytona Speedway bill.
But critics called the deals “corporate welfare” for wealthy
sports team owners. Rep. Michael Bileca, R-Miami, said it amounted to “picking
and choosing winners and losers” in the marketplace.
Sen. Maria Sachs, D-Delray Beach, introduced the “Universal Background Check Act” on Wednesday, filing a gun control bill that requires virtually all sales of firearms to be conducted through licensed dealers.
The bill would require non-licensed individuals that want to sell or “transfer” a gun to do so through a licensed dealer.
The gun control bill faces long odds in Florida’s gun-friendly, Republican-dominated Legislature, something Sachs readily acknowledged.
“I am not so sold on the idea that this bill is going to pass, “ said Sachs. “What I am looking forward to, and I am furious about his as so many Floridians are, let’s have the discussion. Let’s bring everyone to the table and let’s have this discussion.”
Licensed dealers are required to conduct background checks prior to selling firearms but so-called "loopholes” in the law allow some gun sales to occur without a background check, something that Congress and the White House are considering addressing.
The Miami Dolphins cleared another hurdle Wednesday as a
Senate committee unanimously approved in the team’s plan to get taxpayer
financing for a $400 million stadium.
The bill, SB 306, picked up a major amendment
Wednesday, with lawmakers agreeing to allow Miami-Dade voters to have the final
say on whether or not to approve the taxpayer subsidies for the stadium in Miami Gardens.
The referendum could be a tough sell, and potentially
a deal killer, as a new poll suggests that Miami-Dade voters are
overwhelmingly opposed to the Dolphins’ proposal. More than 70 percent oppose
the proposal and most of those strongly oppose it, according to the poll from Dario
Moreno, a political science professor at Florida International
University.
Those supporting the bill brushed
the poll aside, saying the team had its own internal polls that showed more
favorable results.
“Ultimately, taking this through the referendum was the important piece to us,”
said Dolphins CEO Mike Dee, who traveled to Tallahassee to voice support for SB 306. “We want the voters to have a voice, and at the end
of the day, the facts will prevail.”
Marcus Bach-Armas, Manager of Corporate Affairs for the Dolphins, said he questioned the validity of the poll because it came from “Norman
Braman’s pollster.” Braman, a staunch opponent of taxpayer financed stadium
deals, has campaigned heavily against the bill.
Sen. Oscar Braynon, D-Miami Gardens,
who is sponsoring the bill, said he is not concerned about the referendum, and
is instead focusing on getting the bill through the Legislature.
“My job is to pass it in the Senate, and that’s what I’m
going to do,” he said, adding that there would be ample time to convince the public about the benefits of a new stadium. The bill has cleared its first Senate committee with a
unanimous vote.
The amendment allows the referendum to take place before
the bill is enacted. That could potentially allow Miami-Dade to set a
referendum vote for sometime this Spring, ahead of the National Football
League’s decision of where Super Bowl 50 will take place. South
Florida is being considered, and the Dolphins say a newly
renovated stadium could help give the region a leg up.
“This is going to be a great economic boom to my
community and to the state of Florida,”
said Braynon.
If the plan gets approval from a majority of Miami-Dade
voters, many of whom are still stinging from the widely panned Marlins stadium
deal, the Dolphins are likely to get a flashy new stadium.
When the so-called ‘Dolphins stadium’ bill goes before the
Senate Finance & Tax committee on Wednesday, it will include an amendment
allowing Miami-Dade voters to have the final say on whether or not taxpayers
will chip in to renovate the Fins’ Miami Gardens Stadium.
An amendment, filed Tuesday, confirmed what bill sponsor
Sen. Oscar Braynon, D-Miami
Gardens, told the Heraldlast
month. According to the amendment, the Miami Dolphins would only be able to
receive taxpayer assistance for the stadium renovation if taxpayers themselves
vote to allow it.
The amendment allows the referendum to take place before the
bill is enacted. That could potentially allow Miami-Dade to set a referendum
vote for sometime this Spring, ahead of the National Football League’s decision
of where Super Bowl 50 will take place. South Florida
is being considered, and the Dolphins say a newly renovated stadium could help
give the region a leg up.
The Dolphins are asking for the mainland hotel tax to
increase from 6 percent to 7 percent, as well as up to $90 million in sales tax
rebates, paid out over 30 years. The $3 million annual tax break would be in
addition to $2 million in annual payments SunLife is already receiving. Altogether,
taxpayer money would help fund about half of the costs for the $400 million
renovation. Miami-Dade legislators opted against making the stadium bill one of their legislative priorities this year.
Dolphins owner Stephen Ross initially opposed the
referendum, saying there would not be time.
Ross traveled to Tallahassee
yesterday, apparently at the request of Gov. Rick Scott for an event not
related to the stadium bill.
Gov. Rick Scott gave shoutouts to several business owners and economic
development professionals during his State of the State speech Tuesday,
heralding the business community for creating jobs in Florida.
Scott, a former CEO-turned-governor, has made courting corporations
and businesses a staple of his legislative strategy. According to Scott, who
gave an upbeat address to kick off the legislative session, “It’s working.”
The governor personally invited business owners and acknowledged
them during his speech.
Invited were: Wes Bush (CEO of Northrop Grumman), Dave Brown
(president of Johnson & Johnson Vision Care in Jacksonville),
Michelle Robinson (Regional Vice President of Verizon) and Frank Unanue
(president of Goya Foods in Miami).
Scott has highlighted all of the businesses in the past for
creating jobs, often with taxpayer incentives from the state.
Scott hailed Verizon VP Robinson in his speech for the company's decision to locate a new facility in Central Florida,
a move he said would bring “hundreds” of jobs to the state.
Robinson said Scott’s recruitment efforts helped Verizon
choose Florida
over other states for its expansion project.
“What it came down for us was quality of life, availability
of a qualified labor pool and the cost of living factor,” she said in an interview. “I think Florida is very
competitive with Gov. Scott and the work that [Commerce Secretary] Gray Swoope
is doing… working hard to compete for new jobs in Florida.”
Florida taxpayers also chipped in millions of dollars in economic
incentives awards to seal the Verizon deal. Scott is asking for nearly $300
million in funding for incentives deals this year, but lawmakers have expressed
skepticism.
Scott also acknowledged Bill
Johnson, director of the Port
of Miami and Chairman of
the Florida Ports Council, during the speech.
“When the Miami port dredge
project is completed, along with the Panama Canal
expansion, thousands of new jobs will be created,” Scott said.
Unanue, who welcomed Scott to a recent “work day” at Goya
Foods in Miami,
said the state’s business climate was improving.
“I think the state has turned around,” he said. “We’ve been
growing. And I see it around in the community as well… You see people going out
and moving, going out to clubs and restaurants. You see the economy moving
again.”
Scott stuck to that theme during his speech, which repeatedly used the phrase “It’s working” and pointed to the brightening spots of Florida’s economy.
While the economy is slowly improving, job creation in Florida still lags the
national pace. Florida is adding jobs at a
growth rate at 0.7 percent, half the rate of the U.S. Much of the drop in the
unemployment rate—which is down 3 percentage points since Scott was elected—is
due to a decline in labor force participation.
Steve Crisafulli,
R-Merritt Island, was officially appointed as the
incoming Republican Leader of the Florida House of Representatives for 2014 on
Monday.
If, as expected, Republicans etain their majority in the
120-member House in 2014, Crisafulli will be the state’s next House Speaker,
occupying one of the most powerful positions in state government.
“It is an honor for me to be a small part of this ceremony,
and a special day for a very close friend,” said current House Speaker Will
Weatherford, R-Wesley Chapel.
Crisafulli was chosen for the post a week after last year’s
election, when designated Speaker-in-waiting Rep. Chris Dorworth (R-Lake Mary) was defeated in a shocking upset.
As speaker-designate, Crisafulli will play a major role
raising money and getting Republicans elected in 2014.
“No one who’s blessed with this opportunity gets here on his
own,” said Crisafulli, in a speech where he thanked a slew of people and got
emotional at times.
The
Florida House of Representatives released a new mobile app that House
Speaker Will Weatherford said will “set
a national standard.”
The
app, reported by the Herald/Times yesterday,
will allow users to track the legislative process on their mobile devices, with
features like live streaming from the Capitol in Tallahassee and tracking of bills.
“This
is the way that people are communicating with their government,” said
Weatherford, a Wesley Chapel Republican.
The app
is expected to be released next week, as the 60-day legislative session begins.
Read
more about it here
and see the House press release here.
After the press conference,
Weatherford took questions from reporters on a range of issues, including
Medicaid, Citizens Insurance, the budget sequester and Internet cafes.
He
brushed off questions about a potential run for governor against Rick Scott, while continuing to differ
from Scott on the key issues of Medicaid expansion and across-the-board $2,500 pay raises for teachers.
“I think
people who are saying those things must not know me well,” he said about those
who are whispering about a 2014 primary challenge. “I’m busy enough trying to
be the Speaker of the House… I’m not thinking of any of that stuff right now.”
Weatherford
did not specifically rule out the possibility, but said that he doesn’t “have
any plans to do anything like that.”
A federal appeals court upheld the temporary ban on Florida’s drug-testing
for welfare recipients Tuesday, saying that a lawsuit against the state had a
good chance of succeeding.
The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta sided with a lower court decision, stating that Florida failed to show that
the drug testing plan was so critical that the Fourth Amendment, which bars unreasonable
searches by the government, should be suspended.
The decision—which did not weigh in on the ultimate
constitutionality question—is the latest development in Gov. Rick Scott's controversial drug testing push. In 2011,Scott and the Florida Legislature instituted a
program for drug-testing all recipients of Temporary Assistance for Needy
Families. Luis Lebron, a single-father and TANF applicant who refused to take
the test on constitutional grounds, filed a lawsuit with help from the American Civil Liberties Union.
In authoring the court’s opinion, Circuit Judge Rosemary
Barkett said that Florida
had not proven that its drug-testing program serves a “special” or “immediate” need,
or that it even protected children in families with substance abuse.
“There is nothing so special or immediate about the
government’s interest in ensuring that TANF recipients are drug free so as to warrant
suspension of the Fourth Amendment,” Barkett wrote. “The only known and shared
characteristic of the individuals who would be subjected to Florida’s mandatory drug testing program is
that they are financially needy families with children.”
Scott vowed to appeal the decision and take his fight to the Supreme Court.
“The court’s ruling today is disturbing," he said in a statement. "Welfare is 100 percent about helping children. Welfare is taxpayer money to help people looking for jobs who have children. Drug use by anyone with children looking for a job is totally destructive. This is fundamentally about protecting the wellbeing of Florida families. We will protect children and families in our state, and this decision will be appealed to the Supreme Court.”
The court relied on a similar case in Georgia, which
struck down the state’s program for requiring all political candidates to take
drug tests. That case found that Georgia did not show that there was
a drug problem among elected officials, and the law was mostly “symbolic.”
In the rejecting Florida’s
appeal to the lower court's preliminary injunction, Barkett took a similar position.
“The State has presented no evidence that simply because an
applicant for TANF benefits is having financial problems, he is also drug
addicted or prone to fraudulent and neglectful behavior,” she wrote.
The ACLU's associate legal director Maria Kayanan said the ruling was a vindication for struggling families who apply for government assistance.
"The state of Florida can’t treat an entire segment of our community like suspected criminals simply because they are poor and are trying to get temporary assistance from the government to support their families,” said Kayanan, who was lead counsel on the case.
Florida
also passed a law last year requiring drug testing for all state workers, but
that issue is also tangled in constitutional challenges and litigation.
A new proposal announced Tuesday—dubbed “Smart Justice”—would
change the way Florida
deals with non-violent drug offenders.
The bill seeks to reduce recidivism by redirecting some non-violent
offenders from high-security prison into re-entry and drug treatment programs.
“It’s time that we change the way we’re doing business,” said
Sen. Thad Altman, R-Viera, who is
co-sponsoring the measure. “We’re in the modern days, the 21st century.
But in many ways our criminal justice system is still in the Middle Ages.”
Inmates in the last three years of their sentences would be
potentially eligible for the program. New “Correctional Re-entry Treatment
Facilities” would be created—and run by private providers—to take in the
non-violent offenders.
Rep. Dennis Baxley,
an Ocala Republican who chairs the House’s Judiciary Committee, is also
sponsoring the measure. He said it would help reduce recidivism in Florida’s prison system.
“The ideas contained in this legislation will make a
meaningful difference,” Baxley said in a statement. “Not just in the lives of
offenders, but more importantly in the lives of Floridians who might otherwise
become their future crime victims.”
