No Medicaid expansion means businesses will pay

A story in today's paper deals with one of the ripple effects of the Legislature's inability to reach a deal on Medicaid expanion this session. Roughly 1 million uninsured Floridians would have received coverage if a deal had been reached. Many of them work for businesses that now must provide that insurance or face hefty federal fines.

An excerpt:

Either way, the Legislature's inaction will saddle many businesses with additional costs that could reach, in total, close to $150 million next year.

"If you do not do Medicaid expansion, or something similar to that, there is a very real penalty imposed upon the employers of the state of Florida," said Sen. David Simmons, R-Altamonte Springs, who had pushed some compromise.

... The historic U.S. Supreme Court ruling upholding the law actually created some of the current problems. While justices ruled that the centerpiece of the law — a requirement that most everyone have health insurance — was constitutional, they struck down a provision that would have essentially required states to expand Medicaid.

By giving states a choice whether to expand, the court created loopholes about who would be covered and how, and who would be left out.

Part of the law that remained in place requires businesses with more than 50 full-time employees to provide health insurance coverage to anyone working more than 30 hours a week. Many people in agriculture, tourism and hospitality would have been eligible for an expanded Medicaid program.

But with no Medicaid expansion, those workers must either get health insurance from their employers, or they can turn to a federal health exchange to purchase insurance.

If they use a federal exchange, their bosses will be penalized.

Read more here.

Why Dolphins owner Stephen Ross — not Speaker Will Weatherford — owns stadium deal death

@MarcACaputo

Success has many fathers in the Florida Legislature. The Miami Dolphins-stadium deal is an orphan.

And it will probably stay that way, ironically, thanks to the man who wanted it most: Stephen Ross, the Dolphins owner.

When the plan to use up to $380 million in taxpayer money to subsidize stadium upgrades died on Friday, Ross sent out a threatening-sounding statement that bashed House Speaker Will Weatherford, essentially accused him of lying and stopped just short of promising to campaign against him.

“I am certain this decision will follow Speaker Weatherford for many years to come,” Ross said in a statement.

“I will look to play an important role in fixing the dysfunction in Tallahassee and will continue to work to create good jobs in Miami Dade and throughout South Florida.”

Just before the statement came out, I asked Weatherford what his reaction would be if Ross or his supporters threatened to spend money against him.

“Oh, wow,” Weatherford said in a voice that sounded anything but surprised or worried. “Good for them.”

Are you scared?

“No,” Weatherford smiled.

Dolphins: No stadium upgrades planned for now

@PatriciaMazzei

The Miami Dolphins do not intend to pay for even modest upgrades to Sun Life Stadium now that the team's push for a subsidized renovation to the 1987 facility have failed, CEO Mike Dee said Sunday.

"We cannot do this without a public-private partnership," Dee told Miami Herald news partner WFOR-CBS 4. "At this time we have no intention of investing more."

Though he maintained that the Dolphins are still vying for Super Bowls 50 and 51, which National Football League owners are awarding later this month, Dee sounded less than hopeful about South Florida's prospects to host the games without improving the Miami Gardens stadium.

"We clearly have our work cut out for us," he said. "Having a stadium that's competitive is, I think, probably comparable to having a good quarterback when you're playing football."

In a live interview on Facing South Florida with Jim DeFede, Dee gave the first in-person remarks by any Dolphins official since late Friday, when the Florida House of Representatives ended the annual lawmaking session in Tallahassee without taking up team-backed legislation providing public subsidies for the renovation.

Affordable-housing developer under federal investigation contributed to Miami-Dade politicians

@PatriciaMazzei

The affordable-housing developers under investigation by a Miami federal grand jury for allegedly defrauding the U.S. government out of tax subsidies have contributed generously to politicians who in many cases had a say in funding the builders’ projects.

The bulk of the campaign contributions from the Carlisle Development Group, its senior executives and their myriad corporate entities, as well as a Fort Lauderdale building contractor, have gone to candidates in Miami-Dade County, where the developers have built many of their low-income rental apartments using public subsidies.

Carlisle, its executives Matthew Greer and Lloyd Boggio, their family members and other business associates, and builder Michael Runyan of BJ&K Construction Services, contributed more than $68,000 over the past decade to Miami-Dade candidates and their political committees, campaign-finance records show.

Most of those donations went to candidates for mayor and county commission. The administration recommends potential projects, which are ultimately approved by the board.

Greer is the son of Evelyn Greer, a former Miami-Dade School Board member and former Pinecrest mayor, and Bruce Greer, president of Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden’s board of trustees.

More here.

Federal grand jury investigates Miami-based affordable-housing developer

via @jayhweaver

A Miami federal grand jury is investigating South Florida’s preeminent affordable-housing developer, the Carlisle Development Group, on allegations that it bilked the U.S. government out of millions of dollars in tax subsidies used to finance more than a dozen rental projects in Miami-Dade and Broward counties.

Carlisle is suspected of committing fraud by padding construction costs of the rental apartments to generate higher government-issued tax credits for itself and its investors, according to sources familiar with the probe. Prosecutors are trying to prove that top executives of Carlisle, a for-profit company, worked in cahoots with a Fort Lauderdale building contractor to unlawfully pocket those extra tax credits, the sources said.

The grand jury is focusing on two of Carlisle’s chief executive officers, Matthew S. Greer and retired CEO and founder Lloyd J. Boggio, as well as a general contractor Michael K. Runyan, according to a subpoena obtained by The Miami Herald.

The subpoena, issued in January in connection with “an official criminal investigation of a suspected federal offense,” names Carlisle and its development entities, along with the three businessmen. It seeks loan and other records for two of Carlisle’s rental projects built by Runyan’s Fort Lauderdale company, BJ&K Construction Services, in the low-income Little Haiti and Allapattah neighborhoods.

Both the city and Miami-Dade governments partially financed those high-rise apartment projects, Villa Patricia and Amber Garden, with multimillion-dollar, low-interest loans.

More from Jay Weaver here.

In unusual move, commissioner switches endorsements in Miami Beach mayoral race

via @cveiga

Miami Beach Commissioner Jonah Wolfson’s endorsement of mayoral candidate Michael Góngora is so last week.

Friday evening, Wolfson sent out an email saying that he’d switched camps. He now supports political newcomer Philip Levine, a wealthy businessman.

“My commitment to Commissioner Gongora was mainly based on who the other option was, Commissioner Jerry Libbin, whom I consider to be unqualified to be our Mayor,” Wolfson wrote.

He added: “I realized my endorsement of Commissioner Gongora over Commissioner Libbin was the proverbial ‘lesser of two evils’ scenario.  So earlier today I personally met with him and told him that I rescind my endorsement of his candidacy.”

Wolfson wrote that he was pulling his support for Góngora over two main issues:

High school athletics bill dies on last day of session

Among the high-profile bills that died when session came to a close Friday: a proposal that would have revamped the Florida High School Athletic Association and eased the rules on student transfers.

Proponents made a last-minute move to get the bill moving in the Senate. But it never got a hearing on the upper chamber floor.

It was a victory for FHSAA Executive Director Roger Dearing, who stood to lose his job if the bill became law. Dearing argued that the proposal would have opened the door for high-school free agency and turned schools into "recruiting-frenzied sports giants."

"It is gratifying that Florida’s 260,000 high school student-athletes will be spared some of the negative consequences of this legislation," Dearing said in a statement issued late Friday. "We understand that many of the legislators who supported the proposal were doing what they thought was best for high school athletics, but it would have opened the door for a few adults and athletes to build powerhouses while those who respected the rules of fair play were left behind."

He added: "The session-long discussion about the FHSAA has raised some genuine concerns, and we welcome the opportunity to collaborate with students, parents, coaches, administrators and legislators to ensure that all high school athletes are able to continue competing on a level playing field. Florida’s high school athletes deserve the opportunity to play under a statewide uniform set of fair rules, and the FHSAA is proud to remain the keeper of that sacred tradition for our state."

Without tax dollars, Miami Dolphins owner must decide whether to spend own cash

via @doug_hanks

Without tax dollars at his disposal, how much money will Stephen Ross spend on Sun Life Stadium?

That’s the question looming over the billionaire owner of the Miami Dolphins in the wake of the Florida Legislature denying his request for both state and county dollars to fund about 45 percent upfront of a $350 million stadium renovation. The team claims the 1987 stadium will be rendered all but unusable in the next five to 10 years without a major rehab, including removing the former Florida Marlins dugouts. Ross’s top aide last week said public dollars were mandatory for the project to proceed.

“I was asked was there a chance Mr. Ross will go forward without a private-public partnership,’’ Dolphins CEO Mike Dee told reporters on April 26. “My answer was no.” In April, Ross told CBS 4 of the Tallahassee bill: “If it stumbles... there won’t be a renovation.”

While Ross has preemptively rejected funding the full $350 million project — which included a canopy to shield the seats from sun and rain — he has not said whether a more modest renovation is possible. One portion of the proposal involved ripping out about 9,000 cheap seats in the top rows of the stadium and adding about 3,000 pricier ones near the field.

Those changes would reduce Sun Life’s capacity by 13 percent to about 65,000, which could help the Dolphins avoid television blackouts that the NFL imposes when the stadium has too many seats to sell on game day.

“He needs to look at the [upgrades] that will pay for themselves’’ said John Vrooman, a Vanderbilt University economics professor who studies stadiums. “I don’t think the roof is going to pay for itself. Cutting back on the marginal seats in the upper deck...creates excess demand [and] inflates the prices for the other seats. That is a positive move” for Ross.

More here.

Bill authorizing maternity unit for Miami Children's headed to Gov. Scott

One of the final bills approved by the Florida Senate before session adjourned today authorized a 10-bed maternity wing at Miami Children's Hospital.

Although the labor-and-delivery unit was not particularly popular in this chamber, House Bill 1159 passed overwhelming because it contained a host of other priorities for the members. The legislation now heads to Gov. Rick Scott's desk for his signature.

Miami Children's says it needs this ability to accommodate mothers who are expected to give birth to babies with serious illnesses. The hospital argued that the new wing will allow doctors to immediately give sick newborns the attention they need, instead of waiting for them to be driven or flown there.

The ability to save children is what caused Rep. Eduardo Gonzalez, R-Hialeah, to sponsor the measure intially, he said. "That’s why I’m passionate about the issue; that’s why I fought for it."

Opponents of the legislation in both the House and the Senate argued that nearby hospitals, especially Jackson Memorial, were better equipped to assist mothers with high-risk pregnancies and that there isn't evidence the existing system caused babies harm.

The Senate voted earlier this week to strip the maternity unit out of HB 1159. The House put that language back in today before sending it to the Senate for the final vote.

Sens. Eleanor Sobel, D-Hollywood, and Dwight Bullard, D-Miami, tried to get the Senate to remove the language again, but their colleagues resisted on the grounds such an action would doom the wide-ranging bill for good. 

Miami Dolphins owner Stephen Ross blasts Weatherford for spiking Dolphins deal

Miami Dolphins owner Stephen Ross is none-too-happy with House Speaker Will Weatherford, after the team's attempt for a taxpayer-supported stadium flamed out in the Florida House on Friday.

In a statement, Ross blamed Weatherford for killing the deal and said that the House Speaker gave him his word the bill would come up for a vote.

Weatherford refuted claims Thursday that he had told Dan Marino the bill was likely to pass. 

In the end, the House Speaker said that kind of legislation needed more vetting before being approved by the Legislature.

See comment from Ross here:

Tonight, Speaker Weatherford did far more than just deny the people of Miami Dade the right to vote on an issue critical to the future of our local economy.  The Speaker singlehandedly put the future of Super Bowls and other big events at risk for Miami Dade and for all of Florida. He put politics before the people and the 4,000 jobs this project would have created for Miami Dade,and that is just wrong.

 

I am deeply disappointed by the Speaker's decision. He gave me and many others his word that this legislation would go to the floor of the House for a vote, where I know, and he knows, we had the votes to win by a margin as large as we did in the Senate. It’s hard to understand why he would stop an election already in process and disenfranchise the 40,000 people who have already voted. I can only assume he felt it was in his political interest to do so. Time will tell if that is the case, but I am certain this decision will follow Speaker Weatherford for many years to come.