Gov. Rick Scott’s veto pen is back: $368 million in line-items slashed

Gov. Rick Scott vetoed nearly $368 million in spending from the state’s budget, using his line-item authority to strike out scores of projects ranging from a $50 million coast-to-coast bike trail to tens of millions in college and university tuition hikes.

Scott’s extensive veto list is more than twice as large as his list last year, and his largest since his first year in office. It slashed state spending from $74.5 million to $74.1 million. Even with the vetoes, the 2013-2014 budget is still the largest on record, and includes $480 million for teacher pay raises, $8.5 billion for transportation projects,  $151.8 million for Everglades restoration and $273 million for ports.

“The Florida Families First budget helps families pursue their dreams by getting a great job and accessing a quality education,” Scott said in an emailed statement. “Teachers will get a pay raise and funds for their classroom supplies so they don’t have to pay out-of-pocket.”

This is Scott’s largest veto effort since his first year in office, when he slashed more than $615 million from the budget. Half of that came from a single-item: spending authority for the Florida Forever land conservation program.

Repeatedly citing the need for a statewide impact and a return on investment for all spending decisions, Scott vetoed more than $25 million in local water projects, millions in spending for education programs and school construction, museums, reentry programs and other social services. Many lawmakers hoping to include so-called “turkeys” in the budget during the first year of a surplus in years will be disappointed as their hometown projects were axed by Scott.

As expected, Scott vetoed a 3 percent tuition increase for state colleges, universities and workforce education. In announcing the veto, he included comments of support from three community college presidents and University of Florida President Bernie Machen.

“As a result of the additional funds contained in the budget, the University of Florida will not be seeking a tuition increase for next year,” Machen said.

Scott had hoped all 12 state university presidents would collectively sign a letter rejecting any tuition revenue increases, but they refused. Although Scott said in his veto letter that his intent is to maintain tuition and fees at current levels, state law requires tuition to rise to equal the rate of inflation, which is 1.7 percent this year.

One of Scott’s largest veto items: $50 million for the state’s Coast-to-Coast connector, a bike trail stretching from St. Petersburg to Titusville. Scott said his Transportation Work Program already includes more than $57 million in statewide funding for transit greenway projects, and that the connector could be completed over time.

“The worthwhile project contemplated by the Coast-to-Coast connector,” Scott wrote, “can be built incrementally and consistent with a prioritization of gaps in the existing trail system.”

--Other vetoes in the budget below:

RIP: Lincoln Gabriel Diaz-Balart, 29.

@MarcACaputo

Lincoln Gabriel Diaz-Balart, son and namesake of a former congressman and nephew of a current U.S. representative, died Sunday at the age of 29.

The family has asked for privacy and time to grieve.

The Diaz-Balart family is, perhaps, the most-politically powerful in Miami's Cuban-exile community.

U.S. Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart is a sitting Republican representative. His brother, Lincoln Diaz-Balart retired from congress after the 2010 elections. Another brother, Jose Diaz-Balart is a Telemundo host. A cousin of theirs is son and namesake of Fidel Castro, a prior uncle by marriage. A longtime family friend and virtual sister, U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, expressed her sorrow this morning in a radio interview during which she spoke of the toll of depression and suicide.

The family's statement:

It is with infinite sadness that we announce the passing, on May 19, 2013, of our beloved son and brother, Lincoln Gabriel Diaz-Balart.

For many years, Lincoln Gabriel struggled with depression.

Lincoln Gabriel was a kind and loving human being. His love and compassion touched many lives during his 29 years.

We will remember him with profound love and devotion for the rest of our lives.

Lincoln, Cristina, and Daniel Diaz-Balart

Congress vs. IRS: The do-littles vs. the do-wrongs.

@MarcACaputo

Congress vs. IRS: The do-littles vs. the do-wrongs.

With 79 percent of Americans disapproving of its performance, Congress finally found a government group that’s probably more disliked than the politicians: the tax bureaucrats.

The U.S. House's tax-agency inquests that began Thursday and run through this week are bad American government on display.

At the least, the hearings make clear that the IRS does a bad job enforcing bad law. And those laws are written by Congress.

And that’s not only the case when it comes to the way the IRS unfairly profiled and delayed the formation of 298 tea party and other groups applying for nonprofit political status.

Just last month, on tax-filing day, as many as 1.5 million American citizens learned that their tax IDs had been stolen.

It happens every year. Especially here. Nine of the top 10 metropolitan areas hardest hit by this crime are in Florida, from Miami-Fort Lauderdale (1) to Orlando-Kissimmee-Sanford (10).

Yet the IRS and Congress do relatively little to stop it.

Heavy-hitters back school board's Carlos Curbelo to unseat U.S. Rep. Joe Garcia

@MarcACaputo

Carlos Curbelo, a Miami-Dade school board member and Republican consultant, today announced a congressional exploratory committee and finance team in a possible bid to take on U.S. Rep. Joe Garcia in District 26, which stretches from SW 8th Street all the way to Key West's Southernmost Point.

Garcia is no easy target. He won his district by 11 percentage points against scandal-plagued U.S. Rep. David Rivera; and President Obama carried it by about 7.

But in some models, the district leans Republican or is a toss-up.

Curbelo brings political savvy, an emerging name in politics and a heavy-hitting finance team to the race. If Curbelo runs, it'll be tough to see how Cutler Bay Mayor Ed MacDougall can win the GOP primary.

Some names to watch for: Cesar Alvarez (Chairman of Greenberg Traurig), Armando Codina (Jeb Bush friend, developer; American Airlines and Home Depot Board of Directors), Remedios Diaz-Oliver (President of All American Containers and Director of US Cuba Democracy PAC), Tirso del Junco (past chairman of the California GOP and of the US Postal Board of Governors); media/political figure Justin Sayfie (founder of the Sayfie Review, former Bush spokesman), George LeMieux (former U.S. Senator), Kathleen Shanahan (businesswoman, Bush insider), Dean Cannon (lobbyist, past Florida House Speaker), Stanley Tate (Republican financier).

One name stands from the rest: Fred Estrada. He's a frequent Democratic contributor. And he's on the Republican's side.

The press release:

Gov. Rick Scott will sign budget, veto tuition increase Monday

During Monday's budget signing, Gov. Rick Scott will veto a 3-percent tuition increase for state colleges and universities, the Associated Press is reporting.

In his letter explaining the tuition veto, Scott will say Florida's low tuition is a point of pride and he doesn't want to saddle students and families with more debt, the AP said.

Scott has hinted all along that he would veto the tuition increase, which the House insisted on including in the budget. He never wavered from his standard response -- "I do not believe in any tuition increase" -- when asked about the possibility of striking it from the budget.

Hoping to build the case for a veto, the governor's office asked state university presidents to sign a letter saying they do not want more tuition revenue this year. The university presidents held a conference call Friday to discuss the request but collectively decided not to sign the letter.

Universities never planned on receiving the additional tuition revenue in the budget, worth about $18 million. According to state law, tuition will now automatically rise 1.7 percent to keep in line with inflation, or about $10 million.

Read more here.

Nan Rich questions Will Weatherford's manhood

@MarcACaputo

Bearing the subject line "Is there a man in the House?" here's a press release from former state Senate Democratic leader Nan Rich, a candidate for governor:

Two weeks have passed since ceremonial handkerchiefs signaled the end of the legislative session.  But not one signal yet that the Governor will call a special session to pressure House Speaker Weatherford into passing Medicaid expansion.

Meanwhile, more than 1 million Floridians are left without healthcare coverage.

Clearly there’s no urgency on the part of the Speaker or the Governor to take action.  Maybe, just maybe, that’s because both of them are covered by great health insurance plans – plans that are heavily subsidized by the taxpayers.

In fact, Speaker Weatherford and members of the House only have to pay $8.34 a month for their personal coverage and a piddling $30 a month to cover their entire family.

What’s really outrageous is that the plan Speaker Weatherford supported in lieu of Medicaid expansion would have required the poorest Floridians to pay 3 times as much for less healthcare coverage than he pays for his healthcare coverage!

Florida is 50th (worst in the nation) in the ranking of uninsured adults and 48th in the ranking of uninsured children. That’s unconscionable.

And now, as a result of the stubbornness and shortsightedness of Speaker Weatherford and the lack of leadership of Governor Scott, Florida may lose $51 billion of Federal funds (our tax dollars) that are available for the expansion of Medicaid.

Mr. Weatherford, it’s time for you to “man up” and do the right thing!  Put your Tea-Party politics aside long enough to serve the needs of over 1 million uninsured Floridians.  Pass Medicaid expansion – as it is meant to be – according to the Affordable Care Act – the law of the land.

As Governor, I would immediately call the legislature back into Special Session and keep them there until they passed a bill that adequately addressed Medicaid expansion.

Click here to support Nan’s campaign

We can do better.  We must do better.

Nan

Notoriety follows David Rivera pal in Nicaragua

@PatriciaMazzei

GRANADA, Nicaragua -- In this quaint colonial town, vigilant residents who keep close tabs on their neighbors know the enigmatic woman asDoña Anita, a sometime hairdresser with a mean temper.

They describe her as a night owl prone to cursing, buying Coca-Cola by the case and watching dirty movies so loudly the volume has kept them up at night.

The FBI in Miami knows her as Ana Sol Alliegro, a political consultant and potential key witness in a federal corruption investigation into whether former U.S. Rep. David Rivera had ties to an illegally funded congressional campaign.

In Miami, Alliegro has a reputation as an erratic political operative, a three-time failed candidate who describes herself on Twitter as a “Republican Political Guru and Conservative Bad Girl!”

When she became the center of the investigation last fall into long-time friend Rivera, Alliegro disappeared.

She reappeared in Granada, where she has been living for months and only added to her notoriety.

Neighbors, who say they are so frightened of her they asked not to be identified by name, say she smashed an ex-lover’s car windows and tried to set fire to his windshield after accusing him of sexually assaulting her.

Occasionally, locals have spotted her around town with Rivera, whom townspeople readily identified in photographs shown by a Herald reporter: “Ah,Don David!”

Alliegro, 43, denied it all in an interview last week with The Miami Herald, from the disparaging accounts of her behavior to receiving any visits from Rivera.

“Write what you want to write,” she said.

More here.

Pension vote puts some House Republicans in awkward position

Florida House Republicans tried to close the state's pension system to new employees this year, saying it's a ticking time bomb that could cripple the state's budget for years to come.

But many of those same GOP lawmakers are members of the state pension system themselves, according to aTimes/Herald review.

In fact, more than half of House Republicans could see the perks of the pension when they retire, forgoing the riskier 401(k)-style plans they wanted to force upon new state employees.

Several of those same Republicans debated in favor of closing the pension system when it came up for a vote in March. Most of them did not respond to interview requests Friday.

Of the three who did, two said they weren't aware that they were in the pension. A third, Rep. Ross Spano, R-Dover, said he notified the state this month that he wanted to switch to the 401(k)-style "investment plan."

Spano said Friday that Florida cannot afford to continue adding new employees to the pension.

"The necessity to fund the plan with $500 million from general revenue this year is an example of why we can't continue down this road," he said via email. "We have a responsibility to think and plan ahead on behalf of all of the current and future citizens of the state of Florida."

Read more here.

Scott pushes university presidents to reject 3% tuition increase

Gov. Rick Scott has all but guaranteed a veto of the three-percent tuition increase in the state budget and he recently reached out to an unlikely group to aid his cause.

All 12 state university presidents were asked to sign a letter initiated by the governor’s office that says they do not want more tuition revenue. In the process, they would have rejected an automatic 1.7 percent increase to cover the cost of inflation.

“As a result of this [year’s] historical support for state universities, we are pleased to report that we will not be seeking any tuition increases for the upcoming school year and intend to maintain tuition at current levels,” reads a draft of the letter, which is signed “INSERT PRESIDENT SIGNATURE” and addressed to Scott.

Scott’s office did not respond to a request for comment about the origin of the letter. University system Chancellor Frank Brogan and several school presidents also declined interview requests.

University presidents participated in a hastily organized private conference call Friday afternoon to discuss the letter. Their reactions ranged from concern to outrage, according to those familiar with the conference call discussion

Read more here: 

 

AARP cancels FL sweepstakes for granny and grampa, says new gambling law to blame

@MarcACaputo

Sorry, grandma and grandpa.

The AARP is blocking Florida residents from participating in its Perfect Path to Retirement $50,000 Giveaway and its forthcoming Grandparents Day Photo Contest because, the group says, of a new state law cracking down on gambling.

The law was quickly passed last month after the arrests of 57 people and the resignation of Lt. Gov. Jennifer Carroll in connection with St. Augustine-based Allied Veterans of the World, which operated a chain of strip-mall mini casinos so-called “Internet cafes.”

To close what they said was a loophole exploited by some café companies, lawmakers made sure to eliminate an exception for nonprofit groups that conduct sweepstakes.

But that word change, along with a few others, put AARP’s contests potentially in jeopardy.

“AARP Florida was surprised by the consequences of this new law,” Jeff Johnson, AARP Florida state director, said in a written statement furnished to The Miami Herald.

“While we are disappointed for those of our members who won’t be able to participate in AARP’s contests or sweepstakes,” he said, “we are more concerned for how this could impact other non-profit organizations across the state.”

Johnson said the situation was an “unintended consequence,” but only Florida – a retiree-heavy state with the second-largest number of AARP members – won’t be participating in its cash-reward contests.