Scott leverages bond approval to force universities to lower student fees

From the Associated Press: Gov. Rick Scott is putting pressure on Florida's public universities to hold down fees charged to students, making it a condition for two universities seeking state approval for construction projects on their campuses.

Scott indicated Tuesday he refused to go along with granting bonding approval for the projects at Florida State University and Florida International University until the schools agreed to keep costs down for students.

In one instance, the Republican governor said he extracted a promise from Florida International to freeze a transportation access fee for six years as a prelude to winning bonding approval for a new parking garage on FIU's campus in West Miami-Dade County. The fee is paid by every student, including those walking or cycling to class, he said.

"It's the right thing to do," Scott said of the fee freeze during a meeting of the Florida Cabinet at the Capitol.

Asked if he was imposing a new prerequisite for campus bonding projects, Scott replied, "We're doing it on this one." More here. 

Gov. Scott finding one 'Great Floridian' after another

When Gov. Rick Scott honored former Florida Gators quarterback Tim Tebow as a "Great Floridian" recently, he was just getting warmed up.

Scott sees greatness everywhere.

For a governor hobbled by chronically low poll numbers, sharing the spotlight with Tebow and his radiant smile this month brought Scott the kind of exposure he couldn't buy. Scott needs to find a good vibe wherever he can, so he will replicate the Tebow award, over and over again.

This week, he'll name 22 other people "Great Floridians" for their
contributions to the state, a third as many people who received the honor since the Legislature created it in 1981 to recognize people "who have made significant contributions to the progress and welfare of this state."

Scott single-handedly chose most of the latest group, including athletes,
politicians, business and military leaders, and even the University of Florida researcher who created Gatorade. They are Democrat and Republican, living and dead, men and women, but mostly men (19 of 23).

The honorees include former Miami Dolphins Coach Don Shula, former Gators football player and coach Steve Spurrier, 2012 Masters golf champion Bubba Watson Jr., former Florida Supreme Court Chief Justice Richard Irvin, and Dr. Pedro Jose Greer Jr., an advocate for homeless and disadvantaged people in Miami.

Others include Betty Sembler of St. Petersburg, who has championed drug treatment efforts; former Tampa Bay Buccaneers coach Tony Dungy; the late Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf, who led U.S. forces in the Persian Gulf War; former state agriculture commissioner Charles Bronson; and former state treasurer Bill Gunter.

Some historians wonder whether the greatness may be getting out of hand.

"There are plenty of great people in the state of Florida," said Rivers
Buford III, who until this year was the Senate appointee who nominated award recipients. "But I don't think there's a wall big enough in the state of Florida for all the plaques that are being awarded."

Walt Disney will be recognized. So will novelist Patrick Smith, agricultural leader Ruth Springer Wentworth, former Bucs linebacker Derrick Brooks, Hall of Fame running back Emmitt Smith, former Florida Supreme Court Justice Alto Lee Adams, Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de Leon, retired Gen. Craig McKinley, clothing designer Lilly Pulitzer and entrepreneur H. Wayne Huizenga, who has donated $450,000 to Scott's political committee.

Scott's thirst for greatness prompted him to include Dr. James Robert Cade, who led a team of UF researchers that created Gatorade in 1965.

"It's just trying to find people that have done something significant in our
state," Scott said Tuesday. "It's a good thing that we have such great people all around our state. One of the great things about the 19.2 million people living in our state is you can be proud of a lot of them."

-- Steve Bousquet

Scott touts ‘incredible economic turnaround’ to poach Illinois businesses

Gov. Rick Scott sent letters to Illinois business owners this week, telling them to book a “one-way” ticket to Florida and set up shop in the Sunshine State. 

In the letter, Scott touts Florida’s economic recovery, low taxes and shrinking state debt. He continues his “It’s working” theme by painting Florida as a state that has undergone an “incredible economic turnaround” under his watch. In contrast, Scott writes, Illinois is raising taxes and has one of the highest unemployment rates in the country. 

“While Florida’s economic formula is working, we know Illinois’ formula of more taxing and more spending ISN’T WORKING,” Scott writes. 

Scott, who references the state of Texas in his letter, is taking a page from Gov. Rick Perry’s playbook. Earlier this year, Perry aired a radio ad in California bashing the state for raising taxes and welcoming California businesses to Texas. Perry followed the ad up with a recruiting trip to the state. 

It’s not the first time Scott has tried to poach businesses from a high-tax state. Last year, Scott sent letters to New York businesses telling them to come to Florida. It’s not clear if Scott was successful in recruiting any New York businesses to Florida. New York is also playing offense in the job recruitment wars. Gov. Andrew Cuomo has been airing ads in Florida and elsewhere for more than a year touting the state’s reduction in business and property taxes

Gov. Scott's legislative agenda: a short list that remains incomplete as clock ticks

As Gov. Rick Scott and House Speaker Will Weatherford sat shoulder-to-shoulder at a recent legislative prayer breakfast, the governor may have had a special reason to look to the heavens.

With two weeks left in the 2013 session, Scott’s legislative priorities are in serious disarray. He hasn’t asked for much, and lawmakers aren’t placating him.

His top priority of a $2,500 teacher pay raise appears in budget proposals not as the across-the-board, no-strings increase he advocated for. Instead, legislators in the House and Senate agreed to have any salary boost tied to performance, a move at odds with the governor.

“There’s going to be merit pay as a part of funding for teachers,” Weatherford said. “The governor asked us to spend $1 billion on education. Our budget does that. The Senate’s budget does that. I think he’ll be happy and pleased at the end of the day.” More here from Steve Bousquet.

Florida budget talks about as clear as gumbo

One of those watching state lawmakers discuss budget negotiations this weekend was Gov. Rick Scott’s spokeswoman, Melissa Sellers.

A newcomer to Florida, Sellers was the spokeswoman for Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal before joining Scott’s office last year. With this being her first legislative session in Tallahassee, Sellers said Saturday she was impressed after watching the Conference Committee on Transportation, Tourism and Economic Development Appropriations explain how they were divvying up $11.2 billion.

“In Louisiana, these meetings are held in smoky back rooms,” Sellers said. “The public never gets to see this.”

But for lobbyists, reporters, members of the general public, and even most lawmakers, there is more than just a hint of Cajun flavor in how lawmakers decide the budget.

Yes, the meetings are held in public. But the meetings are after the fact. The chairs merely announce the spending decisions that were made behind closed doors among the chamber leaders. If you weren’t in the room when that decision was made, good luck understanding the rationale for the spending, or, more importantly, what was swapped for it or who asked for it.

Video: Rick and Ann Scott talk 41 years of marriage

Nestled on a loveseat in the governor's mansion, Gov. Rick Scott and wife Ann gush about what it's like to be married to each other 41 years.

Saturday is the couple's wedding anniversary.

In the short video posted on the governor's Facebook page, Rick asks Ann about the secret to a long marriage. Her answer: Be flexible. Laugh at yourself and each other. Stay committed.

She talked about thinking Rick was "pretty cute" when they met as high school seniors in North Kansas City. "When I had hair?" Rick asked. "Yes, when you had hair," Ann laughed. "There was just something special about him. He was different from other boys I had dated."

Rick's advice: "Marry a wonderful person. And then just cherish them, be sweet and have lots of fun in the journey. Enjoy the journey."

Florida's job recovery continues, unemployment at 7.5 percent

An excerpt from the Tampa Bay Times' report on the latest unemployment figures:

Florida's job recovery kept its momentum in March, with the state's unemployment rate tumbling to a four-and-a-half year low of 7.5 percent, the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity reported Friday morning.

That's down from a revised rate of 7.7 percent in February.

Florida added 32,700 jobs from February to March and is now up 141,300 jobs compared to a year ago.

Florida Gov. Rick Scott, speaking at an event honoring a Naples manufacturer, said the latest numbers prove his jobs strategies are working. "In Florida, our economy is turning around because we focus every day on creating new jobs for our families," he said, noting the state has added 320,000 private sector jobs since he took office a little over two years ago.

Read more here.

FL House GOP's balking at Medicaid cash could hurt party, Florida

@MarcACaputo

"Republicans don't care."

Lenny Curry, the Republican Party of Florida chairman, reluctantly acknowledged the criticism in an email. And he proposed an antidote.

“It's not enough to say that we care about people,” Curry wrote, citing a conservative columnist. “You have to show up.”

The following day, Thursday, Florida House leaders showed up in the state Capitol, pitched a conservative health plan and played right into the don't-care criticism.

They said they didn’t care to take nearly $9.8 billion from the federal government over three years to help provide coverage to as many as 816,000 low-income Floridians. Their plan covers fewer people and costs the state treasury more money than proposals by Republican Gov. Rick Scott or the GOP-led Senate, who want to take the federal money for at least three years by expanding the Medicaid program.

The federal money, as much as $55 billion over a decade, would go a long way in a state where about one in four non-elderly residents is uninsured — the third-highest rate in the nation.

The House intransigence at expanding Medicaid doesn’t mean Republicans don’t care.

They care.

About GOP primary elections.

Taking the money risks exposure to potential opponents who will tar them for taking Medicaid money under Obamacare. It gives Obama a win.

But if Republicans care about general elections, too, they might want to take a look at the fastest-growing and most-sought-after segment of the electorate: Hispanics.

Hispanics account for about 35 percent of Florida’s Medicaid-eligible population.

Tea party leader wants RPOF to 'step back' from Gov. Scott

The Republican Party of Florida's quarterly meeting takes place this weekend at the Disney Dolphin resort near Orlando, and Saturday's executive board meeting promises to be a lot livelier than usual.

Lake County Republican State Committeewoman Patricia Sullivan, who's also a leader of the local tea party movement, said she will ask RPOF chairman Lenny Curry and other party leaders to "step back" from Gov. Rick Scott and not provide financial, verbal or other support for him until after the 2014 party primary. Scott at the moment has no serious opposition for the GOP nomination.

Sullivan was an early and avid supporter of Scott, but she abandoned all support for the governor after he publicly endorsed an expansion of the Medicaid program last month. In an interview Friday, Sullivan added to her list of Scott grievances the fact that he supports the Common Core education standards, which the Republican National Committee is also considering opposing as a "one-size-fits-all" approach to classroom achievement.

"That is in complete opposition to what Rick Scott is doing," Sullivan said.

Scott has noted that 46 states have adopted the Common Core standards, which his website says were developed with input from teachers "that emphasizes analytical problem solving over memorization and simple recitation of facts."

Sullivan said she realizes it's an uphill fight to challenge the party establishment over a sitting governor's record, but added: "We have a new group who are not yes-men and yes-women. We'll have a little bit of a fight on our hands, but that's our job as men and women."

-- Steve Bousquet

Gov. Rick Scott honors Tim Tebow as a 'Great Floridian'

He may be just a benchwarmer on the mediocre New York Jets, and Monday-morning quarterbacks endlessly criticize his throwing mechanics. But to Gov. Rick Scott, football star Tim Tebow is "an inspiration" who's fully deserving to be the 67th person ever bestowed with the high honor of a "Great Floridian."

The governor planned to present the award Friday afternoon to Tebow, a former Florida Gator star, in a ceremony at the Clubhouse at TPC Sawgrass in Ponte Vedra Beach, the city where Tebow's high school gridiron heroics made him a national sensation. (For this photo opportunity, one wonders, who's the greater beneficiary, Tebow or the re-election minded governor?)

Speaking to reporters Friday in Broward, Scott explained why he nominated the 25-year-old Tebow for the award: "Tim Tebow is a great Floridian. If you look at what he's done, he's inspired young children to stay in school, to do well in school, to live a great life. He's an inspiration."

Great Floridians are chosen by the Secretary of State Ken Detzner from a nominating committee that also included Scott, three Cabinet members, the Senate president and House speaker.

Recent award winners have included retired FSU football coach Bobby Bowden, former Gov. Jeb Bush, inventor Thomas Edison (of Fort Myers), former Sen. Bob Graham and environmental leader Nathaniel Reed. To date, 66 people have been given the honor since the award was created in 1981.

-- Steve Bousquet