AHCA Medicaid contractor failed to collect over $100-mil for state

Phil Williams, interim deputy secretary for Medicaid at AHCA, just got an earful from senators on the health care appropriations committee who learned that the company hired last year to collect an estimated $120-million in Medicaid overpayments has so far collected zilch. Zip. Nada.

And that leaves the state's Medicaid budget $120 leaner than what was expected -- not a good situation as the Legislature looks down the barrel of rising Medicaid costs and a more than $2-billion budget shortfall.

"We are going into this budget crisis, and here we are just not collecting overpayments?," said a ticked Sen. Mike Haridopolos, the Republican tapped to be the next Senate president. "If $100 million could have been collected, how could we go a whole year without collecting money that could go back to taxpayers? And then we just tell the company that got the contract, 'Oh it's OK, we'll wait.' In the real world, a company would have been fired for doing that."

Alexander pushes Crist to push DMS

Sen. J.D. Alexander took advantage of the governor's visit to Senate chambers this morning (for Joe Negron's swearing-in) to make known his displeasure with the Department of Management Services.

"I am not impressed with DMS," Alexander told the Times/Herald, as Gov. Charlie Crist left the chambers and promised Alexander "I'll get on it."

Get on what?

Well, Alexander, you'll recall, led the charge to require - in statute earlier this year - that DMS compile a list of all available state property including office space. But on Tuesday DMS real estate director Dean Izzo told Alexander's Ways and Means committee that no such list can be compiled until DMS gets more resources.

"He says they need more resources, yet in the same breath he says they saved 5 percent on energy costs and used the savings, like $1.3 million, on lease-hold improvements," Alexander said. "So he needs more resources, yet he's going around painting walls or replacing carpet? This list isn't an 'ask,' OK? This is in statute, signed by the governor. It's important to know what property we have."

Sink scolds DOT for dismissing cost-cutting ideas

State Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink on Wednesday scolded DOT Secretary Stephanie Kopelousos for brushing off a citizen's money-saving suggestion as having "no merit" -- including one suggesting the agency stop awarding automatic pay increases to contractors. Then she asked Kopelousos to take another look and report back.

The idea came from Harlow Hyde, 61, a retired contract writer for the DOT from Deland, who had sent Sink and Kopelousos a dense, 12-page letter outlining his suggestions for saving money. He wrote it on his last day on the job in February and blasted the agency for wasting "several hundred millions of dollars a year on these consultants."

Kopelousos' staff dismissed the entire letter and made no mention of the fact that she had instituted a plan to rewrite contracts to eliminate the automatic pay hikes -- which she outline in a July 28 letter to Sen. Dave Aronberg. Sink was not happy.

"When a citizen takes the time to suggest efficiencies that can save taxpayers money or help eliminate waste, fraud and abuse, it is incumbent upon all of us to give these ideas the acknowledgement and consideration they deserve," Sink wrote in her letter to Kopelousos on Wednesday. Read full story here.  Download DOT Get Lean Letter 080509

DOT stops salary bonuses for contractors

Sen. Dave Aronberg hit pay dirt today when his public records request of the Department of Transportation yielded a change in policy that DOT calculations show it could save at least $10 million. Download Senator aronberg 07 28 09

Aronberg, a Greenacres Democrat who is running for attorney general, asked DOT on July 13 for a list of all contracts with private companies that allowed for automatic salary increases for workers that are handling DOT proejcts. Aronberg argued that because of the state's deep budget woes awarding automatic pay hikes to private contractors "was unfair to state workers and unfair to taxpayers."

Secretary Stephanie Kopelousos supplied the list on Thursday and said that she has since changed state policy and is "eliminating any salary modification terms from new contracts and new amendments to existing contracts."

Update: Kopelousos' spokesman Dick Kane said Friday the agency began reviewing contracts after the January special session when lawmakers urged state officials to try to reduce the cost of their private contracts, not as a result of Aronberg's request. 

Florida schools to lose 10,000 more kids this year

The Legislature's Economic and Demographic Research has just released its projections on 2009-10 school enrollment, based on school district data and the results are in: Florida schools will lose 10,000 more kids to enrollment declines.

This will be the third year in a row that enrollment is expected to drop at Florida's schools and economists predict another 2,677 will drop from the rolls in the 2010-11 budget year. The declines began in the 2007-08 budget year, when schools lost 7,054 students. The decline continued in 2008-09 with 13,279 fewer students than the year before and in the 2009-10 year the drop is expected to be 9,999. More here.

Crist signs budget but restores pay to state workers

Saying the economy is on the upswing, Florida's ever-optimistic Gov. Charlie Crist signed the state's $66.5 billion budget into law Wednesday, making two changes to the bill passed by lawmakers.

The governor restored pay to state workers -- reversing the 2 percent pay cuts imposed by the legislature -- and he vetoed the raids on the concealed weapons trust fund.

"I believe that now is not the best time to reduce state employees pay and so we have made that modifcation,'' Crist said. Agency heads will "respect the legislature's reduction without reducing salaries."

He said that the 28,000 state workers "and their families are consumers too. I want them to have the ability to make purchases and stimulate Florida's economy.''

At a bill signing ceremony attended by the legislature's top Republican budget chiefs, Crist said the state budget is "not nearly as dismal as many expected it to be. There are no broad base tax increases, no plans to release inmates from prison.'' And he noted that Florida isn't making cuts as deep as other states.

Tallahassee brain drain

Take the lack of institutional knowledge caused by term limits, exacerbated of late by the early retirement of a veteran legislator like state Sen. Ken Pruitt and the cancer diagnosis facing another veteran, Sen. Jim King.  Add the worst budget crisis the state has faced in decades. And sprinkle with the massive political turnover created by five statewide open seats in 2010.

A recipe for disaster?

"We are going to be spending a huge amount of time on politics when we should be tackling public policy,'' said former state Sen. Rod Smith, who lost a bid for governor in 2006 and may take a shot at attorney general in 2010. "Anyone who says this is not a sad recipe for Florida is denying reality. This is a time when we need leadership.''

Smith said he's nearly made up his mind about his plans for 2010 but isn't ready to talk about them yet. "I enjoyed public life but I haven't missed it a lick,'' he said, sounding like a guy who's going to pass on a statewide campaign.

Two words why Charlie may not want to stick around: budget crisis

With two days to go before Gov. Charlie Crist announces his intentions to jump ship and reach for Washington, we lay out a few good reasons why no well-meaning politician would want to hang around Tallahassee -- especially if they have a good shot at the cushier confines of the U.S. Senate.

Economists seem pretty consistent that next year's budget will be as grim as this year's, and even House and Senate budget chiefs admit that next year's budget crisis may demand that legislators -- and the governor -- accept even more tax increases and spending cuts.

That raises a question: what kind of budgetary leadership can we expect from this governor, especially if he's a lame duck?

House passes budget 75-43, sine die to come

Closing the books on the 2009 legislative session, the House just approved the state's $66.5 billion budget by a 75-43 vote. It was a strict party line vote, with one Democrat (Kelly Skidmore) and one Republican (Ed Homan) not voting.

The House also voted 85-30 to raise the state's cigarette tax $1 a pack, with bill presenter Rep. Ellyn Bogdanoff, R-Fort Lauderdale, in the nay camp. And the to-the-wire gambling bill was approved 82-35.

Debate over two days had Republicans touting an education budget that increases per-student spending and Democrats attacking millions of dollars in new fees affecting practically all Floridians. 

"I find it troubling that the Republican Party, which touts fiscal conservatism and family values, has crafted a state budget that is held together by smokers and gamblers," said Democratic leader Franklin Sands of Weston.

Said Rep. Kelli Stargel, R-Lakeland: "We made priority choices and in doing so, we have funded every single thing that was asked in regards to this budget."

Budget double-talk/debate redux

Only a few non lawmakers/media types in the Capitol today. Why come? The debate over the $66.5b budget won't have any really new points. What to watch for: Pithy quotes and how much Republicans and Democrats manage to contradict themselves to score political points against one another.

Watch the House. If Democrats are smart and organized, they're likely to pause before voting on both the budget and the tobacco-tax bill. That way, it ensures Republicans take the plunge first. It also could add a little drama and, perhaps initially, a defeat on one of the bills before someone moves to reconsider.