JD Alexander says Buss' forced resignation was a good move

Sen. JD Alexander said Thursday that the forced resignation of Department of Corrections Secretary Ed Buss on Wednesday was warranted. He told reporters after meeting with Gov. Rick Scott that he doubted the department's claim that the privitization effort could "cripple the agency" because of a potential $25 million owed to staff for comp time, vacation pay and sick leave if they lose their jobs.

"Whether or not that number ever comes to pass is questionable,'' said Alexander, the Senate budget chief who allowed the private prison plan to be quietly inserted into the budget without debate in the final days of the session. "I support the governor's change in the secretary.''

Legislators tucked into the budget the requirement that all 12 major prisons in the Department of Corrections Region IV be run by private companies. The region encompasses an 18-county area from Ocala southward, and includes about 3800 employees.

Florida's unemployment rate -- a by-the-numbers breakdown

Here are some ominous and encouraging details from the unemployment briefing today by the Agency for Workforce Innovation's Chief Economist, Rebecca Rust: Download July 2011 unemployment

* Florida's unemployment rate in July remained unchanged at 10.7 percent -- the same rate as the revised June rate. It was the 7th highest in the nation.

* The jobless rate equates to the number of people -- 987,000 -- actively seeking work out of a labor force of 9.2 million. However, the total percentage of people who remain jobless is 18.5 percent because 7.8 percent of the unemployed did not actively attempt to seek work in July.

* Unemployment claims dropped in July 17.3 percent.

* Tax revenues rose over last year by 4.3 percent. Florida's visitor count was up 6.9 percent and the number of overseas visitors climbed 17.3 percent.

PolitiFact Florida: Did former Rep. Adam Hasner request 'over $92.2 million in earmarks'?

George LeMieux campaign e-mails and Web posts last week show a cartoon Adam Hasner wearing a joker hat and holding a mask at his own "masquerade ball" — one where he’s only pretending to be conservative. The release claims that Hasner's record includes "requesting over $92.2 million in earmarks."

The earmark claim caught our eye. Hasner, elected to the Florida House of Representatives in 2002, served as majority leader from 2008-10 before term limits ended his run. That means plenty of time to rack up requests for pet projects. But did he request "over $92.2 million in earmarks"? And if he did, how did that compare with requests by other lawmakers?

PolitiFact Florida crunched the numbers.

Did FL government budget cuts contribute to boy's death in DJJ lockup?

After Omar Paisley died of a burst appendix in a Miami-Dade juvenile lockup eight years ago, juvenile justice administrators announced sweeping reforms, including on-site medical care around the clock at the Miami facility.

When Eric Perez died Sunday, July10 at the Palm Beach County juvenile jail, there were no doctors or nurses on duty, according to the nurse jailers say they tried in vain to reach.

“Nobody works there at night,” Diana Heras said of lockup medical staff. “There is no state funding for night nurses for any night of the week. They do not have a nurse who works at that ... facility on the night shift, and they do not work weekends.”

Department of Juvenile Justice Secretary Wansley Walters, at the helm for just half a year when 18-year-old Eric perished at the West Palm Beach lockup, said Florida’s historic budget woes — which prompted lawmakers to trim tens of millions in juvenile justice spending this year — are not to blame for his death last week.

Full story here 

Video: Rick Scott's response to Democrats being booted from his budget signing

When Gov. Rick Scott signed his budget at a "celebration" sponsored by the Republican Party of Florida, Democrats and others opposed to Scott weren't allowed in. (Story is here). Here, Scott responds for the first time to a series of questions about what he knew and when he knew it.

**Update ** Video: Rick Scott's stimulus flip flop

Gov. Rick Scott is against Obama's stimulus program. But he allowed $370m of the federal money to stay in the state budget. And he doesn't really explain why.

Rick Scott bashes Obama's stimulus -- but allows c. $370m to stay in state budget

Gov. Rick Scott campaigned against President Obama’s “failed stimulus” program – yet the freshman politician kept almost $370 million of the federal cash in the Florida budget he signed last week.

Scott’s decision to keep the stimulus money stands out in a year when the governor touted record budget vetoes of up to $615 million. He emphasized the vetoes of “wasteful” spending at a Thursday event that featured a campaign-style “Promises Made, Promises Kept” banner.

But as he ran for office last summer, Scott said he “would fight all the stimulus money.” He also told reporters “I would have figured out how to balance the budget without it.”

When asked Tuesday why he appeared to reverse himself by keeping stimulus money, Scott didn’t specifically answer.

“I think the stimulus was not good for our state, made us more dependent on the federal government,” he said, echoing a budget-signing letter he issued last week. “I think that we’ve got to watch how we spend money. As you know, in the budget, I focused very much on how we spend our money, stopping the growth of debt in our state and making our state less dependent on the federal government.”

The stimulus money Scott and Republican legislators approved touch every corner of the state: $290 million to improve electronic medical records, $4.2 million to aid disadvantaged children, $3.2 million for fighting wildfires, $12.5 million for drug courts, $8.6 million for county health departments, $1 million to fight infectious diseases, and $4.4 million to help public defenders and prosecutors.

More here 

Governor Scott Changes Position on Education Funding

Governor Rick Scott last week cut $615-million in state spending. In a reversal of his previous position, the governor is now encouraging the Legislature to put some of that money back into education. Scott signed the state budget in a Central Florida retirement community under the banner "Less Government Waste, More Educational Opportunities." He was surrounded by students from a charter school bused to the event from an hour away. WLRN Miami Herald Reporter Gina Jordan has more.

Education0531

Rick Scott's robo-calls backfiring (and spoofing, too?)

As we first tweeted this morning, the Republican Party of Florida is robo-calling voters to drum up support for Gov. Rick Scott, who might be America's most-disliked governor, with a 29 percent approval rating. Now that a full day of calls are in, it appears that's just making some fellow Republicans upset.

The automatic, pre-recorded calls feature Scott's voice derided the hometown projects he vetoed from the budgets as "special interest waste." Not the kind of message that fellow Republicans, who crafted the budget, wanted to hear. Especially when those special interests included hungry and needy seniors, homeless veterans, paralysis victims, etc.

 Former Republican State Rep. J.C. Planas of Miami said he was called and was infuriated that needy projects were being described as waste. What's more, he said, the incoming number on his cell phone caller ID showed that it was his own number phoning in -- a process of disguising calls known as "spoofing."

"It's bad enough that he's hurting my community with these vetoes and misrepresenting the purpose of them," Planas said. "But then he's spoofing my phone? Why?"

Scott's vetoes also aim at five conforming bills

In addition to the record dollar amount of line item vetoes today, Gov. Rick Scott also vetoed five budget-related bills. They include:

SB 2118 -- Which would have raised court costs and fees for defendants found guilty or who plead guilty to pay for FDLE costs of a statewide crime lab and transfer contracting and oversight of private prisons from Department of Management Services to teh Department of Corrections. Scott said that was "contrary to my recommendation to consolidate state agency contracting" in DMS.

SB 2106 -- The bill repeats the action of another bill, SB 2156, which transfers the Florida Energy and  Climate Change Commission to the Department of Agriculture.

SB 1738 -- Which would have created an Agency for Enterprise Business Services with the Department of Management Services to streamline purchasing and procurement. Scott said in his veto letter that the new agency is duplicative and in conflict his new Agency for Enterprise Information Technology.

HB 5305 -- Would have repealed the Correctional Medical Authority, preserving the ability of the state to supervise and monitor inmate head care through another level of government. The bill was barely passed on the last night of session and, afterwards was vigorously opposed by Sen. Mike Fasano, R-New Port Richey and Sen. Arthenia Joyner, D-Tampa.

Fasano said he called DOC Secretary Ed Buss on Tuesday urging him to appeal to the governor to veto the repeal of the Correctional Medical Association. Buss agreed, Fasano said, and the governor listened. "I was pleased to see he was able to keep it intact,'' Fasano said. "The last thing we need is another federal lawsuit that will cost taxpayers millions of dollars."

Fasano said the watchdog role of the agency is more important than ever now that legislators are moving forward with privatizing inmate medical and mental health. One problem: there is no funding in the budget for CMA. Fasano said Buss is committed to finding a way to keep the oversight board going.