Fact-checking Will Weatherford on pension reform

Florida House Speaker Will Weatherford made his case for a dramatic overhaul of the Florida Retirement System on the opening day of the legislative session, arguing the pension fund is not in as good of shape as people say.

"This session, we will spend $500 million of general revenue just to shore up our pension fund," he said. "That’s above and beyond what we contribute to state employees’ retirement. And it’s just the down payment. We’re going to have to keep writing that check of a half a billion dollars for the next 28 years to keep our so called ‘great pension system’ afloat."

PolitiFact Florida fact-checked his statement and found Weatherford omitted key details that would have painted a more complete picture of the pension fund's health.

Read why we rated it Half True.

Weatherford: Embrace most of Senate ethics bill and lower campaign caps

House Speaker Will Weatherford said Thursday the House Ethics and Elections Committee next week will take up a bill that embraces most of the Senate's ethics bill and another that will "dramatically" reduce the the $10,000 cap on campaign contributions.

Gov. Rick Scott said Wednesday he could not support the House cap on campaign contributions and Weatherford said a new version, which is being drafted now, "will have that number come down dramatically."

In its place will be a tiered cap, Weatherford told the Herald/Times. A similar bill (SB 1382) has been proposed by Sen. Jack Latvala, R-St. Petersburg, that would raise contributions from $500 to $3,000 for statewide offices such as governor, Cabinet and Supreme Court merit retention races but leave the cap at $500 for legislative and countywide races. The Senate bill is scheduled for a hearing on Monday.

But, Weatherford said, the House proposed caps will be higher. Latvala's proposed levels "are better but still too low,'' he said. "If we have the $500 cap, we can all pat ourselves on the back and say that's great we're having cap but there's no cap on (Scott's political committee) 'Let's Get to Work,''' or on other electioneering and communications organizations that are regulated under federal law.

Gov. Rick Scott tells House he's not a fan of exploding campaign finance cap

In another sign that Florida Gov. Rick Scott is moving to the populist middle, the govenor's aides told Florida House leaders Wednesday that he cannot support their plan to raise campaign contribution caps from $500 to $10,000 in exchange for more rigorous disclosure.

"What we’ve told the House is that when they do that they reduce the importance of the individual who can only write a $500 check so I think they ought to really look at that a lot more closely,'' Scott said Wednesday in an interview with the Herald/Times. "I want to see what they come back with but we’ve got to try to keep as many people involved in the process as we can.''

Scott, who spent more than $73 million of his own money to get elected, has collected dozens of five and six digit contributions through his political committee, Let's Get to Work. Three of the contributions in the last year were for $250,000 -- from Florida Power & Light, resort casino magnate Sheldon Adelson and AutoNation Founder Wayne Huizenga.  

The House is moving a top priority bill of House Speaker Will Weatherford, R-Wesley Chapel, that would eliminate the political slush funds known as Committees of Continuous Existence, raise the campaign finance cap to $10,000 from the current $500 per campaign, and require accelerated disclosure of all campaign finance contributions.

Weatherford gets long-awaited case for pension overhaul

Florida House Speaker Will Weatherford thinks he finally has the evidence that proves it’s time to reform the state’s $136 billion pension system.

He’s made it one of his chief priorities to prevent new employees from enrolling in the guaranteed benefit plan starting Jan. 1, 2014.

He says that other states, such as Illinois, New York and California, have proven that pension systems are unsustainable. Until now, however, he couldn’t show projections on how much it would save Florida, or how much it would cost to switch to 401(k)-style plans.

He had hoped to find out on Feb. 15 from a study by Milliman, a Vienna, VA actuarial firm, but it was deemed incomplete. On Friday, the firm turned in a second study, this one including what it would cost if nothing was done to the existing pension system and its 145,000 accounts. According to Weatherford’s office, it’s all good.

* An estimated $9.8 billion in savings to taxpayers in 2042-43.

* An estimated $2.1 billion in savings to taxpayers in 2023-24.

* No cost in the first fiscal year of the implementation and a modest $2.7 million cost in FY 2014-15

* First savings realized in 2015-16 ($12.9 million).

* Reduction in taxpayer risk as taxpayer savings increases.

Now that's an interpretation of the report from Weatherford’s office, which has been pushing for the changes. Other groups representing state and local government workers who are enrolled in the pension, are reviewing the Milliman study as well. Some have already observed that the study makes bold assumptions and leaves out important costs. We’ll be hearing from them in the coming days. In the meantime, the Milliman report, and Weatherford’s interpretation of it, only builds momentum for HB 7011.

Weatherford opposes Medicaid expansion; his dad says his family was helped by it

In outlining his opposition to expanding Medicaid on Tuesday, Florida House Speaker Will Weatherford told an emotional story about how his family relied on existing safety nets to provide health care for his 13-month-old brother.

“Peter lost his battle with cancer and my father found himself with a mountain of medical bills that he could never afford to pay,” Weatherford told lawmakers on the floor of the House of Representatives. “It was the safety net that picked my father up. It was the safety net that picked my family up.”

He left out one detail, the name of the safety net.

According to his father, it was Medicaid.

The federal-state health care program for the poor covered more than $100,000 in Peter’s medical costs, Weatherford’s father told the Herald/Times.

“There was no way I could pay that,” said Bill Weatherford, 62, when reached by phone in Odessa.

The House speaker, asked later, said Medicaid did not help cover his brother’s hospital bills and that he thinks his father was mistaken. He said he would look into the matter.

“I don’t know the specifics of what happened,” said Weatherford, who was 15 when his brother died in 1995. “I know my brother had cancer, I know we were uninsured, and I know they weren’t able to pay their bills.”

More here from Mike Van Sickler and Jodie Tillman

 

Steve Crisafulli officially chosen as House Speaker for 2014

Steve Crisafulli, R-Merritt Island, was officially appointed as the incoming Republican Leader of the Florida House of Representatives for 2014 on Monday.

If, as expected, Republicans etain their majority in the 120-member House in 2014, Crisafulli will be the state’s next House Speaker, occupying one of the most powerful positions in state government.

“It is an honor for me to be a small part of this ceremony, and a special day for a very close friend,” said current House Speaker Will Weatherford, R-Wesley Chapel.

Crisafulli was chosen for the post a week after last year’s election, when designated Speaker-in-waiting Rep. Chris Dorworth (R-Lake Mary) was defeated in a shocking upset.

As speaker-designate, Crisafulli will play a major role raising money and getting Republicans elected in 2014.

“No one who’s blessed with this opportunity gets here on his own,” said Crisafulli, in a speech where he thanked a slew of people and got emotional at times.

Legislators return with crop of new members and a new tone of cooperation

What a difference an election can make.

As legislators return to Tallahassee for their two-month-long annual session, beginning Tuesday, they will tackle some of the state’s most intractable problems, and they vow to do it with a new tone.

From property insurance and foreclosure reform to implementation of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, and shoring up the state’s embattled education system, the issues are complicated and challenging.

Much of the debate in recent years has been driven by ideology, but this year the Republican-led Legislature faces no election. After Florida voted to reelect Democrat Barack Obama, the political rhetoric of GOP leaders has inched closer to the middle. The Legislature is undergoing an image makeover.

“In recent years, we may have done things that were more politically driven than policy driven,’’ said Sen. John Thrasher, R-St. Augustine, the Senate Rules chairman, who is both a former speaker of the House and chairman of the Republican Party. “The longer you’re in, the more you realize you don’t know everything, and you may need to step back and adjust a little bit to move forward in a positive direction.”

Legislative leaders who campaigned against the president’s signature issue, healthcare reform, are now drafting legislation to implement it. More here.

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/03/03/v-fullstory/3264115/florida-lawmakers-to-angry-voters.html#storylink=cpy

Milliman releases follow-up report on pension fund, waives its fees

The company hired by the state to project the cost of closing the state's traditional pension plan to new employees released its updated report late Friday and waived its $70,000 fee for failing to use complete data the first time.  

"We recognize this was a significant mistake, resulting in confusion and a delay in your ability to accurately evaluate this important issue,'' wrote Stephen A. White, president and CEO of the Virginia-based actuarial company hired by the state. "We apologize for this error. It is inexcusable, and should not have occurred."  Download Milliman Follow-up Letter (1)

The new report includes 136 pages of analysis, including two different scenarios that give the state a ballpark estimate of the costs it can expect to incur when it closes the Florida Retirement System to new employees and sends them into 401k-style defined contribution plans. Here's the report: Download Close DB prospectively with baseline

House Speaker Will Weatherford, R-Wesley Chapel, is hoping to use the results to determine how much it will cost the state to pay out benefits to employees in the current $136 billion system when there are no new hires to replenish the fund. He has made closing the fund to new employees a top priority this session because, he argues, the current system is unsustainable given the state's current budget structure, and will require a taxpayer bailout years into the future.

For the last decade, Florida lawmakers have increasingly relied on fewer state workers to do state jobs and used the budget to steer state work to private and non-profilt companies, reducing the number of employees paying into the retirement account. 

Unions oppose closing the defined benefit plan, arguing that it will eliminate one of the reasons people choose government work over similar jobs in the private sector. They also argue that the shift to a 401k -style pension plan will shift the risk of retirement planning from the state to employees. 

 

Defeated state rep spends unused campaign cash to pay girlfriend

Days after he lost his bid for re-election last fall, former Rep. Peter Nehr of Palm Harbor used leftover campaign money to pay his live-in girlfriend $22,000 for "consulting," records show.

Nehr made three post-election payments to girlfriend Kim Marie, a 47-year-old acupuncturist, listing them as "consulting, editing and fundraising" expenses on his campaign expenditure report.

The report lists her as living at a fictitious address in Palm Harbor, "2528 Glory Drive." Property, voting and other state records list Nehr and Marie as both living in a Palm Harbor townhome on Gloriosa Drive, which she owns.

Is this a violation of state law? Current law allows candidates to spend money after the election on thank you advertisements, for previous financial obligations and expenses needed to shut down campaign operations. Violations are subject to fines from the Florida Elections Commission.

The ethics revisions moving through the Florida and the Senate attempt to tackle the use of slush funds for CCEs and don't address this issue. More from Steve Bousquet here. 

Florida House to reveal new smart phone app

With an enticing, but cryptic, press release today, Florida House Speaker Will Weatherford invited the media to his special announcement outside of the House of Represenatives chambers on Thursday entitled, "Democracy on the Go."

A public records search gave us some accidental insight into the event: the launch of the Florida House's new mobile app. The first of its kind for Florida government, the MyFloridaHouseApp will offer everything you can find on the House's current Internet site on a mobile app for I-Phones, I-Pads, Androids, etc.

According to the contract with Orlando-based Echo Interaction, the app will not only stream live video of committee meetings and floor sessions, it will offer details on bills, votes, and legislators. 

The app was developed by Echo Interaction for $133,000. The contract was competively bid.

According to the contract, the product has been beta tested for the last month and will be ready for launch on the first week of session. The company will continue to provide maintenance and support through October 2013.  Download Tablet Vendor Overall Selection Summary (1); Download ITN for Tablet Application(s) iOS and Android seperate Version 8132012 (1)