WEEKLY ROUNDUP – THE HOUSE SPEAKS UP ABOUT SANSOM

(Recap and analysis of the week in state government)

By KEITH LAING, THE NEWS SERVICE OF FLORIDA

www.newsserviceflorida.com

THE CAPITAL, TALLAHASSEE, Jan. 30, 2009………After months of being quiet about the troubles of Speaker Ray Sansom, Republicans in the state House finally spoke up about the controversy surrounding Sansom’s job at a college that gets money from the state and his help in getting a hangar funded in Destin.

And when they did speak, they told the speaker it was time to go. Word leaked Friday at the end of a week expected to be the quiet before the storm of committee meetings that Sansom will step down as speaker and Speaker Pro Tempore Larry Cretul will move up, at least for now.

Sansom confirmed the early reports, citing “ongoing legal proceedings that have temporarily created an inability for me to carry out my responsibilities as speaker.” Sansom, who had already resigned from his job at Northwest Florida State College, will continue serving in the Legislature and said he would be vindicated by the legal proceedings.

His colleagues in the Republican caucus, who lined up behind him early and bit their tongues for weeks as the firestorm grew, did not stay quiet Friday. Many expressed disappointment that Sansom was stepping down, praising him as a good man who would have made a good speaker, but said it was difficult to focus legislative attention on pressing problems – mainly the state’s financial woes.

“I think it has an effect on the decorum of the House and this will give him the ability to focus on the issue that he needs to give his attention to,” said Rep. Dorothy Hukill, R-Port Orange.

The Republican Party itself acknowledged the distraction created by the ongoing news stories about the allegations, but backed Sansom nonetheless.

“Florida’s families and businesses face unprecedented challenges right now, and it is important that the Florida Legislature is free from any additional distractions while its members do the important work in front of them,” Florida Republican Party Chairman Jim Greer said in a statement. “We support Rep. Sansom’s decision to temporarily step down from his position as speaker in order to focus on clearing his name, and we are confident he will do just that.”

Even some Democrats expressed admiration for Sansom, though the party’s House leader also said the former made the right move.

Time will tell how Sansom fares in his legal proceedings, but he has to hope it goes better than his two-month tenure as speaker of the House, during the majority of which he remained silent.

SHUTTING DOWN THE STATE’S FARM

Just when you thought the economic storm in Florida couldn’t get any worse, State Farm, the state’s largest private property insurer, said this week that it wants to get out of the property insurance market.

State Farm argued that it is being forced to retreat from Florida by its inability to get regulatory approval for higher rates to deal with actual storms. But the move, which would need approval from state insurance regulators, was met immediately with efforts by the Office of Insurance Regulation and legislators to try to block the pull-out because it could leave more than 1.2 million Florida policyholders without private coverage, forcing Citizens Property to assume many of the policies.

State Farm said it will leave the state slowly, but that may not make the move less painful. State Farm submitted a two-year plan this week the company said would allow customers time to find coverage with other insurers.

The Winter Haven-based company still plans to continue to sell car insurance in Florida, which might not be much of a consolation prize for people forced to live in their cars if their uninsured homes are ever damaged.

And that’s assuming the company doesn’t lose the right to sell car coverage. Some lawmakers want to pass a law banning companies from “cherry picking” Florida car customers if they aren’t willing to also insure homes.

State Farm, like many other major property insurers, said heavy hurricane losses have made it unprofitable to write policies here without dramatically higher premiums, which Insurance Commissioner Kevin McCarty has generally declined to approve. So now they’re taking their ball and going home, unless lawmakers find away to stop it.

That effort began in earnest this week, almost immediately after State Farm’s announcement Tuesday.

Sen. Mike Fasano filed legislation that would cap the number of homeowners policies Florida companies could drop at 2 percent a year, with a provision to make it retroactive so it could be used to stop State Farm. The House also moved quickly, and “invited” State Farm representatives to a meeting next week of the Insurance, Business and Financial Affairs Policy Committee, chaired by Rep. Pat Patterson, R-DeLand. And just in case they forget to RSVP, McCarty followed the invite with a subpoena.

Still, it is too early to tell if there’s enough of a relationship left between Florida and State Farm to harvest.

CUTTING BACK THE CUTS

As promised, Gov. Charlie Crist broke out his veto pen this week and took it to the spending cuts and trust fund sweeps approved by lawmakers this month as they scrambled to deal with a $2.3 billion hole in the state budget.

The popular populist thanked lawmakers for their hard work and then promptly overturned some of it. Crist restored $365 million to the budget this week before signing the package. Included in Crist’s list of “resurrected” initiatives was $250 million for Florida Forever, the state’s marquee land buying effort that had been cut as lawmakers convened earlier this month to patch a budget hole.

Saying the cost savings did not outweigh the benefit, Crist also vetoed a small portion of proposed budget cuts targeting public school teachers, tourism promotion, probation officers, drug treatment and job training efforts.

But when Crist’s gubernatorial mark-up was all said and done, the former state senator let stand most of the cuts hammered out during a 10-day special session, including a decision by lawmakers to cut affordable housing programs by $190 million. Though opposed to the housing cuts, Crist said they were necessary to fund higher priority issues.

Democrats expressed relief about Crist’s vetoes, which will leave the state about $210 million in the black, and Republicans grinned while they took it on the chin. Crist will now have to present his budget proposal for next year, when more disagreements between the branches of government could emerge as lawmakers tackle a deficit expected to be as high as $4 billion.

FAST AND FALSE STARTS

It was another week of fast starts and false ones in the race for the U.S. Senate seat that will open when Sen. Mel Martinez retires in 2010. Starting fast was state Sen. Dan Gelber, D-Miami Beach, who declared his candidacy this week, joining U.S. Rep. Kendrick Meek in a race that is widely expected to be costly and contentious.

Gelber’s announcement was hardly a surprise. He signaled clearly that he would seek the seat that will be open when Sen. Mel Martinez retires after the state’s most prominent Democrat – Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink – announced she would not.

But it was not official until Gelber announced this week with a blog on his website entitled “I’m In” and a press conference in Miami Beach.

However, political observers apparently jumped the gun about the Senate candidacies of Attorney General Bill McCollum and U.S. Rep. Allen Boyd. The fiscally conservative Monticello Democrat said this week that he would not seek the U.S. Senate seat and McCollum signaled strongly that he may sit out the race as well.

Boyd had been mentioned as a possible contender for the Democratic nomination, though he was assumed to face a difficult primary battle for voters more liberal than those in his Panhandle district. However, a conventional wisdom emerged that Boyd would have been able to appeal to moderate voters in the general election if he was able to survive the primary, which is expected to be costly and contentious.

But Boyd, former co-chair of the Blue Dog Coalition, a group of fiscally conservative members of the Democratic U.S. House Caucus, said this week that he will instead run for re-election.

On the Republican side, Attorney General McCollum similarly said this week that he had given thought to the Senate race, but likely would be announcing soon that he would seek another term when he clarifies his 2010 intentions. However, McCollum’s statement was hardly Shermanesque, as the former Senate candidate left himself wiggle room to pursue the Senate seat he was twice denied.

McCollum said he would seek re-election as attorney general “unless circumstances change.”

If anything can be counted on in the Senate race two years away, but clearly already underway, it is that circumstances will most definitely change.

STORY OF THE WEEK: House Speaker Ray Sansom gave up the gavel in the face of investigations into his job at a college that receives money from the state and his role in help in getting a hangar funded in Destin. Meanwhile, the largest private property insurer in the state wants to pull the plug on Florida and lawmakers searched this week for a way to ensure that they can’t turn the lights out on their operations in the Sunshine state.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK: “I think this is very historic. We’re in new waters here,” Rep. Will Snyder, R-Stuart, after confirming Sansom’s intention to step aside, accurately summing up the mood around a sleepy Capitol that hadn’t yet begun revving up for the coming session.

IRONY OF THE WEEK: The News Service of Florida’s sister publication in Massachusetts also reported this week that the speaker of that state’s House had stepped down in the wake of a range of ethics questions involving his former campaign treasurer and accountant. Speakers stepping down seems to be going around.

–END–
1/30/2009

STIMULUS BILL MAY NOT ALLOW REPAYING OF RAIDED TRUST FUNDS

By KEITH LAING, THE NEWS SERVICE OF FLORIDA

www.newsserviceflorida.com

THE CAPITAL, TALLAHASSEE, Jan. 26, 2009……….A legislative plan to repay money taken from the Lawton Chiles Endowment with money from the stimulus package being debated by Congress could be tripped up by the bill authorizing the expenditures.

Lawmakers have promised supporters of the Chiles endowment that they will put back the $700 million they are taking from that trust fund to plug a $2.3 billion hole in the state budget with money they get from Congress.

However, the bill (H.R. 1) currently being debated in the U.S. House that would allocate the proposed $825 billion stimulus says that Medicaid funding would not be increased to states that use the money to repay rainy day funds or reserves.

Florida’s federal Medicaid boost could be more than $4.3 billion if it does not violate the conditions of the authorization bill. The state/federal program serves more than 2.2 million Floridians and the current stimulus plan calls for the feds to pay a higher percentage of matching funds.

Officials in the offices of Gov. Charlie Crist, House Speaker Ray Sansom and Senate President Jeff Atwater would not comment on the possibility that repaying trust funds could adversely affect the state receiving extra Medicaid money. All three offices said they were monitoring the stimulus’ legislative process and that it was likely to change before being signed by President Barack Obama.

“We are currently monitoring the federal proposals and how they could impact Florida,” Crist spokesman Sterling Ivey told the News Service Monday. “The legislation is in the infancy stages and may be changed before a final bill is signed by the president.”

“There are understandably many unanswered questions about the federal stimulus bill,” Sansom spokeswoman Jill Chamberlin said. “I don’t think we can speculate on details at this point.”

However, Sansom announced Monday that he was planning a joint meeting with the chairs of the House’s appropriations councils to better understand the federal stimulus package . Sansom did not set a date for the meeting, but he said the House would hold a public hearing with Reps. Marcelo Llorente, R-Miami, David Rivera, R-Miami, and Dean Cannon, R-Winter Park, the House’s top budget writers for health care, education and taxes.

Sansom said that the stimulus package itself would not cure the state’s economic woes – after plugging a $2.3 billion hole in the 2008 budget, lawmakers are facing a possible $4 billion deficit in 2009 – but the speaker did say it was important lawmakers understand the package.

“We must be proactive in our approach and do our best to understand how any proposed federal stimulus package would affect our ability to balance the state budget both in the current year and in future budgets,” he wrote in an e-mail to members of the House. “It has been reported that many of these federal dollars will have significant strings attached to their use. We have an obligation to understand the commitments we would be making by using these federal stimulus dollars to balance Florida’s budget.”

Lawton “Bud” Chiles, the son of the former governor who won the tobacco settlement that fills the Chiles Endowment, said that the provision tying Medicaid funding to not repaying trust funds did not make him doubt the state’s promise to repay because he was already not convinced.

“I’d like to see them keep their first promise of paying back the $350 million they took before they get to the second promise about this $700 million,” Chiles said. “Put me down as skeptical. I’m totally in wait-and-see mode.”

Chiles and some of the lawyers who helped win the tobacco settlement have repeatedly threatened to sue the state if it does not keep its repayment promise, and Chiles said Monday that the family was reserving their legal options. However, he said the state could possibly work around the Medicaid provision by repaying the fund out of general revenue once the federal money arrives, instead of using the incoming dollars.

–END–
1/26/2009

SINK SAYS NO TO U.S. SENATE RUN

By KEITH LAING, THE NEWS SERVICE OF FLORIDA

www.newsserviceflorida.com

THE CAPITAL, TALLAHASSEE, Jan. 16, 2009……….Florida Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink on Friday became the second prominent “possible” candidate to drop out of the race for U.S. Senate.

Saying she will instead seek re-election to her post as Florida’s CFO, Sink, a Democrat, joined former Republican Gov. Jeb Bush in bowing out of the upcoming fray to replace Sen. Mel Martinez, a Republican who has announced he will not seek a second term.

“Over the past several weeks, I have given serious and careful thought to my own future and, more importantly, to the future of our state,” Sink said in a statement. “And I am extremely grateful for the support and advice so many friends and fellow Floridians have shared. I believe my skills and abilities are of greatest use here in Florida, where I am honored to serve as chief financial officer. And I will run for re-election as chief financial officer to continue being a fiscal watchdog on behalf of the people of Florida.”

Speculation centered on Sink, the Democrats’ top statewide official, as the party’s most likely candidate even before Martinez’s abrupt retirement announcement in December. National Democrats were trying to lure Sink into the race, believing she would be the party’s best shot to win back the seat because she already had a statewide network of supporters and potential campaign donors that other potential candidates are lacking.

Sink also had name recognition going for her. A statewide poll conducted last fall by Connecticut-based Quinnipiac University’s polling institute surveying prominent state Democrats who may consider runs for Senate or governor in 2010 found only Sink topping 15 percent approval. The CFO garnered approval from 27 percent of respondents in the poll.

That’s why with the exception of U.S. Rep. Kendrick Meek, other possible Democratic candidates were widely presumed to have been waiting to see whether Sink decided to run before making decisions of their own. Sink, like Bush on the other side of the political spectrum, was thought to have the inside track on her party’s nomination by virtue of being the candidate with the most experience seeking statewide office.

But with Sink now on the sidelines with Bush, the floodgates in both parties are now wide open. Minutes after Sink’s announcement, state Sen. Dan Gelber, D-Miami Beach, all but threw his hat in the ring.

“I spoke this morning with Alex about her decision to seek re-election rather than to run for the seat being vacated by Sen. Martinez,” Gelber wrote in a blog post on his Website. “I have been delaying my own decision to give her time to reach her judgment, both out of my deep respect for her as a public servant and my personal friendship with both her and her husband.” Sink’s husband, Bill McBride, was the losing Democratic candidate for governor in 2002, losing to Bush.

But Gelber said his delay is now over with Sink’s decision to pass on the race.

“Given this morning’s news, I fully expect to officially enter the race in the coming weeks,” he wrote. “The task of preparing for such a race is complex, thus I will be making a more formal announcement soon.”

Gelber did hedge in an interview with the News Service Friday morning, but just a little.

“Anything can change in a week or two, so until I announce, I’m not announced,” said Gelber, a former federal prosecutor who has experience in the U.S. Senate as the former top lawyer for the Senate’s most prestigious investigative committee. “But there’s no reason to be coy. So I do expect soon to make an announcement.”

Other Democrats whose names are frequently mentioned as possible candidates include U.S. Reps. Allen Boyd, Kathy Castor and Ron Klein and Tampa Mayor Pam Iorio.

But none are as well-known as Sink, a former banking executive who has played a prominent role in the state’s budget crisis. Sink first called for the special session that concluded this week and she challenged Republican leaders on their plans to cut spending on social services and sweep trust funds.

Gaining that kind of visibility outside their hometowns and the Tallahassee or Washington, D.C. corridors of power will be a clear challenge for the Democrats left eyeing the 2010 race. The same Quinnipiac poll that found Sink the most popular Democrat in the state showed 76 percent of respondents did not know enough about Meek to offer an opinion. Eighty two percent did not know Boyd and 87 percent did not know Gelber. Castor, Klein and Iorio were not even polled.

That’s why University of South Florida political science professor Susan MacManus said many Democrats in Florida would be disappointed with Sink’s decision Friday.

“They really want to get both (Senate) seats,” MacManus said. “She had a really good shot.”

But MacManus also said that Sink may be able to improve her standing as the most sought after Democrat in the state by passing on the 2010 Senate race. Her current term as CFO is the only elective experience Sink has so far.

“She’s a relative newcomer to politics and she wants to prove she can make a difference,” MacManus said. “There’s no place better place to do that than the CFO’s office. Rather than develop a reputation for position hopping, she’s started a job and she’s going stay and do it well. That will bode as well for her future in politics as anything.”

However, there has been speculation that Sink is also passing up the Senate race because she would rather be governor. That theory claims she is biding her time until Gov. Charlie Crist is barred from running in 2014 by term-limits. Much like she became the unofficial frontrunner for the Senate nomination, the Florida political establishment largely considers Sink the most likely Democratic to be elected governor.

MacManus said it was hard to say for sure if that was a part of Sink’s decision-making.

“I’ve heard that, but the reality is that (candidates) have to make their own decisions when they are doing this kind of calculus,” she said. “There’s a lot that goes in to it.”

But MacManus said that if Sink does want to be governor, two terms as CFO will certainly help.

“People will admire here for continuing in this position in a time when she’s really needed,” MacManus said. “People feel very good about someone with her background being in Tallahassee. A lot of people don’t have economic experience, but she does.”

Sink was president of Bank of America’s Florida operation before she was elected CFO in 2006.

MacManus added that with Sink and Bush now sitting out the 2010 election, the race will likely heat up quickly.

“This is an all comers race on both sides that’s going to be very expensive and very competitive,” she said. “Obviously, it starts right now.”

–END–
1/16/2009

MEEK MAKES U.S. SENATE RUN OFFICIAL

By KEITH LAING, THE NEWS SERVICE OF FLORIDA

www.newsserviceflorida.com

THE CAPITAL, TALLAHASSEE, Jan. 13, 2009……….The 2010 race for the U.S. Senate began in earnest Tuesday when U.S. Rep. Kendrick Meek became the first prominent candidate in either party to declare a candidacy for the seat being vacated by retiring Republican Sen. Mel Martinez.

Meek, a Miami Democrat who now holds the congressional seat once occupied by his mother, is giving up a safe seat in Congress, a perch on the the powerful Ways and Means Committee and a close relationship with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to run for the Senate.

But Meek said Tuesday in his announcement speech that Florida needed him more than he needed those things.

“I’ve given Florida a strong voice on the powerful House Ways and Means Committee and was appointed by the Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives to the House Leadership,” Meek said “But never in my lifetime, have the people of Florida been faced with so many big problems. Our state needs bold leadership at every level, and that and it is why I’ve made the decision to run as a candidate for the United States Senate.”

Meek, a former member of the Florida House and Senate, said he will run on a platform of foreclosure prevention, universal health care, climate change, immigration reform, and ending the War in Iraq.

“In the last eight years, we have seen incompetence and bad decision-making by too many in Washington,” Meek said in his announcement speech in Miami. “We have sacrificed our children and grandchildren’s future by saddling them with unprecedented deficits. We borrow money from foreign countries in order to give tax breaks to the wealthiest people. And now we have corporate bailouts with some CEOs abusing tax-payer dollars, continuing with their multi-million dollar salaries, bonuses, corporate jets – and yet they refuse to be accountable to how our tax dollars are being used to bail them out.”

Even before he made it official Tuesday, Meek was often mentioned as a possible contender for the Democratic nomination in 2010, when the party plans to make Florida a prime target as it pushes for a 60 vote super majority in the chamber.

The race, which has attracted a large group of possible candidates from both parties, is expected to be costly and hotly contested.

Other possible Democratic candidates are widely presumed to be waiting to see whether the party’s top statewide official, Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink, decides to run. Sink appears to be having a similar effect on the Democratic field as former Gov. Jeb Bush had on the Republican side before he decided not to run, largely freezing the race while she contemplates a possible candidacy.

Sink, like Bush was before her, is thought to have the inside track on her party’s nomination by virtue of being the candidate with the most experience seeking statewide office. On the Republican side, Attorney General Bill McCollum is contemplating a run, the only candidate who has run statewide to be prominently mentioned as a potential candidate.

Sink’s considerations were obviously not enough to stop Meek from getting in to the race.

Meek has shown a willingness to embrace uphill battles before, taking on Bush at the height of his power over the former governor’s plan to eliminate racial considerations in college admissions and state hiring. Meek, at the time a state senator, held a sit-in in the governor’s office with current Jacksonville Democratic Sen. Tony Hill, who was then serving in the state House.

Bush ultimately backed down, agreeing to delay the start of his program in 2000 and holding public hearings on the matter.

Hill cheered his sit-in partner’s entry into the U.S. Senate race Tuesday.

“Every chance that Congressman Meek….had to elevate the conversation as it relates to working families in Florida, he has always been there,” Hill said in an interview with the News Service. “I’m deliciously excited for this next venture for him and will be working hard in north Florida and all over the state to make him that 60th vote that President-elect Obama needs.”

Hill added that political operatives that will run Meek’s campaign are top notch. Among them, he said, are Steve Hildebrand, a veteran of Obama’s successful Florida effort, and former state Democratic party chair Ana Cruz.

University of South Florida political science professor Susan MacManus said it was not surprising that Meek chose not to wait for Sink’s decision to announce his own.

“You’ve got to be bold in politics,” MacManus said. “He saw an opportunity and he is going for it.”

MacManus said that President-elect Barack Obama’s successful candidacy in Florida likely emboldened Meek, who is also African-American, to enter the race.

“This is indicative of the importance of Obama on minorities entering key races,” MacManus said. “Florida is a place that Democrats have done well in and Obama was well-received here. I don’t think you can overstate the importance of Barack Obama’s groundbreaking candidacy.”

MacManus added that Meek may benefit from being the first high-profile candidate in the race.

“Stage one in any race is the announcement,” MacManus said. “Stage two is raising money. People who haven’t run statewide before need to start raising money now.”

But even if Meek is able to raise the money necessary for a possible primary against Sink, who is being courted to run by national Democrats who believe she would be the party’s best shot to win back the seat, the race could prove as difficult as the Bush confrontation was for the Miami lawmaker. As the top Democrat in the state, Sink already has a statewide network of supporters and potential campaign donors that Meek and other potential candidates are lacking.

To wit, a statewide poll conducted last fall by Connecticut-based Quinnipiac University’s polling institute surveying prominent state Democrats who may consider runs for senate or governor in 2010 found only Sink topping 15 percent approval. The CFO garnered approval from 27 percent of respondents in the poll.

Meek was the second highest Democrat in the poll at 14 percent, behind Sink, but ahead of U.S. Reps. Allen Boyd and state Sen. Dan Gelber, who are also often mentioned as possible contenders. Boyd and Gelber had 11 percent and 8 percent respectively.

A clear challenge for Meek, and others eyeing the 2010 race, is gaining viability outside their hometowns and the Tallahassee corridors of power. The same Quinnipiac poll found that 76 percent of respondents did not know enough about Meek to offer an opinion. Fifty-nine percent said the same of Sink, while 82 percent did not know Boyd and 87 percent did not know Gelber.

Still, Sink would be considered the frontrunner if she gets in, despite Meek’s early declaration. She said Tuesday after Meek’s announcement that she was closing in on a decision of her own.

“Yes, I can’t stand the tension myself,” Sink told reporters.

Sink sidestepped questions on whether she was getting pressure from national party players to declare her candidacy now that former Gov. Jeb Bush has announced he will not be a candidate for the job. She instead said that she has received a lot of encouragement within the state to run, but has not had any more meetings or formal discussions with national party players over her potential run for the open seat.

“You know we’ve got an open U.S. senate seat and they don’t come up very often and there’s going to be a lot of interest — both sides,” Sink said.

Sink also declined to comment on whether Meek was a viable candidate for the spot, saying she was more focused on her job as CFO and the Legislature’s budget cut proposals.

—-
News Service of Florida Reporter Kathleen Haughney contributed to this report.

–END–
1/13/2009

PSC SETS RENEWABLE STANDARD FAVORED BY ENVIROS

By KEITH LAING, THE NEWS SERVICE OF FLORIDA

www.newsserviceflorida.com

THE CAPITAL, TALLAHASSEE, Jan. 9, 2009………In the tussle over how soon power companies should drastically increase the amount of electricity they produce using renewable energy, the Florida Public Service Commission ultimately sided with environmentalists.

After months of contentious debate, the PSC voted unanimously Friday to recommend that the Legislature require the state’s publicly-regulated utilities to increase the amount of renewable energy they use by 20 percent by the end of the year 2020, the deadline favored by Gov. Charlie Crist and a wide variety of clean energy advocates.

To reach that goal, the commission decided to adopt a schedule that begins at the end of 2012, when utilities would be required to have increased the amount of renewable energy they use by at least 7 percent. The requirement would then increase to 12 percent by the end of 2015 and rise again to 18 percent by the end of 2018 before reaching 20 percent by the end of 2020.

Despite the PSC’s repudiation of the alternative deadline of 2041 recommended by the commission’s staff, chairman Matthew Carter said the staff was going out of its to keep electricity costs low.

“If a more aggressive approach is called for, then it is our job as appointed officials to say so,” Carter told the commission before they reached their conclusion. “I say today that I believe we must embrace more ambitious goals than those set forth by our staff. I also believe that such an aggressive standard must be tempered by appropriate revenue caps that are both protective of the ratepayer and cognizant of the challenges that will be faced by very different utilities.”

Commissioner Lisa Edgar agreed that 2020 was the appropriate deadline, but acknowledged it was an ambitious target.

“I see it is a stretch goal, but I also see it as part of the purpose,” Edgar said.

Also at issue throughout the months of hearings and workshops was whether the state should favor particular renewable energy types – wind and solar – in its investment and whether spending should be capped if electricity prices rise.

Utilities and consumer groups were in favor of low caps and did not support set-asides for any technology, preferring instead to invest in whichever method proved most cost effective. Environmentalists argued that those technologies that had the most long-term growth potential should receive the most funding and pushed for more lenient cost caps.

Additional discussion centered on how the state should enforce any standard it adopted, whether or not utilities should be allowed to make their own renewable energy for compliance or buy energy produced in other states, and whether clean technologies that are not obviously renewable, such as nuclear, should be counted. The commission also considered whether it should send one proposal to the Legislature or provide them options, leaving key decisions up to elected officials.

The commission decided to leave the nuclear decision up the Legislature, which will act on its recommendation in the spring.

On the rest of the issues however, the PSC split the difference between the competing interests of environmentalists, power companies and consumers. The commission approved the carve outs for wind and solar and also voted to recommend on adjustable investment cap that would start at 2 percent, saying the state should stop investing in a particular technology if consumers bills increase by that amount, but leaving itself flexibility to reconsider the breaking point later.

The initial cap the commission decided on was higher than the 1 percent cut off point originally recommended by its staff and supported by consumer advocacy groups like AARP.

The 2 percent starting point was an acknowledgment of concerns from the environmental lobby about cutting off clean technologies at the knees before they can fully develop. But the decision to implement a rate cap at all was a nod to the argument from utility and consumer groups that the long term benefit of renewable energy investment could not achieved without short term billing pain.

PSC Commissioner Nancy Argenziano said the panel had no choice but to walk that fine line.

“People are saying the lowest costs are very important at a time when people are losing their homes,” Argenziano said during the commission’s debate on the standard.. “We all know it is, but how do you uphold the mandate to improve environmental conditions if the lowest cost may not get you to…a cleaner environment. You have to weigh these things.”

That’s why Argenziano said the commission should not base its decision solely on price.

“While I’m very concerned with cost, if there’s a proposal that invites the lowest cost at all expenses then we are not sticking to the mandate that we have,” Argenziano said.

But that explanation was not enough to prevent consumer advocacy groups from disliking the PSC’s decisions. Going with the 2 percent investment cap instead of 1 will cost customers $190 million a year, said AARP lawyer Mike Twomey. The senior citizens advocacy group is weighing in on the issue on behalf of its members.

“We wanted as small an economic hit to ratepayers as possible in a time of economic collapse,” Twomey said. “The impact on the customer in a time when there are record disconnections and foreclosures will now be twice as much.”

Twomey said AARP also took issue with the PSC’s decision to include the solar and wind set-asides in their recommendation to the Legislature, preferring instead to let the various technology types to compete for state investment.

Prior to reaching their decision, the PSC had considered sending two proposals to the Legislature. Argenziano again said that the commission should consider allowing elected officials to decide the technicalities of the standard.

“Some said that sending only one (rule) is what we should do because that’s what the Legislature mandated us to do,” Argenziano said. “That is not how I see that. I see we come up with a framework. What we’ve done…is create thought provoking provisions that need to be considered by the policymakers.”

But environmentalists argued for one standard.

“The Legislature didn’t ask for recommendations,” said George Cavros, an attorney for the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy. “They asked for a rule. It wasn’t plural, it was singular.”

The PSC’s vote followed endless back and forth between environmentalists, who said the PSC staff’s proposal of not requiring the increase until 2041 was too timid, and power companies and consumer advocacy groups, who said the number concern about renewable energy should the cost to customers.

Prior to Friday’s vote, environmentalists said they expected its outcome. Their optimism was in part buoyed by a feasibility study that the PSC requested from a consulting firm, which showed utilities could increase the amount of renewable energy they produce by 20 percent by the year 2020 without breaking the bank. With that knowledge, the PSC seemed poised to come down closer to the former deadline than the later, advocates said.

The PSC vote was the second large victory for environmentalists in as many months. In December, advocates successfully lobbied the Environmental Regulation Commission to make Florida’s auto emission standards among the nation’s strongest by recommending the Legislature boost state requirements to match standards enforced in California since the 1990s.

However, despite the environmentalists’ victory before the PSC, the battle over renewable energy standards for power companies and cars is far from over. The debates will now move to the Legislature, which will take them up in its regular session.

-END–
01/09/09

WEEKLY ROUNDUP – CUTTING THE BUDGET, CUTTING THE CORDS

(Recap and analysis of the week in state government)

By KEITH LAING, THE NEWS SERVICE OF FLORIDA

www.newsserviceflorida.com

THE CAPITAL, TALLAHASSEE, Jan. 9, 2009………This week’s special session to cut $2.3 billion dollars from the state budget was months in the making, and lawmakers wasted no time chomping into it like the national champion Florida Gators.

Twin packages of cuts and transfers raced quickly through both chambers this week, leaving behind them a trail of disheartened advocates and disgruntled Democrats. Both knew the cuts were coming, but that did not make them any less painful, apparently.

By Thursday, the full House had given tentative approval to reductions, trust fund raids and fee increases totaling $2.8 billion, including a $500 million buffer fund in case revenue continues to fly south for the winter before March’s regular session. The Senate was expected to do the same Friday morning, though its plan does not include such a large reserve.

Over strong objections from relatives of Gov. Lawton Chiles and lawyers who helped the former walkin’ governor win a landmark tobacco settlement that fills the fund’s coffers, lawmakers proceeded with plans to raid the Lawton Chiles Endowment this week. However, they promised they’ll pay the money back as soon as federal stimulus funding arrives.

Good thing they did, because the lawyers said if the state does not keep its promise, they will sue again.

“I’m not a stranger to these assurances, but I’m not a stranger to these courthouses either,” said Attorney Steve Yerrid, one of the original “Dream Team” lawyers who managed the lawsuit.

Health care money wasn’t safe this week either. A coalition of unions, Medicaid and other social service advocates tried to stop the bleeding, but lawmakers moved forward with cuts of nearly $500 million to the state’s Medicaid health program anyway. Their plans also called for taking another $220 million from nursing home reimbursements, cutting hospital reimbursements by $107 million and slashing prescription drug assistance by $49 million, though legislators pointed out that they avoided what advocates dreaded most – any changes in what Medicaid actually covers. All optional programs will continue to be covered under both budgets.

Still, the cuts added up to the sick economy making health care advocates ill.

One of the reasons health care cuts and transfers from the Chiles Endowment were such a big part of the budget fix is because lawmakers said they didn’t want to burden taxpayers with filling the deficit by looking to them for more revenue. They’re apparently OK with balancing the budget on the backs of traffic offenders, however. Part of the way both chambers plan to balance the state’s criminal justice budget is by increasing speeding fines.

The Senate proposal would increase the fine by $25 for those who are caught going 15 to 30 miles per hour over the speed limit. The ticket would also carry an additional $10 assessment, with $5 earmarked for public defenders and $5 for the state’s attorneys offices. The increases would raise $15 million during the final half of this fiscal year and up to $63 million next year. The fine for those going more than 15 mph over the limit would go to $173 under the change.

That new money not withstanding, Democrats, particularly those in the House, complained that the Republican-led Legislature was relying too heavily on budget cuts and not on raising revenue. The Dems said they were locked out of the process and that federal help may be on the way. Republicans told them to get over it.

“When we do come up with ideas and concerns, they call us divisive,” House Democratic Leader Franklin Sands said. “…Here the Republicans are mistaking healthy debate and constructive criticism with divisive comments. This ‘my way or the highway’ mentality is part of what got us into this fix.”

“Their recent suggestion of a ‘wait and see approach’ for a federal bailout is further proof that they do not understand the realities of our constitutional obligation to balance the state’s budget,” Senate Majority Leader Alex Diaz de la Portilla, R-Miami, said in response. “As elected leaders, it is our job to balance the state budget today.”

SANSOM CUTS THE CORD

While everybody else in Tallahassee was cutting the budget this week, House Speaker Ray Sansom was cutting the cord on his controversial day job. For the second time in as many weeks, the embattled Speaker acknowledged he was embattled. Sansom finally spoke about the growing controversy over his job with a state college that receives part of its money from the Legislature. Sansom accepted the job the day he became speaker.

On the first day of this week’s special session, Sansom announced that he was resigning from the post at Northwest Florida State College on Jan. 31 amid questions over his role in steering money to the institution during a year when many schools saw cuts and then appearing to benefit by being given a job.

Republicans in the House cheered, but Sansom’s resignation was apparently not enough for some critics. First, former Pensacola Congressman Joe Scarborough, who now hosts MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” show, once again blasted his GOP comrade in an opinion piece published in their native Panhandle’s largest newspaper.

Then two more complaints were filed and a grand jury was brought into the equation. The Leon County prosecutor said this week that he would turn over complaints about Sansom’s college job to a grand jury to assess whether Sansom may have broken any laws.

Maybe the speaker was better off when he wasn’t speaking.

SO DOES JEB

Sansom wasn’t alone in cutting the cord this week. The first domino in the highly anticipated 2010 election for the U.S. Senate in Florida fell when former Gov. Jeb Bush announced that he will be sitting out the race.

The former governor – and brother of the outgoing U.S. President – had been touted by many as a possible Republican candidate for the Senate seat being vacated by retiring Sen. Mel Martinez.

But Bush said this week that he was passing on the opportunity to follow his brother’s and father’s footsteps to Washington, D.C. Both presidents Bush publicly encouraged the Florida Bush to run, with the family elder saying during an appearance on on the cable television program Fox News Sunday that he hoped his son would run for the Senate in 2010 and eventually pursue the White House.

But that is not to be, for now at least. Bush had been considering the Senate possibility publicly, surprising some observers by saying in November that he would think about the race after Martinez dropped out, but this week he said his consideration had come to end.

The popular two-term governor had been assumed by many to be the front-runner for the Senate seat and several other possible candidates said they would not run if Bush did. Democrats already have been anxiously eying the race, buoyed by President-elect Barack Obama’s win in the state this year, but with Bush now out of the race, the race will soon be on for Republicans too.

But while the race for the Senate may go on, the Bush family dynasty in Washington, D.C. will not. Unless Jeb decides he wants to be the third President Bush in 2012 or 2016. And his brother the decider decides to be quiet enough in Crawford, Texas to erase the memory of his lukewarm farewell approval ratings.

AN ENERGETIC CONCLUSION

As if a week of budget cuts, possible criminal investigations and Senate declarations was not enough, after months of contentious debate, the Florida Public Service Commission was expected to decide Friday afternoon how ambitious the state’s renewable energy standard for power companies should be.

The PSC planned to vote Friday on a recommendation to the Legislature for strengthening the standards for the state’s publicly-regulated utilities, deciding between mandating a 20 percent increase in the amount of renewable energy they produce by 2020, as called for by Gov. Charlie Crist and environmentalists, or by 2041, as proposed by PSC staff.

The gap between the two targets was large enough to spark extensive debate between environmentalists, who balked loudly that the PSC’s staff was too timid in its approach, and power companies and consumer advocacy groups, who worry about the cost to consumers of producing more electricity from renewable sources.

But environmentalists smelled victory this week. Buoyed by a feasibility study that the PSC requested from a consulting firm, which showed utilities could increase the amount of renewable energy they produce by 20 percent by the year 2020 without breaking the bank, advocates said the commission seems poised to come down closer to their preferred deadline.

If that happens, it would be a second large victory for environmentalists in as many months. In December, advocates successfully lobbied the Environmental Regulation Commission to make Florida’s auto emission standards among the nation’s strongest by recommending the Legislature boost state requirements to match standards enforced in California since the 1990s.

Regardless of what happens Friday afternoon though, the debate will move to the Legislature, which will likely take up energy in its regular session after lawmakers stop the budget bleeding. Then, the energetic energy debate gets re-energized.

STORY OF THE WEEK: Lawmakers have been saying for months that they were going to have to drastically cut the state budget and dip into state reserves and this week, they did. Education, health care and transportation spending all found its way to the chopping block and no trust fund was safe as lawmakers began reaching into any pile of cash they could get their hands on.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK: “I think everyone realizes you cannot cut the budget without cutting the budget,” Rep. Will Weatherford, R-Wesley Chapel, in response to Democratic criticism of sweeping cuts to education funding.

–END–
1/9/2008

ENVIROS EXPECT FAVORABLE PSC VOTE ON RENEWABLES

By KEITH LAING, THE NEWS SERVICE OF FLORIDA

www.newsserviceflorida.com

THE CAPITAL, TALLAHASSEE, Jan. 8, 2009………..After months of contentious debate, the Florida Public Service Commission is expected to decide Friday how ambitious the state’s renewable energy standard for power companies should be.

The PSC plans to vote Jan. 9 on a recommendation to the Legislature for strengthening the standards for the state’s publicly-regulated utilities, deciding between mandating a 20 percent increase in the amount of renewable energy they produce by 2020, as called for by Gov. Charlie Crist and environmentalists, or by 2041, as proposed by PSC staff.

The 21 years between the two targets were enough to spark extensive debate last fall between environmentalists, who balked loudly that the PSC’s staff was too timid in its approach, and power companies and consumer advocacy groups, who worry about the cost to consumers of producing more electricity from renewable sources.

Buoyed by a feasibility study that it requested from a consulting firm, which showed utilities could increase the amount of renewable energy they produce by 20 percent by the year 2020 without breaking the bank, the PSC seems poised to come down closer to the former deadline, environmentalists said Thursday on the eve of the PSC meeting.

“We’re optimistic,” said Gerald Karnas, the Florida Environmental Defense Fund’s Climate Project director. “I think the PSC commissioners have gotten the memo. We’re confident they understand they have a big responsibility facing them.”

Karnas said the stakes for Friday’s meeting were high.

“They have the rare opportunity to lay the groundwork for the next generation of Florida’s jobs and energy security,” he said. “They can enact a lasting legacy of job creation, economic growth and energy independence.”

But in order to do that, Karnas said, the PSC has to vote with environmentalists.

“They can’t do that by embracing the staff’s recommendation,” he said. “We’re looking for leadership.”

Sean Stafford, a consultant with sugar company Florida Crystals, which also produces energy from biomass technologies such as refined municipal waste, agreed that Friday’s vote could be another key victory for environmentalists. Advocates successfully lobbied the Environmental Regulation Commission to make Florida’s auto emission standards among the nation’s strongest by recommending the Legislature boost state requirements to match standards enforced in California since the 1990s.

“I don’t think we know what to expect,” Stafford said. “We have a commission that seems to us is poised to do some meaningful things for the first time ever on renewable energy. It’s unclear to us at this point which different method they will take because there are a number (that will) get to the same goal of developing a real renewable market, (but) the signals we’ve been getting are very positive. It appears to us that something good is about to happen.”

Stafford said that if that happens, he’s confident the momentum will continue when the debate moves to the Legislature, which will take up whatever recommendation the PSC makes Friday.

“The legislators we worked with last year are still there,” he said. “Many of them are in the same leadership positions. They see the job potential in renewable energy.”

Lawmakers’ desire for the new jobs that environmentalists say can be created by investment in renewable energy is a big reason advocates are optimistic about Friday’s PSC vote, George Cavros, an attorney for the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, said.

“The governor and the Legislature want green jobs,” Cavros said. “If we’re going to get them, we have to get started in a big way.”

Cavros added that the feasibility study that was presented to the PSC in December was another reason for environmentalists’ optimism heading into the final PSC hearing on the standard.

“The consultants concluded that this was economically and technologically feasible,” Cavros said. “There is more than enough solar and biomass and the rate impact was estimated to be 2 percent. That’s a real bargain if you compare it to the rate impact consumers have been feeling lately from conventional sources.”

That’s why Cavros said everybody who has been involved in the renewable energy debate would be watching the PSC Friday.

“The importance of the meeting cannot be overstated,” Cavros said. “This is basically the last stop before this goes to the Legislature.”

–END–
1/8/2009

HOUSE AND SENATE READING FROM DIFFERENT BOOKS ON LIBRARY CUT

By KEITH LAING, THE NEWS SERVICE OF FLORIDA

www.newsserviceflorida.com

THE CAPITAL, TALLAHASSEE, Jan. 6, 2009………Cuts to library funding proposed in the House and Senate are more like bookends than back-to-back pages, setting up a possible page turner conference committee between the chambers.

A budget proposal released Tuesday by the Senate Transportation and Economic Development Committee calls for $434,000 less in state aid to public libraries. However, the panel’s House counterparts are recommending $4.3 million in cuts to library funding, with individual counties facing reductions between $20,000 and $100,000.

The House’s number is similar to the cut proposed in December by Secretary of State Kurt Browning, whose department oversees library funding, when cuts were first discussed before lawmakers.

Browning told House members then that the area of his department’s budget that could best absorb the blow of a 6-10 percent cut, which state agencies were asked to ponder, is the largest: that’s libraries. Funding libraries makes up 46 percent of the state department’s budget.

However, Senate economic development committee chairman Sen. Mike Fasano, R-New Port Richey, said Tuesday his panel was trying to cut as little as possible from the library budget and would not reconsider its recommendation before negotiations with the House, which are expected to take place this weekend.

“We’re holding firm on that and I think we’ll probably go to conference with that,” he said during Tuesday’s meeting. “The House has hit libraries quite a bit more, so that will be a conference issue.”

The House’s economic development committee chairman, Rep. Rich Glorioso, R-Plant City, did not immediately respond to request from the News Service for comment. But Rep. Joe Gibbons, D-Hallandale Beach, said he agreed more with the Senate’s approach.

Gibbons, the ranking Democrat on the House Transportation and Economic Development Committee, said the state should allow libraries and other agencies facing possible cuts to find ways to make up lost revenue.

“The Senate has taken a more studied approach to this,” Gibbons said. “We (in the House) haven’t done the work and we’re not willing to be creative and have flexibility instead of just cuts.”

Cuts to library funding have also been opposed by several advocacy groups, including the Florida Library Association and the Children’s Campaign. Both have argued that people struggling during the economic downturn increasingly turn to libraries for help.

That is particularly true when it comes to Internet access for job searches, library advocates have said, so any cuts would doubly harm Florida citizens.

Additionally, Florida Library Association executive director Faye Roberts said library aid has been cut in the previous two fiscal years, causing 40 library construction projects to be delayed, 521 library employees to be laid off and 36 libraries to cut back hours. The construction projects alone would have added 405,700 square feet of library space in Florida, Roberts said.

However, Roberts said, library use continues to rise despite the cuts. Library use increased 6.7 percent between September 2007 and September 2008, she said. Book circulation rose 9.7 percent in the same year.

“We understand the state is facing the worst budget challenge in modern times, (but) both the Senate’s proposed reduction of $434,000 and the House’s proposed reduction of $4.3 million would be in addition to the mandatory 4 percent hold back of $1.06 million,” Roberts said. “State funding is needed so that libraries can help Floridians find jobs, get access to government services and help children learn – all important benefits in the current economic climate.”

Linda Alexionok, executive director of the The Children’s Campaign, an advocacy group that lobbies the Legislature on children’s issues, agreed that libraries can ill-afford another budget cut. Alexionok said either proposed amount would harm children.

“We shouldn’t be reducing opportunities for our youngest learners to go to libraries at a time when families are facing crisis,” Alexionok said. “Libraries are a place of continuity for children and families.”

Alexionok added that as families face constrained budgets, much like the state, they may be forced to let go of things like Internet access at home, making libraries all the more important for children.

“Libraries allow our children to stay connected globally and not fall behind the world even more,” she said.

–END–
1/6/2009

JEB BUSH WON’T RUN FOR U.S. SENATE IN 2010

By KEITH LAING, THE NEWS SERVICE OF FLORIDA

www.newsserviceflorida.com

THE CAPITAL, TALLAHASSEE, Jan. 6, 2009………The first domino in the highly anticipated 2010 election for the U.S. Senate in Florida fell Tuesday when former Gov. Jeb Bush announced that he will be sitting out the race.

The former governor – and brother of the outgoing U.S. President – had been touted by many as a possible Republican candidate for the Senate seat being vacated by retiring Sen. Mel Martinez.

But Bush said Tuesday that he was passing on the opportunity to follow his brother’s and father’s footsteps to Washington, D.C. Both presidents Bush have publicly encouraged the Florida Bush to run, with the family elder saying during an appearance on on the cable television program Fox News Sunday that he hoped his son would run for the Senate in 2010 and eventually pursue the White House.

Bush had been considering the Senate possibility at least, surprising some observers by saying in November that he would think about the race after Martinez dropped out, but Tuesday he said his consideration had come to end.

“While the opportunity to serve my state and country during these turbulent and dynamic times is compelling, now is not the right time to return to elected office,” Bush said in a statement. However, Bush said he would still like to play a role in the resurrection of the Republican Party, which is smarting nationally and locally after big losses in 2008.

“In the coming months and years, I hope to play a constructive role in the future of the Republican Party, advocating ideas and policies that solve the pressing problems of our day,” he said. “We must rebuild the party by focusing on the common purposes and core conservative principles that unite us all – limited government, a strong national defense and safe homeland and the protection of liberty tempered by personal responsibility.”

The popular two-term governor had been assumed by many to be the front-runner for the Senate seat, including Republican Party consultant Matt Williams. Several other possible candidates whose names were bandied about following Martinez’ surprise November announcement said they would not run if Bush did.

“Obviously Gov. Bush’s decision changes the circumstances somewhat,” Williams, who managed a previous Senate campaign for Attorney General Bill McCollum, said. “Bush would have been the odds-on favorite to be the nominee.”

However, Williams said he was not necessarily surprised that Bush ultimately decided to pass on the race.

“I could have seen him going either way,” he said. “It’s a big job and a big time commitment.”

University of South Florida political science professor Susan MacManus also said she was not surprised by Bush’s decision to forgo the 2010 race.

“When stories start to be leaked about indecision, you can usually tell what the decision is going to be,” MacManus said.

She also agreed that Bush sitting out the race fundamentally alters the Republican race, which now does not have an obvious frontrunner.

“Clearly there’s going to be a huge fight for the Republican nomination,” MacManus said. “The party nationally and locally is having a lot of leadership battles. There’s not a lot of cohesion. I think you’ll have a lot of different types of Republicans in the race.”

MacManus added that Bush, who remains popular in Florida two years after leaving office, likely decided that his brother’s national unpopularity would have made the Senate road a tough one in 2010. Still, she said, Bush would likely pursue elected office again, despite taking a pass on the Senate race.

“Two years is not a lot of time to repair the Bush name, even though he would have had an easier time of doing that in Florida than nationally,” she said. “I think he wanted to put more time between his brother’s administration and the his next run for office. Timing is everything in politics.”

Democrats already have been anxiously eying the race, buoyed by President-elect Barack Obama’s win in the state this year, but with Bush now out of the race, the Republican floodgates will likely open too. Attorney General McCollum and former state House Speaker Allan Bense both publicly said they were considering the race and several other Republicans have been mentioned as worth watching. Among them are state Senate President Jeff Atwater, R-North Palm Beach, and former state House Speaker Marco Rubio, who recently launched a campaign website, but did not specify what he was campaigning for.

U.S. Reps. Adam Putnam of Bartow, Ginny Brown-Waite of Brooksville, Connie Mack of Fort Myers, and Miami Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen have also been mentioned as possible contenders, as has Miami Mayor Manny Diaz.

MacManus said that she expects the flood of possible candidates leaking their possible interest in the seat to continue as they seek to check the interest of the state’s fundraising community in their bids.

“The first step is the leak and the second step is the fundraising,” she said. “You have a lot of candidates throwing their names out there and seeing if they can raise the kind of money that an open seat race would require.”

–END–
1/6/2009