WEEKLY ROUNDUP – A SUNNY SIDE UP BUDGET

(Recap and analysis of the week in state government)

By KEITH LAING, THE NEWS SERVICE OF FLORIDA

www.newsserviceflorida.com

THE CAPITAL, TALLAHASSEE, Feb. 20, 2009………Republicans as of late have generally been opposed to offering handouts to banks, homeowners, automakers, and everyone in between, but if the most prominent member of the Florida GOP has his way, the Sunshine State will be next on the bailout list.

Gov. Charlie Crist released his 2009 budget proposals this week and it immediately became clear why the popular populist used so much of his political capital to push for the passage of the federal economic stimulus package. Crist used President Barack Obama’s stimulus plan and the $12.2 billion it contains for Florida over the next three years to propose a budget that is slightly larger than the one lawmakers just cut in their January special session.

Crist’s proposed budget is about $1 billion larger than the current year’s budget, something nearly everyone thought would be impossible just weeks ago, with an expected $5 billion deficit facing lawmakers. Crist proposed $66.5 billion in spending for next year, up slightly from the $66.3 billion approved last year before lawmakers had to come back and cut $2.3 billion.

The governor’s spending wish list does not just rely on federal stimulus dollars. For one plus one to equal two, the Crist spending plan also needs money from an as-yet ratified compact with the Seminole Tribe for gambling revenue. The Seminoles have said they could send the state $288 million for the coming budget year, if the compact is approved as Crist originally negotiated it – and the governor urged lawmakers to do so.

While suggesting tax cuts, the proposed spending bill does use some $120 million in fee increases, including higher park entry fees.

Crist was his usual optimistic self unveiling his loaded with Sunshine budget.

“It’s fantastic. Are you kidding me?” Crist said. “We don’t have to raise taxes, we might be able to cut property taxes. We have more money for education funding so we can increase per-student funding. We can spend more money on roads and our infrastructure, we can provide health care for our people. It’s remarkable.”

That’s certainly one way to look at it. But the Legislature will ultimately decide if it’s the only way.

CONFUSED BY THE BUDGET? TRY READING THE POLLS

The people’s governor may a bit of a pie-in-the-sky budgeter without billions of dollars in federal stimulus at his disposal, but politically speaking, he is nothing if not a man of the people. A poll released this week showed that while voters would prefer that Crist seek a second term in 2010 instead of running to replace retiring U.S. Sen. Mel Martinez, they will support him if he does run for the U.S. Senate.

The poll, conducted by Connecticut-based Quinnipiac University’s polling institute, asked registered voters which office they would prefer that Crist seek, and they said overwhelmingly that the governor should seek to retain his Mansion. Crist has been courted to run for the Senate by national Republicans searching for a big name candidate to clear the primary field and make it tough for Democrats to turn the red Senate seat blue, but 41 percent of the poll’s respondents said they would prefer Crist seek another four years in Tallahassee in 2010.

Just 22 percent of the voters surveyed said they wanted to see Crist run for U.S. Senate. Crist has not ruled out a Senate run, saying only that he would make a decision about 2010 at the conclusion of the upcoming legislative session.

However, despite the poll’s finding that voters would prefer him to stay in Florida, Crist still led the potential Republican primary field for the U.S. Senate race by a wide margin, giving the term “keeping your options open” a whole new meaning.

Crist got 53 percent support in a hypothetical GOP primary, compared to the nearest runner-up -U.S. Rep. Connie Mack IV, who had 13 percent. Without Crist in the race, Mack leads the field with 34 percent, far ahead of second place finisher U.S. Rep. Vern Buchanan’s 11 percent.

There was movement on the Democratic side of the Senate race as well. The early momentum U.S. Rep. Kendrick Meek had been building was halted a bit by the Quinnipiac poll. The poll had Meek tied with an undeclared candidate in an early survey of the potential Democratic primary field.

The I-4 corridor’s often-discussed outsized influence on Florida politics was on full display in the poll because in addition to showing St. Petersburg’s Crist in a commanding position on the Republican side, the poll had Tampa Mayor Pam Iorio running even with Meek, though Iorio has said only that she was considering the race so far.

The poll asked voters’ preferences between Meek, Iorio, state Sen. Dan Gelber and U.S. Rep. Ron Klein and put Meek and Iorio in the lead with 16 percent. Klein, another often rumored candidate who has yet to officially get in the race, was in the mix as well at 15 percent and Gelber, who has officially announced his candidacy, pulled up the rear with 6 percent.

Meek had appeared to have momentum earlier this week when he picked up the endorsement of a major union and made campaign stops in Tallahassee, Gainesville and Orlando, but the next time he hits the campaign trail, he may have to check his rear view mirror for the Tampa mayor.

SPARKING TOURISM, ONE ROYAL FAMILY AT A TIME

It’s probably not surprising that the governor of the state of Florida was thinking about tourism during a week when he was proposing his state budget. After all, tourism remains the engine that makes the state budget go.

However, the governor’s tourism efforts usually don’t involve giving tours of the state himself. Well, apparently nobody told Charlie. Crist spent a whole day this week showing the Sunshine State to King Juan Carlos I of Spain in honor of the 450th anniversary of the arrival of Spaniards here. And he didn’t have to make any calls from Kansas City to do it.

First Lady Carole Crist joined the King and her Majesty, Queen Sofia, at several events in Pensacola and Coral Gables. The celebration included a breakfast, a luncheon and a wreath-laying ceremony at Pensacola’s Fort George, which played a little-known but important role in Revolutionary history when Spanish-led forces took Pensacola from the British. There was also a reception and a dinner in Coral Gables.

There’s no word, however, on whether or not the people’s tour guide discussed his budget with his Majesty.

NO FORCE AT WORKFORCE

It was easy to wonder this week where the workforce was in the Agency for Workforce Innovation. Flooded by claims in what has become the worst recession in a generation, the Agency for Workforce Innovation this week asked state lawmakers to authorize an additional $6.8 million in federal funds to bolster the agency’s unemployment call center operations to handle a deluge of jobless claims.

It seems that there are so many Floridians filing new jobless claims that the agency in charge of finding work for laid off employees needs more workers of their own.

Despite adding 300 employees and 345 phone lines since early 2007, the agency said this week that it can’t keep up with unemployment claims from many of the 752,000 jobless Floridians who combined to push the unemployment rate in December to 8.1 percent. The rate was 181 percent higher than December 2007.

January’s figures are expected to be even higher.

As if that were not ironic enough, instead of hiring more full-time staff, the agency wants to hire a Florida-based company to handle the overflow calls on an as-needed basis to handle the influx of calls until the economy rebounds.

Lawmakers tackled other legislative matters this week, with committees approving plans to build a commuter rail in the Orlando area, impose a possible tuition hike at state colleges and a hold referendum on a constitutional amendment that would eliminate public financing of campaigns.

And the session hasn’t even started yet. Buckle up.

STORY OF THE WEEK: Crist unveiled his budget proposals for 2009, largely balanced courtesy of the federal economic stimulus plan pushed by President Barack Obama and supported by “the people’s governor,” despite the objection of most other Republicans. Crist used $4.7 billion in money from the feds to avoiding proposing any additional tax cuts or deeper spending cuts.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK: “The world has changed as it relates to our budget, it’s changed to the tune of $12.2 billion. That’s an enormous shot in the arm, and a shot in the arm again and a shot in the arm again. It’s a whole new world,” Gov. Charlie Crist explaining his plan to balance the dwindling state budget without raising taxes or cutting spending.

–END–
02/20/09

SENATE PANEL APPROVES POSSIBLE PUBLIC CAMPAIGN FINANCE REPEAL

By KEITH LAING, THE NEWS SERVICE OF FLORIDA

www.newsserviceflorida.com

THE CAPITAL, TALLAHASSEE, Feb. 17, 2009……….Debate over a proposal to ask voters to end public financing of Florida political campaigns devolved Tuesday into an argument about President Barack Obama’s decision to forgo public money last year as a committee approved a possible initiative to repeal the state program.

The proposal (SB 564, SJR 566) was sponsored by Sen. Mike Haridopolos, R-Melbourne and has already cleared one House committee. It was approved Wednesday by the Senate Committee on Ethics and Elections after a spirited partisan debate about the merits of public financing.

The bill calls for a 2010 election for a constitutional amendment that, if approved by three-fifth of voters, would end system of public funding for statewide races.

To get to the polls though, lawmakers in each chamber must also pass the measure by a three-fifths vote.

In offering the bill to the Senate committee Wednesday, Haridopolos said it did not make sense to spend large amounts of money on campaigns when the state faces budget difficulties. He said the state gave candidates $11 million last year.

“This program is giving taxpayer dollars to candidates they may not support,” Haridopolos said. “This program in my opinion is welfare for politicians. In these tough times, we need to look at ways to eliminate such spending, especially as we face the budget crisis of today.”

Sens. Alex Diaz de la Portilla and Mike Fasano agreed, saying that Obama’s decision to opt out of the federal public financing system during his race against Arizona Sen. John McCain proved that public financing systems were no longer effective.

“On all sides, moderates, conservatives, liberals – across the board – people were saying that ‘Hey, after the hundreds of millions of dollars spent by Barack Obama, public financing is dead in this country’,” Diaz de la Portilla, R-Miami, said. “Why should states continue to do this if, obviously, it has been a colossal failure at the national level?”

“In the most recent president election, both gentlemen agreed that they would take public financing, thereby limiting the amount of money that they would spend,” Fasano added. “One of the gentlemen chose not to do that….and spent quite lot of money, in excess of what would be allowed for him to spend had he stayed under the conditions of the public financing laws and rules that he supported and said he would support.”

Sen. Nan Rich, D-Weston, countered that the campaign finance program was put in place by the voters who fund it.

“This bill really isn’t about Barack Obama,” Rich said. “It’s really about what the voters in the state of Florida decided to do when they passed campaign finance reform with a 64 percent vote. I haven’t heard any outcry, actually I haven’t heard a word from anybody in my district who is asking me to come up here and really change the vote, which was the will of the people.”

Rich also said that Obama was not the only big name politician to decide not to accept public money for a campaign, citing a similar decision by a prominent Florida Republican.

“If someone decides not take to public financing, whether its Barack Obama or whether its Jeb Bush, as he did when he ran for governor, it doesn’t mean that we should eliminate public financing, which I believe is a very good public policy,” Rich said. “It increases public participation and really gives some people who might not ever have a chance to run, it gives them that opportunity.”

Rich said if the state was making changes to its public financing system, it should be lowering the amount of money it funnels into it, which was increased in 2005, instead of eliminating it.

“We really undermined the system here back in 2005 by massively increasing the amount of money we put into the program,” Rich said. “We need to fix the problems that we’ve created, but I don’t believe we should be eliminating a system that is allowing more people to participate in the process.”

Several advocacy groups echoed Rich’s objections to the bill during testimony taken by the committee. Among them was Ben Wilcox, executive director of Common Cause Florida, who said that the voter advocacy group criticized Obama’s decision to opt out of the public finance system and would also object to Florida eliminating it.

“With the reports coming out of the Legislature of questionable appropriations possibly in return for campaign contributions, I think the Florida Senate should be considering new campaign finance reforms to help restore the confidence of the people of Florida in their elected leaders,” Wilcox said. “I don’t think you’re accomplishing that by considering this legislation. I think it’s a bad signal to be sending to the people of Florida.”

League of Women Voters lobbyist Heather Walker agreed, saying that Obama’s decision to opt out of the public financing system was not enough evidence to say it no longer works.

“There is always room for reform that would make it stronger,” Walker said. “The League has always supported and did encourage everybody to follow the public spending limits. The fact that one person didn’t, I don’t know that that one example negates the entire evidence of having used the program to control campaign spending. I think that we’d have to see a few more examples before we could say that it is evidence that this is a completely dead program.”

Sierra Club Florida lobbyist David Cullen took his opposition a step further, arguing that the system had worked despite Obama’s record campaign spending.

“A certain amount of money has to be spent on getting the message out,” Cullen said. “If an informal but de facto qualification is the quality of one’s Rolodex file, then you have artificially limited the pool of candidates. We think that making the field of viable candidates as large as possible serves the interests of democracy and is a public benefit worthy of expenditure.”

But Fasano said that the public financing repeal bill would serve democracy too.

“With this resolution, all you are doing is asking the people whether they want to continue to take dollars away from other areas that could be used in this economic crisis and be put to better use,” Fasano said. “You’re asking people to make that decision.”

Haridopolos added that the will of the people in 1998 when the system was put into the constitution may have changed by 2010.

“In 1998, there was a political environment that existed, and that’s fine,” he said. “In 1998, there was a different leader in the White House and in both houses of Congress, and voters have right to change their mind.”

–END–
2/17/2009

PANEL: ADOPTING CALIFORNIA CAR RULES ‘INVALID EXERCISE’

By KEITH LAING, THE NEWS SERVICE OF FLORIDA

www.newsserviceflorida.com

THE CAPITAL, TALLAHASSEE, Feb. 16, 2009……….A proposal to make Florida’s auto emission standards among the nation’s toughest by adopting rules already enforced in California took a hit Monday when a joint legislative committee declared it would violate the state constitution to delegate enforcement to another state.

The Joint Administrative Procedures Committee unanimously agreed Monday with a staff analysis that found the proposal, which is being recommended to the Legislature by the Department of Environmental Protection, was in violation of the non-delegation doctrine of the Florida Constitution.

Florida’s adoption of the California rule can still be introduced during the upcoming session in legislative form, so Monday’s committee action didn’t kill it. However, the panel’s rejection does send a sharp message to Gov. Charlie Crist, who issued an executive order calling for adopting the California standards in 2007, that lawmakers may not go along.

“The vesting of authority in a California official to make decisions that would be automatically enforceable under Florida law constitutes a violation,” the staff’s report to lawmakers said.

The committee also found that the California emissions rules were not clear enough to be enforceable, taking issue with the use of the word “may” in place of the word “shall” in the rule.

“A rule is an invalid exercise of delegated legislative authority if it is vague or fails to establish adequate standards for agency decisions,” the recommendations backed by the panel said. “By adopting a rule that incorporates by reference numerous California regulations, some applicable to Florida and some not, DEP has made it practically impossible to determine with certainty which provisions apply.”

Lawmakers ultimately agreed.

“We’ve listened to the attorney today and we’ve listened to our staff about where we are in this situation,” said Sen. Charles Dean, R-Inverness, who made the motion to adopt the staff’s recommendation. “We have an opportunity here to take a stand as to whether or not we think the rule as recommended by our staff is appropriate.”

“I agree with Sen. Dean,” Rep. Robert Schneck, R-Spring Hill, said. “As long as the Legislature doesn’t act, you can never enforce what you would consider a rule and we would consider a violation.”

The panel’s ruling Monday was cheered by automakers, who have opposed throughout the emissions debate allowing additional states to join California in bucking the national standard.

“You cannot cure the unconstitutionality of this rule,” said Wade Hopping, representing the Washington, D.C.-based Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers. “Even though I have the highest regard for legislative power, your staff has said this rule is unconstitutional. You ought to finish the job here and put a stake through the heart of this rule, because if its unconstitutional, you should not force the Legislature to go through the labor of enacting an unconstitutional law by ratifying this rule this spring.”

The rule is backed by the Department of Environmental Protection.

“We are not delegating authority to the state of California or anybody else,” said Jack Chisolm, DEP’s deputy general counsel for air and waste issues. “We are adopting a set of rules. The rules are identical to what
California has, but we are adopting a set of rules.”

Audubon of Florida lobbyist Eric Draper said afterward that Florida can’t truly adopt its own rule – federal rules let states adopt a federal standard or the California standard. If Florida wants cleaner air, Draper said, those are really the only choices.

Besides, he said, “it’s a science-based rule.” So why should Florida have to re-invent it, or spend the money to go through the full rule development process from scratch?

The committee’s contrary opinion Monday, however, was a clear defeat for the environmental lobby, which had a bit of momentum going after successfully arguing before regulatory panels for the adoption of the California car standard and for the adoption of stringent rules for power companies.

Before Monday’s setback, the proposal to adopt the California emission standards cleared a large hurdle in December, when it was approved by the Environmental Regulation Commission after months of testimony and debate from environmentalists and automakers.

Crist made climate change a big priority for his first term by pushing for the adoption of stricter standards for both cars and power companies. The Republican governor has called for an ambitious 20 percent increase in renewable energy production for power companies by 2020 and an equally bold 20 percent reduction by that year of auto emissions from 1990 emission levels, when Florida’s population was nearly 5 million lower than today’s 18 million plus.

Under the stricter California rules, emissions from new cars sold or leased in Florida would be cut by nearly 25 percent in the next four years and 30 percent by 2016. If approved by the Legislature, Florida would be the 13th state to voluntarily adopt automobile emission standards that are stricter than the existing federal requirements.

Four other states are also currently debating the California standard that will be considered by lawmakers this spring.

–END–
2/16/2009

WEEKLY ROUNDUP – A VOLATILE VISIT

(Recap and analysis of the week in state government)

By KEITH LAING, THE NEWS SERVICE OF FLORIDA

www.newsserviceflorida.com

THE CAPITAL, TALLAHASSEE, Feb. 13, 2009………Valentine’s Day may be quickly approaching, but love was definitely not in the air for Visit Florida when the tourism agency’s budget came before lawmakers this week.

Instead of getting candy and flowers, Visit Florida got a visit to the Capitol doghouse when an angry Senate committee grilled officials for two days about the organization’s tourism promotion budget, which apparently included paying people in Missouri to take calls from people and tell them to come to Florida.

Lawmakers also questioned whether Visit Florida should be spending tax dollars on travel to trade shows and were stumped about why the state should spend money to bring travel writers, tour bookers and travel agents to Florida to try to drum up visits.

Visit Florida responded that there’s no better way to promote Florida as a destination than to have it show up in travel articles or have travel marketers recommend it. The agency said that there’s no better way to get that done than to have those writers and travel professionals “experience the product.”

However, those explanations were hardly good enough to stop the flogging. A Senate panel chairman suggested with a straight face that the tourism agency’s budget be reduced to a big goose egg. Once tempers cool, it’s not likely that the public-private organization will end up completely defunded, but the agency’s travel budget could be severely curtailed. Its marketing budget may be too.

Already, Senate Transportation and Economic Development Committee chairman Mike Fasano, R-New Port Richey, insisted that no one at Visit Florida get bonuses paid by state tax dollars,and if the agency wants to fund any travel by non-employees, it should find private dollars to pay for it.

Sen. Ronda Storms, R-Valrico, joined the fray, saying some state agencies just don’t seem to look at things from the average taxpayer’s perspective. When taxpayers are making sacrifices, they get angry when it doesn’t seem that government is too, she said.

“There’s a simmering rage,” Storms said. “They feel like there’s a tone deafness. Our own agencies are shipping jobs to Kansas City. To me, that’s fatal. Last year, when you made this decision, people were losing their jobs in the state of Florida….. This represents some of the worst of what we’re doing.”

After the beating Visit Florida took this week, the tourism agency would probably like to have the opportunity to revisit 2008..

The Visit Florida budget debate was the most visible, but not the only spending under scrutiny this week. With regular session fast approaching, lawmakers sat down to start paring down the state’s budget for next year as some lawmakers project a shortfall as high as $5 billion.

For the next two weeks, appropriations committees will examine every program that can be cut or terminated. Instead of making the case for why a given program should receive more funds, school teachers, health care workers and police officers will have to tell lawmakers what can go.

Senate and House budget leaders laid out the parameters for cutting the budget this week.. They told members to keep in mind constitutional requirements and programs that can bring in federal matching dollars when looking at what can be cut, but acknowledged that it would not be an easy task.

It was only weeks ago that cutting $2.3 billion from the state budget seemed daunting. It became apparently this week that January’s budget cutting special session was only the beginning..

TAKE YOUR FARM AND GO HOME

After much debate, the state’s largest private property insurer learned this week that it will be allowed to pull its roots out of the Florida property insurance market.

State Farm created quite a storm when it announced last month that it was being forced to retreat from the property insurance market by its inability to get approval for higher rates. Company officials said huge losses after major hurricanes made it unprofitable for the company to write policies in the state without the higher premiums, but some lawmakers said the state could not bear to buy the farm if the insurance company skipped town.

However, this week state Insurance Commissioner Kevin McCarty approved a two-year withdrawal plan by State Farm with several conditions. The company’s policies must be transferred to private companies, not Citizens Property Insurance Corp., the state’s last-resort insurer, and its agents must be free to write policies by other insurers.

McCarty also said the Office of Insurance Regulation has been negotiating with companies that have agreed to take up the bulk of the policies written by State Farm. McCarty said most policy holders will be able to receive new policies at private companies at or below the rates offered by State Farm, so the company’s withdrawal was actually a win for policyholders.

But it probably would not be wise to bet the farm on that.

A STIMULATING ACT OF KINDNESS

The national debate about President Barack Obama’s economic stimulus plan came to Florida this week, when the president brought his campaign for the plan to Fort Myers, where the economic hardships are as bad as just about anywhere in the country.

The president who promised bipartisan may not have found much success on that front in Washington, D.C. His stimulus plan garnered just 3 Republican votes in the U.S. Senate and none in the House the first time around. But Obama appeared to have better luck on the changing the tone in the Sunshine State. Obama was introduced at his nationally televised town hall by Florida’s own popular populist Gov. Charlie Crist.

Obama hailed Crist, saying the self-proclaimed “people’s governor” shares a conviction with the president that in a fire you should “grab a hose.” Obama said that’s what Crist was doing as he tried to help the president drum up support for the stimulus.

Many of Crist’s Republican colleagues in Washington, including Sen. Mel Martinez, oppose the measure. The retiring Martinez, who many would like to see replaced by Crist in 2010, made news this week by suggesting on the floor of the U.S. Senate that the governor did not understand the Democrats’ stimulus bill. Crist responded that it was an American issue, not a partisan one.

Several attendees at Obama’s Florida rally became national media sensations, including a homeless woman who asked the president for help and got it instead from the unexpected generosity of a state lawmaker and his wife.

Rep. Nick Thompson, R-Fort Myers, and his wife Chene attended Obama’s event, which was held in Thompson’s district. After hearing Henrietta Hughes’ story, the couple decided to allow her and her son to move into a vacant home owned by their family. Hughes made national news when she asked Obama during his event if his stimulus plan would help her find a place to live that was better than her car.

Despite being moved to action by Hughes’ story, however, Thompson said it did not make him more likely to support the stimulus plan.

“This didn’t have anything to do with the stimulus,” Thompson said this week. “The president was there to present it, which is what brought the lady into the auditorium, but this is something my wife did out of the goodness of her heart. It shows what can happen if people pull together and help each other out. It didn’t take a government program or stimulus for her to walk over there. If we do that as Americans, without government interference, we can do a lot of good for each other.”

It’s not often that someone has an extra house to spare, so while the stimulus debate raged on in the nation and in Florida, this week turned out to be a lucky one for Henrietta Hughes.

STORY OF THE WEEK: Lawmakers in both chambers took Visit Florida on a trip to the woodshed this week, demanding explanations from the tourism agency about its use of an out-of-state calling center and trips taken by officials.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK: “I’m going to start out with a budget where Visit Florida gets no money,” a visibly outraged Sen. Mike Fasano, R-New Port Richey, during a long grilling of Visit Florida’s director Bud Nocera, Chief Operating Officer Chris Thompson and other agency officials.

–END–
2/13/2009

HOUSE POWER MOVING QUICKLY FROM SANSOM TO CRETUL

By KEITH LAING, THE NEWS SERVICE OF FLORIDA

www.newsserviceflorida.com

THE CAPITAL, TALLAHASSEE, Feb. 2, 2009……….Sometimes still using the “we’s” that would often be used by one of 120 members of the Florida House instead of the “I’s” that might be used by the chamber’s leader, Rep. Larry Cretul spoke publicly Monday for the first time since assuming the House speakership from Rep. Ray Sansom.

Cretul’s news conference was another progression in a quickly unfolding process that appears to be headed toward the permanent conclusion of Sansom’s controversial speakership when lawmakers begin the 2009 legislative session March 3.

House Republicans had already announced plans to elect a new conference leader Monday night before Cretul spoke. Party leaders have said they fully expect Cretul, the speaker pro-tem, to be elected conference leader. If that happens, the Ocala Republican will carry out duties of the speaker until an election on March 3.

House Majority Leader Adam Hasner, R-Delray Beach, said Monday that he believes the Monday evening vote would put House Republicans “in a posture to elect a new speaker.” Asked if that would then end the speakership of Ray Sansom, Hasner replied, “that would be the correct interpretation.”

“Currently Speaker Cretul is serving as speaker pursuant to Rep. Sansom’s recusal pursuant to rule 2.5 of the House,” Hasner said. “Tonight the House Republican Conference will convene…in order to elect Speaker Cretul as the permanent leader of the Republican Conference, at which time he would continue to serve as speaker of the House for the remainder of the committee meetings. Then, it is our intention as the Republican conference on the first day of session to elect Speaker Cretul officially.”

Under the timeline laid out Monday by Hasner, the only hold-up to the permanent end of Sansom’s term as speaker is the fact that the session has not yet begun.

Election of a new speaker “cannot take place until we are in session, and that means we have to wait until March 3, but I think that (timeline) addresses where we are currently and where we intend to go,” Hasner said.

Hasner appeared with Cretul during Monday’s news conference, as did Rep. Ron Reagan, R-Bradenton, and former House member Dudley Goodlette, tapped Monday by Cretul to be his chief of staff.

Cretul’s appointment as Republican leader – a precursor to his ascension to speaker – was an early flash point in the wake of Sansom’s recusal. At least one lawmaker, Rep. J.C. Planas, who was the first Republican legislator to publicly call for Sansom to step down hours before he did, said to have Cretul just move directly into the speakership sent a bad signal that things were being worked out behind closed doors.

But Cretul said Monday that the meeting to pick a new Republican leader would be an open election.

“This is a caucus meeting,” he said. “If somebody wants to put someone’s name on the floor for nomination, that’s why we are having the meeting.”

However, it appeared likely Monday that Republicans would coalesce behind Cretul, if his well-attended press conference is any indication. Also, Planas was quoted as saying he would vote for Cretul.

Cretul said he had spoken with Sansom, R-Destin, since the former speaker’s announcement Friday that he was temporarily recusing himself from the duties of the office. Since then, however, Republicans have gradually moved toward making the decision permanent.

Rules and Calendar Committee chairman Bill Galvano said over the weekend that the House should elect a new leader permanently when members return. Galvano released his opinion after questions arose about Sansom’s role should he be cleared of wrongdoing in investigations into his relationship with a state college that received an exceptionally large amount of money under a budget written by Sansom and then hired him when he became speaker.

Cretul, who Monday appeared likely to be that new full-time leader, said that Sansom would play a role going forward as a duly elected representative. But Cretul also said that the embattled former speaker would not be a larger factor than any other lawmaker.

“We are friends,” Cretul said. “He’s a good man and he will play a role. Let’s not forget he is an elected member of the House of Representatives and he represents his district…I will confer with Rep. Sansom just as I would with any other member of the House.”

However, none of the other lawmakers will have the shadow cast over them that Sansom now has. Prior to Sansom’s recusal, Galvano recommended that a special investigator be appointed to investigate a rules complaint that accuses the speaker of violating a House rule that requires members to promote public confidence in the integrity of the Legislature.

That task would normally fall to the speaker pro-tempore, unless of course, the pro-tem just got a promotion. Cretul said Monday that he would appoint a new speaker pro-tem soon, though he did not yet know who that would be.

And while Cretul searches for a new speaker pro-tempore, he said he will also be looking for the investigator Galvano requested.

“We are still within – I am still within the time frame to appoint a special investigator to fulfill the charge,” Cretul said, apparently speaking as speaker pro-tem and not speaker. “I am looking at different individuals as we speak. I will meet the required time.”

When he went back to speaking as the new speaker, Cretul said that the he largely agrees with former Speaker Sansom ideologically, so there would be little change in the governing philosophy of the House leadership with the gavel now in his hands.

“I would suspect the speaker picked me (to be speaker pro-tem) because maybe we have similar philosophy,” he said. “No one’s identical (but) I can’t think of anything in particular that I have a difference of opinion on.”

However, Cretul did say that he looked forward to restoring “order” to the House. The ascendant speaker also distinguished himself quickly from Sansom in another way, pledging to regularly speak with members of the media.

Sansom held a news conference in the days leading up to his formal election as speaker in November, and did not take questions from the press again until Jan. 22.

“I plan on being available on a regular basis working in my schedule to do this,” Cretul said. “If you will just allow me a little more time as we work through it, once we get our feet – my feet – on the ground, we will set these things up regularly,” Cretul told reporters Monday.

Cretul said he spent his first weekend as acting speaker readying for the post.

“I have been reading the rules of the House, which were written by lawyers and approved by members,” Cretul said. “Perhaps they should have been written by members and approved by lawyers,” he quipped.

Cretul also said he has begun his speakership by reading the budgets approved by lawmakers in the 2008 legislative session and the recently completed special session.

“Our immediate focus now is to get back to the business of the Florida House and also the households of the state of Florida,” Cretul said. “The first place we will start is by doing some prioritizing in some of the scheduled committee meetings.”

Cretul added that he did not ascend to the speakership the way most speakers have, lobbying their colleagues for pledges of support years in advantage. Republicans have already picked Reps. Dean Cannon and Will Weatherford to be speakers for the 2010-2012 and 2012-2014 sessions, should they remain in power, and jockeying has already begun for 2014.

“I did not campaign for this position and I have no promises to fulfill,” Cretul said. “I have no ambition, other than spending time with my grandsons and they are the only ones I hope to impress…I never thought I’d be in this position to serve the people of Florida.”

But that did not stop Cretul from acknowledging the tough job ahead, when the House he will lead is facing an estimated $4 billion deficit and counts among its members a sitting former speaker with legal trouble.

“If I look tired, I am,” he said.

–END–
2/2/2009