The Fine Print

How many jobs created by stimulus in Florida? Depends on who's counting.

Depending on who's doing the counting, the massive infusion of federal stimulus into the state has saved or created from nearly 30,000 jobs to more than 64,000 since it was passed by Congress last February.

While a fierce political debate has been raging over the price and effectiveness of the stimulus, Florida officials on Friday credited federal assistance for keeping teachers on the job and for starting construction projects across the state.

But the total number of jobs associated with the stimulus pales in comparison to the more than 1 million Floridians who are out of work. Florida's 11 percent unemployment rate is the highest in more than 30 years.

In addition, a large number of jobs appear to be those of teachers who were spared cuts that school districts would have been forced to make had the stimulus not propped up Florida funding for education. The impact appears less dramatic so far on creating new, high-paying construction jobs rebuilding the state's roads, bridges and other infrastructure, which was one of President Obama's priority for the stimulus. More here.

Don Winstead, Florida's stimulus czar, explained to reporters on a conference call on Friday evening that there's several different ways to count the jobs number. The federal government is relying on a formula that actually counts FTE's or full-time equivalents while state government did what Winstead called a "bellybutton" count of actual people. Then there's yet another number drawn up by the budget office of Gov. Charlie Crist that tries to count both the direct and indirect impact.

So there's a lot of numbers to try to absorb but here's some to keep in mind:

* 29,321 - That's how many now show up on the federal government website. These jobs come from a handful of sources, including numbers fed into them by state government, jobs numbers from federal contracts like repair work going on at Florida military bases, and numbers from local governments that were given direct grants as part of the $787 billion stimulus package.

* 47,069 - That's the number of people who are actually in these jobs. Winstead's argument is that the fed numbers are "very conservative" because they rely on the number of hours worked in an actual quarter. So if someone started in mid-September, that gets counted as a fraction of a job, not a whole job.

* 64,300 - This is the calculation that Crist's budget office has reached about the stimulus impact in Florida so far.

* 16,831 - This is the number of education FTE's that Florida told the federal government were "saved" due to stimulus funding. So if you do the math, you can see the majority of the 29,321 jobs reported to the federal government were not created but were retained.

* 25,771 - This is the number of education jobs that Florida calculates were "saved" due to stimulus funding. That's more than half of the 47,069 noted in the previous entry.

* $402 million - This is how much the federal government says that Florida has so far received out of $6.7 billion it is line to eventually get. But it's important to note that the federal government numbers do not include food stamps, unemployment compensation assistance, tax cuts, or increased funding for Medicaid.

* $5.5 billion - The Republican-controlled Florida Legislature used this much money to plug a gap in this year's budget - which runs from July 1, 2009 to June 30, 2010. The biggest chunk of this comes from increased Medicaid funding.

* $15.3 billion - This is how much that Winstead's office calculates Florida will get from the stimulus once all the money flows through, not including money that Floridians would receive in the form of tax cuts.

Could it get even harder to enforce Florida election laws?

While there has been a lot of talk lately about the need to beef up Florida's election laws, here's a story I did for The News Service of Florida that highlights a case that could wind up making enforcement of existing laws even harder:

A little-noticed rule challenge could have big consequences for the appointed panel responsible for enforcing the state's election laws.

Attorneys for a former Hillsborough County commissioner have asked a state administrative judge to throw out a rule currently being used by the Florida Elections Commission. The rule attempts to define the circumstances in which someone can be found to have violated election laws.

Unlike criminal laws, the election laws overseen by the commission require proof that someone must have willfully broken them. The commission rule states that in order for a violation to be "willful" someone must have known they were breaking the law, or showed "reckless disregard" to the law, which can include being "plainly indifferent" to legal requirements.

But attorneys for Brian Blair, a former professional wrestler who was defeated in his re-election bid last year, contend that the Elections Commission has overstepped its legal authority in relying on the rule, especially since it mirrors a provision that was removed from state law in 2007.

The current rule was adopted just days before the repeal was set to take effect.

Blair is fighting charges that in 2008 he accepted two campaign contributions beyond the legal limit, saying the mistake was due to a glitch with campaign software.

One veteran election law attorney predicts that if the rule is thrown out it could impact the ability of the commission to move forward on election law cases.

"It's a big deal,'' said Tallahassee attorney Ron Meyer. "That rule contains the only definition of willfulness that is there. If the rule were to be determined invalid, it certainly would pose problems with the commission.''

Bucky Mitchell, the former staff director for the House Ethics and Elections Committee and who is now working for Blair in the case, refused to comment on the pending rule challenge.

Over the last several years state lawmakers have changed how the elections commission can pursue election law cases, including a controversial change in 2007 that required that election law complaints be based on "personal knowledge."

But Jorge Cruz-Bustillo, a Miami attorney and current chairman, said he wasn't sure if the rule challenge would impact the work of the panel in the future.

He said the commission could still attempt to define what a "willful'' violation of the law is even if the rule is thrown out. Cruz-Bustillo said that the commission could rely on other civil rulings as it moves forward, even though he concedes that could lead to another legal challenge.

"I think we are doing a great job at trying to do our best,'' he said.

Could it get even harder to enforce Florida election laws?

While there has been a lot of talk lately about the need to beef up Florida's election laws, here's a story I did for The News Service of Florida that highlights a case that could wind up making enforcement of existing laws even harder:

A little-noticed rule challenge could have big consequences for the appointed panel responsible for enforcing the state's election laws.

Attorneys for a former Hillsborough County commissioner have asked a state administrative judge to throw out a rule currently being used by the Florida Elections Commission. The rule attempts to define the circumstances in which someone can be found to have violated election laws.

Unlike criminal laws, the election laws overseen by the commission require proof that someone must have willfully broken them. The commission rule states that in order for a violation to be "willful" someone must have known they were breaking the law, or showed "reckless disregard" to the law, which can include being "plainly indifferent" to legal requirements.

But attorneys for Brian Blair, a former professional wrestler who was defeated in his re-election bid last year, contend that the Elections Commission has overstepped its legal authority in relying on the rule, especially since it mirrors a provision that was removed from state law in 2007.

The current rule was adopted just days before the repeal was set to take effect.

Blair is fighting charges that in 2008 he accepted two campaign contributions beyond the legal limit, saying the mistake was due to a glitch with campaign software.

One veteran election law attorney predicts that if the rule is thrown out it could impact the ability of the commission to move forward on election law cases.

"It's a big deal,'' said Tallahassee attorney Ron Meyer. "That rule contains the only definition of willfulness that is there. If the rule were to be determined invalid, it certainly would pose problems with the commission.''

Bucky Mitchell, the former staff director for the House Ethics and Elections Committee and who is now working for Blair in the case, refused to comment on the pending rule challenge.

Over the last several years state lawmakers have changed how the elections commission can pursue election law cases, including a controversial change in 2007 that required that election law complaints be based on "personal knowledge."

But Jorge Cruz-Bustillo, a Miami attorney and current chairman, said he wasn't sure if the rule challenge would impact the work of the panel in the future.

He said the commission could still attempt to define what a "willful'' violation of the law is even if the rule is thrown out. Cruz-Bustillo said that the commission could rely on other civil rulings as it moves forward, even though he concedes that could lead to another legal challenge.

"I think we are doing a great job at trying to do our best,'' he said.

Would Marco Rubio have said no to the stimulus money? Maybe or maybe not.

President Barack Obama's visit to Florida has given former House Speaker Marco Rubio and others an opportunity to bash Gov. Charlie Crist for his decision to embrace the federal stimulus package earlier this year.

Rubio has been highly critical of the $787 billion stimulus package for months, repeating that government spending can't create prosperity. In his latest pitch to donors, Rubio's campaign states that Crist's "enthusiastic support for a big government spending policy" has failed to halt the rise in unemployment while adding to the deficit.

But Crist wasn't the only Republican who said yes to the stimulus. The GOP-controlled Florida Legislature relied on $5.5 billion to prop up this year's state budget.

So does that mean that Rubio would have said no to the money that came to Florida? Is this about style or substance? Is he saying that Crist should not have given Obama a man-hug in Fort Myers last February, or he is saying that the stimulus is such bad policy that Florida should have refused the cash?

Here's what Alex Burgos, a spokesman for Rubio stated: "Governor Crist actively advocated for a fiscally irresponsible stimulus policy that almost every Republican opposed. Rubio believes this was the wrong approach. At a time when practically every prominent Republican of Governor Crist's stature was opposing Obama's stimulus and offering alternative ideas, he enthusiastically threw his support behind the Obama package.

There's a difference between what Charlie Crist did by accepting the Obama stimulus as the best Congress could do versus what other governors have done by reluctantly accepting federal funds the federal government is disbursing. To answer your question, Rubio's problem with Crist's approach,was, most importantly, about the substance of a policy that spends money the U.S. doesn't really have. And secondly, it's about the message it sent to other Republicans and moderate Democrats to have someone of Crist's stature embrace a misguided policy and encourage others to do so as well - on stage and behind the scenes."

And as to the question, about whether he would have taken the money?

"Because he was no longer in the Legislature this year, Rubio was not as intimately familiar with the budget as an active legislator would be,'' said Burgos. However, in each of Rubio's nine legislative sessions, the House produced a balanced budget without raising taxes. In good times and in tough times, legislators tightened their belts and cut spending without raising taxes as Charlie Crist did earlier this year. In addition, despite the $5 billion in stimulus, Crist still supported increases in state taxes this year, breaking a pledge he made to never to do so."

A point of clarification: Several of the budgets that Rubio did vote on while he was in the Florida House relied on increased property taxes to fund public schools. Instead of rolling back property taxes, Florida lawmakers used escalating property values to generate additional money. In a recent interview about this, Rubio said he couldn't really do anything about it until he became speaker.

Whistleblower lawsuit on Hooters, beer and Benson dropped

Here's a piece of good news for Holly Benson, who is expected to jump into the race for Attorney General.

A state employee has dropped a lawsuit that accused her and other state officials of retaliation after he complained about actions that Benson took while she was in charge of the Department of Business and Professional Regulation. 

Steven Hougland filed the lawsuit against DBPR back in 2008 but his lawyer told Health News Florida that Hougland has a new job and is moving on his with his life.

Hougland alleged that he was stripped of his job duties after complaining about Benson and another top official at DBPR. Benson overruled Hougland after his division ordered a Pensacola beer distributor to remove Bud Light bottles from Hooters restaurants because the beer had a special label that advertised Hooters. Benson intervened in the enforcement case at the urging of a family friend and vice president of the Lewis Bear Company. Benson, a former state representative from Pensacola, had also received campaign contributions from top officials in the company.

But the Florida Commission on Ethics concluded that Benson - who maintained the liquor laws at question were unclear - did nothing wrong. And agency lawyers in court filings assert that Hougland was already looking for another job when he complained to DBPR inspector general and that top officials urged him to stay with the agency.

Personal chefs, credit card bills, and other tales from new campaign reports

Republican Party of Florida chairman Jim Greer dramatically ripped up his American Express card in August amid revelations that ousted House Speaker Ray Sansom had racked up more than $180,000 on the card he was given by the party.

Starting in January 2007 and up until this past summer the party had paid $3.6 million in credit card expenses. Well, the latest filing from the state party shows that the payments to AMEX did drop off sharply in the third quarter that ran from July 1 to Sept. 30.

Credit card payments went from $253,170 in the second quarter down to $74,841 in the third quarter.

State campaign finance records show that nearly a third of the credit card expenses - $22,500 - was a speaking fee paid by the party to a New York based speakers bureau. The bureau represents Bruce Jenner, the former Olympian who was the lead speaker at the party's Drive the Discussion event in August.

That said, there were also money spent on meals and travel that showed in the latest report including more than $1,100 paid to Gourmet 2 Order, a personal chef service based in Indialantic, nearly $3,800 paid to Captain Anderson's restaurant in Panama City for a fundraising dinner, $4,347 at Club at Hammock Beach in Palm Coast, nearly $6,500 on two trips to the Gasparilla Inn and Cottages in Boca Grande, more than $214 in supplies from Sportsman's Warehouse in Tallahassee, $1,000 for entertainment at The Comedy Zone in Tallahassee, as well as for time spent at The Breakers in West Palm Beach and The Biltmore Hotel in Coral Gables.

A few other tidbits from the third quarter campaign finance reports:

The Republican Party of Florida raised $3.7 million in cash compared to $2.2 million for the Florida Democratic Party.

Senate President Jeff Atwater has now raised more cash, $1.06 million, for his bid for chief financial officer than the three main contenders for Attorney General combined. (None of these totals include in-kind donations.)

State Sen. Dan Gelber currently leads in AG fundraising with more than $466,000 in donations, followed by State Sen. Dave Aronberg's $401,000. Republican Lieutenant Governor Jeff Kottkamp, who jumped into the race after the two Democrats, has raised slightly more $175,000.

Atwater's only opponent at this point, Rep. Pat Patterson, R-DeLand, has raised nearly $58.000.

On 3 Public Relations has already collected all the reports and put together a comprehensive report that you can look at. It shows for example that Rep. David Rivera, who is running for a state Senate seat against Rep. Anitere Flores, is the leading fundraiser among all legislative candidates.

Rivera, who is the budget chairman in the Florida House, has now hauled in more than $732,000 in cash contributions. Flories has raised nearly $320,000, which still puts her up among the top fundraisers right now in the Legislature.

Running scared in Tallahassee: Mendelsohn fallout could be bigger than Sansom

It's almost as if there is a new taboo in the halls of the state Capitol: And that's talking about Alan Mendelsohn, the Hollywood eye doctor who has been charged with taking large amounts of money intended to be spent for political purposes and using it to for his own personal expenses, including making payments to his mistress and paying for private school tuition for his kids.

Ask a lobbyist or a politician about Mendelsohn right now and you get this uncomfortable kind of silence or a terse "no comment."

The arrest of Mendelsohn is the second big shockwave to hit Tallahassee politics in the last year. But you can tell a big difference in the fallout so far between Mendelsohn and Ray Sansom, the former House speaker indicted earlier this year.

Sansom's case - as least as defined by State Attorney Willie Meggs - was tightly confined to a small group, including the Destin Republican himself, a well-connected Panhandle donor and the president of Northwest Florida State College.

It's not that the case has not raised questions about the actions of others, i.e. why didn't Crist veto the $6 million appropriation? But still many fellow Republicans have been willing to defend Sansom and say that they thought Meggs went too far.

But the Mendelsohn case has the potential to be just as far-reaching as the probe that forced Sansom to resign. Some view Mendelsohn as a symptom of how "special interest cash taints lawmaking in Florida's capitol.

In other words, he is a living example of the belief that lawmakers routinely listen to the people who have the ability to raise huge amounts of money for reelection campaigns and other political organizations.

Yet Mendelsohn was more than just a rainmaker for politicians of both parties. He helped push significant health policy coming out of Tallahassee, even in years when he was not registered as a lobbyist. He was involved in this year's battle over direct benefit payments to doctors, a battle over whether optometrists should be allowed to prescribe oral medications, and past battles over issues such as mandatory auto insurance to cover the health care costs of drivers involved in accidents. More here on that.

Mendelsohn's dual role as big-time fundraiser and health care policy advocate may explain why so many people don't want to talk about him right now. He has connections that run all the way from Gov. Charlie Crist to U.S. Senate candidate Marco Rubio to rank and file lawmakers in the state Senate. There is still the unknown "former public official" who accepted $87,000 from Mendelsohn as outlined in the indictment.

And with federal authorities warning that more arrests could come in the case, you can imagine that most politicians are going to keep quiet for the time being.

Is Gov. Crist's second biggest opponent in the Florida Senate?

 News from the camp of former House Speaker Marco Rubio that he raised "nearly" $1 million has set the political world abuzz that Gov. Charlie Crist could in fact have a tough road ahead in the GOP primary for U.S. Senate.

But the one-term governor may another problem brewing in the Florida Senate.

Sen. J.D. Alexander - the powerful chairman of the Senate budget committee - has made no secret in the past of his disdain for some of Crist's positions. But the Lake Wales Republican appears determined to wage a battle against the Crist administration on many fronts in the months remaining. It started last month when he pushed to have the state's long-range economic outlook include for the first time a statement that the financial condition of the Florida Hurricane Catastrophe Fund - which was expanded by state lawmakers in January 2007 - remains a potential risk for the financial health of Florida.

During a legislative committee meeting on Tuesday, he grilled Florida Insurance Commissioner Kevin McCarty over the state of Florida's property market - and then afterwards took umbrage at McCarty's statements. "He's artful to evading real answers to the questions,'' vented Alexander, although he later acknowledged that most senators knew the answers anyway.

Alexander remains steamed that Crist vetoed the insurance deregulation bill that could have kept State Farm from pulling out of Florida. He told reporters that the "consumer rhetoric" used by some was a "Trojan horse" and that he still found it inconceivable that a governor would think it was good riddance for State Farm to leave the state and potentially force hundreds of thousands of policyholders into the state-created Citizens Property Insurance Corp.

For his part, Alexander seemed ready to get back on board with a new version of the deregulation bill that lawmakers would once again potentially send to Crist.

But insurance isn't the only place Alexander could be a thorn in Crist's side. He is eagerly pushing ahead with efforts to scrutinize state government contracts even though Crist vetoed the bill that would have given the Legislature increased power to review them. Alexander directly the Senate budget staff this summer to start collecting information on contracts, with the result that he asked the Auditor General's office to look at a couple of the ones that he found.

Meanwhile, the state will soon will unveil the Transparency Florida website that will allow anyone get detailed information about anyone who gets state money. Alexander hopes the site will be ready for public consumption by sometime in November. He said on Tuesday that it would be the "most aggressive" transparency effort in the country and that he fully anticipates "gotcha" stories to emerge in the media once the information is uploaded from across the state.

Alexander said he met on Tuesday with Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink to discuss the ongoing effort, including some of the obstacles legislative staff have encountered. Alexander said one problem that they have run into is that certain travel reimbursements for anyone in state government have been treated as confidential information.

More ties to Mendelsohn: AG candidate Aronberg group got help

Here's some more information about the ties between groups linked to eye-doctor Alan Mendelsohn.

It turns out that the the Alliance for Promoting Florida's Future - which is not a political group but appears to be a non-profit organization that is reportedly under investigation - has given nearly $500,000 in the last year according to the state's campaign finance database.

Among those getting money includes Citizens for Political Accountability, a now-closed committee for continuous existence with ties to Sen. Dave Aronberg, the Palm Beach County Democrat running for Attorney General.

Alliance for Promoting Florida's Future donated $50,000 to Citizens, whose expense sheets shows numerous reimbursements to Aronberg for airline tickets and other travel expenses.

Other groups that got money from Alliance include:

The Republican Party of Florida got $25,000.

Democrats for Truth, an electioneering group run by Democratic strategist Screven Watson, got $25,000.

People for a Better Florida Fund, which was involved in last year's bitter Democratic primary in Broward County that was won by Sen. Eleanor Sobel, got a $225,000 donation from Alliance.

Floridians for Conservative Values - an electioneering outfit with ties to famed political consultant Randy Neilsen - received $50,000.

Just how far will scandal involving indicted fundraiser go?

The web surrounding indicted fundraiser Alan Mendelsohn - who is accused of using money intended for various political committees on payments for his mistress and and his children's education - keeps gets bigger and bigger.

This morning the Miami Herald reported that Tallahassee lobbyist Stephen Hull is tied to the corruption probe and it points out that one of the groups that gave money to one of the political organizations tied to Mendelsohn was Mardi Gras Gaming. (Mendelsohn it must be noted has pleaded not guilty to the charges against him.)

But delving into state and federal records shows a whole host of other connections.

-- Mendelsohn was listed as a registered lobbyist for Hull's company in 2005 and 2006. During that time period and up until today, Hull has been registered to lobby for the Florida Society of Opthalmology. Back in 2006 other lobbyists for the society included Michelle McKay, the wife of former Senate President John McKay. David Custin lobbied for the society in 2005.

-- Alliance for Florida's Future - a political committee that Mendelsohn is linked to according to news accounts - gave money to an electioneering outfit called for Coalition for Florida Families as did Americans for Free Speech, lobbyist Michael Corcoran and U.S. Sugar. The coalition - which had ties to Tallahassee public relations executive Rick Oppenheim - wound up giving $255,000 to Floridians for Truth and Integrity in Government.

This 527 - which folded in 2007 - was responsible for an attack on Tom Gallagher during the 2006 GOP primary for governor. Floridians for Truth and Integrity in Goverment raised more than $3 million in its brief existence, including getting $1.2 million from another group whose main contribution came from Southwest Florida real estate executive Greg Eagle. Eagle's son - Dane - worked for Gov. Charlie Crist and is now working as finance director for Crist's U.S. Senate campaign. Floridians for Truth and Integrity wound up spending nearly $1.7 million on media buys and gave $1.1 million to the Republican Party of Florida.

-- Mutual Benefits - the company whose collapse led to the corruption probe of Mendelsohn - gave $2,500 to Floridians for a Brighter Future, the political organization headed by former Senate President Ken Pruitt and $10,000 to Focus on Floridians Future, a group with ties to former State Rep. and Deputy Health Secretary Kim Berfield.

-- Alliance for Florida's Future shows on some of its past IRS tax forms that it "highlighted the need for public awareness in training and education between optometrists and opthalmologists." It also points out that the group "supported groups that were advocating to keep Florida Bright Futures Scholarship program. Pruitt, you may recall, did a publicity blitz around the state that called on lawmakers to keep the popular lottery-funded program intact.

-- A not for profit group called Alliance for Promoting Florida's Future Inc. - and whose president is the same as Alliance for Florida's Future - included as one of its directors John Curran. Curran also runs a company called OnPoint Digital Media in Tallahassee. Here's a promo video on the group's website and you will see some familiar faces - including Pruitt and Sen. Carey Baker - as well as former Florida Medical Association President Dennis Agliano.