The Fine Print

Crist says silly season party-switching talk coming from his opponents

Gov. Charlie Crist on Thursday evening shot down - again - the notion that his competitive race against former House Speaker Marco Rubio will prompt him to switch from running as a Republican to an independent in the U.S. Senate election.

There has been a lot of talk about it again this week, including an ad placed at the top of the Drudge Report and paid by Sen. Jim DeMint Senate Conservatives Fund PAC that asked people whether Crist will switch parties.

Crist said any talk about party-switching "probably comes from my opponents. It's the silly season."

When asked about whether he plans to switch parties, he replied: "I sure don't. I'm happy where I am and how things are going."

Of course, all of this will be moot very very shortly. Under Florida law - 99.021 - someone has to switch parties 6 months in advance of the general election in order to run on the ballot with a different party affiliation. That date would be May 2.

BUT...federal candidates must qualify for the ballot during the week of April 26-30. So that's really when everything must be locked down.

UPDATE - The Rubio campaign contends that the talk of switching parties was sparked by Crist, noting some comments he has made recently where he acknowledges that some of his political advisors have talked to him about running as an independent.

Charlie Crist to Rubio: "Welcome to the NFL."

Gov. Charlie Crist on Thursday had little sympathy for former House Speaker Marco Rubio, who has been put on the defensive after records showing how he used a Republican Party of Florida credit card were leaked to The Miami Herald. Rubio has criticized the leak as an "act of desperation" but has acknowledged that he did make payments of $16,000 for personal expenses that were placed on the card.

Crist said that it was good that the records came to light, saying "knowledge is good."

"I don't know where it came from,'' said Crist. "It doesn't really matter to me. What matters to me is that the people have a right to know how people spend their money,  how they comport themselves, how they conduct themselves before they put themselves for public office.

"That's happened to the speaker,'' said Crist. "He apparently doesn't like it. That's too bad. Welcome to the NFL."

Crist - who does not have a party credit card - also questioned some of the expenses.

"I don't think it was very smart. Sounded like an awfully expensive haircut to me. I mean I spend 11 bucks to get a haircut."

Crist repeated that he supports releasing all credit cards. Crist was also asked whether or not his travel aides or other top aides used a credit card to cover his expenses and the governor said no.

"I don't have a credit card. Nobody I know of that helped me had a credit card. I have my own credit card and I pay it off every month."

Illegal immigration measure appears least likely to pass Legislature

A sweeping illegal immigration measure filed by Sen. Carey Baker, R-Eustis, could have the dubious distinction of being the legislation least likely to pass for the 2010 session. An analysis done on behalf of the Florida Tribune by LobbyTools shows that Baker's legislation -- SB 856 -- has more committee references than any other bill filed so far this year.

Baker's bill has been referred by Senate President Jeff Atwater to seven separate committees. The measure, called the "Florida Illegal Immigration Reform Act," has a number of provisions including requiring lottery winners to be citizens or legal residents, prohibiting cities and counties from adopting laws dealing with illegal immigrants, requiring public employers to verify citizenship status, and blocking illegal immigrants from attending public schools.

Baker on Tuesday joked that the bill was a "personal best" for him and that he has never had any legislation get referred to seven different committees. He acknowledged that there is no way for the bill in its current form to get through the Legislature. "As it is written, it would be impossible to pass,'' said Baker. "Our sessions don't last long enough to go through seven committees of reference."

Baker said he and the House sponsor, Rep. Janet Adkins, R-Fernandina Beach, plan to offer up a stripped down version of the legislation that may have a better chance of passing. The analysis of 2010 bills shows that one bill, SB 1202, has six committees of reference. There are nearly 50 bills that have been referred to five committees.

A spokeswoman for Atwater said that the reason the bill got so many committee stops is because of the comprehensive nature of the legislation.

No mojo risin for Sink, McCollum or Charlie

The first of the four Clemency Board meetings this year will be held this Thursday and the case of one James Douglas Morrison is not on the agenda.

That means that time is running out for Gov. Charlie Crist to decide whether or not he wants to grant a posthumous pardon to the now-deceased front man of The Doors.

To recap: When Crist first became governor, longstanding fans of Morrison - a Florida native and Florida State University student - hoped that he could finally get his record cleared. They want the state to wipe out Morrison's conviction for indecent exposure that stemmed from a notorious concert at a  Coconut Grove auditorium in 1969. It was during this concert that a drunken Morrison allegedly attempted to masturbate on stage.

Morrison was sentenced to six months in jail but he died at the age of 27 in a Paris bathtub while his case was still on appeal. Back in 2007 Crist  - who sang a couple of lines of "Light My Fire" - said he was seriously considering a pardon. When asked last summer, Crist said that he would give it a "little thought."

Prodded about it again back in December, Crist said "maybe." Meanwhile, the only other member of the Cabinet who has expressed any solid thoughts about it is Agriculture Commissioner Charles Bronson. Bronson has said he is willing to consider a pardon, while Attorney General Bill McCollum said he would not talk about it. Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink said back in December that she did not know who Jim Morrison was. Sink has said since that she does know who The Doors were and does recall their songs.

House speaker says "we can't do nothing" when it comes to jobs

Florida legislators will enter the 2010 session repeating the same thing as politicians all across the country: "Jobs, jobs, jobs."

But hobbled by a severe budget crunch, the question is just how much Gov. Charlie Crist and the Legislature can do to help curb the state's chronic unemployment, where more than 1 million people are now out of work.

Legislative leaders, in a tip to the rising anger over last year's federal stimulus programs, are quick to say that "government can't create jobs."

But that is not stopping them from considering sweeping moves, including boosting spending on economic development incentives and rolling back state permitting regulations that some legislators see as impediments to growth.

Crist has proposed more than $100 million in tax cuts as well as spending millions on economic development incentives.

"We just can't do nothing," said House Speaker Larry Cretul, R-Ocala, whose home county has a 14 percent unemployment rate, one of the state's highest. "All we can do is say, 'Hey, let's get this thing going.' The quicker that we get us out of the ditch, the better off everybody is going to be."

Read more here at the Sarasota Herald-Tribune.

Sweeping anti-abortion bill filed in House

Here's some interesting information from the Feb. 17 edition of the Daily Wrap-Up put out by the Florida Tribune:

Rep. Charles Van Zant, R-Keystone Heights, filed a sweeping anti-abortion bill on Wednesday that bans all abortion in the state of Florida unless two doctors determine that the life of the mother is in jeopardy. The measure -- HB 1097 -- says that any attempt to induce an abortion is a first-degree felony. The legislation would also outlaw any facility or business that performs abortion.

Van Zant's bill includes a lengthy introduction that questions past U.S. Supreme Court rulings that legalized abortion in the first trimester and asserts that the Florida Legislature has the power to ignore them, stating that "The Legislature finds that the Constitution of the United States does not vest in the United States Supreme Court the power to determine moral questions on behalf of the citizens of any state without their consent. Further the Legislature finds that the justices of the United States Supreme Court are not qualified to determine, establish, or define the moral values of the people of the United States and specifically for the people of Florida." 

Some additional information: Van Zant's measure also states "The Legislature of the people of the state of Florida finds that all life comes from the Creator and begins at conception" and that the principles outlined in Roe v. Wade are "repugnant to the principles expressed in the United States Constitution."

It's not clear how far this legislation will go especially since its legality will likely be questioned. Last year the Legislature did not spend much time on abortion. A measure that would have required an ultrasound prior to an abortion never got heard in the Florida Senate because there were not the votes to pass it out of its first committee stop. Because the Senate was unable to move the bill the House only moved a companion measure through just one committee.

(UPDATE: House Speaker Larry Cretul, R-Ocala, on Thursday said that Van Zant is very "passionate" about abortion and that he wants a "public discussion" about the issue. Cretul would not say if the bill would ultimately get debated by the Florida House. But he said that he talked to Van Zant about it and told him "to work your bill and see what happens.")

State senator used campaign funds to pay off election fine

It turns out State Sen. Charlie Justice, who is running for the congressional seat now held by veteran U.S. Rep. Bill Young, R-Indian Shores, used donations to pay off a state fine.

Justice, D-St. Petersburg, paid $1,000 out of his now shuttered state senate campaign account in Oct. 2008. The money was used to settle a case over the fact that he accepted two $500 contributions for his 2006 campaign after the contributors had already given the maximum amount for the primary.

Justice said the initial case was due to a "bookkeeping error" because the donations were supposed to come into his campaign account after the primary and be used for the general election. He said he only used campaign money to pay the fine to the Florida Elections Commission after he consulted an attorney about it.

"I went on the advice of an attorney who said that was appropriate,'' said Justice on Monday. "I asked him several times to make sure."

There are in fact sections of the campaign finance law that requires a candidate to use personal funds, including chapter 106.07(8) which says candidates must use their own money to pay a fine for filing a late campaign report and that it is not an allowable campaign expense. Another section of law that requires statewide candidates and legislators to register whenever they start collecting money for a 527 also requires any violators to pay fines from personal funds. Statewide candidates who agree to abide by campaign spending limits must also use personal money if they exceed the limit.

But this requirement is not included in the section of law, chapter 106.19, that Justice was accused of violating by the Florida Elections Commission.

Jeff Ryan, a Democratic Party fundraiser, raised money from several donors to pay off a $209,000 fine to the elections commission.

Top Democratic Party fundraiser got help to pay off 200k fine

File this in the got missed at the time, but still interesting category.

Jeff Ryan, a top fundraiser for the Florida Democratic Party, used donations funneled through a political organization run by a Tallahassee attorney to pay off a $209,000 state elections fine.

Ryan got hit with the fine because he was chairman of an outfit called Florida House Victory, which was set up by then Rep. Chris Smith, D-Fort Lauderdale, to raise money independently of the state party during a time when legislative leaders were at odds with then party chairman Scott Maddox. (Sound familiar?)

The Florida Elections Commission in 2007 ruled that the fundraising committee - which was eventually shut down - accept campaign contributions above the legal limits. Instead of fighting the charges, which Democrats said were due to technical mistakes made when the paperwork was filed, Ryan agreed to pay a fine of $209,000.

But state election records show that $209,000 was paid to a trust account maintained by well-known Tallahassee ethics and elections attorney Mark Herron to pay off the fine. The money came out of a committee of continuous existence also run by Herron called Mark-PAC.

Donations came into the CCE from the Florida PBA, HCA, Hartman & Tyner, Palm Beach County Kennel Club and Jacksonville Greyhound Racing in late 2007 and 2008 - or at the same time that two payments to Herron's trust account were made.

When asked about it on Sunday, Herron said since Ryan was not a candidate the arrangement was legal. Herron also said that donors were told ahead of time what the money was being used for.

So why this bring up now? Some Republicans remain convinced that their fundraising woes get a lot more press coverage than ones involving Democrats. And this one listed above has been included in the list of those items missed. But Ryan's fine did get reported at the time even if it didn't get reported in all newspapers. What's new is how the fine was handled.

Memo to state workers: This budget could be all about you

While there is lots of talk about changing Medicaid, there is a growing sense of inevitability of where state lawmakers will try to wring a large amount of savings when they craft the 2010-11 state budget. And that's from state workers.

Senate President Jeff Atwater in an interview last week couldn't have been more blunt. Layoffs of state workers he said is "unavoidable." And Atwater, R-North Palm Beach, made it clear that retooling health insurance benefits and even retirement accounts is also a distinct possibility.

Atwater said that he cannot justify protecting state employees while other businesses throughout the state are shedding workers and trimming costs.

 "They have changed their health plans for their fellow employees, they have had layoffs that tragically became necessary to keep the business afloat, they have furloughed employees, they have reduced wages, they have moved from the strip center back to their garage and the back bedroom to survive,'' he said. "If our orientation is that I should be preserving something here uniquely and differently than what my fellow Floridians have had to do to keep their own small business afloat, I have missed the correct orientation of my job.''

When Gov. Charlie Crist rolled out his budget proposal he made it clear that he did not think it was the "right time" to either cut state salaries or force state employees to pay more for their own health insurance, or even require the roughly 27,000 who pay no health insurance premiums to pay something.

That sentiment so far does not appear to be shared by the GOP-controlled Legislature. The political reality could be that it's easy to go after state employees because in the counties with the highest concentration of workers - except Miami-Dade - those areas lean heavily Democratic.

But it may have just as much to do with budget reality. Republicans have made it clear that they will not entertain tax increases during an election year. Federal stimulus money requirements mean that legislators can't slash expenses easily in places such as Medicaid or even school funding.

Last week the main Senate budget panel heard about how costs in the state health insurance plan are growing at 10 percent a year. That's significant since the state is expected to spend $1.8 billion on health insurance for state workers and university employees during the current budget year. Only an estimated $157 million of that will come from state worker premiums.

But it may not just be health insurance that legislators turn to. They may also force state workers to contribute to their retirement accounts.

Up until 1975 state employees did pay into the pension plan known as the Florida Retirement System. That year legislators opted against a pay raise - but wiped out the contribution requirement - a move that boosted the take home money in paychecks.

Forcing state workers to pay 1 percent of their salary toward their pension would generate an estimated $72 million a year.

Florida pays its employees on average less than employees in such states as Alabama, Louisiana, Kentucky and North Carolina, according to a presentation made earlier this month by the Department of Management Services to the Senate Governmental Oversight and Accountability Committee. But that same analysis showed that other states like Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana also require their workers to contribute anywhere from 1.25 percent to 7.5 percent to their retirement accounts. Tennessee does not charge employees, while Arkansas charges nothing for employees hired before 2005 but five percent for those hired after July 2005.

Lawyers, guns and money

Saying they are moving to protect the "2nd Amendment right to bear arms," a House panel on Wednesday approved a measure that would place a lock box on the trust fund that is used to pay for processing concealed weapons permits as well as regulating private investigators and security officers. The bill is being sponsored by Rep. David Rivera, R-Miami and House budget chief.

This moves comes less than a year after the Legislature approved sweeping $6 million from the same trust fund only to have the decision vetoed by Gov. Charlie Crist after an outcry from gun owners who said it was wrong to use money intended to process permits on other government expenses. The veto wound up costing Florida's schools $6 million.

Marion Hammer, the long-time lobbyist for the National Rifle Association and Unified Sportsman of Florida, made it abundantly clear to legislators that her group would sue the state if the money was ever used for anything than processing concealed weapons permits. She explained that gun owners agreed to the fees back in 1987 in an effort to unify the permitting process across the state.

Hammer said when the money is "used for other purposes, they become an unauthorized tax on a constitutional right." (There is a sales tax charged on guns and ammunition, but Hammer said that is a tax on a product, as opposed to a tax on a constitutional right.)

If the bill, which is being sponsored in the Senate by Sen. Charlie Dean, becomes law then the Legislature would have to pass another bill in the future order to sweep any excess amounts in the trust fund.The legislation was approved unanimously by the House Natural Resources Appropriations Committee on Wednesday and has only one more stop before it heads to the full House.

This legislation of course raises a broader question of who's money is it anyway?

Rep. Mary Brandenburg, D-West Palm Beach, wanted to offer up an amendment to Rivera's bill that would have authorized giving back trust fund money to "contributors on a pro rata basis." This led to a brief discussion about trust funds and whether lawmakers should routinely sweep excess amounts to help balance the budget. Last year the Legislature took $588 million from various trust funds.

Rep. Ralph Poppell, R-Vero Beach, insisted that the gun trust fund was a special case, arguing "that not all trust funds were created equal." Hammer added that while she thought it was bad to sweep any trust fund that her focus was on gun owners and that she didn't want Brandenburg's amendment tacked on to the bill. Brandenburg wound up withdrawing it.

But it worth noting that various interest groups - whether it's road builders, the insurance industry or home builders - have also complained that it's unfair to take money they pay and use it for other parts of the state budget.

Sen. Mike Fasano, R-New Port Richey, said earlier this week that while he wants to prevent the sweeps of trust funds used for roads and affordable housing, he also added that he's not sure he wants to have a state law that would create a "cherry picking" of trust funds. (Again it is worth noting that some trust funds - including those pledged to pay bonds and those consisting of federal money - already have similar protections.)

Former Gov. Jeb Bush took a much different viewpoint. Bush's budget chief Donna Arduin tried unsuccessfully argue that it wrong to place so much of the state budget into a lock box. Instead state policy makers should have the flexibility to balance the budget with their existing resources. Ben Watkins, the head of Florida's Division of Bond Finance, told another House committee on Tuesday that it is good for the state's bond rating to be able to tell rating agencies that excess balances in trust funds can be used in financial emergencies.

There is also another question to consider: Is it right to raise taxes or fees on other Floridians when there is money sitting in state bank accounts that isn't being spent?

Rivera, like Poppell, insisted that the trust fund used to pay for processing permits was a special case because it dealt with gun ownership.