The Fine Print

Could any of these bills get vetoed by Gov. Rick Scott?

Gov. Rick Scott on Wednesday will sign several bills that consist of the "jobs agenda" that he outlined last fall.

And that's when it will start to get interesting.

There have been few surprises so far since the 2012 session ended. Scott signed the "inspirational messages" bill and this latest batch of legislation includes an overhaul of the unemployment compensation system and tax breaks, including another small cut of the state's corporate income tax.

But in the next few weeks Scott will sort out the remaining bills from this year and figure out whether or not he plans to go along with many of the ideas that his GOP colleagues in the Legislature acted on.

Not counting his budget vetoes, Scott last year vetoed 10 bills sent to him by state lawmakers, which is actually on par, or even a little bit below other governors in recent years.

Gov. Charlie Crist - who was at war with lawmakers during his independent bid for U.S. Senate in 2010 - vetoed 17 bills his final year in office (several of which were later overridden) and 18 bills in 2007. Back in 2005 then Gov. Jeb Bush a.k.a. "Veto Corleone" nixed some 36 bills sent to him by the Legislature.

It was Bush who told Scott in an email before he became governor that it was okay to veto "stupid bills."

Here then are some bills to watch Scott on in the next few days and weeks:

HB 5301: Back when Scott was campaigning against Bill McCollum in the GOP primary in 2010 he actually came out against what he called mandates being imposed on local governments. Scott told a group of business leaders in Panama City that he did not support strict limits on spending and taxes for local governments, saying at the time "I believe that what Tallahassee should be doing is dealing with Tallahassee issues." 

But sitting on his desk is a budget conforming bill that contains a contentious provision that withholds money from counties in an effort to collect $325 million in contested past-due Medicaid billings. County governments have argued this is yet another mandate, an argument that should have some resonance with Scott.

This legislation, however, includes several other changes, including a limit on how many times Medicaid will pay for hospital emergency room visits for non-pregnant adults and a provision that would allow the children of state employees to be enrolled in the state's subsidized KidCare program. Scott must act on this bill this week but there are signs that he will let it become law because it is tied to the state budget. (UPDATE: Scott signed the bill, although in a letter the governor tried to assuage counties that the state would "work diligently" to make sure that all the billings are valid and accurate. Counties, meanwhile, sharply criticized the decision as a "body blow" to taxpayers.)

HB 7129: This is the tuition bill for the University of Florida and Florida State University. If it becomes law the legislation would allow these two research universities to raise tuition annually above the existing 15 percent cap that now exists in state law. The logic behind the bill - which was a top priority for House Speaker Dean Cannon - is to give UF and FSU the financial resources to make themselves more nationally competitive. But the bill also clashes with Scott's oft-repeated line that tuition should not go up this year and that universities ought to give him more examples of spending existing money wisely before hiking tuition. (UPDATE: Scott vetoed this legislation saying it would increase the debt burden of students.

SB 1994: The Florida Polytechnic University bill. This is the legislation pushed by Sen. J.D. Alexander that would officially divorce the Lakeland branch campus of the University of South Florida and turn into the state's 12th public university. Scott so far has refused to take a stance on the creation of a new school, but has expressed skepticism about it. The problem for Scott, however, is if vetoes the bill then he wipes out $16 million in funding, including $6 million for the USF College of Pharmacy and $10 million to allow current USF Polytechnic students to complete their degrees at USF. (UPDATE: In a bit of surprise, Scott signed this legislation into law.)

HB 7117: This is an energy bill that was championed by Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam. But the legislation - which includes $16 million in renewable energy tax credits - has come under fire by several different groups, including conservative organizations as well as the Florida Renewable Energy Producers Association. Scott during his first two years in office has continued to be skeptical about energy issues, although his main objection has centered around proposals that would raise utility bills in order to pay for renewable energy. (UPDATE: Scott signed this law although he expressed concerned about some of the provisions.)

HB 5011: State Information Technology. For most people outside of Tallahassee, this bill means little. But it's a big deal for the lobbyists and others who make a living off the millions spent by the state on technology. This bill blows up an existing state agency - the Agency for Enterprise Information Technology - and creates a new agency called the Agency for State Technology which reports to the governor and Cabinet. For those who aren't keeping count this would be the third reconfiguration of how the state handles technology issues in the last decade. The legislation also halts and repeals an already begun process to consolidate the state's email service. Rep. Denise Grimsley, the House budget chief, defended the move to get rid of the email consolidation, contending it would wind up costing the state more than anticipated. But it's worth pointing out that Scott himself early on wondered aloud why state government had multiple email accounts as opposed to the way that most businesses handle it. (UPDATE: Scott vetoed the bill.)

HB 945: Broadband Internet Service. This is another bill that not a lot of people kept an eye on. It transfers a federal stimulus-backed program from one state agency to another. But the legislation was pushed into law at the urging of lobbyists who work for a vendor that held a state contract that was not renewed. The Associated Press already reported that the legislative proposal was so closely aligned with the lobbying firm of former Republican Party of Florida chairman Al Cardenas that the Senate bill sponsor referred questions about the bill to a lobbyist working for Cardenas. That same AP story pointed out that the state agency now in control of the program has warned internally that the transfer will require federal approval and could put millions in federal grants in jeopardy. (UPDATE: This bill was signed by the governor.)

HB 937: Legal notices. Just consider this one a bit of a hunch. Scott of course famously shunned newspaper editorial boards during his 2010 campaign for governor. But since that time he has actually taken a keen interest in the news industry, including recent business moves in Florida such as the decision by Halifax Media to acquire papers owned by the New York Times Company. This legislation is aimed at ending a few years of battle over the future of legal notices. The bill requires the online listing of legal notices for no extra charge, but also keeps them in printed newspapers. In previous years legislators had tried to end the use of printed legal notices completely. The final product is supported by the Florida Press Association so it will be interesting to see how the governor responds.

"The governor clearly doesn't believe in it."

Gov. Rick Scott, a sharp critic of the federal stimulus, has taken down a state-controlled website intended to inform taxpayers where the money was going and whether it was creating jobs.

Former Gov. Charlie Crist — whose support of the federal stimulus helped doom his campaign for U.S. Senate — launched the website in March 2009, a few weeks after he hugged President Barack Obama on the president's visit to Florida touting the stimulus.

But now users are redirected to a single page on Scott's website. The page contains copies of letters to federal authorities from state and local officials certifying that the state is spending the money on projects such as roads, upgrades to water systems and renovations to a jail.

The old website included detailed spreadsheets that showed how much each state agency received and spent. It also included lists of how many jobs the state is reporting to federal authorities that were saved or created due to stimulus spending.

Scott spokesman Brian Burgess said it should be no surprise that the governor took down the website.

"We decided we wouldn't do anything to promote the stimulus program," Burgess said. "The governor clearly doesn't believe in it."

Keep reading the rest of the story at the Herald-Tribune here.

Budget speak for dummies

The House and Senate have passed rival versions of the state budget and the negotiations between Republican leaders have already begun, although out of sight and quietly right now.

When you are talking about spending close to $70 billion there is a lot of moving parts. And with talk of deficits, shortfalls, budget cuts, trust funds, allocations it can be a bit overwhelming.

Consider this a quick and easy guide to the main concepts in play with the promise that more may come later:

IT'S A BUDGET SHORTFALL, NOT A DEFICIT: Sometimes there is a temptation to use the terms shortfall and deficit interchangeably. But it's not accurate. Florida has a projected $3.75 budget shortfall not a deficit. In other words, it's not that revenue is dropping. It's that the revenue is not rising fast enough to meet all the projected budgetary needs.

Part of those budgetary needs have been caused by the loss of federal stimulus dollars at the end of June. Lawmakers used the stimulus to cushion the state budget when state tax collections were in fact dropping due to the recession and implosion of the state's real estate market. But the stimulus money is going away - and the places where that has a big impact is in the Medicaid program and in public school funding. The biggest reason for Gov. Rick Scott's 10 percent proposed cut in school funding was that Scott said he had no intention of replacing federal stimulus dollars with state dollars.

Legislative leaders have made it clear that they do not intend to raise revenue (with a few caveats) to deal with this shortfall. So they are looking at cutting the budget and forcing state workers to pay part of their pension costs to make up the difference.

IT'S ALL ABOUT ALLOCATIONS, ALLOCATIONS, ALLOCATIONS...While many lawmakers have a say in many of the line-items included in the budget, the starting point is really concentrated in the hands of a few people. Both Senate President Mike Haridopolos and House Speaker Dean Cannon must agree on how money to "allocate" to each of the separate areas of the budget. There's only so much money that can go around. And if you give more money from one area, you have to take it from someplace else.

And part of the allocation process is not just deciding how much money goes to schools or health care. It's how much money that can be used to offset tax cuts. Gov. Rick Scott asked for nearly $2 billion worth tax cuts and he said he's "comfortable" that lawmakers will give it to him, especially his corporate income tax proposal. The bottom line, however, is that state lawmakers can't come up with a final budget until the two legislative leaders sign off on the allocations. And that means it's largely up to the legislative leaders to decide whether they want to give Scott what he wants.

WHO IS THIS GENERAL REVENUE?...The money that is part of the important allocation process is known as "general revenue." This is Capitol shorthand for the state's main checking account. This is the money that comes primarily from the state's 6 percent sales tax, but a handful of other taxes as well such as the corporate income tax, the insurance premium tax and documentary stamp taxes on real estate transactions.

When the amount of general revenue goes down - or doesn't go up as fast as expected - it causes a big problem for state lawmakers since it's their main source of income. But it's important to point out that general revenue is expected to generate $23.8 billion in the coming year. So no, the final amount of spending and the budget is not completely dependent on just general revenue. The final budget amount is also dependent on federal aid and how much money the state takes in what are known as "trust funds."

WHO DOES MONEY FROM A TRUST FUND BELONG TO?...Copious amounts of debate has already been held this session about "trust funds." So what are they? Trust funds are accounts that are set up in state law with a dedicated source of revenue and a dedicated place where the money is spent. And therein lies the big argument. Many groups that pay fees or taxes that wind up in these trust funds view these accounts as special. And they get upset when state lawmakers tinker with them.

Supporters of trust funds argue that a promise was made and that the money should continue to be spent on that program regardless of the ongoing financial realities of the state. There is a fear that a fund dedicated say to affordable housing will vanish and never come back if it is mixed in with money that also goes to schools, health care and prisons. But the counter argument is this: Is it really fair to cut funding to schools and health care while another state program remains intact? Yet groups - whether they are gun owners who pay a concealed weapons fee or those who pay a tax on real-estate transactions - argue that it is a defacto tax increase if money isn't spent the way they want.

HOW MUCH IS THE STATE REALLY SPENDING?...Most people are aware of the ongoing Washington D.C. debate about budgets and what's covered and what's not. Well there is the same kind of debate going on this year in Tallahassee. How big is the state budget really? That's not an easy question to answer. One of the biggest differences right now between the House and Senate budgets is that the Senate budget is much larger because it includes items in the budget that the House doesn't include.

Is this a big deal? Yes and no. If an item is in the budget that means that state lawmakers ultimately control the overall amount spent. That's the logic behind including the budgets from water management districts in the Senate version. But there's also a political dynamic at work here. The more stuff you put in the budget the larger it gets. And at the end of the day, how you explain to voters that the budget you approved was actually larger on paper than the one approved a year ago?

But in reality lawmakers have routinely put stuff in and then yanked stuff out of the budget. It can make it hard to get a read on the complete level of state spending because sometimes they appropriate money in other bills unrelated directly to the budget. Plus, there are lot of other things controlled by state government that aren't annually budgeted such as money shared with city and county governments.

RECURRING OR NON-RECURRING?..You could say money is money. But in the world of the Capitol there's two kinds. There's the kind of money that everyone thinks will keep coming in year after year or "recurring." Then there's "non-recurring," or a supposed one-time windfall that may not be there next year.

The reason that lawmakers separate the two is that there is a thought that it's a bad idea to tie an ongoing expense to non-recurring money. The theory is that this is like wiping out your savings account in order to pay your mortgage. You will get another bill in a month so you have only delayed your financial problems. Now that's not to say that lawmakers haven't done the same thing in the past.

But the state constitution actually places a limit on how much non-recurring money can be placed in the state budget. Anything above 3 percent requires a three-fifths vote of the entire Legislature. So why is this a bit of a problem this year? Because one of the key problems with Gov. Rick Scott's push with phasing out the corporate income tax is that once you do that it starts converting so-called recurring money to non-recurring money. Even if lawmakers passed a bill this year that phases it out over the next seven years the economists will start counting it differently because now the money is "non-recurring."

THOSE PESKY CONFORMING BILLS...It used to be that state lawmakers would pass a 500-page budget and it included all sorts of directions and instructions on how to carry out the budget. Over the years - and thanks to some lawsuits along the way - the Legislature has started passing dozens of so-called "conforming" bills to accompany the budget. 

Sen. Don Gaetz last week asserted that these bills aren't usually substantive. Hmm. That may be true for many of them. But in reality these bills are measures that change state law in order to carry out spending reductions or changes. These measures can be just as sweeping as the budget. For example, how about a "conforming" bill that says money from a cigarette tax hike passed two years ago will no longer go to cancer research.

But it's more than just that. Lawmakers have placed all these conforming bills into the actual budget conference process. So what does that mean? That means they can't be amended once they reach the House and Senate floor. Last week, for example, the House and Senate included their pension reform bills into the budget conference. That means once top leaders negotiate what's in the bill it will be subject to an up or down vote. This has been a problem in the past because until last year the wording of conforming bills was decided behind closed doors.

In response to the scandal involving former House Speaker Ray Sansom, legislators vowed to go over each and every conforming bill in a public meeting. They have promised to do the same this year and a new clause in legislative rules requires a 24-hour waiting period before a final vote can be taken on conforming bills. The bottom line is this that t's not just the budget that you need to watch.

TURKEY AND PORK...No, this is not a Thanksgiving Day menu. In most places when a powerful politician puts something in the budget it's called "pork." In Tallahassee, the parlance is a budget "turkey." Of course, what gets defined as a turkey or pork is a matter of great debate each and every year.

The way the budget process usually work is this: First state agencies put in what's called a "legislative budget request." This is supposed to be an independent assessment by the agency of its financial needs in the coming year. Of course, surprise, surprise, some agencies have not followed that edict especially when agency heads report to a governor who has made it clear that he doesn't want his agencies asking for any additional money. After the "LBR's" are released, the governor takes that information and presents his official budget recommendations to the Legislature.

Lawmakers take the governor's recommendations and build upon it - adding or deleting things that they don't agree with. Many people say that anything not recommended by the governor or by a state agency is a budget turkey. In a lot of instances this is state money set aside for some type of local project or service. Over the years legislators have argued that their opinion on spending items is just as legitimate as that of an agency head in Tallahassee.

LINE-ITEM VETO POWER...One of the most important things to remember about how the state handles its budget is that the governor has line-item veto power. This means that the governor can completely eliminate any spending item without eliminating the entire budget.

Now, theoretically there are limits to this power. A governor is not legally allowed to veto what is called  "provisos" or instructions that accompany certain spending items without wiping out the spending item as well. The governor is also not allowed to veto part of an appropriation. So guess what happened under former Gov. Charlie Crist? Yep. Crist pretty much ignored these restrictions in law.

Did lawmakers complain? Sure they did. But they didn't sue to stop him either. Why is this so important? Because there is ample evidence that the current Legislature will not take the same stance with Gov. Rick Scott. Scott has already ruffled feathers with several steps he has taken that some legislators contend exceed his constitutional limits. If Scott uses the precedent set by Crist it could spark a full-fledged legal battle in front of the Supreme Court later this year.

 

 

 

 

Does Rick Scott has a stimulus problem?

Here's what Gov. Rick Scott said last summer when it comes to the federal stimulus:

"It's not free money,'' Scott told reporters during a campaign bus trip across North Florida.

Scott, who was then a candidate running against Attorney General Bill McCollum, also said at that time that he would not have balanced the state budget with any money from the controversial federal stimulus package.

"I would have figured out how to balance the budget without it," Scott said. "We have to live within our means, governments have to live within their means. There’s a day of reckoning."

Scott also said then that "stimulus spending didn't help us."

Let's flash forward to now. Scott last week signed a sweeping executive order that froze new rules - and suspended for up to 90 days any contract that is worth more than $1 million.

None of the contracts can go forward until the newly created Office of Fiscal Accountability and Regulatory Reform reviews them. Some of the contracts - including a $450 million sole source contract with Bank of America - have been approved. The Scott administration has also let loose nearly $90 million worth of road-building projects.

But some of the road projects - and just as importantly - some of the pending contracts were funded with federal stimulus dollars.

Example: Scott has held up nearly $117 million worth of contracts that would take stimulus money and give it local groups around the state in order to do weatherization grants for low-income families. This is stimulus money that is intended to be used to help people lower their utility bills while also helping create jobs. The contracts now held up would go to organizations stretching across the state from Miami-Dade County to Orange County to Northeast Florida to Bay County. This program came under a little bit of scrutiny as some wondered why stimulus money was going to help people lower air-conditioning bills instead of helping their homes withstand winter weather. But information provided to Scott's office contends that the weatherization grants have created or saved 800 jobs as of the final quarter of 2010.

When asked about Scott's past comments regarding the stimulus, Brian Burgess, a spokesman for the governor said in an e-mail that this does not mean that the governor would halt the pending contracts. He said that the governor "thought it was wrong to use federal stimulus dollars (i.e. one time cash grants) to balance the state budget."

UPDATE: The Scott administration on early Friday evening announced it had approved a whole long list of contracts, including the contracts for weatherization grants that were funded with federal stimulus dollars.

 

 

 

Rick Scott's long list of challenges

A beaming Governor-elect Rick Scott and his wife, Ann, showed up at the governor’s mansion on Monday night where they joined Gov. Charlie Crist and First Lady Carole Crist for a symbolic menorah lighting ceremony.

Scott helped 11-year-old Mendy Oirechman light the candles of a large menorah that was placed up against one of the front windows and he later held hands with Crist as they briefly danced with some of the rabbis in attendance.

The ceremony, which was started under former Gov. Jeb Bush, was a tangible sign of some of the many social responsibilities that come with being governor. But it also could be seen as a prelude of many of the large and small challenges that will confront Scott once he is sworn into office in early January.

During the half-hour ceremony, he was reminded of Florida’s insurance problems when he was asked whether he planned to follow Crist’s footsteps. Crist went to Jerusalem and placed a prayer in the Wailing Wall where he asked God to spare Florida from hurricanes.  Rabbi Schneur Z. Oirechman politely asked whether or not the mezuzah that now sits on the door jamb into Crist’s office would remain once Scott becomes governor. Crist back in 2007 took some heat from groups such as the ACLU for placing the religious symbol in his office.

But there are many other large challenges that are looming for the rookie governor whether it's the state budget mess, the dismal economy, Medicaid and even the brewing leadership battle for the Republican Party of Florida.

The complete rundown on Scott's challenges can be found here at the Florida Tribune.

The knives are out in Tallahassee

Despite the state’s own budget mess and a record unemployment rate, lawmakers in Tallahassee on Tuesday are expected to debate whether or not Congress should be forced to balance the federal budget.

It’s just one clear sign that election year politics has become the driving force of a session where there's no money and there is a need to resonate with voters.

“We’re entering a harder partisan season than usual,’’ said Rick Wilson, a veteran Republican campaign consultant.  “It’s important, I think, because it represents the end of the era where everyone could get a slice of an ever-growing pie. Sure, the GOP got a bigger slice, but the Democrats got their stuff too…but now there’s no money to play with. The fun years are over, and the knives are out.’’

More here at the Florida Tribune.

Defiant Crist defends "poison" stimulus

Gov. Charlie Crist on Tuesday night gave an impassioned defense of his record of governor and said it is more important to be practical and get results than to adhere to ideological purity.

Crist, giving his final State of the State speech before the Legislature, drew a stark contrast between himself and critics like former House Speaker Marco Rubio. Rubio, his Republican rival for the U.S. Senate, has repeatedly criticized Crist for his support of the federal stimulus package.

But Crist defended the stimulus as necessary during a time when the state is in economic crisis. He asserted that if Floridians were paying taxes, then they deserved to receive a share of the $787 billion package.

"While there is great virtue in being true to your principles, conviction must be tempered with practicality and pragmatism," Crist said. "Taken to an extreme, conviction becomes inflexible -- even destructive. Extreme views rarely solve problems and frequently create them."

But at least one Republican consultant said GOP voters think the stimulus is "poison" and questioned the wisdom of embracing it. Read the Herald-Tribune story here.

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.

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.

Jobs, Sunrail and the new math

Gov. Charlie Crist will shuttle around the state today to celebrate the signing of a sweeping measure to create a statewide rail system.

Crist will no doubt repeatedly praise the billions that will be spent on rail projects as a boon to the economy.

But it turns out trying to figure out many jobs that could come with the 3 main projects is an inexact science. You can read more about it here at the Sarasota Herald-Tribune.

Some key points:

Cynthia Lorzenzo, the head of the Agency for Workforce Innovation, used a figure of 14,000 jobs when she praised the rail projects a couple of weeks ago. Lorenzo got that number from the Department of Transportation.

DOT, which says the actual total is 14,930, did the math this way:

330 "saved" jobs from Tri-Rail in South Florida, or in other words jobs already there that are being protected by the extra funding now coming their way.

8,000 jobs for SunRail, the 61-mile commuter rail project for Central Florida. This is broken up between 5,000 construction jobs and 3,000 operations and maintenance jobs.

6,600 jobs for the high speed rail leg between Orlando and Miami. This includes 5,000 construction jobs and 1,100 operations and maintenance jobs.

Ok, so why are their more operations jobs at SunRail? DOT officials say it's because their will be more stations along that line.

But wait, there's a little catch. The operations and maintenance jobs aren't jobs that are occurring all at once. Instead DOT took the number of jobs - up to 200 once SunRail is fully operational - and counted them again and again over a 30 year period.

In regards to both high speed rail and commuter rail, there are lots of other numbers floating around as well. For example, an economic study released right before the 2009 regular session had higher numbers associated with SunRail, while a study of high speed rail from 2002 use considerably higher numbers that appear to include jobs that are not directly related to the project itself.