Daily Clips for March 31, 2011

FEATURED STORIES

$66.5 billion House budget cuts schools, services, jobs and employees' pay
By John Kennedy
Palm Beach Post
The House budget committee approved a $66.5 billion state spending plan Wednesday that would reduce the state's workforce by 5,245 jobs, pull $710 million from public employee paychecks and cut Florida schools by $1.1 billion.

Cuts to state budget likely will hurt many Floridians
By Gary Fineout
Ocala Star-Banner
The Republican-controlled Legislature has insisted that, in order to overcome the state's nearly $4 billion budget shortfall, it will slash state spending rather than raise taxes on Floridians during tough economic times.

‘Bold’ changes to Medicaid OK’d
By Jim Saunders
Health News Florida
With the chief sponsor calling for "bold and transformative" changes, a Senate committee today approved a controversial proposal that would hand over most of the Medicaid program to managed-care plans.

Growth management do-over passes
By Jerome R. Stockfisch
Tampa Tribune
Legislation that dramatically scaled back growth management in Florida but was blocked by the courts will go back into law with the expected signature of Gov. Rick Scott.

Sprawl invite
Editorial
Miami Herald
Every year, without fail, the Legislature takes up legislation that seeks to gut the state’s growth-management system. This year’s version is as bad as it gets.

Sen. Marco Rubio demands an overhaul of Social Security and Medicare
By William E. Gibson
Orlando Sentinel
Florida Sen. Marco Rubio launched a national publicity campaign Wednesday to demand an overhaul of Social Security and Medicare to keep the programs solvent and ease the national debt.

FLORIDA POLITICS

Senate code addresses conflicts of interest
By Bill Cotterell
Florida Capital News
A Senate committee approved a "code of honor" Wednesday forbidding state officials to vote on matters affecting their personal finances or business prospects.

Dramatic end to Ray Sansom trial gives way to debate on what happened
By Alex Leary
St. Petersburg Times
Juror Pamela McLean returned from lunch expecting to hear hours of additional testimony in the Ray Sansom trial. Instead she was told she could go home.

Haridopolos barb riles law enforcement
Staff Report
Palm Beach Post
Answering a question about budget cuts to law enforcement, Senate President Mike Haridopolos said he considers prison guards more like home security systems than police.

Today in Tallahassee: Senate budget, House Medicaid reform
By Mary Ellen Klas
St. Petersburg Times/Miami Herald Tallahassee Bureau
A day after the Florida House held a 12-hour meeting to take up budget issues, the Senate's Budget Committee has scheduled a nine-hour hearing to take up its spending and pension reform plans, as well as dozens of budget-related bills.

POLITICAL RACES

PPP Poll: Bill Nelson holding at least 13 point lead over GOP opponents
By Alex Leary
St. Petersburg Times
Sen. Bill Nelson, a Democrat up for re-election in 2012, holds "at least a 13 point lead" over prospective Republican opponents, a new poll finds.

Rick Scott, the one-term wonder? Poll says yes
By Mike Thomas
Orlando Sentinel
If you don't like Rick Scott, wait three years and nine months and he should be gone.

ENVIRONMENT AND ENERGY

Senate panel passes bill that environmentalists say may be the worst of the session
By Bruce Ritchie
Florida Tribune
A measure one lobbyist called the worst environmental bill of the 2011 legislative session cleared a Senate committee on Wednesday.

Growth management bills that would fix judge's ruling head to governor
By Bruce Ritchie
Florida Tribune
A growth management bill that's supposed to fix a judge's court ruling from last August cleared the Senate on Friday and is on its way to the governor.

Senate budget chief wants land sales to pay for new purchases
By Bruce Ritchie
FloridaEnvironments.com
The Senate's budget chief says selling state land could help the Florida Forever land-buying program survive these lean budget times.

LGBT

Immigration authorities to continue denying same-sex couple’s green cards
By Sofia Resnick
Florida Independent
Speculation that the Obama Administration’s February announcement that it would no longer defend the Defense of Marriage Act in court would change how same-sex married couple’s applications for green cards and visa applications are reviewed — making the process no different from heterosexual married couples — ended Wednesday.

EDUCATION

Florida House bill that would limit multiyear contracts worries teachers
By Jeffrey S. Solochek
St. Petersburg Times
Jennifer Isley had options three years ago when choosing where to become a teacher.

Voucher organization wants corporate taxpayer information
By Elaine Silvestrini
Tampa Tribune
With $140 million raised in less than six months, the organization that administers the state's school voucher program for economically disadvantaged students had no trouble meeting its goal this year.

Charter school expansion bill passes first test in Florida
By Tom Marshall
St. Petersburg Times
A bill to expand Florida's charter school system sailed past its first hurdle Wednesday, gaining unanimous approval by a Senate committee.

Stargel's plan to grade parents triggers debate
By Kim MacQueen
Florida Tribune
HB 255, Rep. Kelli Stargel’s effort to grade parents for participation in their children’s schooling, got a good amount of press months before the beginning of the 2011 session.

Community and state colleges could face 8% tuition hike
Staff Report
Orlando Sentinel
Senate budget writers on Thursday presented a new spending plan for higher education and, this time, they're proposing an 8 percent tuition increase for state colleges and community colleges.

Lawmakers take aim at university faculty unions
By Denise-Marie Balona
Orlando Sentinel
Faculty unions at public universities statewide are scrambling to boost their membership numbers for fear that the Legislature will decertify them.

JOBS, BUDGET, AND ECONOMY

Democrats blast $66.5 billion budget as a job-killer
By Aaron Deslatte
Orlando Sentinel
As Florida lawmakers rush to slash $4 billion in state spending, critics are warning the deep reductions will cost the one thing politicians promised to deliver: jobs.

Florida House committee approves $66.5B budget with deep cuts
By Steve Bousquet
St. Petersburg Times/Miami Herald Tallahassee Bureau
The size and scope of Florida's $3.8 billion budget shortfall came into sharper focus Wednesday as a key House committee approved a $66.5 billion budget with deep cuts in education, health care and other services.

House OKs space industry incentives, oil spill recovery
By Jim Ash
Florida Capital News
House panel on Wednesday overwhelmingly approved a series of tax breaks and incentives designed to offset two of the biggest economic disasters in the state — the Deepwater Horizon oil spill and the retirement later this year of the space shuttle.

Citizens rate increases marching to legislative approval in Tallahassee
By Janet Zink
St. Petersburg Times/Miami Herald Tallahassee Bureau
Bills to increase rates for Citizens Property Insurance and push its policyholders to the private market are on the march in the Florida Legislature.

Associated Builders and Contractors voices support for Goodson wage theft bill
By Marcos Restrepo
Florida Independent
The Associated Builders and Contractors of Florida has launched a campaign to support the “Wage Protection” bill filed by state Rep. Tom Goodson, R-Titusville, which would override local wage theft ordinances like one in Miami-Dade County that aims to prevent employers from cheating workers out of pay they are owed.

Lawmaker delays hearing on Darden tax-break bill
By Jason Garcia
Orlando Sentinel
A hearing on a bill that would give Darden Restaurants a tax break of as much as $5 million a year was postponed Wednesday after the sponsor asked for more time to address recent questions about the legislation.

Bill to protect online travel companies stays alive
By Mary Ellen Klas
St. Petersburg Times/Miami Herald Tallahassee Bureau
An attempt to shield online travel companies from paying additional tourism taxes on the hotel rooms they sell over the Internet was narrowly defeated by a House committee Wednesday.

HEALTH AND SENIORS

Senate targets family coverage
By Jim Saunders
Health News Florida
A new Senate proposal would force many state employees to pay thousands a dollars a year more for health insurance --- or choose skimpier coverage.

Grading HMO's medicaid test: The state prepares to expand a complex, money-saving pilot
By John Kennedy
Palm Beach Post
Amy Silverman said she feels like a refugee - lucky to have escaped from a frightening place, but at a very high cost.

House bill to crack down on pill mills would benefit big retail pharmacies
By Dara Kam
Palm Beach Post
Big retail pharmacies like Walgreens, CVS, Publix and Wal-mart would have exclusive rights in Florida to dispense addictive pain medications, under a bill passed Wednesday by a House committee.

Deficit prompts Gov. Rick Scott to plan cuts to services for developmentally disabled
By Marc Caputo
St. Petersburg Times/Miami Herald Tallahassee Bureau
Due to a shockingly large deficit, Gov. Rick Scott is planning to invoke his emergency powers and make deep cuts to the rates charged by group homes and caseworkers who help the developmentally disabled.

Stop assault on abortion rights now
Editorial
Ft. Myers News-Press
With a more conservative Legislature and governor in power in Tallahassee, some lawmakers have launched an intense and radical attack on abortion rights this session.

Getting Medicaid reform right
Editorial
St. Petersburg Times
There is no dispute that something needs to be done to rein in Medicaid, the health care program serving more than 2.9 million low-income Floridians at a cost of more than $20 billion.

JUSTICE AND THE COURTS

The Chamber's Genie
The Progress Report
Think Progress
Ever since Chief Justice Roberts joined the Supreme Court, corporate America has treated his Court as its personal genie, and Roberts has been eager to grant even many of their most outlandish wishes.

Reliable court funding essential to justice
Editorial
Daytona Beach News-Journal
The state court system is a victim of the law of unintended consequences.