As rank-and-file senators grow more worried that a controversial teacher bonus program could be slipped into the annual budget for the second year in a row, Senate President Andy Gardiner said this evening he endorses that approach as a possible "appropriate" compromise with the House.
"It was in the implementing bill last year. I think it’s an issue that’s very important to the speaker-designate (Rep. Richard Corcoran), and it’s not a new issue," Gardiner, R-Orlando, said of the "Best & Brightest" program that awards bonuses to "highly effective" teachers based on their high school SAT/ACT scores.
"Maybe that’s the compromise -– where instead of codifying it in statute in Senate Bill 524, it’s a one-year implementation," Gardiner said, referencing a massive education bill that includes permanently extending the bonuses.
"I think that might be appropriate, but I’ll leave that to the chairs to see if they want to do that," he said.
Senate Appropriations Chairman Tom Lee, R-Brandon, and Corcoran, R-Land O'Lakes, are still negotiating the 2016-17 budget in conference committee. …
Gov. Rick Scott's relations with fellow Republicans who control the Legislature are at an all-time low, and as the 2016 session enters its last week, he's perilously close to becoming a lame duck with nearly three years left in his term.
With cool efficiency, Republicans have bludgeoned Scott's agenda, especially on his signature issue of jobs, and the worst may be yet to come. It's nothing personal, lawmakers insist.
Yet, the same House and Senate leaders who battled each other throughout 2015 are no longer feuding. Instead, they are united in their lack of enthusiasm for Scott's goals on taxes, spending and jobs. Other Scott priorities, such as confirming his surgeon general and endorsing a gambling compact he signed with the Seminole Tribe, are in jeopardy.
The legislators who feared Scott's veto pen last year are now almost daring him to use it as a sledgehammer. They are talking about calling a special session to override his line-item vetoes, an act of defiance and retribution that would weaken Scott and make his final two sessions even more miserable.
Scott associates are surprised by how things degenerated so quickly. …
Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Patrick Murphy assured a St. Petersburg audience Friday that he finds the prevalence of big money in politics "disgusting" and that he is determined to overturn the Citizens United Supreme Court ruling that opened to doors to unlimited donations by individuals and corporations.
But when asked by the Tampa Bay Times about the possibility of cutting off the biggest source of money flowing into his U.S. Senate race - his Republican father, who so far has given at least $200,000 - Murphy made it clear it did not appreciate the question.
"I hate the money in politics, and I hate the sort of gotcha questions too," said the Palm Beach County congressman, drawing applause from members of the Suncoast Tiger Bay Club.
Murphy, 32, is running against U.S. Rep. Alan Grayson, D-Orlando, for the Democratic Senate nomination and so far has raised far more money than anyone else in the race, including four Republicans. In addition to the $5.6-million he has raised directly for his senate campaign, a super PAC political committee, Floridians for a Strong Middle Class, backing his candidacy has raised more than $500,000, including $200,000 from his wealthy father. …
After rejecting legislation to require the greyhound racing industry to report animal injuries for the last four years, the Florida House approved an amendment Friday that requires track owners to disclose dog deaths, and is poised to pass the measure last week.
The bill is a concession to animal rights advocates, who have fought for the measure that has passed the Senate unanimously in the last two years, but has been entangled in pari-mutuel industry politics in the House.
After the gaming bill was declared dead by House leaders this week, supporters of the measure pushed to the measure added to a routine regulatory bill, said Rep. Jared Moskowitz, D-Coral Springs, the sponsor of the the amendment to HB 1167.
Under the amendment, any injury to a racing greyhound in Florida must be reported to the Division of Pari-mutuel Wagering within 7 days.
"This would be the first significant piece of greyhound protection legislation to ever pass the Florida legislature,'' said Carey M. Theil, executive Director of GREY2K USA Worldwide, which advocates for an end to dog racing. "We're hopeful lawmakers will send this good bill to the governor in the coming days."
Unlike other states, Florida’s greyhound industry does not have to report when dogs are injured as a result of racing or training. The measure imposes fines on track veterinarians who fail to report race-related injuries and follows a similar bill passed in 2013 that requires tracks to report greyhound deaths.Full Story
The Florida Senate on Friday passed a rewrite of divorce laws, changing formulas for alimony and child custody.
Under the change, a party in a divorce could try to change the terms of the alimony agreement if the other party’s income increases by 10 percent. It also sets a formula for calculating alimony and eliminates lifetime alimony payments.
The bill (SB 668) passed the Senate on a 24-14 vote and now goes to the House, where Speaker Steve Crisafulli said he plans to take up the Senate’s provision, sponsored by Sen. Kelli Stargel, R-Lakeland, and advocated by Sen. Tom Lee, R-Brandon.
Supporters say it’s a necessary shift, which would create more consistency in the courts during divorce cases.
“This is a very, very emotional thing. Going through a divorce is heart wrenching for all the parties,” Stargel said. “This was supposed to be empowering to people going through divorce.” …
Increasing price transparency and offering consumers more choices would do little to bring down health care costs.
That’s according to a study published Friday by the Health Care Cost Institute, which advocates free-market economics in health care.
The analysis found that so-called “shoppable” services – meaning costly procedures that can be scheduled in advance – accounted for only 7 percent of consumers’ out-of-pocket costs.
So even if consumers could generate savings by shopping around, it would only represent a small piece of the health-care-spending pie.
“Overall, the potential gains from the consumer price shopping aspect of price transparency efforts are modest,” the authors wrote in the report.
The study comes amid a heated debate in Tallahassee over how to stem exploding health care costs.
For the third time this session, Florida senators have declined to consider a parent-driven proposal to require elementary school recess statewide.
Although the measure passed the House last month by a near-unanimous vote, the bill by Sen. Alan Haysnever got a hearing in a Senate committee because education policy committee Chairman Sen. John Legg refused to take it up.
When Hays tried to amend his proposal on to a bill last week in committee, the Umatilla Republican was convinced by his party leaders to withdraw the proposal.
And then again today, his last-ditch attempt was thwarted by the full Senate.
Hays attempted again to amend his proposal on to a wide-ranging education bill (HB 7029) by Sen. Don Gaetz, R-Niceville -- this time, using slightly different language. Hays' original bill called for 20 minutes of recess a day, but he tweaked it in the amendment to propose 15 minutes of recess in both the morning and the afternoon.
As Hays' amendment was called up on the floor, Legg immediately called a point of order. (The Trinity Republican has called the recess proposal "a local issue" that doesn't merit a statewide mandate.) …
A last-ditch proposal to legalize daily fantasy sports games in Florida hit another major obstacle that may kill the idea for good in 2016.
Just moments before the Florida House was about to vote on a proposal from State Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fort Walton Beach, to allow companies like DraftKings and FanDuel to operate in Florida, he pulled the idea from consideration. Gaetz's action came moments after a lead negotiator on the state's gaming agreement with the Seminole Tribe of Florida warned the House that allowing Gaetz's legislation could have broad effects on state gambling policies.
Rep. Jose Felix Diaz, R-Miami, said if the courts were to rule that daily fantasy sports games are a form of gambling, it would open the door for the tribe to be able to offer new online gambling options in Florida, which are now prohibited.
"The Seminoles would be able to do online gaming such as black jack and poker," Diaz said. "There would be internet gaming in Florida."
After other House members took to the floor to express similar concerns that it could expand gaming in Florida, Gaetz announced he was pulling his proposal before a vote. …
"Well, for me, I’m never voting for Donald Trump in the Republican primary … That's the point that I was making."
The Fox News question was about supporting the nominee, not voting in the primary.
"I get it. I get the question," Rubio said when the radio host pressed him. "I’m going to vote for the nominee. It's not going to be Donald Trump. I don’t even want to think about it right now other than to say to you it's not going to happen."
A Broward judge dismissed a case that alleged GOP presidential candidates Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz were ineligible to run for president based on their citizenship.
Judge John Bowman told the plaintiff, Michael Voeltz, that he lacked standing in filing the case seeking to get Rubio and Cruz removed from the Florida March 15 primary ballot.
“You have the right to vote,’’ Bowman said in Friday morning’s court hearing in Broward County court.
The crux of the case: the meaning of the phrase “natural born citizen’’ and how it applies to the two Republican senators. Rubio was born in Miami in 1971 to Cuban immigrants who became citizens a few years later. Cruz was born in Canada to a Cuban-born father and American mother, who moved to Texas when Cruz was 4.
Lawyers for both — David Di Pietro for Cruz and Gabriela Prado for Rubio — argued that the candidates met the criteria in the U.S. Constitution to run for president. …
Puerto Rican Republicans cast primary ballots Sunday. So guess where Marco Rubio plans to spend Saturday night?
The Florida senator will rally supporters at 8 p.m. local time in San Juan.
The presidential campaign visit is a bit of a two-fer: Florida's Puerto Ricans, heavily concentrated around Orlando, vote just over a week later, on March 15.
As the Florida legislative session enters the home-stretch and Republican leaders in both chambers cut deals on key pieces of legislation, some senators are vocally disgruntled that they're being cut out of the process.
A frequent theme on the Senate floor the past couple of days has been push-back from members -- in both parties -- against agreements with the House, such as on fixing Florida's death penalty procedures or over expanding medical marijuana.
On those issues, in particular, some senators have sought amendments to the pending legislation, which were shot down after bill sponsors, in several cases, cited the House's support of the deal on the table.
"We don’t have to yield to the House in any way shape or form," Sen. Thad Altman, R-Rockledge, said Thursday during the death penalty debate.
"We don't have to capitulate to the House on this," Sen. Jeff Clemens, D-Lake Worth, said Friday during the medical marijuana debate.
A short while later on Friday, Sen. Jack Latvala, R-Clearwater, added: "The decisions shouldn't be made between two sponsors, two chairmen or two presiding officers." …
Florida voters returned more than 814,000 mail ballots through Thursday in advance of the upcoming presidential primary, and Pinellas County, the epicenter of voting by mail in the Sunshine State, is the statewide leader in returns among all 67 counties.
Pinellas voters have returned 92,032 ballots, with the two parties running almost neck-and-neck in returns. The county total includes 44,254 Republicans, 43,381 Democrats and 4,397 voters who are in minor parties or have no party affiliation.
Only party voters can cast ballots for president, but Pinellas also has non-partisan local elections in 11 cities on March 15 that are open to all voters.
Statewide, Republicans have returned 436,975 ballots through Thursday and Democrats have returned 359,130.
After Pinellas, the counties with the most returned ballots are Miami-Dade, with 83,838; Lee, 60,008; Hillsborough, 51,799; and Broward, 48,371.
Counties have mailed nearly 1.8 million ballots statewide, and Pinellas also leads in that category with 212,223.
Get 5 updates from the Tampa Bay Times' political team including Adam Smith and Alex Leary emailed to you Monday — Friday at 3 p.m. Plus, Jebio a daily news nugget on Jeb Bush or Marco Rubio, so you'll be the first to know when news breaks.
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For Florida political news today, the Buzz is your can't-miss-it source. Tampa Bay Times writers offer the latest in Florida politics, the Florida Legislature and the Rick Scott administration. Keep in mind: This is a public forum sponsored and maintained by the Tampa Bay Times. When you post comments here, what you say becomes public and could appear in the newspaper. You are not engaging in private communication with candidates or Times staffers.
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