Category — Florida

Part, probably, 1024 – they don’t want to pay, and the legislature passes laws to help them do it.

From the Miami Herald: Sinkholes spur debate in Legislature

TALLAHASSEE — Complaining about fraud, frivolous claims and people who spend insurance payouts on items other than home repairs, insurance companies have convinced lawmakers to free them from providing comprehensive sinkhole coverage.

But look at the numbers and it’s clear the recent increase in sinkhole claims has less to do with fraud and more to do with an increase in the number of sinkholes because of weather, geologists say.

This is the same crap the insurance companies used to get “tort reform” passed in Florida. The insurance lobbyists lied to the lege and told them that medical malpractice insurance was high because of “frivolous law suits”, and the lege passed a law to make it even more difficult to sue doctors for malpractice. Of course, it had no effect on the cost of malpractice insurance, because the settlement of law suits has never been a major expense, and premiums were going up because the insurance companies lost money at the Wall Street gaming tables.

This time they don’t want to pay out if less than your entire house is swallowed by a sink hole. Sink hole coverage is required by some banks to get a mortgage, so home owners are screwed again, paying for insurance policies that won’t pay off when there’s a problem.

Insurance companies exist to make money, not to protect policy holders.

Fred Grimm of the Miami Herald has a column that highlights the basic problem with Florida’s legislature: Ethics stops at Legislature door

The Florida Legislature hasn’t been so enthused about ethical niceties. Until now.

Senate Bill 1180 would finally get tough on “soliciting, or demanding money, gifts, or donations.” The bill mandates honest disclosure of personal finances.

SB 1180 provides much of what political reformers have sought . Except the strictures don’t apply to politicians. Just roadside beggars.

Our ethically challenged legislature has fashioned a code of ethics for panhandlers.

The leadership of the legislature spends the other ten months of the fighting court cases over their financial dealings, but they want the homeless to have more moral fiber than they do. If you doubt that, read the high points of the antics of one of the leading lights of the legislature in Fred’s column.

The Orlando Sentinel reports that Courts get funding reprieve. Won’t be shuttered.

Florida Supreme Court Chief Justice Charles T. Canady and Gov. Rick Scott’s Office reached a breakthrough agreement this morning, meaning courts statewide won’t have to shut down four days next week and for two weeks in May.

The agreement authorizes a loan that will fund circuit and county courts operations, meaning hundreds of employees statewide will not be forced out of work temporarily.

Just yesterday, it was feared that the budget shortfall — estimated at about $50 million — would mean exactly that plus three weeks of trial and court delays.

Here is what you need to know to understand this issue:

The affected courts are funded by the filing fees, and when the foreclosure cases were discovered to be less than fully honest and aboveboard, the filing fee income dried up. The court has set up a special system to try foreclosures, and now it is stuck paying for a system that was no longer needed, and not generating any revenue.

The system once had a “rainy day fund”, but the legislature needed money to cover the deficit without raising taxes a while back. The court thought the fund was loaned to the legislature, but the legislature considered it a gift, and now is “loaning” money to the courts.

Florida has no stable form of funding for anything in government, and the legislature is draining every fund to cover the general revenue gap and not looking at taxes, except to cut them.

Yes, every year at this time sane and sober people need to fade into the background as the “lords of misrule” take over and display their total disrespect for the norms of society. They posture and engage in outrageous behavior in hopes of being gifted with trinkets from those they feel are their “betters”.

… What? Mardi Gras? My heavens, no! The Florida legislative session starts today. It certainly doesn’t have the sanity and decorum of Mardi Gras. Mardi Gras is a day – this insanity goes on for two months.

The Local Puppy Trainer had an interesting little piece about a local government contract: County tries to save money in sewage plant demolition

FORT WALTON BEACH — Okaloosa County Water and Sewer Director Jeff Littrell has proposed using in-house crews to demolish the old Garnier’s wastewater treatment plant on Essex Road in Ocean City.

The move could save the county “hundreds of thousands of dollars,” Littrell said Tuesday.

The county had budgeted about $1.5 million for the demolition to be completed by a private contractor.

“We think it’ll come in significantly lower than that,” Littrell said.

Littrell goes on to note that there are massive amounts of recyclable metals in the building, including large motors that the county might be able to sell as used. If the motors can’t be sold that way, they still contain huge copper coils. He also mentioned the stainless steel piping and fixtures in the facility that are premium recyclables.

Poor Mr. Littrell just doesn’t get it – not giving out that contract will cost the county commissioners campaign contributions, and I have no doubt that the selected contractor has already sold the recyclables and is just waiting to pick them up to pad their profit [no doubt, charging the county the cost of hauling them off to a construction debris landfill].

Sure the water department can do the job cheaper, but they aren’t as “efficient” as the private sector.

Note the wording of that Republican mantra: “The private sector is more efficient than the government.” They don’t say “cheaper”, they say “more efficient”. I’ve seen a lot of attempts at privatizing government functions over the years, but I have yet to see one that provides the same level of service as the government at a lower cost beyond the second year.

The Miami Herald reports that the Republican Florida Senate is not happy: Scott rebuked by 26 senators over high-speed rail funding

From Washington to Tallahassee, Florida lawmakers scrambled Thursday to save $2.4 billion in federal money for high-speed rail that Gov. Rick Scott rejected.
…

“The cart’s in a ditch right now and we’ve got to figure out a way if we can all pull it out together,” said U.S. Rep. John Mica, an Orlando area Republican who is chairman of the powerful House transportation committee.

In Tallahassee, a veto-proof majority of the Florida Senate rebuked Scott in a letter that urged the federal government to give the state the money Scott has refused.

[Read more →]

The Orlando Sentinel reports on the latest stupid Tea Party gesture by Florida’s governor:

Florida’s congressional delegation, state officials and Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer are pushing back against Gov. Rick Scott’s decision Wednesday to reject $2.4 billion in federal stimulus money to build a high-speed train between Orlando and Tampa.

“This is a century-type decision that needs to be vetted,” Dyer said. “I don’t think it was given a fair hearing.”

U.S. Department of Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood intends to meet either in person or by phone Friday with Florida elected officials, likely including Democratic U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson and Reps. John Mica, R-Winter Park, and Corrine Brown, D-Jacksonville, to discuss ways of keeping the project alive even as California, New York and Washington state offered to take some of the money.

Scott kept telling the peasants that he had the “proven track record for creating jobs” and so far he wants to eliminate about 7,500 state employees and this action wiped out thousands of construction jobs. With an official unemployment rate of over 12%, he is not moving in the right direction.

Another little problem is that this train has been in the works for years and the legislature has already appropriated money to cover some of the expenses. The Republican leaders in the Lege are not happy with little Scotty, who apparently doesn’t understand his job, or the separation of powers.

It has been rumored that “The Mouse” wanted the train. Messing with “The Mouse” is as bad as saying you hate orange juice or like Fidel Castro. This could get messy.

McClatchy reports on another Scott outrage: Florida governor’s plan to ax pill database alarms police

MIAMI — Florida Gov. Rick Scott wants to eliminate a computer system aimed at curbing the illegal sale of prescription drugs at storefront pain clinics, a move that alarmed narcotics investigators, drug-treatment advocates and some lawmakers.

Just two years ago, state legislators approved the creation of a prescription drug monitoring program that would allow doctors to review the drug purchases of their patients, to prevent patients from seeking narcotics from multiple doctors — a practice known as “doctor shopping.”

The Legislature approved the measure in response to an explosion of storefront pain clinics across South Florida, making the region the main supplier of black-market pills across Appalachia and the East Coast.

Now the governor wants to erase the database before it even gets off the ground. A proposed bill included in the budget package the governor unveiled on Monday would eliminate the database — even though it won’t be financed with state money.

Get real people – the man was CEO of the corporation that ran up the biggest Medicare/Medicaid fine ever imposed, and you expected him to OK a curb on the rampant abuse and criminal behavior in the South Florida medical community? That data base threatened his friends and peers, so, of course he axed it. Next thing you know people will be surprised when he reduces the ability of the state to investigate Medicaid fraud.

The Miami Herald reports on the latest outrage: Lawmakers demand Florida budget details from Gov. Scott

Gov. Rick Scott’s bold budget plan wasn’t even 24 hours old Tuesday before state legislators started ripping it apart and leveling a familiar charge against the governor: He wasn’t forthcoming with details.

Whether it was his billions in cuts to Medicaid or to schools, legislators said they weren’t sure what Scott specifically wanted to do in his budget, which would further widen a $3.6 billion shortfall next year due to nearly $2.4 billion in proposed tax cuts.

The criticisms and tough questions weren’t limited to Democrats; Scott’s fellow Republicans were skeptical of what many thought were skimpy details in his $65.9 billion budget.

The bipartisan concerns underscored a growing sense in the Legislature that Scott’s proposal is rooted in unrealistic political calculations, not the subtle calculus it takes to run the nation’s fourth-most populous state. In the House K-12 budget committee on Tuesday morning, eyebrows arched and heads shook as lawmakers tried digesting Scott’s plan to slash state-paid per-student spending by 10 percent.

Details, the Lege “don’t need no stinkin’ details”. CEOs don’t provide details, they just present the broad outlines of what they want the “corporation” to do, and underlings take care of the details.  He doesn’t seem to understand the link between “taxes” and the “revenue” side of the ledger.

As long as you refuse to accept that the problem is one of low demand, and keep messing around on the supply side, things will get worse, not better.

The Miami Herald reports that Florida governor Rick Scott moves to delay redistrict plan

TALLAHASSEE — Two voter-approved constitutional amendments requiring the Legislature to draw political districts along nonpartisan standards could be jeopardized by one of Gov. Rick Scott’s first acts.

Three days after Scott took office, the state quietly withdrew its request that the U.S. Justice Department approve Amendments 5 and 6 as required under the Voting Rights Act of 1965, effectively stalling their implementation just as a Republican-led lawsuit challenges their constitutionality.

At the time, Scott was recruiting as his top elections advisor Kurt Browning, who actively campaigned against the two ballot measures last fall while not working for the state. Browning’s spokesman said he had no role in the decision.

When Republicans talk about the “will of the people”, they don’t include people who disagree with them. There is nothing more disagreeable to Florida Republicans than having election districts based on something other than party affiliation. They spent a lot of time and effort ensuring that every Republican vote is worth two non-Republican votes by drawing election districts, and they don’t want to give up that advantage.

When State senator Durell Peaden, MD, Ob-Gyn, Esq., NRA, GOP of North Okaloosa County finally had to leave the legislature because of term limits, I had hopes that the frenzy of insane firearms laws in Florida was finally finished.

I thought that surely there would be a end after this tragedy:

Joshua Cartwright, 28, shot deputies Warren “Skip” York and Burt Lopez just before 1 p.m. at the Shoal River Gun Club, according to the Sheriff’s Office. The deputies were pronounced dead at Sacred Heart Hospital in Pensacola a short time later.

But, no, the voters of North Okaloosa have elected another gun nut, Greg Evers, to the Florida Senate, and he wants guns on campuses.

Attaturk has the bad news on Evers and Rep. Jason Brodeur who wants to make it a felony for medical professionals to ask about guns.

I wonder if Mr. Brodeur has considered the implications of what he has proposed to the investigation of assaults and murders?

The Pensacola News Journal has a local story about one of the “minor” problems with out-sourcing business functions: Sheriff, state investigate payroll company AES

The Escambia County Sheriff’s Office and State Attorney’s Office have launched an investigation into a local payroll company and its owner.

The Pensacola News Journal reported on Jan. 13 that some payroll checks from AES, which provides payroll services for businesses, could not be cashed due to insufficient funds.

If you think these guys possibly absconding with the payroll is “the” problem, you haven’t been in business. “The” problem is that they probably haven’t been making your withholding payments to the Feds, or payments to the state or local governments. Believe me, angry employees is a minor problem to the hell your life becomes when the IRS takes “an interest” in your business for failure to pay withholding.

Payroll is a major PITA for a business, and I know it would be wonderful to just pay someone else to do it – write one check and forget about it – but if they mess up, you are still liable.

The Miami Herald reports that Gov. Scott appoints corporate executive to lead Fla. growth management agency

TALLAHASSEE – Gov. Rick Scott has appointed an executive of one of Florida’s largest land development companies to oversee the state department charged with managing growth.

Billy Buzzett, vice president of the St. Joe Co., will take over the Department of Community Affairs, the state’s land planning and community development agency that Scott is eager to overhaul.

Like Florida doesn’t have hundreds if not thousands of surplus and vacant houses, offices, and condos, so let’s make even easier for developers to build more to “generate jobs” in the midst of the foreclosure mess. The Republican policies created the problems, so the voters of Florida elected even more Republicans to fix them. The voters got the government they deserve.

But you take what is offered.

Lucy Morgan of the St. Petersburg Times continues her coverage of the Taj Mahal courthouse

TALLAHASSEE — Chief Judge Paul M. Hawkes resigned Friday from the top job at the 1st District Court of Appeal, just a few weeks before moving into a new courthouse critics have dubbed the “Taj Mahal” and “Taj MaHawkes.”

Hawkes, 53, who did not resign from the court, would not discuss his reason for resigning as chief judge before his term was up June 30, 2011.

Hawkes offered his resignation at an emergency conference with his fellow judges Friday morning. In a one-sentence letter later in the day, court clerk Jon Wheeler notified the Supreme Court and other district court of appeal judges of the election of Judge Robert T. Benton II to replace Hawkes.
…

Hawkes says the building, nearing completion about six miles east of the Capitol, is dignified and appropriate for a courthouse. He contends state legislators contributed to the escalated costs by requiring that the court build an environmentally friendly structure.
…

He [Hawkes] also has been in a dispute with the Supreme Court over the use of some of the space in the new building. [Supreme Court Chief Justice Charles T.] Canady is exploring using some of the new courthouse to house administrative employees who work for the entire court system and are now housed in rental quarters at a cost of about $287,000 a year.

He’s still a judge, but he did lose the top spot. He is a classic bureaucratic empire builder with an unlimited sense of entitlement. He is also a classic deficit hawk – the little people need to tighten their belts so he can have mahogany paneling and granite counter tops. The crack about “environmentally friendly” is typical because he doesn’t care what the utility bill is, and he certainly doesn’t want to share space with anyone’s “peasants” but his own.