Sierra Club Report #2 12/4/01

ACLU legislative update

Sierra Club's Tallahassee Report on the legislative special session

Democratic plan to restore budget for public education, health care, public safety

THE MESSAGE HASN'T CHANGED - THERE ARE OPTIONS TO CUTTING BASIC SERVICES FOR  LOW-INCOME FLORIDIANS

ACLU alert for Special Session "C"

Tampa Tribune legislative review

Florida Legislature Webpage - Sessions "B" and "C"- State Budget Reductions

Florida House Democratic caucus website

 (Top) 

News Clips:

Today's clips here

Bush agrees to cut $1-billion in budget
Dismissing criticism from opponents, Bush says the cuts are fair. Some, however, say tax breaks should go first.

Bush signs off on nearly $1 billion in cuts
Budget battle an 'intense effort,' he says
Officially closing out a strange and difficult fall, Gov. Jeb Bush on Thursday signed into law close to $1 billion in cuts to the state budget brought on by a recession made worse by terrorism's effect on Florida tourism.

Gov. Bush approves $1 billion in cuts - Governor portrays spending reductions as `responsible' -- TALLAHASSEE -- Three years of economic bliss officially came to an end for Florida on Thursday as Gov. Jeb Bush signed into law $1 billion in spending cuts for schools, social services and other state programs. Bush used a brief news conference to portray the cuts as ``responsible'' in the midst of ``very difficult times.''

Bush signs $1B spending cut 
Gov. Jeb Bush signed budget cuts of about $1 billion into law Thursday.

12/9/01

• Budget problems aren't over by a long shot
  Florida lawmakers last week solemnly celebrated surmounting a $1 billion hump in the state budget. Unfortunately, the speeches and handshakes lay in the shadow of a taller peak on the horizon.
• The sound of spin
  Despite efforts in Tallahassee to portray last week's scaled-down budget in the best possible light, the cuts will hurt, leaving unmet many of the state's needs.
• Dáte: Florida, Oceania sister states
  By S.V. Dáte, Palm Beach Post Capitol Bureau
  TALLAHASSEE -- When is a budget cut actually a budget increase? When it threatens your outlook for reelection.-- Such seems to be the collective realization of most Florida Republican officeholders in Tallahassee who, in the waning days of the just-finished special session, have adopted Ministry of Truth tactics from George Orwell's 1984.
  There, the rulers of Oceania decreed that war was peace, freedom was slavery and ignorance was strength.
  Here, the rulers of Florida similarly decree that a smaller budget is actually larger, that less money per student is more, and that, even if it were less, less actually is more...
• Watching the Legislature, our troops shouldn't be proud
  TALLAHASSEE -- Words that failed Florida as a tourist slogan, ". . . The rules are different here," now fit the current management of our House of Representatives, where venerable rules and traditions are ignored at the whim of the leadership.

12/8/01

• Session tackled other issues
  Lawmakers focused on terrorism, a building code and their own pay cut as well as the budget.
• Turkeys survive budget crunch
  Many member projects are able to keep their funding while education and health care programs take cuts to plug the deficit.

12/7/01

• Failing readiness test 
  A society that fails to adequately invest in its people will be caught off guard for social and economic challenges. That's why social service and education advocates are so alarmed by lawmakers' budget cuts this week. National rankings in both place Florida in the middle of the pack at best, in some cases close to the bottom. The ramifications include a populace unready, as one recent report noted, to compete in the 21st-century knowledge economy, and a growing gap between the haves and have-nots. Until we make a sincere commitment, our preparedness in those areas - as in fighting terrorism - will continue to be lacking.
• A little maturity required - Upon what meat doth this our Caesar feed, that he is grown so great? -- William Shakespeare, Julius Caesar.--  Somebody needs a spanking, but it's not over football this time. Now that Florida's Capitol Police are finally in a professional command, the improved security is too much for Speaker Tom Feeney and some other spoiled darlings in the House of Representatives.
• Editorial: Purging election reform
  The Palm Beach Post
  Legislators who studied the 2000 election looking for ways to avoid another national embarrassment saw the need to overhaul the state's flawed voter database. So lawmakers gave the secretary of state $2 million and instructions to work with one...
• State cuts $1-billion
  TALLAHASSEE -- Teens won't learn as much about the perils of smoking. Juvenile probation officers will have to monitor more kids. County school districts and health departments must get by with less help from the state.
• State OKs balancing act
  Florida lawmakers voted to cut $1 billion in state spending Thursday, closing out a 10-day special budget session but failing to dispel dark clouds over the state's economy.
• With budget healed, campaigning begins
  TALLAHASSEE -- As state lawmakers applied a $1-billion tourniquet around a bleeding budget Thursday, the face of Florida's political future was plainly visible.
• Miami-Dade schools face budgets cuts of more than $81 million
  The sobering impact of the state budget cuts jolted the Miami-Dade school district as the superintendent unveiled options to save $81.2 million in the midst of a school year.
• McKay ready to push reform of sales tax
  Other Republicans indifferent about plan With the budget-cutting session behind him, Senate President John McKay on Thursday asked his Republican colleagues for help in tackling his next challenge - rebuilding the state's tax system.
• Republicans unite as special session ends
  HOW LOCAL LAWMAKERS VOTED Rep. Loranne Ausley , D-Tallahassee - N Rep. Will Kendrick , D-Carrabelle - Y Rep. Bev Kilmer , R-Quincy - N Rep. Curtis Richardson , D-Tallahassee - Y Sen. Al Lawson , D-Tallahassee - N Sen. Richard Mitchell , D-Jasper - N
• Everglades on hold?
  With projections for next year's budget revenues looking equally as bad, if not worse, than the current ones, nothing will be safe from the Legislature, including Everglades funding.

12/6/01

• Bush's tax cut wins delay despite several GOP nays
  TALLAHASSEE -- Lawmakers handed Gov. Jeb Bush the delay he sought in a controversial tax cut Wednesday, but it came without the support of some of the House's most conservative members.
• House delays intangibles tax cut
  House Republicans rallied behind Gov. Jeb Bush on Wednesday and delayed their prized cut in the taxes Floridians pay on stocks and bonds. The action, which passed 102-17, is one of several measures to patch a $1.3 billion hole in the budget.
• Editorial: Stiffing the schools
  The Palm Beach Post
  Three area legislators made their choice Wednesday: Another tax break for the wealthiest 4.5 percent of Floridians matters more than $130 million for school districts. The House voted 102-17 to delay the third cut...
• State's $1 billion budget pinch could get tighter  For all the pain local schools and state agencies may feel from the $1 billion in cuts Florida lawmakers are expected to approve Thursday, consider this: It could get worse.
• A vote for a new tax
  As promised, the Legislature has voted to delay the previously approved intangibles tax cut, thereby saving $128-million to apply to the budget deficit. The margins of 37-2 in the Senate and 102-17 in the House were impressive, considering that it could be called -- as some did -- a vote for a new tax.
• House passes security bills
  Florida lawmakers voted Wednesday to make it easier for police to eavesdrop on suspected terrorists' conversations and harder for terrorists to target the food, water and medicine supply. In its first major legislative response to the law enforcement questions raised by the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, the House passed a package of bills aimed at making it easier for law enforcement to target and convict people of planning terrorist activities. The bills included the first definition of terrorism in the state's criminal law.

12/5/01

• Schools seek flexibility in funding
  Districts want to spend earmarked money as they see fit to ease the strain of budget cuts. Lawmakers think they can help.
• Another Tallahassee deal
  If the Legislature has a deal, it isn't a good one for the universities, schools, the elderly, prisoners trying to kick a drug habit and people who have had their citrus trees eradicated as part of the state's citrus-canker program.
• State Budget Reductions Will Exacerbate Social Needs - The shifting of resources and tapping of trust funds may blunt the impacts for a time, but these cuts ultimately will be harshly felt. Schools, health care, law enforcement, transportation, programs for the elderly and many other state services will be affected. The budget is certain to become a major campaign issue next year.
• Protecting pork
  If there was any doubt that legislators view the State University System, first and foremost, as a lucrative source of pork and patronage, Senate President John McKay, R-Bradenton, certainly dispelled it this week.-- Florida Senate President John McKay used the power of his office to block plans by IFAS to close an outdated research facility in his district.
• Caucus bristles at Bush's tax deal
  The loosely organized Freedom Caucus tightens ranks against a delay in the intangibles tax cut, which the governor engineered.
• Security bills up for final vote
  A slate of bills designed to improve the state's ability to fight terrorism and restrict public access to potentially dangerous state records sailed through its last committee Tuesday, headed for a final House vote today.
• House, Senate at odds over the Capitol Police
  Safeguarding thousands of state employees, politicians, lobbyists and tourists in Florida's Capitol is one thing. Easy access to after-hours watering holes on Adams Street is something else.
• Bill addresses union disputes
  Apparently still stinging from having their actions questioned by a circuit judge last year, lawmakers are rewriting the rules covering how they handle disputes with the unions representing state employees. The House State Administration Committee created a bill (PCB SA 02-01) on Tuesday that would give the Legislature more freedom to jump into a dispute between state workers and the governor much sooner than they are now allowed.
• Reserve fund created for crises like this
  It's reassuring that legislative leaders and Gov. Jeb Bush realize that another fiasco like last month's special session is simply not acceptable. So, relatively speaking, their pending agreement to cut the state budget by about $1 billion and assault education spending a little less aggressively than had been feared is a painful but constructive step.
• Cuts Hurting State's Future
  South Florida school districts have received the bad news, and the only thing good about it is that it isn't as bad as it could have been. At least not yet.
• Schools sort out damage
  As expected, Florida legislators turned to the public schools, universities and community colleges to help balance the state budget

12/4/01

• Editorial: No thought behind cuts to balance state budget
  The governor can say what he wants, but the revised state budget shortchanges Floridians and darkens their future. -- The Legislature will vote Thursday on more than $1 billion in spending cuts to bring the budget back into balance after the slow economy collided with $1.6 billion in tax cuts passed since 1999. Gov. Bush chose to say: "We in Florida have been successful in meeting the priority needs of our people and preparing for a brighter future." He's wrong.
• Fine me? Abolish you!
  Six of the nine members of the Florida Elections Commission are registered as lobbyists. For them to simultaneously sit in judgment of a member of the Legislature is an obvious conflict of interest.
• Senator absent, but votes are cast
  TALLAHASSEE -- Sen. Alex Diaz de la Portilla's absence from his duties Monday left his South Florida constituents with no representation, and history might never have known the difference.
• Florida workers eye of age-bias case
  WASHINGTON - With layoffs expected at many firms hit by recession, the Supreme Court said Monday it will decide whether older workers may sue over cutbacks that seem to hit them hardest.
• Redistricting maps still in early stages
  Learn more about redistricting and look at current and proposed maps at www.floridaredistricting.org/index.html Please see CHANGE, 2A House leads Senate in drawing up new voting districts Leon County could lose one of its state senators, but it could gain another representative in Congress. State House seats could shift, sending Rep. Loranne Ausley - who represents the more affluent northeast Leon County - to Rep. Curtis Richardson's south-side district and vice versa.
• First peek at budget comes
  Schools face tough times ahead as most are forced to spend from reserves. Senate passes a slew of security bills. Prison contractors surprised by cuts Universities breathed a sigh of relief, state workers whistled in the graveyard and prison contractors suppressed their frustration as Floridians got their first look at the state budget Monday.
• Senate votes for delay in tax cut
  TALLAHASSEE -- The Senate voted Monday to postpone for 18 months the next cut in a state tax on investments, a move that will leave an estimated $130-million in the treasury and avoid deeper budget cuts.
• Cautious use of emergency fund
  A visitor accustomed to rational government would find it hard to understand why Florida is imposing more than $1-billion in midyear budget cuts on its schools and other essential services without using a single penny from its $941-million emergency fund. Perhaps the recession might have been foreseen when the budget was enacted last spring, but not the terrorism of Sept. 11. If that doesn't qualify as an emergency, what would?
• Schools face tough times
  State's cuts force reserve spending School districts say they will survive the state's plan to cut $309 million from their budgets but contend it won't be easy. Most will have to spend their reserve funds. Many already have canceled summer school. And several are looking at cuts for next year amid worries that state funding will be rolled back to 1999-2000 levels.
• Lawmakers cut deeper into schools' spending
  By Mary Ellen Flannery, Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
  In their second swipe at slicing state spending, Tallahassee legislators nearly doubled the amount of money that the Palm Beach County School District will lose this year. School officials said Monday they still don't know...
• Senate takes aim at terror
  Spurred by fear of terrorist attacks, the Florida Senate voted Monday to expand the legal definition of terrorism, to stiffen criminal penalties for terrorist crimes, to give police new powers to wiretap cell phone calls and to keep some public records secret.
• Senate passes security bills but limits records measure
  State senators passed a slew of security bills Monday but ditched a proposal to let law enforcement officials seek court orders to close public records on a case-by-case basis. The Senate limited the scope of another public records bill concerning drug stockpiles before sending it and 10 other measures to the House.
• Florida Senate backs tighter security laws - TALLAHASSEE -- Trying to keep controversy to a minimum, the state Senate passed several security-related measures Tuesday, but never took up a proposal that would have let state police secretly petition a judge to seal public records.
• State senators pass bill allowing police to listen in on cell phones
  TALLAHASSEE · Spurred by fear of terrorist attacks, the Florida Senate voted Monday to expand the legal definition of terrorism, to stiffen criminal penalties for terrorist crimes, to give police new powers to wiretap cell phone calls and to keep some public records secret.
• Senate lets public records bill die
  TALLAHASSEE -- A controversial state Senate proposal to let police and a single judge close court and police records on a case-by-case basis in the name of fighting terrorism never came up for a vote Monday.
• Dispelling a myth
  Over the years, lawmakers have realized that sending minor drug users to prison only exposes them to hardened criminals and increases the likelihood of future felonies.

12/3/01

• New voter rolls arouse more fears
  An accurate and reliable voter database has eluded Florida. Now another outside company is hired to design a system.
• State leaders agree on budget deal
  Cuts to public school education about $309M
  Oh, what difference a month makes. With a handshake and smiles Sunday afternoon, Florida legislative leaders sealed a deal that cuts the state budget by about $1 billion.
• Schools to feel squeeze in plan to cut budget - Florida House Speaker Tom Feeney and Senate President John McKay unveil a compromise plan to cut the state's public school funding by $309 million.
• Handshake seals deal on state budget cuts
  House and Senate leaders agree on the final details of more than $1-billion in cuts and say this plan will stick.
• More shenanigans
  Our position: The Florida Senate is at it again this week in its assault on public records.

• Legislators ready final budget cuts - TALLAHASSEE - Trying to avoid spending another December in Tallahassee, lawmakers are more than ready to pass a $1 billion package of bugdet cuts this week and go home.

12/2/01

• New voter rolls arouse more fears
  TALLAHASSEE -- Florida's unreliable statewide voter database sparked ugly complaints after the 2000 election. Hundreds of people said they were told they could not vote, and some fought to get their names off "scrub lists" of supposed felons. 
• Dispute brewing over state voter data base contract - TALLAHASSEE, Fla. - An overhaul of the database of voters that proved faulty during the presidential election has sparked new controversy because it was awarded to a private company instead of the state's court clerks, as intended by the Legislature.
• A shameful retreat on arsenic
  The arrogance and greed that have come to grip the Florida Legislature were on full display Tuesday in Tallahassee. There, lawmakers siding with big-business lobbyists killed a bill to outlaw arsenic-laced wood from Florida's public playgrounds.
• More shenanigans
  Our position: The Florida Senate is at it again this week in its assault on public records.
• The Florida Senate, historically a tight-knit fraternity that rarely airs its dirty laundry, is swirling in a soap opera of personal feuds, Machiavellian maneuverings and political intrigue... Some say privately they have heard from Bush emissaries, gently suggesting that good job opportunities await them in Tallahassee or Washington if they help Webster.
• State's drug czar says his budget will rebound from lawmakers' cutbacks
  By Scott McCabe, Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
  While Florida lawmakers slash nearly $1 billion in social services this weekend, the state's drug czar Saturday reassured Palm Beach County's rehab community that his budget will remain virtually unscathed.
• Education with all the trimmings
  School budget cuts cause headaches for Legislature
  Whether to let schools use construction money to pay for day-to-day operations was the main sticking point Saturday as budget negotiators continued trimming about $1 billion from the state spending plan.
• Schools face budget sting
  House and Senate negotiators on Saturday resolved most of their differences over how to trim more than $1 billion in state spending, leaving only a handful of thorny issues for the top leaders to hammer out today.

• Schools brace for state cuts -No one can pinpoint how state budget cutbacks will creep into the classroom, but educators and parents statewide know it's only a matter of time. Escambia County K-12 schools could lose a minimum of $5.2 million, and Santa Rosa schools could lose at least $2.6 million, depending on the special legislative session's outcome.

• Cutbacks will cost university millions
  The House and Senate agreed to cut $93 million in funding for public universities.
• The food chain
  The Florida Legislature is getting ready to hack more than a billion dollars out of the state budget and they're hoping that voters will take their anger out next year on locally elected school board members.
• Court: Ban on candidate gifts unlawful
  Nonprofit group said law illegally barred hopefuls' private donations MIAMI - A federal appeals court overturned a Florida law banning political candidates from contributing personal or campaign funds to nonprofit groups, saying it violates the groups' right to free speech and free association.
• Future without reform ensures second-rate state
  Inside Lewis Carroll's rabbit hole, Alice's view of reality lacks common sense. She's living in a dream. Too many of Florida's political leaders are living in their own rabbit hole - Gov. Jeb Bush highest among them. 
• Safe driving record not required
  ST. PETERSBURG -- Carl Lester Byrd had a DUI accident in 1984: His car struck and killed a pedestrian. He tested positive at work this year for marijuana, and he has eight recent tickets and three at-fault accidents

12/01/01

• Teachers' insurance a boondoggle
  When Gov. Jeb Bush said new programs should be the first ones sacrificed to the deficit, did he really mean it? Not exactly. On Nov. 19, his Department of Management Services awarded a $1.2-million contract for professional liability insurance for teachers, a new program, even though the Legislature had voted in the first special session last month to rescind the appropriation. In the new special session, only the Senate still wants to kill it. The House voted 68 to 50 to defeat an amendment aimed at using the money to restore deep cuts in programs for deaf, blind and developmentally disabled children. Merely seven Republicans voted for the children. Bush's press office says he regards the insurance program as an aid to teacher recruitment and retention.All the same, it's a boondoggle; the Senate should hang tough. 
  Most teachers already have liability insurance as a union benefit. The state-paid insurance was sponsored by Republican legislators whose transparent motive was to weaken the union. Surely there are better uses for the state's money.
• Accord near in budget battle
  Please see SESSION, 2A House, Senate likely to find compromise by end of weekend House and Senate budget negotiators worked into the night Friday trying to agree on about $1 billion in cuts to the state's current spending plan.
• 2 sides near deal on budget
  The House and Senate tentatively agree to slightly more than $1-billion in cuts for the rest of the fiscal year.
• Senate slashes $1 billion, sets up talks with HouseThe Florida Senate agreed Friday to slash nearly $1 billion in spending from this year's $48 billion state budget, setting the stage for weekend deal-making with the House.
• Lawmakers nearly done cutting budget -Florida's Republican-led Legislature rushed toward agreement Friday on budget cuts to fix the state's $1.3 billion revenue shortfall.
• Senate faces tough decisions on state budget cuts - TALLAHASSEE -- South Florida homeowners may still receive compensation for trees felled for citrus canker eradication, but it won't be as much as the Legislature promised last spring.

11/30/01

• An easy fix for 3 issues: trim Legislature
  CAPITOL CORNER
  Here's a way to cut the budget, promote Gov. Jeb Bush's vision for a streamlined e-government and make next year's redistricting chore a heck of a lot easier. Let's downsize the Legislature.
• Senator wants elections rules panel abolished
  TALLAHASSEE -- Three weeks ago, Miami Sen. Alex Diaz de la Portilla was hit with one of the largest fines in Florida history for violating campaign finance laws. Now, he has filed a bill to abolish the commission that fined him.
• The House passes tight budget plan
  Some social services and schools would be hurting
  State probation officers would keep their jobs, but schools and social services would have to tighten their belts under a spending plan Florida House members approved Thursday.
• House's budget cuts exceed $1-billion
  TALLAHASSEE -- The Florida House of Representatives cut more than $1-billion from education, health care and public safety Thursday, inching closer to an agreement with the Senate on final cuts.
• Senate faces tough decisions on state budget cuts - TALLAHASSEE -- South Florida homeowners may still receive compensation for trees felled for citrus canker eradication, but it won't be as much as the Legislature promised last spring.-- Amid a complex, $1.2 billion state budget-cutting plan the House approved Thursday, Rep. Carlos Lacasa, R-Miami, resurrected the controversial program with a compromise: Instead of $100 per tree, Lacasa is proposing that homeowners receive a $100 Wal-Mart voucher for the first one and $55 for each one after that -- the same amount commercial citrus grove owners are entitled to under federal programs.
• Where the cuts are
  These are highlights of the more than $1-billion in the Florida House's proposed cuts to the current year's state budget. The deepest cuts are in education, which accounts for 53 percent of all state spending paid for with general taxes. The House and the Senate have slightly different approaches.
• House passes budget-cutting plan - TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — The state House voted Thursday to cut $1 billion from the budget, slashing spending on education, public safety and health care for the poor and elderly in the face of a slumping economy.- The vote was 78-41, nearly along party lines with the Republican majority supporting it and Democrats voting against it.
• GOP strives for harmony in cutting Florida budget
  Even as they chop more than $1 billion from schools, social services and other programs, Florida's Republican political leaders are striving hard to be inconspicuous.
• Partisan budget war heating up
  Laying the groundwork for next year's election-year political wars, Democrats are trying to ignite public anger over education and social-services cuts and are hoping to separate themselves from unpopular cuts by backing alternatives and tax-increase possibilities.
• Secrecy can't be tolerated this recklessly
  Legislators such as Rep. Dudley Goodlette who are in such a hurry to close access to public records need to keep in mind why we are fighting a war in Afghanistan.  
•  Domestic anti-government groups must be monitored
  Like other groups on the racist, anti-government, lunatic fringe, the Aryan Nations celebrated the Sept. 11 atrocities.
• State Senate wants list of illegal aliensTALLAHASSEE -- 
  TALLAHASSEE -- As Florida law-enforcement officials scour the state for potential international terrorists, they are missing a key weapon in the fight -- a list to help tell them if suspected terrorists are in the country illegally, officials say.-- Federal immigration officials have refused to provide the list to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, the state's newly appointed domestic-security chief told a state Senate committee Thursday.

11/29/01

• Outstretched palms
  Our position: It's shameful for legislators to be holding fund-raisers during this session.
• The squeaky wheel
  Florida politicians have decided that it is better for children, the poor, the sick and the elderly to suffer than to run the risk of not being reelected next year.
• Senate slicing down budget
  Panel OKs nearly $1 billion in cuts
  A Senate committee approved nearly $1 billion in budget cuts Wednesday as a key Republican lawmaker said the Legislature may have to look at "forms of revenue creation" next year.
• Lawmakers resist attempts to raise taxes
  TALLAHASSEE -- Sen. Betty Holzendorf thought she found a way to help Florida's cash-strapped schools.
• Return pay hikes, Senate panel tells school executives
  Looking for every spare dime to minimize cuts to public school classrooms, the Senate Appropriations Committee wants school administrators to forfeit their pay hikes — especially in light of raises 21 Broward school administrators just received.
• The new math
  Our position: Legislators shouldn't punish schools when the state undercounts students.
• Counties feel stiffed by the state
  County commissioners complain that the Legislature's cuts hand them the bills, not the bucks, for programs.
• Let's not stop investing in teens
  When high-profile juvenile crimes undermined Florida tourism in 1994, the Legislature poured resources into programs to rehabilitate young offenders and kids on the edge of trouble. Boot camps and counseling services began contributing to what is today a noticeable drop in juvenile crime. 
• Lawmakers vow to slash fewer jobs
  During an October special session that went awry, lawmakers had considered eliminating nearly 700 jobs belonging to probation officers as part of a budget cutting move.
• Housing break for well-off to get second look - TALLAHASSEE -- In the middle of a state financial crisis, a Senate panel voted Wednesday to expand a housing program that provides no-cost loans for low-income families to include those with incomes as high as $75,000.
• A casualty of war?
  If it acts in haste to gut public-records protections that took generations to put in place, the Legislature will be chipping away at the foundation of our democracy.
• Senate bill would limit public access
  State law enforcement officials could clamp a temporary secrecy lid on any public record under a bill approved Tuesday by a Senate committee.
• Give it up
  Our position: The Florida Senate is making another ill-conceived run against Sunshine.
• Public records bill looks dead
  But measure to allow secrecy may return next year
  A measure that would allow the Florida Department of Law Enforcement to delay requests for public records during terrorism investigations appears dead for the Legislature's special session, the bill's House sponsor said Wednesday.
• Editorial: Bad idea, for the record
  The Palm Beach Post
  Floridians will not be more secure if the Legislature restricts access to public records in the name of security. Though the special session that began Tuesday is supposed to be for closing a $1.3 billion budget shortage, the Senate Criminal Justice Committee...
• Gov. Bush wants Legislature to OK basic anti-terrorism billsThe committee unanimously endorsed 16 bills Tuesday, many without debate, including measures to allow expanded wiretaps, create a state counter-intelligence computer database, regulate aircraft spraying and broaden criminal offenses of poisoning and terrorism.
• Lawmakers ignite anger over security
  TALLAHASSEE -- Money is the main issue, but lawmakers called to a special session to balance the state budget appear committed to passing security measures aimed at protecting the state from terrorist attacks.
•  

11/28/01

• Records bills clear a Senate panel - TALLAHASSEE -- Five new terrorism-related exemptions to the public records law won support from a Senate committee Tuesday, but one was so controversial that House Speaker Tom Feeney is unlikely to let it come up for a vote.
• Florida takes a step to seal public records in terror cases     TALLAHASSEE -- State police could secretly petition a judge to seal any public records deemed vital to terrorism investigations under a bill a Senate panel approved Tuesday. The vote touched off a fresh round of criticism of a chamber that has already signed off on holding secret meetings of its own members.
• Senators go for secrecy
  State senators, arguing the need to fight terrorism, quickly moved to deny the public access to a number of public records, including lists of drugs stockpiled to counteract bioterrorism, arrest records and security precautions at hospitals and government buildings.
• Committee OKs security bills
  Proposal allows FDLE to request restrictions on access to records
  A Senate committee Tuesday passed a slew of bills designed to improve the state's security and restrict public access to information deemed too sensitive by law enforcement.
• Special session off to clumsy start
  State officials are determined that the second special session to fix a $1.3 billion hole in Florida's budget won't be as embarrassing as the first.
• Budget-cutting session opens amid confidence -TALLAHASSEE -- Among the signs that Republican leaders already have a plan worked out for solving Florida's budget crisis: Gov. Jeb Bush took time Tuesday to talk golf with Senate President John McKay and comment on House Speaker Tom Feeney's necktie.
• The special session pop quiz
  Our legislative sessions, special or otherwise, are scary affairs, but they can be even more frightening if you shirk your civic duty and lose track of what our honorables are up to. Knowledge is power. So test your own knowledge of official Florida flapdoodle with this simple current events quiz:
• Bush, Cabinet OK new personnel rules
  State employees who "just get by" will have to do better under a set of new personnel rules approved Tuesday by Gov. Jeb Bush and the Cabinet. But those who excel can earn more without having to move into management.
• Protest aims at probation officer cuts
  The steps of the Old Capitol were swathed in blue Tuesday as several hundred Florida parole officers turned out to protest proposed job cuts to their ranks.
• Lawmakers agree to restore probation cuts - ...Tuesday, the first day of a second special session called to fix the budget. Instead of cutting, they promised to restore the bulk of previous cuts in the number of probation officers.

11/27/01

• Senate aims to make deeper education cuts
  New special session begins today; K-12 classrooms take biggest hit -- State educators knew they were getting off lightly when the Legislature took its first swipe at balancing the state budget last month. On Monday, Senate budget leaders unveiled a new round of figures, carving $591 million out of education - $204 million more than was cut in the first special session. Almost all the new cuts - $250 million - would come from money going directly to K-12 classrooms.  
• Public schools to take brunt of proposed state budget cuts - TALLAHASSEE -- Hope that public schools would escape the state's budget crisis without significant cuts officially ended Monday as a Senate panel agreed to shave a total of $591 million from the state's education budget.-- The decision -- over $200 million more than the Legislature agreed to cut a month ago -- all but guarantees many school districts will end up laying off teachers or other staff in coming months, education advocates say. 
• Enrollment soars at cash-strapped schools - ...Public schools have swelled with 16,649 more students than expected, the state Department of Education reported Monday. The unexpected students will cost districts an additional $75. million, which officials thought they could spend elsewhere.
• Budget time, again
  The Florida Legislature is convening again to find ways to make up for the budget's $1.3-billion deficit. Lawmakers should look at each cut they propose very carefully.
• Tax cut, education and health care may take hits to balance Florida's budget -TALLAHASSEE · Advocates for public schools, universities, health care providers and juvenile justice agencies are bracing for the worst as Florida legislators return to the capital today to repair the state budget's $1.3 billion shortfall.
• Budget cuts will spare solicitor general after all
  TALLAHASSEE -- Even as the ax falls throughout Florida government, one of the state's best-paid lawyers will keep his job after all.
• Welcome back: Show us some statesmanship
  Old hands in the Legislature must feel a little sheepish about their return engagement here in the capital, where the sequel to last month's special session is now playing. (And we'd like to mean that figuratively.) 
• No excuses -- It's irrelevant that other states are facing the same financial problems as Florida.
• Juvenile Justice Defends Priorities
  TALLAHASSEE - The state Department of Juvenile Justice is scrambling to fend off budget cuts that would delay opening two new detention centers totaling 1,150 beds. ...
• Democrats fret over Capitol office politics
  TALLAHASSEE -- Republicans in the Legislature promise that the redrawing of legislative districts will be the most open in Florida's history. But what happened Monday didn't make Democrats feel any more confident about that. 
• Argenziano ousted from key House finance panel
  The feisty lawmaker learned of her removal by Speaker Tom Feeney on the eve of a special budget-paring session.

11/26/01

• One budget fight remains to be settled in courts
  Somewhat forgotten, as Gov. Jeb Bush and our Legislature face the state budget crisis this week, is that they were supposed to be facing each other in court.
• Washington, D.C., is taxing Florida
  Senate President John McKay, R-Bradenton, knows that the federal government can, and will, pick Florida's pocket. He has told anybody who will listen that Congress will cost the state of Florida $4 billion a year pretty soon...
• Florida's sales tax rife with loopholes, breaks for special interests -TALLAHASSEE · It was nearly midnight on the closing day of the 2001 legislative session when the Senate's top budget writer quietly tucked a $300,000 tax break for a hometown water bottler into a must-pass bill.- 
  The beneficiary was the Florida Coca-Cola Bottling Co. The tax break shielded the Dasani brand of water, bottled in Jacksonville, from the state's 6 percent sales tax.
• Unlikely pair to tackle state's budget shortfall-- TALLAHASSEE -- With Florida's top legislators still bruised from last month's budget battle, the job of fixing Florida's $1.3 billion shortfall will go this week to an unlikely, but like-minded, pair of second-tier legislative leaders.
• Budget back on cutting boar
  Less squabbling and deep, far-reaching cuts are in the forecast for the special session that begins Tuesday.
• Tight state budget a lesson to educators
  Minimal cuts likely will get worse and schools are being forced to make tough choices on programs and teachers.
• Politicians should quit rationalizing Florida's failures- Politicians seems to be put off by our newspapers doing their jobs and holding the politicians accountable for their actions. Too bad. Rationalization has always been a trait of those in denial, and it appears the politicians who take pride in being cheap are riding their denial higher than ever.
• Budget Shortfall Agenda Criticized
  TALLAHASSEE - When legislators return to the Capitol on Tuesday to deal with a nearly $1 billion budget shortfall, Gov. Jeb Bush and Republican lawmakers will stick to two guiding principles: cut spending, with no tax hikes.-- But two well-known economists, including this year's Nobel Prize winner in economics, say that may deepen problems for Florida's economy.
• Spare juvenile justice from budget offenses
  After warning for three years about a rise in juvenile crime that didn't happen, Florida legislators plan to cut programs that have helped to reduce juvenile crime just as the slowing economy makes those programs more important...
• State budget cuts force closure of 4-H camps for kids
  State budget cuts will hit home next summer for 4-H participants in Leon and 16 other North Florida counties when a summer camp open since 1946 closes its doors.

11/25/01

• It's Graham vs. Bush in battle over regents -Deciding the future of Florida's university system is turning into a titanic clash between the state's two most important political leaders: Jeb Bush and Bob Graham.
• Debt vs. jobs
  Gov. Jeb Bush is urging the state Legislature to increase the state's borrowing for the specific purposes of creating new jobs at a time when the economy is flat.
• Budget back on cutting board
  TALLAHASSEE -- Having spectacularly failed once to bring Florida's budget into balance, a more sober and determined Legislature will try again in a second special session beginning Tuesday.
• Waking up - Our position: The Legislature's second time around has no room for error.
• Editorial: Do better by the state in the 'do-over' session
  The Palm Beach Post
  When the Republicans who run Florida's government tried to stitch up a $1.3 billion budget gap last month, they broke the rules of arithmetic and constitutionality. This time, they are ready to do business in the right way. Unfortunately, what they want to do right is still wrong.
• Legislators return to trim budget
  Intangibles tax dispute nearer to resolution
  Budget cuts, take two. Three and a half weeks after their initial attempt to balance the state budget imploded, lawmakers return to Tallahassee this week to try again - albeit with more of the groundwork completed this time.
• Try These Ideas First
  State lawmakers need not cut, slash and burn their way toward a balanced budget this Tuesday when they reconvene for their second special session to find $1.3 billion to avert Florida's fiscal crisis.
• Golf attraction gets tax subsidy, we get tourists
  TALLAHASSEE -- Every year Florida chunks out a $2-million subsidy to the Professional Golf Hall of Fame at St. Augustine, which is the centerpiece of a luxury resort. What didn't seem like a lot of money when legislators approved it in 1993 might look more precious now as they turn again, under the hammer of a budget deficit, to cutting health care and social services for pregnant working women, troubled teenagers and other citizens who need the state's help considerably more than golfers do.
• Lower-income Floridians brace for special session

11/24/01

• Legislators fundraising frenzy is getting crowded
  Seven years ago, the Florida Legislature took a good, hard look in the mirror.

11/23/01

• Bush and the Legislature must learn to hit the curve
  In baseball, a good curve can humiliate even a gifted batter - leaving him clumsily contorted as he swings futilely at the spinning sphere.
• Voucher plan for disabled grows
  Florida's voucher program for disabled students continues to grow, even as the fledgling effort experiences growing pains and as the state looks into tightening controls.
• Feeney: I comply fully with law
  This week, the Orlando Sentinel chose to create a story out of "no news."
• TaxWatch proposes ideas to spare state services from cuts
  The Florida TaxWatch, a government watchdog that annually scolds lawmakers for including questionable projects in the state budget, Wednesday proposed a $1 billion laundry list of ways to cut costs without dipping into state services.

11/21/01

• Legislature braces to try again - Bush says House will defer intangibles tax cut - A week before lawmakers return to Tallahassee to continue chopping away at a $1.3 billion revenue shortfall, the state tax on stocks and bonds continued to fixate politicians.
• Mr. Feeney's conflict
  Our position: The House speaker should be banned from lobbying local officials.
• His day job
  For the sake of the public trust he holds, Florida Speaker of the House Tom Feeney should avoid the appearance of conflict and quit his lobbying day job.
• Budget cuts may spare community colleges -OCALA -- Florida's new seamless system of education showed signs of strain Tuesday after the state Board of Education agreed that Florida's community colleges should be spared the pain of budget cuts.-- University representatives were not pleased. They don't think their institutions should have to absorb a disproportionate share of the cuts.
• Region Taking A Major Hit
  James Judd is a living symbol of the excellence of South Florida's cultural scene and its current fragility.
• Bright Futures faces review
  Florida's Bright Futures scholarship program -- loved by thousands of families as a sure way to pay for college but detested by public university presidents -- got its first airing Tuesday by the new state board created to tackle such dilemmas.

11/20/01

• Schools take back seat to tourism plea
  When the lobbyist for local hotels asked legislators Monday to continue pumping more than $100 million into supporting their industry, legislators nodded in agreement. One even talked about how to spend more tax money on tourism marketing.
• Juvenile crime will climb as dollars fall -WEST PALM BEACH -- More than a third of the juvenile delinquents on probation in Palm Beach County will go unsupervised and a successful Treasure Coast boot camp may close if proposed state budget cuts are approved, officials said Monday.
• Juvenile detentions face cuts - TALLAHASSEE -- A week before lawmakers begin a special budget-cutting session, Juvenile Justice officials warned Monday they likely can't afford to open 800 beds in soon-to-be-completed residential facilities, including nearly 300 in South Florida.
• Tax reform is obligation of lawmakers
  It's sounding like a refrain from a song you desperately want to forget: Let's pass a constitutional amendment. Here in Florida, insurmountable problems arise from amendments adopted in haste and regretted at leisure. Amendments are almost impossible to repeal. 

11/19/01

• Slipping, sliding away to a backward reputation
  Makes you proud, doesn't it?
• Blackburn: Florida a low-tax, low-IQ state
  By Tom Blackburn, Palm Beach Post Editorial Writer
  The Florida Chamber of Commerce buckled on its armor, picked up its lance and made another run at the windmill that is dumb, happy Florida last week. This is good. The chamber released the first part...
• Jeopardizing juveniles
  Cutting back on successful juvenile-crime prevention will leave thousands of troubled kids without the shelter and counseling they need to help them.

11/18/01

• The cheap state
  Florida politicians like to talk about the burden of taxes, but the reality is that the state is shortchanging its schoolchildren, its retirees and its economy.
• Personality wins elections, Bush says -TALLAHASSEE -- A year before he faces reelection, Gov. Jeb Bush said Tuesday that campaigns are won and lost on the candidates' personalities, not their ideology.
• Lobbyists have little to fear in tax reform
  TALLAHASSEE -- You can foretell what's going to come out of a meeting here by how many lobbyists think it demands their time. Only one was on hand Wednesday when the state Tax Reform Task Force convened for an advertised public hearing. The lobbyists were more gainfully occupied upstairs, by the dozens, at the Board of Administration, which was deciding how to let private investment firms profit from the state's $100-billion pension fund. The risks will be borne by employees and teachers who choose to speculate with benefits that until now have been guaranteed.
• McKay pushes to cut sales tax to 4 pct. TALLAHASSEE -- (AP) -- Florida Senate President John McKay said Wednesday he wants to cut the 6 percent state sales tax to 4 cents on the dollar and make up the money by repealing a myriad of sales tax exemptions.
• Talking tough on a tax
  One of Florida's oldest but least understood taxes has emerged as the pivot point of a contentious political fight sharply dividing the state's ruling Republicans.

11/17/01

• Schools' governing system challenged - 
  Opponents of Florida's recently restructured university system -- including U.S. Sen. Bob Graham -- launched an initiative Friday to allow voters to decide next November on a new governing structure for the state's 11 public universities.
• Forecast: Lots of tax reform talk, no action
  They are using the "T" word in the state Capitol these days.
• Foes bash Bush but love one another
  A gathering of Democratic candidates for governor is a friendly affair. "We all agree on everything," one says.
• Don't bail out Republicans, Democratic leader urges
  TALLAHASSEE -- State Democratic Party Chairman Bob Poe is asking Democrats in the Florida Legislature to avoid helping Republicans fix the state's budget problems.
• Keep Full Service School Program
  To most of the people working to serve Floridians' human needs, it was obvious that the recent round of budget cuts would be detrimental to some of the state's most vulnerable citizens. The budget slashing isn't over yet. The Legislature is about to convene in its second special session of the fall season to try again.

11/16/01

• Capitol Corner: Fashioning the pension fund plan
  If the meeting weren't so boring, the show would have been almost funny. Tallahassee's best-dressed crowd and their even more well-to-do clients coping with three hours of excruciating details.
• McKay's attempt at tax reform
  "The difficult we do immediately," say the Navy's Seabees. "The impossible takes a little longer." In Florida, it would seem that Senate President John McKay has set the bar infinitely higher by proposing a constitutional amendment to modernize the tax structure. The House is so hostile that even a mere 61-vote majority was already said to be an impossible dream. A constitutional amendment requires 72 votes. From what pocketful of miracles would McKay pull those?
• Broward officials beg legislators for mercy from state budget cuts - Twelve days before returning to Tallahassee for a second time to grapple with a $1.3 billion budget gap, Broward legislators got an earful Thursday about the damaging impact of spending cuts.
• Pension choices place onus on employees, state
  The State Board of Administration's precedent-setting decision to diversify investment choices for public employees means that the state now has the ethical responsibility of educating workers about differing financial options.
• University of Florida drops two programs in budget cuts- GAINESVILLE -- University of Florida officials will close the school's inpatient children's mental health unit and the poultry science program as they begin to shave their budget by $22 million.
• Tenure busters...Still, the fact that lawmakers are even pushing bills to establish "guidelines" for firing tenured faculty and to require teachers and professors to swear loyalty oaths serves to once again point out what a colossal bill of goods university presidents were sold when they agreed to support Gov. Jeb Bush's new "seamless" educational governance plan.

11/14/01

• Florida lawmakers should continue to keep their hands off public-access laws.
  In a legislative special session last month, Florida House Speaker Tom Feeney stuck to his pledge not to disassemble the state's public records and meetings laws. He should not budge from that commitment when he and his colleagues meet in another special session next month.
• State attorney warns against cuts in programs
  By Bill Douthat, Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
  Officials Tuesday warned that Palm Beach County might be in store for a higher crime rate and more drug abusers and young delinquents on the street unless state lawmakers fix a $1.3 billion budget shortfall. "It's going to undo the years of progress..."

11/12/01

• State legislators look to cut crime-prevention programs to balance budget - TALLAHASSEE -- Despite warnings by advocates that Florida’s recent drop in youth crime will be in jeopardy, state legislators are proposing budget cuts to highly regarded juvenile crime-prevention programs.
• Schools to feel sting of deeper budget paring
  Gov. Jeb Bush and lawmakers promised to protect Florida's schools from the budget ax, but it would be hard to tell by looking at Osceola County schools.
• Round 2 of cost cuts to hit home at colleges
  Despite some significant hits, Florida's universities and colleges largely escaped the deep cuts they feared in last month's special legislative session. Now lawmakers are heading back to Tallahassee, and most of the schools are expecting the real losses to hit home.

• Budget knife cuts juvenile programs
  Rifle through the archive of recent Florida crises and you will come to 1994, when a series of tourist murders threatened to ruin the state's reputation as a carefree vacation playground.
• Redistricting plans hijacked Legislature
  TALLAHASSEE -- Debate still festers, as it may forever, over whether the presidency was stolen in Florida last year. It's for certain that the Legislature was. Why is no one in a lather over that?