Notes For Friday, February 07, 2003

STOP THE MADNESS. "The [Florida] House is spending $2.9 million on a new Web site."

This on top of previous published estimates that "Byrd is spending nearly $500,000 a year on salaries for his communications staff and . . . a recent mass mailing -- which included a prepaid postcard that people could mail back -- would cost about $15,000." It is unclear whether these newest expenditure estimates are cumulative to Speaker Byrd's previous self aggrandizing expenditures, including "spending $20,000 to hire Courter Films and Associates of Crystal River to do camera and film work, another $5,000 to Jeffcoat Photography of Plant City, as well as $25,000 to The Serge Group, a Tampa-based photographer [and] spending nearly $93,000 to hire a Tallahassee man to direct the House Office of Information Technology." See "Byrd Wants to Send Out `Non-Filtered' News".
9:16 PM [Go to current Florida Politics site (no popup ads)]

BUSH AND HIS APPOINTEES IGNORE CONSTITUTIONAL MANDATE. In "Governor ignoring results of universities referendum", columnist Ron Littlepage explores John Ellis Bush's refusal to comply with an amendment voters overwhelmingly approved last November that created a new statewide board to govern Florida's public universities. Littlepage observes that "[t]he new state board was given the power to do such things as create graduate programs, set presidential compensation packages and bargain with unions. But instead of doing that, the new board -- filled with Bush appointees who shared Bush's opposition to the amendment -- has thumbed its nose at the voters and given those powers back to the local boards of trustees just as Bush wanted all along."

3:55 PM [Go to current Florida Politics site (no popup ads)]

ROBBING TRUST FUNDS. "Like most governments, Florida collects and spends its money in ways that often honor usage, tradition and political commitments. Pay a gas tax, and it helps build roads. Pay a business fee, and it funds the regulatory agency. Pay a real estate transaction tax, and it helps build affordable homes. That "trust fund" spending now accounts for roughly $30-billion, or two-thirds, of the state government budget, which is why it makes sense to analyze these funds periodically and see whether they still are serving the intended purpose. It also explains why some lawmakers are eager to use them as a budgetary grab bag. Put Gov. Jeb Bush in the latter category." The rest of the story.
3:49 PM [Go to current Florida Politics site (no popup ads)]

HERITAGE FOUNDATION BLUNDER. This is worth quoting at length: "It was posted to the Internet for only a few hours. But a research paper from a conservative Washington group citing Florida's medical malpractice laws as the nation's best triggered a reaction of utter surprise in Tallahassee where a legislative fight is brewing over malpractice insurance. Both advocates and critics of plans to revamp Florida's laws on health care lawsuits say they never would have even imagined that The Heritage Foundation -- widely known for its right-wing stances on major national political issues -- would endorse the Sunshine State's current malpractice laws."

"But that's just what happened, at least for part of a day last week, before an embarrassed, new staffer at the national political think tank was chastised by his bosses for his having ``misinterpreted'' the data he collected. 'As you might imagine, all sort of hell broke loose,'''said Derek Hunter, who penned the controversial study."

"Among those who got a shock from the report are heads of Florida groups that have contributed significantly to the state Republican Party and Gov. Jeb Bush's re-election, such as the Florida Medical Association, Florida Hospital Association and numerous health-care companies and insurers -- all of which contend that Florida's malpractice laws are out of sync and in need of reform."

"Oops! Florida praised, then faulted on medical malpractice"

3:46 PM [Go to current Florida Politics site (no popup ads)]