Budget - "Senate and House committees worked Wednesday on rival versions of a $52 billion budget, leaving college tuition increases and a tax break for shoppers as two of the key differences left to settle. The House and Senate planned to vote on their budgets Friday, clearing the way for joint committees to negotiate a compromise budget next week." See "Budget plan moves ahead". See also "Senate, House move slowly toward $52 billion budget".
GOP Class Warfare - "More than $300 million in state taxpayer money will likely flow to corporations, wealthier Floridians and private schools this year, even as lawmakers slash spending for the poor, elderly and university students." See "Tax deals defended by GOP legislators".
Early Winners And Losers In Budget Battle - "The special legislative session to iron out a new state budget is far from over, but there are already two winners. Programs to support affordable housing and buy environmentally sensitive lands will get to keep their guaranteed funding. House leaders, who had sought to end the guaranteed money for both programs, backed down Wednesday. But they did not relent on efforts to strip dedicated funding for cultural and arts programs, signaling there's little hope the programs will get anything close to the $25 million in funding they received this year." See "Special session saves housing, land funds from the budget ax".
Shouldn't The Gov Be In Tallahassee? "An F-16 fighter jet was sent to investigate a plane carrying Gov. Jeb Bush after it lost radio contact Wednesday on approach to Reagan National Airport in Washington." See "Jet Sent to Probe Fla. Gov. Plane". Actually, "Jeb!" went to DC to lobby for big sugar.
Jax Disaster - The complete story (from the GOP perspective) is here.
Vouchers - "Under existing law, a company can get taxpayer-financed vouchers to help send its own employees' children to a private school. So could a private school owner for his own family. So could a religious cult for its own members."
"The tax-voucher law, passed in 2001, allows corporations to receive a dollar-for-dollar tax credit of up to $5 million against their state income taxes each year, with a total limit for the program of $50 million. The companies give the money to so-called 'scholarship funding organizations' that in turn decide which students get the vouchers at which schools, with a $3,500 limit per voucher."
"The two largest voucher-granting groups said they hand out vouchers on a first-come, first-served basis, but nothing in current law requires that or any other objective standard. Legislative experts said that nothing prevents a voucher-granting group from giving vouchers only to employees of a certain company or members of a particular religious sect or even members of a particular family." See "Voucher accountability".
Arts Funding On The Block - "State lawmakers still are gunning for the arts in order to raise revenue. Their aim is way off. They would be injuring an industry that pumps $1.4 billion into the state. Worse, they are bent on eliminating the trust fund that for 20 years has provided a dedicated source of revenue for the arts." See "Don't Raid Arts Funding".
National Right Wing Rags All Over Bush Wanting A Guardian Appointed For A Fetus - The wacky Washington Times and the ultra wacky WorldNetDaily are in a tizzy about Bush wanting a guardian appointed for a fetus. A more sober approach to the issue appears in the New York Times. In the meantime, the Judge has delayed his decision on the issue; this is a bit strange because there isn't a lot of discretion on the issue: "In a 1989 case, the Florida Supreme Court declared that it was 'clearly improper' to appoint a guardian for a fetus." See "Gov. Jeb Bush to Seek Guardian for Fetus of Rape Victim".
Bush Should Back Off - The "Jeb!"-endorsing Orlando Sentinel argues that "[t]here was no reason for the case of a mentally disabled woman, who was raped and impregnated at an Orlando group home, to become a political and legal spectacle. The blame rests on Gov. Jeb Bush. He seems to be using this case to re-ignite the national abortion-rights battle and, consequently, is exploiting the disabled woman."
"Indeed, Mr. Bush is taking a backhanded approach. He's calling for the courts to appoint a legal guardian to represent the 22-year-old victim's unborn fetus. That's an end run to have courts recognize an unborn fetus as a person and overturn the U.S. Supreme Court decision that gave women the constitutional right to abortion." See "Back off spectacle". See also "Fetal guardianship".