Gov. Rick Scott on Budget Rollout, Health Care Ruling

During a press conference Tuesday, Gov. Rick Scott outlined his plans for announcing his budget recommendations and spoke about meeting with federal agency heads in Washington, D.C., during his trip there Monday, and about the ruling striking down the health care law.

Scott released a proposal Monday for cutting $1 billion from the budget over the next two years, but it was short on details --saying only that the Department of Community Affairs will be streamlined; licensing and regulation of drugs and devices from the Department of Health and the Department of Professional and Business Regulation will be consolidated, as will consolidation of tax collection in the Department of Revenue.

His office will be releasing tidbits of the budget throughout the week, starting later Tuesday when Gov. Scott will announce details of his proposal to reform Florida's pension system at an event in Naples. Scott was mum on the particulars, but did say he will ask government employees to contribute to their own pension plans. He will release his total budget recommendations on Feb. 7 at a tea party event in Eustis.

"I want to make sure taxpayers are treated fairly; I want to make sure employees are treated fairly. People in the private sector contribute to their own plans, I think it's only fair that they contribute," Scott said.

Scott had a busy day in Washington on Monday, meeting with several federal agency heads and discussing some hot-button items for Florida. He spoke with U.S. Department of Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood about Florida's high-speed rail project and Department of Education Secretary Arne Duncan about the state's education reform plans to increase teacher accountability through merit pay and adjusting tenure.

"As a general rule I think they're very supportive of what we're trying to do," Scott said of his meeting with Duncan.

He was also optimistic about getting a waiver from Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius to continue a Medicaid pilot program being run in South Florida that supporters say will help save the state money if expanded throughout Florida. The program is due to expire in June and Florida has already been denied a waiver request.

"I hope and I expect them to extend the waiver; I hope there's no changes," Scott said.

But the feds may not be bending over backward to help Florida after U.S. District Court Judge Roger Vinson's decision Monday to declare the Affordable Care Act unconstitutional. Scott praised the ruling Tuesday and announced the state would not be preparing to implement the law, even as federal lawyers request a stay of Judge Vinson's ruling and the lawsuit works its way up to the Supreme Court.

"I personally always believed that it was going to be repealed. We are not going to spend a lot of time and money implementing that," Scott said, adding later that Florida would still be ready to comply with the health care law's provisions in the event it is declared valid by a higher court.