Judge Jackie Fulford to Return for Public Employee Retirement Hearing

Submitted by Anonymous on March 5, 2012 - 1:13pm

A hearing is scheduled for 2 p.m. Tuesday for attorneys for the state and public employees' union challenging a new requirement that state employees contribute to their retirement fund.

The hearing, before Judge Jackie Fulford, is the latest development in a case that was delayed last week while Fulford recuperated from injuries she sustained in a bicycle accident.

Fulford is most recently known for her ruling in late September that the Legislature acted unconstitutionally last year when it approved, as a proviso in the 2011 budget, a plan to privatize prisons in South and Central Florida. Fulford's ruling did not say privatization itself was unconstitutional, only that the measure should have been considered as a stand-alone item.

Click here for a more in-depth story on Fulford.

This session, such a stand-alone measure died on a close vote in the Senate, despite the strong public backing of Senate President Mike Haridopolos, R-Merritt Island.

Attorney General Pam Bondi is appealing Fulford's ruling in the prison case.

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