While the recent Public Policy polling numbers are getting a lot of attention for showing Marco Rubio crushing Charlie Crist by 32 points, the poll also offers bad news for U.S. Rep. Kendrick Meek, the likely Democratic Senate nominee, and U.S. Sen. George LeMieux. Meek has only a 17 percent approval rating compared to a 20 percent disapproval rating.
Ever wanted to give Florida government the business over the hassels it gives you as a business owner?
Well, state government would like to give business the business -- in a good way, of course.
Medicaid is sick, and it's giving Florida a case of budget consumption.
Gobbling up nearly a third of the state's revenues, the medical program for the indigent and disabled is projected to cost Floridians $19 billion this year -- a billion more than last year.
What's worse, patients are unhappy about the level of care they receive, and some providers flat-out refuse to serve them.
Think twice before you bet against the governor's Seminole gambling compact.
Now, I'm not predicting the Florida Legislature is going to OK the deal. We've got too many miles to go, too much major legislation still in committee. It's just that I'm catching some of the nervous, where's-the-money-gonna-come-from buzz.
THE CAPITAL, TALLAHASSEE, March 9, 2010State economists mostly held steady Tuesday in their forecast of tax collections for the year ahead meaning lawmakers continue to face a budget shortfall of as much as $3.2 billion.
The states four-person Revenue Estimating Conference revisited the economic forecast it last made in December, concluding that lawmakers will have $56.1 million more than expected for the 2010-11 budget year and $25.3 million in additional money for the current spending year.
Lawmakers Tuesday continued to sort out how Florida will recycle plastic bags, construction and demolition waste -- and make them pay off. The Senate's Environmental Preservation and Conservation hearing was a packed house.
Senate Bill 570, sponsored by Sen. Lee Constantine, R-Altamonte Springs, aims to clarify the conditions under which waste-to-energy can be used as an option for meeting the state's goal of seeing 75 percent of all plastic, paper, metals, glass, textiles, rubber materials and mulch recycled by the year 2020.
Sen. Joe Negron, R-Palm City, and Attorney General Bill McCollum, a Republican gubernatorial candidate, advocated Tuesday for a plan that will allow the state to crack down on Medicaid fraud and also give it new potential to come down hard on HMO fraud.
WASHINGTON -- Skipping through the Candy Land of the health care bill, one is tempted to hum a few bars of "Let Me Call You Sweetheart."
What a deal. For deal-makers, that is. Not so much for American taxpayers, who have been misled into thinking that the sweetheart deals have been excised.
