After 10 Glorious Years, Sunshine State News and I Are Passing the Baton

Senate President Mike Haridopolos says he's prepared to make tough decisions to cut the state's budget and fill Florida's $3.8 billion deficit hole, including finding savings in the Medicaid program and in the benefits for state workers. "The alternative is what you're seeing in Washington, D.C., where they don't cut anything," Haridopolos said when asked about other increases in costs like property insurance rates and tuition hikes.

Senators cleared the way for 18 bills deemed "uncontroversial" to make their way swiftly through their final committee stop on the way to the floor Wednesday. Each bill hadbeen scheduled for a full hearing in the Budget Committee Friday, but senators voted to clump the bills into a consent agenda that could be voted on as a whole. Senate Rules Committee Chairman John Thrasher, R-St. Augustine, said the bills had not received a single negative vote in previous committees. The move is expected to clear time for the Budget Committee to hash out its budget talks.

A day after the House readied its version of Medicaid reform for a final floor vote, the Senate Medicaid overhaul package moved through its first committee.

Right on cue, a new housing report affirms what Sunshine State News asserted last week: Washington, D.C., resides in a recession-proof bubble. The D.C. area, according to the S&P/Case-Shiller home price index, was only one of two U.S. metro markets in the nation to post an increase in housing prices in the past year.