Welcome to The Dean's List -- an Ed Dean-style look at who Florida's political achievers were (and weren't) in the last seven days. What you see here is strictly my opinion, not necessarily the editor's or the rest of the staff at Sunshine State News.
THOSE WHO MADE THE LIST
Florida House Speaker Steve Crisafulli, R-Merritt Island. The House speaker said he is forming the Select Committee On Affordable Healthcare Access to “explore policy options to reduce the cost of health care for consumers and improve the transparency of health care information." The new committee will be taking on some major tasks: eliminating a regulation that mandates hospitals get state approval for new or expanded facilities and tackling a proposal that would revamp the insurance plans for state employees. These are both worthy goals and Crisafulli should be commended for trying to achieve them.
Former Florida Senate President Don Gaetz, R-Destin. The state Board of Education wants a record increase on education spending, calling for a $20.2 billion allocation. But 90 percent of the new spending proposal will come from local school boards which means local taxpayers will end up with the bill. Gaetz, a key senator on crafting the education budget, says that elected officials in Tallahassee and school board members shouldn’t be bragging about the record increase, because most of it comes from the taxpayers. He’s spot on here and, as always, is a welcome voice in Tallahassee on the matter.
Florida Rep. Blaise Ingoglia, R-Spring Hill. In his role as chairman of the Republican Party of Florida (RPOF), Ingoglia said the GOP has to stop talking and get serious about minority outreach. Ingoglia called for the RPOF to get active not just in the black communities, but reach out to other minority groups across the Sunshine State. This type of outreach has been ignored by other RPOF chairs and Ingoglia is on the right track here.
THOSE WHO DIDN’T MAKE THE LIST
Florida Rep. Victor Torres, D-Orlando. Earlier this summer, Florida Sen. Dwight Bullard, D-Miami, filed a bill raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour in the state. Torres has now filed the House version with the $15 hourly rate to take effect in January 2017. This proposal won’t be accepted by the GOP-led Legislature and goes far beyond the $10.10 proposal from President Barack Obama and backed by Florida Democrats like former Gov. Charlie Crist. Consumers and employers certainly aren’t prepared for this kind of sharp increase in the minimum wage with a 16-month window.
Obamacare in Florida. Florida's Office of Insurance Regulation notes that rate premiums under Obamacare for the average consumer will go up by almost 10 percent in 2016. But some health insurance companies in Florida requested higher rate hikes. United Healthcare of Florida Inc. at 16.4 percent and Aetna Health wanted a 20.9 percent increase. The University of South Florida Health handles much of the Obamacare sign-up in South Florida. Jay Wolfson from that group insists the premiums will “be leveling off after five to 10 years.”
Florida Environmental Groups. The Sierra Club, the Florida Wildlife Federation, the St. Johns Riverkeeper, and the Environmental Confederation of Southwest Florida want a Leon County .judge to force elected officials to appropriate more than $200 million from the state budget surplus to go to purchasing more land from the Land Acquisition Trust Fund. These environmental groups claim the state government isn’t fully funding Amendment 1. But back in June, the legislative leadership insisted the budget was fine because the constitutional amendment wasn’t specific on how the money should be spent.
Florida Sen. Jeff Clemens, D-Lake Worth. Clemens wants to place a proposed constitutional amendment on the ballot next November that would restore voting rights of convicted felons. The proposal would even allow some felons to hold public office, but those convicted of sexual offenses or homicide would not be eligible. The problem is, the proposed language is too vague: it doesn’t address how many years a felon must wait before his voting rights are restored.
Ed Dean, a senior editor with SSN whose talk-show can be heard on radio stations across Florida, can be reached at ed@sunshinestatenews.com. Follow him on Twitter: @eddeanradio
