Despite the return of summer temperatures, fall was definitely in the air this week with political pros' thoughts turning to upcoming committee hearings, presidential primaries and new budgets as agency heads prepared for yet another tight-fisted session.
Florida's economy continues to sputter, and it was reported this week that the state's unemployment rate remained unchanged in August. And the Legislature's top economist warned of future revenue shortfalls.
Florida Republican leaders this week named members to a committee that will begin meeting next week to decide when to hold Florida's 2012 presidential primary. Deliberations will likely spark national attention again as the swing state tries to make its case for prominence in the 2012 presidential race.
Also this week, Florida teachers took their fight over merit pay to the courts, while a federal judge in Miami put a cork in a National Rifle Association-backed law preventing physicians and other health-care providers from asking their patients if they own guns.
Citizens Property Insurance Corp. customers meanwhile took their battle to Tampa in an effort to prevent sinkhole rate increases that could cost some homeowners thousands of dollars a year.
ECONOMY IDLES, REVENUE PICTURE DARKENS:
Florida's unemployment rate held steady in August at 10.7 percent. While still 0.9 percentage points lower than a year earlier, the persistence of joblessness seems to underscore repeated warnings from economists that Florida's recovery would be a prolonged affair.
Amy Baker, coordinator of the Legislature's Office of Economic and Demographic Research, said Wednesday that earlier projections of general-revenue growth this year and during the 2012-13 fiscal year will drop "fairly significantly.''
That means more difficult budget choices for lawmakers when they start the 2012 legislative session in January -- though Baker said things won't be as bad as during last spring's session, when lawmakers faced a $3.6 billion shortfall. Analysts, including Baker and representatives of the governor's office, House and Senate, are scheduled to meet Oct. 11 to revise general-revenue estimates.
"I believe that you will be looking at another tight session,'' she concluded.
Tight budgets were also on the minds of agency heads who this week turned in their wish lists for the coming fiscal year. Some are already making their pitch for increasingly scarce funds. Department of Children and Families officials, for example, are asking lawmakers next year to bolster child-protective investigations.
An agency budget proposal submitted this week seeks tens of millions of dollars to add and retain child-protective investigators, improve technology and better coordinate efforts with local law enforcement.
The budget documents outline problems with high turnover among investigators, large caseloads and low pay. The proposal, which would need legislative approval next year, comes seven months after the death of 10-year-old Nubia Barahona showed the need for improvements.
Part of the proposal seeks $15.8 million to improve technology in the child-protection program, such as equipping investigators with mobile technology that would allow them to get case information remotely and also enter notes and details. DCF also wants to shift nearly $25.3 million into the child-protection program, including adding investigators, improving pay and providing money to local law enforcement to better coordinate in child-protection probes.
FLORIDA TEACHERS HEAD TO COURT:
The Florida Education Association, meanwhile, went to court in Tallahassee to try to shoot down a merit pay law that ties the salaries of teachers and other school employees to student performance. The union says the new law is unconstitutional because it violates a right to collectively bargain for wages, contracts and promotions that is guaranteed in the state Constitution.
"This sweeping change totally changed the teaching profession in Florida," said Andy Ford, FEA's president, during a news conference Wednesday.
The lawsuit sets the stage for another legal battle for the powerful teachers' union with the Republican-controlled Legislature and Gov. Rick Scott, both of whom were big supporters of not only the teacher merit pay law, but also championed other laws opposed by unions and public employees.
"It is unfortunate that the labor union claiming to represent teachers has resisted every meaningful education reform for more than a decade," responded Mark Wilson, Florida Chamber of Commerce president and CEO.
MEDICAID MANAGED CARE WALTZ CONTINUES:
Federal Medicaid officials said this week they want changes to improve patient care and increase requirements on HMOs. One change would require the state to spend millions of dollars to bolster primary-care programs, while 20 hospitals would have to come up with projects to bolster the health of low-income people. The feds are also seeking to ensure that HMOs in the pilot program spend at least 85 percent of the money they receive on patient care.
On another insurance-related front, five HMOs reached agreement with the state on an overhaul of the state-employee health insurance program. United Healthcare of Florida, meanwhile, continues to battle the changes in court. The agreements would tinker with a plan by the Florida Department of Management Services to offer only one HMO in each county to state employees. That plan touched off a legal battle, as United and two other HMOs stood to lose thousands of customers. Under the agreements, six counties -- including Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach -- would be served by two HMOs.
CITIZENS BOARD APPROVES RATE CAP; WILL OIR FOLLOW?
Responding to pressure from homeowners, lawmakers and some high ranking state officials, Citizens Property Insurance Corp. board members on Monday voted to cap proposed sinkhole rate hikes at 50 percent for the coming year as they try to make the state-backed program financially sound.
What remains to be seen is if state regulators will allow even those capped rates to go forward as they weigh the need for actuarially sound premiums against what the company has proposed.
In the backdrop is the economic distress and political backlash of increasing insurance premiums for people who, when opening their bills, don't really think that much about whether the company is solvent and can pay claims.
Anticipating an angry turnout at a public hearing scheduled in Tampa, Citizens' board of governors voted to phase in premiums approved in July. By capping next year's increase at 50 percent, board members hoped to cushion the blow to thousand of homeowners in sinkhole-prone regions of the state.
The Office of Insurance Regulation has until Monday to approve those sinkhole premium hikes, averaging 428 percent statewide. During public testimony in Tampa, Florida Insurance Commissioner Kevin McCarty and other OIR officials outlined a long list of concerns over proposed hikes that would eventually raise annual sinkhole premiums in some regions by thousands of dollars a year.
"Without concrete data, you are asking residents in some counties to pay $5,000 more," McCarty said to the applause of several hundred "Sinkhole Alley" residents in attendance.
2012 HERE WE COME:
Gov. Rick Scott and legislative leaders announced the nine members of a committee that will select the state's presidential primary date, bringing Florida closer to what seems like an inevitable confrontation with the national political parties.
Scott tapped former Gov. Bob Martinez; Jenn Ungru, Scott's deputy chief of staff who oversees the Department of State; and former state Sen. Al Lawson, D-Tallahassee. Senate President Mike Haridopolos picked Sens. John Thrasher, R-St. Augustine; Rene Garcia, R-Hialeah; and Gary Siplin, D-Orlando. House Speaker Dean Cannon appointed House Majority Leader Carlos Lopez-Cantera, R-Miami, and Reps. Seth McKeel, R-Lakeland and Cynthia Stafford, D-Miami.
STORY OF THE WEEK: Citizens Property Insurance Corp. board approves a cap on sinkhole premium increases, an attempt to offset rate hikes that in some cases would surpass 2,000 percent. Meanwhile, state insurance regulators say they have concerns about the proposed rate hikes. They will weigh in Monday.
QUOTE OF THE WEEK: "There's a lot that you haven't heard. Contemporaneous with being the bad boy, he's always been a real good guy when it comes to youth athletics.'' -- Attorney Michael Carney's comments on former 2 Live Crew rapper and freedom of expression advocate Luther Campbell, who is seeking approval to become a certified Florida teacher despite a gun violation and putting on shows involving minimally clad women back in the day.
