The work in committees went slowly this week, as lawmakers discussed plenty about the budget and redistricting but took relatively few actions on the big-ticket items of the looming legislative session.
But when lawmakers and Gov. Rick Scott talked, those with an interest in the matters listened. And generally talked back.
While Scott found himself squaring off with the state's higher-education establishment, one senator landed in hot water with Latinos while another got in trouble with the budget chair.
SCOTT PROFESSES COLLEGE IDEAS:
Before setting off Thursday night for Brazil, Scott spent much of his time prodding at the state's higher-education system. A letter first reported this week, but dated Oct. 13, showed the governor asking university presidents and boards for information "to help me with my plan for higher education."
The questions zeroed in on work force-related data, from whether universities had done studies to ensure graduates are meeting employers' needs to whether the schools have "measurable goals" for the number of graduates who stay in the state after they leave school.
Scott also asked for information about how each university plans to graduate more students from the science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) fields, the latest education term to set the Capitol abuzz. Backers of more STEM education say the state isn't meeting the demand in those fields.
Meanwhile, Scott caused more waves by releasing the salary information of all the state's public university professors on his "Florida Has a Right to Know" website. Scott's office pointed out that the information was already publicly available -- they just made it easier to find.
But faculty pushed back, saying salaries are not always paid for with state taxpayer dollars. In fact, the highest-paid professor in the system makes $1.2 million, but the University of South Florida said Dr. Neil Fenske's salary is mostly paid for through clinic fees from patients.
"My reaction is not a privacy concern, this is public knowledge anyway," said Tom Auxter, a philosophy professor at the University of Florida and the president of the United Faculty of Florida. "But when the governor just publishes this, it makes it look like it is something other than it is."
AY CARAMBA!
On the same day that the Senate unveiled its "Ver En Espal" button, which presents a Spanish translation of its website, one of the chamber's majority Republicans was under fire for a comment he made about Latinos this week.
Senate President Mike Haridopolos, R-Merritt Island, touted the new site Thursday as a service for the state's growing Hispanic population.
"Florida is a diverse state, and it's important that we provide all of our state's citizens with a voice in the legislative process," Haridopolos said.
As long as they're legal, perhaps. Two House Democrats blasted Sen. Alan Hays, R-Umatilla, for suggesting in a Tuesday meeting of the Reapportionment Committee that drawing a congressional district in Central Florida focused on the area's growing Latino population might reward illegal immigrants.
"I just don't think that it's right that we try to draw a district that encompasses people that really have no business voting, anyhow," Hays said.
The issue, as Democratic Rep. Janet Cruz of Tampa pointed out, is that many of the Latinos flooding into Central Florida are Puerto Ricans -- who are citizens of the United States at birth.
Cruz called for Hays to step down from the committee.
"It is evident now that ... Latinos in Florida should be concerned about their fair representation when the lines are in the hands of legislators like Senator Alan Hays," she said.
The controversy overshadowed a decision by the Senate Reapportionment Committee ordering its staff to draw maps that would preserve, as much as possible, the minority districts in the north-central and northeastern parts of the state. That's a decision that could help both minority voters who tend to be Democrats and Republican candidates who shed many of those voters to create the majority-minority districts.
UNWELCOME BUDGET IDEAS:
The magnitude of the shortfall lawmakers will face in 2012 became a little bit clearer Thursday, when state economists said the gap between incoming taxes and likely spending would be just shy of $2 billion. And some state lawmakers were skeptical that those numbers would hold up very long, even though they'll start crafting a budget in January.
Lawmakers began hearing ideas for how to deal with the shortfall -- spending cuts only, please.
The state Agency for Health Care Administration floated the possibility Wednesday of limiting patient visits to emergency rooms and doctors' offices. Acting Medicaid director Justin Senior told a House health-care panel that the state also could reduce home health visits for Medicaid beneficiaries and slash the amount of in-patient hospital care the program covers.
"None of the cuts we're proposing here are particularly palatable,'' Senior said.
One Senate subcommittee chairman -- Sen. Mike Fasano, R-New Port Richey -- found some ideas so unpalatable that he told agencies he didn't want to hear the sometimes-outlandish suggestions from justice and public-safety agencies.
"Senator Fasano doesn't have that authority," Senate Budget Chairman J.D. Alexander, R-Lake Wales, said later. "He might not want to hear them, but I do."
ANOTHER RUN AT BRODY RELIEF:
One area where Haridopolos and some other lawmakers seemed to want money to be spent was in the push to help a man who suffered debilitating injuries in a 1998 car crash with a Broward County sheriff's deputy.
Haridopolos, R-Merritt Island, watched in disappointment this spring as a claims bill to help Eric Brody failed in the House during a chaotic end to the annual legislative session.
But with Brody seated nearby in a wheelchair Tuesday, Haridopolos and House and Senate sponsors held a news conference to vow another attempt to pass a bill that ultimately could lead to Brody receiving more than $15 million from the insurance company for the Broward County sheriff's office. The money would not come from the state of Florida.
"This is our moment to do the right thing by Eric Brody,'' said Senate sponsor Lizbeth Benacquisto, R-Wellington.
STORY OF THE WEEK: Lawmakers heard the latest estimate for the budget shortfall -- $1.96 billion -- and ideas for how to wield the budget cleaver.
QUOTE OF THE WEEK: "Before we design a district anywhere in the state of Florida for Hispanic voters, we need to ascertain that they are citizens of the United States. We all know there are many Hispanic-speaking people in Florida that are not legal. And I just don't think that it's right that we try to draw a district that encompasses people that really have no business voting, anyhow." -- Sen. Alan Hays, R-Umatilla.
