The Get-Rick-Scotters are either desperate to paint the governor as a shady backroom dealmaker or they conveniently ignored central points in the judge's order on prison privatization.
Once again, it's the mainstream media I'm talking about.
For example, to hear the Palm Beach Post tell it, the governor is trying a sneaky end-run around Leon County Circuit Judge Jackie Fulford's order to halt bid-taking on the operation of 29 Florida prisons.
The newspaper's Nov. 10 editorial, "What is Scott trying to hide?" implies Scott is trying to get away with some combination of sticking it to the unions and handing over the state prison system to big campaign contributor GEO Group.
The suggestion is ludicrous. The governor, through the Department of Corrections, has statutory authority to privatize correctional facilities right now, provided the contracts involved meet certain criteria.
Even Judge Fulford acknowledges that in her ruling (see attachment below). So does Florida Statute 944.105 (also attached below).
The case brought against the DOC by the Police Benevolent Association does not change the governor's or the DOC's statutory authority. Neither does the latest ruling in the case.
The sticking point for the judge is procedural -- nothing else.
The confusion lies in the Legislature's approach to compelling the governor to privatize prisons. The Legislature violated the Florida Constitution, Judge Fulford ruled, by putting the privatization plan in the state budget instead of crafting and passing it as a stand-alone bill.
In other words, the judge is saying the Legislature can't use a general appropriations bill to bypass the criteria of section 944.105 of the Florida Constitution. If lawmakers want to compel prison privatization, they must do so under general law.
This has no effect on Gov. Scott's ability to solicit bids to privatize; it simply means he can't use the current appropriations law under review to bypass the criteria in section 944.105.
To hear the PBA talk, you would think the DOC is clueless about privatizaton. It is not. Florida has been experimenting with private prisons for 16 years, with almost 10 percent of the states 102,000 inmates now held in seven private facilities.
This is a governor who looks to balance the state budget. Always. With yet another $1.7 billion shortfall projected until late 2013, he has a chance to shave off millions and shrink government where he can. Private-sector involvement in the operation of prisons represents substantial savings that only a fool would ignore.
To go private, state law mandates savings of 7 percent -- and at present the DOC budget is about $2.3 billion.
You have to like the overall research data on prisons, which is encouragingly in favor of privatization. According to the Reason Foundation, the Texas Legislative Budget Board found that since 2003, the average cost of housing inmates in private prisons has been 3 percent to 15 percent lower than in comparable state-run prisons.
Florida Senate President Mike Haridopolos showed in a letter to the editor appearing in several Florida newspapers last Thursday how convinced he is that a ruling against the DOC's privatization effort will be overturned.
Wrote Haridopolos, I am confident an appellate court will take all of the facts in this case into account and will reverse the decision made by the Leon County Circuit Court judge. But, more importantly, I am encouraged by the fact that by privatizing these select prisons, we could potentially have more than $22 million in revenue available to dedicate to the very future of our state -- our education system.
The Post, ever in defense of a union like PBA, grouses that the bid likely will go to Boca Raton-based GEO Group, which poured $1.5 million into Florida GOP campaigns in 2010.
So what?
As the nation's second-largest operator of private prisons, maybe it has some serious credentials for doing the job right.
Whatever happens in this case on the appellate level, let's keep an eye on the transparency of the bidding process and stop misleading Floridians that a sneaky governor is abusing his authority.
This is an opinion column. Reach Nancy Smith at nsmith@sunshinestatenews.com or at (850) 727-0859.
