Governor Rick Scott rejects federal high-speed rail funds; Senate President Mike Haridopolos offers support while a coalition of senators protests. In a surprise move with as little as a five-minute notice to key lawmakers, Gov. Rick Scott on Wednesday rejected the nearly $2.4 billion allotted by the federal government to Florida for high-speed rail. Gov. Scott cited three economic reasons for rejecting the funds: First, capital overruns could cost taxpayers $3 billion; second, ridership and revenue projections are overly optimistic; and third, if the project becomes too costly for taxpayers, Florida will be required to return the $2.4 billion to the federal government. The rejection drew critical comments from state and congressional lawmakers, including Rep. John Mica, Chairman of the House Transportation Infrastructure Committee. On Thursday, a coalition of 26 state senators sent a letter to U.S. Department of Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, requesting more time before reallocating Florida's funds to other states. Secretary LaHood responded by providing an additional week for high-speed rail supporters to develop an alternative plan. On Friday, Senate President Mike Haridopolos staked out a different position than his Senate colleagues, joining Gov. Scott by rejecting federal high-speed rail funds. President Haridopolos noted that "we are far better off reducing the $1.5 trillion in proposed deficit spending by this $2.4 billion than we are to build a rail project that has a questionable-at-best economic viability."

The Florida Supreme Court requests 80 additional judges. On Thursday, the Florida Supreme Court recommended the addition of 80 judges — 26 circuit judges and 54 county judges. The Supreme Court is required by Article V of the state constitution to certify its recommendations for additional judges to the Legislature prior to the next regular session. The increase in judges was justified on the grounds that county judge workload has increased because of the loss of civil traffic infraction hearing officers, as well as an increase in the number of individuals representing themselves.

Economy

Tourism picks up after two years of declines. On Thursday, Visit Florida reported that the number of visitors to Florida in 2010 increased by more than two percent compared to 2009, resulting in preliminary estimate of more than 82 million individuals visiting Florida. According to Visit Florida, more than 15,000 travel-related jobs were created in just the fourth quarter of 2010, which is a reflection of increasing tourism in the state. Estimates also indicate that visitors in the fourth quarter of 2010 exceeded the same quarter in 2009 by more than five percent.

Legislature

Focus on rules: committees. Committees in the House and Senate perform the core lawmaking function of the Legislature, and, not surprisingly, a host of House and Senate rules govern their structure and operation — principally House Rule 7 and Senate Rule 2. The structure of the committees is ensconced in each chamber's rules at the beginning of each biennium, whose rules take the form of a concurrent resolution adopted by each respective chamber. Committees are required to inform the public of their work in advance by means of meeting notices, which are required to be provided one week in advance of meetings outside of the 60-day regular session, and two days within the regular session. The speaker and president assign blocks of time during which committees are authorized to meet, otherwise known as the "block calendar." Amendments to bills under consideration by House committees are generally due by 6:00 p.m. of the day prior to the meeting for members not on the committee; committee members may file amendments at any time. In the Senate, for all members, amendments are due at least 24 hours prior to the meeting time. Amendments in the House are often drafted by committee staff and are available in the published committee meeting packet, while in the Senate, amendments are generally routed through the bill drafting office and available individually on the appropriate bill Web page.

On the heels of the Senate, House proposes its own teacher quality reforms. On Wednesday, the House revealed its teacher quality reform proposal as a proposed committee bill from the K-20 Competitiveness Subcommittee. The bill is substantially similar to the proposal filed in the Senate, S.B. 736 by Sen. Stephen Wise. Among other provisions, the proposal: requires teachers and principals to be rated among four levels of performance; shifts teacher and principal evaluations from being "primarily based on performance" to at least 50-percent based on student growth; requires school districts to adopt a performance pay schedule for all teachers and principals hired on or after July 1, 2014; and eliminates tenure for all new teachers hired on or after July 1, 2011. The proposed committee bill is scheduled to be heard in the K-20 Competitiveness Subcommittee on Wednesday, February 23, while S.B. 736 is scheduled to be heard the same day in the Florida Senate Committee on Budget.

Florida Senate launches Medicaid reform proposal. On Tuesday night, Sen. Joe Negron, Chair of the Budget Subcommittee on Health and Human Services Appropriations, outlined the Senate's proposal to reform the state's Medicaid program. Sen. Negron noted that there are three goals of reform: quality, access, and cost. Under the proposal, every Medicaid recipient will have a primary care physician; managed care contracts will require a 90-percent medical loss ratio, as well as guaranteed savings and liquidated damages for contract breaches; Medicaid will be funded on a fixed amount determined each year by the Legislature; primary care physicians will be reimbursed at least 100 percent of Medicare rates (versus roughly 50 percent today); and individuals with developmental disabilities and seniors in nursing homes will be exempted from managed care. Anticipated savings from the reform effort include $1.033 billion in the first year, and $4.3 billion over four years. The reform proposal will be vetted by at least three committees. A brief overview of the proposal was provided in the Subcommittee on Health and Human Services Appropriations on Thursday; the committee will meet again on Wednesday, February 23 to continue the discussion.

Senator unveils state and local pension reform proposals. On Tuesday, Sen. Jeremy Ring unveiled two proposals to significantly revamp state and local retirement plans. Under the proposals, new local and state employees would be enrolled in defined contribution plans similar to 401(k) plans offered in the private sector. In addition, the deferred retirement option plan (otherwise known as DROP) will be eliminated for employees hired after July 1. The local reform bill, S.B. 1128, will be heard in the Senate Committee on Governmental Oversight and Accountability on Tuesday, February 22, while the state reform bill, S.B. 1130, will be heard in the same committee on Thursday, February 24.

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