Florida Weekend Recap – January 11

A recap of this week’s best political and policy happenings in Florida.

BUSINESS & INDUSTRY
The Florida Office of Insurance Regulation released a report that found Personal Injury Protection (PIP) fraud had declined in Florida, as had the amount of money paid out in PIP claims by insurance companies, possibly due to the passage of a law in 2012 reforming the marketplace. OIR also issued their annual report on the state of Florida’s workers’ compensation market, which OIR found to be competitive. Rep. David Richardson, D-Miami Beach, is partnering with Sen. Jeff Clemens, D-Lake Worth, to ban mental health practitioners from engaging in “gay conversion therapy,” techniques which are meant to permanently alter individuals’ sexual orientations. Nearly all of the 3,000 comments collected during the Coast Guard’s examination of railroad drawbridges are useless, according to Coast Guard officials, because nearly all of them focus on concerns about proposed passenger rail service All Aboard Florida. The Coast Guard has little power to address those concerns.

ECONOMY
State economists presented an overview of Florida’s economic situation to the House Appropriations Committee, where economist Amy Baker said that the state continued its recovery from the Great Recession. The Florida Department of Economic Opportunity made their pitch for $5 million to build a brand for Florida as “The Perfect Climate for Business” to the House Economic Development and Tourism Subcommittee in a move that DEO says will help bring news employers and jobs to the state. A report by Florida TaxWatch said that Florida was poised for a “sunny year” based on economists’ projections of continued job creation and a stronger housing market. A cost-benefit analysis of Florida’s entertainment industry incentive programs found that Florida’s entertainment industry Sales Tax Exemption and Financial Incentives had an ROI of 0.54 and 0.43 respectively, indicating that neither program returned more money to the state than it invested. While neither the exemption nor the incentives broke even, the state found that it did recoup significant percentage of the money, and there may be other social or economic benefits created by the programs that do not affect the state’s revenue.

EDUCATION
The Florida Education Association said it will not appeal the December 2014 ruling that tossed out a lawsuit over expanding the state’s main private school voucher program. The union will, however, move forward with its second lawsuit which contends the voucher program in its entirety is unconstitutional. State lawmakers called for less standardized testing of public school students and quickly. “We don’t have a year or two to study this,” said Sen. Don Gaetz, R-Nice­ville, chairman of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Education. “Any kind of cleanup that we need, or simplification we need in testing and assessment, should have been addressed by now.” The Sunshine State placed 28th in new national education rankings. The Annual Quality Counts report by Education Week gave Florida and the nation a grade of C. Gov. Rick Scott said he wants to hold the line on graduate tuition in his inaugural address. The Florida Legislature and Scott agreed on a bill last session that stopped allowing university governing boards to approve hikes for undergraduates.

ENERGY & ENVIRONMENT
A flurry of bills were filed seeking to reform the Public Service Commission (HB 199, SB 230, SB 288). The commission became a lightning rod of controversy after customers complained to lawmakers about billing period extensions that caused their energy bills to surge. Meanwhile, an appeals court found Florida’s controversial nuclear cost recovery law, which allows utilities to charge customers for planned projects, to be constitutional. Customers of both Duke Energy and Florida Power & Light argued the utilities owed ratepayers money for power plants that were never built. A Republican-led group is trying to put the sun back in Sunshine State with a petition for a new ballot proposal that would allow private citizens with solar panels sell electricity directly to other consumers. Under the political action committee Floridians for Solar Choice Inc., backers of the amendment criticize utilities as having too much control over the state’s power. Danielle Carter, a volunteer with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, spotted an albino dolphin in Florida’s Indian River Lagoon. Carter’s sighting is one of only 15 spotted in the past half century. No word on whether the creature was being pursued by a peg-legged madman with an axe to grind.

HEALTH & HUMAN SERVICES
Yet again Florida is leading enrollment on the health insurance exchanges. Federal officials announced that Healthcare.gov enrolled 1.9 million new customers for health insurance between Nov. 15 and Dec. 18, 2014. Florida by far led the nation in that enrollment, with 673,255 people selecting plans. AHCA’s deputy director for Medicaid Justin Senior told the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Health and Human Services January 7 that a federally mandated study on the state’s Low Income Pool program is expected to meet its deadline of January 15, 2015. The study was commissioned to find a way to close a provider payment gap caused by the federal government’s intention to discontinue the $2 billion program. Meanwhile, a U.S. Circuit judge ruled that the state illegally deprived kids of health care. The 10-year-old suit alleged that Florida wasn’t properly compensating pediatricians to ensure impoverished children received adequate medical care. The state says the suit is outdated as it has transitioned Medicaid recipients into managed care. Rep. Mike Hill, R-Pensacola, filed a measure that would require doctors have admitting privileges at a hospital before conducting abortions.

LAW & ORDER
The Senate Criminal Justice Committee’s first meeting focused on how to reform the Department of Corrections, and saw presentation from experts including Allison DeFoor of the Accountable Justice Project, Florida Department of Law Enforcement Commissioner Rick Swearigen and former DOC psychotherapist George C. Mallinckrodt. The committee planned to meet again in the upcoming week to explore the results of discussions between Swearigen and newly appointed DOC Secretary Julie Jones. FDLE also announced that it would handle the investigations into all in-custody and use of force related deaths involved the Miami Police Department due to concerns over concerns that the Miami police were not conducting internal investigations in a transparent manner. Gay marriage became legal across the state after a stay on District Judge Robert Hinkle’s ruling striking down Florida’s same-sex marriage ban expired. The first same-sex marriages actually occurred one day earlier, on January 5, after a Miami-Dade judge issued an order to that county’s clerk of court said there was no need to wait for the stay’s actual expiration at midnight. The attorney general’s office released its annual hate crimes report, noting a fall from 170 hate crimes in 2012 to 124 hate crimes in 2014, a 27.1 percent decrease between 2012 and 2013.

POLITICS
Gov. Rick Scott was sworn in for a second term at the Old Capitol. Tallahassee interest groups provided $800,000 for the event. His inaugural address focused on familiar themes of education and the economy. Florida House Speaker Pro Tempore Matt Hudson, R-Naples, said he will run for the Florida Senate seat held by term-limited Sen. Garrett Richter, R-Naples. Rep. David Richardson, D-Miami Beach, will run for the Senate seat held by Sen. Gwen Margolis. Her career in the Florida Legislature began in 1974 and she has filed for re-election in 2016. But she told the Times/Herald Tallahassee Bureau that she is on the fence about her candidacy. “It depends on how I’m feeling,” she said. “I’m getting older. If I’m feeling well, I’ll stay [in politics].” Pass the buck: Tampa Mayor Bob Buckhorn raised $360,000 in a campaign against no one, as he has no filed challengers. Buckhorn, a Democrat, has already dropped hints of a 2018 gubernatorial run.

PUBLIC SECTOR
Same-sex spouses of state employees will now be granted benefits after the invalidation of Florida’s gay marriage ban. Department of Management Services and Florida Retirement System officials announced January 7, 2015, that those spouses would now be eligible for state coverage for health insurance and retirement benefits. Sen. Jeff Brandes, R-St. Petersburg, filed a measure that would require the inclusion of a mortality table in FRS’s regularly scheduled actuarial reports to DMS. Shortly after his second inauguration, Gov. Rick Scott announced that his administration would more strictly follow public records law. After a year of legal wrangling Scott said his office will now require former employees who use private email accounts or private cellphones for public business to turn over the records when they leave. The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission will consider whether to once again allow people to hunt bears. As the once-struggling bear population rebounds, the state is seeing a spike in attacks. The FWC will begin taking public comment February 4, 2015.