Lawmakers Strike Deal On Hospital Funding
June 13, 2015
Lawmakers struck a deal Friday on how to spend about $2 billion in hospital funding in the budget year that begins July 1, clearing a key sticking point in talks about a state spending plan and potentially clearing the way to end a special session next week as scheduled.
The agreement on divvying up the mixture of local, state and federal dollars among dozens of hospitals across Florida caps a debate that helped derail the regular spring session and forced lawmakers to return to Tallahassee this month. House and Senate negotiators are racing the clock to try to finish their work in time for a vote on the budget by the scheduled June 20 conclusion of the special session, 10 days before the state must have a spending plan to avoid a government shutdown.
Lawmakers had already decided how to buffer hospitals from the drop in funding in the Low Income Pool program, which provides additional money to hospitals and other health-care providers that care for large numbers of low-income patients. The federal government is reducing the so-called “LIP” program from $2.2 billion in the current budget year, which ends June 30, to $1 billion next year. The legislative plan will use state money to draw down other federal funds to boost payments to all hospitals for Medicaid services in an effort to offset that drop.
But until Friday, there was no agreement on the formula that would be used to distribute the money through the state’s health-care system.
“It’s important … that we provided some stability in the health-care system for hospitals to understand that, yes, Low Income Pool is going to change, but we’re going to make a financial commitment on the state standpoint to help in that transition, and that’s what we did,” said Senate President Andy Gardiner, an Orlando Republican and health-care executive. “Once that was done, I think that’s a huge step forward.”
A spokesman for Gov. Rick Scott, who has voiced opposition to using state tax dollars to fill in the loss of LIP, said the governor’s office was still reviewing the proposal.
With the budget deadline looming, there are still areas of disagreement between the two chambers that will need to be hammered out, including some education policy provisions that the Senate wants to place into a budget-related bill and how to prune an expansive list of water projects into the amount set aside for that purpose. Hours after the agreement on LIP was announced, Gardiner and House Speaker Steve Crisafulli, R-Merritt Island, said the chambers’ budget chiefs would continue negotiations through the weekend.
Crisafulli and Gardiner had been scheduled to start direct negotiations on the spending plan after Friday. Instead, House Appropriations Chairman Richard Corcoran, R-Land O’ Lakes, and Senate Appropriations Chairman Tom Lee, R-Brandon, will continue their talks.
“We look forward to using this last week of the special session to finalize a balanced budget and deliver broad-based tax reform legislation,” Crisafulli and Gardiner said in a joint statement. “We look forward to an on-time finish.”
As for the LIP model itself, Senate Health and Human Services Appropriations Chairman Rene Garcia, R-Hialeah, said lawmakers tried as much as possible to lessen the impact of the changes in funding.
“Obviously, there are going to be winners and losers,” he said. “We tried to make sure that we smoothed out and helped those hospitals that were losing more money because of the formula that we came up with. It’s not a perfect formula, but it’s the fairest formula we could come up with to make sure that we ensure that these hospitals, especially the safety nets, were taken care of.”
Still, some hospitals lost money. Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami would see the payments it receives from the state — after contributions the hospital makes to the formula — tumble from $270.5 million under the old model to $263.8 million under the new formula. Funding for Bay Medical Center, in Bay County, would slide from $12.8 million to almost $9.9 million.
There were winners as well. Miami Children’s Hospital, for example, would see its share of the funds increase from almost $51.9 million in the current year to almost $57.9 million next year.
While many were still crunching the numbers Friday, hospital executives applauded parts of the deal, such as $100 million to increase medical residencies in the state.
“This is a big step toward ensuring that Florida has the physicians needed to meet the health care demands of our growing, aging and increasingly diverse population,” said Carlos Migoya, president and CEO of Jackson Health System and chairman of the board of the Safety Net Hospital Alliance of Florida. “This will go a long way toward reducing the specialist shortage that everyone agrees must be addressed now.”
Lawmakers also set aside $50 million to fund programs that generally receive help from LIP but otherwise might have been left out of the formula.
Challenges remain in the future. The federal government has told state officials that they can expect to see LIP fall to about $600 million next year.
“And we know that next year we’re going to be working with $400 million less, so we took a proactive approach to make sure that we lessened the blow as it relates to the following year, the outlying years,” Garcia said.
by Brandon Larrabee, The News Service of Florida
License-Free Freshwater Fishing This Weekend In Florida
June 13, 2015
This weekend offers freshwater license-free fishing in Florida for residents and visitors.
On Saturday and Sunday, June 13-14, the freshwater recreational fishing license requirement will be waived.
Governor Scott said, “This summer, we’re excited to make it easier for families to enjoy the world class fishing our state has to offer. Florida is the fishing capital of the world and one of the many reasons we welcomed a record 98.9 million visitors to the Sunshine State last year. I look forward to fishing with my grandsons this summer, and I hope everyone takes advantage of license-free fishing this month.”
All bag limits, seasons and size restrictions apply on the license-free dates.
NorthEscambia.com file photo.
Wahoos A Washout
June 13, 2015
Friday night’s game between the Pensacola Blue Wahoos and the Montgomery Biscuits was rained out.
Friday’s game will be made up Saturday night during a doubleheader scheduled to begin at 5 p.m. in Montgomery.
Pensacola’s Tim Adleman (2-6, 2.33) will pitch the first game, while reliever Jacob Johnson (3-1, 4.61), who has pitched in 14 relief appearances, is scheduled to make a spot start. The Blue Wahoos return home for a five-game series against the Mobile BayBears Wednesday June 17-21.
Scott Heads To Paris Air Show
June 13, 2015
Donning his Sunshine State salesman hat, Gov. Rick Scott left Friday for the Paris Air Show for what is likely to be an abbreviated weekend promo.
Scott’s trip comes even as lawmakers enter the final week of the special session — slated to end Friday — focused on a state spending plan for the fiscal year that ends June 30.
Scott, who is expected to return Monday, is traveling to the 51st International Paris-Le Bourget Air Show with officials from Enterprise Florida and 17 Florida-based companies. The renowned trade show runs from Monday to June 21.
Scott’s travel plans should allow him to attend the opening of the Enterprise Florida pavilion at the air show, which includes vendor space — costing from $8,860 to $21,600 — for the Florida companies. The first four days of the event are restricted to industry representatives, followed by three days open to the general public.
“Governor Scott is confident this economic development trip will result in job creation for Florida,” Scott spokeswoman Jeri Bustamante said in an email.
Enterprise Florida spokeswoman Beth Frady said the agency’s staff has lined up more than 40 “one-on-one” business-development meetings during the air show. The show “provides a unique and cost-effective platform for business and trade development in the state,” Frady said.
Enterprise Florida claims that the 2013 Paris Air Show, also attended by Scott, generated more than $170 million in export sales for the Florida exhibitors on the trip and spawned more than more than 40 projects involving aviation, aerospace and defense.
According to the organization, Scott’s first-term international excursions — to Panama, Canada, Brazil, Israel, Spain, the United Kingdom, Colombia, Chile, France and Japan — resulted in sales topping $474 million for the companies that participated in the missions.
The effectiveness of the trips, however, remains suspect to some.
Ben Wilcox, research director of the Tallahassee watchdog group Integrity Florida, wants more details about the trips from Enterprise Florida, which has its expenses covered by private and public dollars.
“I would be skeptical of the numbers provided by Enterprise Florida and would like to see a more specific breakdown of how much in sales each company benefited from,” Wilcox said. “There needs to be more transparency and accountability before the public can know whether these missions are justified. The same can be said about Gov. Scott’s attendance.”
Paris marks Scott’s first international business trip since he went to Japan in November 2013. He put such ventures on hold during his re-election bid last year.
Scott’s office waited until the final moments before the governor’s Friday afternoon departure early to announce he was taking part in the Enterprise Florida trip. Until Thursday, his aides said “it will be a game-time decision” if Scott would embark on the mission while lawmakers were busy finalizing budget details.
by Jim Turner, The News Service Of Florida
New Signal Now Active At Highway 29, Highway 97 In Molino
June 12, 2015
The new traffic signal at Highway 29 and Highway 97 in Molino became operational Thursday. Drivers are being advised by the Florida Department of Transportation to use caution when approaching the intersection.
The new signal is mounted on horizontal mast arms. Since the signal is in the horizontal position, motorists with color weakness problems will need to remember red is on the left and green on the right.
NorthEscambia.com photos, click to enlarge.
Century Continues Work To Hammer Out New Budget
June 12, 2015
The Town of Century continued work on their 2015-2016 budget Thursday during a special council workshop meeting.
Additional budget workshops are planned for Thursday, June 18 and Thursday July 9. An additional budget workshop will Thursday, July 16, if needed. All meetings will be held at 1:30 p.m. on the listed dates in the council chambers at the Century Town Hall at 7995 North Century Boulevard.
Final approval for the budget will come in September, with Century’s 2015-2016 fiscal year beginning October 1.
The Town of Century’s budget for the current fiscal year is $5.1 million.
Tate Senior Norre Named Florida VFW Eagle Scout Of The Year
June 12, 2015
Tate High School senior Jacob Norre was named the Florida VFW Eagle Scout of the Year during a special ceremony Thursday in Orlando. Norre was presented the award and a scholarship by Gov. Rick Scott.
Norre’s application for the award was presented by Pensacola VFW Post 706. He is a member of Boy Scout Troop 628 charted by the Gonzales United Methodist Men.
Norre was also recently named a drum major for the Tate High School Showband of the South.
Appeals Court Rules Against High Tax Rate For Satellite TV
June 12, 2015
An appeals court Thursday said a Florida law is unconstitutional because it imposes a higher tax rate on satellite-television companies than on their cable-TV competitors.
The 1st District Court of Appeal, in a 2-1 ruling, also ordered a lower court to determine how much money should be refunded to satellite-TV companies. The ruling overturned a decision by a Leon County circuit judge, who found the differing rates in the state’s communications-services tax were valid.
The Florida Department of Revenue quickly vowed to appeal Thursday’s ruling.
“The department has reviewed this opinion and plans to challenge the ruling,” department Executive Director Marshall Stranburg said in a prepared statement. “The court’s opinion is contrary to decisions on this issue in numerous state and federal courts and misconstrues the effect of the communications services tax.”
The case stems from the state communications-services tax being set at 6.65 percent for cable TV and 10.8 percent for satellite service. The appeals court found that the tax is discriminatory and violates the Commerce Clause of the U.S. Constitution.
“Here, the sales tax portion of the CST (communications-services tax) is discriminatory in effect because it affects similarly-situated entities, cable and satellite companies, by imposing a disproportionate burden on satellite service and conferring an advantage upon cable services, which use in-state infrastructure,” said the majority opinion, written by Judge Clay Roberts and joined by Judge Ronald Swanson.
A key part of the case involved a question about whether the tax law discriminates against out-of-state satellite companies when compared with cable companies that have large amounts of infrastructure in Florida. Such discrimination can violate what is known as the “dormant” Commerce Clause.
In a dissenting opinion, appeals-court Judge Simone Marstiller disputed that the law violated the dormant Commerce Clause.
“Inasmuch as the cable providers and the satellite providers both have human and physical assets in Florida which they use to provide services to their customers, they both have significant in-state economic interests,” Marstiller wrote. “I fail to see how, under these facts, the cable providers have local economic interests, but the satellite providers do not. And I find nothing in dormant Commerce Clause jurisprudence that would justify invalidating Florida’s CST based on one group’s comparatively greater economic investment in the state where both groups have economic investment here.”
The potential ramifications of the ruling were not immediately clear Thursday, as the appeals court sent the case back to circuit court to determine a refund amount.
The ruling came as state lawmakers negotiate a budget for the fiscal year that starts July 1 — and, somewhat ironically, are discussing a reduction in the communications-services tax.
House Speaker Steve Crisafulli, R-Merritt Island, said Thursday afternoon he was waiting to get a briefing on the potential ramifications of the ruling. But he noted that an appeal would likely delay its effects.
by Jim Saunders, The News Service of Florida
NorthEscambia.com photos, click to enlarge.
Scott Signs Controversial Adoption Bill
June 12, 2015
Gov. Rick Scott on Thursday signed 48 bills Thusrday, including an controversial adoption bill..
The bill (HB 7013) will provide $5,000 payments to government workers who adopt foster children, with the payments increasing to $10,000 for adopting children with special needs. But the bill also sparked fierce protests over what one critic called its “poison pill” — a provision repealing the state’s decades-old ban on gay adoption.
An outcry by social conservatives about repealing the ban led the House this spring to approve another measure — dubbed the “conscience protection” bill — that would have protected faith-based adoption agencies from lawsuits or loss of licensure for refusing to place children with gays. But the “conscience protection” bill did not pass the Senate.
Scott sought to bridge the divide in a letter Thursday that accompanied his signing of HB 7013. He noted that the gay adoption ban hasn’t been enforced since 2010, when the 3rd District Court of Appeal struck it down. However, he wrote, “It is my hope and expectation that the Legislature will take future action to make clear that we will support private, faith-based operators in the child welfare system and ensure that their religious convictions continue to be protected.”
Sen. Don Gaetz, a Niceville Republican who was the Senate sponsor of HB 7013, indicated he was elated — and grateful — that Scott signed the measure.
“I know that there was political pressure to veto the bill,” Gaetz said. “I know there were people who were passionate, and I’m sure very well intentioned, who believe that one line in this bill was enough to encourage the governor to veto what was otherwise truly an expression of hope and support by the state of Florida for hundreds and hundreds of hard-to-place kids.”
Meanwhile, Rep. Dennis Baxley, an Ocala Republican who supported the “conscience protection” bill and is one of the most-prominent social conservatives in the Legislature, pointed to the difficult decision that faced Scott.
“The governor certainly articulates the conundrum we find ourselves in,” Baxley said. “I don’t hate anybody. I’m not phobic or afraid of anybody. I simply can’t morally run over my Biblical beliefs about homosexuality. And I still believe that every child deserves a mom and a dad.”
John Stemberger, president of the conservative Florida Family Policy Council, had a harsher assessment of the bill. Stemberger tweeted that the governor had signed a “bad homosexual adoption bill putting faith-based agencies at risk.”
But Rep. David Richardson, a Miami Beach Democrat who played a key role in getting the gay-adoption ban repealed, said in a prepared statement he was “glad the governor did the right thing.”
“This is a momentous day and an important advance for civil rights,” said Richardson, who is gay. “It’s also great news for children who will be adopted into loving homes.”
Scott signed the adoption bill just hours after formally receiving it.
by Margie Menzel and Jim Turner, The News Service of Florida
Florida Department Of Education Honors Involvement Of Two Escambia Churches
June 12, 2015
The Florida Department of Education has recognized two Escambia County churches with the Commissioner’s Business Recognition Awards. The awards acknowledge businesses for their extraordinary contributions to public education in Florida.
For Escambia County, the awards were presented to Calvary Baptist Church on Pine Forest Road and Pine Summit Baptist Church on Bellview Avenue.
Calvary Baptist has been involved in a five year partnership with Bellview Elementary School, having adopted this school as a part of the church’s “Impact Ministry”. Originating from a vision to have a positive impact on the community, the church has numerous members who volunteer as mentors through the Escambia County School District’s Youth Motivator Program.
The church also provides “backpack food” for more than two dozen children identified by the school as lacking food to eat over the weekends. Church volunteers also assist in the classroom and with special projects as requested by the school’s teachers and administrators.
“Everyone benefits when businesses are actively involved in education in their communities,” said Chancellor of K-12 Public Education Hershel Lyons. “I commend our partners’ efforts to ensure students receive the tools and resources they need to be successful in college, career and life.”
“We understand that as Christians, we have a unique and solemn responsibility and privilege to make our community a better place. It is simply not ‘good enough’ to exist in our community and not address the real and prevalent needs of those here,” said Calvary Senior Pastor Chris Aiken. “Teachers have the ‘high ground’ of influence in the lives of children. We simply want to help our schools in fulfilling their mandate to train up and educate this generation of children.”
Calvary also serves the broader school district as hosts of the baccalaureate services for Pine Forest and West Florida high schools, providing mentors at Ransom and Bellview middle schools and MacArthur Elementary, as well as providing leadership to First Priority programs at Pine Forest High, as well as Bellview and Ransom Middle Schools.
Pictured top: Calvary Baptist Church. Courtesy photo for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.