Florida Politics - Campaigns & Elections. Lobbying & Government.

Michael MolineApril 6, 2017

The Senate Appropriations Committee wastes little time or comment approving a proposal to make sure the public is notified within 48 hours of a toxic spill. The panel took bare minutes to vote the bill out unanimously. It was the final committee stop on the way to the Senate floor. CS/SB 532, the Public Notice […]

Guest AuthorApril 5, 2017

Medicaid payment reform for nursing homes is both necessary and complex. And done well, it should be the result of clear policy objectives, careful consideration, vigorous debate and detailed modeling. On behalf of our 250 members across Florida, we encourage the Senate Appropriations Committee to ask tough questions and thoroughly vet the new nursing home […]

Scott PowersApril 3, 2017

The Florida Legislature may be negotiating how to cut funding to the office of 9th Judicial Circuit State Attorney Aramis Ayala — and ironically the less-controversial potential cut to her budget is the bigger of two now moving through committees. That sorting may begin this week when the House and Senate appropriations committees begin their […]

Les NeuhausMarch 16, 2017

More than three-quarters of Florida’s corrections officers have less than two years’ experience. In some state prisons, a single CO will be left alone to supervise 150-200 inmates in a jail block. Contraband has become so bad, one random search of (just half) a Dade facility turned up $15,000 in street value of cocaine, seven knives, […]

Les NeuhausMarch 16, 2017

In the decades before tablets and standardized testing wormed their way into primary and secondary schools, school playgrounds were a familiar place for children and adolescents. Up to an hour a day was spent running around, throwing balls to, or at, one another. But with all the technology and pressure to make the academic cut, […]

Michael MolineFebruary 9, 2017

The chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee defended state spending on economic incentives Thursday by pointing to evidence the effort produces solid returns on investment. Visit Florida, for example, returns $3.20 cents for every dollar spent on advertising, according to figures (here; scroll down) from Amy Baker, state government’s top economist. Enterprise Florida’s international offices […]

Michael MolineJanuary 26, 2017

Tourism business owners flocked to a Senate committee room Thursday to plead the case for Visit Florida, the state’s embattled tourism promotions agency. Representing both large operations and independent hotels and restaurants, they urged members of the Appropriations Committee to let the agency continue to sell Florida to potential tourists in the United States and overseas. […]

Michael MolineDecember 15, 2016

Visit Florida, beleaguered over its $1 million promotional contract with the rapper Pitbull, found a defender Thursday in Senate budget chairman Jack Latvala. In light of a soft construction sector, “what’s kept the whole outlook from softening up has been our strong tourism economy,” Latvala told reporters after the Appropriations Committee heard about the financial demands […]

Peter SchorschMarch 21, 2016

I was not sure if today was state Sen. Jack Latvala’s birthday, so I double-checked the list of lawmakers birthdays furnished by LobbyTools. Nope, today is definitely not the senior Latvala’s birthday. It’s Nov. 3. Still … If you had told Sen. Latvala last year that come the first day of spring he would be: on […]

Jim RosicaMarch 3, 2016

A squabble over tourist taxes, a last-minute amendment to the Senate’s tax cut package, sucked up about half of the 2016 Legislative Session’s last Senate Appropriations meeting, killing bills left hanging on the agenda. The panel OK’d the House plan (HB 7099) after amending it with the Senate’s own tax package. The legislation promises about $129 million in […]

Tag: Senate Appropriations Committee

Pollution-spill notice bill races to approval by Senate Appropriations Committee

Steve Bahmer: Senate must ask tough questions on Medicaid payment reform

Legislature to consider cuts to Aramis Ayala’s office — deeper or angrier

Florida prison chief: State losing corrections staff to ‘Wal-Mart,’ creating insecurity in system

School recess, in disarray statewide, to become uniform under Senate bill

Jack Latvala says evidence doesn’t support House on job incentives

Visit Florida defenders swarm Senate Appropriations Committee hearing

Jack Latvala defends Visit Florida amid Pitbull contract controversy

It’s not Jack Latvala’s birthday!

Tug of war over tax package kills bills