Feds may act if Florida stalls on health-reform law
f Florida leaders refuse to carry out the new national health care law, Uncle Sam is prepared to take charge on behalf of the state's consumers. One year after President Barack Obama signed the health care overhaul into law, federal officials are urging Florida and other reluctant states to shape it to meet their needs and to take advantage of millions of dollars of federal planning grants. Failure to participate, officials warned this week, means a loss of state control. Florida and other states, for example, must show by 2013 they are set up to provide a health insurance exchange, an online service for consumers to compare coverage plans and shop for affordable rates. If states are unwilling or unprepared, the law requires U.S. officials to step in and make a federally run exchange available for residents at the start of 2014. But Florida Gov. Rick Scott, backed by fellow Republicans in the Legislature who strongly oppose "ObamaCare," has refused $2 million in federal planning money and ordered state agencies not to implement the law. In addition, Florida has challenged the law in federal court, in a lawsuit filed before Scott was elected in November. [Source: South Florida Sun-Sentinel]
SunRail costs up by almost $5 million because of Scott's delay
The cost to build the SunRail commuter train in Central Florida could go up by at least $4.8 million because Gov. Rick Scott has frozen work on the project until the summer.
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Jackson Lab won't get $100 million from state, legislators say
Jackson Laboratory's hopes of getting approval for $100 million in state funding from the Legislature and Gov. Rick Scott this year is doomed, barring a last-minute political miracle. State legislators say Sarasota County and Jackson Labs have been so late in asking the Legislature for money that, despite the promise of 2,200 new jobs and a jolt to the local economy, they do not see how they can secure the money this year. That could be a deal breaker for Jackson executives, who made clear in an interview Tuesday that they need the money this year if the genetics researcher is to build its personalized medical institute here. Mike Hyde, Jackson's vice president, said there is a limit to the time and money Jackson will spend to come to Florida. Before announcing plans to locate in Sarasota County, Jackson spent over a year trying to move to Collier County in Southwest Florida. Hyde refused to say if Jackson would look to other states if funding from Florida is not forthcoming, but in previous interviews he has confirmed that Texas and Utah have made overtures to get the facility. [Source: Sarasota Herald-Tribune]
Ruling gets state off hook for Glades reservoir
A Miami federal judge has removed an $800 million gorilla from the back of state water managers — a massive reservoir that loomed as a major legal and financial hurdle to plans to clean up Everglades pollution. In a ruling that reversed his own order last year, U.S. District Court Judge Federico Moreno decided the Everglades and taxpayers would pay the price if he forced the South Florida Water Management District to restart construction of the partially-built project. Moreno, in accepting the recommendation of his court-appointed advisor, found the water district's shrinking budget, the state's purchase of 26,000 acres of sugar fields and another judge's order to expand cleanup efforts had combined to change the old blueprint for reducing the flow of pollution into the Everglades. [Source: Miami Herald]
Florida bill would expand school vouchers program
A school vouchers program created by former Gov. Jeb Bush is set to grow under a bill making its way through the state Legislature.
Florida's Legislature's in Session: Meet the Freshman Class More than one-third of the new lawmakers are lawyers, and 14 of the House's 44 freshmen are millionaires. |
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Legislative Roundup
» Fertilizer bill narrowly advances in House
» Insurers helped write bill intended to shrink Citizens
» Bill would help establish rules for sex in group homes
» Bill would allow advertising on school buses
ALSO AROUND FLORIDA:
› Legoland Florida builds toward colorful October debut
Lego building blocks are bright red, yellow and green, but so far Legoland Florida is mostly a sandy brown.
That's about to change, said Adrian Jones, the theme park's general manager, at the construction site Wednesday. The infrastructure has been finished, Jones said, and "we are actually starting to really build things and put in rides and redo the buildings."
The 150-acre resort will feature attractions designed primarily for children age 12 and younger, with mild roller coasters, car and boat attractions, Lego-building areas, a ski stunt show and small-scale versions of cities made of Lego blocks.
Scheduled to open in October, the $150-million Legoland is being built where Cypress Gardens operated until 2009.
› Tight Fla budget strands university projects awaiting matching grants
University of South Florida's future polytechnic campus. University of Florida's graduate business studies building. Florida State University's Center for Asian Art.
These projects share one thing in common: They're on a waiting list for state money that was promised but not yet delivered.
Two state programs — one specific to facilities, and the other for major gifts — provide matching state dollars for private donations that pay for construction projects and for endowments supporting everything from scholarships to research programs. The facilities program matches donations dollar for dollar. The major gifts program matches up to 100 percent, depending on the size of the donation.
But the Legislature hasn't funded the programs since 2008, leaving universities waiting on a total of nearly $300 million in state matches. The state's colleges are waiting on another $220 million to be matched through similar programs.
Universities and the Board of Governors say restoring the funding to the programs is a legislative priority. They worry that continuing to leave them unfunded could have a chilling effect on private donations. In many cases, universities are fronting the money from the state with other funds.
› Why Jacksonville? Saft's CEO provides the answers
Why Jacksonville?
This region has much going for it, especially as it competes with other communities across the U.S. to lure companies and jobs.
Why Jacksonville? John Searle, CEO of Saft Group, recently articulated the answer to that question in an off-the-cuff interview about why this place became the "location of choice" for Saft's $200 million investment in a new battery plant that is bringing 300 jobs to Cecil Commerce Center.
Ilona Vega Jaramillo, director of international business development for Enterprise Florida, shot the video earlier this month when Searle attended the chamber's Cornerstone quarterly luncheon.
Why Jacksonville, she asked Searle, and the following video captures his response, including why he chose to move his North American headquarters here.
» Community Portrait: Jacksonville
› Texas insurance broker entering Florida market
The Houston-based insurance broker Bowen, Miclette & Britt Inc. has expanded into the Florida market -- and Sarasota -- with the purchase of Huckleberry Sibley & Harvey Insurance & Bonds Inc.
Besides its Sarasota office, Huckleberry Sibley has offices in Maitland, Cocoa, West Palm Beach, Santa Rosa Beach.
Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Included in the transaction is Merrimac Marine Insurance LLC, an affiliated broker serving the specialized marine industry on a national basis.
Bowen, Miclette, which bills itself as the 64th largest insurance broker in the nation, also has a presence in Louisiana.
› Scott announces board to study public hospitals
Gov. Rick Scott announced Wednesday the formation of a commission to review whether government hospitals should continue to exist in Florida — a move that could have major implications for the Jackson Health System.
"It is the intent of this administration to develop a more rational approach to compensating hospitals with a higher degree of predictability and fairness, and which does not incentivize inefficiency, higher cost or irrational business practices," Scott said in his five-page executive order.
The order noted that some hospitals get paid at significantly higher Medicaid rates than others — an indirect reference to the Lower Income Pool payments that hospitals like Jackson receive for taking care of large numbers of uninsured patients. Jackson is expecting to get $203 million in LIP payments this year, but that amount must be approved by the state Legislature.
The governor's office is also holding up payment of $35 million to Jackson that was approved by last year's Legislature.
› Daytona Beach struggles with population loss
Joe Cameron lives in a Daytona Beach neighborhood where he's always a golf cart ride away from playing 18 holes, and when the sun goes down he can listen to owls hooting in the tall trees that forest the Indigo Lakes subdivision.
When he wants civilization -- the interstate, stores and restaurants -- he has it five minutes after he hops in his car. Cameron has lived in Daytona Beach the vast majority of his life, and the retired insurance agent has no desire to live anywhere else.
More than 3,100 other people haven't found Daytona Beach quite so idyllic over the past decade. They've moved out of town, dropping the city's population by nearly 5 percent, according to recently released U.S. Census numbers.
The same thing has happened in three other east Volusia County cities, including South Daytona, which watched 7 percent of its population walk away since 2000.
That has some people in those shrunken communities a little unnerved. Most of them expected to hold steady or even grow a little.
Go to page 2 for more stories ...
› Wisconsin woes spotlight banked teacher sick leave
While Wisconsin teachers have come under fire for falsely calling in sick to protest at their state capitol — resulting school closures — one local union official says not to expect anything similar in Florida.
Teachers faced national criticism earlier this month after using sick leave to travel to the capitol and protest a bill that limits collective bargaining rights for Wisconsin state workers — a move that cost those taxpayers millions and had bloggers and pundits calling for those educators to be fired, according to the Associated Press.
Mixed with those criticisms were misgivings toward the nationwide practice of allowing state workers, including teachers, to bank sick time and cash them out once they leave — meaning they cash out that sick time at a higher hourly wage than when they initially earned it.
In Hernando County, teachers receive sick leave payouts once they retire based on years of service and their hourly rates when they leave the district.
Sick leave can be transferred from one Florida school district to the other and educators can't collect any of it until they have worked at least 10 years.
› Orlando man chosen as Central and North Florida's "Small Business Person of the Year"
An Orlando businessman was named the Small Business Person of the Year by the U.S. Small Business Administration's North Florida District.
Fernando Pereira, president of Pegasus Transportation, took the honor after being nominated by the University of Central Florida's Small Business Development Center.
Pereira's business, founded in 1994, provides motor coach transportation for groups visiting Florida. With a fleet in Orlando and Miami, the company serves corporations, as well as senior and student travel and international tour groups.
Pereira will be honored along with other winners at the 19th annual Small Business Week & Lender Awards Celebration on May 25 in Jacksonville.
› Six strategies to save a failing business
From credit-card debt to mortgage refinance, the problems faced by small-business owners are similar to those of many South Florida consumers — but bigger.
Many small-business owners have developed bad habits, said lawyer Julianne Frank, who specializes in business distress. She has to do "tough love" with clients who pay employees' wages through cash advances on their credit cards or ignore a vendor lawsuit for nonpayment — until their accounts are frozen.
During the recession, "what these clients perceived as the worst-case scenario was not even close," says Frank, a partner in the Frank, White-Boyd law firm in Palm Beach County.
› Red Lobster to open soon in Dubai and Kuwait City
Red Lobster is coming soon to Dubai and Kuwait City — but don't expect to order a beer.
Orlando-based Darden Restaurants this week revealed the initial two of 60 planned restaurants in the Middle East.
The first is scheduled to open this summer inside Dubai Mall, a 12 million-square-foot complex that includes an aquarium, dancing fountain shows and more than 1,000 shops and restaurants, many of them Western chains.
Another will follow later this year in Kuwait City, though Darden didn't have details yet at which shopping center.
Darden recently signed an agreement with Americana Group, a company that opens American restaurants in the Middle East. The five-year deal calls for at least 60 Darden restaurants — which also include Olive Garden and LongHorn Steakhouse — in Bahrain, Egypt, Kuwait, Lebanon, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
Darden said it's too early to tell whether the recent unrest in the Middle East will affect development in the region.
› Coca-Cola closing bottling plant near High Springs
Coca-Cola North America has decided to close its bottled water plant in Gilchrist County near High Springs on March 31 after it was unable to find a buyer, a decision that will affect 71 remaining employees.
The company had been in talks with a prospective buyer but was unable to reach a purchase agreement, said Charlie Sutlive, spokesman for Coca-Cola Refreshments.
The remaining employees will be offered severance packages. They also were offered temporary positions through May at the Simply Orange juice production facility in Auburndale. As of last week, 14 employees had accepted the offer, Sutlive said.
› Jabil Circuit shares up strongly on upbeat earnings
Jabil Circuit's better than expected quarterly financial performance drove its shares higher Wednesday by nearly 11 percent as the contract electronics manufacturer said it could reach $20 billion in revenues in two years — if it keeps on growing at its scorching pace.
On such a trajectory, Jabil could approach the size of Tech Data Corp., Tampa Bay's largest public company by revenues, within several years. Tech Data, which is based in Clearwater, closed its fiscal year Jan. 31 with $24 billion in revenues.
The aggressive forecast emerged after St. Petersburg-based Jabil reported a surge in second-quarter results and a more optimistic long-term forecast. Jabil was one of the few tech stocks to close up on Wednesday, closing at at $20.99.