April 28, 2009
Beginning in 1978, Florida voters three times rejected constitutional amendments that would have made forced the state to allow casino gambling.
Archive for April, 2009
Jacksonville News- Florida may gamble on casinos for revenue
Tuesday, April 28th, 2009The Ledger- Budget Looms Large in Legislature’s Final Week
Tuesday, April 28th, 2009April 28, 2009
TALLAHASSEE | Although lawmakers will not finish the state budget this week, Floridians could be impacted by some critical issues still in play in the 2009 Legislature, ranging from a tuition increase for state universities to new efforts to revive the state’s troubled property insurance market.
Sun-Sentinel- Proposed FDLE casino cuts don’t make sense
Friday, April 24th, 2009April 23, 2009
Gamblers took more than $3 billion worth of spins through slot machines at South Florida’s three state-licensed casinos last year, generating $122.5 million in state taxes and $122.5 million in casino revenue.
St. Petersburg Times- For a healthier Florida, boost tobacco tax
Wednesday, April 22nd, 2009April 22, 2009
Our state now has a rare opportunity to improve the health of our citizens while simultaneously providing a recurring funding source for critical medical programs. The Senate has taken the lead, and it’s time for the House to navigate a new course: support the surcharge on tobacco products to pay for smoking-related health care costs in Florida, and direct surcharge revenue toward Medicaid programs.
Tallahassee Democrat- Bill would let insurance companies decide premiums
Wednesday, April 22nd, 2009April 22, 2009
The House this morning passed a bill that would allow insurance companies to charge whatever premiums they want on homeowners insurance policies, a move proponents said would attract companies to the state and let the marketplace decide appropriate rates.
The News Press- Florida Senate, House differ on gaming
Wednesday, April 22nd, 2009April 22, 2009
TALLAHASSEE - The House passed a bill Tuesday seeking a gambling agreement with the Seminole tribe, but it is far different than the one the Senate passed last week.The Senate bill included provisions for slot machines at pari-mutuel tracks, including the Naples-Fort Myers Greyhound Track in Bonita Springs.
The House bill, however, includes no slot machines for dog tracks, and eliminates blackjack at the Seminole casinos. It does, though, call for 24-hour poker operations at the dog track.
The tribe is dealing blackjack at its Florida casinos, including the Seminole Casino in Immokalee, under an agreement it signed with Gov. Charlie Crist. The Supreme Court said Crist wasn’t authorized to sign that deal.
The Senate bill also would allow craps and roulette to be played at the tribe’s casinos and would increase the maximum buy-in for Texas Hold-Em poker games.
It’s unlikely the Senate will accept the House proposal when the two chambers begin discussing the two bills.
The New York Times-Suppressing the Vote in Florida
Tuesday, April 21st, 2009April 18, 2009
Since 2000, Florida has been synonymous with badly run and undemocratic elections. This distinction has not come to it by chance. Many of the state’s election officials and legislators work hard to keep eligible voters from casting ballots. The Florida Legislature is at it again, threatening to pass new rules that would make it harder for eligible voters, especially those from minorities and those who are poor, to register and vote.
USA Today- Our view on paying for disasters: In bailout nation, Florida takes its place in line
Tuesday, April 21st, 2009April 21, 2009
The bank bailout, though unpopular, was necessary to stave off economic collapse. But its downside has been the rush of industries, from auto parts suppliers to life insurers, trying to get in on the action. This poses the inevitable question: Who’s next?
One potential answer is not a company or an industry, but an entire state Florida.
While many states are in financial difficulty, Florida is in a uniquely precarious condition for another reason: its weather. Unwilling to accept the judgment of private insurers on the state’s vulnerability to hurricanes, Tallahassee has taken over much of the state’s homeowners’ insurance business, charging rates that are politically convenient rather than actuarially sound.
A single storm as bad or worse than 1992’s Hurricane Andrew, or a string of lesser ones, could well mean financial catastrophe for the state. Its Hurricane Catastrophe Fund, which currently has access to about $15.5 billion, would be wiped out. The state would have a hard time borrowing money and would still be liable for future hurricane damage.
In all likelihood, such an event would trigger a caravan of state officials to Washington, hat in hand. This is widely acknowledged by outside insurance experts, who see the state fund as hopelessly undercapitalized. It is tacitly recognized in legislation that Florida’s congressional delegation is pushing even now that would create a national catastrophe risk pool and a federal loan program to states needing help after a natural disaster.
After Andrew ravaged South Florida, many of the nation’s leading insurers concluded that they had been naive about the state’s hurricane risks. Unfortunately, what was an epiphany for insurers was an inconvenient truth for homeowners and politicians.
The state created its catastrophe fund to encourage private insurers to continue issuing policies, and in 2007, with private insurers chafing at the regulations they were under and trying to pull out of the state, the publicly owned Citizens Property Insurance Corp. became the state’s largest direct issuer of homeowners insurance.
At bottom, Florida’s underfunded, state-run program is a cynical ploy to get people in places like Iowa and Tennessee to subsidize those who want to live in hurricane-prone areas.
It’s not hard to envisage the argument Florida would make: How could you bail out Wall Street, and Detroit, but not us? Look at all the money that has flowed into New Orleans. What about us?
Politically and practically, these would be hard arguments to counter. Except that Florida’s problem is something that Floridians should be solving for themselves right now, painful though their choices might be.
Florida needs to get its homeowners insurance business back into private hands and back onto an actuarially sound footing. Though about as popular as bailouts, private insurers do provide a useful service by imposing a kind of financial penalty, in form of higher premiums, on risky behavior. As homeowners’ premiums go up, they force communities to rethink where and how structures should be built.
Until Florida revamps its insurance program, the state will be not only a meteorological disaster waiting to happen but also a financial one.
Miami Herald- Florida House panel passes scaled-back gambling bill
Tuesday, April 21st, 2009April 21,2009
TALLAHASSEE — Amid warnings that expanding gambling is not a good bet for the state this year, a House committee passed a scaled-back Indian gaming bill Friday.
The House select committee on tribal gaming voted 17-1 Friday to give the Seminole Tribe the exclusive right to operate Class III slot machines at its seven casinos in Florida in return for $100 million a year.
The proposal authorizes Gov. Charlie Crist to renegotiate the gambling compact that has been invalidated by the Florida Supreme Court, but it also requires him to order the tribe to forfeit the blackjack and house-banked card games it won under his original plan. The court ruling found the games to be illegal in Florida since there is no specific legislation allowing them.
Rep. Bill Galvano, the Bradenton Republican who heads the House committee on the gambling compact, said the plan is a good balance between the tribe’s legal right to have slot machines and the desire of lawmakers to limit gambling in Florida.
The proposal would dedicate most of state’s share of money from Seminole gambling to education, but divert 5 percent to local governments and to programs that address the social consequences of gambling.
The House’s gambling plan is a stark contrast to a Senate plan which passed out of its first committee last week. The Senate has proposed giving the tribe full casinos, including craps and roulette, lowering the tax rate on slots at horse and dog tracks and jai alai frontons, and giving ”racinos” — race tracks that have slot machines — card games such as blackjack. The agreement also would give parimutuels outside of Miami-Dade and Broward counties bingo-style, Class II slot machines.
State economists this week shot down predictions by the Senate and governor that the Senate plan would produce $1 billion in new revenue and help close Florida’s $3 billion budget gap.
Instead of $1 billion, economists predicted the Seminole’s full casinos would produce about $400 million a year. They also said the proposal to reduce the tax rate on parimutuels while giving them new games would result in a net loss in taxes to the state.
”It’s very sobering,” said Galvano. ”It’s a recognition that whatever we’re doing shouldn’t be a rush to judgment… Any of these changes are going to be slow coming and the money we do have is not going to be anywhere close to the $1 billion.”
Sen. Dennis Jones, sponsor of the Senate proposal, said Friday that he is making modifications to the Senate plan to phase in some of the tax breaks for parimutuels so there would be a net gain to the state. Legislative economists will meet Monday to forecast revenues based on those changes.
”We’ve got plenty of money in the out years but we created some negatives in the first year or two,” Jones said. ”I’m trying to get to $600 million in the first year, because I’m convinced we can get $1 billion in the future.”
Meanwhile, Gov. Charlie Crist and the Seminole Tribe continued to urge lawmakers to ratify the original compact which would yield $100 million a year in revenue sharing to Florida — $288 million by the end of the 2010 budget year.
”We are appealing to the members of the House and the Senate to approve the opportunity to have a compact with a tribe,” Crist said at a press conference Friday, flanked by tribal leaders and the state’s top education leaders.
”To me, the obvious point is we will have more money for education if that is done and if it’s not done, we will not,” he said.
None of the educators said whether they preferred Crist’s approach to the House or Senate plans. The governor reiterated his support for the compact he negotiated.
”We’re talking about the original compact — that’s what the we’re interested in, what the tribe is interested in and those dollars are what education is interested in,” Crist said.
Wayne Blanton, director of the Florida School Boards Association, called the compact an essential ”infusion of dollars” this year. And Bill Montford, head of the Florida Superintendent’s Association, said his organization was ‘’supportive” of the governor’s approach.
Crist was asked if the tribe would be willing to guarantee any money up front to make sure lawmakers could count on the money when building its budget. The governor didn’t respond.
”Obviously there is some fluidity in the closing days of the session,” he said.
Galvano said the governor’s original compact is all but dead.
”The compact that has been voided is recognized by both chambers as a bad deal, frankly,” he said. The House and Senate proposals both tighten regulation of the tribe and take into account the impact of their gambling empire on other industries.
Galvano said the House committee is now working on a second bill, to give parimutuels more tax breaks and relaxed regulations to allow it to better compete with the tribe. The bill will be ready by April 20.
Miami Herald-Seminole gambling bill to go before the House
Tuesday, April 21st, 2009April 20,2009
for weeks takes center stage today, when the House is expected to pass its proposed budget. The Senate passed its version unanimously Thursday — $547 million and a world of ideology apart from the House.
The Republican-led chambers have very different views on expanded gambling, new taxes and fees, and budget cutting ideas such as salary cuts for state employees.
The House vote today sets the stage for final budget negotiations that could begin Monday.
”I’m optimistic,” said Senate President Jeff Atwater. ”We have great respect for the House and the process they went through to get where they are.”
Also today, the House will have what could be a lengthy debate on its conservative proposal for expanded gambling with the Seminole Tribe of Florida. The Senate already voted out its gambling proposal, which is worth $800 million more in state revenues than the House plan.
Meanwhile, proposals to dramatically change Florida’s home insurance industry and to significantly raise maximum tuition in the 11 state universities get their final Senate committee vote before moving to the floor for a vote.
The two insurance proposals (SB1950 and SB2036) would lift the rate freeze on the state-run Citizens Insurance and gradually reduce the state’s hurricane exposure risk, and would allow some large insurers such as State Farm to charge higher rates without state approval. The idea is to let the free market and consumer choice rule, while luring back big insurers like State Farm, which has announced plans to no longer insure property in the Sunshine State.
The university tuition bill, allowing universities to raise undergraduate rates a maximum of 15 percent each year to provide the institutions with more financial aid and academic resources, is one of Governor Charlie Crist’s priorities this session. But even with the higher tuition, universities are looking at their budgets for next year to shrink by anywhere from 9 to 24 percent.
”But it’s hard for us to complain,” said University of Florida president Bernie Machen. ”Because if we didn’t get the tuition, we’d be closing the doors.”
