The budget news keeps getting worse

As a long day ended in the House, Health Care Council chairman Aaron Bean rounded up committee members and delivered the bad news: Budget chairmen Ray Sansom has told the health-care panel to find an additional $83-million in cuts on top of the $1-billion they've already eliminated from programs that help the poor, sick, elderly and disabled.

"We've already cut everything. Nursing homes are cut 10 percent. Hospitals are cut 10 percent," Bean told the group, meeting in the "bubble," a small conference room just off the House floor. "Everybody is screaming. So who do we go at again?"

The new cut in human services is too big to make by nipping and tucking around the edges of specific programs, Bean said. He and other lawmakers fear they will have to get the savings by limiting the eligibility for certain Medicaid services, meaning fewer people can get them.

Comments

[Don Mott]

How about you use some of the $650 million you plan to give to CSX? Take care of the people not rich corporations. Oh I forgot your constituents don't contribute much money so they are expendable. Wait til November!

Don, u r a coward. Oh wait a minute, you're Democratic Dockery.

Dockery is done, forget about her. With only 4 years left, 2 under Atwater and the other 2 under Haridopolos, rumor is she may not run again.

ummmmm, here's a thought; how about you not give CSX 700-million of our tax dollars.

This is the best thing that could happen to Florida in decades. Perhaps our voters will pay attention and vote for leaders instead of freaking lumps on a freaking lobbyist log.

7:52, so who would run for Dockery's seat? Ross and McKeel?

McKeel?? I just thre up in my mouth. Let's hope Ross.

McKeel?? I just threw up in my mouth. Let's hope Ross.

[joe]

the whole purpose of the system is to keep people behind we will loose with anycandidates on the market

CSX investments will create jobs and revenue, but the Democrats don't want voters to focus on that. Just give it all away with no hope of return, we are the nanny state.

creating revenue is one thing, but passing your friends pockets at the cost of the human life -- well, there's a special place for you in the 9th level of hell

Hey you jerks - start with your own health care benefits.

The state budget news can get worse.

When the state announces it can't make payroll for state employees--the stuff is really going to hit the ceiling.

McKeel would hand Ross his a**. Same reason Ross ran to Stargel's seat, to avoid McKeel.

[Don Mott]

Thanks 7:47 At least I attach my name to my posts. And since you call me a coward how about I call you an oxymoron, only cowards hide behind anonymity. Do I need to lend you my dictionary to look those words up?

[Don Mott]

Don, I mean Dockery, signing a random name does not make it so.

I don't know if McKeel would beat Ross, but you can bet Ross would avoid that battle. Too many skeletons in his closet.

[Don Mott]

Oh and did I mention that you may just be an undercover idiot who is not brave enough to put his name behind his ignorant posts?

[Don Mott]

Sure Don, tell us who you really are, I mean Dockery.

Ross wouldn't run from the fight, but he would lose. Neither of them have any appeal whatsoever outside of downtown Lakeland.

The CSX deal will stimulate the economy and provide Central Florida commuters with an option. That will save gasoline and provide us with freedom from the oil cartel.

Don't count out the Democratic Supervisor of Elections down there!

[Don Mott]

You are an immature idiot. Filing posts using my name, that's real original and ingenious. What a moron!

Cut corporate welfare (CSX), eliminate all pork, trim the fat, no more earmarks, embrace balanced budgets, vote every incumbent out of office, and ELECT FREAKING LEADERS, NOT PINHEADED LUMPS!

Problem Solved!

[Don Mott]

Call me, we'll talk:
Don Mott 386-658-1355

[Don Mott]

Nice try, I live in Largo.

[Don Mott]

Embrace balanced budgets? You moron, it's already in the constitution.

[Chris W]

Scrap the CSX deal. Nobody but the Chamber of Commerce, CSX, and JD Alexander and his cronies believe the PR spin about this one, and there are better things for us to do with almost $700 million.

And you Republicans? What happened to the magic powers of the marketplace? If commuter rail is such a good deal, why isn't CSX risking its own money to make a profit instead of putting its hand out to the Florida taxpayer?

[Don Mott]

The commuter rail deal is about moving people in a manner that improves traffic and reduces greenhouse emissions.

How dare you make these cuts to essential health care services when you are still planning to giveaway millions to a private company? How can you justify this boondoggle in a budget crisis? How can you even think this CSX deal is a higher priority then the health and well being of the most sick and vulnerable Floridians? You disgust me and I hope every you all get unelected very soon. As a lifelong Republican I am ashamed of what Republican leaders are allowing. I will make sure everyone I know understands what you are doing. I will not vote for a Republican again until I see some reigning in of these so called Republicans. Self serving pigs. The Democrats will win just because you are so corrupt and so out of touch with what the people are thinking. You bet that they will fall for your shiny slick mailouts. Not this time. Even other Republicans in the real world are finally seeing and understanding what you are doing. If you think this is such a great thing for Florida, wait until you do not have a budget shortfall. You are just disgraceful.

[Chris W]

Don:

Unless you think riders are going to camp out next to the train tracks or in a Hooverville next to the stations, people still have to drive from their houses to the train station and park. Then they'll have to drive from the train station back home, which means that you *aren't* going to have that many fewer cars on the road and that much less greenhouse gas emissions.

IOW, it's a lot of bucks for not that much bang. The people pushing it are the builders and the owners of land along the tracks, and they think they'll make enough money off the deal that they're very motivated to stretch the truth and outright lie about the benefits.

We can use that $650 million that do things that the state government is constitutionally *mandated* to do -- you know, fully fund public education and pay for courts and preserve land. Nowhere in the state's constitution is Florida supposed to pretend to be environmentally responsible while lining the pockets of a very few already-rich companies.

Why should CSX get anything? Aren't they a corporation? Are you righties a bunch of socialists?

Cut the transportation budget since less people are moving to the state anyway? Plus, all this construction causes people to waste gas.

Oh yeah, you'd rather cut funding to babies born with cleft paletes.

How many legislators are cutting their staffs?

[Don Mott]

Chris W Those posts were not from me but from some imbecile immature idiot who decided to use my name for whatever reason. I know full well the downsides to the rail project. You can find my objections etc. in any article posted on this site, regarding the CSX deal. In the mean time I am in the process of dealing with this a__hole via letters to management.

[Not Don Mott]

Fully fund education? Buy lands for preservation? Are you nuts? Do you have any idea how big the education budget is? Do you know everytime you buy land, it comes OFF the tax rolls? You don't have a clue.

10:24 was a great post. That is the end of the CSX debate.

Please spare us the budget woe sob stories. There is no crisis until benefits for illegal aliens are ended. Until then there is only a spending problem, meaning politicians are not getting to spend all of your money that they would like to.

10:50 pm - the answer is none.

Also ask the question - what percentage decrease will the House and Senate budgets be? See above.

By the way, the Legislature gave itself a 3% raise last year and a $1,000 "bonus" this year. Last year they took a 1 week state paid vacation to Boston. Anyone know if they are going to New Orleans this year? There will be a few "merit" raises for "select" legislative staff (that means "very special friend" ). And Rubio's $10,000 a month "consultants" are still on the payroll and will be until November (or perhaps longer).

[Barack H(elps America) Obama]

Jackass Republicans ram tax cuts down our throats using their slick spin and their taxwatch buddies, and now they're telling us "oops we can't meet the budget"??? C'mon, cutting social services has been the goal of this fiasco from the beginning.

Wake up - elitist GOP party for the very rich.

10:07

The Central Florida Commuter Rail cannot even prove it will have enough riders to get federal support.

The Chair of the House rail committee AND the ranking Republican on House Transportation

CANNOT EVEN GET $1 OUT OF THE FRA FOR THE DEAL!!!

That should tell you all you need to know.

The day will come when Americans will be forced through sheer economics to abandon their private rail cars --oops, I mean SUVs-- and use mass transportation. Unfortunately, we have a rail system that would shame a Bulgarian. The CSX deal is a step toward sanity. It is not a boondoggle.

[Barry]

How about tightening up the Medicaid program by requiring a fingerprint matching ID card for benefit recipients. Or how about using debit cards for food stamp recipients to eliminate the black market of selling them for cash to by drugs or liquor?

How about making every member resign from his "full-time" job and live on their state salary - after all they must consider that a living wage for the middle class as it is more than the average state worker makes!

Florida Republicans - turning the "middle class" into the "working poor" one pork project at a time.

After they, they don't care about kids - kids don't vote and they don't contribute to campaigns.

Remember this November.

Ray Sansom for MINORITY leader!!!!!

What a year!

Senate Webster suggests leasing Alligator Ally to the Chiles Endowment fund to raise $500 million for DOT projects, but they are still considering $650 million for CSX?

[Don Mott]

Don Mott...kind of rhymes with Doc Dock...as in Doc Dockery' doesn't it?

More Tax Cuts!

[Chris W]

Barry:

Those are actually pretty good ideas.

Chris W

[Don Mott]

I am not Doc Dockery. I am not Paula Dockery. Though I have met them and they've thanked me for my work on here.

Cut corporate welfare (CSX), eliminate all pork, trim the fat, no more earmarks, embrace balanced budgets, vote every incumbent out of office, and ELECT FREAKING LEADERS, NOT PINHEADED LUMPS!

Problem Solved!

Barry - those are good ideas. I actually sent a letter to the White House once suggesting the debit card for the food stamps. Years ago. I got a standard letter back from some flunkie. Given the technology available out there, a debit card tied to fingerprints would eliminate soooooooo much waste and fraud! But no, we can never count on a politician doing anything like that. After all, it makes sense....

Oh yeah, one more BIG thing. NO MORE FREAKIN' BENEFITS, HANDOUTS, OR ANYTHING TO ANY ILLEGAL. YOU ARE HERE ILLEGALLY THEREFORE YOU ARE NOT ENTITLED TO THOSE PRIVILEGES AND HANDOUTS.

But alas, we won't ever see that happen either...

Archer Daniels goes after railroads
By DAN BROWNING, Star Tribune

March 27, 2008

Agricultural giant Archer Daniels Midland Co. has filed a federal antitrust lawsuit in Minneapolis, accusing the five largest U.S. railroads of a price-fixing conspiracy.

ADM joins a growing chorus of companies that have filed such claims against the railroads since last year. Pretrial discovery is being handled by the U.S. District Court in Washington.

According to ADM's lawsuit, which was filed Tuesday, the railroads got together through their membership in the American Railroad Association and agreed to a scheme that fixed fuel surcharges. The charges are supposed to help railroads recover unanticipated costs when fuel prices spike. But ADM alleges that the companies used them to extract profit from shippers.

Decatur, Ill.-based ADM is one of the world's largest processors of agricultural products, including soybeans, corn, wheat, canola, biodiesel, ethanol, soybean oil, soy meal, corn sweeteners and flour. ADM says it has paid the railroads more than $250 million in fuel surcharges since 2003, and it's seeking triple damages.

Seven "Class I" railroads operate in the United States, carrying about 93 percent of the industry's freight, the suit says. Two of the companies are based in Canada and are not parties to the lawsuit.

ADM named the five major U.S. railroads as defendants: Union Pacific Railroad Co. (UP) of Omaha; BNSF Railway Co. (also known as Burlington Northern Santa Fe) of Fort Worth, Texas; CSX Transportation Inc. of Jacksonville, Fla.; Norfolk Southern Railway Co. of Norfolk, Va.; and Kansas City Southern Railway Co. of Kansas City, Mo.

The CEOs of those companies sit on the board of the Association of American Railroads. ADM alleges that the defendants used the association "as an instrument to develop, organize and conduct their conspiracy."

David Gelfand, a Washington attorney representing the association, declined to comment concerning any litigation.

ADM alleges that the conspiracy began in or before 2003, when the rail association changed its shipping rate index. ADM says the change "enabled the defendant railroads to impose agreed-upon price increases that did not correspond with the actual unanticipated increases in fuel costs" from market fluctuations. Rather, it enabled the companies to pad their profit, ADM says in its 42-page suit.

As a result of the conspiracy, the suit says, fuel charges imposed by the defendants moved in lockstep within geographical operating areas.

ADM says the railroads selected nearly identical factors to trigger the surcharges. It included a chart showing nearly identical surcharge triggers for the two Western railroads between July 2003 and March 2007. A similar chart showed nearly identical triggers for the three Eastern lines between March 2004 and March 2007.

"The similarities between the railroads' fuel surcharges are both too precise and too comprehensive to have been independent responses to any common market phenomenon," the suit says.

"Absent collusion, it is extremely unlikely that defendants operating in similar geographic areas would independently price their rail fuel surcharges to arrive at the identical percentage [trigger point] month after month, year after year, for a period of more than three years," the suit says.

ADM says the railroads changed their practice of negotiating discounts for some shippers on rail freight rates, and said that fuel surcharges were "not negotiable." The railroads refused to lower prices even when doing so might have increased their market share, the suit says.

ADM alleges that the lines used increases in fuel prices as a cover for "across-the-board rate increases. Although fuel prices increased between 2004 and 2007, defendants continued to take in record, increased profits each year of the conspiracy," the suit says.

Congress deregulated the railroad industry in 1980, allowing the companies to set their own hauling rates. The number of Class I railroads dropped from the 35 companies that operated before deregulation, the lawsuit says.

ADM notes that the Surface Transportation Board issued an administrative decision 15 months ago that described the railroads' method for calculating fuel charges as unreasonable.

And in September, the U.S. Government Accountability Office recommended that the board investigate whether the railroads had too much market power, and if so, to suggest changes.

The legal actions against the railroads began in May, when Dust-Pro Inc. filed a federal class-action lawsuit in New Jersey. Dust-Pro accused the rail companies of violating the antitrust laws known as the Sherman Act and Clayton Act by conspiring to fix, raise, maintain or stabilize prices of rail freight services through fuel surcharges.

The Dust-Pro case was swept into multidistrict litigation late last year. So far, 17 lawsuits have been consolidated there.

Jerry Snider, a Minneapolis attorney representing ADM, said Wednesday that he was uncertain whether the ADM case would get pulled into the multidistrict litigation. But if it does, any trial would take place in Minnesota, he said.

[Don Mott]

Looks like Dockery and Dean are at it early this AM. Must not have been too wild at Clyde's last night. Wrong team Dean, reckon you're not as bright as we thought you weren't.

[the]

With such a pressing issues as “Truck Nuts”… to think we’ve wasted so much time on little things like a war, a foreclosure crisis, an economic crisis, a healthcare crisis, a national debt crisis, a property insurance crisis… oh wait… scratch that last one, we haven’t done a damn thing about that.

Well, now that we’ve dealt with truck nuts, baggy pants, paying off crackhead parents, guns-to-work (as if), slipping 700-million tax dollars to CSX, and making damn sure that Florida politicians can continue to suck of the public’s dime while running for higher office… maybe now we can spend a little time on those aforementioned “little things”.

[Central Floridian]

Don't cut the house member's wages. At least one has a house entering foreclosure. Where would Dorworth live?

[Don Mott]

So Dockery ain't coming back for 2 years of Atwater and 2 more of Haridopolos? FANTASTIC!!!!!!!!!!!!

If the Legislature really wanted to save some money, they could eliminate half of the Senators and 2 out of 3 House members. Just combine districts without any redistricting needed. Have every member run in November. 100 Legislators eliminatated at $32,000 a piece plus benefits and travel expenses. Nearly 200 staff members eliminated at an average salary of $50,000 plus benefits and travel expenses. In addition, Marco could cut by half the number of staff and/or consultants making over $100,000 per year which would save over $500,000 immediately. Problem solved!

[Don Mott]

Don Mott at 9:13...now we know you are Doc Dockery' because they don't thank anyone for anything.

The truth is out!

[Barry]

Thanks. Those are just a couple of ideas that will help us tighten up the administration by really just common sense good business practices. I've got a few more which I'll save for the debates for State Rep District 24 this summer. I'm in.

Whoooooo! Lets go CSX. we can actually go ahead and just zero out the nursing home funding. Those people are old anyway, they had a good run. And don't worry about the prisons being zeroed out. Everybody knows mass transit is a magnet for felons, they can all just sleep on the train. I'm just really glad that legislators aren't bowing to the sissy pressure of constituents. They can suck it up, we need to just get this deal done!

[Stop the Hypocracy]

Republicans better be careful with this health care budget. Giving more money to doctors while children's programs go down the tube is hateful. Supposedly there is a "deal" working to give nursing homes more money while children suffer. Doctors and nursing homes make plenty of money. They will make even more when the new health care plan passes. Let's think of those less fortunate. Will make a great mail piece.

[We Are A Republic...]

Cut the healthcare!! Why?? Read where it,(the money) is going; it's not taking care of Floridians. Save money by enforcement of current immigration laws...

Illegal Immigration Costs Florida $4.3 Billion a Year, Report Says
By Melanie Hunter
CNSNews.com Senior Editor
August 08,

(CNSNews.com) - A report by an immigration reform group shows that illegal immigration costs the state of Florida at least $4.3 billion a year in health care, education and incarceration costs.

The Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) predicts the state's costs of illegal immigration will increase to nearly $8 billion a year within 10 years unless it is controlled.

"Average Floridians are being asked to pay dearly for the failure of the federal government to control illegal immigration, and for a small number of business interests in the state addicted to low-wage illegal alien labor," said Dan Stein, president of FAIR, in a statement.

"The $4.3 billion being spent on illegal immigrants and their families means those resources are not available to improve and upgrade Florida's woefully overcrowded schools and overburdened public hospitals," said Stein

Thanks for the bottom line on the budget 12:46. Notice the lobbyist are not silent on the issue. The problem we have is that our government has turned into nothing more than a redistributionist bank. I am withdrawing my funds!

Tell the Chamber of Illegal Labor to pony up the REAL COSTS of the illegal aliens they support and see how fast they demand that immigration laws be enforced.

Looks like we need to eliminate property tax as well as sales tax and just shift to a CORPORATE REVENUE TAX. Then the Chamber would see to it that all the waste in government went away and real fast too!

Power to the People

A bunch of crooks. Millions to a private comapny and we get to keep paying for maintenance of this rail. This is so outrageous. Every newspaper should have this deal on the front page and every tv news should be reporting this to the people. What a bunch of corrupt self serving slobs

CSX SUCKS! And so do the legislators who are pushing this ridiculous waste of our tax dollars! Thank goodness for people like Dockery and Ross for speaking up for the rest of the Floridians outside of Orlando!

[LJ]

Here's an idea. Drug test every adult receiving any type of "assistance" from the state and if (I really mean WHEN here) they test positive...bye bye benefits...That would save millions of tax dollars. Oh wait...I keep forgetting...people like me are hate mongers.

Budget problem solved!!!

[Donald Lance]

LJ. Who's going to pay for the drug testing every 3rd worlder and hard luck person wishing to suck on the govt tit?

[LJ]

Excellent question Donald. Of course in the beginning there would need to be appropriated funding to start the program. In a very short time (I believe) the program would then fund its self through the cost savings to the citizens of Florida and still leave a huge surplus of funds.

But there is still a major hurdle. Of course the ACLU, the NAACP and every other bleeding heart liberal would yell racism or conservative elitism and I seriously doubt our politicians have the brass ones it would take to solve this dilemma.

So many of us who do work are subject to mandatory drug testing (which is fine with me since I'm clean and always have been) but since that is a condition of employment, I feel it should be a requirement for those receiving a "paycheck" from the state.