Florida Gov. Rick Scott has been crossing the state this past week, vowing at campaign stops that if he’s re-elected he will enact another $1 billion in tax cuts over the next two years. Scott has said he can enact the tax cuts as well as boost spending on education and pay for new projects to help the environment because the state has a budget surplus. But a new forecast released late Wednesday raises questions about whether or not there…
The state of Florida is getting sued again over violations to the state’s Sunshine Law. A Xerox employee Wednesday filed a lawsuit in Leon County alleging that a Florida agency held secret meetings related to a decision to award a nearly $50 million contract. The lawsuit states that the Department of Revenue “lost” recordings it had made of the meetings. The contract to process child support payments was awarded to a rival of Xerox. The agency did not immediately respond…
Florida’s two main rivals for governor kicked their campaigns into gear on Monday as both Gov. Rick Scott and former Gov. Charlie Crist lashed out at each other in an effort to ramp up enthusiasm among core voters. Scott, the Republican incumbent seeking a second term, started a two-week bus tour at stops in eastern Hillsborough County and Bradenton, where he derided Crist as a “slick politician” and “smooth talker.” The tour was billed as a way for Scott to…
George Sheldon, a one-time top official in the Obama administration, easily defeated state Rep. Perry Thurston on Tuesday in the Democratic primary for attorney general. Sheldon moves on to the November ballot where he will challenge Republican incumbent Pam Bondi and Libertarian candidate Bill Wohlsifer. With 45 percent of precincts reporting, Sheldon led Thurston 62 to 38 percent. The 67-year-old Sheldon has had several stints in state government, including spending time working under Bob Butterworth, who was the last Democrat…
Two relatively unknown Democrats head into next week’s primary for attorney general with the hope that their low-profile campaigns will be enough to win them the right to challenge Republican incumbent Pam Bondi. Neither Perry Thurston, a South Florida legislator and attorney, nor George Sheldon, a former Obama administration official who once worked as deputy attorney general, have raised enough money to buy television ads. Instead their campaigns have been waged in the trenches as both men have traversed the…
Gov. Rick Scott on Monday will roll out a series of education proposals that touches on everything from high-stakes testing to the cost of college and represents a break from some of the signature moves put in place by former Gov. Jeb Bush. Scott wants to create an independent committee to review the state’s contentious school standards even though a year ago he called for public hearings that resulted in tweaks to the standards based primarily on Common Core. That…
Florida judge on Friday gave a victory to the state’s Republican-controlled Legislature, rendering a decision that effectively forces voters to choose candidates in November based on a congressional map that he ruled was invalid because it favored the GOP. Circuit Judge Terry Lewis approved a new congressional map that been swiftly adopted earlier this month during a special session. But he agreed with attorneys for the Legislature that there was no time to implement the new map before voters head…