Sunburn for November 24 — And the budget and pot winners are…

Sunburn – The morning read of what’s hot in Florida politics.

By Peter Schorsch, Phil Ammann, Mitch Perry, Ryan Ray, and Jim Rosica.

RICK SCOTT’S BUDGET: TAX CUTS, MORE FOR SCHOOLS via Gary Fineout of the Associated Press

Gov. Rick Scott, setting up a likely messy budget fight with the Legislature, on Monday released a nearly $79.3 billion spending plan that is heavy on tax cuts and help for businesses.

Scott, in an event that was similar to campaign rallies he held during his successful re-election campaign, chose a sign manufacturing company in Jacksonville to outline his budget recommendations that includes a call for $1 billion in tax cuts.

The GOP governor, using points he will likely repeat in the months to come, said Florida must cut taxes for manufacturers and other businesses to help diversify the state’s economy ahead of the next economic downturn.

“With these investments we are going to get more jobs,” Scott said. “We have the money to be able to do these things.”

Scott maintains that Florida’s bank accounts are growing enough to absorb the tax cuts he wants as well as the creation of a $250-million fund that would be used to lure new businesses to the state.

But the governor’s math is at odds with state economists who say that legislators will have considerably less to spend if they want to maintain the same levels of spending throughout all areas in state government.

Top Republicans in the Legislature have been skeptical of the size of the tax cut package and the added money for corporate incentives.

Scott’s overall budget does boost spending on public schools by 2.5 percent, but $427 million of that extra money would come from a rise in property taxes due to rising property values. Past Republicans in state government – including current U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio – have labeled this a tax hike.

Scott, however, brushed aside questions about it.

“Property values when they go up, that’s good for us,” Scott said.

State Rep. Richard Corcoran, a Land O’Lakes Republican and House budget chief, said that he’s supportive of Scott’s request despite the cost attached to it.

“I love his tax cut package,” Corcoran said.

But Corcoran did acknowledge that some legislators were questioning the reliance on increased property taxes to pay for the boost in school spending.

He said “a lot of members want to take a hard look” at that part of Scott’s proposal.

TWEET INSIGHTS

@MDixon55: Transportation work plan fully funds transportation work plan at $9.2b. Only new debt in proposal is for transportation projects.

@ZacJAnderson: Governor also proposing no tuition increases at Florida colleges and universities

@Fineout: For 6th year in a row @FLGovScott is recommending that all state workers pay same for health insurance. #FLLeg has refused to go along

@TravisPollow: Like previous years, @FLGovScott wants charter schools that get facilities $ to target students from D / F schools

@MaryEllenKlas: Negotiation strategy or decision? @FLGovScott budget proposal includes no $ from the Seminole Tribe in compact money

@MichaelAuslen: Worth noting on Scott’s budget: No cuts to refugee health services or financial assistance.

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AND THE WINNERS ARE… 

The five nurseries in Florida approved to grow and distribute medical marijuana were announced Monday by the Department of Health, putting an end to a months-long wait by parents and their sick children who need the drug to control severe seizures.

The approved nurseries by region are:

• Hackney Nursery Co. (Northwest)
• Chestnut Hill Tree Farm (Northeast)
• Knox Nursery (Central)
• Alpha Foliage (Southwest)
• Costa Nursery Farms (Southeast)

Those nurseries now have 10 business days to post a $5 million performance bond, according to a press release. If a nursery doesn’t post a bond, the department will pick the next highest-scoring applicant by region.

Approved nurseries must ask for authority to grow within 75 days, and actually begin planting within 210 days of getting that permission, the department said.

The plan is that nurseries will grow the marijuana, which will be made into an infused oil to ingest.

A number of lawmakers, including state Rep. Matt Gaetz, have vented in recent weeks about the Health Department’s delay into putting into motion the medical marijuana law passed last year. The last deadline was Oct. 31.

TWEET, TWEET: @MattGaetz: I am thrilled that today Florida issued licenses to legally grow #MedicalMarijuana for the sick and dying #HelpIsOnTheWay

ADAMS STREET WINNERS — Floridian Partners, which represents Knox Nursery; Ron Book, Bill Rubin, who represent Surterra, which is partnered with Alpha Foliage; and Southern Strategy Group, which represents Costa Nursery Farms.

GOV. RICK SCOTT APPOINTS NEW LOTTERY SECRETARY via Michael Auslen of the Tampa Bay Times – Tom Delacenserie has been appointed secretary of the Florida Lottery … He’s been serving as the interim secretary since October, when Cynthia O’Connell resigned from the job amidst reports of questionable travel and excessive vacation … Delacenserie is a longtime lottery executive, who was a deputy secretary in charge of the department’s sales and marketing from 2013 until taking over the top job and before that was director of sales for eight years.

A PEEK INSIDE JESSE’S WORLD via Gary Fineout of the Fine Print – Jesse Panuccio … has managed during his nearly three year stint to weather several storms including the highly troubled roll-out of the state’s unemployment assistance online system … consistent at echoing … Scott‘s talking points about the economy … But as a member of the Scott administration Panuccio is considered one of those who might be the most endangered … Panuccio needs a confirmation vote by the Florida Senate in 2016 in order to hang on to his job. Some of his most recent appearances before legislative committees have not gone smoothly, which has helped ramp up speculation about his future. Lately, however, Panuccio has tried to change the agenda beyond criticism of the unemployment assistance system.

GOP ARGUING FOR CHANGES TO FLORIDA RETIREMENT SYSTEM via Arek Sarkissian of TC Palm – The proposal … would preserve line-of-duty death benefits for law enforcement officers and firefighters, a move designed to appease lawmakers from both sides of the political aisle who have opposed the idea in the past … analysis showed the state system has about $138.6 billion to cover active and retired employees, and would need another $21.5 billion to be fully funded. Florida’s pension system is funded at about 86.6 percent, above the 80 percent level state economists have defined as a healthy fund.

LAWMAKERS COULD LEAVE FILM INCENTIVES ON CUTTING-ROOM FLOOR via Gray Rohrer via the Orlando Sentinel – The entertainment tax credit program failed in the Legislature … despite a hard push by the industry. With the start of the 2016 session … odds of a restart are long, officials say. Lawmakers who support a rewrite of film incentives have been frustrated by the lack of traction the idea has received in the Capitol. Although some Republicans … back it, many are skeptical of “picking winners and losers” using taxpayer funds … film and entertainment industry advocates say the incentives are crucial to prevent losing jobs to Georgia and Louisiana, states with robust tax incentive programs.

MATT GAETZ CRAFTING PLAN TO BOOST VISIT FLORIDA, RESTRICT TOURISM COUNCILS via Matt Dixon of POLITICO Florida – Under a proposal … by … Gaetz, chairman of the House finance and tax committee, 20 percent of the money raised from tourist development taxes would become an annual revenue stream for Visit Florida, a nonprofit that serves as the state’s public-private tourism marketing arm. It would give the organization an estimated $80 million dedicated revenue stream. “There is an algorithm somewhere at Universal or Disney showing that the brand of Florida has become so synonymous with the attractions in Central Florida … It’s a win win.”

STATE REPORT ON CIVIL ASSET FORFEITURE LAWS IN FLORIDA SUGGESTS REFORMS ARE NEEDED via Mitch Perry of Florida Politics – Florida Legislature’s Office of Program Policy Analysis and Government Accountability (OPPAGA) report … Civil Asset Forfeiture in Florida: Policies and Practices … Among the recommendations … Require conviction before forfeiture. One of the most substantial reforms is to require that law enforcement convict the property owner in criminal court before any property can be forfeited … eliminates civil asset forfeiture as a process distinct from criminal forfeiture … Increase the standard of proof. Although Florida’s standard of proof in forfeiture cases is higher than many states, the Legislature could consider further increasing the evidentiary standard in Florida to beyond a reasonable doubt, the standard required in criminal trials. The Legislature could reduce the percentage of funds that agencies are allowed to keep, increase the percentages given to substance abuse and crime prevention programs, or designate funds for other purposes.

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STAR WARS SEQUEL OR PRESIDENTIAL RACE: AMERICANS EQUALLY EXCITED ABOUT BOTH via John McCormick of Bloomberg Politics –With the Iowa caucuses now just 10 weeks away, Americans surveyed … say they are as excited about the first-in-the-nation presidential nomination balloting as they are about the mid-December release of the latest Star Wars: The Force Awakens, the latest installment in the blockbuster movie series. When presented with a list that also included the Super Bowl and the NCAA basketball tournament, 20 percent of Americans picked the Feb. 1 caucuses as the event they’re most excited about, while 19 percent selected the new movie. The NFL’s championship game was the top pick on the survey list, winning 28 percent of the vote. The “March Madness” basketball tournament came in last among the choices, at 9 percent.

— “Donors line up behind John Kasich Super PAC planning Donald Trump” attack via Emily Flitter of Reuters

CITADEL FOUNDER KEN GRIFFIN: JEB BUSH CAN WIN IF HE BRINGS “A-GAME” via CNBC Squawk on The Street – Kate Kelly: Bush has really slipped in the polls as you know. Can he win? Griffin: … if … Bush brings his a-game to the table, he can win. In Florida as governor he had an outstanding track record. Focused on education, focused on balancing the budget, focused on making the state a real draw for capital and people.

ASSIGNMENT EDITORS: Bush will attend several “low-key” events in South Carolina ahead of the Thanksgiving holiday, beginning with a 1 p.m. (Eastern) visit to the Salvation Army, 417 Rutherford St. in Greenville. At 3 p.m., the former governor will be at the Beacon Drive-in Meet and Greet, 255 John B. White Sr. Boulevard in Spartanburg. Later, Bush will visit a town hall event at 6:15 p.m. in the Magnolia Room, 4017 Laurel Creek Dr. in Rock Hill.

BUSH TO BE IN STARKVILLE FOR EGG BOWL via Geoff Pender of The Clarion [Mississippi] Ledger – Bush plans to be in Starkville on Saturday for the Egg Bowl between Mississippi State and Ole Miss. Austin Barbour of Mississippi, a senior adviser to the Bush campaign, said Bush plans to do some tailgating and ‘work The Junction’ before the game … Bush will return to Mississippi on Dec. 7for a Jackson fundraiser.

IN NEW HAMPSHIRE, BUSH COUNTS ON VOTER DEMOGRAPHICS TO GIVE HIM AN EDGE OVER MARCO RUBIO via Tim Alberta of the National Review – As Bush and Rubio crisscrossed New Hampshire … this juxtaposition was jarring and highly instructive, crystallizing the contrast — thematically, stylistically, rhetorically — between the two candidates … one that Rubio’s team relishes … For Bush, who has underwhelmed voters and underdelivered on expectations of monopolizing the GOP’s mainstream, the best hope of winning this do-or-die state — and restoring his viability as a nominee — may lie in exploiting the other end of the polarity that has become essential to Rubio’s message. That is because, in the face of his struggles, two fundamentals of the race remain unchanged: Older voters are well disposed toward Bush, and New Hampshire has a lot of them.

HERE’S MARCO RUBIO’S IDEA TO DISSUADE WOULD-BE ISIS RECRUITS via Alex Jaffe of NBC News – Rubio … wants to show the world how ISIS leaders ‘cry like babies’ when captured in hopes of dissuading recruits from joining on to the extremist group. Speaking to a small audience at a snow-covered ranch in Carroll, Iowa, Rubio offered further details … “I believe we should be carrying out attacks against Sunni leadership nodes, videotaping the whole thing and putting it up on YouTube so that the world can see these people are not invincible.”

MARCO RUBIO DREW STRONG STUDENT REVIEWS, BUT SKIMPED ON JOB REQUIREMENTS AS FIU PROFESSOR via Adam Smith of the Tampa Bay Times – An often overlooked part of Rubio‘s professional life — academia — public records show a familiar pattern for the presidential contender: basic expectations for the job unmet or ignored, dubious accountability and oversight, and job opportunities that would be highly unlikely for anyone without his political stature. Yet, despite consistently strong student evaluations … [records] indicate he was expected to do considerably more work than he actually performed. In fact, Rubio never developed reading lists or graded papers or tests, according his colleagues.

GOOD READ FROM THE NEW YORKER — RUBIO’S POLITICAL DEXTERITY via Evan Osnos of The New Yorker – Rubio, who has entered six elections and never lost, is alert to the appearance of overweening ambition. … He considers himself a Catholic, but he attends two churches-an evangelical Protestant service on Saturdays and a Roman Catholic Mass on Sundays. … He used to proclaim his love of nineties-era hip-hop-particularly Tupac Shakur-but recently he has also taken to praising cross-genre artists, such as Drake and the Weeknd, who blend electronic dance music with hip-hop, rap and R. & B … Rubio’s ecumenism is one reason that prominent Democrats consider him the most worrisome contender. … Barely two months before the first Iowa caucus … debates about national security and immigration were converging in ways that Rubio seemed well positioned to exploit.

SPOTTED atop the Washington Post’s ranking of GOP presidential candidates who can still make a case: Marco Rubio – “The senator from Florida is the most complete candidate in the field today. He is a skilled debater. His personal story is compelling and well told. He has positioned himself solidly in third place nationally without spending heavily from his own coffers or running the risk of peaking too early. He survived what many people believed to be a campaign killer when the stories about his credit card use in his younger days wound up being largely a nothingburger. Rubio’s biggest problems are basic ones: money and organization. His haul in the third fundraising quarter — $6 million — was far less than someone in his position could be expected to bring in. And his early-state voter-ID and turnout operations are less far along than those of Trump and Bush. Still, if you were betting today, you would bet on Rubio.”

— “The front-runner fallacy” via David Greenberg of The Atlantic

SAVE THE DATE: Former Gov. Charlie Crist will host a fundraiser to support his bid for Florida’s 13th Congressional District Wednesday, Dec. 2, beginning 5:30 p.m. at the home of Peter Schorsch and Michelle Todd Schorsch, 8707 Silverthorn Road in Seminole. Tickets start at $250 for a guest, $500 for Friend level and $1000 for event hosts. Host committee includes state Rep. Janet Cruz, Pasco County Tax Collector Mike Fasano, Pinellas County Commissioner Janet Long, Hillsborough County Property Appraiser Bob Henriquez and his wife Carrie, and St. Petersburg City Councilwoman Darden Rice among others. RSVP at act.myngp.com or with Katie Bohnett at [email protected] or (850) 339-9599.

DEMOCRAT MELISSA MCKINLAY DROPS CONGRESSIONAL BID, CITES RANDY PERKINS’ MILLIONS via George Bennett of the Palm Beach Post – Palm Beach County Commissioner … McKinlay [said] she can’t continue to do her elected job and compete in a nationally watched Democratic primary that suddenly became pricier and more competitive with the entrance of millionaire businessman Randy Perkins … “For six months, I have been a full-time Commissioner campaigning part-time. Changing circumstances in this race — a multimillionaire self-funded candidate – meant that I’d have to be a full-time candidate and a barely-part-time Commissioner.”

SAVE THE DATE: State Rep. Kathleen Peters hosts a fundraiser Tuesday, Dec. 8 for her House District 69 re-election effort. Event begins 6 p.m. at Simpatico Wines, 722 Pasadena Ave. S. in South Pasadena. RSVP to Katie Ballard at (954) 803-3942 or [email protected].

CLEARWATER MAYOR GEORGE CRETEKOS, CITY COUNCILMEMBER DOREEN HOCK DIPOLITO RE-ELECTED UNOPPOSED via Janelle Irwin of Florida Politics –“The one thing that I do not like about elections is having to raise money,” Cretekos said. “I can refund in full all the contributions I received.” As of Nov. 2, Cretekos had raised more than $47,000. He spent just over $2,500, but plans to cover those expenses out of pocket and refund all of his contributions dollar for dollar. City Council member Jay Polglaze drew a challenger Nov. 17. He’ll face former Clearwater Christian College communication arts department head Bob Cundiff in the March 15 election.

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LANDMARK OF FLORIDA CITRUS INDUSTRY RESTORED via The Associated Press –The giant orange has weathered many of the ups and downs of the state’s citrus industry … Sunsational Citrus in Umatilla bought the orange and a giant crane hauled it away three years ago. The restoration included 40 hours of sand blasting, three coats of primer and 9 gallons of acrylic orange paint. The fiberglass leaves were painted green and bolted atop the fruit. A new wooden floor was installed and cabinets were added to display citrus antiques such as picking sacks and smudge pots.

START-UP LEADERS EMBRACE LOBBYING AS PART OF THE JOB via Cecilia Kang of The New York Times –While total annual spending on lobbying has decreased slightly over the last five years, Internet companies have tripled their lobbying spending, to $47.5 million, during the same period … [T]he Internet Association, has tripled its membership in the last three years. And a cottage industry has emerged of boutique Internet lobbying; crisis public relations; and niche trade associations for drones, digital health services and financial technology. The standard mantra of tech companies is that they are a boon to the economy and improve the lives of consumers. The underlying message is that any changes by regulators could cast painful ripples across the economy.