Public Safety

Protecting the safety and security of the public is a fundamental role of government.  Floridians deserve a justice system that guarantees due process, a corrections system that provides secure prisons and law enforcement that protects and serves all Floridians.

In this tight budget year, the Florida House focused on funding the core functions of the courts, prisons and law enforcement without having to resort to restrict access to our courts or early release of dangerous criminals into our neighborhoods and communities.

Every day Floridians entrust their loved ones to caregivers and expect they will be treated with care and not preyed upon by criminals.  This year we increased the protection to our loved ones by passing significant legislation to close loopholes in the background screening process. The legislation provides that no one can begin working with children, disabled adults or adults over 65 years of age until after a background screening is completed and the applicant is found to be qualified.  More importantly, the legislation provides that sexual predators will never receive an exemption to work with vulnerable populations.

Keeping Floridians safe is my highest priority, and the House of Representatives has worked hard this session within our tight budget to accomplish this goal.

Cracking Down On Pill Mills

This problem of “pill mills” and the abuse of prescription painkillers has become a major issue for Florida. This year, to help crackdown on this growing threat to our communities, the Legislature passed legislation to deal with the unscrupulous pain clinics around the state.

Pain clinics in South Florida attract patients from all over the country; more oxycodone is distributed in Florida than in any other state. The 50 doctors who dispense the most oxycodone in the entire country are all in Florida. A major factor contributing to these alarming statistics are Florida’s “dispensing practitioners” who dispense drugs directly from their offices.

The legislation passed will prohibit such physicians from dispensing more than a 72-hour supply of controlled substances to a patient.

Violators of this new law will face a 3^rd degree felony charge with up to 5 years in prison and or fines up to $5,000. The bill also prohibits physicians from the advertising or promoting the use, sale or dispensing of a controlled substance. The legislation also places greater regulations on pain clinics by requiring them to register with the Department of Health and submit to annual inspections. Violations of the regulations set forth in the new law will result in significant financial penalties.

Florida is known for many things- our attractions, our beautiful weather, and our beaches.  We are doing our best to make sure we are no longer also known as the pill mill capital of the United States.

Reforming Medicaid

The Medicaid Program continues to consume more and more of Florida’s total budget each year. This fiscal year the program alone will consume over 28% of the entire state budget. By 2014, that percentage is expected to reach 33%.

Costs in the program continue to climb as enrollment in the program increases and health care costs rise. Additionally, the Federal Health Care Reform Legislation recently signed into law by President Obama will expand Medicaid eligibility to more than a million new Floridians. These factors threaten the stability of Florida’s Medicaid program as well as other vital state programs that will inevitably see their share of the budget shift to cover the cost of Medicaid. The growth of the Medicaid program in its current form is unsustainable.

The House of Representatives approached this issue by putting forth a comprehensive reform plan to significantly control costs while improving the quality of care. Florida’s current Medicaid system consists of a patchwork of fee for service plans and 20 different managed care waivers with a series of carve-outs, exceptions and special designations. The current Florida system is the most complex in the country.

The House plan would move the Medicaid program into a state-wide fully integrated managed care plan where participants in the program would have several health plans to choose from to fit their individual health needs. The approach would streamline the program and provide stability to the recipients. Most importantly, focusing the state into one integrated system would enable our agencies to effectively measure performance and would achieve better health outcomes for everyone in the program.

We are disappointed that the Senate did not consider our carefully crafted, bipartisan plan this year, but we have laid a solid foundation that we will continue to work towards. The crisis in Medicaid continues to grow and we hope our plan achieves greater success next session.

Education Funding

In spite of the difficult budget times facing Florida and the nation, the Florida House continues its commitment to creating an excellent educational environment in our state.  In spite of facing a $3 billion budget shortfall, I am pleased that we were able to actually increase per student funding in our children’s classrooms by $111 million over current funding levels.

Not only does the budget show our continued commitment to education, the Florida House passed numerous education reforms to help our students compete and excel in a 21^st century economy.

We looked at innovative solutions to help our students achieve and through expanded scholarship programs, we continue to offer our students and their families choice in their education.

In order to better prepare our students to enter an ever growing global economy, we created a more rigorous course schedule.  These standards will better prepare our students for success in a 21^st century economy that places a premium on knowledge.  Data shows, that under the current system, too many of our students are not adequately prepared for college and their careers afterward.  We must give Florida’s students the necessary tools to compete and succeed, and these reforms help to do just that.

We have made great strides in improving education for Florida’s students since voters passed the Class Size Reduction, but now that we are entering into full the implementation stage, school districts are facing the realities of harsh inflexible caps.   This November, voters will be asked to give school principals flexibility within the requirements to avoid unintended consequences – such as having to move students between teachers mid-year, rezoning school districts, or busing students to schools with available classroom space- of the Class Size Reduction Amendment passed in 2002.  I believe by going back to the voters to help right size the Class Size Amendment, we can maintain the integrity of the voter’s wishes by providing smaller class sizes, but also provide school districts with flexibility so they can provide consistency to maximize student learning in their schools and classrooms.

We know it is not only how much we spend on education that matters; how we spend it matters too.  By raising standards, demanding accountability and offering innovative opportunities, student achievement results are improving significantly.  Florida is a national leader in education reform, and this year, the Florida House continued this charge.

Keeping The Economy Our Top Priority

Our top priority in the Legislature this year was recharging Florida’s economy and helping put Floridians back to work. Throughout this year’s Legislative Session, we stayed focused on our responsibility to Florida’s families and businesses.  We took important steps forward to incentivize new businesses, stimulate job creation and remove barriers to economic growth in Florida.

On the first day of session, we passed legislation that will help keep Floridians working, prevent layoffs, bring a degree of economic certainty to help create new jobs and foster economic growth in Florida. The bill we passed holds down dramatic increases in unemployment tax rates for businesses for the next two years, increases that would have occurred otherwise and likely resulted in layoffs for Floridians.

I felt it is better for Florida employers to use their dollars to keep Floridians working rather than be forced to lay off employees in order to afford a higher unemployment tax bill.

We passed a $203 million jobs package (over three years) for Floridians designed to make our state more economically competitive and encourage companies to invest in our state and hire Floridians. To encourage companies to hire Floridians who have been out of work, we provided tax credits to help make it easier to get Floridians back to work. To help thousands of Floridians who will be impacted by the ending of NASA’s Space Shuttle program, we authorized $29.8 million for infrastructure improvements to attract aerospace industry jobs and to help workers in need of retraining. We also funded an attractive incentive package to bring the film and entertainment industry to Florida, to help make Florida more competitive for the jobs this industry creates.

There is no doubt in anyone’s mind that Florida is facing one of the worst economies in memory.  We took a long-term view toward restoring Florida’s economy this year.  We continued to work to get Floridians back to work and prepare for a future that will once again place Florida among the top states in economic growth and prosperity in America.