Florida Budget Cuts

[spuwho]

California is starting to bite the bullet, can Florida?

http://www.mercurynews.com/breaking-news/ci_17056188?nclick_check=1

It will take 5 years to get caught up, but they are finally being realistic.

Can Florida get realistic?

[Lunican]

NY Times article today covering the same issue in Illinois (budget cuts and tax increases to erase the deficit):

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/10/us/10illinois.html

[tufsu1]

Florida's budget deficit is around $3 Billion....a far cry from the $28 Billion California has to deal with....or even the $2 Billion that Georgia is dealing with (in proportion to their overall budget)

[spuwho]

Florida's budget deficit is around $3 Billion....a far cry from the $28 Billion California has to deal with....or even the $2 Billion that Georgia is dealing with (in proportion to their overall budget)

And growing.....

http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/state/floridas-expected-budget-shortfall-grows-to-3floridas-expected-budget-shortfall-grows-to-3-billion-186430.html

[spuwho]

Gov. Scott sells the states' air fleet saving a few million.

http://www.firstcoastnews.com/news/florida/news-article.aspx?storyid=185248

[ChriswUfGator]

Well it's not that simple. What he's going to do is use his own private jet for state business and expense his official use of his private plane to the state. So, in effect, he is passing off the cost of his own private jet onto the taxpayers.

Mind boggling. He actually isn't even trying to lie about it. It's like "Hi, I'm taking your money, it's a good thing."

[Traveller]

Given the following alternatives, which do you think is most beneficial to the taxpayers?
1. State maintains a fleet of planes full-time, bearing the cost even when they are not in use.
2. State charters privately owned planes when needed, paying owner operating costs plus overhead/depreciation plus markup for profit.
3. State essentially charters privately owned plane (Scott's) when needed, paying owner operating costs only.

[NotNow]

http://www.wesh.com/politics/26392006/detail.html


WINTER PARK, Fla. -- Florida Gov. Rick Scott put the state's two planes up for sale on Thursday that were for use by elected officials.

The use of those planes for personal reasons has come under fire in previous administrations.

The planes -- a 2000 Beechcraft King Air 350 and a 2003 Cessna Citation Bravo -- are already listed on Aircraft Shopper's website. They could be sold for around $6 million.

In the past, the planes were used to shuttle the governor, cabinet members, dignitaries and staff around the state.



Scott figures taxpayers will save about $2.5 million each year after the state sells the aircraft. Some wonder if the sale makes financial sense.

"I find it puzzling that someone can try to run a business as big as the state of Florida from Tallahassee or really any other city in Florida given the size of it without private planes," said Bob Showalter with Showalter Flying Service.

Showalter's family has been in the flight business for 65 years. He said he couldn't imagine elected officials being able to connect with and serve people or react to emergencies while relying on commercial flights.

"I think that we'll find that someday before too long they'll have to be back in the airplane business," he said.

Some lawmakers point to documented abuse of the planes by public officials.

MORE: State Plane Use

"Millions have been wasted by Republican leaders flying around the state on the state planes and so it should be interesting to see what they do without those planes. I think it's a good idea to get rid of them," said Democrat state Rep. Scott Randolph.

The state has investigated the use of the planes by politicians such as former Attorney General Bill McCollum, a Republican, and former Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink, a Democrat.

So far, Scott said his intention is to use his own private plane.

WESH 2 News asked the governor's office is Scott would seek to bill the state for fuel, pilot salaries or maintenance. The governor's office said Scott will pay for the use of his private plane out of his own pocket.

Sealed bids for the two state planes will be opened Feb. 9.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________

So it appears the Gov. is going to pay for his airplane expenses out of his own pocket.

[ChriswUfGator]

Given the following alternatives, which do you think is most beneficial to the taxpayers?
1. State maintains a fleet of planes full-time, bearing the cost even when they are not in use.
2. State charters privately owned planes when needed, paying owner operating costs plus overhead/depreciation plus markup for profit.
3. State essentially charters privately owned plane (Scott's) when needed, paying owner operating costs only.

It isn't that simple. Scott is our first billionaire governor. Most governors don't have their own learjet before entering office, so as soon as Scott leaves office his replacement is no doubt going to simply order another plane (because the need does exist), at which point we're going to wind up paying for the depreciation on another one all over again in addition to the maintenance costs. It will wind up being more expensive. But hey, at least Tricky Rick gets to pass along the cost of his personal private jet to the taxpayers in the meantime.

[ChriswUfGator]

http://www.wesh.com/politics/26392006/detail.html


WINTER PARK, Fla. -- Florida Gov. Rick Scott put the state's two planes up for sale on Thursday that were for use by elected officials.

The use of those planes for personal reasons has come under fire in previous administrations.

The planes -- a 2000 Beechcraft King Air 350 and a 2003 Cessna Citation Bravo -- are already listed on Aircraft Shopper's website. They could be sold for around $6 million.

In the past, the planes were used to shuttle the governor, cabinet members, dignitaries and staff around the state.



Scott figures taxpayers will save about $2.5 million each year after the state sells the aircraft. Some wonder if the sale makes financial sense.

"I find it puzzling that someone can try to run a business as big as the state of Florida from Tallahassee or really any other city in Florida given the size of it without private planes," said Bob Showalter with Showalter Flying Service.

Showalter's family has been in the flight business for 65 years. He said he couldn't imagine elected officials being able to connect with and serve people or react to emergencies while relying on commercial flights.

"I think that we'll find that someday before too long they'll have to be back in the airplane business," he said.

Some lawmakers point to documented abuse of the planes by public officials.

MORE: State Plane Use

"Millions have been wasted by Republican leaders flying around the state on the state planes and so it should be interesting to see what they do without those planes. I think it's a good idea to get rid of them," said Democrat state Rep. Scott Randolph.

The state has investigated the use of the planes by politicians such as former Attorney General Bill McCollum, a Republican, and former Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink, a Democrat.

So far, Scott said his intention is to use his own private plane.

WESH 2 News asked the governor's office is Scott would seek to bill the state for fuel, pilot salaries or maintenance. The governor's office said Scott will pay for the use of his private plane out of his own pocket.

Sealed bids for the two state planes will be opened Feb. 9.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________

So it appears the Gov. is going to pay for his airplane expenses out of his own pocket.

No, it just appears Scott is claiming he will. Which, having watched his deposition videos, it becomes painfully obvious that this guy regularly does one thing and says another. I don't buy it.

[iluvolives]

He's probably selling the jets to some friends of his on the cheap. They should just keep them and charter them out to make money. Thats what our company decided to do with the corporate jet, since there are plenty of jets on the market because of the crappy economy the last couple years, there was no chance you could get much for them (relatively speaking). Plus tons of executives and companies are taking advantage of just paying per trip when needed.

[JeffreyS]

Florida's budget crisis is a temporary issue.  We made some bad investment with some pension money and rainy day funds but Still all in all Florida is just in the grip of a bad economy that will not last forever.  We will be fine.  Our growth industry will be hurting for a while but this state has a diverse economy that is pretty sound.
Now is an opportunity for our state to invest in itself and come out of this recession miles ahead of where so many states with serious financial problems will.

The sky is hardly falling here.

[NotNow]

http://www.wesh.com/politics/26392006/detail.html


WINTER PARK, Fla. -- Florida Gov. Rick Scott put the state's two planes up for sale on Thursday that were for use by elected officials.

The use of those planes for personal reasons has come under fire in previous administrations.

The planes -- a 2000 Beechcraft King Air 350 and a 2003 Cessna Citation Bravo -- are already listed on Aircraft Shopper's website. They could be sold for around $6 million.

In the past, the planes were used to shuttle the governor, cabinet members, dignitaries and staff around the state.



Scott figures taxpayers will save about $2.5 million each year after the state sells the aircraft. Some wonder if the sale makes financial sense.

"I find it puzzling that someone can try to run a business as big as the state of Florida from Tallahassee or really any other city in Florida given the size of it without private planes," said Bob Showalter with Showalter Flying Service.

Showalter's family has been in the flight business for 65 years. He said he couldn't imagine elected officials being able to connect with and serve people or react to emergencies while relying on commercial flights.

"I think that we'll find that someday before too long they'll have to be back in the airplane business," he said.

Some lawmakers point to documented abuse of the planes by public officials.

MORE: State Plane Use

"Millions have been wasted by Republican leaders flying around the state on the state planes and so it should be interesting to see what they do without those planes. I think it's a good idea to get rid of them," said Democrat state Rep. Scott Randolph.

The state has investigated the use of the planes by politicians such as former Attorney General Bill McCollum, a Republican, and former Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink, a Democrat.

So far, Scott said his intention is to use his own private plane.

WESH 2 News asked the governor's office is Scott would seek to bill the state for fuel, pilot salaries or maintenance. The governor's office said Scott will pay for the use of his private plane out of his own pocket.

Sealed bids for the two state planes will be opened Feb. 9.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________

So it appears the Gov. is going to pay for his airplane expenses out of his own pocket.

No, it just appears Scott is claiming he will. Which, having watched his deposition videos, it becomes painfully obvious that this guy regularly does one thing and says another. I don't buy it.

In reply #8 you said that the Gov was going to charge his private airplane expenses to the State.  The listed article quotes his office saying that he will personally pay the expenses.  So now you state that he is lying.  Were you lying in reply #8?  Your politics are showing, you should pull your skirt down.

Like the President, this guy was elected and should get the opportunity to establish a record.  When actions are taken that you disagree with, then make a factual argument.  Most of this thread is just sour grapes.

[ChriswUfGator]

I just did make an argument, which you're conveniently ignoring. The governor who takes office after Scott now has to buy a new plane and the multi-million-dollar depreciation cost will get stuck with the taxpayers all over again, thanks to Scott's silly publicity stunt. Hard to govern a 500 mile long state with no airplane.

My politics aren't showing, back that projector up. Not everything is political. I make my decisions based on what is right, not what's politically convenient. Case in point, about the only two people around here who support your salary and retirement position as a cop are the same two people you constantly bash as politicized malcontents. Which, for the record, is another case of projection. But the point is, all of your little tea bagger friends are the first ones who think your ass needs no pension and a salary cut.

As pleasing in some infantile sense as it would be to jump on that bandwagon and kick you in the ribs, since you really are a piece of work online, I can't because it's not right. I actually wrote Mike Corrigan for you this week following our discussion in the other thread, and even though I know he won't be in office when the vote occurs I asked him to pass the correspondence on to his successor. The math behind COJ's estimates is grossly skewed, because it increases projected future pension contributions without adjusting COJ's projected tax revenues, when the reality is that both will rise if nothing else due to simple inflation.

That is the same kind of bullshit made-for-soundbite statistic as taking a $10mm loss to sell a 7 year old Citation in excellent condition at the bottom of the market, only to have to replace it again in 4 years with another plane on which the taxpayers will once again have to foot seven figures worth of depreciation, just so Rick Scott can claim he "saved" the taxpayers some fraction of what this asinine decision will actually cost us. That's as much B.S. as COJ's position on your contract negotiations.

You ought to engage in some self-analysis, NotNow. Things aren't as cut and dried as you apparently like to believe.

[NotNow]

Thanks for your support on the JSO salary & pension issues. 

I respectfully reserve the right to hold my own opinions on other issues.  I also find that you seem to take this forum writing quite personally.  Try to relax, it's just us typing.  No world changing events will happen because of what appears here.

I simply pointed out that your claim that the Governor was charging the State for the operation of his private plane was incorrect.  I did not offer an opinion on the sale of State owned airplanes. 

Like I said before, I'm going to give Scott some time to establish a record before I criticize him, just as I did Obama.

Thanks for your psychiatric assessment, I always appreciate your input!