EDUCATION REFORM: Florida’s reform model has lead to huge gains in student achievement, says a new Mackinac Center study.

By William Patrick | Florida Watchdog

TALLAHASSEE — When it comes to public education, Floridians have a lot to be proud of.

At least, that’s what one policy analyst from Michigan’s Mackinac Center is saying.

A new study by the state-based think tank compares Michigan’s student achievement and education policies with the Sunshine State’s. The conclusion: Michigan would be a top performer if it had enacted similar education reforms during the past 15 years.

The study shows that reforms expanding school choice options, teacher accountability standards and online learning programs,to name a few, have helped students tremendously.

Despite once outranking Florida, Michigan — and  many others — now finds itself well behind the southeastern mega-state on the National Assessment of Educational Progress, often referred to as “the nation’s report card.”

Since Florida’s education shift began, fourth-grade reading levels have increased 9.1 percent, while Michigan’s grew only 1.3 percent. The national average during the same period was 3.4 percent.

Similarly, fourth-grade math scores are up 11.2 percent, while Michigan registered a 4.5 percent increase, and the nation 8.1 percent.

Other important student-performance measures reflect a similar pattern.

The Mackinac report points to policy changes, not an increase in spending levels, to explain why Florida earned the second highest standardized test score gains in the country.

In fact, a recent U.S. Census report ranked Florida 42 out of the 50 states and the District of Columbia in per-pupil spending for elementary and secondary education.

Education Week, a well-respected national research nonprofit, reports Florida consistently ranks near the top in education quality despite giving it an “F” for spending on its 2013 Quality Counts list.

Students from low-income families often are blamed for depressing standardized test scores. But as evidenced through a wide variety of sources, the reverse is true under Florida’s reform model.

“Florida’s students, especially those from low-income backgrounds, have been making substantial and unmistakable learning gains for more than a decade,” Education Policy Director Michael Van Beek said in a statement. “Michigan policymakers should take notice. There’s a lot to learn from this other peninsular state.”

The study outlines six key recommendations ranging from an “A-F” school grading system, to tuition tax credits, to limiting the “social promotion” of third graders who struggle with reading.

“There’s no ‘silver bullet’ here, but Florida’s example should be considered when setting the agenda to improve Michigan’s public education system in the years to come,” Van Beek said.

Contact William Patrick at william@floridawatchdog.org

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MIAMI — A 15-year truce between the city of Miami and the city’s homeless could be over.

Miami’s commissioners are petitioning the courts to modify the historic consent decree, or settlement, known as Pottinger v. City of Miami, where about 6,000 homeless people, along with the support of American Civil Liberties Union, sued the city claiming that the police had criminalized homelessness. The courts found that criminalization of essential acts performed in public violated various plaintiffs’ rights under the Fourth, 14th and Eighth Amendments.

HOMELESS: A man on the sidewalk of Biscayne Boulevard in Miami. (Flikr).

Under the consent decree, the city agreed not to arrest the homeless for such things as sleeping, eating and congregating in public, and pledged not to confiscate and destroy their belongings.

But that may change.

“As you all know things have changed in Miami,” said Miami City Commissioner Marc Sarnoff, who proposed the modifications and described the homeless situation as a “chronic problem” in the city.

“We have exactly 351 homeless people, which represents 40 percent of the total homeless in the county,” he said.

City commissioners are considering the  hiring the same law firm that fought the landmark case in 1998. They want to modify the definition of  ”life-sustaining activities”  to exclude starting fires to cook meals in public areas, blocking sidewalks, littering, relieving themselves in public and lewd conduct.

The city also wants to give police authority to arrest people who refuse to go to a shelter on three occasions within a 180 day period and to confiscate their belongings. The city also asked the judge to exclude sexual predators from the provisions of the Pottinger settlement.

But before the commissioners can change the decree, they will first have to battle the ACLU.

“We are here to explain to people what the Pottinger lawsuit is about and why this settlement is important for protecting the underprivileged,” said Benjamin Waxman, a volunteer lawyer for the ACLU, during a talk with a group of youths in downtown Miami.

MARC SARNOFF: “As you all know things have changed in Miami,” said Miami City Commissioner, who proposed the modifications and described the current homeless situation as a ‘chronic problem’ affecting the city.

“I think what bothers them (the city) is their presence, because they are trying to project the image of Miami as a center of international travel and business, and they see the homeless as interfering with their intentions,” said Waxman.

But according to police, commerce and image have little to do with it. They maintain that homeless people scare passersby with aggressive and less-than-civilized behavior, like defecating and urinating in public.

He noted that during the 1998 tria,l the judge didn’t buy the city’s proposal to relegate the homeless to “safe areas.”

“The judge found that the ‘safe areas’ could become ‘ghettos’ then ruled in our favor,” Waxman said.

The ACLU lawyer said he has met with the city’s attorney, but has not yet reached an agreement on their request to modify the settlement.

According to Sarnoff, since the 1998 decree, the number of people living on the streets of Miami has dropped dramatically. The homeless population went from 6,000 to around 351, thanks to more shelters and programs dedicated to getting folks off the streets.

But there are still some who are holding out and refuse to accept help. They are referred to by the authorities as “chronic cases.”.

One such case involved Ronald Poppo, a homeless man who gained notoriety for being the victim of the horrific “cannibal’ attack” on the MacArthur Causeway in Miami. Poppo had lived under the bridge for several years and refused to go to a shelter, until one night when he was attacked by a man who beat him and bit off most of his face above his beard and his left eye, leaving him blind.

The case struck a chord with the public. After the attack it was learned that Poppo had been an outstanding student in school and his family had lost contact with him long ago, but at some point his addictions won the battle and he ended up living on the street.

Waxman and other homeless advocates like Ron Book, chairman of the Miami-Dade County Homeless Trust, said that “nothing good can come from putting (the homeless) in prison.”

Miami-Dade County Homeless Trust has $52 million and provides homes and services to those without resources. Miami also is discussing funding of 15 new beds for the homeless, with the county anteing up the cost for another 85.

In other counties like Lee in southwest Florida, homelessness is on the rise. From 2008 to 2011, the number increased by 30 percent. County officials attribute the increase to state funding cuts to mental health and substance abuse programs.

So, in April 2008 the county decided to create a pilot program called Bob Janes Triage Center. The center aims to be an alternative to jail for people living on the street or who are at risk of committing minor, non-violent crimes.

In 2008 the center opened with 22 beds, which grew to 58 by 2010.

The facility is operated as a multi‐agency collaborative effort between Lee County Human Services, the Salvation Army, Lee Mental Health, Lee Memorial Health System, Southwest Florida Addiction Services, the United Way of Lee County, National Alliance on Mental Illness, Lee County and local law enforcement.

But despite that Bob Janes Triage Center receives national recognition—it loses state funding.

None of the city of Miami commissioners were available for comment. Florida Watchdog also tried to contact Sarnoff’s press agent by phone and email, and they asked to received the questions by email. They have yet to respond to that email.

Watch the interview with ACLU lawyer Benjamin Waxman.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dPJyQ7RfZcY&feature=youtu.be

Contact Marianela Toledo at Marianela.Toledo@FloridaWatchdog.org twitter @mtoledoreporter

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SECURE?: Government databases are aggregating more and more private information. In Florida, 3,300 individuals’ private prescription drug information recently ended up in the hands of criminal prosecutors.

By William Patrick | Florida Watchdog

TALLAHASSEE – As fears of large government databases storing citizens’ private information reach a national crescendo, Florida officials seem to be demonstrating exactly why Americans are so concerned.

As once feared, the state’s E-FORCSE program has apparently put the private health records of Floridians at risk.

Established in 2009, Electronic Online Reporting of Controlled Substances Evaluation is the state’s prescription drug monitoring program. Every time a health care practitioner prescribes or dispenses medication ranging from pain killers to cough syrup with codeine, the recipient’s personal information is reported and stored in the database.

The program is supposed to comply with federal and state privacy laws and regulations, but that didn’t stop 3,300 individuals’ confidential prescription drug records from recently being obtained by third parties, according to the Florida chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union.

What’s more, the information was distributed to Volusia County criminal attorneys for use in six criminal cases.

The ACLU isn’t saying who those third parties are, and attempts by Florida Watchdog to identify them were unsuccessful Thursday afternoon.

None of the 3,300 individuals involved either gave their consent or was notified of the release. The violation only became known when one individual unrelated to the criminal investigations became aware of the privacy breach.

According to a statement obtained by Florida Watchdog, the Florida ACLU has submitted public records requests to the Florida Department of Health and the Seminole County Sheriff’s Office to determine how and why the information was released.

“The private medical information of more than 3,000 Floridians — namely what prescription drugs they take, the dosage, their date of birth, address and the name of the pharmacy that dispensed the prescription, ended up in the hands of third parties who simply have no legal right to know which law-abiding citizens are taking which prescribed medications,”  said ACLU of Florida’s associate legal Director Maria Kayanan in a statement.

The statewide database was developed by Health Information Designs, Inc., a private company contracted by the Florida Department of Health. That company was paid $556,000 over the past two years, according to records on the state’s chief financial officer’s website.

The impetus behind the E-FORSCE database was to give health-care providers a tool to prevent over-prescribing addictive medications.

But the database also serves as a registry for the Drug Enforcement Agency, the Department of Health and the Florida Attorney General’s Office to prosecute so-called “pill mill” prescribers and prescription drug addicts.

Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi has made Florida’s pill mill problem a leading focus of her administration.

While the state aggregates Floridians’ prescription drug information in the hopes of prosecuting a vastly smaller population of abusers, health-care providers apparently rarely use the system at all.

According to a Tampa Bay Times investigation conducted late last year, 48 million prescriptions for controlled substances have been filled since the monitoring program’s inception, but only 2 percent of prescribing medical practitioners have actually checked the database.

“As we’ve seen time and time again, and as made apparent by recent national news, government databases that collect personal information about us inevitably become sites for abuse and mistakes that can compromise our privacy,” Kayanan said.

“The maintenance of this database is bad enough, but without effective safeguards in place to protect our right to privacy under the Florida Constitution and federal law, breaches like this are inevitable. We want to determine how those safeguards in Florida failed, or if indeed they exist at all,” Kayanan added.

UPDATED JUNE 13 5:19pm: A spokesperson for the Florida ACLU has said the third parties that received the private prescription drug information were the Volusia County criminal attorneys. The public records requests could show others.

Contact William Patrick at william@floridawatchdog.org

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NAOMI BARRY-PEREZ: Wants the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity to admit to widespread discrimination.

By William Patrick | Florida Watchdog

TALLAHASSEE – Representatives of the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity say their agency may be the victim of a politically-motivated investigation.

In a statement released last Wednesday, DEO said it’s being coerced by the United States Department of Labor into signing a “conciliation agreement” that it adamantly opposes.

Now the DEO is asking for an Inspector General’s review and a congressional oversight hearing into the investigatory practices of the cabinet-level agency.

In April, DEO was charged in an Initial Determination report with discriminating against Floridians with limited English proficiency and persons with disabilities who applied to the state’s Reemployment Assistance program.

By requiring participants to file unemployment compensation claims online, and take an online skills assessment test, the Department of Labor determined the policy amounted to systematic discrimination.

DEO admits to mistakes in the 1,000 employee program, saying errors can be “reasonably expected” in a program that processed 668,664 new claims and fielded 3.4 million phone calls in 2011.

But the state agency categorically denies allegations of widespread discrimination.

DEO also asserts that “rather than neutrally enforcing the law and acting as an impartial arbiter of complaints — (USDOL) collaborates with political advocacy groups to initiate complaints and allegations of noncompliance with USDOL laws and regulations.”

US LABOR DEPARTMENT: State officials say the executive agency is engaging in an ideological investigation with questionable tactics.

The Miami Workers Center, a self-identifying progressive nonprofit, initiated the dispute.

A statement on the group’s website says that workers in Florida face “more obstacles to accessing unemployment benefits than anywhere else in the country.”

MWC admits to knowing about state and federal exemptions for illiteracy, language barriers and disabilities, but contends “DEO fails to inform people that they can be exempted or accommodated. “

Florida Watchdog contacted MWC for comment but did not receive a response.

According to DEO data, unemployment claimants had the option of using several languages to apply online. Of the total successfully filed claims, website users opted to apply in languages proportionate to Florida’s population.

The Department of Labor’s Employment and Training Administration, responsible for overseeing Florida’s reemployment program, approved the online filing requirement before its implementation.

But DEO attorneys say they were advised by the Director of the Department of Labor’s Civil Rights Center on May 29 to consider the public relations implications of a final determination of discrimination and to sign the conciliation agreement admitting wrongdoing.

DEO attorneys also claim the Department of Labor threatened to publicize the action based on a “new policy” to make all final determinations public.

If DEO does not comply, the case will likely be referred to the U.S. attorney general’s office for civil action.

Penalties could include financial payouts and denial of federal unemployment assistance funds to the state.

DEO says the Labor Department’s investigatory techniques include relying on cherry-picked unsworn testimony, interrogations of DEO staff without counsel present, the withholding of documents, and collaboration with the Miami Workers Center.

The civil rights division’s acting Chief of External Enforcement, Naomi Barry-Perez, has, according to DEO’s general counsel, published a Powerpoint presentation quoting Thomas E. Perez as “calling for a Government-wide meeting of Directors of federal civil rights offices with representatives of advocacy groups.”

Thomas E. Perez is the current presidential nominee to head the Department of Labor. Perez is also an assistant attorney general for the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division.

Contact William Patrick at william@floridawatchdog.org

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MIAMI — It is a project that’s been on the table for years: The Miami Beach Convention Center redevelopment.  But just as things started to move forward, the people spoke and now the project may go back to the drawing board.

Miami Beach was in the final stages of inking the deal and breaking ground when Commissioner Johah Wolfson launched a campaign to gather the required 4,500 signatures to force the city to put its plan of financing the project through public land giveaways to developers to a public vote.

Protesters waving posters that read “No to Corporate Welfare” and “Let Miami Beach decide” were out in force last week at the Miami Beach City Hall. They were there to deliver the 7,000 signatures they had collected in order to put the brakes on the renovation project.

REFERENDUM: Protesters waving posters that read ‘No to Corporate Welfare’ and ‘Let Miami Beach decide’ were out in force last week at the Miami Beach City Hall.

“Today we come to deliver the signatures necessary to put the issue on the November ballot, to see if residents want to give a gift (of free land) to the private developers in charge of the renovation of the Miami Beach Convention Center,” Wolfson said.

Wolfson and his supporters seek to change the city charter so that at least 60 percent of the voters — a supermajority — must approve the sale, lease or conveyance of almost all city land within the convention center district.

“We have collected many signatures because the residents know that this is another Marlins Park,” said Wolfson, referring to controversial Major League Baseball park built in Little Havana with public money that it having trouble filling seats.

The next step is to verify the signatures are legitimate. After that, the Miami Beach legal office will need to sign off on the ballot questions.

City officials are mulling over the two proposals submitted by The Portman CMC Group and South Beach ACE, two private developers selected as the finalists in the bidding process.

During their presentations neither developer went into much detail about final figures or how they expected to be paid. But they did agree that the cost could range from $500 million and $800 million, although the commissioner and others say the project could end up costing taxpayers $1 billion.

The Miami Beach Convention Center, built in 1957 to seat 15,000 people, has been in need of a facelift for years. Its last remodel was in 1989 when it underwent a $92 million renovation and doubled in size.

The original plan was to remodel just the center, which would be financed with $200 million coming from the city coffers and another $55 million to be collected through bonds. A resort tax would kick in another $150 million.

But when the city opened the bidding process, it asked developers to include a master plan that would incorporate surrounding areas as well as the Convention Center.  The total area to be renovation grew to 52 acres and now include the renovation of the Jackie Gleason Theater and the Lincoln Road pedestrian mall, a hotel, several outdoor public spaces, restaurants and recreation areas, as well as shops, homes and commercial areas.

RENOVATION: The Beach Convention Center, built in 1957 to seat 15,000 people, has been in dire need of a facelift for a very long time. Its last remodel was in 1989 when it underwent a $92 million renovation and doubled in size.

But with development costs now in the stratosphere, the city needed a creative way to come up with the shortfall. To come up with the extra cash, city officials hatched a plan that would include the swapping public land for the work.

Under the plan, the city would lease the area around the convention center to the winning developer for up to 99 years in exchange for the financing of surrounding areas.

But some people don’t see it as a fair trade and say that it is too generous. The lease is too long and that rents and sales collected would add up quickly and far outweigh the developer’s financial investment, opponents say.

Real estate broker Jorge Miguel estimated that in the long run the value of the land could be far more valuable than the contribution that the developer would make.

“It’s a gift to developers,” said Wolfson.” We already have the money for the Center and we don’t need the rest.”

Rafa Bustamante, one of the signature collectors, agreed that the numbers don’t add up and that it may not be a fair trade for taxpayers.

“What worries me is that this is a very big project and we haven’t been given enough time even to see clearly how we will be impacted,” Bustamante said.

Wolfson also noted that, “Redevelopment of our aging and outdated convention center is not only necessary, but vital to our long-term competitiveness to attract business to our community.”

But he also said it’s his responsibility as an elected official to be a good steward of taxpayer money and that in this case, he believes that a project of this magnitude should be put to vote. Not doing so, he said, is misguided, unnecessary and unwise.

Florida Watchdog wanted to communicate with several commissioners but not respond to Florida Watchdog’s request for interviews.

Contact Marianela Toledo at Marianela.Toledo@FloridaWatchdog.org

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REP. JOE GARCIA: The chief of staff for the Florida congressman recently resigned after admitting to a fraudulent absentee ballot scheme.

By William Patrick | Florida Watchdog

TALLAHASSEE – For those who remain skeptical that election fraud happens in Florida: take a look at the 26th congressional district.

An ongoing investigation conducted by elections officials, law enforcement officers and the Miami Herald has revealed 2,552 absentee ballots were fraudulently requested during the lead up to last year’s August primary elections.

The phony absentee requests were submitted online and without the knowledge of the targeted ballot recipients.

Hundreds of the requests emanated from Internet Protocol addresses, or IP addresses, in the Miami area, and selectively targeted Democratic voters in the newly drawn South Florida congressional district.

Those fake requests are now tied to the campaign of Rep. Joe Garcia.

Garcia won both the Democratic congressional primary and general election, and said in a weekend press conference that he was entirely unaware of the fraud but maintained it “was a well-intentioned attempt to maximize voter turnout.”

DAMAGE CONTROL: Garcia denies any involvement in the fraudulent online absentee ballot requests, but says the scheme was “well-intentioned.”

Officials raided the homes of Garcia’s campaign manager and communications director last Friday. Hours later, Garcia’s chief of staff took responsibility for the scheme and resigned.

The Democratic primary in question was also marred by reports that former incumbent congressman David Rivera, a Republican, was financing aspects of a Democratic campaign of one of Garcia’s primary opponents.

A federal investigation into the matter has since led to an indictment of Justin Lamar Sternad, the supposed “ringer” candidate, though no charges have been levied against Rivera.

The other bogus online absentee requests from Miami targeted Republican voters in two state House districts. Those phony requests stemmed from foreign IP addresses with fake email contact information, making them nearly impossible to trace.

According to investigators and the Miami Herald, there is no way to substantiate whether the two schemes are linked.

Regardless, the Garcia and state House absentee ballot frauds were flagged by elections officials and ultimately failed, but only because they were poorly executed, writes Bev Harris of Black Box Voting, an elections watchdog.

“The Miami absentee hack went wrong, and was thwarted when someone tried to do the ballot request stuffing via the (official voter) Web site. Besides triggering IP flags, the system automatically sent an email to the real persons whose identities had been hijacked for bogus requests,” wrote Harris.

“Now, if you have a few thousand strategically targeted extra ballots that you know are bogus, and you reroute the database to an off-the-public-record consultant during the print and mail phase, you can deliver those ballots anywhere you want. They can all be sent to the same address; no one would know,” added Harris.

Carolina López of the Miami-Dade County Election Department told Florida Watchdog’s Marianela Toledo in February that state law permits certain individuals, such as candidates appearing on the ballot, political supporters, committees and consultants, to have access to the list of voters requesting absentee ballots. 

The targeted voters in the online scheme were selected because they were registered but infrequent voters. Filling out the request form and sending the ballots directly to them or manipulating their ballots in another capacity are both felonies and were the apparent goals of the plot.

Absentee ballot voting, or vote by mail, was the focus of a grand jury report led by Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle following the 2012 elections.

“Our concern about the voting process and the voting results in our community compelled us to select the absentee ballot voting process as our investigative topic,” the report states.

The report highlighted the rise of absentee ballot voting in Miami-Dade County; 27 percent of the total 885,067 votes last November, as opposed to 7 percent in 2000.

JOHN PATRICK JULIEN: The former state representative attributes absentee ballot fraud to his 13 vote defeat.

The grand jury report also cited several known scenarios of clear elections violations, saying “the reality (emphasis theirs) of what occurred was much more bizarre” than the rumors of what occurred.

In one case, a United States Postal employee stumbled over 150 absentee ballots in a single mailbox; it is illegal for an individual to possess more than two. The ballots were later traced to a County Commissioners Aide.

Boloteros, or activists hired by campaigns to collect absentee votes from voters in elderly care homes and community centers, were mentioned in the report as well.

For state Rep. John Patrick Julien, a Democrat from North Miami, allegations of fraud and voter intimidation are real.

After losing his reelection bid by just 13 votes, Julien told Florida Watchdog, “Everyone is more interested in winning than doing it the right and just way.”

“Anyone that wants to run has to submit to the criminal element in order to win,” said Julien. “Everyone participates in it and that’s wrong.”

Contact William Patrick at william@floridawatchdog

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MIAMI —It’s a great law for the economy, banks and bargain hunters. But it may be a raw deal for homeowners struggling to hang on to their homes.

A NEED FOR SPEED: New law accelerates the foreclosure process in Florida.

The proposal sponsored by Florida State Rep. Kathleen Passidomo, R-Naples, and Sen. Jack Latvala, R-Clearwater, looks to speed up the foreclosure process by reducing the number of hearings, easing up on the paperwork and hoops lenders must jump through to reclaim a property, ultimately reducing the wait time from five years to one.

Opponents like MoveOn.org, a liberal nonprofit political action committee, say the law is unconstitutional. The group is threatening to sue if the proposal is passed and is collecting signatures demanding that the governor veto the bill. 

The group says The Foreclosure Act was passed illegally and unconstitutionally.

“The Legislature failed to adhere to the requirements of the Florida Constitution. There will be litigation initiated to defeat this illegal and unconstitutional bill, which will be unnecessarily costly litigation to Florida,” MoveOn.org says on its website.

State Sen. Darren Soto, D-Orlando, wants Gov. Rick Scott to veto the bill.

“This legislation would mark the biggest reduction of homeowner (and) homestead rights in generations,” he said. “In a state that ranks first in the nation in foreclosures, not only does the law allow homeowners to be evicted more quickly, but if the eviction was through bank fraud, there is no possibility of arbitration to recover the home. ”

SPONSOR: Sen. Jack Latvala supports the bill that will speed up the foreclosure process.

Soto went said the law does not allow enough time for mediation, short sales, relocation assistance, reduction of unpaid principal balances, refinancing for borrowers whose homes are worth less than the money they owe, or other options. He said he is particularly concerned about how the law will affect the activities and reports from the Office of Mortgage Settlement Oversight, the federal authority charged overseeing banks to ensure they comply with the servicing standards and consumer relief requirements outlined in the National Mortgage Settlement.

But the law has its supporters.

The Community Advocacy Network, a statewide not-for-profit advocacy network that promotes favorable community association legislation, supports the new law.

“CAN members are very supportive of HB 87 as it would allow community associations to push forward with stalled bank foreclosure,” said Donna DiMaggio Berger, a lawyer and founder of the organization.

“This is an important tool as far too many Florida homeowners have fallen victim to foreclosure while paying for the budget shortfalls created by their neighbors who preceded them on the foreclosure path,” DiMaggio Berger said.

She also paying members of homeowners’ associations are protected by the law.

VETO: Sen. Darren Soto, has written a letter to Scott, asking the governor to veto the law.

“There are some very consumer friendly portions of this bill from a debtor’s perspective including the significant reduction in the amount of time a bank can go after a borrower for a deficiency judgment,” she said, adding mortgage defense attorneys would likely not support the bill since their clients benefit from longerforeclosure proceedings.

Passidomo told the media her goal is to make the process as efficient as possibly to avoid a perpetual limbo while still respecting the rights of the borrower.

Florida has one of the highest number of foreclosures in the country.

RealtyTrac, a website that tracks Florida mortgage trends, says one in every 317 homes in the Sunshine State is in foreclosure. Many have been stuck in limbo for years.

Jorge Miguel, of JM International Realty, told Florida Watchdog that there are foreclosed properties that have been stalled in court for more than four years.

“If we see it from the point of view of the economy, is a good plan to streamline and clean all the properties that have been in foreclosure and have taken a long time,” Miguel said. “If we see it from the point of view of the consumer, is a negative. Many people want to prolong the foreclosure process to live in their home (without paying).

What is not yet clear is what the impact the law will have on the local economy,  or how the law will coexist with the other laws that were enacted to provide relief  to homeowners wishing to remain in their homes.

“I’m unaware of how HB 87 will impact the local and federal programs designed to keep distressed homeowners in their homes,” DiMaggio Berger said. “I assume those programs will adapt if the Fair Foreclosure Act becomes law to ensure that the needed funds and legal services arrive in time to account for the shortened foreclosure timeline,” she said.

Lawmakers, meanwhile, recently passed another bill (SB 1852) authorizing $31 million in relief to homeowners.

Contact Marianela Toledo at Marianela.Toledo@FloridaWatchdog.org

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RUBIO: Recently filed an amendment that would provide criminal liability and mandatory termination for corrupt IRS employees.

TALLAHASSEE – Florida Sen. Marco Rubio questioned this week the legitimacy of the Internal Revenue Service in enforcing the Affordable Care Act, better known as Obamacare.

“The IRS, this agency — that either is targeting people because of their political views or is incompetent — this is the agency that is in charge of doing this. We should be very concerned about that, and it is an argument for repealing Obamacare,” Rubio said in a video press release on Wednesday.

Political partisanship notwithstanding, the IRS is hiring 2,000 additional agents to enforce the ACA’s individual health insurance mandate.  What’s more, the new IRS division will be run by Sarah Hall Ingram.

Ingram was the commissioner of the tax-exempt and government entities division during the selective harassment of groups with the words “tea party,” “patriot” and “constitution” in their nonprofit applications.

Rather than being fired, Ingram was promoted.

ACCOUNTABILITY? Lois Lerner is collecting her $177,000 annual salary while on administrative leave.

Lois Lerner, the director of the tax-exempt organizations division, has not been fired either. After invoking her Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination in order to avoid answering questions about letters she personally signed that targeted conservative groups, Lerner is collecting her $177,000 salary while on administrative leave.

In response to what Rubio and others are calling an utter lack of accountability, Rubio filed an amendment last week calling for the “mandatory termination and criminal liability for IRS employees who knowingly violate the constitutional rights of a taxpayer.”

The amendment not only addresses the singling out of specific groups for political reasons, but also the selective leaking of confidential tax information to sources outside the agency.

Nine confidential tax-exempt applications from conservative groups were leaked to the website ProPublica late last year. The left-leaning news website published information from six of the nine applications.

ProPublica has not reported whether anyone at the IRS has been fired for divulging the documents, but did print that a spokeswoman for the agency retroactively warned that “publishing unauthorized returns or return information was a felony punishable by a fine of up to $5,000 and imprisonment of up to five years, or both.”

BUREAUCRATIC IMMUNITY: Promotion, paid leave and early retirement have been the consequences for IRS managers who oversaw the selective targeting of conservative groups.

How hard is it to fire an IRS employee?

A USA Today investigative analysis found that “federal employees’ job security is so great that workers in many agencies are more likely to die of natural causes than get laid off or fired.”

“When job security is at a premium, the federal government remains the place to work for those who want to avoid losing a job. The job security rate for all federal workers was 99.43 percent last year and nearly 100 percent for those on the job more than a few years,” the report said.

Cato Institute scholars Chris Edwards and Tad DeHaven have been writing about the need to reform the federal government’s firing practices for more than a decade.

Edwards says there are several reasons why it is difficult to fire a federal employee: civil service protections, union laws, lack of incentives to reduce costs and generous alternatives to firing such as “putting bad workers in a corner and leaving them alone or promoting them to get them out of their section,” Edwards said in an email to Florida Watchdog.

Despite the lack of intra-agency accountability, 74 percent of Americans believe the “targeting of conservative groups” was wrong, according to a recent ABC News/Washington Post poll.

A new Quinnipiac poll shows that three-fourths of voters want a special prosecutor to investigate the IRS scandal.

To date, the only IRS employee to depart in the fallout from the scandal is former agency boss Steven Miller.

Miller was not fired, but rather resigned 21 days prior to his retirement date after admitting in congressional testimony that the IRS was simply guilty of “horrible customer service.”

Florida Watchdog contacted Senator Rubio’s Tallahassee, Miami and Washington D.C. offices for comment but was directed via email to several links from the senator’s website.

Contact William Patrick at william@floridawatchdog.org

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LESS IS MORE: Florida ranks among the nations leaders in overall quality of education despite lower than average spending.

By William Patrick | Florida Watchdog

TALLAHASSEE – When it comes to education spending in Florida, the age old expression that “you get what you pay for” simply does not apply.

A recent U.S. Census report ranked Florida 42 out of the 50 states and the District of Columbia in per pupil spending for elementary and secondary education.

The report reviewed data from 2011 and showed Florida spends $8,887 per student, well below the national average of $10,560.

But the low funding does not mean the Sunshine State has the 42nd worst K-12 education system in the nation.

On the contrary.

Education Week, a national research nonprofit, reports Florida consistently ranks near the top in education quality and student progress, largely debunking the idea that more spending equals better results.

Education Week ranked Florida 11 out of 50 in its 2011 Quality Counts list, and sixth among states last year despite factoring an “F” grade for low spending.

By comparison, the District of Columbia spent more than twice as much per student as Florida yet has one of the worst educational rankings in the country. New Jersey, Connecticut, Alaska, Wyoming and Utah also spent double the Sunshine State while showing lesser results.

BUCKING THE TREND: Federal education spending has skyrocketed nationally in recent years while student performance has remained flat. Florida is moving in the opposite direction.

The Quality Counts list evaluates states through six key indicators including student and teacher performance, as well as school finance.

“What matters most is not how much we spend, but how we spend the dollars we allocate,” former Florida Education Commissioner Pam Stewart said earlier this year in a conference call to reporters. “High per pupil expenditures does not automatically produce high-achieving pupils.”

Florida also is outperforming other large but higher spending states in science, math and reading, according to the federally funded National Assessment of Educational Progress report card.

Progress among minority students also has trended well above the national average.

The reason for Florida’s success is a series of educational reforms often referred to as the Florida model, said Matthew Ladner of the Goldwater Institute, a Phoenix-based conservative nonprofit.

“After a decade of aggressive statewide reforms, students in Florida have made impressive strides on national exams, which should cause policymakers from around the country to study what’s happening in the Sunshine State,” Ladner wrote in a research document for the Heritage Foundation.

Expanding school choice options, improving teacher quality and implementing tough accountability standards are hallmarks for the Florida model.

Thought leaders from the liberal think-tank Center for American Progress also are acknowledging that simply pumping more taxpayer money into the system is not the answer.

“Countless studies have shown that how a school system spends its dollars can be just as important as how much it spends. But our country’s education system lacks the proper incentives, support, and accountability structures to ensure that resources deliver the most efficient results,” said senior fellow Ulrich Boser in an interview with the reform group Students First.

According to the Census report, roughly $18 billion of Florida’s $24 billion (that’s 75 percent) in K-12 expenditures went to employee salaries, wages and benefits.

The Education Intelligence Agency calculated that in the year prior to the report, $6,778 of $8,738 in per pupil spending went to employee compensation.

The Census report did not consider the $1 billion cut in education funding during Gov. Rick Scott’s first year in office, nor the $2 billion funding increase since.

Scott, a Republican, successfully pushed for $2,500 to $3,500 across-the-board teacher pay raises as part of the 2013 Florida budget.

Contact William Patrick at william@floridawatchdog.org

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MIAMI — An investment of $642 million — mostly from taxpayer dollars — for a Major League Baseball stadium in Little Havana is not paying off.

NO LINES: promotions abound to buy Marlins Tickets.

The Miami Marlins are struggling to sell game tickets. Retail development around the publicly finance stadium hasn’t happened, and the team says it can’t sustain paying major-league salaries while suffering big-time revenue loses.

So what’s the team to do?

Slash ticket prices? They’ve done that. With a Groupon coupon you can get up to 58-percent off the price of a ticket. On Tuesdays, tickets are half price, thanks to a sponsorship arrangement with the Miami Herald newspaper. Even the ever-popular “All-You-Can-Eat” Mondays isn’t working.

“People don’t go because the team loses,” said Gilberto Dihigo, a Marlins fan and son of a Cuban baseball star. ”Why buy a ticket, when you know your team is going to lose?”

Dihigo criticized club owner Jeffrey Loria for dismantling the team and getting rid of some of its most valuable players who actually attracted fans to the the games.

“Now he has no stars, or he traded them or pulled them off, ” Dihigo said.

The Marlins have closed the upper decks for two mid-week games, all in the name of fan appreciation.

“Closing the upper deck for select games allow the Marlins to provide better customer service and a better overall experience for fans,” said Carolina Perrina de Diego, director of business communications for the Marlins.

What it actually does is reduce stadium capacity from 37,422 to about 27,000.

She said that in the future, closing the upper deck will be a game-day decision that will benefit the fans since they will be moved to the lower bowl at no additional cost.

“Closing the upper deck for select games allow the Marlins to provide better customer service and a better overall experience for fans,” de Diego said.

Still, though, that’s not helping the numbers.

According to a report by the Major League Baseball  in 2012 average attendance at a Marlins game was around 27,400, while in 2013 the figure dropped dramatically to around 17,600.

The Marlins historically have had trouble drawing fans despite winning two World Series in their 20-year existence. The team averaged 37,838 fans per game during its inaugural year at Joe Robbie Stadium in 1993, but that number steadily dropped, reaching a low of 10,038 per game in 2002. The Marlins drew less than 20,000 fans per game each of the six years before moving to the new stadium.

CLOSED: “The team has decided to close the upper deck of two mid-week home games,” said the spokespersons of the Miami Marlins.

In a recent matchup against the Philadelphia Phillies, there were only around 13,200 in attendance, a far cry from the expected turnout of 35,000 that management was betting on when they moved the team from Sun-Life Stadium to “The Ballpark” in Little Havana.

Last season the Marlins lost 93 of 162 games, and as a result the players’ salaries — as well as other staff salaries — have also been plummeting along with attendance.

MBL says the average team payroll for the Miami Marlins in 2012 was $118 million, with an average salary of $4.37 million. But this year Marlins budgeted only $57 million. With an average attendance of only 17,689 and an operating loss of $47 million, team President David Samson says the club can no longer justify salaries at those levels.

Expectations flourished after the stadium debuted on April 4, 2012. Marlin Park, the official name for the stadium that locals like to call The Ballpark, cost $642 million to build. Much of that money came from Miami-Dade taxpayers.

A year after the The Ballpark opened, only one retailer has opened in the commercial spaces surrounding the parking lots. 100 Fires Cigars, a cigar shop and lounge, opened this month.

Contact Marianela Toledo at Marianela.Toledo@FloridaWatchdog.org

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