Governor Charlie Crist this evening addressed a joint session of the Florida House of Representatives and the Florida Senate, calling on the Legislature to address essential issues for Floridians: jobs and prosperity for Floridians; continued improvements to PreK-12 schools, colleges, and universities; and re-instilling confidence in the integrity of government. He also praised Senate President Jeff Atwater and House Speaker Larry Cretul for swiftly passing legislation on opening day of the 2010 Legislative Session to provide relief to businesses by reducing the increase in unemployment compensation tax for two years.
“The Florida Legislature today answered the call for help from Florida’s businesses,” Governor Crist said. “Especially now, we must ensure Florida’s business climate allows employers to thrive and keep as many people employed as possible.”
Governor Crist called on the Legislature to achieve meaningful results for Floridians, such as the reduction in property insurance rates and property taxes. In 2009, property insurance rate increases averaged only about eight percent, compared to January 2007 when they were averaging 30 to 40 percent. Prior to 2007, property owners were experiencing double-digit percentage increases in taxes. Now, due to tax cuts and lower values, 2009 property taxes were almost $3 billion below 2007 property taxes.
Governor Crist also highlighted several accomplishments from the first three years of his administration including his environmental initiatives, improvements in transportation, record adoptions of children in foster care, enhanced child protection measures and private health care expansion.
In 2007, the Governor worked to expand the Lake Okeechobee Protection Act to safeguard the entire Northern Everglades ecosystem, including the Lake Okeechobee watershed and the Caloosahatchee and St. Lucie rivers and estuaries. To date, Florida has invested more than $2.4 billion in the 30-year, $10.9 billion Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan, the 50/50 state and federal partnership to restore and protect the Everglades. During the two tightest budget years in Florida history, 2008 and 2009, $50 million was dedicated for Everglades restoration each year to continue restoration efforts.
Governor Crist’s economic stimulus plan, “Accelerate Florida: Extending Florida’s Economic Horizons,” has helped speed up billions of dollars in construction and other capital projects, creating thousands of new jobs and improving the state’s schools, roads and water projects. These projects include transportation improvements such as the I-595 Express Corridor Improvements Project in Broward County. The I-595 Express improvements have created more than 900 jobs and more are anticipated as construction continues. Other transportation highlights include legislation passed during the December 2009 special legislative session that creates a comprehensive framework for Florida’s current and future passenger rail system, which includes SunRail, Tri-Rail and plans for high speed rail.
Since 2007, Florida has seen record-breaking numbers of adoptions, with more than 10,000 foster children finding loving and caring families. The Governor also recently announced that caseworkers responsible for children in foster care have begun using mobile computing devices, such as smartphones, digital cameras and laptops, to immediately record information on the safety and well-being of children in state care. Florida is the first state in the country to use technology that will allow more than 2,300 caseworkers to take digital photos stamped with date, time and the Global Positioning System (GPS)-marked location of more than 18,500 children in foster care. Additionally, to ensure the continued health of Florida families, Governor Crist has promoted Cover Florida Health Care, the affordable health insurance option for individuals age 19 to 64. The Cover Florida plan was unanimously approved by the 2008 Legislature. No tax dollars are used to make the plan available to Floridians.
“While we have accomplished much during these three years, there is still much work to do,” Governor Crist said. “Along with my entire administration, I stand ready to address the many issues we will confront during the next 59 days.”
Legislative Priorities
Governor Crist also highlighted his top priorities for the 2010 Legislative Session.
Jobs and Prosperity for Floridians
• Delay of the Unemployment Compensation Tax Increase – Changes set to go into effect January 1, 2010 were increases to the minimum rate from $8.40 to more than $100 for each employee. The Florida Legislature today passed legislation to delay this level of increase and provide relief to Florida businesses.
• Corporate Income Tax Rate Cut – A one-percent reduction in the corporate income tax rate, from 5.5 to 4.5 percent, on the first $1 million of a corporation’s taxable income, will save businesses an estimated $57.4 million.
• 10-Day Back-to-School Sales Tax Holiday – Anticipated to save Florida families $52.1 million, the sales tax holiday would apply to clothing sold for less than $100 and school supplies sold for less than $10.
• Virtual One-Stop Shop – Establish an online connection – “One-Stop Business Connect” – that enables businesses and individuals to easily access all of the state’s business licensing, certification, and registration requirements for starting and operating a business in Florida.
Continued Improvements to Florida Schools
• Teacher Quality – Requires teacher preparation programs to focus on methods effective in increasing student academic achievement and adjusts requirements for teacher tenure.
• School Accountability – Redefines middle and high school promotion requirements and establishes new assessment procedures.
• Tax-Credit Scholarships – Raises scholarship amount from $3,950 per student, to 80 percent (by 2013) of Florida’s average per-student funding for public school students (currently $6,866). Requires any private school with at least $250,000 in scholarship funds to submit an annual report.
• Bonuses for College-level Course Exams – Increases bonuses for teachers of Advanced Placement, International Baccalaureate, and Advanced International Certificate of Education courses for each student who achieves a qualifying score on nationally and internationally benchmarked exams. Removes the $2,000 cap on the amount teachers can earn.
Re-instilling Confidence in the Integrity of Government
• Background Checks of Caregivers – Protects vulnerable individuals by keeping convicted felons from working with elderly and children; elevates all Level 1 background screening to Level 2 background screenings; prohibits an employee from beginning work until a background check is complete.
• Public Service Commission Ethics Bill – In light of recent revelations regarding communications between Public Service Commission members and regulated entities, establishes a code of conduct, defines prohibited communications, restricts post-employment activities and increases confirmation cycle for Public Counsel from two years to four years.
