Gov. Rick Scott’s sale of the state’s planes may have violated Florida law, the Republican chairman of the Senate Budget Committee said in a letter to the governor Thursday.
Ironically, the letter comes from the legislator who has probably been most vocal that the state should sell the planes, Sen. JD Alexander, R-Lake Wales, who has pushed for the sale of the aircraft for five years. And in his letter, Alexander applauded his fellow Republican Scott for the idea.
“I support your goal, but not the method,” Alexander wrote. “It is important that the proper procedures for accomplishing a goal we both support be followed.”
Alexander noted that Scott’s office last month directed the sale of the state’s two airplanes, using the proceeds of the sale of one of those planes to satisfy lease obligations on the second plane. That essentially means the governor spent state money without an appropriation spelled out in law, which is barred by the constitution.
The law also spells out what must be done with money that comes into the state from the sale of “disposed property,” a law that may have also been broken by the sale, Alexander said.
Another problem: the law also prohibits agencies from not spending money lawmakers have appropriated for a certain purpose. Last year’s budget contained appropriations for lease payments, operations and maintenance of the two planes. To not lease, operate and maintain them appears to violate the law, Alexander said.
“It is my position that you should have sought the approval of the Legislature before undertaking the sale of the state planes and using the proceeds of the sale of Plane One to satisfy the lease obligation of Plane Two,” Alexander wrote. “My concern, of course, is that these actions may have violated the law and as such fail to recognize the Legislature by not respecting the Legislature’s constitutional duty to appropriate funds and your duty to spend appropriated funds in accordance with the law.”
Officials in the governor’s office didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday from the News Service.
The letter came on the same day Scott found himself in another open battle with lawmakers, including several in his own party. Alexander wasn’t one of the 26 senators who wrote to the federal Secretary of Transportation urging the federal government to pay for high speed rail in Florida over the objection of Scott. Scott rejected $2.4 billion from Washington to pay for federal rail, saying it wouldn’t cover the whole cost and the state would end up on the hook for the rest.
But Alexander did tell reporters on Wednesday that the governor may have overstepped his bounds in that regard as well.
“There is this pesky thing called a constitution that limits authority,” Alexander said after Scott rejected the high speed train on Wednesday without notifying many of the members of the Legislature ahead of time. “I still believe the genius of America isn’t just democracy but it’s divided government and limitations on each individual’s ability to act unilaterally.”
The cost to fly the state planes was more than $3,000 an hour, or about $2.4 million a year, and ordering their sale was one of Scott’s first acts in office. The Department of Management Services recently accepted a bid for $1.9 million for the state jet and $1.8 million for its prop plane. The governor also ordered the agency to lay off 11 people who worked in the state air pool.
By David Royse
The News Service of Florida
