Former House Speaker Marco Rubio was “especially helpful” in securing nearly $50 million for a building to house the 1st District Court of Appeal that has since been criticized as over-indulgent in tight times, according to an Email that was circulated among judges and court staff, the St. Petersburg Times reported.
The credit isn’t welcome by Rubio, now a U.S. Senate candidate, who has said in the past that he knew little about the building, which was being pushed as a Senate project.
Known as the “Taj Mahal”, the spending authority for the courthouse, nearing completion near Tallahassee’s suburban Southwood government office complex, was slipped into law in an amendment to an unrelated transportation bill on the final day of the 2007 legislative session.
The new St. Petersburg Times story also quotes former Speaker Ray Sansom, who was budget chairman when Rubio was speaker, and who later was drummed out of the Legislature and charged with a crime for an alleged scheme that amounted to sneaking money into the budget for a building disguised as a needed school building.
Sansom told the Times that he had been told by supporters of a nearly $8 million appropriation for the courthouse that it was a Rubio priority and he checked with Rubio.
“Speaker Rubio said yes, it was a priority and important to FSU to get a new building too,” Sansom told the Times, adding that nobody from the Senate contacted him about wanting money for the courthouse.
Sansom said he did not know about a last-minute amendment authorizing a $35 million bond issue that was attached to the transportation bill until he read about it in a Times story about the courthouse.
Florida State University benefited from the new courthouse because it’s getting the old one for its law school.
One of the lobbyists who helped Florida State on the issue was now Sen. John Thrasher.
Another, Steve Metz, told the Times he visited Rubio to make the case for FSU getting the old building.
In addition to Rubio, the list of those “especially helpful” in getting money for the new building according to the Email circulated among judges and cited by the Times included Sen. Victor Crist, R-Tampa, Rep. Marti Coley, R-Marianna, and Rep. Ron Reagan, R-Bradenton.
Meanwhile, Leon County State Attorney Willie Meggs has received a complaint from a citizen about the $48 million spent on the new courthouse, criticized for its opulence, reports the St. Petersburg Times.
The News Service of Florida
