One of the key legislative issues that conservative grassroots activists have been salivating for is reforming public-worker pensions during this upcoming legislative session.
But this major issue for conservative Republicans in 2014 has seemed to have hit a political road block, as apparently Governor Rick Scott office staff stopped working with the House” by delaying a “financial analysis needed to help justify a public-worker pension-reform plan.”According to the Miami Herald,” state House Speaker Will Weatherford had to personally call Scott and his newly minted lieutenant governor, Carlos Lopez-Cantera, and complained that the governor’s staff stopped a state agency (Department of Management Services) from conducting the analysis.”
“There is no question the Governor’s staff directed DMS to stop working with the House.” -state House budget chairman, Seth McKeel, said.
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And it’s not just lawmakers who were angered and concerned.
One of the nation’s leading tea party groups, Americans for Prosperity, has now chimed in.
“We live in a state with a Republican governor, Republican house and a Republican senate. It is inexcusable with such a majority in the Florida legislature that an issue, which is so obviously critical to Floridians, cannot get done,” AFP’s Florida state Director, Slade O’Brien, told The Shark Tank in a written statement (the full statement is below**)
Pension reform is AFP’s top legislative priority this year.
It’s also a top priority for Speaker Weatherford, Senate President Don Gaetz, Sen. Wilton Simpson and McKeel.
McKeel told the Herald that the problem was fixed. For now.
“The law requires the department to conduct actuary studies on all pension bills, and the hold-up would have resulted in killing pension reform without a single vote of elected officials…Thankfully Lt. Governor Lopez-Cantera and Gov. Scott stepped in to correct the problem.”
If anyone is wondering which of Scott’s staffers are being accused of trying to trip up one of the top conservative-minded legislative issues, then look no further than the chief of staff, Adam Hollingsworth.
It’s understandable that Scott’s gatekeepers want to minimize any possible and unnecessary election-year brawls with labor unions, but blunting pension-reform could, and probably will become an issue with Scott’s wavering Republican base of support.
Last year Scott angered his grassroots base after he went back on his campaign promise to stop the implementation of the dreaded Obamacare law. Once again, Hollingsworth was in the middle of the decision to support Medicaid expansion, which royally ticked off Republicans, who could have never imagined that Scott would ever take a page out of Charlie Crist’s flip flop folder, and embrace the Medicaid expansion under Obamacare.
Aside from this current pension-reform pushback and the Medicaid expansion, the rascally Hollingsworth is no stranger to controversy. In 2013, Hollingsworth had to admit that he lied on a past employment application, in regards to his college degree.
And then, according to the same Miami Herald story, the Associated Press reported that Scott “advocated for a $200 million train-depot deal” that benefited a business, which Hollingsworth was employed at, and “pushed for the lucrative arrangement before assuming his state office.”Are all of these shenanigans effecting Scott’s re-election chances?
The latest head-to-head polls between Scott and Crist, all have the king of the flip-flop leading Scott, which fuels concerns and talk that Scott could very well lose in November, regardless of the millions that will be spent to win the race.
Several political operatives, who are invested in the success of a few Republican candidates, who are also up for re-election, fear that the way Scott’s current campaign is currently being run, could spell doom and gloom for the rest of the Republicans who will be on the ballot with Scott.
They blame the unproven campaign politico Hollingsworth and Scott’s media team, OnMessage, led by Curt Anderson, for not doing much to polish up Scott’s public image, even as several million dollars have already been spent on his behalf.
This is obviously not the same Rick Scott campaign we saw in 2010, not by a long shot. It seems as if Scott passed on his campaign off to a bunch of amateurs.”-unnamed Republican consultant
Since the 2010 election, Scott’s team has shuffled around, and the current day-to-day campaign operation is being highly questioned. And, considering what just happened with pension reform, there’s good reason for it.
** Here’s O’Brien’s full statement from AFP:
Across the nation, States, Counties and municipalities are having to come to terms with the unsustainable deals they have made with public employee union pension programs. These programs are terrible deals for taxpayers and increasing bad deals for pensioners as well.
They are finding promised benefits cut and expected quality of retirement life decreased. It is incumbent on us to protect the public employees that we made a life long deal with while also protecting the tax payer from propagating a system we know will never be solvent.We live in a state with a Republican governor, Republican house and a Republican senate. It is inexcusable with such a majority in the Florida legislature that an issue, which is so obviously critical to Floridians, cannot get done.
This is AFP Florida’s top priority in 2014. For the current public employees and taxpayers of Florida, it should be the Governor’s, the Speaker’s and the Senate President’s as well.
