Clay Ingram: Session Week 3 Review
March 22, 2014
submitted by Rep. Clay Ingram
We’re through the third week of Session and this was a productive one for us in the Florida House of Representatives.
I had two bills heard in committee this week. HB 1271 is a bill that would bring the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation in compliance with the regulations under the National Association of Insurance Commissioners. The bill also provides transparency and protects consumers. Florida’s HB 1271 passed the Insurance and Banking Committee and is now ready to be heard by the full House of Representatives.
HB 697, which adds new mixes of synthetic drugs to the Schedule 1 list of controlled substances, also passed its final committee and is ready to be heard by the full House of Representatives.
We were in Session twice this week and were able to pass some major pieces of legislation. I am proud to say that the House passed a $395 million tax cut that will reduce vehicle registration fees for all Floridians. This fee was increased under former Governor Charlie Crist’s watch and I’m glad we were able to reduce this burden on our citizens.
This week the House passed three bills that will provide greater protection of our 2nd amendment rights including a stronger Stand Your Ground law. I worked with my friend Representative Matt Gaetz on this legislation that will protect law abiding Floridians who defend themselves against violent criminals.
On Wednesday I also had the privilege of speaking to our Northwest Florida leaders when I addressed the Leadership classes from Escambia, Santa Rosa and Okaloosa Counties. I am encouraged to see our community leaders take in an interest in the legislative process.
This week we also celebrated the life of former Governor and Pensacolian Reubin Askew. I was honored to lead a moment of silence for Governor Askew during Wednesday’s House Session. Governor Askew led our state through some tumultuous times but he was always a true statesman and a gentleman. He will be missed.
That’s all for this week. I’m home for a few days of rest and then back to work for the citizens of Northwest Florida.
Johnny Watson Whitehurst
March 22, 2014
Johnny Watson Whitehurst, a lifetime resident of Cantonment, died March 13, 2014, in Cantonment. He was a retired member of International Brotherhood of Electrical L.U. 676 workers. He was known as “Uncle J” to family, friends and strangers alike. He was an avid fisherman of the Perdido River and touched many lives with his outgoing and giving personality. He will never be forgotten. Rest in Peace “Bubba”. I Love You Daddy.
He is survived by his daughter, Christina Brooke Whitehurst; mother, Edna Whitehurst; father, Johnny Whitehurst, Sr.; sisters, Cathy Garett and Cindy Clark; nephews, Nicholas Clark, Ryan Clark, Zachary Clark, Shaine Garrett and Jordan Garrett; his niece, Ashley Clark; great-nephew, Nicholas Chase Clark and great-niece, Baby Khloie ElizabethGarrett.
Funeral services were held Tuesday,March 18, 2014, at Faith Chapel Funeral Home North.
Interment was at CloptonCemetery.
Faith Chapel Funeral Home North is in charge of arrangements.
House Approves Vehicle Fee Rollback; Ready For Scott To Sign
March 21, 2014
Motorists will start to pay less when registering their vehicles in the fall, shortly before voters go to the polls to decide whether to re-elect Gov. Rick Scott, in a major victory for the unpopular chief executive.
The House, after releasing a wide range of tax-cutting proposals on Thursday, unanimously approved the largest part of Scott’s request for $500 million in taxes and fees reductions — the elimination of the vehicle registration fee increase put into place in 2009 by the Republican-dominated Legislature.
By reducing individual vehicle registration fees by $20 to $25, depending upon the size of the vehicle, the bill is expected to save motorists a total of $309 million during the upcoming 2014-15 budget year, with the new, lower rates going into effect Sept. 1.
The Senate approved the measure (SB 156) on Tuesday; the bill now goes to Gov. Rick Scott, who said he will sign it.
During the discussion of the bill on Thursday, House Democrats called the rollback they were now voting for a political gimmick that will allow Scott to campaign on cutting a tax that was enacted while potential Democratic opponent Charlie Crist was in the governor’s mansion.
“We’re doing this because one governor wants to use this issue against a former governor in the election,” said Rep. Jared Moskowitz, D-Coral Springs.
Republicans disagreed.
“This bill is not about politics over policy. Keeping taxpayer dollars in the pockets of our citizens is always good policy,” replied Rep. Ritch Workman, R-Melbourne, who carried the bill. “Politics will play itself out after session, as two men that we all know will battle it out to be our next governor.”
Scott, who visited the House floor during Thursday’s debate, took a political tone outside the House chamber following the vote.
“This is a tax increase that Charlie Crist passed in 2009,” Scott declared. “The right thing happened tonight, to reduce these taxes and put more money back in Floridians’ hands.”
The overall savings is expected to grow to about $395 million a year, once it’s in effect for the full 12 months.
Earlier in the day, the House Finance and Tax Subcommittee introduced a plan that would surpass the governor’s call for $500 million in cuts through a package that includes four sales-tax free holidays in the coming year, including one for gym memberships.
“We want to make sure make sure we’re not a barrier between you and your health,” Workman, the committee chairman, said of the proposal to drop sales taxes for those paying for gym memberships during the first week in September.
The package, cobbled together from different bills and proposals that have been filed and moving in the House, could reduce state revenue by more than $150 million. It will return to the committee next week.
Workman’s package includes: sales-tax free holidays for back-to-school items, hurricane preparation, energy- and water-efficient appliances, and physical fitness memberships; a three-year exemption on cement mixing drums; a lifting of sales taxes from the purchase of car seats and other child restraints; Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam’s request to reduce the sales tax businesses pay for electricity and shift about $188 million to school construction and maintenance; and Scott’s call to increase in the corporate income tax exemption from $50,000 to $75,000.
The package is vastly different from the Senate proposal that was announced Wednesday by Finance and Tax Committee Chairwoman Dorothy Hukill, R-Port Orange.
Hukill’s package would limit the cuts to a three-day back-to-school sales tax-free period (SB 792) as well as a measure to scale back the communications services tax (SB 266) that is imposed on cable and phone services.
Workman said that, because of the differences, he’s “concerned” about the upcoming budget conferences with the Senate, where the chambers will try to iron out a compromise.
“It’s going to be an interesting conference. I’m going to fight for our bill because I think it was very organic and very natural and very diverse. I think it touches a lot of people in different and unique ways,” Workman said. “You know, sometimes there is a curtain — and you think is something going on — but there is nothing going on there. I think it’s going to be one hell of a conference.”
Hukill, whose package reaches the $500 million mark when combined with the vehicle registration fee reduction, said she had yet to review the House package but called Workman’s approach “interesting.”
“We’re going to have to negotiate and see what we come up with that we agree upon, what’s going to help the most people,” Hukill said. “There are lots of different ideas out there. We’re only in the third week. There’s a long way to go.”
by Jim Turner, The News Service of Florida
Investigator To Look Into Deaths At Escambia Animal Shelter
March 21, 2014
An investigation is being launched into animal deaths at the Escambia County Animal Shelter.
Sharyn Berg of Cantonment, co-founder of a group called Escambia Animal Activists, told the Escambia County Commission that an unusually large number of animals had died from surgical complications during the tenure of the last veterinarian at the shelter, Dr. Alphonso Steward.
“Animals died while he was at the shelter through routine spay and neuter surgery. There were handfuls of other issues with his surgeries that had to be fixed by him and other vets,” she said, claiming that 10 animals had died under Steward’s surgical care in the last three months. She also alleged that Steward’s hiring process was inappropriate.
Interim Escambia County Administrator Larry Newsom said the county is bringing in an independent, third party veterinarian from out of town to look at the animal deaths, and the county will look into any issues with the hiring of Steward.
Last August, Director of Animal Services Delfi Messinger resigned due to pubic outcry after a family dog was mistakenly euthanized. A second dog was mistakenly put down in October, a month before newly hired veterinarian Dr. Melissa Adkison resigned. Steward resigned last month.
In an interview with the Pensacola Independent News, Steward blamed animal deaths on shelter staff and claimed staff members were involved in a social media campaign to tarnish his reputation. To read that interview, click here.
NC Man Convicted Of Murdering Of Former Molino Resident
March 21, 2014
A North Carolina man was convicted Thursday of the brutal murder of a former Molino resident.
It took a jury in Cherokee County, SC, about two hours to find 43-year Joey Clark guilty of the 2010 murder of his ex-girlfriend Winter Delane Wingard. Clark was sentenced to 45 years, which he must serve day for day without parole.
The 26-year old’s nude body was found on the side of a rural road near Gaffney, SC, a town of about 13,000 people about 20 miles northeast of Spartanburg. She died after being severely beaten in the head and neck and strangled. In addition, the coroner said Wingard sustained 13 stab wounds to the neck.
Winter Wingard formerly lived with her family on Molino Road. She attended Molino Elementary, Ransom Middle and Tate High before completing her education online.
After Fiery Debate, ‘Warning Shot’ Bill Passes Florida House
March 21, 2014
After a nearly two-hour debate that focused on Florida’s controversial “stand your ground” law, the state House on Thursday easily passed a bill that would expand the self-defense law to include threatened use of force — including showing a gun or firing a warning shot.
The measure (HB 89) by Rep. Neil Combee, R-Polk City, would extend immunity to people who threaten to use force in self-defense — the same immunity already in law for those who actually shoot people in response to perceived threats.
It passed in a 93-24 vote after a floor debate filled with the names of people associated with gun-related crimes that sparked public outrage in Florida, especially Marissa Alexander, a Jacksonville woman who faces the possibility of 60 years in prison for firing a shot into the wall during a domestic dispute.
The proposal has become known as the “warning shot” bill, although Combee said Thursday that people who call it that “do a terrible disservice to the general public if they put the notion out that this bill somehow or other authorizes or encourages warning shots, because it does not. We specifically did not put ‘warning shot’ in the bill.”
The omission of those words bothered Rep. Kionne McGhee, D-Miami, who questioned how HB 89 would have helped Alexander.
Most of the debate Thursday, however, centered on an amendment by House Minority Leader Perry Thurston, D-Fort Lauderdale, that sought to repeal the “stand your ground” law. While Democrats and Republicans went back and forth about the law, few of the arguments were new.
“I thought we had this settled,” said Rep. Dennis Baxley, an Ocala Republican who sponsored the House version of “stand your ground” in 2005. The House Criminal Justice Subcommittee in November rejected a bill (HB 4003) by Rep. Alan Williams to repeal “stand your ground.”
Thurston filed the amendment, he said in an email before the vote, because under the law, “Innocent people have been killed and the perpetrators have been able to walk away. … ‘Stand your ground’ encourages citizens to use force if they ‘feel’ threatened even if no real threat exists.”
Rep. Reggie Fullwood, D-Jacksonville, pointed to black mothers who warn their teenage sons, “Be careful, because a black boy’s life is not as valuable.”
The law “may work for your community, but it’s not working for ours,” Fullwood, an African American, said to other House members.
But Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fort Walton Beach, who famously vowed that “not one damn comma” of the law would be changed, took issue with such arguments by the law’s opponents.
“In 90 percent of the cases where there is an African American decedent, the shooter — or killer — is also African American,” Gaetz said. “While African Americans constitute about 17 percent of the population in the state of Florida, they account for over 31 percent of assertions of the ’stand your ground’ defense. …And African Americans are 8 percent more likely to prevail when asserting a ’stand your ground’ defense than Caucasians.”
He said a wider sample size, not a handful of cases that have attracted attention, would show no racial disparity under the law.
Thurston’s amendment failed in an 83-31 vote.
The final version of Combee’s bill contained an amendment, passed Wednesday, that would limit access to court records in self-defense cases. The amendment, filed by Gaetz, would allow people found to have used justifiable force in a “stand your ground” hearing to have their court records expunged.
The Senate version of the bill (SB 448) could be approved next week.
While Combee’s bill drew heavy debate, another gun-related bill with a distinctive nickname — the “Pop-Tart” bill — passed in minutes by a vote of 98-17. Sponsored by Baxley, the proposal (HB 7029) would prevent children from being disciplined for simulating guns while playing or for wearing clothes that depict firearms. It draws its nickname from a widely reported news story about a Maryland 7-year-old who was suspended from school last year for chewing his breakfast pastry into the shape of a gun.
The bill attracted bipartisan support in the House from Democrats, who are often critical of “zero tolerance” school discipline policies, and from gun-friendly Republicans.
Pictured: A bill by Rep Neil Combee and Rep. Matt Gaetz (handshake, center) passed the Florida House Thursday to strengthen the ‘Stand Your Ground’ law. Courtesy photo for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.
Sex Offender Gets Life For Violating Probation
March 21, 2014
A convicted sex offender was sentenced to life in prison Thursday for violating his probation.
In 1989, Timothy Richard Jordan was convicted of sexual Battery, robbery with a weapon, and attempted murder of a student at UWF. He was sentenced to 40 years state prison to be followed by 10 years of probation. Jordan was released in 2007. In July 2013, Jordan violated his probation by resisting an officer without violence and failure to comply with sexual offender regulations.
Judge Linda Nobles sentenced Jordan to life in prison.
Lane Closures This Afternoon On Hwy 97A At Boggy Creek Bridge
March 21, 2014
Drivers can expect delays this afternoon at the newly constructed bridge on Highway 97A over Boggy Creek near Enon. Crews will be paving the final asphalt surface on the approaches to the bridge.
The work will require alternating lane closures over the bridge from noon until 5 p.m. All activities are weather dependent and may be delayed or re-scheduled in the event of inclement weather.
The bridge construction was a $1.5 million Florida Department of Transportation project.
Pictured: The bridge on Highway 97A over Boggy Creek near Enon just after it opened to traffic early this month. NorthEscambia.com photos, click to enlarge.
Clerk Injured During Flomaton Armed Robbery
March 21, 2014
A store clerk suffered minor injuries during an armed robbery Thursday night in Flomaton.
Two black males armed with handguns rushed into the Dollar General on Sidney Manning Boulevard (Highway 29) in Flomaton at the store’s 10 p.m. closing time, according to Flomaton Police Chief Bryan Davis. The suspects escaped with an undisclosed amount of cash.
The suspects fled the scene on foot southward toward Roosevelt Street where it is believed they got into a vehicle.
No shots were fired, but Davis said one store clerk was injured during the incident.
The suspects were dressed in all black, including black hoodies, black pants and shoes. They had bandanas — one described as blue with small white pattern like snowflakes — on their faces. One was carrying a red bag that he demanded be filled with cash.
“We are looking for tips from anyone that may have seen someone matching the suspect’s description at any of the surrounding businesses before the robbery,” Davis said.
Anyone with information should contact the Flomaton Police Department at (251) 296-5811 or call their local law enforcement agency.
Former Gov. Askew Returned To Pensacola For Graveside Service
March 21, 2014
Former Florida Governor Reubin Askew, who died last Thursday at age 85, was escorted back to his hometown of Pensacola Thursday afternoon.
He was returned to lie in repose Thursday evening f at this former home church, the First Presbyterian Church on East Gregory Street. Askew will be buried with full military honors Friday at Bayview Memorial Park, 3351 Scenic Highway, Pensacola. The graveside service will begin at 11 a.m. and is open to the public.
Askew is survived by his wife Donna Lou; a son, Kevin and a daughter, Angela White; six grandchildren; and three great-grandchildren. In lieu of flowers, the family is asking that donations be made to the Children’s Home Society of Florida, Lafayette Presbyterian Church in Tallahassee, or the charity of the donor’s choice.
Pictured top: The body of former Florida Governor Reubin Askew is escorted through downtown Pensacola Thursday afternoon. Courtesy photo for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.