TAMPA — Tampa Mayor Bob Buckhorn on Tuesday blasted Florida Gov. Rick Scott and the Legislature over their inaction on Medicaid expansion and the resulting state budget impasse.
A leader like the late Gov. Lawton Chiles would never have allowed the legislative meltdown that Tallahassee saw this past spring, the mayor said.
"Shame on this governor," Buckhorn said. "Shame on this Legislature. They need to get back to work."
Buckhorn, who is looking at running for governor himself in 2018, made his remarks at a Healthy Mothers, Healthy Babies luncheon at St. Lawrence Catholic Church's Higgins Hall in Tampa. The criticism got him a big round of applause from the crowd of several hundred. The criticism stands in contrast to his cordial relations with Scott, whom Buckhorn has joined at a series of bay area jobs announcements.
Buckhorn started into the topic on a lighter note, suggesting that his 9-year-old daughter is leery of the idea of him going to Tallahassee.
"Daddy, I am not moving," Buckhorn said she told him. "You can commute."
Bush leases office
There's no "Jeb Bush for President" sign outside the six-story office building on West Flagler Street. But inside, the former Florida governor's political team has begun to organize his likely 2016 Republican presidential bid.
Bush's political action committee, Right to Rise, recently leased space on two floors of the Flagler Corporate Center at 9250 W. Flagler St. in West Miami-Dade County. For now, they remain a campaign headquarters in need of a campaign, since Bush has yet to formalize his candidacy.
"Welcome," reads a placard with Right to Rise's logo on it inside the building's lobby, past a security desk that asks visitors to sign in. Two more Right to Rise signs point to the offices on the fifth and sixth floors.
Bush's communications staff and some of his finance team have already moved into the newly leased Miami headquarters. Team Jeb has leased only a small portion of the building. But it seems ready to house a large operation: It has ample parking and an atrium cafeteria. A large American flag hangs over the fifth-floor balcony.
Legal expenses
Florida Senate President Andy Gardiner is telling state senators that taxpayers will pay their legal bills as part of an ongoing lawsuit over Senate districts.
The top lawyer in the Senate this month told 19 senators that Gardiner has approved a $5,000 stipend for them to hire attorneys. The groups challenging state Senate districts in April subpoenaed records from both Republican and Democratic senators.
The trial over the Senate districts is scheduled for September. The groups contend the districts approved in 2012 violate a voter-approved amendment that says districts cannot be drawn to benefit incumbents or a particular party.
Information from the Associated Press was used in this report.