Duval County Supervisor of Election Jerry Holland is using the city's current budget crisis to call for the elimination of the city's spring elections.  Citing a $3 million price tag, Holland said the city no longer has "the luxury to hold our local Jacksonville elections months after the fall elections."  Those "independent" elections have long been a source of contention among local officials, many of whom dream of a smoother transition between local and state office.  Legislation has been introduced on a regular basis to change Duval's election date to coincide with state elections, but the movement has never caught on.  With an increasingly compressed city budget; however, this may just be year the idea garners serious consideration.

In the 2006 state elections, voters had six state candidates (Governor, Attorney General, CFO, Agricultural Commissioner, State Senator and State Representative) and two federal candidates (US Senate and US House) on the ballot.  Those eight offices in contention were followed by eight judicial retention questions, a soil and water committee race and six state constitutional amendments.  Jacksonville voters also voted on a charter referrendum and a Cecil Field referendum, while Jacksonville Beach voters also elected a City Council member and Atlantic Beach voters decided on a charter amendment.  In all, it was possible for a 2006 voter to face twenty-six questions on a ballot.

A voter in a city election is typically faced with a ballot that includes Duval County's five constitutional officers, the five at-large seats on the Jacksonville City Council and one district Council race.  

If the 2006 state elections and 2007 spring election would have been combined, voters could have faced a ballot crammed with thirty-seven questions.  (That is assuming that all of Duval's constitutional officers had faced a challenger.)

While opponents of spring elections point to low voter turnout and cost as reasons for abandoning "independent" elections, supporters argue that a crowded ballot would make any local focus difficult.  Candidates would struggle to raise money and voter attention in a competition with candidates running for state and federal office.  

In truth, a $3 million price tag is somewhat misleading.  While it may have afforded Elections Supervisor Jerry Holland a few headlines, the reality is that any "savings" achieved from an election date change would not be realized this year.  Additionally, the elections are held every four years, meaning that the "cost" of holding them shouldn't be viewed as a lump sum, but rather as an average cost over that period.

While the dates may not line up all that conventiently for elected officers looking to jump from one office to the other, $750,000 per year is rather reasonable price to pay for an election solely focused on local leadership.

Read more here.

The Boynton Beach commission will continue its budget discussion next month over whether to postpone or cancel certain capital improvement projects, sell city land and change its policy on take-home vehicles for employees.

Read the Palm Beach Post story here.

State Senate leaders are crafting a plan to combine a proposed class-size amendment with a penny sales tax increase for education and put the issue before voters as soon as this fall.

The deal is designed to bridge the divide between Republicans and Democrats on the two major education issues of this year's legislative session. Republicans would get the class-size modification they seek, and Democrats would get the penny sales tax they have been hoping for as money dedicated to public education.

...

Wise said the Florida Education Association is conducting polls now to determine support.

"I haven't counted the votes, and it's a political issue that the House and the Senate are talking about,'' Wise said.

Getting something on the ballot this year would pre-empt the current class-size mandate, which requires individual class-size maximums by the beginning of the 2010 school year. Plus, starting in January, the state could collect that extra sales tax to a tune of $2.8 billion a year.

As a proposed Constitutional amendment, the measure would need three-fifths support in both chambers to be put on the next general election ballot, which is 2010.

But to get the proposal to a vote this fall, in a special election, it would need 75 percent support in both chambers, or 30 votes in the Senate and 90 in the House. And Wise said a special election could cost $20 million.

"We're going to have to do something to figure how to get the dollars," Wise said. "That's a little above my pay grade right now."

The Legislature can pass a penny sales tax increase without putting it to voters, but making it part of a constitutional amendment on class size opens up the channels for support, specifically among Republicans, Wise said.

But it's not at all clear that Republican House leaders would support such a package deal, the same leaders who have been against raising any taxes this year.

And unlike the three-year penny sales tax that Democrats have been proposing, this plan would be for a permanent one-cent increase in the state sales tax.

"I don't envision us including a sales tax increase in our plan," said Rep. Adam Hasner, R-Delray Beach, the House majority leader. "Raising sales taxes and property taxes is not in our plan to get Florida's economy going again."

Rep. Will Weatherford, R-Wesley Chapel, sponsors the House resolution on amending the class-size amendment and said Gaetz told him this compromise was a possibility.

"I haven't really had a chance to think about it," said Weatherford, whose class-size proposal passed the House Education Council on Wednesday. "I just think it's a separate issue. I'd like to get through the budget process to see where we are."

The idea of putting the proposals together in one Constitutional amendment is only possible because the Legislature can combine issues, while citizen ballot initiatives are limited to one. But voters would not have the option of saying yes to one and not the other. The ballot measure would be combined, allowing only one vote for the two issues. And to pass, 60 percent approval is required.

"I think one does not have much of a chance without the other," said Gaetz, who stresses the need for support from the teachers union, school boards, superintendents, and parents groups. "I haven't seen that broad-based support for such a package."

So why would anti-tax Republicans make this deal?

"I think there are Republicans like Steve Wise who lay awake at night worrying about the adequacy of education funding," said Gaetz. "We care about public schools in the state so any option that is reasonable is an option that needs to be considered. But I don't know that there's a groundswell."

Rep. Marty Kiar, D-Davie, is an outspoken opponent of the class-size proposal and just Wednesday offered an amendment to Weatherford's version that was shot down on a party vote. But he's open to the idea of a combined proposal.

"It's something I'm definitely open to and something that I'd like to explore," Kiar said

The last thing Floridians need during these tough economic times is a fight between the Legislature and the Governor.

Next up, Gov. Crist denies, then announces 4th quarter budget cuts [From the Miami Herald's Naked Politics]:

Nervously clutching a stack of angry letters from fellow elementary school parents, still wearing her Watson Realty nametag, 35-year-old Pamela Hennen of St. Johns County came to the lectern this morning at the Finance and Tax Council to offer a final and opposing view.

With a calm, off-the-cuff performance, she stole the show.

For two mind-numbing hours, Hennen listened quietly to lobbyists and lawmakers defend sales-tax breaks for everything from stadium skyboxes to U.S. flags as the committee tries to deal with a potentially $5 billion budget shortfall.

Only a few minutes before, South Florida lobbyist Ron Book passionately defended a $4 million sales-tax break for yacht owners who temporarily put in at Florida marinas for repairs.

Not much of it made sense to Hennen, who drove all night with her two young sons, one of them car sick. The PTO member who racked up 600 hours of volunteer time last year matter-of-factly described a school district that is laying off nurses, dimming hall lights and silencing a high school band just to scrape by.

"I'm finding it incredible. Obviously, these people have a lot of money to be spending money on these kinds of things," Hennen said of the previous speakers. "I'm here to say please help our schools, please help our economy."

Hennen was immediately mobbed by reporters as lobbyists quickly filed out of the room.

She marveled at the state tax policy that forgives more revenue than it collects.

"We need to be thinking outside of the box to look for new revenue," she said. "I mean, if you're going to spend $1,000 to get on a charter boat, what the heck is (another) $60."

As mass layoffs claim Floridians' jobs and health care, state lawmakers aren't planning to cut their free health insurance premiums or the salaries of more than 1,100 state workers who earn more than $100,000 a year.

Gov. Charlie Crist's budget plan proposes to increase by $13.1 million the amount taxpayers pay to subsidize state worker insurance. About 26,111 top-level employees — including those in Crist's office, the entire Legislature and its staff — have their premiums completely paid by taxpayers.

Crist's budget doesn't increase state worker salaries. But he doesn't cut wages either, unlike many private employers facing the economic downturn.

About 1,190 full-time state employees will keep earning a salary of more than $100,000, according to data from the Department of Management Services. The figures don't include the Legislature, universities or community colleges, which all report their salaries through different data systems.

The Department of Administrative Hearings, which hears challenges to state agency actions, has the highest proportion of top-paid employees, with 17 percent earning about $100,000 or more.

Crist's office and the Department of Citrus tied for second, with 11 percent of employees earning more than $100,000.

Drastically reducing the number of arts teachers, freezing salaries and restructuring health care benefits are part of a $133 million list of cuts that Duval County Public Schools could make in the next fiscal year.

The district said last month it expects a budget shortfall of more than $98 million because of increased costs, less money from the state and having to make up for the $57 million it spent from its reserves in previous years.

The district projects its shortfall could balloon to $139 million if the state pushes forward with a class-size reduction initiative that was put on hold last year because of budget woes.

Let's just make a concerted effort to increase the childhood obesity rate and educate children without any sense of creativity. That's how we can build a world-class education system!