Charlie Crist: Paper tiger
May 7, 2009 at 6:58 am by Wayne Garcia
Our governor is not having a good 2009. Maybe it all started when he (rightly) stood with President Barack Obama to tout the economic stimulus plan. Whatever the start of the slide, one thing is increasingly clear: Charlie Crist’s political capital in Tallahassee is near zero.
His clean energy bill — a priority — was killed by the speaker-designate in the House as retribution for not getting messy offshore oil drilling. Crist’s proposed budget was ignored on arrival. He faces a tough primary battle against conservative forces led by Marco Rubio should he decide to seek the U.S. Senate nomination in 2010 that, just a few months ago, was viewed as more of a coronation than an election.
The latest slip in Crist’s power? The Legislature has approved changes that give the governor less latitude when outsourcing public work to private industry. Former Miami Herald scribe Gary Fineout blogs:
Lawmakers signed off on state spending bills sought by Sen. J.D. Alexander that are a belated reaction to the privatization deals pushed during the administration of former Gov. Jeb Bush – and the corruption scandal that took down former Department of Corrections Secretary Jim Crosby.
“There a number of issues that has cost the state tens of millions of dollars on contracts that weren’t well thought through,” said Alexander. “We think the contracting issues are an important part of restructuring our budget process.”
The main contracting bill, SB 2694, would primarily do the following:
* Bans contracts that require damages or early termination fees if the contract is not fully funded by the Legislature.
* Requires legislative approval for contracts that have backloaded payments in future years because of insufficient state money at the onset.
* Require prior notification before the approval of any contract that requires payments in excess of $10 million in a given year. The Senate had wanted a lower figure but increased it as the request of House leaders.
* Require prior notification for any deal that requires little or no payment to the state. This is a reaction to the deal that DOC reached with a vendor for prison canteen services that included kickbacks to Crosby.
* Beginning July 1, 2009 prohibit any state agency from entering into a lease or deferred payment agreement to purchase equipment worth more than $500,000 unless it has been specifically approved in the state budget.
Yes, to be fair, those reforms are needed and are aimed at the terrible job that Jeb! did privatizing state government. But Crist is on watch now, and while his popularity polls remain (inexplicably) strong, his prestige and power are shrinking fast
