Published: Monday, May 23, 2011 at 4:01 p.m.

 

Come November 2012, Florida voters will have an opportunity to enshrine a ban on public funding for abortion in the state Constitution.

Although at first glance the amendment proposed by state Rep. Dennis Baxley could be seen as a cost-cutting maneuver, the pre-election advertising costs could run far more than what the state has spent on actual abortions over the past three years.

But in an interview Monday, the Ocala Republican indicated that the value of giving voters a voice on a “foundational” value is worth more than dollars and cents — a stance that has some abortion rights activists concerned.

Earlier this month, Baxley announced that his measure (HJR 1179) was likely the “most significant legislation” of his time in the Florida House.

One reason he gave was that the amendment would permit Floridians to vote on ending public funding of abortions — even though legal barriers to tapping public coffers to pay for the procedure have existed for more than three decades.

 

Read the entire story here.

By Bill Thompson
Staff writer

Published: Friday, May 13, 2011 at 1:31 p.m.

Marion County officials say they have encountered some unexpected creatures while launching a road project in the State Road 200 corridor.

Some gopher tortoises and Florida scrub jays — both of which are protected species — have been found in an area of Ocala Waterway Estates, where the county recently launched a $2.8 million effort to pave almost nine miles of roads.

In the past few days, state wildlife managers and the county’s environmental consultants scoured the site to find the tortoises in order to relocate them.

 

The search revealed nearly two dozen burrows and three tortoises, according to Myra Tedder, the county’s assessments director, whose department is overseeing the paving project.

Yet while no one questions that the animals are there, their appearance has sparked a difference of opinion among state and county officials about how they wound up in the path of the road crews.

And while the issue has been resolved, with the tortoises being moved and birds being left alone, the cost of finding a new home for the tortoises — although reduced — will still be borne by the homeowners who paid for the roads.

HOW DID THEY GET THERE?

 

The issue arose after the County Commission in January approved the creation of a special tax district to fund the paving project.

Each lot owner within Ocala Waterway Estates, located near Southwest 110th Street and 38th Avenue, will pay $6,573 to improve the streets and drainage throughout the community.

In March, according to county documents, workers discovered the tortoises and the scrub jays on the project site.

Florida scrub jays — small blue and gray birds found primarily in the scrub-pine uplands of Central Florida — are classified as threatened by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Gopher tortoises — foot-long burrowing reptiles that also mostly inhabit sandy-soiled pine forests — are designated as threatened by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, or FWC.

Tedder believes the animals sought refuge on the Ocala Waterway Estates site to escape some land clearing the state was conducting in the Marjorie Harris Carr Cross Florida Greenway — a project state officials say was undertaken to improve the animals’ habitat.

The greenway is adjacent to Ocala Waterway Estates.

Since last summer, the state has been clearing part of a 400-acre triangular-shaped section that sits between the subdivision and Interstate 75, greenway managers said. In February, the state conducted its only prescribed burn in a 13-acre patch.

Tedder maintains that the planned burning and “roller chopping” associated with the clearing work drove the animals out of their normal habitat.

“We ended up with gopher tortoises and scrub jays because they were trying to get away from that place,” Tedder said in a recent interview.

A HIGH PRICE

 

Little could be done with the birds. The tortoises, however, had to be removed and relocated.

According to county documents, the state wanted to charge from $39,000 to about $50,000 for a permit to relocate the reptiles.

In a March 21 letter to state Rep. Dennis Baxley, R-Ocala, Tedder argued that it was unfair for the landowners to bear this unplanned cost.

She asked Baxley to take “whatever steps” he considered appropriate, including appealing to Gov. Rick Scott, to relieve them of the financial burden.

“In this depressed economy, many of the Ocala Waterway Estates property owners are already struggling to afford this assessment,” Tedder wrote. “Adding additional costs to these citizens would simply exacerbate this hardship.”

Tedder maintained in the letter that the tortoises should be returned to state land, at no cost.

Baxley said his office conducted “extensive” negotiations to broker a deal acceptable to all.

Under the permit approved by the FWC, the tortoises will be moved to the Barthle Brothers Ranch, a state-designated conservation area near Dade City where the University of South Florida is conducting research on co-habitation of cattle and gopher tortoises.

Tedder said recently the relocation effort will cost between $12,000 and $15,000. That figure includes both the permit and relocation costs.

Funding for the relocation will come from the paving project’s 10 percent contingency fund, meaning the landowners won’t face any additional charges, said Tedder, who praised state officials for reducing the cost and working to alleviate her concern for the property owners.

But some state officials questioned the county’s position on the cause of the issue.

THE ‘PIZZA SLICE’

 

Mickey Thomason, central region manager for the state Office of Greenways and Trails, said the 165-acre area the state was restoring for the scrub jays and the tortoises was at the opposite end of the “pizza slice” piece of the trial next to where the county was planning to pave.

“They’re going to fly around wherever they want to,” Thomason said of the scrub jays.

As for the tortoises, he added, “We don’t think we did anything to disturb their habitat.”

FWC officials shared that position in their response to Baxley’s office.

Wildlife managers wrote that they were confident that the tortoises did not migrate from the Greenway.

That outcome was “highly unlikely,” they wrote, because the burrows on the Ocala Waterway Estates land did not appear to be “recently excavated” and were spread out across the subdivision’s land. In other words, had the reptiles been driven there by the land clearing, the burrows would have been fresh and closest to the Greenway property.

Joy Hill, the FWC’s regional spokeswoman, said the tortoises would be relocated in accordance with the permit.

It’s possible they could have been moved to the greenway, but the county would still have to pay for the permit and because there are additional costs for follow-up monitoring.

Restoration of that area of the greenway is expected to be completed by the end of the summer.

The paving project is expected to take several months.

Ultrasound prior to an abortion (CS/HB 1127)– This bill passed last year and was vetoed by former Governor Charlie Crist. It would require doctors giving an abortion to conduct an ultrasound to determine to the age of the baby being aborted. While the ultrasound is being performed, the doctor must explain the images to the mother. The sponsor, Rep. Liz Porter (R), is a first year member from Lake City, Florida. We appreciate her willingness to take on this issue in her first legislative session. The bill passed the House 81-37.

Prohibition of abortions after viability (CS/CS/HB 1397) – This bill would extend the prohibition on 3^rd trimester abortions that currently exists in Florida statute to also prevent abortions after the child is viable or able to live outside the mother’s womb. Rep. Rachel Burgin (R) is the House sponsor of this bill. This bill passed the House 79-36.

Choose Life license plate (HB 501) – The Choose Life license plate is a popular license plate in Florida that allows Floridians to help support agencies that promote adoption in their home counties. Unfortunately, not all of the money collected from the sale of the license plate in the state has been making to those worth agencies. Last year, almost half of the $750,000 collected by the state remained in the trust fund at the end of the year. This bill will send the money collected to Choose Life Inc, which will distribute the funds to worthy agencies around the state in a timely manner. This will ensure the money gets into the hands of those who can use it to assist mothers placing children for adoption. Rep. Dennis Baxley (R) is the House Sponsor of this bill that passed 82-35.

Public Funding of Abortion (CS/HJR 1179) – This bill gives Florida voters the right to decide whether we should constitutionally ban the use of state or public dollars to fund abortions. If it passes both chambers, it will go on the ballot in 2012 for the voters to consider. If 60 percent of Florida voters approve it, this prohibition would be enshrined in the Florida Constitution. This bill, also sponsored by Rep. Dennis Baxley (R), passed the House 82-35. It was brought up in the Senate and they amended the bill to allow for state funding of abortions when the life or health of the mother was endangered. With this amendment, the Senate passed the bill 27-12 and sent it back to the House. Because the bill was changed in the Senate, the House will have to reconsider the bill this week and take another vote.

Public Funding of Abortion (CS/HB 97) – Under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (Obamacare), states are required to establish insurance exchanges through which citizens and small businesses would be able to purchase insurance. The law allows the states to “opt out” of providing insurance for abortions through these exchanges. This bill is Florida’s opt out bill and would continue the long standing policy of not using public money to fund abortions. The bill, sponsored by Rep. Matt Gaetz (R) passed the House 80-37. The Senate amended the bill to allow for abortions to protect the health of the mother and then passed the bill 28-11. With the changes, the House will have to vote on the bill again this week.

Parental Notification of Abortions (HB 1247) – Florida’s parental notice of abortion law has been in effect since 2005.  To protect minors in extreme situations, the original law created a path through the court that a minor could take to avoid informing their parents before an abortion. This bill makes changes to the bypass process to ensure parental involvement in these decisions unless it would not be in the best interest of the child. Rep. Kelli Stargel (R) sponsored this bill which passed 82-35.

Published: Tuesday, April 26, 2011 at 2:27 p.m.

 

The Florida House today will consider a bill that would shift the flow of Choose Life license plates’ revenues from individual counties to the headquarters of the Ocala-based organization behind the bright yellow tags.

State Rep. Dennis Baxley, the Ocala Republican who sponsored the bill, predicted it would pass the GOP-dominated House.

While Baxley believed the vote would fall largely along party lines, he added that there might be some pro-life Democrats who could get behind the overhaul of the 1999 law that implemented the license plates.

Democrats attacked the measure in pouncing on a half-dozen abortion-related bills heard by the House on Tuesday.

“Today, women in the state of Florida face a new and outrageous challenge. We are confronted by several anti-female legislative proposals that threaten our access to healthy family planning, cancer screening and birth control. We are faced with new challenges in our struggle to retain the right of our choice for ourselves and our daughters,” Rep. Lori Berman, D-Delray Beach, said in a statement issued Tuesday.

“I am calling on women across the state to stand united in their opposition to this movement. I am asking our doctors and health care professionals to condemn this threat to women’s health, and I am requesting that the sponsors of these bills reconsider this erosion of women’s rights.”

Baxley, however, counters that his bill is more about fixing a gummed-up process.

“The problem with that (original) bill is that it was done before we had a the template that we have for specialty plates today,” he said.

“There is quite a bit of resources stuck in the tubes because of that process. My ambition is that it will truly get more of those resources to the women that they are intended for and that we’ll have a process. We need to help these women if we want them to use this program.”

The proposal

Under current law, each county receives a cut of the overall Choose Life-plates pot based on how many tags they sell.

The counties then distribute the proceeds to nonprofit pregnancy centers, maternity homes and adoption agencies.

According to a House staff analysis of the bill, sales of Choose Life tags generated $751,580 in 2010. The report also notes that the Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles has banked about $300,000 of the plates’ proceeds because some counties do not have agencies to which the money can be distributed.

Those groups must spend 70 percent of the money on food, clothing, shelter, transportation, utilities and medical care for the women in the program.

The remaining 30 percent may be spent on adoptions, counseling, training or promotion — but not for administrative overhead.

To qualify for assistance, women must promise to put the child up for adoption and follow a plan crafted with counselors at the agencies assisting them.

The House version does away with much of that.

The bill requires individual counties to submit all proceeds from the license plates to Choose Life Inc. by Oct. 1 for distribution to the 320 qualified agencies statewide.

In addition to the assistance allowed under current law, the bill also empowers those agencies to spend plate funds on care for birth mothers for 60 days after delivery.

The measure ends the 70-30 requirement and permits Choose Life Inc. to retain up to 20 percent of the total funds it receives each year to administer and promote the program.

Assertions

Russ Amerling, spokesman for Choose Life Inc., said the organization had sought to change the law for years because of those Florida counties that do not have an agency qualified to participate in the program.

During this year’s session, critics, led by Planned Parenthood, assailed the bill as part of a wider-ranging assault on pro-choice policies and, more generally, on women’s health.

They alleged Choose Life Inc. wanted to use the proceeds to boost anti-abortion advertising and that the group would spend money raised in Florida in other states.

Amerling labeled those assertions “absurd.”

Yet the objections worked in the Senate: Senators have specified that the proceeds must be spent in Florida; that Choose Life Inc. could keep only 15 percent of the revenues; and that any qualified agency within a 100-mile radius of counties without such groups may apply for the funds raised in those counties.

As it stands, the money now raised in those counties just sits, Amerling said.

But typically, he added, those counties do not sell many Choose Life plates because there is no group to promote the program or participate in it.

For example, Union County is among those without a qualified agency, according to Amerling, and in 2010 there were no new Choose Life plates sold and only eight renewals of existing plates, a state report shows.

Amerling said his group did not object to mild changes proposed in the Senate version for fear of killing the whole bill.

Said Amerling: “This bill was written with firsthand information gathered from the pregnancy centers, maternity homes and adoption centers over the past decade. It was driven by them, and written for them, and we want to get the money in the hands of these front-line organizations so they can do what the whole idea was 10 years ago: to offer abortion-vulnerable women the choice of adoption and to provide funds to follow up on that.”

The Senate version sponsored by Sen. Mike Fasano, R-New Port Richey, has yet to come up for a final vote. Fasano’s office said that should occur soon.

Choose Life plates, an idea credited to Randy Harris, a former three-term Marion County commissioner, were first implemented in Florida in June 1999.

In 2010, the tag was the ninth-most-popular among the state’s 118 specialty tags. Today, Choose Life plates are available in about half the country.

Representatives Gayle Harrell and Dennis Baxley | Credit: myfloridahouse.gov – Mark FoleyHide