Florida Republican Stripped Of Senate Chairmanship For Opposing Prison Privatization Scheme

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The biggest critic of a massive prison privatization scheme in Florida was stripped of his chairmanship of the Budget Subcommittee on Criminal and Civil Justice Appropriation for opposing Gov. Rick Scott's ® plan to outsource prison oversight to the lowest bidder. Sen. Mike Fasano ® is one of ten Senate Republicans who opposes the plan to give private, for-profit vendors control over 26 prisons, but his vocal criticism provoked retribution from one of the bill's biggest supporters, Senate President Mike Haridopolos ®:

Amid the mounting tension, Senate President Mike

Haridopolos refused to bring up the bill for debate, a sign that it faced defeat

. Ten of 28 Senate Republicans have voiced strong reservations or opposition to such a major policy shift, a serious rift in the GOP caucus.

The drama intensified as

Haridopolos stripped Sen. Mike Fasano, R-New Port Richey, of his chairmanship of a budget subcommittee overseeing prisons, saying Fasano "was not rowing in the same direction" as Senate leaders on budget decisions

.

"It's become clear to me that Sen. Fasano was not willing to make these choices," Haridopolos said.

Fasano said Haridopolos told him he was being punished for his anti-privatization comments

in an MSNBC interview Monday.

This week Fasano introduced an amendment that would effectively stop the plan and require further study on its fiscal impact. Critics of the plan say that it will save little if any money and cost thousands of state workers their jobs. The price of paying the displaced prison workers for unused sick leave and vacation could well offset the estimated $16 – $30 million in savings. "It's really just a gift to the private-prison industry," David Murrell of the Police Benevolent Association said of the plan.

Yet Haridopolos claimed he outed Fasano because he had "lost confidence in him to fulfill [the] mission" of balancing the budget and not raising taxes because Fasano raised concerns about the real cost of prison privatization.

Last year a judge threw out a similar plan because proponents tried to sneak it into the budget, but Republican sponsors have revived the bill. And they have a clear personal interest in fighting so hard. The country's biggest private prison companies, who stand to make millions from the Florida plan, have given generously to many state legislators.

GEO Group, a private prison company based in Boca Raton and one of the largest contributors to the Florida Republican Party in 2010, gave over $11,000 to the campaigns of 14 of the 20 members of the Budget Committee that approved the privatization bill. They also gave the maximum $25,000 to Gov. Scott's inaugural fund.

The Corrections Corporation of America, the nation's largest corrections company, also has close connections to GOP statehouses across the country. The company has spent $373,000 in political contributions in Florida since 2003, over 60 percent of which have gone to Republicans.

http://thinkprogress...ization-scheme/

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Just one of many privatization moves in Florida in an effort to save money and balance the budget. It leads to nasty political fights.

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Or, more accurately and as Republican State Senator Paula Dockery would say: "Florida is rushing to privatize state prisons because corporations have donated to re-election campaigns and leadership slush funds."

That is the reason for this push and nothing else. Florida is one of the most corrupt states in the nation. We're no better down here than some developing countries. Bribery of the state legislature is completely legal in this state. That's all that is to be said about the corrupt political system in the sunshine state.

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Here's another good summary of what transpired in Tallahassee:

Haridopolos plots and pouts

By Daniel Ruth

This is probably the predictable result when you have a Florida Senate presided over by a petulant crybaby angry over not getting his way.

Senate President Mike Haridopolos, R-The Blue Boy of Apalachee Parkway, got his pantaloons in a wad because one of his minions had the audacity to commit Tallahassee's most egregious of mortal sins — an act of actual governance.

And for that, fellow Republican Sen. Mike Fasano was stripped of his leadership epaulets and banished from his post as chairman of a budget subcommittee that oversees prisons.

Just what was Fasano's treason? That he attempted to voice his opinion on privatizing prisons. Oh, the treacherous heresy of it all!

Fasano has been quite vocal in his opposition to an effort by Gov. Rick Scott and his Senate Renfield to privatize 26 South Florida prisons and work camps. The New Port Richey senator suspects this is little more than a political air kiss to the Geo Group and the Corrections Corporation of America, deep-pocketed private sector penal colony titans.

If the privatization deal goes through, the two companies would occupy vast tracks of public land, make millions of dollars and only be responsible for guarding the less dangerous and healthiest prisoners. The state would still be responsible for the criminal dregs, the sickest, the elderly and most expensive of inmates to house.

Whatever made Fasano think this was a sweetheart deal?

It was probably just the subtlest of hints that the prison privatization legislation was more greased up than Hulk Hogan when Haridopolos tried to fast track the package through the Senate with less due diligence than the captain of the Costa Concordia.

So much for a sober, deliberate, transparent legislative process. Apparently, President Snagglepuss didn't bother to read his own book, Florida Legislative History and Processes — for which he was paid $152,000 by Brevard Community College — a soporific ode on how Tallahassee works. And now we know. Not very well.

Fasano proposed a far more sensible one-year fiscal study of the merits of turning over a sizeable chunk of the state's corrections system to less accountable private sector corporations.

Of particular concern was Scott's claim that privatizing the prisons would result in savings of between $16 million and $30 million, which Fasano disputes when you factor in the financial impact on families and communities of eliminating the jobs of as many as 4,000 corrections officers.

A full, open public hearing might have put some of Fasano's issues to rest. Instead, Haridopolos was more preoccupied with pouting and plotting.

But Fasano was hardly alone in exposing Haridopolos as little more than a hot walker for the governor and corporate interests. Four other fellow Republican senators, Jack Latvala, Paula Dockery, and former sheriffs Charlie Dean and Steve Oelrich shared the view that in matters of public safety, outsourcing the job to the private sector is not a very bright idea.

And let's face it, in Tallahassee, not very bright ideas are produced at a Whitman's Sampler assembly line pace.

Fasano lamented his political cement shoes treatment by Haridopolos, noting: "It's unfortunate when leaders of the Senate don't lose like gentlemen." Close, but not quite.

What's unfortunate is when leaders of the Senate don't lose like adults.

You knew when Latvala forced the Senate president to promise not to bring up the prison privatization issue without advance notice that Haridopolos had managed to acquire a Tallahassee reputation as the sort of chap who, if you found him sitting at the next barstool, you wouldn't leave your change unattended while you hit the men's room.

Do you get the feeling there is less mutual trust in the Florida Senate chamber than the New York Jets locker room?

Haridopolos justified treating one of the more populist senators as if he was a disloyal apostate because Fasano wasn't "rowing in the right direction."

Is that so? Fasano was stripped of his chairmanship because he did the job he was elected to do, to represent his constituents and look out for the greater interests of the state.

How does asking legitimate questions about the financial viability of privatizing the state's prisons rise to the level of "not rowing in the right direction," especially if the author of "Wee Willie Winkie Explains Tallahassee" wants to steer the boat over Niagara Falls?

Fasano may have lost his leadership position. But he still has his self-respect, which is more than the obsequious special interest supernumerary who stabbed him in the back can say for himself.