Florida – RI Future

May 14, 2014

Sens Whitehouse, Nelson talk about sea level rise

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“Florida and Rhode Island have a lot in common,” said Senator Sheldon Whitehouse in a floor speech yesterday, “like a beautiful coastline, an economy and a way of life that is tied to the sea and as a result risk from the ocean from a changing climate.”

Whitehouse recently went on a fact-finding mission down the southeast coast looking for local solutions to coastal climate change, you can listen to Miami public radio interview him about it here), Upon his return, he invited Florida Senator Ben Nelson to join him in his weekly climate speech on the Senate floor.

“At high tide, they are already having flooding in the streets of Miami Beach,” Nelson said.

Whitehouse added, “One of the scientists I met in Florida said it this way, very simply, ‘if we don’t do something about this people are going to get hurt and it’s going to cost a lot of money.'”

March 23, 2012March 25, 2012

Fla. Judge Rules Pension Reform Unconstitutional

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If a Rhode Island judge views pension reform laws the way a Florida judge recently did, public sector retirees may not have their benefits cut after all.

“This Court cannot set aside its constitutional obligations because a budget crisis exists in the State of Florida,” wrote Circuit Court Judge Jackie Fulford in her ruling that the state legislature could not enact a new law that required state employees to contribute to their pensions and forgo annual cost of living increases.

Here’s an article on the ruling from the Miami Herald.

Judge Fulford ruled that the law was “an unconstitutional impairment of plaintiffs’ contract with the State of Florida, an unconstitutional taking of private property without full compensation, and an abridgment of the rights of public employees to collectively bargain over conditions of employment.”

While many have argued that Rhode Island state workers do not have a contractual right to a pension, there is language in this state’s law that created the system suggesting that the legislature intended otherwise.

“All employees as defined in chapter 8 of this title who became employees on or after July 1, 1936, shall, under contract of their employment become members of the retirement system and shall receive no pension or retirement allowance from any other pension or retirement system supported wholly or in part by the state of Rhode Island,” reads Chapter 36-9-2, part of the set of laws that created the state employee pension system.

Rhode Island’s landmark pension reform law passed in a special session last year has yet to be challenged in court because no one has standing to challenge it until the cuts actually kick in. For current employees that will be this summer and for retired state workers that won’t happen until January. It is expected that the law will be challenged in court.

August 26, 2008January 12, 2012

Carcieri Failed to Pay Property Tax on Florida Condo

UPDATE: So much for the “it went to the wrong address” defense. From the Projo:

However, the litigation and collections manager for Martin County said yesterday that the office sent the bill to the correct address last December after a clerk did a little research and found Carcieri’s current address on Kenyon Avenue.

It is also nice to see the little blog that could get a nice plug in the Palm Beach Newspaper.

Crossposted at DAILYKOS. RI’s 12lth, who helped break the story, has an Islander’s take on it!

UPDATE: ABC 6 and NBC 10 are reporting that Carcieri has cut a check tonight! Projo has the story now:

The matter came to light yesterday in a piece written by Patrick Crowley, the assistant executive director of the National Education Association’s Rhode Island unit, and posted on the political blog www.rifuture.org.

After Republican presidential candidate John McCain had trouble answering a question about how many houses he owned, Crowley wrote that he asked the same question about Republican Governor Carcieri. Crowley wrote that Kempe directed him to the financial statement that Carcieri had filed with the Rhode Island Ethics Commission.

Now the next question: Why didn’t Carcieri list both condo’s on his financial disclosure report?

***

Thanks to a comment in an earlier post, some digging has revealed Donald Carcieri has not paid taxes on a Florida condominium since 2005. An official with the Martin’s County Florida Tax Department confirmed this afternoon that tax certificates, or liens, have been placed on the condo at 4540 Sand Pebble Trace, Unit 101, Stuart, Florida. The first lien for back taxes from 2006 is valued at $7,502.73. The second lien for taxes owed in 2007 is valued at $5155.

The owners of record for the property are Donald and Suzanne Carcieri, with an address listed as 5 Pearl Street, East Greenwich. The Martin’s County office was also able to confirm that a second property, Unit 201, is also owned by Donald and Suzanne Carcieri. Taxes are up to date on this property. The mailing address listed for this property is the Governor’s address at 50 Kenyon Rd in East Greenwich. The Governor’s 2007 Yearly Financial Statement does list the condo property, but makes no indication as to whether or not it is one, or two, pieces of property.

An earlier email to the Governor’s office asking for clarification and comment was not returned.

The tax office website has records of the newspaper advertisement they placed in local papers revealing the tax lien. The numbers are different due to the certificate sale process.