NAPLES – A new poll commissioned by the Foundation for Government Accountability (FGA) is likely to cause buyer’s remorse for Governor Rick Scott and legislators who announced support for Medicaid expansion.

“Any Florida politician that hoped to score political points by supporting Medicaid expansion will be disappointed, and probably a little nervous, by these results,” said FGA President and CEO Tarren Bragdon.  “Medicaid expansion is unpopular with Florida voters, and a majority is likely to reinforce that opposition at the ballot box.”

The 811-person poll of registered Florida voters found that fewer than a quarter of respondents (24%) want Florida to expand Medicaid right away to enroll roughly 1 million more people into the taxpayer-funded health program.  A vast majority (70%) either want politicians to delay the decision for one year, or reject the expansion entirely.

With regard to expansion, voters indicate a lack of trust in the federal government to fund the expansion, support for a different approach to reducing the uninsured, and a belief expansion will increase voters’ taxes and personal health care costs:

• Half of voters have very little (27%) or no (23%) trust in the federal government to keep its promise to fund Medicaid expansion costs;
• 78% said making private health coverage more affordable was the best way to reduce the uninsured rate, compared to just 15% who said Medicaid expansion is the best approach;
• 62% strongly or somewhat agree Medicaid expansion will result in higher personal health care costs, while 70% of voters strongly or somewhat agree expansion will result in higher taxes.

A majority of voters (53%) are so firm in their opposition that they would be less likely to support their state legislator if he or she voted to expand Florida Medicaid by another 1 million enrollees.  Just 39% indicate they would be more likely to support their legislator for favoring expansion.

“Few voters believe that a massive expansion of government-run Medicaid will solve anything,” Bragdon said.  “Voters know it will cost more, tax more, provide less, and leave future generations with the bills.”

The poll was conducted by Mark Blankenship Enterprises (MBE) between February 19 and 23, 2013.  It has a +/- 3.44% margin of error and a 95% level of confidence.

CLICK HERE to access the full poll.

CLICK HERE to access the polling memorandum prepared by Mark Blankenship Enterprises.

About MBE

Mark Blankenship is president and chief executive officer of Mark Blankenship Enterprises, LLC (MBE).  MBE is a national communications and opinion research firm.. Blankenship’s surveys, commentary and insights have appeared in a range of national and regional media including The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The Drudge Report, Fox News, Roll Call, The Hill, Politico and others.  MBE provides a range of actionable and reliable research methodologies to Fortune 500 companies, small businesses, prominent law firms, media organizations, associations and non-government organizations. 

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In ObamaCare Prevention Fund Prevents Good Stewardship of Taxpayer Dollars, FGA Chief Executive Officer Tarren Bragdon dissects the Prevention and Public Health Fund created in ObamaCare—an account unfairly shielded from the traditional budget process, with its billions doled out not by elected representatives, but by appointed panels of bureaucrats to organizations.  Grants distributed from the Fund as supposed to invest in programs designed to improve health and restrain health care costs.

In typical Washington fashion, however, billions from the Fund appears to be targeted toward Nanny State initiatives designed to influence and/or control how Americans live their lives, based on reporting from the Centers for Disease Control.  For example, a 2010 grant of $126 million is targeted toward tobacco control, obesity prevention and the First Lady’s “Let’s Move!” initiative.  Another grant for $29 million in 2011 was also doled out for obesity and tobacco prevention.

$118 million in taxpayer-funded grants have been doled out in Florida alone, with $30 million going to the state of Florida, $40 million to Florida non-profits, $30 million to Florida county or city governments, and $11 million to for-profit Florida companies.

Despite limited success such lifestyle-changing programs can point to, the Fund continues to invest billions generated from individual and employer mandate penalties, tax increases, and substantial cuts to Medicare resulting from ObamaCare’s enactment.

“American taxpayers will feel the impact of ObamaCare’s penalties, taxes, fees, and abuse for years to come, unless the liberals who rammed this monster through Congress realize the error of their ways,” Bragdon said. “The Prevention and Public Health Fund is just one small, $10 billion piece of this fiscally devastating puzzle, and despite its excessive spending, quality of care is sure to decline and costs will continue to rise.”

Click HERE to read the report.

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A report authored by the Naples, Florida-based Foundation for Government Accountability (FGA) and the Washington, D.C.-based Tax Foundation takes a close look at a tax most taxpayers are unaware of, but hits hard at many businesses’ bottom line.

The report, States Moving Away From Taxes on Tangible Personal Property, was authored by FGA Senior Fellow for Tax Policy Joyce Errecart, and the Tax Foundation’s Ed Gerrish and Scott Drenkard.  It provides a detailed explanation of tangible personal property taxes (taxes, typically targeting businesses, charged on the value of items such as furniture and manufacturing equipment), an overview of TPP tax policies across the states, and why states are moving away from TPP taxes as a source of revenue.

This November, Florida voters will vote on Amendment 10, which seeks to increase the amount of equipment a business can own before being subjected to tangible personal property taxes, and gives counties and municipalities the ability to reduce TPP taxes even further, or eliminate them entirely.

“This report shows that the tangible property tax is a particularly bad tax,” Errecart said.  “It can be burdensome, especially for small businesses, and can cause economic distortions.  In Florida, we need to reduce this tax, and let small businesses can do what they do best—create jobs. “

Upcoming publications by the Foundation for Government Accountability will discuss more directly what Amendment 10 means for small businesses in Florida, and the out-of-work Floridians hoping entrepreneurs will have the resources to grow and create more jobs.

Download report here (PDF)

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Bradley Maxwell’s Anti-Transparency Agenda Tramples Taxpayers’ Right to Know

NAPLES – Bradley Maxwell, Republican candidate for Florida House District 9, announced today that government secrecy is one of his highest priorities—increasing government secrecy, that is.

Maxwell told reporters that, if elected, he will propose a ‘Privacy Act’ that hides from Florida taxpayers the salary information of taxpayer-paid government employees.  This platform item flies in the face of Florida’s rich tradition of open government, and tramples taxpayers’ right to know how their money is being spent, down to the department, person and penny.

Salary information of taxpayer-paid government employees is now available through public records requests, as well as on FloridaOpenGov.org, a transparency Web site hosted and maintained by the Foundation for Government Accountability. Candidate Maxwell’s agenda of secrecy would hide this public information, and open the door for taxpayer-paid bonuses and salary hikes to occur in the shadows.

“How dare Bradley Maxwell try to blindfold the citizens and taxpayers of Florida?” asked Foundation for Government Accountability Chief Executive Officer Tarren Bragdon.  “Mr. Maxwell made his disdain for open government quite clear with his statements today and his ‘Privacy Act’ scheme.  This is an agenda of secrecy that citizens, taxpayers and open governments across the country will not tolerate.”

Many of the government employees Mr. Maxwell claims to want to assist with his anti-transparency ‘Privacy Act’ support open government.  In a January 9, 2012 Naples Daily News article, Doug Martin, spokesman for the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees in Florida said, “In Florida we have a culture of public records, and public employee salaries are a public record.”

“The Foundation for Government Accountability prioritizes government transparency as a means for taxpayers to hold their officials accountable,” Bragdon said.  “Should Mr. Maxwell’s ‘Privacy Act’ ever be proposed, we are prepared to devote all it takes to defeating the measure and protecting taxpayers’ right to know.”

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NAPLES – Job creation isn’t the only reason policymakers should explore ways to fast-track the creation of start-up businesses in Florida.  A new report by the Foundation for Government Accountability (FGA) indicates that bureaucratic red tape delaying start-ups causes big costs to out-of-work Floridians and state and federal taxpayers.

In The Cost of Bureaucratic Delay, FGA economist Joseph Burke, PhD, calculates the fiscal impact of delaying by just one week the creation of Florida start-ups to unemployed workers, and federal, state, county and municipal governments.

For an out-of-work Floridian receiving an unemployment check, a one-week delay costs an average of $900 in net lost wages and benefits.  Florida’s 2009 start-ups created 173,236 new jobs.  If those new jobs were delayed by just one week, the unemployed workers who would go on to find jobs as a direct result of start-ups would lose a total of more than $155 million in forever lost wages and benefits.  That compensation would go a long way toward financial security for out-of-work Florida families.  Their economic opportunity is forever lost because of bureaucratic delay.

“Start-ups are the drivers of job creation in Florida, but bureaucratic red tape is delaying start-ups and robbing out-of-work Florida families of good jobs, more pay, and freedom from government dependence,” said FGA Chief Executive Officer Tarren Bragdon.

Lost wages to out-of-work Floridians are not the only result of bureaucratic delay.  As a consequence of additional unemployment compensation and forever lost tax revenue, taxpayers also the sting of delay.  The report finds that delaying a single start-up just one week costs the state of Florida $288, while a one-week delay to a single start-up costs the federal government $1,393.  Delaying all Florida start-ups created in 2009 by just one week cost the state and federal governments about $9.9 million and $47.7 million respectively.

“Promoting start-up creation achieves two critical goals; putting Floridians back to work, and increasing revenue, without tax hikes, to a state and federal government consistently strapped by budget shortfalls,” Bragdon explained.  “Start-ups are the key to Florida’s economic recovery.  Future policies must reflect this critical point.”

Counties and municipalities also experience costs of delay, but far less than their state and federal counterparts.  Delaying a single start-up by one week costs the average county government $51.00 in declining property values and costs the average municipality just $19.00.  In total, delaying all 2009 start-ups by one week cost counties only $1.74 million and municipalities only $670,000.

“Regardless of who is to blame for delaying the creation of start-ups, there is a significant ripple effect throughout the entire system.  The consequences of red tape and inefficiencies are too great to ignore.  Out-of-work Floridians are being robbed of new jobs and greater economic freedom, and cash-strapped governments are losing revenue,” Bragdon said.  “We must cut the red tape, get government out of the way, and fast-track the creation of Florida start-ups.”

CLICK HERE to read The Cost of Bureaucratic Delay.

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CONTACT

Chris Cinquemani, Vice President

239.244.8808 (o), 207.240.7090 (m)

chris@floridafga.org

Georgia State Representative Jason Spencer, sponsor of HB 668, invited Bragdon to testify in support of his bill after studying earlier FGA research on Florida’s welfare cash drug testing requirement.  FGA analysis of state-generated data from the first quarter of the Florida law showed a 48 percent drop in monthly cash assistance approvals and a drug-related denial rate of 19 percent.  In all, Florida taxpayers saved an estimated $1.8 million.

In December, Bragdon gave a similar presentation on Florida’s welfare cash drug testing law to the Health and Human Services Task Force of the American Legislative Exchange Council, an association of public, private and non-profit policy leaders who collaborate to develop ideas that address common challenges faced by the states.

“Drug testing ensures taxpayers’ generosity won’t fund illegal drug addiction by setting reasonable parameters for welfare cash,” Bragdon explained.  “Florida’s law proves this welfare accountability measure achieves major taxpayer savings.  It preserves benefits for the truly needy, and keeps children safer by no longer enabling meth moms and dope dads with no-strings welfare cash.  Representative Spencer’s bill will accomplish these same positive results.”

Georgia State Representative Jason Spencer (left) with Foundation for Government Accountability CEO Tarren Bragdon (right) at a legislative hearing on Rep. Spencer's bill to require drug testing for welfare cash applicants in Georgia.

Like Florida’s law, the Georgia bill requires welfare cash applicants test negative for drug use before receiving welfare dollars and compels the state Department of Health and Human Services to provide a list of area drug treatment facilities to applicants who test positive.  The Georgia bill specifically exempts applicants’ drug testing results from public records laws and criminal investigations.

“It’s critical for both taxpayers, and for the children state welfare programs are meant to protect that welfare cash assistance is not used to subsidize an illegal addiction.  My bill in Georgia is one part of a broad and important nation-wide movement toward welfare accountability,” Rep. Spencer said.  “I’m grateful the Foundation for Government Accountability has done such great work researching the success of Florida’s law.  Tarren’s testimony is important for my colleagues in the Georgia Assembly to hear and understand.”

According to recent media reports, up to 37 states are considering welfare cash drug testing.  Besides Florida, Arizona and Missouri have already passed such legislation.  Many reject the activist ruling of pro-addict federal Judge Mary Scriven temporarily halting Florida’s law.  State leaders understand her decree—criticized by legal scholars and child advocates—is wrong and puts kids at risk.  Governor Rick Scott has appealed her decision.

“The success of Florida’s welfare cash drug testing law is clear, and I am encouraged that Georgia and other states are headed in the same direction,” Bragdon said.  “Representative Spencer should be commended for his leadership on this important issue.  The Foundation for Government Accountability supports his efforts, and the work of other state leader looking to protect kids and save taxpayer dollars.”

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CONTACT
Chris Cinquemani, Vice President
239.244.8808 (o), 207.240.7090 (m), chris@floridafga.org

TALLAHASSEE – The Foundation for Government Accountability (FGA) is shining a light on Florida government spending with the largest and most interactive government transparency Web site in the state—FloridaOpenGov.org.  With about 35 million public records detailing nearly $1.4 trillion in spending and payroll by state, county, municipality and school, FloridaOpenGov.org is taxpayers’ online transparency hub for government spending down to the employee, department and dollar.

FloridaOpenGov.org includes 18 years of spending and 15 years of payroll data—all obtained through public records requests—with a simple user-interface allowing visitors to search by employee name, department, salary, county, spending category, year, and more.

“FloridaOpenGov.org is about super sizing taxpayers’ right to know how politicians are spending their money—down to the employee, department and dollar,” explained FGA Chief Executive Officer Tarren Bragdon.

FloridaOpenGov.org includes:

•    County government payroll (FY 1997-2011)
•    Local K-12 public education payroll (FY 1997-2011)
•    State government payroll (1995-2010)
•    Local government spending (FY 1993-2010)
•    State vendor payments (FY 2005-2011)

FGA unveiled FloridaOpenGov.org on Monday at a Statehouse press conference, with a bipartisan group of state and local elected officials.  These officials helped raise awareness about FloridaOpenGov.org and the opportunities it creates for taxpayers to learn more about politicians’ spending decisions.

Florida Chief Financial Officer Jeff Atwater praised FloridaOpenGov.org as a powerful new taxpayer tool:

“As an advocate for government transparency, I support all resources both public and private, including FloridaOpenGov.org, that provide taxpayers with the tools to keep tabs on how their dollars are being spent,” he said.

State Representatives Matt Hudson (R-Naples), Rachel Burgin (R-Tampa Bay) and Joseph Abruzzo (D-Wellington) and City of Longwood Mayor Joe Durso also endorsed FloridaOpenGov.org as an important addition to Florida’s government transparency movement.  Other leaders noted the site’s value as well.

At the Capitol, Bragdon highlighted key findings from FloridaOpenGov.org, including the top ten highest paid state government workers (Department of Education employee Frank Brogan is number one), government workers who are members of the $100k salary club, state vendors with the most in government contract and payments, and local spending data.

CLICK HERE to see the PowerPoint presentation shown at Monday’s press conference.

“FloridaOpenGov.org will change all future conversations over government spending.  This easy-to-use online transparency hub allows citizens and taxpayers to become more informed than ever before.  An informed citizen is strong and powerful,” Bragdon said.

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CONTACT
Chris Cinquemani, Vice President
239.244.8808 (o), 207.240.7090 (m), chris@floridafga.org

Start-Up Companies Created More Than 1 Million Jobs from 2005-2009

NAPLES – Start-up companies in Florida created nearly 1.5 million jobs between 2005 and 2009, indicating that newly-launched companies are the drivers of job creation in the state, according to a new report released today by the Foundation for Government Accountability (FGA).

The report, Job Growth Overview: Start-Up Companies are Florida’s Top Job Creators, was authored by FGA economist Dr. Joseph Burke, and is the first report of the think tank’s Start-Up Florida initiative, a wide-ranging effort to research and raise awareness of the policies that impact start-up entrepreneurs, and advocate meaningful reforms to promote job creation in the state.

“Start-up companies are Florida’s top job creators.  Our policies must help start-up entrepreneurs open their doors sooner, hire their first employees quicker and get Floridians back to work,” said FGA Chief Executive Officer Tarren Bragdon of the Start-Up Florida initiative.

Since 2005, start-ups created a net total of 788,256 jobs in Florida (job creation minus job destruction).  In that same time, net total job creation from all types of establishments—start-ups, existing firms and firms that relocated to the state—was 159,836. Had it not been for start-ups, Florida would have experienced significant negative job growth since 2005 instead of modest job gains.

Other key findings from the report:

• 1.475 million – total jobs created by Florida start-ups established between 2005 and 2009
• 217,558 – average number of new jobs created by Florida start-ups annually
• 788,256 – number of net jobs created by Florida start-ups since 2005
• 159,836 – number of net jobs created in Florida by all types of establishments since 2005
• 44,295 – average number of start-ups established each year (2005-2009)

The recession has had a significant impact on the launching of Florida start-ups.  Since the recession began in 2007, the average number of start-up companies created annually is down 23.5 percent.

“Promoting start-ups is the key to Florida’s economic recovery.  Reducing the time and cost it takes entrepreneurs to launch start-ups will encourage job creation and help put more Floridians back to work,” Burke writes.

Future Start-Up Florida reports will delve into specific policies at the state and local level that impact start-ups, and a more in-depth look at how policies impact specific industries within the state.

“The conventional wisdom that small businesses are the key to job creation is incomplete,” Bragdon said.  “To create jobs and help get people back to work requires a complete picture of what’s working, and that picture must include start-ups.  Start-ups are Florida’s top job creators.  They are the crucial to lifting Florida from this recession.”

CLICK HERE to read the report.

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CONTACT:
Chris Cinquemani, Vice President
239.244.8808 (o), 207.240.7090 (m), chris@floridafga.org

Foundation for Government Accountability CEO Presents Florida’s Reform Successes

SCOTTSDALE, AZ – National health policy leaders learned what common sense health and welfare reforms accomplish for patients and taxpayers during a presentation by the Foundation for Government Accountability (FGA) to the Health and Human Services Task Force of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC)last Friday.

FGA CEO Tarren Bragdon (right) with Wisconsin State Senator Leah Vukmir, public sector chair of the ALEC Health and Human Services Task Force.

The Health and Human Services Task Force is one of nine—and the largest—such sub-groups of ALEC, a non-partisan national coalition of public and private sector leaders committed to the free market, limited government and state’s rights.  ALEC members are comprised of state legislators and private and non-profit sector individuals who collaborate to develop ideas that tackle challenges faced by the states.
Bragdon, a nationally recognized authority in Medicaid and welfare policy, presented to the Task Force his talk titled Florida’s Health Care Reforms: Health and Welfare Successes in the Sunshine State at ALEC’s 2011 States & Nation Policy Summit in Scottsdale, Arizona.

“Florida has made tremendous accomplishments in the areas of patient-centered Medicaid reform and welfare accountability,” Bragdon said.  “I’m grateful to have shared these successes with free market leaders on the Health and Human Services Task Force.  Members left interested in exploring similar reforms for other states.”

Bragdon presented his research on Florida’s five-county Medicaid Reform Pilot, which expanded plan choices for patients, covers more health services than any other Medicaid program in the country, and achieves better health outcomes and higher patient satisfaction among participants.  The Reform Pilot, which began in 2006, has also saved Florida taxpayers an estimated $118 million annually.

A planned statewide expansion of Florida’s Medicaid Reform is pending approval of waiver requests submitted by the State to the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.  Statewide expansion would save taxpayers up to $901 million every year.  If Florida’s Medicaid Reform were replicated nationwide, Medicaid patients would be healthier and happier, and American taxpayers would save up to an estimated $28.6 billion.

“As other states struggle with Medicaid crises, Florida has found a cure with its Medicaid Reform Pilot,” Bragdon said.

Bragdon also discussed Florida’s welfare cash drug testing law, which requires applicants to pass a drug test before collecting taxpayer funded welfare cash.  In October, after just three months as law, activist federal Judge Mary Scriven suspended the law based on personal ideology rather than fact.

Prior to Scriven’s pro-addict ruling, 19 percent of otherwise eligible applicants received a drug-related denial for failing to prove the welfare cash they sought would be used to support kids and families, not illegal drug addiction.  During its first three months, these drug-related denials resulted in an estimated savings of $1.8 million to Florida taxpayers.  Governor Rick Scott has appealed Scriven’s ruling.

“Welfare cash drug testing is a common sense solution to help protect children of drug addicts,” Bragdon explained.  “Our limited welfare dollars should not be used to fund addiction.  Scriven’s ruling has put Florida children at greater risk.”

Bragdon’s presentation was well received.

“Tarren presented the Task Force important information about Florida’s success in implementing reforms that are both pro-patient and pro-taxpayer,” explained Christie Herrera, Director of ALEC’s Health and Human Services Task Force.  “Tarren showed why members should look to Florida for free market Medicaid and welfare reforms that strengthen these safety net programs for those who truly need them, and save money for the taxpayers who fund them.”

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Contact:
Chris Cinquemani, Vice President
239.244.8808 (o), 207.240.7090 (m), chris@floridafga.org

NAPLES – Foundation for Government Accountability (FGA) Chief Executive Officer Tarren Bragdon sent a letter to the Community Health Action and Information Network (CHAIN) condemning the liberal group’s political campaign to stop statewide expansion of Florida’s successful Medicaid Reform.  The letter also rebukes CHAIN for refusing to propose alternatives that match the success of the state’s five-county Medicaid Reform Pilot.

“CHAIN has been vehement in its opposition to proven patient-centered health care reform.  Further, CHAIN has failed to offer meaningful reform alternatives that have shown to improve patient health and satisfaction.  One is left to believe the true purpose of CHAIN is to shackle Florida patients to a bureaucrat-controlled Medicaid system,” Bragdon wrote.

Florida’s Medicaid Reform Pilot has achieved better health outcomes and higher patient satisfaction compared to patients confined to traditional, bureaucrat-controlled Medicaid managed care and commercial HMO plans.  The Pilot has also expanded plan choices, covers extra health services and has created significant taxpayer savings.

Earlier this year, Florida submitted a series of waiver requests to the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) so this Medicaid Reform can be enacted statewide.  Florida taxpayers are estimated to save up to $901 million annually from statewide expansion, and all Florida Medicaid patients, not just those in Reform Pilot counties, will become healthier and happier with their care.  Those requests are pending.

Last week, FGA sent a 24-page study authored by Bragdon to CMS analyzing Reform Pilot results along with a letter urging the federal agency to approve Florida’s waiver requests.  CHAIN’s intense lobbying effort to sway CMS to deny Florida’s requests discards the Reform Pilot’s benefits to both Medicaid patients and Florida taxpayers.

“As other states struggle with Medicaid crises, Florida has a cure with its Medicaid Reform Pilot,” Bragdon continued in the CHAIN letter.  “CHAIN has resisted this Medicaid cure from the outset, instead pushing a return to the failed, command-and-control system where bureaucrats—not the Medicaid patient or doctor—is in control of that patient’s care.  That’s not patient advocacy, that’s patient politics and it is wrong.”

Bragdon, a nationally-recognized expert on Medicaid and welfare programs, concluded his letter with a put-up-or-pipe-down message to the liberal group.

“Until CHAIN offers a meaningful alternative to Florida’s Medicaid Reform that prioritizes patients over the bureaucrats and special interests, CHAIN should end its political campaign.  In light of the tremendous accomplishments made by the Reform Pilot on behalf of Medicaid patients, and the achievements to come if and when CMS allows Florida to expand the program statewide, CHAIN obstructionism marks patient politics at its worst.”

CLICK HERE to read the letter sent by FGA CEO Tarren Bragdon to CHAIN.

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CONTACT:
Chris Cinquemani, Vice President
239.244.8808 (o), 207.240.7090 (m)
chris@floridafga.org