FL House Speaker Marco Rubio's budget wording benefits ally (Inserts stealth language)

[seafan]

Four pieces of information to remember about Marco Rubio:

1. He receives his training at the harsh ideological knee of Jeb Bush.

2. He has grand designs for *higher office*, after being forced out of the Legislature in December due to term limits. He will begin with a run for Miami Dade Mayor this November.

3. Then, it will be Onward To The Governor's Mansion.

4. None of the above are good for Floridians.



Rubio's budget wording benefits ally

BY MARC CAPUTO
April 07, 2008

When a big political contributor needed help with a turnpike fuel contract, he relied on House Speaker Marco Rubio and others in Tallahassee to slip in language in the budget.



AP FILE

TALLAHASSEE --
Florida House Speaker Marco Rubio quietly slipped tough-to-spot language in a state budget plan last week that helps a friend and political money-man bid on a major fuel contract in a $265 million turnpike overhaul proposal.
This is the second year in a row that South Florida fuel distributor Max Alvarez has relied on the man he has said is ''like a son'' to push the budget language to ensure he can more easily bid for the job.

Rubio said in a written statement that he was concerned the turnpike contract paved the way for anti-competitive "monopolies," and acknowledged through spokeswoman Jill Chamberlin that his office ''had a role'' in putting the language in the budget, adding that ``others are interested in it as well.''
Republican lawmakers and staffers, including Rubio allies, told The Miami Herald that the speaker was the one who inserted the language in the budget. Chamberlin said she wasn't told.
At issue: the Florida Turnpike Enterprise's mammoth plans to combine its separate food and fuel concessions for its rest stops into one contract. But the contracts have remained split due to the budget language pushed by Alvarez, giving him a better shot at winning the fuel concession that supplied 54 million gallons of gas last year.
Senate Republican leader Dan Webster said the budget language -- which surfaced last year ''in the dark of night'' -- remains a ''bad deal'' because it would prohibit the state from even getting bids to see if a combined contract is advantageous.

.....

Turnpike officials say that more than a year of study and national road-building trends show that the state should combine the lucrative concession contracts for 30 years. That way, they say, the turnpike can lure a major corporation that could afford to spend $175 million of its own money up front to help rebuild the eight rest-area plazas and give the state the best cut on concession revenues.
But Alvarez's supporters say bigger corporations aren't always better for the public. He says any conglomerate would just siphon money by getting between the state and the fuel vendor, which would ultimately work as a subcontractor for the new mega-corporation.

.....

After Alvarez failed to sway the turnpike officials, he made good on a promise to seek help from state legislators. Alvarez, his family members and corporations have contributed at least $319,000 over the past two decades. Of that money, at least $9,000 was contributed to Rubio since 1999.
The 36-year-old West Miami Republican's relationship with Alvarez appears deeper than money. Rubio is really just ''Marquito'' and more ''like a son to me'' than a lawmaker, the affable Alvarez told a Miami Herald reporter when he flew to Tallahassee in 2005 to see Rubio designated the first Cuban-American House speaker.

In the waning days at the end of Rubio's first session in charge last year, turnpike officials and Webster noticed that the House had slipped in the one-paragraph language dividing up the contract in the state budget.

.....

Few knew who did it, and those who tried to find out at the time said they were thwarted. Webster only said House ''leadership'' was behind it.
Unable to remove the language, turnpike officials decided to wait until this budget ends June 30 to bid out the contract.
When word of the stalling plan leaked out, House leaders then tried to enshrine the language in law by tacking it as an amendment to a Senate bill over contracting. Webster had the language stricken.
Then last week, the turnpike language reappeared in the House version of the budget for 2008-09, which begins July 1.

Apparently, Rubio says The Carlyle Group is an appropriate choice for this contract.

Regardless of Alvarez, Rubio said, the turnpike's plans are bad. He said the sheer size and scope of the job makes it feasible for only a few companies to win the bid, such as the venture capital Carlyle Group or HMSHost, which currently runs the food concessions.

.....

[seafan]

1. FL Democratic Party: Rubio 'reeks of corruption'

Via The Buzz:


ANOTHER RUBIO SCANDAL: Speaker Fleeces Public for Friend's Gain

Republicans Begin to Question Him As Pattern of Corruption Develops

For Immediate Release: April 7, 2008

TALLAHASSEE - Despite budget cuts that will gut education, healthcare and law enforcement, Republican Speaker Marco Rubio "quietly slipped tough-to-spot language in a state budget plan last week that helps a friend and political money-man bid on a major fuel contract in a $265 million turnpike overhaul proposal."

A new Miami Herald investigation exposes how Rubio planted language in the state budget for friend Max Alvarez, a fuel distributor and South Florida politico who donates lavishly to Rubio. This is the second year in a row that Rubio has attempted to swindle the public purse for Alvarez' gain, but this year the stakes are higher.

In the face of a massive budget shortfall, transportation department officials fear the language could cost the state millions of dollars as it had planned to combine separate contracts for greater affordability. Alvarez has been the only critic of the consolidated bid plan crafted by officials and lawmakers.

Rubio recently lamented the drastic budget cuts he was pushing, "We are dangerously close to not having a highway patrol in this state, unfortunately," but still the delusional Rubio believes somehow his budget leaves Floridians "better off." "It is the kind of budget the people of Florida need at a time like this..."

"Does he have no shame? The only people 'better off' with Rubio's budget are Rubio and his political friends. It takes incredible contempt for the people of Florida to corruptly slide millions to a wealthy friend while millions of regular folks are hurting because of the recession he helped create," Florida Democratic Party spokesman Alejandro Miyar said.

Even fellow Republican Sen. Dan Webster frowned on the corruption, which first appeared last year "in the dark of night," saying it "remains a 'bad deal' because it would prohibit the state from even getting bids to see if a combined contract is advantageous."

Read the full Miami herald report at:
http://www.miamiherald.com/516/story/485704.html

In a separate scandal, Rubio also faces serious questions about a suspicious six-figure home equity loan that he failed to disclose. Real-estate experts called the way Rubio obtained the loan "unusual."

A month after purchasing a house in West Miami in 2005, Rubio had the property appraised by a bank directed by his political supporters. The bank valued the house at almost $200,000 higher than what Rubio had just paid for it - and offered him a $135,000 home equity loan.

"It looks a lot like somebody's currying favor with an important political person," an independent market analyst said. "People off the street don't get this deal because he just purchased the property for $550,000. If it is a true equity loan, there has to be equity in the house to make the loan."

This isn't the first time that Rubio has failed to disclose a loan. Though Rubio told the Herald, "I over-disclose. I try to over-disclose as opposed to under-disclose," he also neglected to disclose a $64,000 equity loan as well.

"What is Marco Rubio hiding and why does he think he can get away with it? This doesn't pass the smell test," Florida Democratic Party spokesman Alejandro Miyar said. "Rubio's pattern is disturbing and reeks of corruption."

Read the full Miami Herald report at: http://www.miamiherald.com/top_stories/story/474645.html