Both Republican candidates running for the U.S. Senate have now taken Grover Norquist’s anti-tax pledge.

Gov. Charlie Crist’s campaign announced this morning that he was the first candidate to sign the “taxpayer protection pledge” of the Washington-based group Americans for Tax Reform. Hours later, ATR announced that former House Speaker Marco Rubio, R-West Miami, had sent in his pledge, too.

By signing, they promise to “oppose any and all efforts to increase the marginal income tax rates for individuals and/or businesses … and oppose any net reduction or elimination of deductions and credits, unless matched dollar-for-dollar by further reducing taxes.”

Norquist, the nationally known president of ATR, has been offering politicians the pledge since 1987. So far, 34 senators and 172 House members have signed, along with six governors and over 1,100 state legislators.

But the governor also pulled off a bit of one-upmanship with another headline — announcing that Sen. Mel Martinez, the man they both want to replace, will serve as a co-chairman of his campaign, along with former U.S. Sen. Connie Mack, the man who gave Crist his start in politics as an office aide more than 20 years ago.

A push to regulate the use of confidential informants cleared an important hurdle on Wednesday, but only after the heart-wrenching pleas of a grieving father left some lawmakers wondering whether “Rachel’s Law” goes far enough.

The bill is named after 23-year-old Rachel Hoffman, a recent FSU graduate who was slain last year after she was recruited to serve as a confidential informant for the Tallahassee Police Department.

Already serving in a court-ordered treatment program when police found drugs in her apartment, Hoffman agreed on May 7 to wear a wire and take $13,000 on a drug buy that also included the purchase of a gun from two suspected dealers. Her body was found in the woods in Taylor County 36 hours later.

Pausing frequently to choke back tears, Irv Hoffman pleaded with lawmakers to provide greater protections for young people like his daughter, who get in trouble with the law and are willing to, “do anything to escape prosecution.”

“Sending her out there to these two dangerous individuals was like feeding a lamb to the wolves,” Hoffman said.

Rachel’s parents initially wanted to force police to tell potential informants of their rights to an attorney before recruiting them, to ban the use of informants who are in drug treatment and to ban nonviolent informants from participating in stings that involve violent suspects.

The state’s most powerful law-enforcement groups, including the Florida Sheriffs Association and the Florida Police Chiefs Association, balked. The compromise, (SB 604) by Sen. Mike Fasano, instead forces departments to adopt uniform standards that take into account an informant’s age, maturity level and substance-abuse history.

After hearing Hoffman’s testimony, some members of the Senate Criminal Justice Committee thought the compromise was too weak. Sen. Alex Villalobos, R-Miami, wanted to know why police shouldn’t be forced to read a suspect his rights before sending him undercover.

Michael Ramage, general counsel for the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, said potential informants are often sent back on the streets within hours of being detained. Holding them until they can meet with an attorney would risk letting their arrest leak out and destroy their value as informants, he said.

“It will bring the use of confidential informants to a screeching halt in most cases,” Ramage said.

The committee split 4-3 on an initial vote, but the bill cleared the committee unanimously after Fasano promised to add more protections at the next committee hearing.

“We all agree that protecting life is of primary importance,” Fasano said.

–Jim Ash

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Governor Charlie Crist

By Jim Ash

Tallahassee – Gov. Charlie Crist, President Barack Obama’s favorite Republican cheerleader, said Monday the state can expect to rake in more than $12.2 billion over the next three years from the federal stimulus package just passed by Congress.

“It passed with great gratitude from Florida,” Crist said.

 It’s still not clear whether Florida will have to ask for special permission from the federal government to claim $3.6 billion in education dollars. A feature of the federal plan denies education money to states like Florida that have slashed their school budgets.

Crist urged Education Commissioner Eric Smith to call his counterpart at the U.S. Department of Education on Monday afternoon to press for answers. Crist this weekend applied for a waiver to the stimulus rules just in case.

Crist earned the wrath of fellow Republicans — all GOP members of Florida’s congressional delegation voted against the stimulus — by energetically pushing for the plan, including appearing with Obama last week at a town hall forum in Fort Myers.

At the same time he is asking Washington for forgiveness for reducing the education budget, he is preparing to roll out a massive wave of property tax-cut proposals for the 2010 ballot that could cut education funding further. Crist was not fazed by the paradox.

“I don’t think that will be a problem,” Crist said.

While lawmakers are looking for ways to deal with a potentially $5 billion budget shortfall next year, it’s still not clear how much of the stimulus money can be used to meet Florida’s constitutional requirement to balance the budget.

“A lot,” Crist shouted to a reporter as he darted through a doorway.

Jerry McDaniel, Crist’s budget chief, said that the state will likely get the most relief from the $1.3 billion in new Medicaid money that is a feature of the plan this year. However, most of the other stimulus money, including $1.4 billion in transportation dollars, cannot be used to replace state spending.

Crist and his wife, Carole, visited a senior citizens center a few blocks from the Governor’s Mansion. He was asked about dipping into the Lawton Chiles Endowment for $600 million and gambling on quick ratification of his Seminole Tribe casino compact for another $135 million, which were pieces of the plan Crist sent to lawmakers late Tuesday.

Crist said the Chiles money will be repaid promptly. The late governor’s family has threatened legal action if the state includes the health-care fund among its sources of borrowing, and may ask that the Chiles name be removed from the endowment if it is treated like a regular revenue source.

More here: Crist seeks to ‘protect the most vulnerable’ with budget plan

Governor Charlie Crist

Gov. Charlie Crist has proposed spending cuts, sweeping trust funds for extra money, using Seminole gambling money and borrowing to build prisons to meet a projected $2.3 billion shortfall in the state’s spending plan.

The Legislature is set to meet in special session starting Jan. 5 to fix the budget. An economy in recession and a burst housing bubble has continued to drain tax revenue.

Crist’s proposal, released this afternoon, includes $561.5 million in spending cuts.

It pulls extra money from a variety of sources. The biggest is $600 million from the Lawton Chiles Endowment Trust Fund, set up with a portion of proceeds from the state’s settlement in tobacco litigation.

Read the rest of the post here: Crist proposes cuts, sweeps to make up $2.3 billion gap