Republicans and corruption: they go together like like rama lama lama ka dinga da dinga dong

Things aren't getting much easier for Florida House Speaker Ray Sansom (R-Destin).

Blast Off! has been covering the ever-widening scandal that arose from Sansom improperly (and quite likely illegally) using his political connections not only to get increased funding for Northwest Florida State College, but a cushy new job, too. And today we find out that the quid pro quo wasn't just for Sansom's job, or just for the next legislative session: indeed, there's an expectation of ongoing funding increases for the college, to the tune of upwards of $122 million.

The president of the college where Ray Sansom now works provided him with a "pricey" $122-million funding request over five years with the implicit expectation that Sansom would help "make it a reality."

Sansom, who got the request in February, took care of the first part. This year, he secured $25.5-million in the budget for a student services building at Northwest Florida State College -- $24.5-million more than the Department of Education requested.

Records obtained today by the Times/Herald show the college wanted $18-million in PECO funds in the upcoming fiscal year (at some point, the request was pared back to $13.2-million, a figure we already reported. The DOE has recommended only $748,000).

The big payoff was to come in Sansom's final year in the House, with $34-million. Then in the two years following, the college wanted an additional $45-million.

All told, the college laid out a five-year plan to obtain $122.5-million. "It's a pricey list ... hopefully we can make it a reality," President Bob Richburg wrote to Sansom on Feb. 26, 2008.

Ho-lee crap. How much hubris must you have to think you can get hired (without a search) by the college for which you secured millions of dollars in funding, and it won't raise eyebrows? It's astonishing, it's shocking, it's pitiful ... and, as usual, it's par for the course for Republicans, who must feel that they can get away with pretty much anything.

Having worked in Florida's community college system (of which NFSC is a part, despite its new name), I know how critical those state funds are to the colleges' operations. So for one college to get such a vastly disproportional amount isn't just a taxpayer issue, but it affects the entire system by limiting the funding that can go to the other 27 colleges.

In short, this stinks. And Sansom would be wise to either relinquish his new $110,000-a-year job at NFSC or step down from the speakership ... before he gets indicted. Now that's a holiday bonus ...

Wingnut welfare for Ray Sansom ... and he's not even out of office!

It used to be that Wingnut Welfare -- Republicans arranging jobs for themselves or their cronies in exchange (wink, wink, nudge, nudge) for certain political favors -- didn't come into play until the wingnut in question was, or was about to be, out of office. For example, Marco Rubio (R-Miami), the batshit crazy former speaker of the Florida house, landed a sweet gig at FIU once he was term-limited out of office.

But, like equally batshit crazy state Sen. Mike Haridopolos (R-Indialantic), who secured a cushy job at the University of Florida while still in office, Rubio's successor as speaker, Ray Sansom (R-Destin), managed to get a six-figure position at Northwest Florida State College ("NFSC," formerly Okaloosa-Walton Community College), which just happened to benefit from millions of legislative dollars that just happened to be steered their way by Sansom, who just happened to chair the House Policy and Budget Council.

The assistance, documented in a memo the St. Petersburg Times obtained this week through a public records request, highlights the close relationship between Sansom and the college president, Bob Richburg.

Last week that affiliation burst into public view when Sansom was given a $110,000 job as a vice president at the college.

It came on the same day Sansom was sworn in as speaker of the Florida House, a juxtaposition that has elicited cries of cronyism.

Sansom, who has a master's degree in education, denies any correlation and says he was merely doing his job as a citizen legislator.

But the extra $24.5-million was not the only boon to the school, renamed Northwest Florida State College in July under legislation Sansom supported that boosted the school's ability to offer bachelor's degrees.

State records show the college received $1-million more than initially budgeted for an extension center in Walton County and $105,000 more than initially budgeted for general renovation.

Sansom also got $750,000 added to the budget for "startup funds" for the college's leadership institute, according to records the House released Wednesday. The Times reported last week that it got $200,000, but that was based on a preliminary request.

The amount ballooned some time before a Dec. 5, 2007, meeting between Sansom and college president Richburg. A memo from the meeting details how the two discussed accelerating funding — hence $1-million becoming $25.5-million.

That was the single-largest public education capital outlay (PECO) award for community college projects this year.

Not even Miami-Dade College, which has 160,000 students to Northwest Florida State College's 15,000, fared better in a single budget line.

I've worked in Florida's community college system, and I have never seen a more politically charged, "good ol' boy" atmosphere anywhere in my professional career. See, the problem here is not that NFSC got state money ... it's the fact that it got such a disproportionate amount of state money that raises eyebrows -- and questions.

The PECO money is hard to come by -- I know from working in community colleges and state universities. The schools battle for it tooth-and-nail, trying to secure funds for much needed classroom space, faculty offices, and the like. Particularly in these difficult budget times, isn't it just a little bit curious that NFSC gets a huge chunk of money and then hires Ray Sansom?

In law, we call it "avoiding the appearance of impropriety." Needless to say, Sansom and NFSC, even if they haven't done anything wrong or illegal (and I find that a dubious proposition at best), hardly have avoided the appearance of impropriety. This needs to be investigated and, if any wrongdoing is found, punished accordingly. Otherwise, it's just business as usual for Florida Republicans.

The damaging legacy of Jeb! Bush, Vol. 3: More trouble for Florida's state universities

As an employee of a state university in Florida, I'm acutely aware of the harmful effects of the state's budget crisis on our higher education system, which thanks to Jeb! Bush's destructive policies already has been laboring under the weight of an ignorant and nonsensical political bureaucracy. In the third installment of my occasional series, "The Damaging Legacy of Jeb! Bush," I'm looking at education once again, but after the FCAT and intelligent design, it's time to turn to the postsecondary side.

Jeb! decimated both the eleven institutions of the State University System and the state's 28 community colleges (one of which also employed me at one time) by shifting their leadership from a centralized Board of Regents to a powerless Board of Governors and individual boards of trustees -- who are politically appointed by the governor.

As a result, our state has 39 dysfunctional, disconnected, and disassociated institutions of higher learning, run by people who generally have little or no understanding of or interest in education at all. And it's only getting worse.

According to the report [by college readiness group Enlace Florida], if Florida's financial resources don't improve, the state's limited-income students will soon find the doors of institutions of higher learning closed to them.

"The fact that tuition at Florida's universities is the lowest in the country does not mean that Florida's students can afford the cost of attendance," [Enlace Florida executive director Paul] Dosal said in the report.

He said Florida invests little money in need-based financial aid. The biggest amount is $400 million, from the Bright Futures Scholarship program. Bright Futures accounts for 80 percent of the total financial aid — and about 20 percent of those dollars is given on the basis of need, Dosal said in his report.

The report states, "A student who receives the Academic Scholars Award (the highest Bright Futures Award) would find that the award covers less than 23 percent of the total cost of attending Florida Atlantic University, Florida International University, University of Central Florida or University of South Florida."

[State higher education chancellor Mark] Rosenberg told university stakeholders at the December Board of Governors' meeting to expect further budget cuts before the end of the fiscal year.

"This could mean layoffs. This could mean a reduced number of classes for students. We continue to dig ourselves in to a deeper and deeper hole," he said.

He apologized to students, university employees and alumni of public colleges and universities.

"Whatever rankings that their institutions have are, unfortunately, likely to slide further, de-valuing the degree of a Florida public university," he said.

I've worked for three of these 39 institutions in my career. I've seen firsthand the effects of the instant budget crisis, and I've seen students struggle and battle to stay in school despite crushing financial pressures. In short, the horrific fiscal management of the Jeb! Bush administration merges here with their systematic and wholly intentional dismantling of Florida's system of higher education, with disastrous results for tens of thousands of students.

It's appalling. It's disgusting. And it's another reminder that the nation's tragic "Bush Boom" is exacerbated in Florida, because we're trying to overcome not only Drunky McStagger's profound idiocy, but also that of his younger -- and allegedly smarter -- brother.