Legislature moves closer to cutting Florida's 'corruption tax'

TALLAHASSEE-- The Legislature has moved a step closer to unshackling prosecutors and cutting what a grand jury called Florida's "corruption tax."
State Rep. Ritch Workman, R-Melbourne, said he would sponsor a bill supported by Gannett news sites on behalf of the powerful House Rules and Ethics Committee, which he chairs.

The legislation would eliminate two significant legal barriers to prosecuting cases of bribery, bid-rigging and fraud:

It would add government contractors to the definition of "public servants" subject to Florida's public-corruption laws. Despite widespread privatization, they remain exempt.
And it would cancel Florida's unusual burden on state prosecutors to prove that defendants had corrupt thoughts or intent.

"It's a bit redundant and unnecessary to ask whether the bribe you just accepted was done with corrupt intent," Workman said. "With extending these laws to government contractors, there's a way to do that to protect the public while making sure we don't overreach."

Workman joins state Sen. Don Gaetz, R-Niceville, in sponsoring the legislation, which has been unanimously endorsed by Florida's 20 state attorneys. Gaetz declared his sponsorship in September. He and Workman planned to release a joint statement announcing their anti-corruption push later Wednesday.

A "committee bill," as Workman plans to sponsor in the House, gets special consideration for hearings and required the approval of Speaker Steve Crisafulli, R-Merritt Island.
"It is a real coup to get Ritch Workman as our House partner," Gaetz said.

Pass our bill: Cut Florida's 'corruption tax'

News of Workman and Gaetz's sponsorship follows another study, this one by Harvard University, that ranks Florida No. 1 for official corruption.

The legislation supported by Gannett is based the two simplest, highest-priority legal reforms urged by a Statewide Grand Jury in 2010. After investigating corruption in state and local government, it concluded that the higher costs caused by bid-tampering, kickbacks, fraud and other waste amounted to a hidden "corruption tax."

Gannett news sites called for action and sponsors in a Sept. 24 report published in FLORIDA TODAY, the Tallahassee Democrat, Pensacola NewsJournal, the News-Press in Fort Myers and on WEFS-TV in Brevard. To speed the process, they offered a model bill drafted by Melbourne attorney Michael Kahn based on feedback from Brevard-Seminole State Attorney Phil Archer and staff prosecutors.

"Because the standard is so high, prosecutors are reluctant to take (corruption cases)," Tim Jansen, Tallahassee criminal-defense attorney and former federal prosecutor told the Democrat. "And then the investigators and agents aren’t going to waste their time investigating cases that a prosecutor won’t move forward on.”

Said Katy Sorenson, a former Miami-Dade County commissioner and founder of the Good Government Initiative at the University of Miami:  “People get drunk with power. They just think that theyr’e wonderful because people keep telling them that … They start to think, ‘Well, it wasn’t that much.’ Or, ‘It didn’t really hurt anyone.’  It’s self-deception. It’s a slippery slope.”

Contact Reed at mreed@floridatoday.com. Follow him atFacebook.com/MattReedNews