Florida House Speaker Ray Sansom announced Monday that he will give up the $110,000 Northwest Florida State College job he took the day he was sworn in as speaker. ...more

January 6, 2009

Florida legislators begin their search Monday for areas to carve $2.3 billion from the current state budget during a two-week special session brought on by the economic crisis. ...more

January 4, 2009

Florida has outgrown the concept of the casual lawmaker. If the job is to be done right, that is, as righteously as humanly practical, serving in the Legislature should be a full-time job with one boss: the public. ...more

January 4, 2009

Florida House Speaker Ray Sansom is a disgrace. At a time when the Legislature is working to burden local and county government with further unfunded mandates, evidence surfaces that the speaker cooked up a $122.5-million spending spree for his hometown community college. ...more

January 4, 2009

A Clearwater man has filed an ethics complaint against state House Speaker Ray Sansom in response to media reports that he may have traded state appropriations for a cozy academic job. ...more

December 30, 2008

A Clearwater man has filed an ethics complaint against state House Speaker Ray Sansom in response to media reports that he may have traded state appropriations for a cozy academic job. ...more

December 29, 2008

Finally, it's official. There will be a special legislative session next month. Gov. Charlie Crist, not a proponent previously, is now on board. That (2008-09) $2.3 billion state budget hole - that could deepen to $3.8 billion or more in 2009-10 - plus possible harm to Florida's credit rating and Medicaid scenarios from hell has everyone finally fixated on a resolution. Presumably, everything is on the table, especially in a state that hasn't fundamentally changed its revenue-raising ways from the LeRoy Collins administration years. ...more

December 24, 2008

Florida Senate President Jeff Atwater and House Speaker Ray Sansom obviously are in denial. In setting a January special session to deal with the state's financial crisis on Monday, they retreated to the same old way of doing business - pledging only to target "spending reductions and trust fund transfers." ...more

December 17, 2008

House and Senate leaders have declared a special legislative session in early January to plug an expected $2.3 billion hole in the state budget. ...more

December 16, 2008

House and Senate leaders have declared a special legislative session in early January to plug an expected $2.3-billion hole in the state budget. ...more

December 15, 2008