Florida Still Cheap on Education; Prekindergarten Program Criticized as "Unfulfilled Promise"

Florida Policy News, August 7, 2006

Even as Gov. Jeb Bush has moved aggressively with his reforms in education, he has been unable to silence one constant criticism during his nearly eight years in office.  (Florida still pays for education on the cheap, Miami Herald)

The nation's fourth-largest state still pays for education on the cheap. What's more, the burden for paying for public schools has fallen more on property owners since 1999.

''Teacher pay is grossly underfunded, schools in general are underfunded,'' said Andy Ford, president of the Florida Education Association, an umbrella group of teachers unions. ''You've got class sizes that are still too large, and he's [Bush] tried to dodge implementing the class-size amendment,'' approved by voters in 2002 to reduce student-teacher ratios.

This fall will bring one of the largest boosts in education funding in the last 25 years -- but it was done over the objections of Bush, who wanted to cut property taxes charged by school districts. The Republican-controlled Senate insisted on using that money for schools, resulting in a nearly 9 percent increase in money spent on average for Florida's 2.68 million schoolchildren.

Bush bristles whenever the topic of school funding comes up, and on many instances has complained that education should be measured by ''outputs,'' not ``inputs.''  ''We have increased funding for education in real terms,'' he insisted. ``Teacher pay in our state is close to the national average. We have made the commitment.''

There remain a few facts regarding education funding that continue to nip at Bush.

The amount of per-pupil spending in Florida remains mired in the bottom tier. Education Week, using 2002 data, the latest available, ranked the state 47th in terms of per-pupil funding that was adjusted for regional differences. When Bush came into office in January 1999, the statewide per-pupil average was $4,727, according to the Department of Education website. This fall, the statewide average is expected to be $6,789.

Florida remains below the national average in starting teacher pay and average teacher pay, although Education Week ranked Florida 21st nationally in terms of starting pay and 29th in average pay.

In 2005, Bush -- who for years maintained that teacher pay was a local issue since school boards negotiate union contracts -- asked lawmakers to undo some of the strict mandates of the class-size amendment in exchange for a provision that starting teacher salaries be higher than the national average.  The measure was shot down in the Senate, largely out of concerns that it would mean less money to urban schools districts.

Despite the passage of the class-size amendment, which calls for the state to bear the cost for implementing, the burden of paying for public schools have steadily shifted away from state government to local taxpayers. What this means is that school districts are relying more and more on growth in property taxes to pay for education.

In 1999, the state spent $6.77 billion on day-to-day operations of public schools, while local districts spent $4.28 billion. This year local districts will spend $8.36 billion, while the state will spend $9.89 billion.

When asked about this shift, Bush said: ``Does it matter to a school administrator or teacher where the money comes from? It's irrelevant.''

Democratic legislators say it is important, because instead of directing more state money to education the shift enabled Bush and the Legislature to cut taxes at the state level instead of boosting money for schools.

''It's been a total shell game and at a cost to homeowners,'' said state Rep. Dan Gelber, a Miami Beach Democrat.

►  Four years after voters overwhelmingly approved "high-quality" pre-kindergarten classes for the state's children, Floridians are left with a litany of half measures adding up to one unfulfilled promise.  (Half empty, Orlando Sentinel editorial)

The state Department of Education told voters the program would cost $4,320 per student; lawmakers approved spending half that. Pre-K supporters envisioned a daylong program at public schools; lawmakers approved half-day classes at day-care centers, which are not required to hire certified teachers.

Now, when it comes to evaluating how well the program is working, the state DOE offers another half-measure. Instead of testing children when they enter a pre-K program and again when they leave, the DOE plans to test only once -- after students enter kindergarten.

That's a bad idea that hinders the state's ability to measure the quality of pre-K classes and prevents consumers from getting accurate information about programs they're considering for their children. This is just one more reason why lawmakers need to review this program and give Floridians the pre-kindergarten program they demanded in 2004.

It's little wonder that only 40 percent of the state's 210,000 4-year-olds participated in pre-K during its first year. Problems arose immediately when parents across the state complained that some private day cares raised their "wrap-around" rates. That meant that many parents who expected to see rates drop when day cares started accepting the state subsidy, didn't see any savings at all.

That removed a powerful financial incentive for the families of children who need pre-K the most: working-class kids who, studies show, aren't as well prepared for school as their more affluent classmates. Pre-K teaches children to recognize colors, numbers and their ABCs, and the money spent on this program can save taxpayers millions of dollars later if these children won't need remediation to learn to read by the third grade. It's important that these children enter pre-K, and it is just as important that the state establish a way to measure the quality of the program.

The Department of Education argues that pre-K providers understand what the state expects these children to know when they enter kindergarten, and so the test is pretty simple. Either children know the alphabet and word sounds or they don't.

But did a well-prepared student learn her letters and numbers in pre-K or at home? As poorly prepared as another student is, did the pre-K program he completed help at all?

As well-intentioned as the DOE is, it is only one more half-measure. The department could do more if the Legislature would stop trying to do pre-K on the cheap. Floridians deserve what voters approved: a high-quality pre-kindergarten program.

►  Gov. Jeb Bush won't be on this fall's ballot, but his education policy will.  (Democratic candidates tap into voter frustration on FCAT, education reform, South Florida Sun-Sentinel)

Boasting of improved student test scores and better-performing schools, Republican gubernatorial candidates Charlie Crist and Tom Gallagher -- both former state education commissioners -- embrace most of the changes championed by Bush and heartily endorsed by the GOP-led Legislature since 1999.

But Democrats Jim Davis and Rod Smith are channeling the wrath of many South Florida parents and educators, bashing key reforms adopted over the past seven years.

Promising wholesale change, they scorn how the FCAT is used to punish or reward schools and students based on their scores. They say the state has failed to boost teacher salaries and has made a paltry financial commitment to education, including too little to meet the state's tough class-size mandate.

"We're 47th in public school spending and we're second in the nation on what we spend for prisons," said Smith, a state senator from Alachua County. "What kind of irony is that?"

National yardsticks show elementary students are making significant improvements in reading and math -- and minority students especially are making gains under Bush's education reforms, known as the A-Plus Plan. But critics note Florida's graduation rate and college entrance test scores remain among the worst in the country and the state ranks 31st in average teacher salaries.

The Democratic candidates have pledged to boost teacher pay, aggressively fund new classroom construction to lower class size and use the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test as a tool for teachers and parents to determine where students need help.

Smith and Davis, who started the push to lower class size as state House majority leader in 1996, have promised to implement the class-size amendment, which mandates that by 2010 there will be no more than 18 students per class in kindergarten through fourth grade, 22 in fourth through eighth and 25 in high school.

On the Republican side, Crist, Florida's attorney general, has also said he would push for full funding of the class-size mandate. Only Gallagher, the state's chief financial officer, has said he will follow Bush's lead and try to get voters to soften the caps.

The education issue is resounding with South Florida voters and the candidates' words play especially well with partisan crowds.

"My district is half Republican and half Democrat. Most of my parents want smaller classes and hate the FCAT," said Rep. Shelley Vana, D-Lantana, a teacher and leader on education issues for House Democrats.

Alanna Mersinger, a Broward school activist, likes hearing about more money for education and less emphasis on a single test. This fall she will have two children at west Miramar's Everglades High School, which was built to accommodate 3,060 students but may have 4,100 when school opens.  "We need funding, funding, funding, funding," she said.

As a substitute elementary school teacher, she has witnessed FCAT mania firsthand.  "No matter how teachers try not to focus on the FCAT, it's almost impossible," said Mersinger, who is supporting Smith.

Eric Messmer, a social studies teacher at Palm Beach Gardens Elementary, is angry that Florida, the fourth highest in personal income, ranks near the bottom of the 50 states in per-pupil funding -- a ranking most Floridians would consider unacceptable if it were a state university football team, he said. He said he can't understand why teachers are paid almost $6,000 below the national average.

"Beginning teachers in Palm Beach County have a hard time qualifying to buy a condo," said Messmer, a Davis supporter. "Everyone expects teachers to live like Franciscan monks."

Davis, a Tampa congressman and father of two, wants to use some of the state's surplus to guarantee a boost in teacher pay. Smith wants to resurrect an intangibles tax on stocks and bonds on Florida's richest citizens, raising $644 million to help fund an average 8.5 percent salary increase.

While Smith and Davis are playing to a receptive audience in South Florida, a Democratic governor could have an uphill battle changing Bush's education policy. Florida's education commissioner is hired by the Florida Board of Education, which will be dominated by Bush appointees at least through 2008. And Bush says he'll still be watching.

"Given the Republican entrenchment, it will be a challenge," said Bill Graham, vice chairman of the Palm Beach County School Board and a longtime friend of Smith.

►  It was early 2001, and Florida public universities' presidential-salary one-upmanship had not yet run amuck.  (University chiefs' outstrip schools' quality, Palm Beach Post editorial)  The presidents "have done an outstanding job this year," said then-Chancellor Adam Herbert, as the Board of Regents that ran the state university system approved the presidents' 2 percent to 3 percent raises, translating to salaries from $174,100 for Anne Hopkins of the University of North Florida to $247,900 for "Sandy" D'Alemberte of Florida State.

And perhaps it's pure coincidence that after Gov. Jeb Bush and the Legislature replaced the regents that year with governor-appointed boards of trustees at each of the 11 universities, the presidents suddenly began cashing in.

But by late 2002, the University of Central Florida had awarded President John Hitt a $93,000, or 46 percent, raise to $295,000, plus benefits and other perks. University of South Florida President Judy Genshaft became the state's second-highest-paid with a 37 percent boost to a base salary of $325,000. University of Florida President Charles Young was retiring, yet received a 36 percent, $93,200 bump to $350,000. Florida Atlantic University trustees hired then-Lt. Gov. Frank Brogan at $290,000. Florida International University's newly appointed trustees already had awarded Modesto "Mitch" Maidique a 41 percent increase, from $202,000 to $285,000.

Perhaps it's also a coincidence that the gold rush was occurring even as the Legislature was raising tuition and cutting programs with minimal protest from the presidents or trustees. The next year lawmakers applauded themselves for a $225,000 cap on state money that can be part of a public university president's compensation. It's the kind of thing some lawmakers like to call education reform." But with eight of the 11 presidents already above that limit, it was clear that the universities' fund-raising foundations and other boosters would continue ponying up private money to circumvent that cap.

That helps explains the nearly $400,000 in base salary Bernard Machen received in 2003 to succeed Dr. Young at UF. And the $80,000 bonus in the $542,600 total compensation package that FIU's Dr. Maidique was just awarded in June. Last week, UCF's Dr. Hitt leaped past that with a 40 percent hike that makes him now the state's highest paid with $450,000 in salary and $900,000 in total compensation. Who's next? Since the quality of the state's universities hasn't skyrocketed as much, no one should think that paying the presidents means the university system has arrived.

Medicaid "Reform" Results in Less Care

Results of the state's dental HMO experiment for children on Medicaid are in, but they don't show if the new approach is better than the old.  (Kids' dental care, Miami Herald editorial)  That's unacceptable. The project was to improve access to dental care for 200,000 Miami-Dade children on Medicaid, reducing fraud and state costs in the process. The idea was to switch them to HMO coverage in 2004 and away from standard fee-for-service Medicaid.

Now, a University of Florida study reports disturbing results for the pilot's first year, which ended in June 2005. It found the number of poor children seeing a dentist dropped 40 percent. Only 27,000 children got dental care, a drop of 35,500 from the previous year under the old program. Also, children received only $2.1 million in dental services while the state paid $15.3 million to Atlantic Dental, the HMO running the pilot.

Florida Medicaid Director Tom Arnold disputes those numbers. He says that the baseline figures of dental care are inflated by fraud and that the results are understated because Atlantic Dental and its dentists underreported services rendered. But by the state's own estimates, there is at most 10 percent fraud and abuse in Medicaid billings. And a state Senate staff report noted that fraud happens in managed-care services, too.

Mr. Arnold points to the study's survey of Medicaid families using the dental plan; 80 percent of those interviewed said they had no problem finding a dentist. But researchers noted that the families may have said what they thought pollsters wanted to hear. Mr. Arnold didn't dispute that 57 percent of the participating dentists were dissatisfied with the HMO plan.

There are too many excuses and too few reliable measures. Taxpayers should know if Medicaid is getting its money's worth. Nothing justifies 30,000 fewer poor children being served.

Mr. Arnold should scrap the experiment and go back to the old program.

DOC Secretary Skeptical of Prison Privatization

The head of Florida's prison system, who has been cleaning up contracting scandals for six months in the Department of Corrections, voiced skepticism about prison privatization Tuesday.  (Prisons chief questions merits of privatization, Tallahassee Democrat)

Secretary Jim McDonough said private companies are good at financing and building prisons but that his department is better at running them. The state has five privately operated prisons, and a sixth under construction, but McDonough said he doesn't see it as a growth industry.

"In some areas, we've saved the state a lot of money by outsourcing," McDonough said on a radio call-in program. "The inmates in that system are still mine. I still have the obligation to make sure that they're properly taken care of - and even more important, that they're secure."

McDonough took over the prison system last February after former Secretary Jim Crosby was fired by Gov. Jeb Bush. Crosby and a top aide, former Panhandle regional chief Allen Clark, last month pleaded guilty in Jacksonville federal court to taking kickbacks from a company that sold snacks and other items to visitors at a prison canteen.

The state separately charged eight other prison employees with theft of prison property and misuse of inmate labor. The two companies that run privatized prisons, Corrections Corp. of America and GEO Group, were not involved in the scandals - but an internal audit by the Department of Management Services last year said the state had made nearly $13 million in overpayments for operation of the private prisons.

"Whether or not we'll do more, I'm not so sure," McDonough said. "They're very good at bonding out and building prisons and providing services within the prisons. I actually think the state is better at running the prisons."

He said he has met with officials of GEO Group and Corrections Corp., "and I've made it known that they will meet my standards."

Steve Owen, director of marketing for Corrections Corp., said privatization has been a good deal for the state. He said "our facilities meet or exceed standards of the American Correctional Association" while meeting a legislative mandate to operate 7 percent more cheaply than state-owned prisons.

McDonough was interviewed for a half-hour on "The Morning Show With Preston Scott" on WFLA (100.7 FM). State Rep. Curtis Richardson, D-Tallahassee, phoned the program to commend him for "rooting out the rot in DOC" management.

Richardson also praised McDonough for emphasizing education and job training in the prisons.

"With younger and younger prisoners, they're going to be coming out eventually," Richardson said. "Either they're going to contribute to society when they come out, or they're going to continue to be a drain on society."

The Environment:  Mixed News

Eric Draper and Paul Holmes are both environmentalists, Audubon officials and supporters of state-funded land preservation. But they see Florida's biggest-ever land purchase -- made official Monday -- in starkly different ways.  (Deal preserves slice of Old Florida, Orlando Sentinel)

Draper, Florida Audubon's deputy director of public policy, calls the $350 million purchase of most of the famed Babcock Ranch a "once-in-a-lifetime opportunity." Holmes, president of a local Audubon chapter near Punta Gorda, considers it an "incredibly sad" political reality.

The ranch in southwest Florida is a sprawling piece of Old Florida where cowboys herd cattle, gators rule an 8,000-acre swamp and life has changed little in 100 years. On Monday, 74,000 acres -- about 80 percent of the property -- was deeded to the state to become one of Florida's most-important preservation areas.

Combined with other protected property, it will create a wildlife corridor for large animals such as bear and the Florida panther stretching from Lake Okeechobee almost to the Gulf of Mexico. Ranching will continue, and, over time, other parts of the property will be opened to hikers and campers.

But as part of the deal, Palm Beach developer Syd Kitson will transform the remaining 17,000 acres in the southwest corner of the property into a new city that one day might be home to 50,000 people.

And that's what has split environmentalists.

The Sierra Club, the Peace River Chapter of the Audubon Society and Environmental Confederation of Southwest Florida fought the proposal, saying Kitson's new city would promote sprawl by leapfrogging existing development.

The Sierra Club sued to stop the project, enraging several environmental groups who feared the legal challenge would kill the preservation deal.

But Sierra Club officials backed down recently after Kitson agreed to a handful of concessions. They touted the new accord but acknowledged they were worried ranch owners might sell to another developer unwilling to preserve any land.

"We had to view that as a real threat," said Frank Jackalone, a senior regional representative for the Sierra Club. "We didn't want to lose that 74,000 acres."

That pragmatism trumped idealism is not surprising in a state where environmentalists have long struggled to be heard. In Central Florida, a similar scenario played out in the debate about the final leg of the Western Beltway.

Years ago, environmentalists vowed they would battle any new road through the Wekiva River basin. But more recently, seeing that the road is virtually inevitable, they instead sought to blunt its impact.

In the case of Babcock Ranch, environmental groups first pushed to preserve the entire 91,000 acres. When that proved impossible, they searched for the next best deal.

"You don't get the chance very often to preserve that much land," Draper said. "It's just a remarkable property."

The ranch sits just east of Punta Gorda along a two-lane road. At 143 square miles, it is larger than Orlando and home to a menagerie of wildlife.

There are deer, wild pigs, turkeys, an occasional bear and alligators. Lots of gators. They lounge around the Telegraph Swamp like tourists around a Disney pool, oblivious to the debate about their home. A crumbling railroad trestle crosses the swamp, a remnant of the ranch's one-time link to South African diamond mines.

Lumber magnate E.V. Babcock bought the property in 1914, drawn to the area by its hunting. Babcock also hoped to harvest timber, but the property's longleaf pines proved too "sappy" for construction. Instead, Babcock shipped the wood to South Africa where its high turpentine content, and resulting termite resistance, made it perfect for use in diamond mines.

Babcock's son added ranching, a practice that continues today with about 5,000 head of cattle and a crew of modern-day cowboys. There's a rock quarry on the property, sod farming and an eco-tour operation. Ranch managers lease some land to farmers.

The ancient cypress and hardwood swamp is the property's most important environmental feature, an 8,000-acre waterscape that environmentalists say is an important factor in the health of the western Everglades.

Many feared the Sierra Club challenge would kill the Kitson deal, making it impossible to protect the swamp -- especially when the property's zoning allows for 9,000 mini-ranches, each with its own well and septic system.

"I want to say this in capital letters," Draper said before a compromise was reached. "The worst form of sprawl, the worst thing that could happen to Babcock Ranch would be to stretch 9,000 units across the property."

Kitson argued that his city would be a model, self-contained community. It would have a wide range of homes, plenty of jobs and schools where residents could walk to work.

Other so-called New Urbanist projects have made similar predictions only to develop into typical subdivisions. The majority of residents still work outside the community, dumping traffic onto nearby roads each day.

Kitson insists his project has the critical mass that others have lacked, but opponents were unimpressed. They worried about Kitson's 19,500 homes and 6 million square feet of office and commercial space.

The Sierra Club and others in southwest Florida said the project would increase development pressure on other properties in the area. Kitson's built-from-scratch town might bring 50,000 new people, they said, and it would set off a development boom that would add tens of thousands more.

They also wanted to search for ways to preserve all of Babcock Ranch.

"Look, from the state point of view, it's an incredibly good deal," said Holmes, president of the Peace River Audubon chapter. "But locally, it looks like they're going to destroy one of the last undeveloped parts of South Florida."

Holmes and others backed the Sierra Club, saying the state should pursue a strategy to buy all of the ranch's 91,000 acres. But as a court date approached both sides looked for a settlement. Kitson didn't want to lose his project, and Sierra Club officials couldn't risk becoming known as the environmental group that killed the state's biggest land-preservation deal.

So in exchange for the Sierra Club dropping its legal fight, Kitson agreed to move 1,600 homes slated for sensitive lands in the north part of the property and turn that portion into a conservation area.

He will upgrade a planned wastewater-treatment facility, require energy-efficient homes, surround his new city with a greenbelt and reduce runoff into the Caloosahatchee River.

Jackalone said it was the best deal possible at the time.  "There may be some people who won't be happy," he said. "But sometimes you take half a loaf if you can get it."

►  The largest single conservation land purchase in Florida history is a done deal and the state's environmental future is a little brighter because of it. Most of the historic Babcock Ranch in Southwest Florida now belongs to the public - and to the wildlife that needs it for survival. Five years in the making and delayed by a last-minute legal challenge, the $350-million purchase agreement was completed Monday.  (A piece of natural Florida preserved, St. Petersburg Times editorial)

With the 74,000 acres, the state now owns a natural corridor that stretches from Lake Okeechobee nearly to the gulf. Most of the newly purchased land will remain as is, including the working cattle ranch. It is strategic habitat for the Florida panther and other important species and plays a key role in maintaining the area's water quality.

As part of the agreement, a planned community will be built on the ranch's remaining 15,000 acres. Developer Syd Kitson sold the bulk of the ranch to the state in exchange for permission to build 19,000 homes plus office and commercial space on his portion. That almost sank the deal.

Saying a development of that size would lead to urban sprawl in an environmentally sensitive area, the Sierra Club filed suit to stop it. That aggressive stance angered some environmentalists, who felt it threatened the purchase. Recently, the Sierra Club and Kitson reached a compromise, allowing the sale to go through.

The Sierra Club never intended to scuttle the deal, said Frank Jackalone, the group's senior regional representative. In fact, the settlement made the deal a little better. The developer agreed to drop plans for another 1,600 homes, to limit the impact of the new community on the environment and roads and to set high energy-efficiency standards for the new homes.

It would have been nice if the state had bought the entire ranch, but it didn't work out that way. Such agreements in a place growing as rapidly as Florida are going to be difficult and involve some trade-offs. This one is worth it.

Another important piece of natural Florida has been preserved. Let's enjoy it and vow it won't be the last.

►  Florida's beaches rank among the nation's cleanest based on national standards, but environmentalists said closures and health advisories due to pollution increased slightly last year, in part because of hurricanes and red tide.  (Florida beaches rate high despite pollution, Associated Press)

Only 4 percent of Florida's beach samples exceeded the national bacteria standard in 2005, according to a report released by the Natural Resources Defense Council. That's half the national average.

Florida tied with four other states for seventh place among 29 coastal and Great Lakes states.

A higher state standard, though, contributed to 3,428 days of beach closings and health advisories, an increase of 2 percent over the prior year but less than the record 3,986 days in 2003.

"It's not terribly surprising that we've had to put out 'no swimming' signs more and more because every day Florida's gaining a thousand new people," said Linda Young, director of the Clean Water Network of Florida. "We have inadequate sewage treatment facilities statewide and we have inadequate stormwater regulations."

On the positive side, 35 percent of Florida's 307 monitored beaches never exceeded the state standard at any time last year.

The council has sued the federal Environmental Protection Agency alleging its standards are too low. Florida would be unaffected unless the suit results in federal criteria more stringent than the state standard.

Advisories for events exceeding six consecutive weeks in Florida increased 131 percent in 2005 compared to the year before largely due to four hurricanes and two tropical storms, according to the council's report.

It also cites an increase in red tide in Florida waters. Red tide is an algae bloom releasing a toxin that can kill fish and cause coughing, sneezing and watery eyes in humans. The cause of the increase has not been pinpointed but some research points to pollution as a factor.

Florida Department of Environmental Protection spokesman Anthony De Luise defended the state's anti-pollution record, saying its beach standards are among the nation's most stringent. The state also has spent $1.6 billion on more than 800 sewage treatment and stormwater projects in the past seven years, he said.

The council designated Florida's Brevard County as a "Beach Buddy" for efforts to improve water quality by completing the first phase of a regional stormwater facility. Only two other communities, Milford, Conn., and Tybee Island, Ga., were designated as "buddies" this year.

Brevard also led the state by having 10 beaches that remained under state limits every week last year. Nassau County was second with nine.

Dixie County's Shired Island is Florida's only "Beach Bum." It shares that dubious distinction with 23 other beach communities nationally.

Shired Island is along the Gulf of Mexico in the state's sparsely populated Big Bend region. It led Florida with 56 percent of its weekly monitoring samples exceeding the national standard and 88 percent worse than the state limit.

No investigation has been done to pinpoint a cause, but Shired's waters were contaminated by red tides from October through December. Dixie County environmental health director Wesley Asbell said natural causes such as water fowl and wildlife probably are factors because it has little development and no nearby sewage facilities.

"It is in a very remote location," Asbell said. "It's not a high-use beach."

Shired is in a marshy area with calm, shallow water and little wave action, he said.

The 10 beaches with the worst records for exceeding state standards all are in the Big Bend and Panhandle. Several are on bays and bayous and other inland waters.

The list includes four beaches in Taylor County, just north of Dixie. Taylor Health Department administrator Stephen Tullos said they are on mud flats similar to Shired Island. He also suspected natural causes but said a state study has not been completed.

►  The Senate easily approved a plan for offshore drilling Tuesday night, sending the controversial issue into final negotiations with the House that are sure to be contentious.  (Senate says yes to Gulf drilling plan, St. Petersburg Times)

The Senate bill would open millions of acres in the Gulf of Mexico to oil and gas exploration, but is still more restrictive than one approved by the House in June.

Senate leaders have been urging the House to accept their version without changes because of strong opposition, especially within the Florida delegation, for permitting drilling rigs too close to beaches.

On Tuesday, they maintained that position, but also made clear that the Senate would revisit drilling issues in future legislation, after the Florida protections are in place.

"This is the beginning, because Mr. and Mrs. America, you own millions of more acres of coastal lands," said Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., chairman of the Senate Energy Committee and author of the Senate bill.  "The precedent is going to be broken here ... and we're going to show that (drilling) can be done with no harm to anyone. Then we can move step by step to other areas."

The Senate bill, which passed 71 to 25, would open 8.3-million acres of the gulf, including most of Lease-Sale Area 181, southwest of the Florida Panhandle. It also would open the area directly south, known as Lease-Sale Area 182.

Both areas are now off-limits. Florida's two senators, Democrat Bill Nelson and Republican Mel Martinez, voted for the bill because drilling will not be allowed within 125 miles of the Panhandle or in the military's eastern gulf training zone, which extends to 234 miles off Tampa Bay. The protections would be good through 2022.

The Senate's bill is far less sweeping and far less friendly to drilling than the one the House passed in June.

That bill would open the entire U.S. coast to oil and gas exploration 50 miles from shore, though each state could choose to keep it as far away as 100 miles or permit it as close as 3 miles.

House and Senate negotiators now must reconcile the differences. House Republican leaders say the Senate bill is too limited, while Domenici and other Senate leaders say a broader bill would have trouble winning the Senate's okay.

"It really is a question of the House and people in the industry to decide if this is enough, is something they can live with, or hold out for a more perfect bill, and really end up with nothing," Martinez said.

Republican Sens. George Allen of Virginia, Trent Lott of Mississippi, Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania, Domenici and others said they will push the Senate to let states choose to open their shores to drilling. But the House must realize that pushing too hard, too fast could cost the gains they made Tuesday.

House leaders praised the Senate's passage Tuesday as an important step forward, but gave no indication they would accept it as is.

House Resources Committee Chairman Richard Pombo, R-Calif., and others said senators may be more willing to negotiate after getting an earful during the August recess from voters who are grumpy with higher energy prices.  "We'll see in September after you've heard from all your constituents who can't pay their gas bill and electric bill at the same time," Pombo spokesman Brian Kennedy said.

The government estimates that the portion of Area 181 opened by the Senate bill contains roughly 1.2-billion barrels of oil and more than 5-trillion cubic feet of natural gas, enough to heat 6-million homes for 15 years. The reserves in Area 182 are largely unknown.

Despite the promises of several senators during Tuesday's debate, analysts say opening Area 181 will offer no relief for $3 gasoline prices, but it may help stabilize the natural gas market.

Senate leadership and the Energy Committee staff will begin negotiating with their House counterparts immediately, aides said.

"We will wait and see what comes back," said Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., who voted against the bill Tuesday.  "If the bill so much as touches California, there will be big trouble for this bill. If this bill so much as touches Florida, more than it already does, there will be big trouble for this bill."

Even if the House and Senate fail to reach a compromise this fall, the passage of significant off-shore drilling legislation in both chambers of Congress marks a major shift, and suggests drilling advocates could be successful next year.

The Property Insurance Mess

Florida's property-insurance market is a mess, despite legislators' attempts to fix it for more than a decade.  (Coverage costs soar out of reach, South Florida Sun-Sentinel)

The price of home and condominium insurance has soared to dizzying levels. Insurers have dumped longtime customers and slashed coverage for others. The state's home insurer of last resort now is the biggest property insurer in Florida.

More and more homeowners and businesses are forced to ponder whether they can afford the Sunshine State anymore.  Much of this is the work of the Florida Legislature, which feared driving insurers out of the state.

This year, with great fanfare, legislators directed $715 million in tax money to help close the $1.7 billion deficit at state-run Citizens Property Insurance Corp. All Florida homeowners still are on the hook for the remaining shortfall of almost $1 billion. Yet legislators allowed insurance companies to raise rates up to 10 percent without getting state approval and cleared the way for drastic price increases for many Citizens' customers.

"The casualty is the consumer," said state Sen. Ron Klein, D-Boca Raton. "The Legislature has made the continuing mistake, year in and year out, of giving almost everything the insurance companies want to them, with the view that 'Hey, if we do this, it will make more [competition].'  "How many years does it take? It's over a decade where this thinking hasn't worked."

During the next 12 months in Florida, many people will see their homeowners-insurance bills more than double.

Ruth Berge, a divorced mother of two in Jupiter, is working a third job to pay additional expenses, including insurance.  "If I can't make this work, I'll have to [move]," the second-generation Floridian said. ". . . There's a lot of people I've talked to who say, 'Just till my kids get out of school and I'm out of here.' "

The insurance-market quagmire started in 1992 when Hurricane Andrew slammed into southwest Dade County. Insurers realized their rates weren't high enough to handle South Florida's storm risk, and they had too many home policies concentrated in certain areas.

In the aftermath, state insurance officials and legislators allowed insurers to raise rates and slash coverage because the hurricane caused $16 billion in losses -- that's $22 billion in today's dollars.

The promise from insurers then was simple: Allow much higher insurance prices, and we'll be able to handle catastrophes down the road. The state complied, approving big rate increases.

"I consider that a total renege of what we were promised," said Robert Hunter, director of insurance for the Consumer Federation of America and a former Texas insurance commissioner. "The big rate increases we granted back in the mid-'90s were supposed to bring stability at times like this. . . . I feel like they lied to us."

Florida insurers say claims from the eight hurricanes in 2004 and 2005 wiped out their surpluses, even though they collected higher home and condo premiums for more than a decade after Andrew.

"We paid out $35 billion. It's a hell of a lot more money than we took in those two years," said Sam Miller, executive vice president of the Florida Insurance Council, an industry trade group. "It seems to me that we're taking a hell of a loss. And we're still here."

State officials had planned for the next Andrew, not the possibility of multiple-storm seasons. Therefore, as the insurance crisis deepens, some say the trauma exceeds what the state faced more than a decade ago.

"It's on its way to being worse, in the sense that we already have created the institutions that we thought were necessary to handle a post-Andrew crisis and those institutions are failing us," said Scott Johnson, executive vice president of the Florida Association of Insurance Agents. "What makes this worse, in my opinion, is that we have our patchwork system in place, and it's leaking like a sieve."

Johnson lays the blame for the insurance-market collapse squarely on the state Legislature. "Through commission and omission, they are responsible for all of it."

Sen. J.D. Alexander, R-Lake Wales, said in May near the end of the state legislative session that "there's enough blame on everybody's hands [Democrats] and [Republicans] to go around. I'm not willing to lay that blame on any one hands, but I would tell you I think we all have culpability, and we need to move and basically try to find a fix."

Even with the insurance changes lawmakers approved this year, the balance of insurance risk and financial return is out of whack in Florida, consumer advocates contend. "It used to be insurance companies took some risk that they'd lose money. [Now] they don't even want to suffer a quarterly loss," Hunter said.

"Why should we give them money and profits if they're not willing to take risk? That's the thing they're supposed to do. They're supposed to bring stability and comfort in a time of crisis. Instead, they're terminating people and dumping them out in a market that's a mess."

The higher prices today have nothing to do with being averse to risk and insurers are not making up for past losses, Miller said.  Insurance companies see the much higher costs of building materials and reinsurance, the insurance for insurance companies to help cover catastrophic claims; those two things make up the majority of the increases insurers are seeking, he said.

But insurers have reduced their storm risk in Florida by shifting more of the burden in recent years to policyholders. Consider:

Thousands of the state's homeowners, after paying premiums for years, are being dropped. Allstate Floridian Insurance Co. alone is shedding about 269,000 property policies statewide.

Premiums have risen more than 300 percent for the average homeowner since 1992 when Andrew upended the state's insurance market. Before Andrew, Floridians paid an average of $366 a year for homeowner insurance, according to industry figures. Today, that statewide average is about $1,300 a year.

Special hurricane deductibles mean homeowners shell out thousands of dollars before insurers will pay damage claims. Prior to 1996, the standard deductible was $500.

Formed as a stopgap measure, state-backed Citizens is now the state's largest property insurer despite a decade-long program to shed policies.

Private national insurers have created Florida-only subsidiaries, which keeps the hurricane risk contained to the state rather than spread throughout the country. That forces the Florida-only companies to rely more heavily on the reinsurance market, and those rates are doubling in some cases. Those increases are being passed along to consumers.

Andrew hit Dade County in the early morning of Aug. 24, 1992, cutting a devastating swath through thousands of homes and businesses. Until Hurricane Katrina slammed into the Gulf Coast last year, Andrew -- a Category 5 storm -- was the costliest natural disaster in U.S. history.

The brutal storm left Florida's property-insurance market in upheaval. In a special session in 1992, legislators gave a $500 million shot to the Florida Insurance Guaranty Association, which pays claims for cash-strapped insurers. Andrew bankrupted at least 11 of them.

Just months after Andrew hit, legislators created a joint underwriting insurance association, the predecessor of Citizens, as a safety net for the thousands of Floridians who had insurance policies canceled or lost coverage because insurers went belly up.

In 1993, legislators limited the number of policies property insurers could shed in a year. Insurers could opt not to renew 5 percent of their policies in Florida and 10 percent in a given county. That only applied to homes with insurance policies issued before June 1, 1996. The moratorium was lifted in 2001, when state officials weren't concerned about mass policy cancellations because the insurance market was relatively stable.

Now the state restricts property insurers' policy nonrenewals and cancellations after a hurricane. And insurers are prohibited from dropping customers with storm-damaged homes until 60 days after home or condo repairs are finished.

Also in 1993, legislators created the Florida Hurricane Catastrophe Fund to offer cheap reinsurance coverage to insurers to help pay claims after hurricanes. The money comes from premiums paid by insurers.

But insurers drained the $6 billion fund to pay 2004 and 2005 storm claims. Now the same homeowners facing escalating premiums must pay an extra charge averaging $10 a year for 10 years to replenish the insurers' catastrophe fund.

In the mid-1990s, large national insurers such as Allstate and State Farm spun off Florida companies to handle property-insurance policies here. But the parent companies held onto the lucrative automobile and life-insurance business in the state.

That shielded the companies from massive losses in the event of more hurricanes in Florida. Allstate earned $1.8 billion in 2005 despite losses from Hurricane Katrina, down from $3.2 billion a year earlier, according to the company's annual report. And State Farm made $3.24 billion, down 39 percent from $5.31 billion in net income in 2004, according to its annual report.

Last year, U.S. property insurers reported a record $43 billion profit, an 11.7 percent increase over the previous year and the highest net income since 1991, according to the Insurance Information Institute, nonprofit trade group. Insurers handled the big claims from 2005 storms because they relied on to reinsurance companies. Reinsurers absorbed half the $55 billion in Katrina losses. That is why reinsurance prices are so high and availability so tight.

Those same reinsurers are sharply increasing their rates in Florida coastal areas, making it more expensive for insurance companies to sell policies. And so property insurers are passing along the higher costs in the form of higher premiums.

Stuart Bowers, an Oakland Park teacher, is so angry that his insurance bill keeps increasing that he has contacted legislators and e-mailed friends to "band together" to do something. "Am I working just to pay windstorm premiums? At some point, something's going to give."

Some say a national catastrophe fund will remedy Florida's insurance crisis.

To that end, U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Weston, and U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson, a Florida Democrat, last month unveiled bills that would determine how best to establish a national disaster fund. And U.S. Reps. Ginny Brown-Waite, R-Crystal River, and Clay Shaw, R-Fort Lauderdale, last November introduced a similar measure.

"When the big one comes, whether it's Los Angeles or Miami or St. Louis, the federal government is going to be in the position of [paying for] an event," state Insurance Commissioner Kevin McCarty said. "The state can only do so much. At some point this is beyond the ability and scope of the state of Florida to manage."

►  Florida never intended to be in the property-insurance business this long.  (State plan saddled with risk, Orlando Sentinel)

When legislators created a state-run company in 1992 to offer homeowner insurance in the wake of Hurricane Andrew, the expectation was private insurers would rebound and render the so-called insurer of last resort unnecessary.

It didn't happen.

Citizens Property Insurance Corp., the successor to the state's original insurance company, is now the largest property insurer in Florida. When created in 2002, it was one of the most important moves by the Florida Legislature to salvage the state's homeowners-insurance market.

Without Citizens, many Floridians would not have hurricane insurance for their homes. In recent years, the growing reluctance by private insurers to write new policies while shedding thousands of existing customers led to the rapid expansion of Citizens. That has saddled Citizens with Florida's riskiest properties -- many along the coast or in sinkhole-prone areas.

Citizens is now "part of the economic engine of the state," said Susanne Murphy, the company's deputy director. "That engine would sputter and die if there weren't a source of homeowners coverage for people who want to move here."

Legislators have given Citizens more than a few tuneups since 2002. After many Floridians balked over paying for Citizens' $516 million shortfall in 2004, lawmakers this year changed the pricing structure to bring rates in line with the company's risk. Now Citizens' premiums are more than doubling for some Floridians.

Customers complained the company was too slow in handling storm claims after the 2004 season, triggering a state audit and an overhaul.

Citizens took another beating in 2005 after allegations that a former executive took bribes in exchange for promising lucrative claims-adjusting contracts to a Texas company. And the state-run insurer reported a $1.7 billion deficit last year, which all Florida property owners will have to pay this year.

Still, supporters say the state couldn't have survived the past two hurricane seasons without the protection Citizens provides to policyholders jettisoned by private insurers.

"We've had some bumps . . . but [Citizens] was never designed to cover 1.2 million policyholders, which is what they've got right now," said Tom Gallagher, the state's chief financial officer, who as insurance commissioner lobbied for Citizens' creation. ". . . Our first responsibility is to have insurance available, and we wouldn't have it if it wasn't for Citizens."

There are insurance experts who say Citizens has contributed to Florida's insurance woes. Because Citizens is supposed to insure homeowners who can't find private coverage, experts say it has encouraged building in risky coastal areas -- in South Florida, for example -- where private companies won't sell policies.

Citizens "encouraged irresponsible development," said Robert Hartwig, chief economist for the Insurance Information Institute, a nonprofit trade group. "Citizens basically insures anyone, no matter how risky the property or high value the property is."

This, in turn, has increased the state-run insurer's exposure to hurricane risk, Hartwig said.

State Sen. Ron Klein, D-Boca Raton, said the Legislature made a mistake in allowing private insurers to lessen their hurricane-wind risk for areas east of Interstate 95. Legislators were told this would help keep insurers in Florida because they wouldn't have to insure homes closest to the ocean.  "It didn't do that," Klein said. But it did increase the number of homes covered by Citizens.

During this year's state legislative session, lawmakers took steps to make sure Citizens' shortfalls do not affect noncustomers in the future. But the Legislature did nothing to hasten its demise.

As legislators try to help shore up Citizens, another sore point has become significant.  Experts and legislators have criticized a program that gives bonus money to private Florida insurers that agree to take Citizens' homeowner policies.

Known as the takeout program, it was created in 1995 to curb growth in Citizens' predecessor, the Joint Underwriting Association. Private insurers could earn $100 for each homeowner policy taken from the JUA.

The program didn't work at first. After its creation, the JUA reached a peak of more than 935,000 policies in September 1996.

Then private insurers took the state's homeowner policies en masse. The bonus money was attractive, and no hurricanes made landfall. By the end of 1999, the JUA slimmed down to about 67,000 homeowner policies -- the vast majority were in South Florida.

With more than 1 million policies taken out of the JUA from 1995 to 2000, "I think that was a hugely successful program," said Murphy, who helped create the takeout program as the state's deputy insurance commissioner. Had Citizens still insured all those homes, Murphy said, Citizens' deficits from the 2004 and 2005 hurricane seasons could have been much more than the collective $2.2 billion.

The takeout program left many Floridians covered by small, private insurers who struggled to pay hurricane claims the past two years.

"One of the big concerns that I've had for years is that a big storm comes along and it will put most of these little takeout companies out of business," said state Sen. Steve Geller, D-Hallandale Beach, vice chairman of the state Senate Banking and Insurance Committee.

Even though the small companies meet state minimum financial requirements, "most of their business is concentrated in certain areas," Geller said, rather than spreading their risk throughout the state.

There was overwhelming support for the takeout incentive program when legislators approved it in 1995. It passed unanimously in the Senate; only two members of the House voted against it.

Lawmakers assumed bigger companies would take advantage of the bonuses from Citizens, said Geller, who voted for it when he was in the House. "We didn't realize at the time that what you were going to get were these thinly capitalized companies," Geller said.

Instead, many new insurers formed to take advantage of the bonuses -- with mixed results.

Two of the biggest participants, Atlantic Preferred Insurance Co. and Southern Family Insurance Co., were deemed insolvent in April, and state regulators recently took control of their operations. The insurers both were subsidiaries of Tampa-based Poe Financial Group, one of the largest property insurers in South Florida. Poe has a third company, Florida Preferred Property Insurance Co., also forced under state control.

Private insurers that took homeowner policies from Citizens needed to have at least $5 million in cash. Some legislators and state insurance officials say that is inadequate. During this year's legislative session, certain legislators said the small insurers holding former Citizens policies are unable to cover major hurricane damage.

That makes Murphy bristle. "They need to change their law," she said. "The law said $5 million [is the minimum for insurance company capital]. . . . They need to make up their minds what they want."

Earlier this year, legislators tweaked the takeout program so that insurers must wait five years rather than three to collect a bonus for taking policies from Citizens.

And Citizens has to track property policies taken by private insurers, to see whether they end up back with the state insurer.

Even though Geller thinks the so-called takeout insurers should have more capital, he's hesitant to change the program now because he fears that would shrink the state's fragile insurance market.

Many of these smaller takeout companies are among the few insurers selling new property-insurance policies in South Florida. "I'm not prepared to do something today that would take more capacity out of the South Florida market," he said.

►  The thought of creating another state-run insurance outfit that directly sells insurance to policyholders gives Gov. Jeb Bush the "heebie-jeebies." He isn't alone.  (An insurance solution, St. Petersburg Times editorial)

The governor and Cabinet were smart to give state insurance officials some latitude last week in addressing the crisis that businesses face in finding and affording insurance, but the state should not create a twin to the Citizens Property Insurance Corp. A reinsurance program that provides enough incentives to lure private insurers back into the business market is a better way to go.

It doesn't take an insurance expert to grasp the difficulties Citizens has grappled with as it has become the largest homeowners insurer in the state. It pays millions to private insurance agents to service the policies and received wide criticism for its poor performance in processing hurricane-related claims in 2004 and 2005. A state audit this year blasted Citizens' management practices, and several of its officers and a board member had conflicts of interest. While Citizens has made significant strides toward straightening things out, its weaknesses are a reminder that creating a similar last-resort insurer for businesses could be just as rocky.

That's why creating a reinsurance program paid for initially by state letters of credit and later by a combination of bonds, premiums and assessments is the prudent way to go. Insurers then could buy that reinsurance to protect themselves following hurricanes that leave behind significant damage, and the state would not have to create the bureaucracy of another publicly run insurer from scratch.

The governor and Cabinet will hear state insurance commissioner Kevin McCarty's proposal on Aug. 15, and the hope is something will be in place in September. That's fast, but it won't come too soon for businesses that can't find or afford coverage and risk closing their doors or paying for storm damage out of their own cash registers. Funny how politicians in Tallahassee woke up to the insurance crisis when business leaders started complaining but still haven't figured out how to help homeowners facing the same problems.

►  Florida's leadership, from the governor and Legislature down, remains weirdly sluggish about this insurance thing.  (Our choices stink, but they solve the problem, Howard Troxler column, St. Petersburg Times)

Hey, we're studying it. Meanwhile, another storm swirls to the south of Florida.

There are only two ways to go.  Either we get the private insurance companies to come back...  Or else the public sector (meaning, the government) takes over more of the show.

That's it. Two stinky choices. Either we kind of kiss the patooties of State Farm and Allstate, or else we go more socialist.

A lot of people say, "Let's just ORDER those so-and-sos to sell insurance! Let's tell them they can't sell car or life or anything else in Florida if they don't sell property!"

Easy to say. But it won't work, for a lot of reasons. The companies are separate entities. There's plenty of legal mumbo jumbo. Even if that law held up in court, some companies that had to choose would just pull out of Florida altogether. Maybe we could whip up an auto-insurance crisis too.

Nope. Either we get the companies to come back, or we take it over ourselves.

How do we get them back?  Some folks say we should let them charge as much as they want, no limit. Others say we need to fix the problem of "reinsurance," which means, insurance for insurance companies, but they don't say how.

Maybe you saw in the paper the other day a Q&A with a guy named Robert Hartwig, the president-elect of an outfit called the Insurance Information Institute.  "Let premiums float and become actuarily sound," Hartwig replied, when asked the answer to Florida's problem. "They aren't even close today."

They aren't even close today, the gentleman said of insurance rates in Florida.

And you know what? I am afraid he is right. No matter how high current rates are in Florida, they aren't high enough to justify the risk to the private companies.

But I bet you that most Floridians would march on Tallahassee and burn the Capitol if the next governor and Legislature actually proposed free-floating insurance rates.

This leaves a public sector solution, which Gov. Jeb Bush and many Florida leaders decry as the path of "Big Government."

Well, there's no need to worry about whether we'll have Big Government. We already have Big Government. It is called the Citizens Property Insurance Co., and it now covers 25 percent of the market in Florida, with 1.2-million policies, and $400-billion worth of risk.

But it is the worst kind of Big Government. The state is covering the highest-risk policies, only the ones the private companies choose not to cover.

Two of this year's candidates for governor, Tom Gallagher on the Republican side and Rod Smith on the Democratic, stopped by the office Wednesday to make their pitches. Gallagher, a former state insurance commissioner, made the observation that we Floridians are more or less having to "insure ourselves."

But if that's the case, if we are on the hook for insuring ourselves anyway, then why not really do it? Why not spread the risk, instead of concentrating only the highest-risk Floridians under the public sector, while letting the private companies enjoy the benefit (and profits) of the lowest-risk customers?

Smith, for his part, proposes that the state of Florida cover the first part of all hurricane damages - say, the first $50,000 to $100,000 - when a storm is big enough to trigger the state's participation.

That echoes an idea floated in last spring's session of the Legislature by Democrats who wanted the state to cover damages above $100,000 or so, with private companies covering everything beneath that.

Horrifying? Distasteful? Well, are these ideas more distasteful that the insurance guy's claim that premiums "aren't even close" to high enough? Are they more distasteful than our current system, in which the state of Florida meekly follows behind the private companies with a Pooper Scooper, picking up those of us the private companies don't want?

Florida is at the point where the governor and Legislature need to be doing something more than just explaining why other people's ideas are lousy.

It is amazing, incredible, astonishing that the 2006 Legislature did not see further. We should hope and pray that it remains merely an irresponsible lapse, reparable in a timely fashion, and not The Worst Mistake The Legislature Ever Made.

Florida Policy Notes

►  Gov. Jeb Bush has recommended emptying a $200 million stash of state incentives to ensnare three job-generating research institutions, sending the largest cut of money to the La Jolla, Calif.-based Burnham Institute for Medical Research.  (Governor wants 3 institutes to split $200 million, Palm Beach Post)  Dubbed "Project Power" by insiders, the Burnham deal would hand the nonprofit $155.3 million from Florida's new "innovation incentive fund" if it builds a campus in the state, a source familiar with the negotiations said Friday.  Both Port St. Lucie and Orlando, Burnham's two finalists for the campus, intend to match the state money with a combination of cash, land, road construction and other perks.  The governor is recommending that the remainder of the state fund, about $44.7 million, be divided almost equally between two other contenders: the Torrey Pines Institute for Molecular Studies, also based in La Jolla, and SRI International, based in Menlo Park, Calif., said the source, who asked not to be identified.  Torrey Pines has talked for months with Palm Beach County leaders about opening a campus in Boca Raton, but the institute revealed this week it's willing to consider other Florida cities.  For it and Burnham, the governor's suggested handouts would be significantly less than what they were originally seeking from the state.  Torrey Pines reportedly wanted $45 million. Burnham had been looking for $200 million, and an institute spokeswoman would not comment Friday on whether the $155.3 million would be adequate to seal the dealÉ.Negron, chairman of the budget commission, said it's too early to tell whether the $155.3 million will be enough to deliver Burnham to Florida.

►  Florida needs a better system of monitoring the state's 50,000 doctors, because the state Board of Medicine has proven physicians are unwilling to police themselves.  (Making Florida safe for medical malpractice, Palm Beach Post editorial)  Dr. Mark Schreiber illustrates the public danger of a medical board that is slow to discipline and lax in its penalties. The Boynton Beach plastic surgeon continues to practice, 3 1/2 years after state investigators concluded he wrongly performed a neck lift and hernia repair in his office and failed to ensure adequate care after the operation on a 70-year-old man who died two days later. That finding of culpability in a patient's death was the doctor's second in four years. He also has been sued eight times in the past 12 years, and his malpractice insurers have paid a total of $1 million in six cases. Is it any surprise that he no longer carries malpractice insurance?  The state Board of Medicine finally is scheduled to decide Dr. Schreiber's punishment in the August 2002 death during a hearing next week. What has taken so long?  In the meantime, Dr. Schreiber has been arrested on an aggravated battery charge for inappropriately touching a female patient. The medical board suspended Dr. Schreiber's license after the July 2005 arrest but dropped the one-month suspension when he promised to have a witness present each time he sees patients.  Inattention to such egregious violations leaves the public little confidence that the board - which consists of 12 doctors and three consumers - acts in favor of patient safety over physician protection. The state Department of Health reviews about 8,000 complaints against doctors each year in Florida. But the Board of Medicine typically takes 18 months or more to determine punishment after cases deemed valid are referred from the health department. In 2005, the board revoked 19 doctors' licenses and suspended 47.  Penalties also favor physicians, not deterrence. Last month, the board reduced the punishment for surgeons who operate on the wrong body part or on the wrong patient. Instead of a minimum $10,000 fine and other penalties for the first offense, the board supports a maximum $10,000 fine.  Floridians need a Board of Medicine that recognizes the need for disciplining doctors and is unafraid to carry out that responsibility. An effective medical board protects the profession and the public.