Florida Senator Marco Rubio is under consideration by Mitt Romney for the Republican Vice Presidential nomination. So far, he has successfully ducked discussion of his role,as Speaker of the Florida House, in the waste of taxpayer money that has come to be known as the Taj Mahal Courthouse.
Any vetting of Marco Rubio has got to look carefully at his role in the construction of this monstrous $48 million edifice and the huge expenditures for things like flat screen televisions in all the judges' chambers, and yards and yards of imported African Mahogany in a time of budget austerity that saw court funding slashed and court personnel laid off by the hundreds.
Of course, it's perfectly consistent with Mitt Romney's career of using taxpayer money to advance his own goals, and laying off public employees so someone else can have luxuries.
Florida's court system has multiple levels. Just below the Florida Supreme Court are five District Courts of Appeal, intermediate courts of appeal that cover the different portions of the state. In Tallahassee, the Capital, sits the First District Court of Appeal. Its territory covers most of North Florida.
The District Courts of Appeal hear appeals from all kinds of cases, civil, criminal and administrative. But, because of its location in the Capital and because of some provisions in Florida Statutes, the First District hears most of the cases involving state government. It is a very powerful, and very conservative, court.
A few years ago, while Marco Rubio was Speaker of the Florida House, the First District got a new building. It is much larger than the building that houses the Florida Supreme Court. The project was pushed by the chief judge of the First District, Judge Hawkes, who was later forced to resign.
Built during a time when Florida's court budgets and personnel were being slashed, it was opposed by the state senate committee chair, and by the chief justice of the Florida Supreme Court. Knowledgeable members of the legislature said it would not have been built at all were it not for the intervention of Speaker Rubio's Chief of Staff and General Counsel (who was son of the chief judge of the First District).
One early report described it: "the project has all the earmarks of Rubio-era “Camelot” — 60-inch flat screen TVs and kitchen appliances designated for each of 18 judge’s suites (though only 15 are currently seated), and palatial accommodations for the jurists at a time when judges around the state are laying off hundreds of employees and scrimping on money to buy updated law books. http://blog.reidreport.com/...
The handful of First District judges who were pushing the project designated Speaker Rubio as one of the "heroes" of the project. Rubio denied all involvement. At the time, the Tampa Bay Times said, "Marco Rubio has a terrible memory or an aversion to telling the truth."
The $48 million courthouse being built for the 1st District Court of Appeal is a monument to the Legislature's hypocrisy. While Rubio and his Republican colleagues preached fiscal responsibility in 2007, they quietly approved the money to build this palace at the behest of some of the judges who will move into it. The Miami Republican is stonewalling by first claiming ignorance and then blaming others.
The "Taj Mahal" courthouse has been under construction for months, but only recent reporting by the Times' Lucy Morgan has uncovered how such an indefensible project moved through the Legislature. There was $7.9 million included in the 2007-08 budget — and a suspicious authorization of a $33.5 million bond issue in an unrelated bill approved on the last day of the 2007 session. The chances something of this magnitude would be approved without the House speaker's endorsement are slim to none.
Yet Rubio cannot get his story straight. He first said in August that he didn't recall the project. Then his campaign blamed the state Senate, where the bond issue was added to a transportation bill that was then approved by the House. Then Rubio said he was aware of the project and tried to shift attention to Gov. Charlie Crist, who signed the budget and the transportation bill into law. Now Crist is running against Rubio as an independent candidate for U.S. Senate, but Rubio cannot run away from this mess.
In fact, the court's building committee circulated an e-mail in 2008 that identified "heroes" for their project. It lists Rubio as one of four lawmakers who were "especially helpful.'' And fellow Republicans are in no mood to corroborate Rubio's excuses. State Sen. Victor Crist of Tampa says he sponsored the amendment for the bond issue at the direction of Senate President Ken Pruitt. But Pruitt says he did no such thing, and other lawmakers say the deal would not have been passed without the speaker's approval.
Most revealing: Former Rep. Ray Sansom, who was Rubio's appropriations chairman, said Rubio told him several times that he supported the project. Sansom also said 1st DCA Chief Judge Paul Hawkes frequently reminded him the courthouse was a priority for Rubio.
http://www.tampabay.com/...
While Marco Rubio is being vetted for the job of being a heartbeat from the presidency, the national media ought to look into the Taj Mahal Courthouse and Rubio's role in it.