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Florida’s new budget begins at midnight tonight. and as Mike Vasilinda tells us, it will cost each man woman and child in Florida, on average, about four thousand dollars.

83 billion is a lot of money. Here’s how it’s being spent:

Each sunrise will see the state spending 227 million dollars. That’s 9. 4 million an hour, 157 thousand a minute and 26 hundred dollars a second.

In the 46 seconds it takes this stoplight to change from red to green, the state will spend sixteen thousand dollars on roads and transportation.

Heath care is the single biggest budget item at 72 million dollars a day.

Schools are next at 65 million a day…or 2 point 7 million an hour.

The 12 State Universities cost 316 thousand dollars an hour to run.  We asked FSU Student Hannah Keller from Tampa what she thought about the cost.

Q: “If I told you it costs about seven thousand dollars a minute to operate all of the universities, what would you say?”

“Wow. I think it’s pretty expensive, but its definitely worth it” Keller told us.

The court system is one of the best buys. Every judge, prosecutor, and public defender costs taxpayers just under a thousand dollars a minute. That works out to 1 point four million a day.

The cost per person? Just over 42 hundred dollars for every man, woman, and child in the state.

The Governor’s top two priorities, Visit Florida and Enterprise Florida total161 million  That’s just under a half million a day. Governor Rick Scott says he’s still working on the cost of government.

“We have the second lowest per capita taxes in the country now. My goal would be the lowest. got another year to go” says Scott.

And in the minute and half it took to tell this story, state government spent about 225 thousand dollars.

Just running the general functions of Government, paying rent and the light bill is costing taxpayers just over eleven million dollars a day.

Florida has a new Chief Financial Officer. Former State Representative Jimmy Patronis was sworn in this morning by Supreme Court Chief Justice Jorge Labarga. Patron spend 8 years in the legislature. Governor Rick Scott calls him a friend whom he has known since 2007. Patronis comes from a restaurant background. His family owns Captain Anderson’s in Panama City. He acknowledges he has a learning curve coming into the job.

“You’ve got to remember that I came from the Restaurant business, so everyone’s a customer. And I really look forward to learning as much as I can from those that were stakeholders in this office, and don’t worry CFO Atwater’s number is programmed in my phone and I will be using it frequently.” Patronis told reporters.

Patronis replaced Jeff Atwater, who was elected to the job in 2010 and 2014. He is leaving for a high ranking post at Florida Atlantic University.

Imagine being fingered for a crime by an eyewitness even though you were nowhere near the crime scene. It happens more often than you might think. But as Mike Vasilinda tells us, legislation signed by the Governor requires police agencies to soon use neutral administrators when conducting lineups.

The 2014 Innonence Commission found that eyewitness identifications were wrong three out of four times. To fix the problem, law enforcement must soon start administering in person or photo lineups with someone who has no clue who’s suspected of the crime. Nancy Daniels was a public defender for more than two decades and a member of the Innonence Commission.

Q:”How important is this”?

“”Very important. This has been a huge problem in Florida and around the country” says Daniels.

This British comedy sketch takes the problem to the absurd.

”I’m going to ask all of you to drop your numbers.” which reveals four arrows pointing at the center suspect.

“By having an independent administrator who doesn’t know who the suspect is, those subtle cues and suggestive things will go away” says Daniels.

The eyewitness procedures were first added as guidelines there years ago. Now in October, they become mandatory.

Florida’s Police Chiefs and Sheriff’s originally resisted the change. This year they supported modified legislation. Sandy Poreda of the FL. Police Chiefs Assn. says it’s because the law accommodates smaller departments.

“And the idea is that you want to have someone who doesn’t know anything about the case work with the eyewitness. And really, in theory, that’s wonderful. But when you have small organizations, some of our smaller police departments, that’s almost impossible” says Poreda.

Under the legislation signed into law, even small departments must find a way to make sure the officer conducting the lineup isn’t giving cues to the victim.

“And they also under the legislation have to advise the person that the right person might not be in the lineup” which Daniels says will take pressure off the witness.

The legislation comes as Florida leads the nation with 27 death row exonerations.

The legislation allows defense attorneys to seek disqualification of an eyewitness when procedures are not followed.

Know as the whistling justice, the life of former Supreme Court of Florida Justice Parker Lee McDonald was honored at Florida’s high court today. McDonald appointed to the high court in 1979 and served until 1994. McDonald is best know for his 1984 opinion that curtailed the dismissal of blacks from a jury simply because of race. The U-S high court adopted the same standard two years later. Current Chief Justice Jorge Labarga called McDonald a common man with uncommon intelligence.

“To people who knew him said he was somewhat consumed by the idea of justice, Justice not just of the rich, who could afford the best lawyers, but also the small town kid who never had a chance” says the Chief Justice.

McDonald was the 68th Justice appointed since statehood. The Justice also had a keen but subtle sense of humor. He died Saturday at the age of 93.

Aramis Ayala announced in March, two months after being sworn in as a State Attorney in Orange and Osceola Counties,  that she would no longer seek death sentences. Governor Rick Scott, saying he was shocked, immediately began transferring cases out of the circuit.

In all 24 cases were transferred.

Ayala challenged the Governor’s authority in the Supreme Court of Florida.

Her lawyer barely got a sentence out before he was interrupted by pointed questions from Justice Fred Lewis.

“Was there not a statement, I’m not going to follow Florida law, essentially?” asked Lewis from the bench.

“When they decide how they are going to treat some cases versus other cases,  that is absolutely an exercise in discretion.” responded Ayala Attorney Roy Austin

Chief Justice Jorge Larbarga openly worried about setting up a system of unequal justice.

“You’re going to have one circuit with a death penalty,, another circuit without it, all over the place. How is…How is that proper”?

But Ayala’s attorney argued the case isn’t about not following the law.

“The State Attorney made a decision on sentencing. It was very clear that she is gong to prosecute homicide cases” said Austin.

The state Solicitor General Amit Agarwal says the Governor could have suspended Ayala, but did not.

Afterwards the State Attorney says her case was had been made.

“I did what I believe what is proper under Florida law. No laws have been violated” Ayala told reporters in a brief statement.

If Ayala prevails here at the Supreme Court, state Lawmakers will almost be certainly asked to re-write the law.”

There is no timetable for a ruling, but Justices are expected to take days, not weeks in releasing their decision.

Raphael Zaldivar leaves Ayala hearing in Supreme Court of Florida

Raphael Zaldivar’s son was murdered in 2012. The killer got a death sentence, but because the verdict was not unanimous, courts have ordered a new sentencing phase for the killer. The case is one of 24 transferred out of State Attorney Aramis Ayala’s ninth circuit because she will not seek death sentences. Zaldivar was in the Supreme Court today as Justices decide if the transfers were legal. Afterwards he shouted at Ayala as she left and told reporters he was eager for a ruling.

““I’m very confident the judges will rule on Governor rick Scott’s favor and we can move along putting these savages to death back in the state of Florida.”

Q:”What will it do for you if your son’s killer is put to death. How will you feel’?

“That’s all I wanted from them, you know. I want him executed. I want him buried” Zaldivar told reporters.

The courts decision in the Ayala case will decide if Zaldivar’s sons killer spends life in prison or faces a likely death sentence.

The families of people who have died at the hands of texting or otherwise distracted drivers are unhappy state lawmakers did noting this year to prevent deaths. But as Mike Vasilinda tells us, one distraught father is using his hurt and anger to keep pushing for change.

Anthony Branca was 19 when he died just before thanksgiving in 2014.

“He slowed down to take a left turn on his motorcycle and the guy behind him didn’t because he was distracted by something” says Anthony’s father Demetrius.

Dad Demetrius has turned his anger and hurt into action. He’s been a frequent advocate for tougher texting laws at the state Capitol.

“46 other states have enacted primary laws against distracted driving” he told a rally in April.

But legislation that would have allowed obviously distracted drivers to be ticketed never got a hearing in the House.

“There’s a lot of people ho are gonna die between now and next legislative session that we maybe could have rescued” says Demetrius.

The Department of Highway Safety says there were more than 50 thousand accidents caused by distracted driving in 2016 alone.

That’s one hundred thirty-six accidents a day; or almost six an hour. every day and a half, somebody dies.

And the prognosis for changing the law in 2018 isn’t much better says the Senate sponsor Rene Garcia (R-Miami).

“It’s going to be hard to get that passed through the House of Representatives” concedes Garcia.

The problem is the man next in line to be Speaker. Rep. Jose Oliva, readily agrees that there is a problem,  but he worries about infringing on  civil liberties. Demetrius agrees with Oliva on that point.

I”don’t want the police to be able to pull me over and look in my phone. But they don’t need to look in my phone to see what I was doing to know that I was driving distracted” Demetrius told us.

The tenacious father, relentless in telling his son’s story, says Anthony would be doing the same for him if the death had been his instead.

In addition to continuing to lobby for tougher penalties for texting, Demetrius Branca says he’s also pushing the idea of requiring hands free devices if someone needs to talk while driving.