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Florida’s teamsters have filed an ethics complaint against Governor Rick Scott alleging a pay to play scheme revolving around a plan to privatize a dozen state prisons. The complaint says the nations two largest private prison operators gave nearly a million dollars, mostly to Florida Republicans, right before state lawmakers voted to order the privatization. Michael Filler of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters says there is a connection between the contributions and what lawmakers and the Governor did.

“What’s clear here is that the public safety is at risk and jobs will suffer as a result of this initiative,” Filler said. “We think there is a clear linkage between the amount of money that came into this state and how the elected leaders are reacting based upon those political contributions.”

The Teamsters are engaged in a political battle to control bargaining rights for Correctional officers. They also say it was unethical for the state pension plan, controlled by the Governor and Cabinet, to invest seven million dollars in the two private prison operators while the state was moving to privatize so many prisons.