McCollum Has Not Effectively Tackled Medicaid Fraud- What Would You Do With Up To $3.2 Billion In Fraud?

From FDP:

Florida taxpayers are being swindled out of as much as $3.2 billion each year by people committing Medicaid fraud, yet Republican Attorney General Bill McCollum is failing to do much about, as the Miami Herald reported today. Even though McCollum's Medicaid Fraud Control Unit is the second largest in the country, Florida ranks 39th in the country for number of convictions per staffer and 25th in the country for money recovered per federal dollar received.

"Florida taxpayers are being ripped off by as much as $3.2 billion a year in Medicaid fraud and Bill McCollum is failing to effectively tackle the problem. We need leadership on this issue-If Florida taxpayers could recover the potential billions lost, how could we use it?" Florida Democratic Party spokesman Eric Jotkoff asked. "Bill McCollum deserves to know the answer to that question. So, we're surveying Floridians by e-mail and will share with Bill McCollum what we find out."

In the Herald story, McCollum even admitted that "there is room for improvement" and his fellow Republicans called him to task for his lack of action. As Republican Senator Durell Peaden put it "[Bill McCollum] needs to get his butt in gear. All he's doing is chasing pedophiles around. If he'd spend half the time on Medicaid fraud, we'd be in better shape."

What Could Floridians Get With $3.2 Billion?

A) Erase Florida's Budget Shortfall And Put The State On Sound Financial Footing
B) 640 Miles Of Highway Construction And The 128,000 Jobs It Would Create
D) 21 Solar Plants To Provide Clean Energy For 63,000 Florida Homes
E) 168 Miles Of Light Rail Construction And The 100,480 Jobs It Would Create
F) A Brand New Mac Laptop Computer For Every Child In Florida Public Schools Grades K-12


BACKGROUND:

Erase Florida's Budget Shortfall And Put The State On Sound Financial Footing
Florida's 2010 budget shortfall is currently estimated at approximately $3 billion. (Tampa Tribune, 3/1/10)

640 Miles Of Highway Construction And The 128,000 Jobs It Would Create
The American Road and Transportation Builders Association estimates a cost of between $4-$6 million dollars per mile of highway construction. Taking the $5 million per mile, the state could add 640 miles of new highway construction. (FAQ, American Road & Transportation Builders Association)

According to a 2001 report, for every $1 billion spent on infrastructure spending, an estimated 40,000 jobs are created. $3.2 billion in infrastructure/highway spending could result in approximately 128,000 new jobs. (Release, House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, 10/6/01)

21 Solar Plants To Provide Clean Energy For 63,000 Florida Homes
In October, 2009 Florida Power & Light opened North America's largest pholtovoltaic solar power plant in Arcadia, Florida-- $3.2 billion would build 21 more of these solar plants, providing clean energy to more than 63,000 homes and create more than 8,400 desperately needed construction jobs. (Sarasota Herald Tribune, 10/14/09)

168 Miles Of Light Rail Construction And The 100,480 Jobs It Would Create
According to estimates, the city of Baltimore averaged $19 million per mile for construction of their Light Rail Project. At that cost projection, $3.2 billion would fund 168 miles of light rail projects in Florida. (Light Rail Now, 8/2000)

314 jobs are created for each $10 million invested in transit capital funding. A $3.2 billion investment in Light Rail would provide approximately 100,480 jobs directly related to rail in Florida. In addition, transit operations spending provides for a direct infusion to the local economy with more than 570 jobs created for each $10 million invested in the short term. (Benefits of Light Rail Transit, Hampton Roads Transit, 2009)

A Brand New Mac Laptop Computer For Every Child In Florida Public Schools Grades K-12
In 2010 there are approximately 2,587,554 students in the public school system in Florida. $3.2 billion would provide every single public school student in the state of Florida, from K-12, a 13 inch 2.26 GHZ Macbook Pro. (Statistics, Florida.Educationbug.org, 2010)