In contempt of state taxpayers

An opulent $48 million courthouse being built for the 1st District Court of Appeal in Tallahassee highlights the hypocrisy of a Legislature that purports to be fiscally conservative but lavishes tax dollars on an influential few.

Approval for the project, dubbed a Taj Mahal because of its fancy televisions, dome and other extravagant features, came in 2007 - when lawmakers were demanding lower local property tax rates because, they said, local governments were awash in money.

Yet they voted to authorize millions in tax dollars on a new building, while eventually forcing the judiciary statewide to cut numerous positions due to state funding reductions.

Alex Sink, the state's chief financial officer and Democratic nominee for governor, is rightly auditing the project. A preliminary review suggests the state may have tapped money originally intended for other uses, including $16 million from the Workers' Compensation Trust Fund.

As the St. Petersburg Times reported in revealing the palatial courthouse, an amendment authorizing a $33 million bond issue for construction - the first of its kind for a state courthouse - was tacked on to a transportation bill in the 11th hour.

A road bill has nothing to do with a courthouse. But adding legislation to bills that aren't even remotely connected is typical Tallahassee shenanigans - especially on the hectic last day of session.

Further, the Times reported several lawmakers didn't know the amendment was in the bill when they voted. But other lawmakers say the legislation was publicly presented, not hidden.

Either backroom dealing was, indeed, at play, as state Supreme Court Justice Fred Lewis says, or legislators didn't do their due diligence. It's difficult to say which is worse.

First District Chief Judge Paul Hawkes and Judge Brad Thomas, who lobbied for the facility, must be incredibly powerful.

The project's exorbitance is outrageous: 60-inch, flat-screen TVs; kitchen appliances and private bathrooms with granite counters in each judge's office; and a dome and exterior columns modeled after the Michigan Supreme Court building.

And the facility, scheduled for completion in November, will cost taxpayers more than $1.5 million a year in rent. The money is to be paid to the Department of Management Services, the owner of the new building. The old courthouse had no rent.

It's a matter of debate whether the 1st District needs a new courthouse. The court, arguably the state's most important because it hears many challenges to new state laws as well as Workman's Compensation claims, has had growing pains the last 10 years.

But the lavishness of the facility shows how out of touch some lawmakers and other officials are with taxpayers. While local governments were slashing services and taxpayers were struggling to pay bills, the Legislature and court officials allowed nearly $50 million to be used for a showy palace.

The publicity has caused some extravagant furnishings to be downgraded, but for the most part the damage has been done. The courthouse is almost complete. But it stands not as a monument to justice, but as evidence of Tallahassee's casual disregard of taxpayers' dollars.