(Florida Governor) Rick Scott on crash course with Senate budget chief

TALLAHASSEE -- Gov. Rick Scott is on a political crash course with the Florida Senate’s powerful budget chief, J.D. Alexander, who wrote a letter Tuesday asking the governor to cite the “legal authority” for the way he sold two state planes.

Sen. J.D. Alexander said he believed the Feb. 11 transaction was unlawful because the governor failed to get the Legislature to sign off on the $3.67 million deal and kept some of the money from reaching the state treasury – a highly unusual transaction.

Alexander, who wrote a letter last week saying the deal wasn’t legal, wrote his follow-up Tuesday so that Scott would tell him specifically who advised the governor.

“In your response, please state specifically why this transaction did not violate Article VII, Section 1(c) of the Florida Constitution and Sections… Florida Statutes,” Alexander wrote Tuesday. Alexander says he supports the sale of the planes, but opposes the way the governor handled the deal.