Gov. Rick Scott’s budget recommendations will not be released until next week, but the kind of proposals his office has preferred so far reveal his approach to providing the savings he promised as a candidate.

Gov. Rick Scott met formally with his Cabinet for the first time Wednesday, and all members appear intent on finding ways to cut spending by merging, consolidating or eliminating programs or agencies in their departments.

As Rick Scott takes the reins of Florida government, some longtime political players find themselves marginalized or cut out of the decision-making loop altogether.

When Florida’s legislators gather in March for the 2011 legislative session, tackling the state’s $3.5 billion deficit will be one of their most difficult tasks. Many states face similar (or worse) situations, but that fact won’t make it any easier.

Two weeks after legislators passed a law enabling more stringent legislative oversight of the rulemaking process of state agencies, the new law is already having the effect of delaying some new regulations.

Gov. Charlie Crist, flanked by Attorney General Bill McCollum, Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink and Agriculture and Consumer Services Commissioner Charles Bronson, presided over one of the last meetings of the Florida Cabinet Tuesday, tackling a jump in sinkhole claims and a proposed development in Polk County that led to a small flap with the Department of Community Affairs.

A long-favored plan for creating an inland distribution center to maximize cargo taken in by the maritime industry in South Florida is dead, and the sugar company that proposed it is recommending that the Port of Palm Beach start over in its search for a location.

Florida Crystals’ plan to host the 318-acre South Florida Regional Intermodal Logistics Center in western Palm Beach County has been taken off the table, and the company is offering instead an 850-acre plot elsewhere in the poverty-stricken rural area.

Handing Florida Hometown Democracy a potentially potent political weapon, the state House refused to re-enact the Department of Community Affairs.

The agency that reviews growth plans in Florida was up for sunset review this session, and its prospects looked good after the Senate voted 38-0 to renew the DCA.

But in the waning hours, the House decided not to hear the bill.