Wingnut welfare for Ray Sansom ... and he's not even out of office!

It used to be that Wingnut Welfare -- Republicans arranging jobs for themselves or their cronies in exchange (wink, wink, nudge, nudge) for certain political favors -- didn't come into play until the wingnut in question was, or was about to be, out of office. For example, Marco Rubio (R-Miami), the batshit crazy former speaker of the Florida house, landed a sweet gig at FIU once he was term-limited out of office.

But, like equally batshit crazy state Sen. Mike Haridopolos (R-Indialantic), who secured a cushy job at the University of Florida while still in office, Rubio's successor as speaker, Ray Sansom (R-Destin), managed to get a six-figure position at Northwest Florida State College ("NFSC," formerly Okaloosa-Walton Community College), which just happened to benefit from millions of legislative dollars that just happened to be steered their way by Sansom, who just happened to chair the House Policy and Budget Council.

The assistance, documented in a memo the St. Petersburg Times obtained this week through a public records request, highlights the close relationship between Sansom and the college president, Bob Richburg.

Last week that affiliation burst into public view when Sansom was given a $110,000 job as a vice president at the college.

It came on the same day Sansom was sworn in as speaker of the Florida House, a juxtaposition that has elicited cries of cronyism.

Sansom, who has a master's degree in education, denies any correlation and says he was merely doing his job as a citizen legislator.

But the extra $24.5-million was not the only boon to the school, renamed Northwest Florida State College in July under legislation Sansom supported that boosted the school's ability to offer bachelor's degrees.

State records show the college received $1-million more than initially budgeted for an extension center in Walton County and $105,000 more than initially budgeted for general renovation.

Sansom also got $750,000 added to the budget for "startup funds" for the college's leadership institute, according to records the House released Wednesday. The Times reported last week that it got $200,000, but that was based on a preliminary request.

The amount ballooned some time before a Dec. 5, 2007, meeting between Sansom and college president Richburg. A memo from the meeting details how the two discussed accelerating funding — hence $1-million becoming $25.5-million.

That was the single-largest public education capital outlay (PECO) award for community college projects this year.

Not even Miami-Dade College, which has 160,000 students to Northwest Florida State College's 15,000, fared better in a single budget line.

I've worked in Florida's community college system, and I have never seen a more politically charged, "good ol' boy" atmosphere anywhere in my professional career. See, the problem here is not that NFSC got state money ... it's the fact that it got such a disproportionate amount of state money that raises eyebrows -- and questions.

The PECO money is hard to come by -- I know from working in community colleges and state universities. The schools battle for it tooth-and-nail, trying to secure funds for much needed classroom space, faculty offices, and the like. Particularly in these difficult budget times, isn't it just a little bit curious that NFSC gets a huge chunk of money and then hires Ray Sansom?

In law, we call it "avoiding the appearance of impropriety." Needless to say, Sansom and NFSC, even if they haven't done anything wrong or illegal (and I find that a dubious proposition at best), hardly have avoided the appearance of impropriety. This needs to be investigated and, if any wrongdoing is found, punished accordingly. Otherwise, it's just business as usual for Florida Republicans.