Notes For Tuesday, January 21, 2003

PERHAPS THE "INTANGIBLE TAX" CUT HAS SOMETHING TO DO WITH IT. The state budget woes (see below) are, at least in part, no surprise: "U.S. Rep. Kendrick Meek, the Miami Democrat who led the class-size campaign, pointed to the tax cuts granted during Bush's first term."

'I know that the governor is going to blame every little thing that's not funded on Amendment 9," Meek said at The Associated Press annual legislative planning meeting. 'You must take some responsibility for giving away not millions, but billions of dollars.'"

6:43 PM [Go to current Florida Politics site (no popup ads)]

BUSH PRELIMINARY REPORTS ON THE BUSH BUDGET. As reported in the Tallahassee Democrat, and the AP Wire: the proposed budget "boost[s] spending on public schools, health care and social services by $2 billion, increase the state's savings and even resume a "sales-tax holiday" for shoppers. But the recommendation also proposes tuition hikes for students at community colleges and state universities and makes about $800 million in cuts to existing programs and services, including a limit on health care for people with serious illnesses, reductions in programs for troubled and criminal teens and cuts in transportation."

Bush - and this will not be the last time you hear it - "blamed the cuts on the class-size reduction provision voters approved last November."

To make ends meet, Bush proposes to take money from trust funds, transfer certain obligations to local government, and bond, bond, bond.

6:39 PM [Go to current Florida Politics site (no popup ads)]

GRAHAM UPDATE. A lot on Bob Graham today on the newswire. It is particularly refreshing to hear a southern moderate-to-conservative Democrat " criticizing President Bush's opposition to affirmative action and stating that the president will have to offer evidence to justify a war with Iraq. He also pledged support for gay couples' legal rights [but not gay marriage]." 8:14 AM [Go to current Florida Politics site (no popup ads)]

WARHEADS OR AIR HEADS? The AP Wire story about Graham (see above) includes the following quote: Graham "added Monday that the discovery last week of 12 chemical warheads in Iraq wasn't enough to justify a war." To be sure, there were several empty warheads found by inspectors, but they were empty; they contained air, not chemicals. A casual reader of the story would assume otherwise.

We are unsure if this is a simple misstatement, or part of the media's subconscious ratcheting up of war fever (after all, war makes good news, and reportes love to run around in flak jackets and helmets, praying for a Joe Galloway moment).
8:13 AM [Go to current Florida Politics site (no popup ads)]

RENO SAYS NO TO SENATE BID. AP Wire. 8:04 AM [Go to current Florida Politics site (no popup ads)]

SENATE AND HOUSE TO FIGHT IT OUT. "A serious budget crisis and a yawning ideological divide have chilled relations between House and Senate Republican leaders, and the political standoff may have already claimed its first victims: women with heart disease and hungry children." The Palm Beach Post reports that the budget fight is getting "personal". In the meantime, state funding for Medicaid is in trouble. 7:57 AM [Go to current Florida Politics site (no popup ads)]

MAIL BALLLOTING. The Sun Sentinel urges adoption of voting by mail. 7:53 AM [Go to current Florida Politics site (no popup ads)]

GOV. TO ANSWER THE QUESTION TIM RUSSERT FORGOT TO ASK. Too bad Tim Russert didn't press our Gov on how he would address the class size amendment, instead of savaging poor Bill McBride on the issue. If Russert had done his job, we might have learned that Bush believes, "the cost of reducing class sizes will eat up money for teacher pay raises". 6:54 AM [Go to current Florida Politics site (no popup ads)]

LOVE FOR SALE. "Florida's Republicans raised a record $55.4 million during the cycle, . . . helping the party not only win the re-election of Gov. Jeb Bush but also assume control of every state Cabinet position and retain both halves of the Legislature. Democrats in Florida raised exactly half of what poured into the statewide Republican coffers, $27.7 million." More.

6:46 AM [Go to current Florida Politics site (no popup ads)]