Notes For Sunday, January 26, 2003

MEDICAID SHELL GAME. Our governor cuts medicaid at the state level and passes the costs to local communities via higher taxes/increased costs. As the Sarasota Herald Tribune reports: "Bearing the brunt of the Medicaid cuts in the governor's spending plan are the 236 Florida hospitals that provide health care to the poor. The hospitals could be hit with nearly $400 million in cuts."

"A major part of the cut would be the elimination of hospital coverage for adults in the Medically Needy program, which began in 1986 to offer care for low-income residents who are not poor enough to qualify for the regular Medicaid service but who are uninsured. [T]hose uninsured patients will still be treated, but the hospitals will have to cover the cost, which ultimately could be shifted to local communities in the form of higher taxes or increased costs for insured patients in the facilities."

9:13 AM [Go to current Florida Politics site (no popup ads)]

MUST READ - DYCKMAN ANALYZES JOHN ELLIS' TAX REFORMS. Martin Dyckman distills John Ellis's Tax reform to its essence: "[t]o combine Florida's state and local taxes and break down the impact by income groups is to discover that only the rich have gotten a tax break during the Bush years."

"All that might not seem like much, except the result was to worsen what was already one of the most unfair structures in the nation. Florida is a low-tax state only for the rich and upper middle class. For the six out of 10 who aren't in those groups, Florida's taxes are among the highest, and the less you earn, the larger the share for state and local taxes."

"The poorest pay 14.4 percent, five times the 2.7 percent that's asked of the millionaire. Only the state of Washington is worse. Only for incomes averaging $49,000 and up are Florida's tax rates lower than most states and the national average."


8:34 AM [Go to current Florida Politics site (no popup ads)]

PRIVATIZING DEATH. "Bush is redesigning our death penalty system to make it more prone to error" Read "A False Economy". 8:30 AM [Go to current Florida Politics site (no popup ads)]

POLL: DYER IN RUNOFF, BUT WITH WHO? "The race for Orlando mayor is a dead heat, with Buddy Dyer in the lead and Pete Barr, Bill Sublette and Tico Perez scrapping for a spot in the runoff, according to an Orlando Sentinel/WESH NewsChannel 2 poll. But the big winner at this stage of the election is "undecided" at 27 percent.

None of the eight candidates is likely to come close to attracting more than 50 percent of votes to win the general election outright on Feb. 4, the poll shows. Dyer, a former state senator, drew the most support at 22 percent -- enough to earn him a spot in the Feb. 25 runoff. Barr, Sublette and Perez are all within striking distance of landing the other spot on the runoff ballot, with Barr holding a slim advantage. Sixteen percent of those surveyed said they would vote for Barr, 14 percent picked Sublette and 10 percent backed Perez.

'Any two of the four could make the race, with Buddy Dyer being a safe bet,' said Brad Coker, managing director of Mason-Dixon Polling and Research, the firm that conducted the survey." Read the article here. 8:22 AM [Go to current Florida Politics site (no popup ads)]

ORLANDO MAYORAL RACE. Mike Thomas and Myriam Marquez debate the Orlando mayoral race. Marquez, the house "liberal" who thinks John Ellis Bush's "vision" is "clear and electrifying" predictably thinks Tico Perez is the man. Mike Thomas analyzes the race and predicts a Dyer - Barr runoff, and Dyer "should have no problem beating Barr. Dyer clobbers him among minority voters and gay voters. Dyer also is moderate enough, and has enough of a pro-business reputation, that he fits in at the Chamber of Commerce. He takes away more votes from Barr than Barr takes away from him, particularly given that a lot of people who would have voted for Barr are either dead or have moved to North Carolina. My call: Mayor Buddy Dyer. By 11 points in March."

Reading these columns, it is interesting to see the impact of the gay rights ordinance on the race. Dyer, used to dealing with larger issues, doesn't see the ordinance as a big deal. The Republicans in this nonpartisan race, however, are all dancing around the issue not wanting to offend their base (wealthy neanderthals) while appearing to the rest of us as neanderthal. 8:15 AM [Go to current Florida Politics site (no popup ads)]

KATHERINE HARRIS BUDDY TO RUN STATE GOP. GOP chair Al Cardenas has been replaced by Carole Jean Jordan, 58, of Vero Beach, who defeated state party vice chairman Jim Stelling by a vote of 111-92 in a runoff election for the two-year term." We don't yet know much about Jordan's campaign skills, but "Jordan spent at least $3,000 to purchase 250 copies of U.S. Rep. Katherine Harris' book, 'Center of the Storm,' so that the former Florida secretary of state would sign books at Jordan's party Friday night." Another article. 7:52 AM [Go to current Florida Politics site (no popup ads)]