Notes For Sunday, March 02, 2003

AND GOVERNOR BUSH'S SOLUTION? A BUDGET PROPOSAL THAT IS 'BORDERLINE FRAUD". From the Sun Sentinel: Bush's "proposed budget transfers more than $200 million worth of unfunded mandates to the state's 67 counties. For a "no-new taxes" budget, that's borderline fraud." 7:42 AM [Go to current Florida Politics site (no popup ads)]

IN THE MEANTIME - OUR GOVERNOR IS PROPPING HIMSELF ON THE NATIONAL STAGE. With Florida in a budget crisis, "Gov. Jeb Bush is raising his profile in the nation's capital as a high-powered advocate, defending his brother's budget policies, lobbying other governors and speaking out on education and health care." Story.
7:41 AM [Go to current Florida Politics site (no popup ads)]

THE DEM STAR IS BEGINNING TO SHINE, AT LEAST A LITTLE. "So far, so good for new Florida Democratic Party chairman Scott Maddox. In his first test since he took over for the ailing party in January, the Democrats engineered a clean sweep in mayoral elections held last week in both Tallahassee and Orlando. Voters in those two cities overwhelmingly chose Democratic candidates over their Republican rivals."

"The next question for Maddox and the Democrats is whether their candidates will win in elections coming this week in Tampa, later this month in West Palm Beach and later this spring in Jacksonville. At this point, Democratic candidates are among front-runners in each of those cities: Former Hillsborough County Supervisor of Elections Pam Iorio in Tampa, former State House Democratic Leader Lois Frankel in West Palm Beach and Duval County Sheriff Nat Glover in Jacksonville."

See the story from the Lakeland Ledger. 7:41 AM [Go to current Florida Politics site (no popup ads)]

THERE IS ALWAYS TOMORROW - OR AT LEAST THE NEXT SESSION. The Sun Sentinel, argues that "Workers' comp crisis spurs calls for reform. "However, meaningful workers' comp "reform' seems likely to be deferred, even though "the workers' compensation system is broken, and other insurance rates are soaring." 7:39 AM [Go to current Florida Politics site (no popup ads)]

THE KILLING FIELD. In "Will statehouse be Florida's killing field?" from the Tallahassee Democrat, the editorial board warns "It's possible that under Gov. Jeb Bush's guidance, and given his disarmingly deceptive charm, lawmakers could:"

• "Cut $111 million from state universities."

• "Eliminate juvenile justice programs proven to work."

• "Eliminate at least 2,900 jobs."

• "Capriciously wreck the state's great research library - Florida's equivalent of the Library of Congress - which holds the secrets of why miserly governance trades short-term gain for long-term pain."

• "Soak counties through unfunded mandates."

This latter point is the elephant in the room, and Bush is taking little flak on it - here, in "Governor's budget creates unfair local burden", a columnist rightly recognizes the "scam":

"Property owners, beware. An expensive sleight-of-hand is at play at the Capitol, and you may get saddled with the bill. The scam works like this: Floridians are warned of mounting budget woes. The governor promises to deliver on his commitment to "no new taxes" and smaller government. The only problem is that the plan is to pass state funding responsibilities on to local governments. And that comes at a price to local property owners in the form of higher property taxes and reduced local services." The Sun Sentinel calls Bush's phoney "no-new taxes" budget "borderline fraud", explaining that Bush's "proposed budget transfers more than $200 million worth of unfunded mandates to the state's 67 counties. For a "no-new taxes" budget, that's borderline fraud 7:31 AM [Go to current Florida Politics site (no popup ads)]

TAXES AND THE BUSH BUDGET DISASTER. At least one rRepublican has the courage to talk about taxes to get us out of this Bush budget disaster. Others say they will "fight" any proposed tax increases - oh, how courageous.

This editorial points out that Florida's Bush budget is in "tatters" due to "historical denial of fiscal reality." Attempts to be responsible have been defeated by "Bush, former GOP House Speaker Tom Feeney and other reform-averse lawmakers. Sharing that wrong-headed view, new House Speaker Johnnie Byrd, R-Plant City."

Here is a summary of some of the big issues on the table in the session beginning this week. 7:26 AM [Go to current Florida Politics site (no popup ads)]

WHAT IS UP WITH OUR GOVERNOR AND THIS "RIGHT-WING . . . EXTREMIST" THINK TANK? The "Project For The New American Century" - or PNAC - is a bizzare little "think tank" whose "stated aims are to: 'to shape a new century favourable to American principles and interests', to achieve 'a foreign policy that boldly and purposefully promotes American principles abroad', 'to increase defence spending significantly', and to pursue 'America's unique role in preserving and extending an international order friendly to our security, our prosperity, and our principles.'" According to the Guardian, PNAC promotes nothing less than "US right-wing militarism and extremist Republican plans". And as we have previously mentioned, our Governor is a member of this group, along with a number of other right wing wackos, such as Dick Cheney and Paul Wolfowitz.

We find it remarkable that this man - whose major accomplishment as a politician has been to blow the multimillion dollar surplus left him by the Chiles-McKay administration and leave Florida in financial ruin - would be dabbling in international affairs. We hoped he would have spent his time learning the basics of how to run state government (this On the Job Training has been terrible for Florida). 7:03 AM [Go to current Florida Politics site (no popup ads)]