Scott Maddox, Tom Slade Go At It - "'Tom Slade complaining about the creation of soft money is like Col. Sanders complaining about chicken.'" Maddox said this in connection with Slade's complaints about Dem soft money in the Jax mayoral contest, which is heating up.
Bush - GOP House "Irresponsible" - "Tough times call for leadership, not irresponsibility. Yet, some House lawmakers and the governor are advocating the raid of a fund set aside exclusively for affordable housing. That's irresponsible." See "Housing fund grab is poor stewardship".
It's As If The GOP Was Privatizing Taxes, And Making Them More Regressive At The Same Time - "The cost of basic phone service in South Florida may jump $3 to $3.50 a month over the next two to four years if a proposed telecom bill passes in Tallahassee, according to an analysis by a House panel." We cut the intangibles tax (something paid by wealthy folks to the state), and we increase the "bills" paid to the private sector (phone companies) by everyone who pays a phone bill. Isn't that nice - sorta like privatizing taxes.
Byrd House Embarasses Itself - "On Tuesday, the Florida House spent two hours reiterating its "no new taxes" mantra and then voted down legislation that would have imposed a statewide impact fee on home sales to raise money to build new public schools. There are legitimate arguments on both sides of the impact fee debate, but the same can't be said for the outrageous way the House handled the issue. It didn't bother House Republicans that the idea they trashed came out of a study commission appointed by Gov. Jeb Bush, former House Speaker John Thrasher and then Senate President Toni Jennings, who is now lieutenant governor. All three are Republicans." "Costly Point For GOP Leaders".
Arrogant Bush Risking Everglades Cleanup - "Federal Everglades money threatened". It's no surprise, since Bush - a developer - is getting bad advice. This week Bush arrogantly said that U.S. Republican Represenatives Clay Shaw and Porter Goss
"'need to be briefed' to understand that industry-written changes to the 1994 Everglades Forever Act are not a problem, even if the changes allow more pollution and a 20-year delay in enforcing any water-quality standard." As the Palm Beach Post points out, "Gov. Bush, however, is the one who needs the briefing. Unless he wants to be known as the governor who killed the Everglades, he should seek information from sources other than sugar lobbyists and Department of Environmental Protection Secretary David Struhs."
The Orlando Sentinel remarks that, "given the millions of dollars sugar interests pump into political campaigns -- the sugar bill nearly flew out of a House committee this week." 6:38 AM
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