"A Nightmare For Thousands Of Floridians" - A Stuart News editorial: "Ordinary people are about to feel the hammer of Gov. Jeb Bush and the Florida House of Representatives' refusal to take rational action on the state budget. Endlessly chanting 'No new taxes!' and classifying any effort to rearrange the state's tax structure as an effort to levy a new tax, Bush and the Legislature — particularly the House — have created a nightmare for thousands of Floridians."
Session Countdown - "There's just more than two weeks left in the 2003 legislative session and so far lawmakers have little to show for their efforts." Associated Press. And this from the Orlando Sentinel about the seemingly intractable dispute between the House and the Senate.
How Tallahassee Works - "The House led off Monday with a bill . . . to make insurance company lobbyists break out champagne. And why not? They wrote it." This Palm Beach Post editorial is ostensibly about workers' comp "reform" - an abused word to be sure - but makes a larger point about the radical difference between the House and the Senate and the pervasive and pernicious influence of Associated Industries of Florida.
"Phone outrage" - "You have to hand it to the gaggle of lobbyists working for long-distance and local telephone companies. They have found a way to increase the basic rates residents pay for telephone service and let the governor, legislators and phone companies blame someone else." From the Daytona Beach News Journal.
Class Size Scam - "Six weeks after Gov. Jeb Bush first pressed state lawmakers to ask voters to repeal the controversial class-cap amendment, House Speaker Johnnie Byrd, a staunch ally of the governor, outlined on Wednesday his grand plan for getting it done."
"Byrd said he does not want to ask Florida voters outright to second-guess their November approval of the class-size constitutional amendment. Rather, he is proposing lawmakers draft a new measure for the November 2004 ballot that would limit the class-size cap to prekindergarten through third-grade classes and would guarantee improved teacher pay. The amendment currently covers all public school classes from kindergarten through 12th grade." See "Plan limits class-size caps to only some grades".
"Bush's Move Muddies Waters" - "Gov. Jeb Bush has thrown his support behind the Florida Legislature's efforts to rewrite a key environmental law that has curbed farm pollution in the Everglades. An explanation is in order, and fast." Read the rest of this Sun Sentinel editorial. Inasmuch as Bush is "too deep" for the rest of us, I would not expect an "explanation" from him anytime soon.
"Shock And Awe" - Steve Otto of the Tampa Trib writes that "3rd-Graders Get Their Share Of Shock, Awe", and we think the inference is a fair one. Otto writes: "For years the governor has delivered his message in photo-op moments, showing up for an hour at some local school for the picture that will run the next morning in Mother Trib or some other paper. The trouble is, for all his show-and-tell presentations, things aren't getting better."
"At last check, Florida's education system was continuing its steady slide, from ignoring the needs of universities on down to the chaos of student testing and the possibility of thousands of third-graders failing."
"Bush was at it again this week, this time at Cahoon Elementary in Tampa. His message this time was that families should appreciate politicians who `actually care their children are learning.' That's a good one to anyone who has been following the machinations in Tallahassee, where politicians are demonstrating daily that about the only thing they care about is protecting their hides."