The Daytona Beach News-Journal writes today that "Last month, the state inspector general warned that oversight over state contracts was in "a state of disrepair." Billions of dollars in state money are being spent, yet almost half of those contracts showed some sort of performance problem in audits -- such as shoddy goods, failure to fulfill the terms of the contract or outright fraud." We have not been able to find a link to the report; in the meantime, more from the News-Journal's editorial is excerpted immediately below.
Our Budget Myth - "Florida's budget, based on shaky revenue sources such as sales tax and stretched thin in crucial areas such as public education, has never been strong. But Gov. Jeb Bush and the Legislature have elevated the art of budgetary myth-making to unprecedented heights. One prime example is the mistaken notion that private enterprise can perform any government function cheaper and better and still turn a profit. At the same time, anyone who talks about the reality of Florida's budget -- like the need to close the most wasteful tax loopholes -- gets shouted down. But there's something else going on under the surface." See "Myth management".
The Corporate Voucher Scam - "Public vouchers have been suspended, for the time being, at a private Islamic school in Tampa the FBI claims was a front for Palestinian terrorists. But the fine print is that the Department of Education, charged with overseeing the state's $88-million corporate voucher program, had little to do with it." See "Who is accountable?" See also "Summit on corporate voucher oversight foreseen" and "Education Chief To Hold Meeting On Scholarships".
Putting The So-Called Malpractice "Crisis" In Context - "As Florida legislators prepare for another special session next week on the topic of escalating medical malpractice insurance premiums, a look back at the impetus of the crisis could be instructive." See "The road to crisis".
Graham - "Sen. Bob Graham formally asked President Bush on Monday to make public a 28-page section of the congressional report on the Sept. 11 attacks that deals with Saudi Arabian terrorism links. In a related development, Saudi Arabia's foreign minister, Saud al-Faisal, flew to Washington on Monday for talks with the president today, Bush administration officials told The Associated Press. Saudi officials, reportedly furious over the report, requested the meeting late last week." See "Graham asks Bush to make parts of 9/11 report public".
And in the Gainesville Sun today: "Graham is on target. The war on terrorism, which was declared long before we undertook the war in Iraq, has been neglected, at home and abroad. No one is disputing Graham's claims about the number of al-Qaeda trainees or the Syrian training camps or the unspoken threat of Hamas and Hezbollah or that the administration is purposely withholding information. That is because, his political ambitions notwithstanding, Bob Graham has always been a respected, low-key, level-headed lawmaker not known for grandstanding or making outlandish charges. As Washington Post political columnist Michael Grunwald put it, ' . . . (W)hen Bob Graham - mild-mannered, sober, responsible, sometimes a little dull - suddenly sounds like a screaming banshee doom-and-gloomer, that's scary. (But) terrorism experts don't think his stand on terrorism is crazy at all; they think it's common sense. That's what's so scary.'" See "Scared about terrorism?"
Cutting Classes - "States are entering their third straight year of budget deficits, but unlike in the early 1990s, when state legislatures used judicious tax increases to fulfill government obligations of public health, safety, education and transportation, the trend now is program-cutting." See "Cutting classes: new meaning in higher ed".