South Florida Voter Rolls "Bloated" - "Voter rolls in Broward and Miami-Dade counties are bloated with nearly half a million people who have never cast a ballot, a Herald investigation has found. They comprise 25 percent of the rolls, a troubling proportion that invites fraud and inflates election costs, possibly by millions of dollars." See "Rolls swollen with voters who haven't cast a ballot".
Dealing With Growth - "The state must confront its tax structure, heavily dependent on sales taxes and user fees. Lawmakers this year passed up another opportunity to address the huge number of businesses exempt from paying taxes. Exemptions drain millions annually from the state's revenue -- money that could pay for more schools or healthcare. More than 2.9 million Floridians lack health insurance." See "By leaps and bounds".
Just When The Tampa Tribune Editorial Board Seems To Be Crawling Out Of It's Neanderthal Cave . . . We get tripe like this: "It's Employees In The Aggregate Who Take Home The Big Money". I look forward to my "employee in the aggregate" seat in the skybox at the next Tampa Bucs game.
"Jeb!"'s Hubris Part 46- "A month ago, during one of his frequent tantrums over the state Senate's refusal to go along with his simplistic solution on medical malpractice insurance, Gov. Bush commented on the Senate idea of a state-run pool that would offer coverage to doctors. "Those are the kinds of proposals," the governor sneered, 'you would expect from Howard Dean.' Sigh. It has become routine, though no less annoying, for Gov. Bush to link every decision affecting Florida to his brother's political welfare. The governor's undercooked anti-affirmative action alternative of 1999 was designed to head off a controversial constitutional amendment that he worried would bring out Democratic voters in November 2000. This time, the governor wanted to cast the Senate's idea as socialistic and make Mr. Dean look like the out-there liberal he isn't. (As Vermont governor, Mr. Dean cut spending for social programs.) It may surprise Gov. Bush, who thinks nothing happened before he took office, but the idea of a state-run pool for doctors isn't new. It came up 15 years ago, during the last malpractice "crisis." Then, as now, it followed the bursting of a stock-market bubble. The idea came from an ex-legislator and Palm Beach County doctor. That mad socialist was a Republican." See "One doctor's malpractice prescription".
Johnnie Who? Scott Maxwell writes that "After spending a record $600,000 on salaries for his communications office, Johnnie Byrd developed a reputation as one of the state's most self-promoting House speakers in recent memory. Apparently, though, it hasn't paid off. Last week's Sentinel poll about the U.S. Senate race showed that 60 percent of Floridians still don't know who he is."
Foley's Take On Graham - "U.S. Rep. Mark Foley, R-West Palm Beach, who hopes to replace Graham in the Senate, told business lobbyists in Tallahassee that Graham not only won't be president, but he also won't even be picked as a running mate." So what does Foley think Graham will do? "[H]e expects to see Graham back running for re-election to his Senate seat and causing heartburn for other candidates. 'I think he could come back -- and that will scramble the egg very, very quickly,' Foley said. Of 11 current or potential candidates in the field for Graham's Senate seat, only U.S. Rep. Katherine Harris, R-Sarasota, comes within 20 points of matching Graham's 47 percent 'favorable' figure in a Senate match-up. Harris has called such a run for her "very unlikely." Republican Bill McCollum and Democrat Betty Castor have the next best showings, but are still well behind Graham." See "GOP rival writes off Graham run".
Malpractice Caps - "While a long fight over medical malpractice and the impact of lawsuits on access to health care nears an end with an agreement on legislation to limit some types of damages, it will likely take months - possibly years - before officials know whether their solution works. Legislators acknowledged this week that a plan to cap noneconomic damages - such as for pain and suffering - likely wouldn't lower doctors' insurance rates until at least early next year, with some saying it could be much longer." See "Doctors, politicians now wait to see if malpractice plan works".
As the Miami Herald editorial board observes, "the only good thing we can say about it is that it will allow the Legislature to finally go home. It is not at all clear to us that this compromise is really better or worse for consumers, doctors or trial lawyers -- though we believe insurers ultimately will come out OK, since they can raise their rates after a short pause. The Legislature's compromise with the governor would cap noneconomic liability claims against doctors at $500,000 and against hospitals at $750,000. There would be a freeze on premium rates until January 2004. Nothing in the compromise -- not the language of the agreement or the way the market works -- guarantees that medical-malpractice insurance rates will drop for Florida's doctors, as acknowledged by insurance industry witnesses in Senate hearings." And a word of caution from the Orlando Sentinel: "Don't rubber stamp".