On the eve of the special session, the focus is on Scripps. We agree with the following sentiments from the Palm Beach Post:
When Florida's public schools came up hundreds of millions of dollars short in this year's budget, Gov. Bush said they should be happy with all the accountability Tallahassee has imposed.
When Florida's community colleges predicted that budget cuts would force them to turn away students, they were told to make do. By one newspaper's count, the 28 colleges turned away 35,000 students.
When Florida's universities complained about $40 million in budget cuts, Gov. Bush told them to be as resourceful as the Legislature. His education commissioner primly advised the university presidents to submit "relevant" budgets.
But when Scripps Research Institute indicated that the biomedical center wanted to expand, Gov. Bush threw money at the problem -- $310 million.
Let's take note of the irony here. For five budget years, Gov. Bush has shorted Florida's education system at all levels. Silicon Valley in California and the Research Triangle in North Carolina show how first-rate universities can attract high-paying jobs. Yet to get Scripps, a world-renowned institution that runs on brainpower, Gov. Bush is willing to spend eight times the amount he cut from Florida's centers of brainpower. . . . Get it? Scripps won't be all Scripps can be if the state keeps shorting education. The starvation diet that Gov. Bush and the Legislature have imposed will make Florida a Wal-Mart state, with too many people in low-paying, dead-end work.
Florida may spend a $310 million windfall to attract the sort of high-tech jobs every state wants. Gov. Bush says the deal could make Florida an economic powerhouse. Start throwing some state money at the problem, governor, and it could happen. "Money for Scripps but not for state".
And the Gainseville Sun is right on:
There is ample room for speculation in all of this vision casting.
One can only speculate, for instance, what sort of return Florida would get on its investment if it were to put that $500 million directly into the existing research operations at the University of Florida, the University of South Florida, Florida State and other state institutions. It's idle speculation because Bush doesn't believe in investing in government; he's strictly a private sector speculator.
One might also wonder why Scripps, which really is the nation's leading biomedical research organization, wants to set up shop to do cutting edge science in a state whose Legislature has been trying to make stem cell research a criminal act. Perhaps Florida politicians who believe such work is, literally, the devil's work, will refrain from pressing their holy crusade against science now that the promise of new jobs and vast wealth is in the air.
It is equally unproductive to speculate about the logic of politicians who cut university and community college budgets to the bone and put public schools on a starvation diet in order to finance tax cuts, but who are now prepared to purchase a private operation to create thousands of high-tech jobs that the next generation of young Floridians may or may not be sufficiently educated to accept. "Off-the-shelf".
THANKS FOR THE CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE GOP, NOW HERE'S YOURS - Some of the state's most basic computer-support functions - along with 125 technology workers - will move to the private sector in an arrangement that State Technology Office officials say will save money and improve services to state agencies.
The ambitious seven-year plan includes turning data-center services, computer help-desk operations, e-mail support, the myflorida.com Internet portal, automated business applications, computer security and software-license oversight over to technology giants Accenture LLP and BearingPoint.
Once the state functions are secured, the so-called MyFlorida Alliance will look to servicing state and local governments to bring in revenue. "Workers in tech office to be axed".
SPINNING VOUCHERS -In what is becoming a trite exercise in public relations, state Education Commissioner Jim Horne admitted Thursday that some students have received two school vouchers at the same time, and he will put a stop to it. Said Horne, using an Orlando Christian school as his backdrop, "I will insist that schools comply with the law."
This was Horne's third press conference on vouchers in three months, and he followed a standard protocol of spin control. He slipped the damning revelations into a press conference called to tout proposed legislative reforms. His timing was obvious, as well. A Senate voucher task force is meeting on Tuesday and a Senate committee is expected to release a critical report within two weeks. In PR-speak, that's called "getting ahead of the story."
If Horne spent as much time managing the voucher mess as he did managing the news, he might not be in the spot he's in today. "Spinning the voucher story".
AT LEAST WE DON'T HAVE TO PAY THE INTANGIBLES TAX ANYMORE (WHATEVER THAT WAS) - As insurance rates continue to soar, many families devote growing chunks of their income to protecting themselves from a natural -- or unnatural -- disaster or medical crisis. A typical Palm Beach County family spends 15 percent of its pay on insurance, compared with a national average of less than 10 percent, according to Palm Beach Post research. "Insurance's bite affecting lifestyles".
INSURANCE CRISIS -Two state task forces are working on rewrites for the script, but Insuring the Uninsured is a drama that has run for 15 years without anyone finding a helpful ending. . . . A decade ago, the uninsured typically were unemployed. Now, most of Florida's 2.9 million uninsured have jobs. For 60 percent of them, the employer can't or won't buy health insurance. Costs are rising, so employers drop or curb coverage. That pushes employees into emergency rooms. Then hospitals pass on the cost to insured patients, which raises their insurance premiums, which makes employers drop it, which sends more people to emergency rooms.
Health-insurance costs are growing four times as fast as wages and six times as fast as overall inflation, and the cost of the average prescription has doubled since 1990. Expensive drugs are supposed to head off more expensive treatment or surgery, but the offset is lost if emergency-room treatment replaces office visits. . . . The Florida House formed a select committee, and Gov. Bush named a task force to see what Florida can do. Similar task forces last year teed up "solutions" for medical malpractice and workers compensation. Their proposals suffered from being tailored by and for insurance companies; they got cost savings by letting insurance cover less. . . . The forces that drive medical costs are national. At last count by the Census Bureau, 43.6 million Americans are uninsured, or 15.2 percent of the population. The problem is more acute in Florida, with 17.5 percent uninsured. Texas leads with 23.5 percent. Congress may be able to solve the core issue. States only can nibble at the edges. "Florida nibbles at edge of health-care reform".
A GOOD QUESTION -Is Florida special enough to lure the biotech boom that every economic developer dreams of? "$510-million catalyst".
DCF UNDER FIRE (AGAIN) -The Department of Children & Families so badly monitored contracts it has with Tallahassee Community College to train child-welfare workers that it misspent more than $1 million, an internal audit shows. "Auditors blast $1 million DCF paid in college deal".
WHO IS THIS DAVID BROWN GUY? We have all heard the name "C. David Brown II". He is a Bush crony, who after doing little if anything more than raising lots of money for Bushies, has risen to the status of "well-connected Orlando lawyer".
Brown joined Bush on a visit to Scripps in La Jolla on July 17 during a political trip for his brother's presidential campaign. Bush's office recently hired Brown at what it says is a discounted hourly rate of $275 to help negotiate the Scripps deal on the state's behalf.
Bush's spokeswoman, Jill Bratina, said Brown was hired because of his knowledge of both biotechnology and land use law. Brown is a specialist in eminent domain law and is general counsel for the Greater Orlando Aviation Authority. "Testing Bush's theory".
There seems to be little to this man other than his role as a Bush "pioneer".
AND FLORIDA TAXPAYERS ARE PAYING FOR IT . . . Donna Arduin, who is Florida Gov. Jeb Bush's finance director and is on loan to Schwarzenegger for a few months to run an audit of the state's finances, is also considered a contender for the finance director post. "So who will join Arnold?" Ms. Arduin was granted a paid leave of absence to go work for Schwarzenegger.
SURELY THEY CAN DO BETTER THAN THAT?Likely Republican contenders for governor include Attorney General Charlie Crist, Florida's Chief Financial Officer Tom Gallagher, Lt. Gov. Toni Jennings and U.S. Housing and Urban Development Secretary Mel Martinez. "Governor wants Florida GOP to focus on president".
I THOUGHT YOU HIRED HER - [The woman] -- nicknamed Cat -- was let go after four months because CRA managers found her unproductive and couldn't figure out what she did. ''I am somewhat confused as to exactly what her duties were,'' her supervisor, Neko Grant, said he wrote in a status report. "This is attributed to the nature of her unusual hours.'' "Woman's city job under scrutiny".