Ninety-eight percent of the estimated 1.5 million businesses in Florida paid no corporate income tax last year, while a state estimate shows exemptions and loopholes cost Florida $1.2 billion a year in taxes, a newspaper reported Sunday. "The tax man cometh for very few firms".
SCRIPPS SECRET?Florida taxpayers could have a hard time keeping track of how their money will be spent to bring the world's largest private research center to Florida.
Legislation to spend $369-million in tax money on a Florida branch of the Scripps Research Institute gives the company broad discretion in what it discloses, open government advocates say. "Florida's $369-million secret?"
DIDN'T WE VOTE FOR THAT, HOW MANY YEARS AGO?Three key decisions will be made today in the state's ongoing but uncertain efforts to build the nation's first true high-speed-rail line, between Tampa and Orlando.
The Florida High Speed Rail Authority will pick a route, choose between a jet-powered or electric train, and identify the company that will build and run the system for 30 years.
If the train is to become reality, the state has to back it with $75 million a year for 30 years. Though voters ordered the system to connect Florida's cities when they passed a state constitutional amendment in 2000, no such financial commitments have been made yet, and Gov. Jeb Bush opposes the train. "State will pick bullet train's type, maker, route today".
"ROAD TO INDEPENDENCE"? Every day across Florida, teenagers turning 18 are being kicked out of their foster homes - ready or not - to live on their own. Many have no practical life skills, no money, no plan for the future. A growing number are ending up on the streets.
That's not how it was supposed to be.
That's not how it should be.
The new "Road to Independence" Act, effective in July, may have been passed with the best of intentions, but it is having the worst of consequences. "No home, no money, no help".
DON'T LET FACTS GET IN THE WAY . . . In all the talk about state incentives swirling about Tallahassee last week, one story was repeated over and over.
Gov. Jeb Bush sought unfettered power over a megafund to lure corporations and nail down lucrative contracts for the state. One potential candidate for such funds was Raytheon Corp.'s operation in St. Petersburg, which is in competition with Lockheed Martin in California for a $6.2-billion defense satellite program.
Stories about Raytheon's bid and the need to sweeten it with a state incentive always mentioned that state aid was critical because California had offered a $10-million incentive to help Lockheed Martin.
PARTYING (BUSINESS) AS USUAL -The partying by the Public Service Commission at a conference, reportedly paid for at least in part by an industry it is supposed to regulate, deserves scrutiny. Very thorough scrutiny.
Perhaps no laws were broken. But the conference for the Southeastern Association of Regulatory Commissioners on Miami Beach in June 2002 that was attended by state regulators, and apparently paid for by telephone companies, gives a terrible impression.
Especially since the PSC will soon make decisions that could jack up average monthly bills for basic phone service by $3 to $7.25 per month over the next four years. Then rates could keep escalating by as much as another 20 percent per year after that. "PSC Party Merits Scrutiny". See also "Credibility on the line" ("A state audit of the Public Service Commission would clear up questions about whether it has gotten too cozy with phone companies to be impartial about the rate hikes.")