'Welcome to Florida, home of sun, sand, a delusional governor and a heartless Legislature.'

[seafan]

Yesterday, the Florida Republican-driven Legislature slashed and burned the next year's state budget, ensuring that the fourth most populous state will suffer mightily from severely underfunded schools, teacher salaries, prisons, courts, social services, road projects, Tri-Rail commuter train service, hospice, a state TB hospital, nursing homes, Everglades restoration projects and natural springs protections, among many other cuts.


When the public's crippling shock abates and the inevitable white hot rage takes its place, this crowd of Republicans will gleefully escape town, many term-limited out at the end of this year, but morbidly obese with the stench of their own greed.


While the paralysis of this carefully hand-crafted Republican starvation budget seizes Floridians by the throat, it is noteworthy to point out what DID survive these mammoth budget cuts.


And what would that be?


Jeb Bush's secretive, $641 Million CSX deal survives state budget cuts., April 10, 2008

TALLAHASSEE - Billions of dollars short on funding for health care, education and criminal justice, Senate lawmakers tried in vain on Wednesday to narrow the gap by yanking millions of dollars from a commuter rail project for Central Florida.

It was perhaps the most dramatic maneuver yet in the debate over the $4 billion to $5 billion that House and Senate lawmakers are cutting in response to plummeting state revenue.

.....

Under both budgets, however, the state would buy 61 miles of CSX Transportation's tracks in the Orlando area for commuter rail and fund improvements to CSX tracks statewide. In such a tight budget year, said Sen. Paula Dockery, R-Lakeland, the state should spend money on vital state programs, not a half-billion-dollar expansion of a private company.

Dockery and others are concerned the CSX deal would bring more freight trains through downtown Lakeland. Dockery and two other Republican senators sought to transfer $20.1 million from the CSX trust fund to the state court system in hopes of avoiding massive layoffs and long court delays.

The CSX project "is not a top necessity of the state of Florida, whereas the court system most certainly is," said Dockery, chairwoman of the Criminal Justice Committee.

.....

Legislature's only plan is more pain, St. Pete Times Editorial, April 8, 2008

.....

Here are the real-world consequences: Your younger child's public school will have less to spend next year. Your older child will have a harder time getting into college, and if she gets in she likely will pay higher tuition and certainly sit in even larger classes. Your grandparent will find fewer staffers to help him in the nursing home. Your struggling, uninsured neighbor will have a harder time finding health care. Land that the state would have preserved will be developed, court cases will drag on longer and fewer child abuse investigators will mean more children will be at risk.

Welcome to Florida, home of sun, sand, a delusional governor and a heartless Legislature.

With a $2.5-billion drop in state revenue, business as usual is not an option. Yet Republicans are making a bad situation worse by insisting on only reducing spending. A smarter approach would mix cutting spending with using some reserves and adding some revenue to mitigate the pain.

Florida could join some two dozen other states that tax a portion of an out-of-state corporation's profits that can be tied to the operation of its in-state subsidiaries. That could raise more than $360-million, more than enough to save the Medically Needy program that covers poor people not eligible for Medicaid. A House committee killed the bill.

Or Florida could join nearly 25 other states in making it easier to collect sales taxes on catalog and Internet sales. That could eventually raise more than $1-billion, more than enough to start investing in higher education instead of starving it to death. Legislative leaders refuse to hear the bill.

For the first time in years, per student spending in 2008-09 will be less than the previous year. Higher education spending will be cut by more than $100-million, which likely means enrollments will be frozen and faculty members will be laid off. Hospitals stand to lose more than $200-million in Medicaid, forcing them to reduce services or pass the costs to paying customers.

Ever-optimistic Gov. Charlie Crist prefers to look on the bright side and gives the Legislature plenty of room. But there is no silver lining in these budget documents, and his spending priorities on renewable energy, health care and education have been ignored. Crist is going to have to inject himself into the debate sooner and more forcefully for his sunny vision of Florida to have any relationship with reality.

In some ways, this governor and this Legislature are paying for the sins of their predecessors, who refused to broaden the state's tax base, backed big tax cuts and worried little as long as growth kept bringing in more cash. This is a difficult time for this state and its residents. But the Republican-led Legislature is making it more painful than it has to be by refusing to consider more options and raise modest revenue.

We are in a world of hurt.

[Aviation Pro]

1. Republicans are the advocates of crime....

...they love crime. Law and order? Hah! They are criminals at heart and no further proof is necessary after reading this:

"Dockery and two other Republican senators sought to transfer $20.1 million from the CSX trust fund to the state court system in hopes of avoiding massive layoffs and long court delays."

[madfloridian]

2. Cutting services to the poor, giving corporate welfare to CSX

http://journals.democraticunderground.com/madfloridian/1904

http://journals.democraticunderground.com/madfloridian/1928

If there are wrecks or deaths or damage...CSX not responsible. The state of Florida is liable.

Recommending your post. It needs attention.

[flashl]

3. Dont forget ...

- the oft-handed legislation of abortions
- the unchecked looting of the Medicare system
- the multi-billion dollar Florida brand of 'Canary Islands' business tax havens left untouched

[madfloridian]

4. This needs a kick.

I guess people are so tired of hearing about Florida.

[seafan]

6. Thanks, mad. Weary, furious, disgusted, but not stopping until every last one of them is GONE.

I live it, breathe it and wake up with it. Running them out of town on a rail, tarred and feathered, is letting them get away with what they've done.

And that goes for that bloated whack-a-mole Jeb.

[madfloridian]

7. Did you see what they are doing to women in the state?

http://journals.democraticunderground.com/madfloridian/1980

Letting the religious right control things.

Pays to be in power, I guess.

[seafan]

9. Unconscionable. The FL House bill requiring ultrasounds before ALL abortions advances to Senate.

Florida House votes to require ultrasound before all abortions

By Josh Hafenbrack
April 3, 2008

The Florida House on Wednesday mounted what critics called a two-pronged assault on abortion rights, passing legislation that would require pregnant women to undergo ultrasound exams before getting abortions and effectively defining life at conception for criminal prosecutions.
Any woman seeking to terminate a pregnancy would be required to pay for an ultrasound procedure — and view the results unless she signed a waiver — before having the abortion, under a bill passed by the House largely along party lines.

The Republican-led chamber also endorsed a "fetal homicide" bill that would create a separate murder charge for anyone who caused a pregnancy to be terminated through an act of violence against a pregnant woman. It defines an "unborn child" as a fetus at any stage of development, beginning at conception.

.....

Gov. Charlie Crist, whose signature would be required for the bills to become law, has been silent on the matter.

Democrats argued the abortion measures were little more than a government invasion into a private health matter.
"This is not about protecting the rights of women," said Rep. Joyce Cusack, D-DeLand. "This is about eroding the rights of women. And I am so disappointed we would spend this kind of time on something that is really none of our business."

.....

Hopefully, the FL Supreme Court will strike this down as unconstitutional, as it places an unfair burden on women seeking to terminate a pregnancy.

[seafan]

16. Palm Beach Post: Abortion bills target women's wallets

Abortion bills target women's wallets

By THOMAS R. COLLINS
Palm Beach Post

Friday, April 11, 2008

TALLAHASSEE — The abortion issue has electrified the state House and Senate this month with bills that would require ultrasounds before first-trimester abortions.
But there's more to the debate than privacy and morality. At issue is another topic near and dear to all Floridians: cash.
Under a bill heading toward the Senate floor, a woman not only would have to watch live images of the ultrasound, or sign a form declining to, she would have to pay for the procedure even if she doesn't watch it.

Most clinics include an ultrasound and factor it into the price of an abortion. But opponents say it's not medically necessary and that making the expense mandatory runs afoul of the U.S. Constitution, hitting the poor particularly hard. An ultrasound typically costs between $50 and $250.
"For some low-income women, that could mean the difference between whether they can get the care they choose or not," said Vicki Saporta, president of the National Abortion Federation.
Another concern, they say, is that the language of the Senate bill could mean that even if a woman declines to view the image, the health professional would have to discuss what's occurring while the ultrasound is being performed.

.....

The House passed its version of the bill (HB 257) last week on a 70-45 vote along party lines. With the backing of Majority Leader Daniel Webster, R-Winter Garden, the Senate measure (SB 2400) is nearing a vote by the full chamber. After the Health Regulation Committee approved it on a 4-3 vote this week, only one committee stop remains.

Gov. Charlie Crist hasn't yet taken a position on the issue.

The House version includes extra requirements for minors seeking an abortion.
Ultrasounds already are required for second- and third-trimester abortions in Florida, but 91 percent of the procedures in 2006 were done in the first trimester, state records show.
The bill would allow victims of rape, incest or human trafficking to opt out of the viewing, but only if they provide documentation, such as a police report. Opponents argue that these crimes aren't always reported.

Only Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi require that an ultrasound be performed before all abortions and that it be offered for viewing.

.....

The money issue figures to loom large if the bill makes it to the floor for debate.

Nationally, 57 percent of women who have abortions are "economically disadvantaged," according to the Guttmacher Institute, a research group on reproductive health that was a part of Planned Parenthood through 1977.
Opponents argued in the House last week that the requirement might fly in the face of the "undue burden" standard set out in a 1992 U.S. Supreme Court decision.
The court said a law is unconstitutional if it "has the purpose or effect of placing a substantial obstacle in the path of a woman seeking an abortion" of a nonviable fetus.
Sen. Dave Aronberg, D-Greenacres, said the money issue is a big problem with the bill.

"It's dangerous because it also impacts the poor," he said. "There's no provision for any insurance or Medicaid to cover this."

.....

"I do believe life begins at conception and I believe the state has a right to make sure that folks understand what they're doing," said Sen. J.D. Alexander, R-Winter Haven. "I will never forget the day my wife and I viewed our first child's ultrasound."

.....

[Elspeth]

19. This is just evil. Women who can't afford a $250 ultrasound can't have an abortion

What the hell is going on in Florida?

[aikoaiko]

5. yeah, but you still have Disney....

:sarcasm:

[seafan]

8. FL GOP House Leadership (Marco Rubio) Would Abandon Effort To Save Natural Florida

House Leadership Would Abandon Effort To Save Natural Florida



Marco Rubio, Jeb Bush's '100 ideas for Florida' minion


The Tampa Tribune
April 10, 2008

It's too bad Marco Rubio doesn't seem to have much interest in others' opinions. The cocksure 36-year-old House speaker could learn a lot about the importance of natural Florida from former Gov. Bob Martinez.

Martinez, a Republican like Rubio, launched the visionary state program to buy wilderness lands in 1991. He understood the value of saving Florida's natural heritage - its rivers and springs, beaches and mangrove islands, cypress swamps and pinewoods. And he knew many beautiful and important resources would be preserved only if the public acquired them. Yet he also thought it wrong to regulate away the use of land.
"You might save wetlands on land, but the rest would be developed," he says. "The wildlife and wilderness values would be lost. I thought the greater value to the public was to keep the whole tract intact."

The program - originally Preservation 2000, now Florida Forever - spends $300 million a year on land acquisition. It has been hugely popular and successful, saving more than 2 million acres. The program motivated more than 25 counties to create similar local programs that often split acquisition costs with the state. Subsequent governors Lawton Chiles, Jeb Bush and Charlie Crist have all enthusiastically championed land preservation.

But now Rubio is seeking to destroy Martinez's conservation masterpiece. His budget-cutting minions plan to kill funding for Florida Forever. And to further emphasize their contempt for the environment, they also want to strip Everglades restoration funding from the budget.

.....

Though the program spends up to $300 million a year on land acquisition, the money is bonded and the state payment is about $25 million a year. So it is not as if the state can't afford the program.
Both Gov. Crist and the Senate include funds for Florida Forever and the Everglades in their budgets. State revenues are down, to be sure. But a 7 percent drop does not justify jettisoning Florida's two most important environmental programs.
"What's important is the commitment, that the money will be spent over time," Martinez says. "You want to protect the concept or landowners will not see this as a reliable program."

Instead, Rubio signals landowners there may soon be no alternative to developers' offers.

Moreover, the federal government is likely to give up partnering with Florida on reviving the Everglades if lawmakers abandon the effort that will restore a natural water flow to the River of Grass, help protect South Florida's water supply and clean up polluted runoff that that drains into estuaries on both coasts.
The Senate and Gov. Crist should demand the House restore funding for Florida Forever and the Everglades. And voters should remember the House members who support this scheme. Florida residents will forever lament the state's shortsightedness if Rubio has his way.

Bob Graham, we really need you to speak out loudly about this.

[seafan]

10. In the meantime, Rubio slips in stealth language to benefit a crony in a major Turnpike contract.

Rubio's budget wording benefits ally

BY MARC CAPUTO
April 7, 2008

TALLAHASSEE --
Florida House Speaker Marco Rubio quietly slipped tough-to-spot language in a state budget plan last week that helps a friend and political money-man bid on a major fuel contract in a $265 million turnpike overhaul proposal.

This is the second year in a row that South Florida fuel distributor Max Alvarez has relied on the man he has said is ''like a son'' to push the budget language to ensure he can more easily bid for the job.

Rubio said in a written statement that he was concerned the turnpike contract paved the way for anti-competitive "monopolies," and acknowledged through spokeswoman Jill Chamberlin that his office ''had a role'' in putting the language in the budget, adding that ``others are interested in it as well.''

Republican lawmakers and staffers, including Rubio allies, told The Miami Herald that the speaker was the one who inserted the language in the budget. Chamberlin said she wasn't told.

.....

But Rubio's not done yet.


He's again pushing to privatize Medicaid, just like Jeb wanted.


House pushes Medicaid experiment for nine additional counties

By DAVID ROYSE
April 09, 2008

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — The House decided Wednesday to push forward with a plan to expand a change in the way Medicaid works, though local trials of the overhaul have been criticized for glitches.

Pushed hard by then-Gov. Jeb Bush, the Legislature a few years ago moved to revamp the Medicaid system that delivers health care to about 2.2 million Floridians. The plan would make Medicaid more like private health care, putting patients into care networks like health maintenance organizations. Supporters said that would boost preventive care and limit cost increases. Currently, most people in Medicaid simply seek care, and then afterward the government is billed for it.

The plan to reform Medicaid was criticized by many advocates for the poor who said it would leave some people unable to find the care they need. Critics have said some Medicaid recipients have had trouble in choosing a plan that would cover their needs, and that it wasn't apparent that care was better under the new system, or cheaper, which were the goals.
In a compromise, the Legislature started the change slowly. It is being tried in five counties in a pilot program - but has been expected to eventually become the statewide norm.

Last year, there were some acknowledgements from unexpected sources that the overhaul wasn't going as smoothly as hoped. The inspector general at the state agency that runs Medicaid, the Agency for Health Care Administration, even said there were problems. The agency said it wouldn't ask lawmakers to move forward with expanding the program this year.

The agency, however, recently got a new secretary, Holly Benson, who supports expanding the Medicaid overhaul more quickly.

.....

And two weeks ago, Rubio pushed through the House version of the "Take Your Gun To Work" bill.

Just what an employer needs to remember, when he must lay off an employee on a Friday.




And Rubio and Jeb also stacked the obscure Taxation and Budget Reform Commission with Republican operatives, who are busy pushing Jeb's pet school vouchers into our state constitution, steering public money into religious organizations and forcing tax caps on local governments' ability to collect revenue for needed local expenses.



What Jeb Bush Republicans have done to Florida is pure and deliberate devastation.

[seafan]

11. Late night kick. n/t

[madfloridian]

12. Kicking again, and I linked to it in my new post here.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x3142524

[KG]

13. and guns uber alles!

[The Backlash Cometh]

14. Well, if they keep getting away with their political crimes, why should

we be surprised when things get so bad? Thank you Florida newspapers, for fucking nothing.

Except for the St. Pete Times. A pearl, hiding in a shell, stuck in a reef of sludge.

[DCKit]

15. Local and county governments have been reaping huge gains...

from the rabid increase in housing prices and the resulting property taxes, yet nearly every one of them is, already, crying poverty. WTF?

My personal experience, albeit a view from outside, is of a small, low population county in VA where property values have tripled over the past decade. Property taxes have risen accordingly, yet the county government is broke. How did they mismanage their way into fiscal ruin? Simple: They're addicted to spending and their budgets are based on projected income, not realistic growth and fiscal responsibility. Some might even go so far as to invoke the Shock Doctrine to explain the grand plan in bankrupting every government body from the federal to the local level, but the point is, what we're allowing to happen isn't going to end well and we need to stop it.

It won't be easy to shake loose the Republicon mentality, but they're spending us to death and, unless our priorities are re-aligned, we're going to find ourselves without even basic services.

Sure it's important that we get a (D) in the WH, but the local races are - dare I say it? - just as important, if not more so, to our daily lives and ongoing prosperity. No more Republicans, no more DINOs, no more Blue Dogs and no more Corporatists. We need to take this country back from level of the WH to that of the local school board, or we're not going to survive. Additionally, by building a base of (D) elected local officials, we'd be creating the base for a stronger Democratic party and a pool of qualified candidates to fill higher positions in future elections.

[onethatcares]

17. but, but but,

we can take our guns to work, ain't that grand? :sarcasm:

[seasat]

18. This would be a perfect opportunity for our party to gain some seats,

that is if any of them had any courage or conviction. They could roll out an alternative plan that included progressive tax reform highlighting the obvious corporate gimmies passed by the legislature. They could point how this plan would benefit the majority of us Floridians instead of an elite few. They could propose a liberal budget that would fund schools and the environment. They could then plaster their plan on every media outlet available and rally the whole party around challenging the Jebbittes.

Sadly the only one that has really aggressively pushed a tax reform over the years is a Republican, John McKay. I tell y'all, we're really begging for some leadership in our party down here.

[seafan]

20. FL officials believe new auto license tag should contain cross

Officials believe new tag should contain cross





BY GARY FINEOUT
April 12, 2008

TALLAHASSEE --
Even though Florida now has more than 100 specialized license tags, the Republican-controlled Legislature may soon add one more: a colorful license plate that features the words ''I Believe'' set among a resplendent sunrise and the image of a cross in front of stained-glass window.

Florida already has tags that feature manatees, the Challenger space shuttle, panthers, and football teams. In 1999, lawmakers approved a controversial ''Choose Life'' tag that was seen by some critics as promoting a religious anti-abortion message and was initially challenged in the courts.

.....

Sen. Mike Fasano, a New Port Richey Republican who is sponsoring a measure that would create four different plates -- including the ''I Believe'' tag as well as a lighthouse tag and a ''In God We Trust'' plate -- said he saw no problem with letting motorists decide if they want to pay the extra $25 to buy a special tag.

''That's that the option of every driver who owns a vehicle,'' Fasano said. ``They can decide if they want to have a license plate with a cross in front of a stained-glass window. It's not different from choosing a Choose Life license plate or a manatee license pate or a Florida State University or University of Florida license plate.''

Howard Simon, executive director of the ACLU of Florida, said the possibility of a state-sanctioned tag with a cross should prompt to Florida lawmakers to rethink the whole ''crazy'' system of license plates.

'Maybe at this point the Legislature should begin rethinking whether a message on a state-manufactured plate, whether `I support panthers' or 'I'm a Christian,' might be better on a bumper sticker,'' Simon said.

.....

The extra money earned from the sale of the ''I Believe'' license plate would go to an Orlando based nonprofit called Faith in Teaching that says on its website that money from the plates would be used for grants to ''continue faith-based education for the youth of Florida.'' The group did not return a call seeking comment.

Simon, however, questioned the idea of having the state collect money that could wind up in the hands of churches.

''I don't think the state should be a collection agency,'' Simon said.

The rabid right wingers are ratcheting up the fanaticism and zealotry, as fast as they possibly can.


The merging of Church and State is a cancer on the Constitution that our forefathers envisioned.

[seafan]

21. 'Sugar train' outruns the Florida budget ax

'Sugar train' outruns the budget ax

BY GARY FINEOUT
April 11, 2008

While programs for children and healthcare were cut, lawmakers found money for pet projects such as a train that would benefit the sugar industry.

TALLAHASSEE --
About Face is a small 11-year-old mentoring program held in National Guard armories across the state in which teenagers are taught ''life skills'' in small groups and warned about drugs and smoking.
If House Republicans have their way, the program will be scuttled by this summer, a victim of Florida's sagging tax collections.
With less than month to go before signing off on the budget, state legislators are poised to slash state spending by $4 billion to $5 billion, a record drop in one year. The About Face program, which has served more than 5,000 kids since its creation, is one of myriad programs scheduled to be killed completely or cut deeply to balance the budget.

On Thursday, the House approved a $65.1 billion spending plan for the coming year that cuts healthcare programs for the poor, slashes the number of prosecutors and shutters a state-run hospital for tuberculosis patients in Lantana. A juvenile detention center in Monroe County would be closed, and substance-abuse programs in prisons would be eliminated.

But while pushing cuts, lawmakers have found room to pay for pet projects, like spending up to $700,000 for a feasibility study on extending a rail corridor from South Bay to West Miami that could wind up helping the sugar industry.

House Republicans also have put in $12 million intended to ''attract a targeted high-wage industry'' to a controversial new airport in Panama City, whose creation was pushed by Florida's largest private land owner, the St. Joe Co. The House approved its budget Thursday along party lines, as Democrats portrayed Republicans as heartless for refusing to dig more deeply into reserves, increase Florida's cigarette tax or end sales-tax exemptions now enjoyed on such things as bottled water and charter fishing trips.

''This budget takes us down a dangerous path,'' said Rep. Yolly Roberson, a Miami Democrat.

As a handful of Democrats urged a ''no'' vote on the budget, most House Republicans left the chamber for a lunch of meatloaf or tuna salad.

.....

To a mostly empty chamber, Rep. Scott Randolph, an Orlando Democrat, said what the Republicans are doing is immoral.
''God will be the final judge of our deeds,'' said Randolph, who then read from the New Testament books of Matthew and James. ``How will God judge us when we tell him the rich and powerful are more important to us than the poor and elderly?''
Republicans accused Democrats of ``grandstanding.''
GOP lawmakers said they were acting responsibly, and that it would be economically damaging to consider substantial tax increases, or dip too deeply into reserves since there is no clear sign that Florida's economic woes will end anytime soon. The new budget will cover spending for the year beginning July 1.

.....

(House Majority Leader Adam Hasner, a Delray Beach Republican) said Floridians ''don't want us to balance the budget by increasing taxes'' and that all Democrats want to do is ``reach further into the pockets of Floridians.'' <<< :banghead: >>>

House Republicans, however, have agreed to go along with one Democratic idea: Freeze for one year a state subsidy program that provides up to $2 million a year each to the owners of sports stadiums and arenas.

''We want to be sensitive to people's needs and what's going on,'' said House Speaker Marco Rubio.

<<< :eyes: >>>.....

.....

One other area where both chambers agreed: Money for the ``sugar train.''

Nestled into the Department of Transportation budget is money for a study on extending the rail corridor from South Bay to West Miami. The House approved $500,000, while the Senate seeks $700,000.
The money comes from from the $265 million rail development trust funds. If built, the rail line would serve the sugar industry as well as road builders, said Rep. Dean Cannon, an Orlando Republican who oversees the transportation budget in the House.
''DOT likes the idea because it will enable them to get aggregate materials for road base cheaper and faster over the long haul,'' he said.
The measure also has the support of the South Florida Regional Transit Authority, which wants to move freight traffic from the commuter rails along the coast inland.

.....

You see, the Florida Regional Transit Authority *wants* to move freight traffic away from the coasts to the inland areas. Funny, that's what Jeb's secretive CSX deal with the state wanted as well...

And, magically, Jeb's secret CSX deal with the state also *survived* the budget cuts. <<< :puke: >>>


April 10, 2008

TALLAHASSEE - Billions of dollars short on funding for health care, education and criminal justice, Senate lawmakers tried in vain on Wednesday to narrow the gap by yanking millions of dollars from a commuter rail project for Central Florida.

It was perhaps the most dramatic maneuver yet in the debate over the $4 billion to $5 billion that House and Senate lawmakers are cutting in response to plummeting state revenue.

.....

Under both budgets, however, the state would buy 61 miles of CSX Transportation's tracks in the Orlando area for commuter rail and fund improvements to CSX tracks statewide. In such a tight budget year, said Sen. Paula Dockery, R-Lakeland, the state should spend money on vital state programs, not a half-billion-dollar expansion of a private company.

Dockery and others are concerned the CSX deal would bring more freight trains through downtown Lakeland. Dockery and two other Republican senators sought to transfer $20.1 million from the CSX trust fund to the state court system in hopes of avoiding massive layoffs and long court delays.

The CSX project "is not a top necessity of the state of Florida, whereas the court system most certainly is," said Dockery, chairwoman of the Criminal Justice Committee.

.....

It's high time for Floridians to end this era of abusive Republican thievery of our state's human and environmental resources and our state treasury, once and for all.

[seasat]

22. Big Sugar is the poster child for corporate welfare.

There are two privately owned companies that run the industry in S Florida. They bribe federal politicians to give them huge subsidies. Their profit is largely based on subsidies both direct and indirect through tariffs. They basically take our money, skim a little off the top to bribe elected officials, then keep the rest as profits. They've used their subsidy money to block restoration of the Everglades because they are the major polluters of the 'Glades and it would require them to reform their farming practices. They spent over 6.5 million to swift boat our Democratic gubernatorial candidate, Jim Davis, last election because he would have actually tried to get the Everglades restoration going again. They spent millions trying to lobby the World Health Organization because the WHO stated that children need less refined sugar in their diets. They wanted them to drop all references to that in their nutrition recommendations. The Fanjul family that controls the Flo-Sun sugar corp are Cuban expats were the big sugar barons in Cuba, pre-Castro. They've lobbied to keep the strictest US embargo policies on Cuba in place. Personally, I'd love for congress to drop all subsidies for them and remove all tariffs. This is one industry in Florida, I'd love to see go under.

[seafan]

23. Florida Republican lawmaker: State's treasure could ease budget mess

Republican looters.


As far as offering comments on all of this, I'm fresh out.



Lawmaker: State's treasure could ease budget mess

A Miami legislator asks how many millions the state could earn by selling shipwreck treasure to fill holes in the state budget.

BY MARC CAPUTO
April 11, 2008



MIAMI HERALD FILE
A Miami lawmaker asks how many millions the state could earn by selling shipwreck treasure to fill holes in the state budget.

TALLAHASSEE --
As legislators scramble for cash in the worst budget crisis they've ever faced, tens of millions of dollars in treasure lies just within their reach outside the Capitol.
This is real treasure -- the kind hauled up from sunken Spanish ships. The state has one of the world's largest publicly owned collections of colonial Spanish doubloons and reales, as well as a few gold and silver ingots and chains.
Much of it lies safe and hidden in a vault, known only to a few, and occasionally loaned out to museums around the country.

But now Rep. Juan Zapata of Miami wants to crack it open and sell a little treasure to help fill some holes in the proposed $66 billion budget, which is more than $4 billion smaller than this year's spending plan. And the Republican is accusing the Florida secretary of state's office of throwing him off the scent and hiding the booty.
''In a tough budget year,'' Zapata said, ``we have some interesting goodies in the closet. Why not have an interesting garage sale, put them out there and see what we can get for them? The question now is, what's the value?''

No one really knows, though one expert says the more than 1,600 gold coins and nearly 22,000 silver ones have a value of at least $17 million.

.....

When asked about the value, Ryan Wheeler, chief of the state's Bureau of Archaelogical Research, sounded appalled.
''These are tough times,'' he said. ``But we don't sell treasure as a Florida family to make up for it. We don't sell the family Bible or grandmother's china to fix the problem because we'll be faced with the problems next year. And we won't have this to study our past.''
Wheeler and the spokeswoman for Secretary of State Jennifer Davis said these aren't just commodities for the marketplace. These are artifacts owned by all Florida citizens, stored in a library-like secure vault.

When The Miami Herald asked for a list of the artifacts and an accounting of the gold and silver, Davis said she was concerned that a story would ``be giving the reader the impression that we are sitting on, for lack of a better word, a treasure trove. And what we are is the repository of the historical artifacts of Florida, which are owned by the people of Florida.''
The artifacts are myriad: cannon balls, plates and cups, astrolabe and musket parts and even a one-of-a-kind 18th century wooden dreidel, pulled off the 1733 Keys wreck of the San José that gives a glimpse into the lives of the first Jews to live in Cuba.
Wheeler said selling off the artifacts sets a dangerous precedent.
''Do you draw the line with the gold and silver coins?'' he said. 'Or do you say, `Well, what about the American Indian pottery that we have in our collection?' Or the arrowheads that are 12,000 years old? Or the historic buildings that are managed by our agency? Well, what about our state parks? There are about 160 state parks. That seems like a lot. Maybe those could be sold.''

.....

But there's one mother lode from which the state has no booty: the Nuestra Señora de Atocha, which wrecked with a treasure-laden fleet in 1622 off the Marquesas Keys. It had so much treasure that its loss helped bankrupt the Spanish government. ..... Zapata mistakenly thought some of the treasure from the Atocha was the only one in the state's possession, so he drafted an amendment Wednesday night to require the secretary of state's office to appraise and sell it.
The office's budget manager told Zapata's aide in an e-mail that the state doesn't have ''any items in our custody to appraise and sell.'' But it didn't mention treasure from other ships he didn't ask about. ..... So Zapata withdrew the amendment. Now that he knows he wasn't told of the loads of treasure from other ships, it's too late to change the budget. Now he wants the Legislature to charter a study to find out what's there, and what it's all worth.
''They should have been more forthcoming with information,'' Zapata said. ``They're sitting on a treasure, and we didn't know about it. This is a treasure hunt right now.''

Florida is a Republican treasure hunt, indeed. All of these greedy bastards need to GO.