Category: Florida

            You would have thought that George H.W. Bush’s infamous “No new taxes” pledge in 1988 would have been forewarning enough. It eventually did what such expedient political promises typically do: run smack into unforeseen reality down the road. Bush de-pledged. He had rolled the rhetorical dice and hoped ensuing events – fiscal and political – wouldn’t require a recant.

            He was wrong. “Read-my-lips” wrong.         

            Which brings us to the upcoming Florida Legislature, which will have to address unprecedented, mushrooming-as-we-speak, budget deficits that could exceed $5 billion by 2010. The recessionary economy has already resulted in statewide job layoffs, critical service cuts and important infrastructure-improvement deferrals.

            Well, Strategy One should be pretty obvious, especially when deficit spending is prohibited: increase voluntary taxes such as tobacco, close unjustified sales-tax exemption (including services) loopholes and get proactive – finally – about Internet sales taxes.

            Except. There’s this pledge.

The Florida Legislature has provided yet another example of why political “pledges” should be seen for what they really are – blatant exercises in political expedience and pandering. Twenty-nine sitting legislators, including Senate President Jeff Atwater and incoming House Speaker Larry Cretul, have signed a no new taxes pledge that pre-dates “Read-my-lips” notoriety. Also signing: Gov. Charlie Crist and Attorney General Bill McCollum.

Now comes their truth-in-pledging Rubicon. They can stand by their “taxpayer protection” pledge, glibly nuance their words to accommodate economic adversity or fall on their ideological, no-tax swords.

Atwater acknowledges he may have to do some “revisiting.” Sen. Mike Fasano would consider raising “fees.” Others have used the “no net revenue” rationale that means increasing some taxes if they were counterbalanced by decreasing others. Which makes no net sense in times such as these. Still other signatories call for the relaxing of class-size-limits standards. Etc.

Best bet: Absolutely nobody denounces the cynical, self-serving ploy that is a political pledge. Some will keep their pledge, figuring stuff will still get done without their help, and they can remain unalienated from their conservative base. 

And enough will go the parse-farce route – and hope nobody notices.

They’ll probably be right. But sometimes the voters do read lips.

Those looking to take shots at Gov. Charlie Crist are not lacking for ammo. But they need to prioritize their bullet points.  

Property taxes continue to not “drop like a rock.” The state is still one major hurricane away from insurance implosion. There is no gubernatorial leadership when it comes to the manifestly obvious need for a revised revenue-raising formula, one that will expedite the closing of key sales-tax exemption loopholes and get serious about Internet (sales) taxes.

And if you want to go purely ad hominem, Crist can be easily characterized as an empty-suited opportunist seemingly looking out more for the next elective office than a state now in flatlined growth mode.

But accusing him of being a “sellout” because he’s supporting President Obama’s stimulus plan, one that will send more than $7 billion Florida’s way for, among other priorities, transportation, education and health care?  He’s a GOP Judas because he’s pragmatically trying to get all the federal help he can for Florida, a state steeped in home foreclosures and an unemployment rate of 8 per cent? He’s a Republican Benedict Arnold because he’s trying to maximize this state’s direct take at a time when state jobs and critical services are being cut and necessary infrastructure improvements deferred because deficit spending is not an option? 

And, notably enough, among those skewering Crist for “selling out”: Sen. Mel Martinez. An increasing number of Cuban-Americans must surely find that ironic.

These same critics underscore how much this Obamanation hurts Crist with the Republican base.

So what? The real Crist base is independents. What’s at stake far transcends the usual suspects given to the usual partisan political preening.

Moreover, if the GOP continues to marginalize itself with tax-cut orthodoxy, disingenuous talk of generational deficits and a pander fest, evangelical agenda, it will become the Palin party with no room for Crist anyhow.

 Yes, Crist is pragmatically supporting President Obama’s $787-billion stimulus plan and did, indeed, share a Fort Myers stage with him. What the governor is obviously trying to do is leverage this mega swing state and his GOP affiliation — at a time when bipartisanship is still foundering — to cut the best possible deal for Florida.

And it was refreshingly astute for Crist to literally position himself between Tampa’s Democratic Mayor Pam Iorio and St. Petersburg’s Republican Mayor Rick Baker last week to offer thanks to Congress for the stimulus help and to reinforce the rationale for its need.

Ironically, with so much attention lavished on Crist taking GOP heat, not nearly enough is being focused on the much more important question for Florida, now that its manifest destiny is no longer mega-growth forever. When will Crist start planning realistically for all those future, “unstimulated” budget years?

            Most teachers will tell you that former Gov. Jeb Bush missed the mark when he equated educational accountability with FCATs. They were right. Teaching to standardized tests inevitably results, and teaching to standardized tests is inherently flawed.

            Teachers will also tell you that Bush’s plan to end teacher tenure also was without merit. They were wrong.

            Teachers – after a three-year, annual-contract period – now get permanent “professional service” contracts. It’s unique. It’s supposed to be a buffer against “vindictive administrators.” As if bad bosses only gravitate to education.

The reality is this: Time and red tape make it almost impossible to fire a merely incompetent teacher. Too often they are transferred and become some other school’s and some other students’ problem. That’s inexcusable.

It’s a lot easier if they are sexual predators or drug dealers. The merely overwhelmed and underperforming are more the case – and likely to be tolerated.

The issue is packaged in a bill that will head to the Legislature next month. If passed, the end of tenure as we now know it, however, would only apply to those hired after July 2009. But that’s not consolation enough for the state teachers union that’s already braced for battle.

The loss of tenure, it will be argued, is yet another indignity – low salaries, lousy FCAT-related morale, budget cuts – being imposed upon teachers.                                          

Granted, these are especially challenging times for those presiding in Florida’s classrooms. But they are no less consequential for students. And whatever is done with the end of improving their learning environment, it won’t much matter if there’s not a quality teacher in front of them. That’s really what the tenure debate is about.

Here’s hoping that the most significant event to come out of the upcoming legislative session is not the formal debut of newly anointed House Speaker Larry Cretul. The Ocala Republican takes over for Ray Sansom, whose Funnel Vision finally caught up with him. 

Now that the exercise in service cuts and trust-fund plunder – aka the January “special session”– is history, may this now be the moment the Florida Legislature truly takes one for the home team?  Will it finally dawn on legislators, regardless of “anti-tax” shibboleths and GOP gospel, that now has to be the time to close loopholes and open up revenue sources, including some “third rail” political ones?

Surely, legislators have noted that Florida is no longer inoculated from recessions by the Sunshine State’s rapid-growth birthright. Surely, they’ve noted that revenue streams need to reflect something other than the sales-tax skewed formula that sufficed when LeRoy Collins was governor. Surely, flat-lined growth matters.

Surely.

According to Cretul, the state revenue shortfall may reach $5 billion for 2009-10. Keynesian solutions are precluded because the state constitution prohibits deficit spending. And deep cuts have already sliced into the marrow of education, health care and public safety.

This should be the agenda:

First, pick the low-hanging fruit. That means finalizing the Seminole gambling compact and adding a dollar in tobacco taxes. Voluntary taxes should always be in play; even more so when the state is in the throes of unprecedented, economic turbulence. And adding to the gasoline tax, which works on several levels, should be on the table. But nobody should get credit for doing the obvious.

Then the heavy hitters.

*Sales tax exemptions, including services. Review them and slam shut the ones that can’t stand the scrutiny. Sure, the elimination-of-service-tax exemptions melee probably cost Gov. Bob Martinez his re-election, but these are not the 1980s. Are we serious about raising revenue – and being equitable – or not? That, candidly, should be a rhetorical question — not a political quandary.

Encouragingly, Senate President Jeff Atwater is on record for advocating a review of exemptions. Presumably, he wasn’t just posturing after the less-than-special session in January. He does cite a revenue figure of $4 billion annually that could result from selected exemption closings.

*Corporate tax-law loopholes. Two in particular, worth an estimated $500 million or more.

One allows corporations to sell high-value properties without paying documentary stamp taxes. It involves the ruse of putting the real estate’s title in a corporation. Then selling the corporation – not the real estate.

The other lets Florida outlets of national companies transfer a chunk of their taxable income to sister companies in states with (even more) lenient tax laws

*Online loopholes. The future has to be now, because the crisis is now. This means doing something more than hand-wringing and musing on the possibility of some day joining a concerted, multi-state effort to prod Congress into allowing states to collect sales taxes on goods sold over the Internet. While other states are gearing up for lobbying Congress, Florida remains a bit player. It’s worth an estimated $1 billion.

Another variation on the online theme is now mushrooming around the state. Florida counties are hoping to get help from Tallahassee over uncollected, online hotel  taxes. In effect, online hotel booking companies are skirting Florida’s tourism development taxes. Some estimate as much as $200 million could be at stake for Florida counties.

            Like many Democrats, Caren Lobo was emotionally jolted by the keynote speech Barack Obama gave at the Democratic National Convention in Boston back in the summer of 2004. She remembers being viscerally impacted watching it from her couch with husband Dick Lobo.

            “I remember saying, ‘Oh, my God, is this for real?’” recalls Caren from her Hyde Park home. Particularly moving, she says, was Obama’s clarion call for an end to the politics of polarization. She then recites: “‘…There is not a liberal America and a conservative America. There is the United States of America. There is not a black America and a white America and a Latino America and an Asian America – there’s the United States of America…’

            “That moved me,” says Lobo, her eyes re-misting at the recollection. “He was harkening back to our core values.”

She then read Obama’s “Dreams From My Father.”

“We weren’t that involved politically, notes Lobo, 55, “that we would go and trace a career. But we learned that he was revered by students at the University of Chicago. We found out that he could have written his own ticket out of Harvard, but that he’s not motivated by money. Dick and I said, ‘We have to pay attention.’”

Once rumors commenced that the rookie Illinois senator might announce his presidential candidacy, Caren Lobo made a vow: “I said: ‘If he does this, I want to work for him. He could ignite the flame in a new generation.’”

The Lobos then attended Obama fund-raisers in Palm Beach and Miami, including one at the home of celebrity attorney Roy Black. “I was signed, sealed and delivered,” she says.

The Lobos are plugged in. Dick is the president and CEO of PBS affiliate WEDU in Tampa. Caren’s background includes management consulting and arts organizing. Caren knew people. She had a grass-roots disposition. And she was pumped.

She worked on house parties, phone banks and committed to raise more than $250,000 for the campaign. That included a fundraiser at the Lobos’ other residence – in Sarasota – featuring Michelle Obama. Caren worked with local Obama organizer Frank Sanchez and, like Sanchez, was named to Obama’s national finance committee.

At every turn, she saw her gut reaction to Obama’s 2004 keynote address reinforced. She had ample opportunities to interact with the candidate – and to see what might be behind the “Change” image.

“He doesn’t change,” stresses Lobo. “On or off stage. He’s genuine. Warm. Easy. Very present. He wasn’t desperate for you to love him.

“You cannot help but be impressed by his ability to inspire an army of people,” underscores Lobo. “Take his race talk in Philly. Not everyone thought it was a good idea. But he insisted that he do it. And he wrote it himself. He has the ability to take himself out of the emotional moment and look at a collective American problem.”

While critics, including the media, scrutinized the flawed campaigns of Hillary Clinton and John McCain, outsiders generally lavished praise on the Obama operation – from internet fundraising and early-voting strategies to caucus tactics and message discipline.

 “I remember he sat right across from me, one-on-one, and said, ‘We are going to win Iowa, and everything will flow from there,’” she says. “He was incredibly well-organized, and the campaign reflected that. I knew he was someone who could speak truth to power, because he went against the Democratic establishment.”

                                                      Named Elector

Now fast forward to Dec. 15, 2008. The site: the Florida State Capitol building in Tallahassee. The floor of the Florida Senate. The gallery was reserved for media, selected students and friends of the 27 electors who would cast presidential ballots. Secretary of State Kurt Browning presiding.

It’s the quadrennial convening of history. This was the “electoral college’s” Florida campus. And Caren Lobo, having been chosen by her state’s Democratic State Executive Committee, was one of those 27. One of 538 across the country.

“It’s such an incredible experience,” she says. “They don’t tell you what to expect. It’s very informal – until they call you to sign.”

Informal enough to allow for levity. Steve Schale, Obama’s Florida campaign manager, reported that he had received a call from Chicago headquarters reminding him that “It’s Florida, after all, and tell them not to mess up.”

After an invocation and the pledge of allegiance, ballots were passed out. Two boxes to check, a line for a signature and one for the printed version. Within seven minutes the ballots had been collected and counted by the clerk.

“Nobody,” recalls Lobo with a grin, “went rogue.” (There is no Constitutional provision or federal law that requires electors to vote according to the results of the popular vote in their states, but they invariably do.)

Browning then had each elector step forward, in alphabetical order, to sign seven official certificates (with their souvenir Sharpies) that would be forwarded to the President of the Senate and the Archivist of the United States in Washington. Each elector received a certificate.

At the end, says Lobo, everyone rose, applauded and collectively cried. They all were given buttons that said with more than a hint of irony: “Mission Accomplished.”

“You feel like a player in an epic movie,” reflects Lobo.

“I know it’s just a ritual,” she acknowledges. “I know it’s sort of archaic. But it was still a thrill and a great honor.”

So, what of this “ritual” of honor that many, including Florida Sen. Bill Nelson, want replaced (which would take a Constitutional Amendment) by a purely popular vote? Does she disagree?

“It is what it is,” she notes diplomatically. “My nature is to say the popular vote is fine. But I’m not from a smaller state.”

                                                  Elector Perk

The Lobos went to Washington for the Inaugural, because they wouldn’t have missed it. Also, electors get reserved seating.

“It was magical and emotional,” says Caren Lobo. “Two million people assembled peacefully in freezing cold to witness history.

“I remember looking back and seeing a sea of people with flags. It looked like shimmering water. And that crowd – it looked like America. And it looked like the world.”

            It’s no secret that this state — from Tampa Mayor Pam Iorio to Gov. Charlie Crist to members of Congress — has been weighing in on the Obama Administration with hefty, Florida-centric wish lists.

            Amid the appeals for Medicaid help, Everglades restoration and infrastructure dollars is a less-publicized entreaty from Gov. Crist. In his recent request letter to (then President Elect) Obama, Crist also asked for political support for Florida’s substantial international trade.

            Specifically, Crist made the case for the Colombian Free Trade Agreement. He noted that such an agreement could increase Florida’s exports to Colombia by more than $160 million in the first year. It would also create an estimated 1,775 jobs.

            While he was lobbying for Florida’s 14 seaports, the “people’s governor” steered clear of an opportunity to lobby for much more. Why not remind the new president that an end to the Cuban embargo would, according to estimates from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, be worth at least $1.2 billion in U.S. exports – a sizable share of which would accrue to Florida?

            And in the process, why not remind the new president — seemingly content for now with merely undoing the George W. Bush embargo add-ons — that the critical swing state of Florida can obviously be had without pandering to the clout-diminished Cuban exile vote? Why not, in effect, remind the new president that the low-hanging fruit that is the Cuban embargo is now there for the picking during a recession for the ages?

            Unless, of course, the governor himself needs more than reminding that the nearly half-century Cuban embargo, that quintessential Cold War relic, has never made less sense or been more counterproductive for this state and this country.

            First the good news. According to Education Week, Florida now ranks 10^th nationally in education quality. The criteria range from student achievement and standards to licensing requirements for teachers and Advanced Placement exam scores for high school students.

The bad ed news is that Florida still has one of the worst graduation rates in the country. Put into context: Those who do graduate are doing better.

When Charlie Crist was married recently, he and his bride, Carole Rome, had to navigate that gauntlet of protestors. Several causes were represented, notably Impact Florida’s protesting of the Florida Marriage Amendment and the Uhuru Movement’s protesting of the death of Javon Dawson. He’s the teen who was killed by a St. Petersburg police officer outside a high school graduation party in June.

            To the governor’s credit, he didn’t flinch or frown, simply noting airily that “Free speech is alive and well.”

            Well, Gov. Charlie couldn’t say it, but we will.

To Impact Florida: “Marriage is a cross-cultural institution comprising a man and a woman. It’s been around as long as recorded history. It’s not the product of any government’s decree – and no government has the authority to change its fundamental, gender composition. But civil unions, regardless of sex, make eminent sense – as well as practical, humane policy. Whether you are Adam and Eve or Adam and Steve, we will not back off on the commitment to civil unions. And simple fairness.

“And that ‘Charlie, Get Straight on Equality’sign. Very clever.”

To Uhuru Movement: “Once again, you have misplaced your outrage. How about being a positive force in the community for once, instead of a race-baiting grievance posse?

“Why not use the Javon Dawson tragedy as the centerpiece for a campaign that targets African-American teens who, for whatever unfathomable reason, feel the need to bring guns to places such as graduation parties? And then proceed to fire off some rounds.

“This isn’t Baghdad. Nothing good can come of such a witless practice. Indeed, an armed young man is needlessly and tragically dead.

“But let’s not blame the police, who were called by alarmed residents and implored to do something about a party that featured lethal weapons and, as it turned out, an armed Javon Dawson. But if we must place blame, let’s affix it where it belongs: Those who pack heat for graduation parties and those who scapegoat the police after a resultant shooting.

“Try being part of the solution for once. Now I know how Barack Obama felt when you showed up at his town-hall meeting at Gibbs High.

            “And that ‘Charlie Crist is a Murderer’ sign. A bit harsh. But that effigy of me in a jail suit. Nice touch.”

It was no surprise to read the data that confirmed that the go-go growth years of Florida have halted. Relocation patterns have been skewed as the housing crisis keeps more people at home. The South and the West – the traditional destinations of those migrating to warmer areas – have been notably impacted.

So, it’s no shock that from 2007 to 2008 more people — 9,000 — left Florida and its budget roulette for other states than moved here. Not long ago, such a cold-shouldering scenario would have seemed implausible.   

            What is also sobering is a look at the states that have attracted the most move-ins   — often at Florida’s expense — from other states. Among the top five: Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina.

They aren’t that far north.  

Finally, it’s official.

There will, indeed, be a special legislative session next month. Even Gov. Charlie Crist, not a proponent previously, is now on board. That (2008-09) $2.3 billion state budget hole – that could deepen to $3.8 billion or more in 2009-10 – plus possible harm to Florida’s credit rating and Medicaid scenarios from hell has everyone finally fixated on a resolution. Presumably, everything is on the table – especially in a state that hasn’t fundamentally changed its revenue-raising ways from the LeRoy Collins Administration years.

            But you would presume wrong.

            According to House Speak Ray Sansom and Senate President Jeff Atwater, the legislators will be focusing on a “combination of spending reductions and trust fund transfers.” This is crisis management? This is a crisis made worse.

In the Republican-dominated Legislature, there’s negligible support for a review – let alone an overhaul – of Florida’s tax system. There’s no-tax ideology and then there’s no-responsibility idiotology. Now is not the time to tap reserves, such as the Lawton Chiles Endowment Fund, or employ accounting sleight of hand.

For openers, it would be expedient for the Legislature to stop pouting about being a “rubber stamp” and finally approve the gambling compact with the Seminole Tribe of Florida and then get on with adding that $1 to the paltry (33.9-cent) state tax on cigarettes. Voluntary taxes should always be on the table, especially during a serious economic downturn. Especially those that would (combined) net the state more than $1 billion annually.

            Florida Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink seems the only one with clout willing to say what needs to be said – now more than ever. She said it was time to re-evaluate — drum roll, please — Florida’s tax system. In short, “Every sales tax exemption ought to be back on the table,” proclaimed Sink.

            In other words, when rapidly ratcheting population growth largely insulated this state from recession, the old paradigm of a sales-tax skewed revenue system sufficed for the short term. The only term, of course, that mattered politically. But now that growth has flatlined, that system is insufficient. Woefully so.

            Perhaps Sink could borrow Crist’s unused bully pulpit to better make the case for forward-looking options. These would include the aforementioned general sales tax (6 percent) exemptions, including certain services, as well as becoming part of the concerted regional effort to collect sales taxes on catalog and Internet sales.

            And if the effort makes Sink look, well, gubernatorial, good for her. Perhaps Crist will take note – as well as notes.

            Florida can no longer afford populist piffle for leadership and ad hoc band aids for an economic strategy when confronted by a crisis of unprecedented proportion.