Category: Florida

We know that Gov. Charlie Crist is “innovative” and “open minded,” because he tells us so. We also know he’s all about “the people’s business,” because he keeps reminding us.

Here’s a suggestion: Governor, if you really want to earn that populist self-labeling, get out in front of what is the core, overriding issue in Florida: addressing a tax system that hasn’t fundamentally changed since LeRoy Collins was governor. And that sobering reality is now magnified as Florida flails at adjusting to the end of the rapid-growth era, a budget colored red and the onset of mortgage meltdowns and property tax-cut shell games.

It’s not nearly enough to look at revenues from gambling and bridge leasing and to delegate state services to locals. We’re talking about ending unnecessary sales tax exemptions, especially on services, and getting serious about collecting taxes on online shopping.

To date, Crist has made more news about his hot dates, vice presidential prospects and exotic trade-mission plans. It appears he’s leaving economic security entirely in the hands of the state’s Taxation and Budget Reform Commission, which will have political cover from “tax-raising” taunts. The Commission can put constitutional changes directly onto the ballot. It meets every 20 years, and this is that year.

But it would certainly help if the governor would use his bully pulpit for something other than pushing an advertising campaign to bankroll passage of a dubious plan to cut property taxes.

Everybody, I suspect, has this list – even if it’s just in your head. Doable things that you would really, really like to do some day.

Somewhere on my list — along with taking a hot-air balloon ride/check; attending a game at Yankee Stadium/check; visiting the Catacombs/check; bussing the Blarney Stone/check; and meeting Timothy Leary/indeed, check — was seeing a space launch.

Until last Tuesday it had been too long deferred and unchecked.

As a journalist, I was never on the NASA beat. Science-oriented, Renaissance reporters like the Tampa Tribune’s Kurt Loft have that detail. As a citizen, I kept finding it logistically inconvenient. A launch was more likely to be scrubbed than to occur. As a Floridian, I took it for granted.

But last Tuesday made up for it.

The scene: the otherwise nondescript banks of the Banana River, near Port Canaveral, about 10 miles south of Kennedy Space Center launch pads. Perhaps a thousand people, mainly couples and families, had parked two- and three-deep along State Road 528.

The ad hoc hub was an RV with a big American flag and a large antenna representing the Launch Information Service & Amateur TV Systems, part of the Florida Division of Emergency Management. Its speakers were chronicling count-down information. It was also there just in case. Just in case something went wrong with the space shuttle Discovery that sits atop a half million gallons of rocket fuel and belches 7 million pounds of thrust. LISATS helped defray expenses by selling – for a donation – Space Shuttle Discovery Launch Witness certificates with names computer-printed. Of course, I got one.

Ninety minutes before scheduled launch, the atmosphere, although rife with anticipation, was casual and friendly. Refreshingly so. The air was occasionally punctuated with heavily-accented German, French and Spanish. Some of the English speakers were British, Australian and Welsh. Out-of-town license plates – from Oklahoma and Texas to Massachusetts and Pennsylvania – were almost as numerous as those from Florida. For some reason, North “First in Flight” Carolina plates seemed especially plentiful.

Folding chairs, blankets, binoculars and video and still cameras were much in evidence. People sat on roofs and hoods. But no music, no grills, no adult beverages and no boorish behavior. Tailgating NASA-style. Folks ready to revel with a cause.

That’s what makes it special. This is Team America accomplishing something important by flawlessly sending up the 23rd shuttle mission to the International Space Station. It’s a respite, however brief, from everything else. From the geo-politics and tragic jingoism that is Iraq. From the partisanship and pandering that is our political system. From the world of natural disasters and celebrity meltdowns.

It’s seeing “Mission Accomplished” without the cynical spin.

Say what you want about domestic priorities and the relative merits of travel beyond earth’s orbit, the moment you see that orange sphere separate itself from terra firma is an uplifting, patriotic rush. At that second, man realizing his potential to transcend his own limits is no mere abstraction. No more than earthly applications of space-travel technology and weightless experimentation.

We overuse and insult the meaning of “hero.” But these Discovery astronauts — six Americans and the Italian representing the European Space Agency — redefine it. Memories of Challenger and Columbia , especially the former, are ever-present and unspoken as eyes squint to follow the diminishing, booster-less dot and breaths are collectively held as the contrails slowly diffuse.

Godspeed, Discovery .

A shuttle launch is best seen as a culminating activity. It’s worth a pre-game, if you will, visit to the Kennedy Space Center. Especially worthwhile:

*The Shuttle Launch Experience. Sights, sounds, gut-feelings of a vertical launch. But more interesting than exciting. Don’t think Disney or Busch Gardens. But do think frame of reference that’s available nowhere else.

*Apollo/Saturn V Center. Plenty of photo ops, including a 363-foot moon rocket. The Firing Room Theater re-creates an Apollo launch and the Lunar Theater depicts the first moon landing. The video is moving – on several levels.

Includes vintage footage of President John F. Kennedy delivering a space-program stump speech at Rice University in 1962. Kennedy was on his game as he addressed the skeptics who had questioned the value of a space program. He made the case for man’s eternal quest to forge new frontiers. He spoke of “why” we climb the highest mountains; “why” someone would fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean; and “why Rice plays Texas every year.”

*Bonus: The Kennedy Space Center is in the heart of the 140,000-acre Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge. We’re talking bald eagles (in the winter), manatees, alligators and some 340 species of birds.

*Bonus: Pet kennels are available free of charge at KSC. They’re clean and functional. The attendants are conscience-easing friendly.

Sen. Mel Martinez is stepping down from his position as chairman of the Republican National Committee. He wants to devote his energies, he says, to his main responsibility as a senator from Florida. The upshot: He can now concentrate on doing just one job poorly.

At last count there were more than a million “personality” license plates affixed to Florida cars. And none more popular than the University of Florida (69,000), which shouldn’t surprise anyone, given the sheer numbers and strong allegiance of Gator Nation. And UF pocketed nearly $2.5 million from those sales.

Nor would it surprise anyone that plates pushing the protection of panthers, dolphins and sea turtles were also big sellers.

Such personality plates are extensions of the driver – a proud alum or an advocate for a cause – from wild life protection to school teachers support. And there’s some financial kickback as well. A classic win-win.

And it probably surprises no one that the most popular personality plate in the Tampa Bay area is the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. This, however, makes much less sense.

Professional sports franchises, their hard-core following notwithstanding, are still private businesses – not alma maters or society-benefiting causes. Shouldn’t they pay drivers for their high profile, highly mobile marketing sorties?

Here we go again. You know how states, including Florida, have those bizarrely convoluted congressional districts that mainly serve to perpetuate political incumbents?

There is no panacea when it comes to finding a formula to draw fair, reasonable districts. The nature of the political process precludes it.

But some anti-gerrymander efforts are better than others. Last year the government watchdog Common Cause tried addressing it by creating a “non-partisan” commission to do the district drawing. But it couldn’t get it on the ballot.

Now Common Cause is back with plans for the 2010 ballot. Call it “Redistricting Lite.” This time it won’t even tilt at the “non-partisan” windmill. It would merely ask (ok, “mandate”) lawmakers to draw compact districts without concern for the political ramifications.

As if.

The Theater of the Absurd, otherwise known as the Democratic Party approaching a presidential election year, continues apace with the Democratic National Committee still at incongruous odds with Florida. Lawsuits, disenfranchisement scenarios, undemocratic pledges and nuanced definitions of what actually is meant by “campaigning” are the subplots. Eugene Ionesco could have scripted it.

But here’s the irony. Ultimately, none of this will matter.

The winner of the Jan. 29 Florida primary will be a real winner – and will not disavow the results. No more than a big spike in credibility and momentum could be disavowed. And come the general election, no nominee wants an alienated mega swing state. So those 210 window-dressing delegates at the national coronation will be seated if the nominee – already decided well before hand – has anything to say about it.

And she will.

The University of Florida can’t get Tim Tebow back into the headlines soon enough. That First Amendment fiasco over the tasered student at the John Kerry lecture was a national embarrassment.

UF’s campus police need to be trained to not handle a YouTube-yahoo provocateur as if he were a Danny Rolling clone. Arrest and get physical with the student who overstayed his time limit if he were threatening someone or inciting insurrection. Video indicated he didn’t incite much more than eye-rolling from a few fellow students and a nonplussed reaction from Kerry.

Open discourse is often far from a seamless exchange on a college campus.

Being an annoying, self-promoting prankster is still shy of a taser-able act.

The smack down between the Democratic National Committee and the state of Florida — over the Sunshine State’s Jan. 29 presidential primary date — only grows more contentious. Talk of voter disenfranchisement and the threat of a Democratic convention sans 210 Florida delegates has already resulted in a lawsuit. And pressured by the first-among-equals early states – Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina – the candidates have pledged not to campaign past September in states — Michigan and Florida to date — that have defied the DNC-approved date of Feb. 5.

So what does a distracting controversy and a little intra-party fratricide mean to those helping run a presidential candidate’s campaign in Florida?

“It’s frustrating, but we’ll make the best of it,” says Tampa’s Frank Sanchez, a member of Sen. Barack Obama’s national financial committee and a key Florida fundraiser and volunteer organizer.

“The uncertainty doesn’t help when you have a message to get out, and this becomes the dominant issue and political story,” adds Sanchez. “And as a Floridian, it’s just very disappointing to see this.”

But Sanchez, who also advises Obama on Latin America, points out that fundraising isn’t impacted. “There’s no violation if we do fundraisers,” he notes, “so it won’t affect our ability to raise money.”

That’s because there’s a Mack Truck-size loophole that will allow candidates to appear at Florida fund-raisers, but not make generic campaign stops. As long as there’s a charge – even $10-$15 – it’s not “campaigning.” Political ATMs, yes; whistle-stop speeches, no. That’s the well-hedged pledge.

Any chance a bunch of loopholier-than-thou lawyers are behind this one?

Meanwhile, the Obama bandwagon has scheduled a high-end ($1,000 minimum) fundraising doubleheader here in the Tampa Bay Area later this month (Sept. 30). The first gathering will be in Hyde Park at the home of Tom and Linda Scarritt; the nightcap at the Pinellas home of Tom and Donna Marie Main.

But on into the fall, there will be more than an absence of “campaign” stops in Florida. Don’t look for the candidates, including Obama, to make many, if any, fund-raising appearances either. “Practically speaking,” explains Sanchez, “his schedule will be very limited outside those first four states.”

Charlie Crist is Florida’s self-labeled “innovative” and “open-minded” governor.

That description has generally resonated because he’s an ideological hybrid. And a genuinely nice guy.

Yet the governor, enabled by a Republican-dominated Legislature, remains as taboo-challenged as any traditional politician when it comes to revenue raising. Witness the approach to Florida’s looming $1.1 billion deficit, one caused and exacerbated by the end of the rapid-growth era and the onset of mortgage meltdowns and property tax-cut fever.

The main solution? Budget cuts. Sorry, higher education, juvenile justice, highway repair and Johnnie B. Byrd Sr. Alzheimer’s Center and Research Institute. And head’s up, rainy-day reserves, and watch out, trust funds.To be sure, budget cuts should always be on the table in a deficit scenario. But these are short-term band aids, especially when projections show budget gaps of $2.3 billion, $2.8 billion and $3 billion over the next three years. Clearly a sales-tax skewed revenue system is woefully insufficient. And accelerating public spending is no long-term stimulus.

And yet, meaningful revenue raising is not on the table — not even university tuition — unless, of course, you count the governor’s equivocating approach to baccarat and pie-in-the-sky notions about selling off some highways or the state lottery.

A truly “innovative” leader, peering down the path of foreseeable deficits might want to resurrect the gubernatorial bully pulpit that was last used to push school vouchers and the FCAT. A minimum state income tax and sales tax exemptions, including services, for example, can’t continue to be treated like a political third rail – or a contrary position on the Cuban embargo.

If baccarat, blackjack and highway sales are on the table, so should a more equitable, less regressive, more productive tax system.

To dismiss such options out of hand is not to be “open-minded.” It is to unnecessarily gamble on Florida’s future.