Category: Florida

Florida, as we well know, is faced with the inconvenient truth of a $1.1 billion budget shortfall and a tax system that hasn’t fundamentally changed since LeRoy Collins was governor. Ripples from the property-tax shell game have already been felt at the local level. Tampa, for example, has announced $20 million in fiscal cuts.

It’s a scenario rife with uncertainty, as well as opportunity for Charlie Crist, the Not Jeb! governor who’s much more pragmatic than ideological.

Already he has given every indication of expediting a (federal government-pressured) agreement with the Seminole Tribe about casino gambling on tribal lands. This, of course, is no panacea, and the downsides are well documented.

But if you’re talking about balancing a budget by cutting projects, programs and personnel – and there are alternatives shy of a state income tax to help do just that – then gambling perforce is in the mix. In fact, look for a (gambling) “voluntary tax” rationale to be spun like it’s never been spun before.

However, what also should be on the table – along with blackjack, craps and roulette – are sales taxes on services and a revisitation of a host of sales-tax exemptions. It’s never a good time to propose such, especially the former — ask former Gov. Bob Martinez — but these are atypical times calling for atypical, sometimes unpopular, solutions.

It’s also a propitious time for an “open minded,” “innovative” – and, yes, gutsy — governor.

The Department of Homeland Security has announced that anti-terror grants have increased substantially for San Diego, Phoenix and Denver, which might make those cities feel a bit safer. However, Orlando will be cut by a third ($3 million) and Miami by a fourth ($4 million).

The good news: DHS thinks Orlando and Miami are likely safe enough to withstand substantial budget cuts. The bad news: DHS just told everybody.

The epiphany was palpable that summer night in Boston in 2004.

Tampa’s Frank Sanchez, a political shaker who once worked in the Clinton Administration and ran for mayor in 2003, was among the enthralled thousands at the Democratic National Convention who were moved by Barack Obama’s mesmerizing speech to the delegates.

At a gathering that was viscerally united in whom it was against, Obama clearly stole the show by projecting a positive, charismatic persona, one that would have been easy to rally around that very night.

“There was definitely this feeling,” recalls Sanchez, 48, “that this was a guy who might one day run for president. I just assumed it would be 2012 or later.”

Fast forward three years later. The rally is on.

Obama, 45, is a rookie senator from Illinois who is heavily in the hunt for the Democratic presidential nomination. Sanchez is a key policy adviser on Latin America. He’s also the Obama campaign’s finance chairman for the seven-county Tampa Bay region and a member of Obama’s national finance committee.

To date, Obama, a competitive second to Sen. Hillary Clinton in most early polls, has raised more than $56 million through the first two quarters of 2007. Moreover, that figure reflects a donor base of some 260,000. Clinton has raised nearly as much but from less than half as many donors, many of whom are now tapped out. At a comparable point in 2003, the “phenomenon” that was Howard Dean had 70,000 donors.

“I was confident he would do well,” says Sanchez, “but no idea it would be this quickly. The Clintons have been developing a national network for 25 years. Senator Obama’s had a national network for six months.”

Sanchez, the CEO of Tampa-based Renaissance Steel, a growing, regional player in the Light Gauge Steel building business, concedes that the roles of busy executive and campaign adviser/financial guru have been taxing. “I wouldn’t kid you,” he acknowledges. “It’s been a real challenge to juggle. I try to limit the campaign work to after hours, weekends, some lunch time and the occasional call at the office.”

Sanchez is one of those indispensable, go-to sorts that national campaigns require. He’s at home in corporate suites or hustings haunts. He has that killer rolodex and access to activists with money. He can delegate; he’s likeable; and he’s Hispanic. And this, of course, is Tampa Bay, which you must have to win Florida, which you must have to win the nation.

“I do it, frankly, because I enjoy the process, it’s worth it to make a difference and I can’t remember the country being more divided,” explains Sanchez. “I consider it a mission.”

A mission, he underscores, to help elect someone who is more than Democratic boiler plate in an intriguing, bi-racial package. Someone who is the antithesis of divisive and polarizing. Someone, he says, uniquely positioned to send a signal to the rest of the world that they do, indeed, misperceive America as an arrogant, hypocritical hegemon.

“He’s one of the smartest people I’ve ever met,” states Sanchez. “A defining characteristic is that he’s an amazing listener. He’s not some superficial glad-hander. And he’s perfect for a time when people are genuinely sick of Washington politics.

“He’s also perfect from the international perspective,” adds Sanchez. “He would be our strongest voice overseas. He’s intelligent, has lived overseas and has a sensitivity to points of view outside the U.S. I think it would speak volumes that we would elect someone of his background and world view. That’s a very positive message to the world.”

Campaign Outtakes

*Florida commitments. July 22 – Obama (and Hillary Clinton) will address the Hispanic-affiliated National Council of La Raza in Miami. August 24 – Obama in Tallahassee. Late September – Obama in Tampa for a private fund-raiser with a public component.

As to the uncertainty surrounding Florida’s early Jan. 29 primary: “We’re still formulating our resources,” says Sanchez. “But put it this way for now: This (state) is too important not to compete.”

*Media. “Obama genuinely likes meeting people,” says Sanchez, “and yet he feels there’s this element in the press that invokes ‘gotcha politics.’ So you have to be careful. But to his credit, he hasn’t lost his authenticity.”

*Trade. Obama voted against the Central American Free Trade Agreement two years ago. “He’s hardly for reversing globalization,” notes Sanchez, “but he doesn’t want to give lip service to labor issues and environmental concerns.”

*Latin America. Overriding theme of Sanchez’s advice: “For starters, we need to re-engage with Latin America. Brazil and Chile come readily to mind. For the last six years we’ve ignored Latin America – much to our detriment.”

*Cuba. Do not expect any dramatic policy shift from Obama beyond making the case for reversing the travel ban for Cuban-Americans. Sanchez is certainly not recommending any bold initiatives on the embargo, which he considers “leverage” for changes on the island.

“Thoughtful” and “inclusive” and “incremental” are the watchwords of caution and calculation. Don’t anticipate a diplomatic stroke that would “turn on a dime.”

*Iraq. In a recent TV interview, Sanchez had noted Obama’s position to “redeploy out of combat by March ’08.” He’s reluctant to speak definitively on the core issue that is as protean as it is controversial. But he does say this: “Obama was against the war six months before it started – and foresaw the consequences. I am very comfortable with that.”

In fact, here’s what Obama said in 2002: “I don’t oppose all wars. What I am opposed to is a dumb war.

Wherever there are taxes, there are inequities.

It is the nature of targets and exemptions and a consensus of necessary societal services. It’s what we call “tax policy.” Not all oxen are gored, and not all gored oxen are gored equally. And at some point the law of unintended consequences will inevitably kick in.

The brouhaha over property taxes has been a classic example.

Amendment 10 to the Florida Constitution — aka the “Save Our Homes” Amendment — was passed (by 53.6 percent) in 1992 to keep residents from being taxed out of their homes. It was enacted in 1995.

Its 3 percent-cap legacy has become all too familiar. Most notably, the disparities in the assessed values of identically valued homes can be dramatic. In effect, property-tax payments have shifted from homestead properties that have not been sold in recent years to those that have – as well as to non-homestead properties such as businesses, rental units and second homes. And then add a macro scenario: An uneasy and unpredictable impact on the health of the state economy.

A dozen years, a populist governor and legions of mad-as-hell property owners later, we have a formal reaction from the Republican-dominated Florida Legislature. There’s the rollback-and-cap bill that will punish local governments. And in January, Floridians will vote on the super homestead exemption. Part of the homestead-homeowner calculus will be figuring whether to exercise the option of keeping the “Save Our Homes” cap or not. It will help some; it’s a wash for others. It’s a shell game for everybody.

Ultimately, new home buyers, landlords, commercial property owners and snow birds will continue to wonder what all the ballyhoo is about when they’re still the fall guys in an inequitable property-tax mess.

Which brings us to this: How much longer will we pretend that the find-ways-to- placate-enough-property-owners gambit qualifies as reasonable, adult tax policy?

How much longer do we continue to ignore the 800-pound gorilla of tax pragmatism still lounging in the lanai? And we’re not even talking, although we should be, about a minimal state income tax, the least regressive alternative of all.

We’re talking about the multi-billion-dollar laundry list of sales-tax exemptions, a sizable chunk of which is not for food, prescription drugs, health services and solar-energy investments.

And even though it likely cost Gov. Bob Martinez re-election in 1990, we’re also talking, although not so blasphemously in 2007, about taxing services: from legal to advertising to tax preparation. At some point, a service-economy has to tax itself. Especially, when we’ve reached the point where, courtesy of Speaker of the House Marco Rubio, we were actually considering hiking the 6 percent state sales tax a startling, uber-regressive 42 percent.

And as Florida Tax Watch has noted, this state could reduce property taxes by at least $2 billion annually if Florida collected sales taxes owed on Internet purchases. Florida isn’t even talking to a coalition of states that are trying to arrange practicable, reciprocal relationships.

No, there is no perfect tax. Just perfectly unacceptable reasons not to give meaningful property-tax relief across the board – and to at least limit the inequities.

Wasn’t there a time when an invitation to visit the White House was, well, a pretty big deal? Even if you’ve been invited before?

Last week was the national champion University of Florida basketball team’s turn to be so honored. None of the Gators’ starters, however, were there. Seems there was a conflict involving preparations for this month’s NBA draft.

Even die-hard University of Florida fans – and I’d venture to include the likes of Mr. Two-Bits and my hard-core, Gator-alum buddy George Meyer – would have to admit this: Billy Donovan took the mother of all leveraged advantages and screwed it up. Big time.

A guy who was all about taking charge and winning with class was the antithesis of both. Overcome by events and ambition.

Donovan’s assignment was beyond enviable and easy: To check out what, at age 42, back-to-back NCAA national championships would be worth in America’s hoops-happy marketplace. As he would find out, UF would make him the highest paid college coach if he stayed in Gainesville, a place where he was already lionized. The National Basketball Association’s Orlando Magic? Well, they would simply top it. Add, say, another $2 million per.

Is that win-win or what?

So, how do you convert that into a national punch line? From Pied Piper of Gainesville to the Hamlet of the hard courts. The Andrew Speaker of financial windfalls.

The thinking is that Donovan, even though he was enamored of the NBA because of its “ultimate challenge” cachet, wasn’t true to himself when it was all on the line. Nor was he true to all those in his immediate universe that would be impacted. And not just his family. The collateral fall-out was considerable.

There was Donovan’s new UF assistant, Rob Lanier, who was relocating from the University of Virginia; an incumbent assistant, Larry Shyatt, who would be hired on by Orlando; and Anthony Grant of Virginia Commonwealth University, Donovan’s successor-in-waiting, who was left literally waiting on the tarmac in Richmond, Va. Plus a bunch of employees in the UF basketball program who were offered positions with the Magic. And, of course, those high school hot shots who had signed on fully expecting to play for the charismatic coach who had recruited them.

Donovan, ironically, had always underscored the value of family, the importance of a home environment and the priority of where and how his kids would grow up.

That’s why his parents, in-laws and sister own homes in Gainesville, where the living is both bucolically upscale and small-town friendly. Donovan could be surrounded by fame, fortune and family, including his wife, Christine, and their four children, ages 5 to 15. Such a comfort zone, obviously, is not to be confused with an NBA milieu, one rife with hotels, hucksters, hustlers, hip-hoppers and college dropouts with posses.

But Donovan got greedy for the ultimate “next step” – as if winning with a whole new starting team at UF wasn’t challenge enough. As if continuing to recruit with integrity wasn’t challenge enough. As if keeping UF on track for parity with the Duke of Mike Krzyzewski wasn’t challenge enough. As if becoming a Florida eponym – not unlike Joe Paterno at Penn State or Bobby Bowden at Florida State – wasn’t challenge enough.

After signing that $27.5 million deal with Orlando, Donovan changed prisms upon returning to Gainesville for his good-bye press conference. In effect, he seemed to be pondering if, indeed, the trade-offs could really be worth those red-eye flights after another tough loss to the Seattle SuperSonics or the Sacramento Kings. He was now immersed in those he had disappointed – and they were, by all accounts, acknowledging precisely that.

The quality-of-life epiphany then kicked in: “I’m happy here; my family’s happy here; we’re all rich here; I’m not hurting for challenges here.”

Including the challenge that Thomas Wolfe couldn’t find precedent for: “You can’t go home again.” And there’s a reason why Wolfe’s sage injunction has continued to resonate over the years. You can’t recapture context, even if you’ve been barely away.

But if anyone can refute Wolfe, it’s Gator Nation.

Just keep winning, Billy.

The Florida Sports Hall of Fame has five new members. It’s an eclectic class. So eclectic, in fact, that the criteria for qualification ought to be revisited.

Locally prominent among the new entrants is Tampa’s Tino Martinez, who had a 16-year Major League Baseball career after starring at the University of Tampa. He helped lead the New York Yankees to four World Series titles. Also included: Miami native Michael Irvin, who was an All-American wide receiver for the University of Miami and an All-Pro with the Dallas Cowboys.

Then there’s Chandra Cheeseborough from Jacksonville who was a national sprint champion and Olympic gold medalist. The Tennessee State grad will help coach the USA track team at next year’s Olympics in Beijing. Another solid choice.

The other two inductees are Bill Buchalter and Terry Bolea, arguably less familiar names.

Buchalter, who grew up in St. Petersburg, is not an athlete. He’s an Orlando Sentinel sportswriter. He’s been doing it a long time and is well regarded. But he’s a sportswriter; he chronicles what actual athletes actually do. Put him in the chroniclers’ or pundits’ Hall.

But at least Buchalter is about real athletics. Not so with Tampa-raised Bolea, AKA Hulk Hogan. Of course he was athletic, but it was in pursuit of professional wrestling, which is slapstick theater, not sport. For years he’s been a professional celebrity.

But congratulations to those who truly deserve to be in the Florida Sports Hall of Fame: Martinez, Cheeseborough and Irvin. And additional kudos to Martinez and Cheeseborough for being classy, credit-to-their-community individuals.

So far, so good, seemingly, for Gov. Charlie Crist. He’s still on the popular, populist side of issues, and seems refreshingly bi-partisan. And, moreover, a really nice guy. Everyone loves him except the jilted conservative Republican base. But, hey, there are always trade-offs.

But what’s with targeting Israel with your very first opportunity at heading a Florida trade mission? Were there that many promised insiders?

Sure, other Florida governors (including Jeb Bush and Bob Martinez) have made the pilgrimage to America’s long-standing friend and ally. But right out of the blocks? This sortie smacked of the purest political motive, something we somehow thought we shouldn’t expect from Crist. At least not so soon.

But he obviously yielded to the political siren call of the Jewish vote. And Florida’s, of course, is sizable, with a Jewish population topped only by those in California and New York.

Florida’s trade with Israel is negligible, about $150 million a year in exports or chump change by international-commerce standards. So this foray is hardly a business priority. For a Republican governor of a mega swing state that the GOP must have in 2008 – and one rumored as a potential GOP vice presidential candidate next year – the Israeli visit was blatant politics as usual. Gov. Crist knows what plays well in the condos of Fort Lauderdale and Boca Raton, including those strategic photo ops with Israeli leaders.

And speaking of minimal business opportunities, look at who his retinue included: U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, the Miami Republican and virulent pro-Cuban embargo proponent. The irony is overwhelming. It is estimated that the embargo that Ros-Lehtinen continues to go to the political mattresses for costs the U.S. an estimated $3 billion to $4 billion in lost exports a year, a big chunk of it at Florida’s expense.

Talk about business as usual.

Perhaps the best case for presidential primaries is what they are not: vehicles that select nominees in smoke-filled rooms or via convention-floor arm-twisting. But you can also make a pretty good argument that any time the voices of the voters carry the day, democracy wins.

But over time we began to notice that those anomalous (caucus and) primary states, Iowa and New Hampshire, were more than refreshingly populist, unique retail hustings. Much more, in fact, than coffee-counter crucibles imposed on those in the ultimate political-power hunt.

It was abundantly evident that because they were first, Iowa and New Hampshire were exercising political leverage far beyond their sheer numbers and skewed demographics. Quaint and traditional had become dumb and dumber. Lightweight electoral states had the wherewithal to make — Jimmy Carter — or break — Edmund Muskie — a candidacy, although hardly representative of the American mosaic.

Amid the periodic talk of rotating regional primaries, we’ve seen states start to butt in line to secure more influence. Florida, which had been more than satisfied with its relatively early March primary in the 1970s, began seeing that position erode over the years.

As the Sunshine State grew into a mega, swing state, it became obvious that while Florida — or merely the I-4 corridor — could literally determine the election of a president, it increasingly had little or no official say in actually nominating one. Candidates often had wrapped up nominations by the time Florida voters could cast their typically symbolic ballots.

And then it got worse. A dozen states, including California, New Jersey, New York and Texas will be voting next Feb. 5. South Carolina will do so on Feb. 2. Another half dozen are contemplating similar moves.

Whereas Florida had been largely marginalized as a primary player, it had now been eliminated.

The Republican-dominated Florida Legislature had no choice but to move up Florida’s primary – and it chose Jan. 29. If you’re choosing, why not choose to become the first mega state to hold a primary? Why not choose a date reflective of your prime role in electing presidents? Why not?

Well, both national parties have these pre-arranged schedules that they consider sacrosanct. They don’t want a scenario where it’s nothing but mega states creating a fait accompli nominee right out of the primary blocks. They want a more eclectic group of states having a say in the early going, which sounds hauntingly like a rationale that bequeathed us Iowa and New Hampshire in the first place.

Anyway, the Democrats are more adamant about not allowing anyone to violate their arcane rules. Interestingly enough, Florida Sen. Mel Martinez, the Republican National Committee general chairman, has stayed conspicuously restrained on this one. Not so, of course, with his leather-lunged counterpart, Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean, who has all but proposed water-boarding for gun-jumping Floridians.

In fact, so adamant are the Dems about penalizing offending states (and their delegates) that Florida Democratic officials are seriously considering a compromise that would turn Jan. 29 into a non-binding “beauty contest.” All of which could result in Democrats deferring a more serious campaign effort in Florida. To their own obvious detriment.

Which begs two questions:

*Is this really some deviously nuanced, Karl Rovian Republican plot to thwart the Dems in Florida when the 2008 presidential election is theirs to lose?

*Will we eventually wax nostalgic over those Warren G. Harding smoke-filled rooms and old video of Bobby Kennedy tying up loose convention ends for his brother?

It was a long time coming, but Florida now exits that short list of retro states that, in effect, didn’t restore the voting and civil rights of felons who had completed their sentences. Led by neo-Republican Gov. Charlie Crist — and over the vigorous objection of Attorney General Bill McCollum — the Board of Executive Clemency reached a compromise that strikes a fair enough balance.

The petition process now only applies to those convicted of serious or violent crimes. Others will have their rights restored automatically upon completion of their sentence and the payment of any court-ordered restitution.

Inevitably, the “paid-debt-to-society” rationale carried the day, as it should have — although it’s a necessarily imperfect argument. Some debts, for example, are “paid” via plea bargains. And some simply can never be repaid. Ask anyone who has ever been violated — person or property — if they’ve ever slept the same again.

Some executive orders are worth signing – but not celebrating.