All great performers know you gotta leave ’em laughing or leave ’em wanting more. I don’t know if that holds true for politicians’ final thoughts delivered in their lame duck years. But Governor Jeb Bush of Florida left the citizens with three of his usual themes ringing in their ears.
- Education
- Hurricane preparedness
- Tax cuts
. . .[Issues] he wants the Legislature to tackle this year: making high schools more relevant to students, improving the state’s hurricane preparation and cutting another $1.5 billion in taxes. Miami Herald 3/8/06
In November we’ll probably realize just who’s laughing and who’s fed up with Republican governance in Florida.
Bush dedicated nearly half of his almost half-hour speech to what he sees as his successes during his seven-year stint in Tallahassee.
In education, he said, more children are reading at grade level, high school graduation rates are rising and minority students are making gains.
But he’s most proud of his tax-slashing stance.
But the greatest economic achievement, Bush said, has been “the bold step” begun in 1999, when the Legislature cut $1 billion in taxes. Since he took office, the Legislature has cut $14.5 billion in taxes, he said, increased state revenues by 51 percent and expanded emergency reserves by 530 percent.
He includes other achievements in his coup belt as well.
In social services, the budget for children and the elderly has increased by 140 percent. In the environment, the state has acquired 1.3 million acres of conservation land and is spending $3.2 billion to restore the Everglades.
But discerning readers want to know what went unsaid by the governor when he addressed the Legislature about the State of the State of Florida.
He mentioned only briefly the need to reform the state’s storm-battered property insurance market, calling it a “vital issue” that legislators must “take on . . . for the sake of our state’s homeowners and economic future.
That issue just got a little more vital today when we examine some breaking news stories, viz.
* Poe Financial Group, the second-largest home insurer in South Florida, announces it will no longer sell homeowner’s insurance in the state. Poe Financial Group includes Atlantic Preferred, Florida Preferred, and Southern Family insurance companies. The latter will also cancel many homeowner and business policies as they come up for renewal. That leaves Floridians with one choice, Citizens Property Insurance, the state-run pool of last resort, which is required to charge the highest rates in the state and is South Florida’s largest insurer.
Bush had nothing to say about the insurance debacle in the state, while acknowledging a $5.8 billion surplus in the state budget. He refuses to agree to a state bailout of Citizens until “reforms” are undertaken.
. . .some rate increases are likely for Citizens policyholders, said Randy E. Dumm, a business professor at Florida State University and member of the Legislative Task Force on Long-Term Solutions for Florida’s Hurricane Insurance Market. “For a consumer it’s not a great story,” Dumm said.
- Looking at public education in Florida, we see that the rate of high school graduation is just under 72%, and according to Sen. Walter “Skip” Campbell, a Coral Springs Democrat,
“We happen to be 50th in the nation in high school graduation rates under his regime.
- Unmentioned also, is the scandal surrounding Convergys, the private state employee management company operating the payroll and controlling employee information for Florida, which was privatized under Jeb Bush. An investigation of possible identity theft is underway.
. . .state employee personnel records were sent overseas for computer processing has mushroomed into a state-federal case with potentially criminal implications. Tallahassee Democrat 3/8/06
Apparently,
. . .two former employees of GDXdata Inc. had secretly sued their ex-employer, saying the company improperly sent Florida employee records to companies in India, Barbados and possibly China for some processing steps involving the People First system. People First is Gov. Jeb Bush’s biggest “outsourcing” project – a nine-year, $350 million deal with Convergys – and all employee records are supposed to stay within the country. The plaintiffs said the company sought to cut processing costs from 6 cents to a penny per page by sending work overseas.
* And as for tax cuts, Democrats argue that they have led to spending cuts to education and are a gimmick benefitting the wealthiest Floridians and made palatable to the hoi polloi by creating a one-time $100 “rebate” to all Floridians.
The benefits of $14 billion in tax cuts passed during Bush’s tenure have not reached average Floridians, Rep. Anne Gannon, D-Delray Beach, said during a news conference in the Capitol. The median income in Florida has risen 16 percent since 1998, she said, but the state tax burden on residents has risen 17 percent. Fees have increased 52 percent; median home prices are up 55 percent, and state-imposed property taxes are up 23 percent, Gannon said.
The state now has “lower-wage jobs, higher costs and higher taxes and fees, neglected public schools, and fewer Floridians with health care,” said House Minority Leader Chris Smith, D-Fort Lauderdale. Tampa Tribune
So, the State of the State of Florida may not be as rosy as the good-bye governor would have us believe. Like the country, we seem to be limping along beneath a faux flush of economic good feeling. Flash and mirrors on the surface, while underneath lies basic rot.
