If any of Florida's bills seem bad, just wait

[seafan]

If any of Florida's bills seem bad, just wait

By Howard Troxler, Times Columnist
April 26, 2008

Let's see now. Soon we will be able to drive our guns to work in Florida no matter what our bosses say, and we might be able to do it with a state-created Christian license tag on the car.
On the other hand, it might soon become illegal to decorate your car's rear bumper with fake, you know, anatomical parts.
Women in Florida might have to view an ultrasound and get a little more red tape before an abortion, as well as having to wear a large scarlet "A" on their foreheads. Wait, I need to double-check that second part, but that's the general sense of the bill.
Your kid's science teacher might be able to teach that the Flying Spaghetti Monster created the world, as long as the teacher does it "objectively" and based on "scientific evidence," which I imagine exists somewhere. Just as long as it's an alternative to that Darwin nonsense.

.....

That still will be okay when the kids get to a Florida college, since we also are talking about ripping up the state university system (again) and putting all state universities directly under the Legislature's political control.
Yep, this is one heck of a session of the Florida Legislature. And these are just a few of the things still flying around that might get passed in the sessions' final days.
You know whose fault this is? Ken Pruitt's. He is the president of the state Senate. Before the Legislature even started to meet this year, Pruitt unilaterally announced that it wasn't going to do anything about the state's two biggest problems of recent years — insurance and property taxes.

It's not that they would have fixed those problems, but it would have kept them busy at least, kind of like when my new puppy notices his tail.
Instead, with no big insurance or property tax stuff, and having a lousy budget year, the Legislature turned to meddling in everything else. Hence we've had bills about baggy pants, bestiality, and standards for toilet paper in public restrooms (not that anyone is opposed to toilet paper in public restrooms).

It hasn't been a bad session for everybody. The Legislature still might give CSX several hundred million dollars as part of a commuter-rail deal, and shift the company's liability for lawsuits to the taxpayers. It also might vote to let Florida's electric companies bill us all in advance for, I believe, the next 1,500 years' worth of construction.
If you've got a sweetheart tax break in Florida under the current setup, the Legislature has got your back, saying that actually taxing you fairly would be a "tax increase." If you like those plastic bags at the grocery store, good news! The Legislature wants to make it illegal for any local government to ban them.

.....

And if, like the Legislature, you really hate it when voters do too much voting, there's a last-minute amendment to outlaw voter control over local growth decisions.

Look on the bright side. There are still a few days left in the Legislature's session, and no matter what you think of any of these ideas, it is a lead-pipe cinch they will slip in something even worse before it's over.

There are four more days left in this lame duck legislative session.


Plenty of time for these abusive Republican cowards to slap Floridians around even more.



We've got a big job to do in November, and for every election thereafter.





(bold type added)

[katmondoo]

1. All I know is in November

I am voting Yes to gay marrage. They can take that and shove it.

[flvegan]

2. Troxler cracks me up.

Delivers pretty good info in a way that makes you want to read it.

Thanks for posting this.

[1776Forever]

3. Florida has been Republican way too long - in a lot of areas it is failing to relate to real needs!

:hide: When will they - if ever - wake up here?

[seasat]

4. You know I had a slim hope that Crist might have led us a little less righward.

Apparently, he's just the figure head and the Jebbittes are still in full control of the state. I was hoping for a more moderate direction from our legislature with Charlie Crist but he's demonstrated that he has the spine of a jelly fish when it comes to standing up to the legislature over these bizarre wing nut issues. Maybe, (I kind of doubt it though) just maybe, the shenanigans of this group will actually force Floridians to wake up and vote the idiots out. As weak kneed as our state's party has become, I'm not real confident we'll be able to put up a fight for seats.

[seafan]

5. More: Legislators propose letting biotech companies skip planners' reviews (Jeb's hoodoo)

Legislators propose letting biotech companies skip planners' reviews

By Josh Hafenbrack and Aaron Deslatte | Tallahassee Bureau
April 26, 2008

Tallahassee - State planners would be stripped of authority to review the science development expected to sprout around Scripps Florida's Palm Beach County campus under a provision tucked into bills moving through the Legislature.
The proposed rules, buried in a 168-page growth-management bill tentatively approved by House on Friday, would allow the science startups and research outfits expected to fill out the Scripps biotech hub to bypass scrutiny by state and regional planners, who usually put such developments through rigorous, multiyear reviews.

Biotech labs, hospitals, university medical schools or any life science concern would get the blanket exemption as long as they would be "within 5 miles of a state-supported biotechnical research facility," a carve-out tailored to Scripps and several other biotech campuses.

"We've invested heavily in order to help attract these facilities and help transform our economy. It's a good way to help maximize our investment," said House Majority Leader Adam Hasner, R-Boca Raton.

.....

The Scripps exemption is in HB7129, which also proposes rules to make it harder for the state to turn down development projects for "agricultural industrial" projects. The latter provision is backed by sugar and citrus growers, including Florida Crystals, the Palm Beach County sugar giant.
That language "changes the rules to make it far more difficult for the local government or department to deny a permit," said Florida Community Affairs Secretary Tom Pelham.

.....

As former Gov. Jeb Bush's signature economic development project, Scripps got $369 million in state money in 2003, along with hundreds of millions more from Palm Beach County. The California-based research institute is six months from opening its three-building East Coast branch at Florida Atlantic University's MacArthur campus in Jupiter.

.....

The House's biotech carve-out would benefit not only Scripps, but other taxpayer-subsidized science developments such as the Torrey Pines Institute for Molecular Studies in Port St. Lucie and the Burnham Institute in Orlando.

.....

Reminds me of the sweetheart deal Jeb Bush gave his crony Gary Morse, a key GOP donor and developer of The Villages retirement town in Central Florida several years ago:

The Villages (developer, Gary Morse) benefited from a controversial bill Bush signed into law three years ago that gave the development's hospital the ability to sidestep state regulations in order to triple its size. Last year, the governor helped The Villages secure a U.S. Customs office at tiny Leesburg Regional Airport, which makes it easier for the developer to fly potential international customers directly into Lake County.

Jeb HATES for his buddies to have to follow **regulations**. The rules just don't apply to Jeb and his cronies, you see.




Wonder what the real purpose of that *tiny Leesburg Regional Airport customs office* might be....