FL GOP Legislature poised to repeal much of Florida's growth law. Welcome back to 1980.

[seafan]

Howard Troxler in the St. Petersburg Times:


April 28, 2011

You can easily make the case that the turning point in Florida's modern history was a law called the Growth Management Act of 1985.

So it is no small news that in the year 2011, the Florida Legislature is about to repeal it in large part, with gusto.

By the early 1980s, Florida was choking to death from decades of anything-goes growth. I was living in West Pasco County at the time and saw the results firsthand. We were the poster child for it.

Crumbling, curbless, two-lane roads always jammed with cars. Failing sewer plants thrown up by fly-by-night developers.

"Schools" that were just collections of house trailers. Drainage so poor that every rainstorm ruined somebody's house. U.S. 19 from Holiday to Hudson was a sluggish, ugly gash of driveway cuts from endless strip centers.

.....

The big kahuna of all these laws was the Growth Management Act. It declared that each community in Florida had to make sure it had the roads, the schools, the water, and many other things needed before it could allow more growth.

But today's Florida Legislature is a far different animal from the 1985 version. It is dominated by young Republicans who do not know the past. Their sole guiding principle is that somebody should be able to make money, which they gussy up with the claim that it "creates jobs."


.....

Florida House Speaker Dean Cannon, left, and Senate President Mike Haridopolos
(via St. Petersburg Times)



These unprincipled, ideologically-steeped, greed-driven thieves will stop at nothing to achieve their diseased utopia at our expense. And the pillage is nearly complete.


Driving them out of Tallahassee on a rail is far too benevolent.

[jpak]

1. GOP/Teabagger over-reach never ceases to amaze

or sicken

yup

[Cetacea]

2. Crist was a "progressive" compared to Scott

And he won't be there to veto any of the extreme bills coming down the pike.

[The Backlash Cometh]

3. Score for the touchdown!

"But today's Florida Legislature is a far different animal from the 1985 version. It is dominated by young Republicans who do not know the past. Their sole guiding principle is that somebody should be able to make money, which they gussy up with the claim that it "creates jobs.""

Now. Follow the money, because they way they cut deals is usually illegal as hell. Frankly, I think those Economic Development agencies are just the tip of the iceberg.