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Great leadership does not come to the
people; it comes from the people.
-- former Gov. LeRoy Collins |
It is disappointing that a 60 days
quarantine policy blocked my right to answer to an
insulting letter by Liz Compton.
I only hope that the Sun-Sentinel will prove now its
objectivity and give the opportunity to express my
views.
Sinceely,
Peter Harsany, D.Sc.
The Department of Agriculture's justification in
forcing mass killings of healthy citrus trees in
home gardens is to save Florida's citrus industry,
due to its economic importance to Florida's economy.
It is established that canker may
influence only a fragment of the industry, less than
1/10th of it, those who sell their crop on the fresh
fruit market. This segment of the industry is
economically insignificant and can save its business
with proper prevention methods and if necessary by
switching to processing the fruit (not affected by
blemishes on the skin).
That does not justify to squander
millions of dollars of tax payers money. About 500
million dollars until now, but over an additional
one billion dollars will be required in order to
compensate for lost trees and further cost of
cuttings. Not taking into account the injustice of
offending the civil rights of individuals, the
question arises about the responsibility of
limitless squandering of public funds for falsely
justified purposes.
Peter Harsany, D.Sc.
(Doctor in agricultural economics) 4/30/03
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As many homeowners distressed about the unjust citrus canker eradication program contact members of the Department of Agriculture, they receive a lengthy form letter. It claims the need for the program and attempts to justify it with Dr.Gottwald's experiment.
The following is quoted from the letter: "A year-long scientific study determined that the disease spreads approximately 1900 feet from an infected tree...and even farther during severe weather. The trees located within 1900 feet are not considered 'healthy'. They are exposed and could be harboring the disease but not yet showing symptoms. If the exposed citrus trees are not removed, once they do express symptoms, the disease will continue its spread. This science has been peer reviewed by plant pathologists world-wide and has been published in scientific journals."
Firstly, Dr.Gottwald published a paper about his experiment, which may have received a kind of "peer review". I wish to emphasize that the peer-review was only about the paper and not the experiment itself in the field. This experiment has been never repeated nor has it been confirmed by other independent scientists.
Gottwald never presented the actual records or figures of his experiment, despite requests by the Court to do so. It is considered lacking in reliable data collection and analysis. It should be mentioned that Gottwald himself did not recommend, in writing, eradication based on his experiment.
Quoting from his papers:
"Although this bacterial disease is mostly a leaf and fruit spotting malady....it is because of its socio-economic and political impact that the disease is so devastating"
(from LTE in Phyopathology)
"Can we live with citrus canker? - Several countries in Southeast Asia, South America and elsewhere have lived with canker for decades. In many cases their industry actually co-evolved with canker from the start" "Even if eradication is achieved, there is a high probability for introduction of Xac (canker) in the future."- "Introduction of the disease is a fairly regular occurrence."
The scientists participating in this experiment examined only how far canker bacteria travels before it falls to the ground. Professor Chester M. Himel, who conducted extensive citrus canker research, concludes that "Gottwald's research protocol is fatally flawed. He did not measure any dormant bacteria and he has no knowledge as to how or why or when dormant bacteria become active or active bacteria become dormant."
The Department of Agriculture's claimed "scientific justification" to cut every tree in a 1900 feet radius around an infected tree is baseless. There is no justification whatsoever to eradicate trees in home gardens to protect commercial growers, instead of applying proper preventive treatments in the groves.
Industry representatives apparently feel that it is a better deal to let the public pay for eradication, instead of spending their own money for more expensive treatments in the groves. And at the same time they can extend their market to homeowners.
An important aspect: there are no funds available for just compensation to homeowners for their lost trees. Just compensation would top the already much over 400 million dollars of taxpayers' money squandered on an ineffective and constitutional right offending program.
Peter Harsany, D.Sc. (Doctor in agricultural economics)
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In his State of the State speech, Gov. Jeb Bush said one of his sources of inspiration in the days ahead is Florida's history.
"Our own state history begins with intrepid explorers in a new world and continues today with enormous courage - and sometimes enormous sacrifice - from our astronauts in the limitless expanse of the stars," he intoned.
Does it take enormous courage from the governor to jeopardize the future of the place that chronicles our state's history for our people? He's the one who wants to downgrade the Museum of Florida History by cutting its staff to virtually nothing.
Now that's really inspiration.
EARLD, letter
to Tall.Democrat
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Governor Jeb Bush of Florida, in his Inaugural Address on January 7, reaffirmed the conservative doctrine of our era. He declared that "government is not the answer" to our social problems. Instead, he asserted, the answer is to "build a life centered on faith, friends, and family."
First, I must say, that I am wholeheartedly for the latter values endorsed by Bush. I support faith that is "grounded in humility, gratitude, and generosity," as Bush described it; I am all for loyal friendships; and I believe, as Bush does, that personal responsibility is an essential quality that must be cultivated by families.
The question in my mind is, why is government not part of the solution? Why doesn't Bush add "good government" to his pantheon of virtues? Why is the governor of the state talking about getting rid of government?
"Without a caring society," said Bush, "without each citizen voluntarily accepting the weight of responsibility, government is destined to grow even larger, taking more of your money, burrowing deeper into your lives. . . . There would be no greater tribute to our maturity as a society than if we can make these [government] buildings around us empty of workers: silent monuments to the time when government played a larger role than it deserved or could adequately fill."
Bush's statement reveals a fundamental lack of understandings about the nature of democratic government. Government necessarily grows larger as the population and complexity of society (Florida) increases. A neighborhood does not need a traffic light when only ten cars per hour pass through an intersection; but when 1,000 cars per hour pass through, traffic regulation is needed.
Secondly, there are notable deficiencies in the market economy that require governmental intervention, whether to provide for a need not met by the private sector or to prevent corporate abuses and protect the public welfare.
We need government to maintain roads, fund schools, protect the environment, prevent crime, provide a measure of economic security to individuals (Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, unemployment compensation, and welfare programs), and protect children from abuse and neglect.
Bush highlighted the latter problem, saying that if only families were together, the taxpayers would not have to provide for some 50,000 children in the custody of the state. This is undoubtedly true. But it is also true that if criminals committed fewer crimes, industries and farms produced less pollution, and business enterprises produced less urban sprawl, Florida taxpayers would likewise save themselves much more money.
Bush and his conservative allies repeat the tired mantra of "less government" - meaning tax cuts and fewer regulations - because they do not want government to infringe on the market economy. Their "family values" rhetoric, however sincere, is used as a cover for a surreptitious attack on government programs and policies that limit or compete with the corporate-run economy. The struggle, in other words, is not about faith, family, and friends, but about power and money.
The conservative strategy of crippling government by reducing tax revenue and regulatory powers would garner little public support if it were acknowledged as such. Instead the diversionary tactic of talking about "faith and family," combined with contradictory promises to advance certain popular programs, serve to divert public understanding of the underlying strategy.
In his speech, Bush promised to reduce violent crime, clean up the Everglades, create a better school system, improve children's reading skills, and "build an economy that creates not just new jobs, but better jobs." Shouldn't he acknowledge that government has an important role to play in creating a "caring society?"
... RogerP, from TallyIMC,
3/3/03
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These days few people talk about Ben Hill Griffin Jr., although more than a decade after his death it seems that he still keeps his grip on Florida politics.
Ben Hill Griffin Jr. was one of the richest men in the United States. His wealth was estimated at 300 million dollars in 1990. He owned nearly 100,000 acres, a vast empire of citrus groves and cattle. But he also controlled an additional 275,000 acres through private holdings and by "Alico" a company he founded - as written by E.Garrett Youngblood in "Most Important Floridians in the 20th century". According to Youngblood, when it came to citrus his word was law - literally. A political writer once noted that amending a Ben Hill Griffin citrus bill would be like amending the book of Genesis. It seems that the Florida Agricultural Department still acts today as if Griffin were behind the curtain. It appears that his will on citrus 12 years after his death is still the law, dominating leaders and officials through his descendants, who are prosperous citrus growers and are in influential positions. According to Youngblood, when Griffin became angry "he'd spit orange seeds at you and laugh." Maybe allegorically, hundreds of thousands of home owners, but also judges and lawyers can feel the allegorical Griffin spitting.
His legacy has enormous power. It was one of his grandchildren that Katherine Harris, as Florida Secretary of State, declared thatt who should be the President of the United States. It was Ben Hill Griffin Jr.'s grandson J.D.Alexander (at that time a member of the Florida House of Representatives) who introduced one of the most ominous canker laws, well wrapped in 73 pages of text, together with other topics.
Mr.Bronson's election to Florida Agricultural Commissioner was typical of the spirit of Ben Hill Griffin Jr's legacy. The citrus industry's rich organizations worked out an election strategy to fight the democratic candidate, Mary Barley (having a program against eradication) who had a definite edge over Bronson. The plan was to find a democratic contender who could eliminate Mary Barley at the primary but would not present difficulty for Bronson at the election. David Nelson, a talented school teacher was the perfect choice. He won the primary against Barley with the endorsement of a fictitious organization created in a hurry by the industry, called "Florida's Working Families" (a name like borrowed from communist countries) playing the card of "a poor man against a millionaire".
Nelson was backed by the industry's unlimited financial resources until he surprisingly won the primary. Immediately after, the citrus industry finances turned against David Nelson and the fictitious organization disappeared into the industry's archives. Nelson was without money or help from anybody but still almost won the election against the fund raising champion Bronson's dollar millions. (Bronson was the top fundraiser in the 2000 elections.)
The strategy worked. The citrus industry got their man for the eradication propaganda. They spend millions to fuel the obsession of canker eradication. However, sooner or later the citrus industry will have to recognize that eradication does not help.
THE SOLUTION IS TO EMPLOY MORE COSTLY, PROPER TREATMENTS IN THE FRESH FRUIT PRODUCING GROVES OR TO SWITCH TO PROCESSING.
...Peter Harsany, D.Sc. , 2/27/03
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The recently issued "e-budget" announced by Governor Jeb Bush contains the greatest threat to the Florida historical community ever. Under the governor's proposed FY 2003-2004 budget, the State Library of Florida would be eliminated as a state agency and its holdings transferred to some other entity(ies). This means that the collections, amassed since 1845 and including some 1 million books, 250,000 documents and thousands of photographs and miscellaneous materials would be broken up, dispersed to a number of locations or simply warehoused. Florida's State Library has be one of the crown jewels of the state.
Equally distressing is the practical elimination of the Bureau of Historic Preservation as an effective agency in encouraging, promoting and assisting historic preservation activities around the state. ALL regional historical resources offices will be closed state employees have already received letters telling them that they will be dismissed on June 30and more than 200 other employees in the Department of State will join them at local job assistance centers. The Bureau of Historic Preservation will be left with a staff barely able to cover day-to-day activities in their offices and nothing to those areas outside Tallahassee.
The State Museum of Florida, located in the R.A. Gray Building, will be placed under the Parks Service and the skilled staff, recruited and hired over a number of years, will be either fired or must reapply for work/jobs as a "park ranger." No insult to park rangers, but few of them are trained as conservators, exhibits specialists, or museum personnel.
The Division of Archives will become part of the Department of Management Services, an agency that is headed by an individual with a less than assuring past.
In essence, the governor is already carrying out the dismantling of these agencies, although the "spin doctors"communications directors are quick to assure those who question these activities that "everything is left to the Legislature to approve." This semantically adroit answer does not take into consideration that the Florida State Legislature has NEVER stood up to the governor on any issue, nor is it likely to now. By proceeding under the guise of "reorganization," the matter will be solved before the Legislature can react. Our prediction is that the less-than-independent Legislature will simply accept the governor's fait accompli and move on.
Of course, this move to abolish the very heart of the historical and cultural agencies of the state follows closely on the heels of the awarding of obscenely huge raises complete with Fortune 500 CEO perks to the presidents of state institutions of higher learning, the approval of a constitutional amendment to limit classroom sizes in public schools and the governor's verified statement of a "devious plan" to undermine this will of the people. Of course, this also follows the governor's own pronouncement at his inauguration that he "dreamed of a day when all government buildings would be empty of all government workers." Are these things related? Sources in state agencies in Tallahassee afraid to speak out after being effectively muzzled by their superiors report that even the supervisors and directors ascribe this proposal, at least in part to these things.
Many Republicans, Democrats and Independents particularly those who appreciate education and the preservation of our heritage are appalled that this was ever proposed. The same idea was tried in Washington state and Arkansas, but in those states the populations and the politicians who often see things differently joined forces and soundly defeated the effort to eliminate their state libraries. Not even Jesse Ventura, whose public image is that of a cultural Neanderthal, ever sought to undertake such a venture in Minnesota. Yet, in Florida, the governor "proposes" and the Legislature will be coerced into "disposing."
Across the state, many groups are uniting to oppose the destruction of these agencies. You can do your part by participating in this effort. If you site idly by or allow partisan politics to stay your hand, the effort to counteract Bush's proposal will die. A simple call to your legislator, a letter to your local newspaper, a call to a talk show or an e-mail to someone you know can make a difference.
A new website has been created by the Florida Historical Society to collect electronic signature on a petition to be sent to the governor and Legislature. You can become a part of this effort by going to
www.floridahistory.info/statelibrary
and sign up!
....Nick Wynne , 2/18/03 (more
about the library dismantling here)
Thank you so much
for this very informative website. I learned of it
only recently, and decided to examine it to see if
was a viable source of information or just a
negative "Jeb-bashing" venue. I am so
pleased that this website is informative, mature,
well-designed, up-to-date, and state of the art. As
a native Floridian, I am sad and concerned about the
damage our state is sustaining in the name of greed
and profit. I will certainly pass this website along
to others.
... Many thanks, Susan
G. Koehler
Top
I am throwing in the towel after
over eight years of teaching in the Pinellas County
School System. Why? Well JEB is cutting funds given to
the counties as payback for the citizens passing the
classroom size amendment. Hey JEB, these amendments
pass because people of tired of you money-grubbing
politicians and your lobbyist benefactors. In response,
the School Board is cutting two hundred support staff
in order to make ends meet. This means that the
teachers and staff that have been without enough help
will now have to go with even less. This is the last
straw for this teacher! If JEB is so concerned, and
I’ll bet my last pay raise he isn’t (LOL), he
would cut back on the pork and not the future.
Soon to be former teacher
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By Emily Minor, Palm Beach Post
Staff Columnist
Tuesday, February 11, 2003
I spent the early part of Monday looking for outrage
about the state's new
plan to parcel off child-abuse investigations.
It was a little like sitting with a Where's Waldo book
open on my lap.
I knew it had to be there, but where?
I first hit pay dirt with Kathryn Basile, head of the
Children Services
Council of St. Lucie County.
"I think a lot of people are outraged,"
Basile said. "We believe it is the
state's responsibility to be taking care of
children."
We're talking about the Department of Children and
Families. Again.
Last week, DCF head Jerry Regier announced plans for
solving the state's
under-financed and overwhelmed child-welfare system,
which has long
struggled to limit caseloads for underpaid
investigators.
In a nutshell, this is Regier's solution to a very
gnarly problem:
Give it away!
It's brilliant, really, and I'm thinking some of us
might want to adopt this
technique at home and office.
Can't pay the bills? Give them away! Can't finish that
project? Let someone
else do it!
Why bother doing things that are just so darn hard?
"It's cowardly that our elected officials don't
step up and take
responsibility," said Manalapan Police Chief Clay
Walker, who is head of the
Law Enforcement Planning Council. "It's easier to
give it away, or push it
away."
Walker represents Palm Beach County police chiefs, and
the county sheriff,
who have been sending an officer or deputy out with
DCF investigators since
November on child-abuse calls, even though they've
been promised no money
for taking on what used to be entirely the state's
work.
Walker said most of them don't like being backed into
a corner, but they're
willing to make it work.
"We're not doing everything right yet,"
Walker said. "But we're working on
it."
State Attorney Barry Krischer said Monday the
dissection of state welfare
programs for children started long ago. And up in
Basile's professional
circles, they sarcastically call it "the
devolution" of DCF.
"What I'm assuming is that it gives them a level
of deniability," Krischer
said, about state officials passing off programs.
"They get to say, 'It's
them, not us.' "
Krischer, who likes to bellow about being tough on
juvenile offenders but
who also has a soft spot for kids and has long been an
advocate for their
rights, sits on the Community Alliance.
The alliance was formed after the legislature in 1998
ordered the
privatization of foster care in Florida.
In other words, after the legislature said foster care
should be given away.
Now Krischer, a Democrat, says he's watching Regier --
who Krischer thinks
Gov. Jeb Bush brought in largely to dismantle DCF --
try to shift the costs
of certain juvenile justice programs from state to
county government. Things
like the cost of juveniles in the county jail and
misdemeanor probation
programs. Basile says she's worried Bush will do away
with juvenile justice
as a separate division, and put all teenage criminals
in the adult
Department of Corrections.
"And now the last straw is Regier's announcement
that they want to take away
all the protective investigators out from under DCF,"
Krischer said Monday.
"I think we are finally getting to the point
where people at the local level
are fed up."
Yeah, Monday got off to a slow start.
But once I found the outrage, it was a regular geyser.
... DaveG, 2/12/03
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The Florida Constitution directs the Legislature to create the office of auditor within the legislative branch. The Legislature did so and named the office "auditor general." It has further required that the auditor general perform financial and compliance audits of agencies within the executive and judicial branches. To ensure his complete independence, the auditor general is precluded from auditing entities within the legislative branch.
The auditor general, as an officer of the legislative branch, is appointed by the Joint Legislative Auditing Committee and confirmed by both the House and the Senate; serves at the pleasure of the Legislature; is subject to removal only by the Legislature; receives assignments from the Legislature pursuant to law and or resolution; and is precluded from political activity. The office receives appropriations unfettered by executive branch action. Thus, in the performance of his duties, the auditor general and his employees are free of control of officers and employees of the executive and judicial branches.
Can Florida taxpayers afford to lose the independence of the auditor general by having this office gutted by the governor when recent debacles such as Enron, Global Crossing, WorldCom and other large corporate failures have been attributed to the absence of independence by their auditors? I think not!
...RobertS, Tallahassee
Democrat , 2/11/03
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The governor's campaign to eliminate two internal watchdog agencies (including the Office of the Auditor General) seems like a logical step in keeping with the governor's push to privatize state government.
You see, the reason that we don't need watchdogs anymore is because the governor is going to privatize everything, and everybody knows that private industry is very efficient, not to mention very honorable (or is that Enronable?). Thus, there really is no need for internal watchdog agencies because there really will be no more internal functioning. It will all be in private hands.
Blessed be the name of the governor.
... WickH, 2/5/03
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As a farm boy, we were warned that strangers & neighbors were dangerous to the health of our cattle. My experience indicates that the citrus tree inspectors are dangerous to my citrus trees, also. Insects, diseases, fungus, & bacteria can be spread on the shoes and clothes of anyone entering a yard or farm field, or livestock pen, feeding area, or barn.
I had very healthy orange trees in my yard until the citrus inspectors put a trap in one orange tree and then kept coming in my yard to check it. The tree with the trap in it declined until it was almost dead, so I removed it. Two other trees nearby are not healthy any more.
Some research into the methods that the inspectors are supposed to use to prevent spreading disease, and what they really do when not monitored would be appreciated.
...Jay, 1/28/03
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Here we are getting ready
to witness a slaughter, because Harkin and
Halliburton demand 0.25% of Iraq's oil receipts.
Adam Smith talked about this kind of stuff.
Welfare for the rich, a
British American tradition.
Not only is this nightmare will almost
certainly happen, Jeb Bush, my
governor, is getting ready to destroy the
basis of civilization, the
library.
Jeb has recommended eliminating the State
Library of Florida.
Search for [LIBRARY EXPENDITURES]
here http://www.ebudget.state.fl.us/search.asp
...TomB, 1/21/03
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Gov. Bush took his second oath of office Tuesday and vowed to make "government less necessary." You wonder whether he has a sense of irony.
To hear the governor tell it, government impedes ordinary folk from transforming Florida into a place where average citizens "shape our society through kindness and caring." He warned, "Without each citizen voluntarily accepting the weight of responsibility, government is destined to grow even larger, taking more of your money, burrowing deeper into your lives." Some demon, government.
But there's government, and there's government. The government to which Gov. Bush referred Tuesday is the government he doesn't believe in -- education -- or has failed to improve -- child welfare. Ticking off sad statistics, the governor said it had been a mistake to "embrace the thin fiction that if only we can hire one more social worker or complete one more form then we can somehow reverse these corrosive trends and salvage those lives." Those methods were "noble" but "folly."
So does he mean that giving more money to the Department of Children and Families -- as child-welfare experts have urged and Gov. Bush has said he won't do -- would be not just misguided but immoral? More interesting, if government is inherently bad, what does it say about the governor that he owes so much to... government?
Disconnect between words, policies
The connections that gave Gov. Bush his first jobs out of college came from his father's many, lucrative connections in... government, as congressman from Texas, then vice president and president. Those same connections built the network of donors that financed his three runs for governor.
So there's government, and there's government. Gov. Bush's government is the one that, for example, gave $2 million to the Daytona International Speedway in 2000, when then-candidate George W. Bush was the grand marshal of the big July 4 stock-car race, while denying money for Alzheimer's respite care. Gov. Bush's government is the one off which his golfing buddy, former House Speaker John Thrasher, has become wealthy by lobbying it on behalf of corporate clients. Gov. Bush's government is the one that privatizes services under the fiction of saving money and hands out contracts to companies that donate to the Republican Party.
There also is a disconnect between Gov. Bush's call for strengthening families and the policies of state government under his supervision. If the governor believes in a "caring society," it would follow that he believes in a caring government. Yet Florida continues to grant a tax exemption for stadium skyboxes while cutting medical care for the poor. Florida continues to pay for school construction from state-run gambling, running ads designed to separate poor people from their grocery money. The governor asked Floridians to "reflect on our unearned gifts." Is there room for reflection on what one has done or not done with earned power?
Less government, more power
State Sen. Ron Klein, D-Delray Beach, said he thought the governor's speech foretold "drastic cuts. And even though the governor's prior budgets have been hard to follow, because they have shifted categories from year to year, I think this year there will be more funny math than before." One bit of funny math is that the governor's plan to get government out of child welfare will force local government to "take more of your money."
State Sen. Ken Pruitt, R-Port St. Lucie, chairman of the Budget Committee, said: "The process tends to tame even the most ultra-conservative. Jeb Bush has not been tamed. He lives in the world of trying to shape human behavior. We in the Legislature operate in the everyday world."
Sen. Pruitt said those differing views mark "where the divide is going to remain." He means between the Senate and the governor. In a larger sense, there is a conflict between what Gov. Bush says and what he does. The governor who cautions about government's reach has given himself more power than any chief executive in Florida's history. He has used that power forcefully when he cares about something, such as trying to emasculate the courts. He doesn't believe government is "less necessary." Sometimes, he's just less interested.
By Randy Schultz, Palm Beach Post Editor of the Editorial Page
Sunday, January 12, 2003
http://www.gopbi.com/partners/pbpost/epaper/editions/today/opinion_e3f1b59215e542b900a5.html
Top
On January 7th, Florida Governor Jeb Bush delivered his inaugural speech, arguing that government is inherently complicated, unwieldy, unproductive, and incapable of addressing many societal issues he calls 'tragedies'. Instead, he suggested that faith, friends, and family ought to play the role of government. This author finds Bush's remarks to be a study in contradiction and an admission of failure.
Jeb Bush would have us believe that no government is something worth striving for. There is a political term that describes this view - anarchism. At the same time, Jeb will finally increase governmental spending on programs that Floridians have again and again indicated are a priority, like education. This is a pretty simple contradiction.
Bush's so-called 'mathematics of the tragedy' is also interesting. If Bush thinks that children born without a father in the home, abortions, and dissolved marriages are 'tragedies', one would think that in the past four years under his leadership Florida would have begun to address those issues; his administration has not done this. Just because he cannot effectively direct our state, even in the right-wing direction he so obviously desires, we must not conclude that government itself is lacking. Bush appears to be admitting that he has failed.
The response to Tuesday's speech by the Democrats has apparently been almost entirely one of acceptance. Democratic leaders have complained that Bush has not provided details for various plans, but to a large extent have seemed to accept the Governor's vision of government and Florida's future. This reinforces the idea that the Democratic Party is unable, and certainly unwilling, to represent those of us who care about the environment, the poor, and the workers of Florida.
According to published reports, Governor Jeb Bush delivered his inaugural address to a crowd consisting largely of Republican leaders, high-profile attorneys, and corporate executives on Tuesday.
Some pertinent quotes from his speech include:
"There would be no greater tribute to our maturity as a society than if we can make these [governmental] buildings around us empty of workers; silent monuments to the time when government played a larger role than it deserved or could adequately fill."
"Consider the mathematics of the tragedy: Each year in Florida, 80,000 children are born without a father in the home. Each year, there are 85,000 abortions. And each year, 80,000 marriages are dissolved. Sadly, today, almost 50,000 children are in the custody of the state, and hundreds of thousands more aren't receiving the child support they are due. The numbers are so staggering, the implications so bleak, that we can become numb to the human toll they exact.
In the past, our response has been to raise more taxes, grow more government, and embrace the thin fiction that if only we can hire one more social worker or complete one more form then we can somehow reverse these corrosive trends and salvage these lives. But while these intentions may be noble these methods are folly. Government will never fill the hollowness of the human heart. It can only be filled by a like-kind substance. It can only be filled by another human heart."
... Anonymous Now, 1/9/03 (posted on Tallahassee-RedHills
IMC)
Top
Here are some big numbers that show the priorities in Tallahassee under Republican "leadership":
During the first Jeb Bush administration, the state gave out between $5 billion and $6 billion in tax cuts, with virtually none of the benefit going to middle-class Floridians. At the same time, the state increased spending on education by $3 billion, which only kept up with growth and inflation.
Here is a small number that shows the priorities in Tallahassee under Republican "leadership":
As The Miami Herald reported last week, in the same 2003 budget that cut medical care for the poor, the House and Senate managed to find nearly $2 million to renovate and expand legislators' offices. Senate President Jim King, R-Jacksonville, will get a new office suite with carpet in the colors of Florida State University, his alma mater. On the House side, there will be a nicer lounge for the representatives' families. There also will be a new office suite for a leader who hasn't been named.
Only two years ago, the House spent about $7 million to virtually redo its digs. In 1994, the Senate spent $14 million to upgrade some of its offices. This must be the one exception to Tallahassee's belief that you can't cure a problem by throwing money at it.
In early discussions about the 2004 budget, legislators have been telling state attorneys that they may have to absorb cuts that would mean laying off prosecutors -- this from a Legislature that talks about being tough on crime. Meanwhile, no legislative leader is talking about removing the sales-tax exemption for skyboxes at stadiums.
A spokesman for House Speaker Johnnie Byrd, R-Plant City, told the Herald that the renovations will give every House member an office with a window "so no one feels like a second-class citizen." Apparently, legislators reserve that distinction for those who pay their salaries.
.... Palm Beach Post Editorial,
Tuesday, December 31, 2002 posted by
DanM 1/4/03
Top
The
Economic Impact Of Misleading The
Legislature
Those people who followed
Charles H. Bronson Florida Commissioner of
Agriculture's propaganda speeches, open
letters in newspapers when trying to defend
the unconstitutional and offending citrus
canker eradication law, and who read also
independent scientists reviling the lies in
these, could not miss the expression of
"economic impact". That is an
expression for abstract figures created in
economic studies, by economists - for
economists with very little practical value.
It tries to estimate the effect of certain
financial masses on various levels in the
field of economy. In the past this was done
using various complicated models with uneven
results. Computers created automated
programs for calculating it. As in every
computer program the results of calculation
depend on data fed. Erroneous or false input
results in erroneous, false outcome.
Promoters of the program to kill all or most
of the citrus trees in home gardens for the
benefit of a small sector (only about 10 %)
of Florida's citrus industry needed
impressive figures to convince the public
and lawmakers. To argue that if canker
affects the fresh fruit producers with an
output of only approx. 110 million dollars
per year has a devastating effect on
Florida's entire economy is not convincing.
Figures derived using an expensive computer
program, an input-output modelling system
fed with partially erroneous data, produced
the magic figure of appr. "9".
Multiplying the value of the output of the
entire citrus industry, they got the
imaginary figure of 9.3 billion dollars.
Here was the perfect argument that
"canker of the 9.3 billion dollar
citrus industry can endanger the entire
Florida economy."
But how can be the citrus industry 9.3
billion dollar when according to statistics
Florida's entire agricultural industry is
only 6 billion dollar?
Bronson's brain trust found the solution:
multiple the 6 billion also by
"9". Therefore, Florida's
agriculture industry suddenly became $54
billion!
The "doctored" figures were
presented to Florida Legislature, with other
untrue arguments, to provide a legal basis
for an unjust and costly program together
with other convincing but untrue arguments
as:
 |
"Canker
threatens Florida's entire agriculture,
the second largest industry after
tourism and is critical to our
economy".
That sounds like quite an impressive
argument, were it true. It attempts to
justify mass killings of trees in
private gardens at taxpayers' expense.
The fact is, however, that citrus
production is not all of the
agriculture. Florida's entire
agriculture industry is a 6 billion
dollar industry and the citrus industry
is a 1.1 billion dollar fraction of it.
The endangered sub sector, the fresh
fruit growers are only a very small
(however very powerful) part of the
citrus industry. They are about 1/10 of
all the citrus growers. That means that
the only canker-sensitive fresh fruit
growing sub sector, valued at 110
million dollars is a fraction of 1/60 of
Florida's entire agriculture!
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"Cutting down
healthy citrus trees in a radius of 1900
feet around an infected tree is based on
science".
Untrue. It is based on an experiment
conducted by Dr.Gottwald, who declared
that still further experiments are
needed and will be done by the Florida
research team in Brazil. (Citrus Canker
Symposium in 2000). He never suggested
to eradicate all healthy trees in a
radius of 1900 feet around an infected
tree.
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"Eradication is
the only method of controlling
canker".
Untrue. It is totally ineffective. In
spite of cutting down more than 600,000
healthy trees, canker spreads to
counties far away of the eradicated
areas. Infected trees were found In
Brevard, Collier, Hendry, Highlands,
Lee, Martin, Orange and Okeechobee
counties. (Just lately in Sarasota).
Independent scientists, professors Jack
O.Whitehead, Charles H.Hamel,and Heinz
K.Wutscher with life long scientific
research established the fact that
eradication is ineffective to control
canker.
|
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"Chemical
treatments are useless".
Untrue. They are the best methods of
prevention. Chemical treatments are
successfully used in South America and
in many other countries.
|
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"Canker is
destroying Florida's entire citrus
industry".
Untrue. Groves growing citrus to process
it, 90% of the industry, are not
affected by only blemishes on the skin
of the fruit.
|
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"Canker is
weakening, finally destroying
trees".
Untrue. There is no scientific
justification for this statement. On the
contrary, researchers show that the
canker bacterium has certain beneficial
effects on the tree.(Prof. Chester
H.Hamel). Canker is self-eliminating
(Prof. Jack O. Whitehead).
|
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"The
eradication program is helping
everybody, including the home
owners".
Untrue. Home owners can use the fruit
even with blemishes on the skin.
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"Another
major threat of citrus canker may result
in a state-wide quarantine that would
prohibit the shipment of fresh fruit
from this state's most important
economic contributors."
Untrue. Argentina, a canker endemic
country, has been exporting citrus into
the USA and Europe for years and is
scheduled to ship directly to Florida in
2004. - 99% of all Florida's fruit
export go to non citrus producing
regions or to countries that already
have canker. (Researched by Jack Haire).
The Legislature unfortunately gave
credit to these false arguments
introducing the citrus canker
eradication laws, with devastating
economic impacts:
- Eradicating
600,000 mostly healthy citrus trees
and legally robbing home owners,
offending their constitutional
rights.
- Squandering
over 400 million dollars of
taxpayers' money for the unfair
program, cutting down backyard
trees, paying 78 million dollars
compensation in to commercial
growers and incurring enormous Court
costs for defending it.
- Causing the
sensitive fresh fruit growing sector
of the citrus industry to become
unprotected with the false belief
that cutting down trees in home
gardens protects them from canker.
Lawmakers in the
Legislature accepted the false arguments
and voted for it in good faith. However,
a law based on false information and
considered unconstitutional also for
other reasons by legal experts, must be
revoked AS IT WAS CREATED BY MISLEADING
THE LEGISLATORS.
Peter Harsany, D.Sc. (Doctor in
agricultural economics), 1/04/02
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Stop further squandering of public money for citrus tree eradications and legal actions
1/ A "9.3 billion dollar citrus industry" as asserted by the Department of Agriculture supposed to be only the industry's impact on Florida's economy, an imaginary figure created by a computer program and not the value of the industry, what is only 1.1 billion, (the total value of one years crop).
2/ There is no scientific data to justify the claim that canker can weaken the tree or cause fruit to fall prematurely. Dr. Chester H. Hamel, retired research professor from the University of Atlanta and an international expert in several of the sciences critical to effective management of citrus canker, states that the genetics involved in the interaction between citrus and citrus canker makes it impossible for citrus canker to be anything but a fruit blemishing nuisance. According to Professor Hamel,
"The citrus canker bacterium is inherently innocuous. It does cause blemishes on fruit but it also stimulates immune responses in citrus trees making them more resistant to stress. Thus, on balance, the citrus canker bacterium is a good bacterium, not the devastating threat."
3/ 1/ Canker may have damaging effects only on the fresh fruit growing sector.(If they do not protect themselves.) This sector represents 10% of the industry. The fruit processors, who represent 90% of the industry, are not affected.
4/ There is no scientific justification to the 1900 foot scenario either. Dr.Gottwald's experiments cannot be called as such. He himself expects it to be maybe 95% effective, and declared the need for additional experiments to be conducted in Brazil. (Citrus Canker Symposium 2000).
Sincerely,
Peter Harsany, D.Sc. (Doctor in Agricultural Economics); posted 12/26/02
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........ most of Bush's
appointees were Republicans, including
heavy-hitters
in the party. Collectively, the appointees,
their families and businesses
gave $48,000 to Republican Party candidates
in 2001 and 2002, and many
thousands more to the GOP.
One appointee, Republican Carolyn K. Roberts
of Ocala, led the failed
campaign to defeat the Graham amendment that
created the Board of Governors
on which she will now sit. See:
http://www.gopbi.com/partners/pbpost/epaper/editions/tuesday/news_e3701f01145661d400eb.html
Top
When lawmakers meet this spring, they no doubt will ask taxpayers to do more with less. They should heed their own advice.
With a looming multibillion-dollar budget deficit, legislators face the unenviable task of either raising taxes or trimming a host of state-funded programs to make ends meet. And Republicans who control both chambers of the Legislature don't want a tax increase.
OK. But why then would lawmakers even consider sticking taxpayers with a $1.5 million tab to renovate legislative offices? When the elderly can't afford prescription drugs and poor children can't access health care, it's unconscionable for elected officials to even consider posh new offices -- which were renovated just two years ago.
If taxpayers must sacrifice some, lawmakers should,
too.
...from Orlando Sentinel
editorial, 12/25/02
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With all those holiday fliers in the mail, many Floridians may not have received the latest copy of Human Resources Outsourcing Today, a magazine geared toward finance and personnel officers.
Cover model for December/January is none other than Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, acclaimed for providing "the highest quality HR services while saving Florida's taxpayers millions of dollars."
The mag lauds Bush and the Republican Legislature for turning over state personnel services to Cincinnati-based Convergys Corp., a move proponents say will save the state $173 million over seven years. The state workers union condemns it, saying it could cost 800 state jobs.
"It's quite a marvelous feat," said Jay Whitehead, the magazine's president and publisher. "It's also a model for what President George W. Bush is doing in Washington."
The elder Bush hopes to outsource as many as 850,000 civil service jobs considered "commercial" tasks easily performed by private sector firms.
Although outsourcing is expected to expand during the governor's second term, it also helped pave the way to Bush's re-election. Many companies that landed state contracts contributed to the state Republican Party....
12/1/02 (more
from Orlando Sentinel)
... posted by Orlando
A recent study found that economic development went hand in
hand with certain bohemianism. Several magazines and newspapers analyzed the finding that cities with diverse, quirky, artistic populations had the strongest economic gains.
A Neal Peirce column,"Lively economies require lively cities," appeared in the Tallahassee Democrat's June 9 Comment section.
Two of the cities cited as examples were San Francisco and Austin, Texas. Austin is often spoken of as a twin city to Tallahassee, if always with the qualifier that "Tallahassee is like the Austin of 25 years ago."
Twenty-five years ago, when I was still living there, I was one of the people instrumental in helping change the face of downtown Austin. I was one of the co-founders of several storefront theaters including Esther's Follies.
The year we started Esther's, Sixth Street after dark was an empty place. So we weren't expecting much when we rented a downtown storefront next door to a "massage" parlor and a failing salsa bar.
What happened next astonished us all. Almost immediately, our theater had a consistent traffic of people who, intelligent and curious, had been looking for more interesting ways to spend their money. They came in droves. And by the end of six months we were only one of eight new businesses - three of them restaurants - on Sixth.
Our audiences started coming downtown because they wanted to see this new, interesting thing that was going on. But they were able to come to the Follies because they had been informed of its existence. They got that information not through the mainstream newspapers or radio stations but in large part through word of mouth and from our exposure on the public access television channel.
Public access featured the Austin population making appearances in a series of self-made talk shows, weird little sitcoms, music jams, poetry readings and some of the funniest, mock-profane performance art I've seen in my life. The artists and musicians who appeared on public access ranged from the future stars of the play "Greater Tuna," to Terry Lickonia, producer of Austin City Limits.
People adored the channel and watched in record numbers. Even more people wanted to know how to use public access and came to the free classes offered by the video professionals who volunteered to teach the basics of creating original TV.
Public access television would prove to be one of the most enduring and beloved conduits of local information and entertainment in Austin. In a very real way, it introduced the city to another side of itself. For the first time the quirky, artistic, bohemian side of Austin - the side that would help lead the way to its phenomenal economic growth - was being revealed to everyone else who lived in or was just visiting the city.
Until 25 years ago, Austin, like Tallahassee, was thought of as a sleepy,
government/university town that was culturally vacant and kind of backwater. But as those creative, bohemian Austinites gained more exposure, the more diverse and interesting people the city began to attract.
The City Council had long been frustrated in its attempts to woo sophisticated businesses because their key employees were unwilling to relocate from places with thriving cultural scenes to a place that didn't seem to have any culture, period. But with the new visibility of the creative class, those businesses stopped and reconsidered.
Esther's Follies is still thriving, as is Sixth Street, as is Austin, as is public access television itself. The people in our own local government claim they want to emulate the success of Austin; to use it as a model of how to revitalize growth in a town being dismantled by a state government that often seems hostile to its existence.
Many of the ideas promulgated by them and other Tallahassee figures for promoting the life of our city are exemplary. They all say they want to promote Tallahassee as a city where intelligent, cultured, innovative people would love to settle.
But they will not get those people in any numbers if they don't heed and help promote the cultural life of our city. Public access will help audiences find their pleasures, find what delights intrigues and amuses them. It will promote an innovative image of our city as a place where artistic and cultural diversity thrives. And in doing so it will help the economic life this city thrive as well.
Because it is those diverse pleasures, those delights, those curiosities - just as much as affordable homes, good schools, drivable roads and natural beauty- that will attract good businesses and good people to join us in our wonderful town.
By Terry Galloway, MY VIEW,
Tallahassee Democrat
Terry Galloway is a writer, performer and director who divides her professional life between Tallahassee and Austin. Contact her at
TLGalloway@aol.com.
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