NOTE: This is a legislative update from Emergent Design and Development, a Tallahassee consulting firm that advises clients about education matters.

From Bob and Mary Bedford

The session is progressing with the release of the Senate Budget – and the House budget is expected to be released this week.  In somewhat of a surprise, both Houses have included the stimulus money for Education.  The budgets will not be identical and most educators will probably favor the Senate Position.

COMMISSIONER NOTES

After having an opportunity to hear Education Commissioner Eric Smith make several presentations last week, I believe that the following bullets represent actions that we can expect as a result of this Session.

•        Florida will be granted a waiver and receive stimulus money.  (Possibly as early as next week.)
•        Stimulus dollars will come with strict accountability guidelines, including fiscal audits and educational audits to assure that the money will result in improved student outcomes.
•        The Florida Legislature will pass legislation increasing graduation requirements. Read the rest of this entry »

Tattoo art we can all understand.

By Ellyn Bogdanoff 

Republican state representative from Fort Lauderdale. 

Consensus is that this will be one of the most challenging 60 days that the Florida Legislature has ever faced. The difficulty that lies ahead seems insurmountable, but with challenging times comes great opportunity. 

We must have the political will to take on the old ways of government and systemically change the way we do business. It’s time to create a smarter state government that works effectively for all Floridians. Most importantly, your elected representatives have an obligation to clean up government’s house before we ask any more from any Floridian’s house. 

This legislative session, I am serving as the Chair of House Finance & Tax Council. It is my responsibility to lead the council members in their deliberations regarding state revenue issues. As we have begun to discuss these issues, it is distressing that the first thing many look to do to fill a budget shortfall is to raise taxes. That is the easy fix to our problems, albeit dangerous.

Florida receives the bulk of its taxes from sales tax revenue — a tax directly reflective of what the citizens of this state can afford. The state has less because the people have less. It seems counterintuitive to increase taxes during a recession, but nonetheless the outcry is there. 

I believe we need a different framework if we are going to successfully tackle the state’s expected $6 billion revenue shortfall. That’s why I have worked hard to find alternatives to simply raising taxes.

Click here to read the reset of the story.

NOTE: A debate reared up in a suburban Northeast Florida county where a citizen tried to question the county commission chairman about the campaign contributions he received from developers. The chairman refused to allow the citizen to continue his statement. Here is a report on a related issue from Tampabay.com.

By Mary Ellen Klas, Times/Herald Tallahassee Bureau 
In Print: Tuesday, March 31, 2009

TALLAHASSEE — No legislator is immune when it comes to the influence of the gambling industry in Florida.

All 160 members of the Florida Legislature have either accepted a campaign check from the industry or benefited from its contributions to their parties. In the 2006-08 election cycle alone, horse and dog tracks, jai alai frontons and the Seminole Indian Tribe gave nearly $5 million to legislators and political parties — more than double the $2.2 million gambling interests contributed to lawmakers in the previous election.

Some legislators have worked closely with the industry or have allies who do. And in every corner of the state, ailing parimutuels are promising something lawmakers are hungry for in this perilous economy: new jobs, if legislators give them new games.

To read the rest of the story, click here.

This story was reported in the Orlando Sentinel recently. It is a scenario that is undoubted played out in school districts around the state of Florida.

By Leslie Postal | Sentinel Staff Writer

Courtney Coker graduated from Florida State University in 2006 eager to start work as a music teacher. It wasn’t hard to turn her passion into a paycheck.

“It was teacher shortage, teacher shortage, teacher shortage,” Coker said. “I had no problem finding my first job. Everybody I knew found a job.”

Now, three years later, the band director at Blankner School in Orlando finds herself consumed with fear that her dream job will soon be gone. Like thousands of teachers across Florida, she worries the state’s financial crisis could push her into the ranks of the unemployed.

For the rest of the story, click here.

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Lamar Thames

A friend of mine once said that growing old is not for sissies. She was absolutely right, as I am rapidly finding out; too rapidly it seems.

There is another part of aging that I am not all that fond of either — retirement. It is not exactly what I had in mind when I signed up for it. (Of course, some would say that I really didn’t have a choice in the matter, but that is another story.)

I envisioned retirement to be a leisurely endeavor with lots of golf, travel and enjoyment. I am not going to tell you that there is not a lot of enjoyment because there is, but golf and travel? Uh huh. Just not happening, man.

Oh, I have played an occasional round but it is not the twice-per-week frequency that I had imagined. Finances, of course, play a part of it, but there is a bigger issue — there is just so much darn work to do. You know what I mean?

The first thing I did when I “retired” (aka, when I was no longer given the option of drawing a paycheck) was fire my yard maintenance company. At a cost of more than $100 a month, it was an expense that both my wife and I knew we didn’t need. Especially when I was able to do the work myself. Back in November, it seemed like a slam dunk. I mean, what was there to do? Mow the lawn once a month, and rake a few leaves here and there? But now that spring has sprung and things are actually GROWING, it is a far different deal. Hey, there is something to do in the yard EVERY day. I trimmed the hedges just last week and they already need it again. I am getting tired of it. Read the rest of this entry »

By Charlie Reese

Politicians are the only people in the world who create problems and then campaign against them.

Have you ever wondered, if both the Democrats and the Republicans are against deficits, WHY do we have deficits?

Have you ever wondered, if all the politicians are against inflation and high taxes, WHY do we have inflation and high taxes?

You and I don’t propose a federal budget.  The president does. Read the rest of this entry »

• Toxic-asset plan well received
• Economic data show some improvement
• Corporate profits slump in fourth quarter
• Japanese exports plunge 49%

Stocks ended the week higher as several reports raised hopes that the economy may be turning a corner, and investors responded enthusiastically to the White House’s plan to clean banks’ balance sheets. The success of the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s seven-year note auction also buoyed sentiment, convincing investors that the Treasury could still raise money at reasonable rates. During the week, the Dow Jones Industrial Average firmly entered so-called bull market territory, gaining more than 20% since its March 9 low.

U.S. economic news

Toxic-asset plan buoys markets
U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner detailed the Obama administration’s Public-Private Investment Program, a plan intended to clean toxic assets from banks’ balance sheets. The two-part program aims to boost purchases of bad loans and real-estate related securities and will use up to $100 billion of bank rescue funds from the Treasury as well as financial guarantees from the U.S. Federal Reserve Board and Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC). Read the rest of this entry »

The bluegrass band New Found Road entertained the crowd of more than 1,000.

(This is the text of the speech given by Board of Trustees president Angus Hastings during the annual Clay Electric meeting March 26 in Keystone Heights, Florida.)

As president of Clay Electric’s board of trustees, I have an urgent matter to discuss with you.

 

I see that many of you are using those fans we handed out as you went through the voting area. If you haven’t done so, read the message on the fan.

 

Congress is considering cap-and-trade legislation that will force all of us to pay a lot more for electricity. For some of you, that will mean a choice between running your air conditioning – or cooling yourself with a hand fan. 

You know how hard we’ve worked to keep your power affordable. For quite some time, we’ve offered some of the lowest electric rates in the state. All of that can be undone by Congress. But it doesn’t have to happen if we tell Congress what we think of their plans.

 

Read the rest of this entry »

The USS New York, which was made from scrap metal of the World Trade Center, will be arriving in New York Harbor on Nov. 1 and be commissioned to the U.S. Navy on Nov. 7. If you are planning a trip to New York, you will be able to tour the ship during that week. The ship contains 24 tons of scrap metal that was melted down from the World Trade Center at a foundry Amite, La. Reportedly, when it was poured into molds on Sept. 9, 2004, “those big rough steelworkers treated it with total reverence,” recalled Navy Capt. Kevin Wensing, who was there. “It was a spirtual moment for everybody there.”

The ship’s motto is: Never Forget.

Junior Chavers, foundry operations manager, said that when the World Trade Center steel first arrived, he touched with his hand and the “hair on my neck stood up. It had a big meaning to it for all of us. They knocked us down, but they can’t keep us down. We are going to be back.”