Category — Florida

They don’t raise taxes, the just jack up fees and fines.

From the Miami Herald this typical occurrence: New fees law hurting small businesses

Small businesses across Florida have been dissolved under a new law that requires owners to pay thousands of dollars in fines they say they can’t afford.

Mary Annis is one of those business owners. For the past 15 years, her North Palm Beach-based firm Bluegrass Lawn Care Inc. has paid a $150 annual report filing fee to the state each year. In 2010, she missed the deadline.

Annis learned last week that she must fork over $750 to the Florida Department of State’s Division of Corporations if she wants to remain incorporated.

Blame it on e-mails that Annis said she never received from the state.

In May the legislature repealed a law that allowed the Division of Corporations to waive $400 late fees. Before, if the corporation claimed it did not receive notice of the filing deadline, it could be granted a waiver.

The Division of Corporations wanted to eliminate waivers and halve the fines. The legislature just eliminated the waivers, and is plugging holes in their budget with the increase in fines.

The Division of Corporations had already stopped mailing notices to businesses to “save” money, and starting sending e-mails, which means that all a business gets for its $150 is an entry in a data base, literally a “filing fee”. Spending less than a dollar of that fee to mail a post card was apparently extravagant.

There is noting like giving the voters some power if you want to bring out the corporations to oppose. A lot of newspapers are coming out with editorials opposing the Amendment, all for the same two reasons: it will be too expensive, and it will cost jobs.

Using the Ballotpedia Amendment 4 page [they have links for the claims made]:

County and city commissioners evaluate comprehensive plan amendments after proposed changes are reviewed by the local planning commission, vetted by the public (via public hearings), receive recommendations from local government planning staff, receive input from seven state agencies and are approved by Florida’s Department of Community Affairs According to state records, in fiscal year 2006, there were 6,406 amendments to local comprehensive plans. If passed, Amendment 4 would require a taxpayer-funded referendum for all such changes.

They have a link to the text of the Amendment on the page so you can read it yourself. It is short and to the point – same process as is currently used, but the last step is a vote by the people, not just the city or county commissioners.

We are told that this will lead to litigation, but the current process leads to litigation, so that doesn’t change. OTOH, judges are a good deal less likely to overrule a referendum than a commission vote, and, in any case, a NO vote simply means that the current plan won’t be altered to accommodate someone, i.e. the law stands as written.

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There are slim pickings on the Florida ballot when it comes to state-wide offices.

Nether major party has put forth a candidate qualified for the job of Chief Financial Officer.

The Republican, Jeffery “Jeff” Atwater will talk about his MBA and banking experience, but his last actual experience as a banker was for Barnett Bank, which was taken over in 1997. His next job was in marketing for a bank, not in actual banking. Further, he can talk all he wants about looking out for taxpayers, but as President of the Florida Senate, he got the “fees” on your license plates and driver’s license doubled and increased a number of other fees. If the Well from Hell hadn’t exploded, he was ready to move forwarded on a coastal drilling bill.

Loranne Ausley, the Democrat, seems to be a nice enough person, but I see no relevant experience for her since 1997 when she left the Federal government.

I would be much happier if there were an accountant in the race from either party, but they don’t tend to enter politics. This should really be a professional position outside of politics, but that will never happen.

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Thanks to the hard work of Robert C. Pickering at Interstate 4 Jamming here’s a listing of all of the major state-wide offices:

US SENATE

• Kendrick Meek Democrat (Incumbent Congressman / Miami) – Web Site – Facebook Page
• Marco Rubio Republican (Attorney / West Miami) – Web Site – Facebook Page
• Bernie DeCastro Constitution Party (Non-Profit Organization Founder / Ocala) – Web Site – Facebook Page
• Alexander Andrew Snitker Libertarian (Office Supplies Salesman / Spring Hill) – Web Site – Facebook Page
• Lewis Jerome Armstrong Independent (General Contractor / Jacksonville) – Web Site
• Sue Askeland Independent (Housewife / Stuart) – No campaign information currently available.
• Bobbie Bean Independent (Printing Businessman, Cattleman / Sebring) – Web Site
• Charlie Crist Independent (Florida Governor / St. Petersburg) – Web Site – Facebook Page
• Bruce Ray Riggs Independent (Crystal River) – Web Site
• Rick Tyler Independent (Pastor / Pensacola) – Web Site
• Piotr Blass Write-In (Mathematician / Boynton Beach) – Facebook Page
• George Drake Write-In (Retired Teacher / Orlando) – Web Site
• Howard Knepper Write-In (Real Estate Broker / Miami Beach) – Web Site
• Carol Ann Joyce LaRosa Write-In (Englewood) – No campaign information currently available.
• Richard Lock Write-In (Retired / Dunedin) – Web Site
• Robert Monroe Write-In (Oviedo) – No campaign information currently available.
• Belinda Gail Quarterman-Noah Write-In (Attorney, Producer / Tampa) – Web Site

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Maybe its the proximity of Disney World, but Central Florida is a breeding area for whackoes.

The Miami Herald reports that a Central Florida group seeks ouster of 2 high-court judges.

The Republican legislature passed 6 amendments for the November ballot, but three of them were rejected for failing to meet the requirements of the Florida constitution and/or laws. This group is upset because the Florida Supreme Court rejected Amendment 9, a thinly veiled attempt to block some provisions of Obama’s bogus health insurance corporations enrichment law.

Supreme Court justices in Florida are subject to periodic retention elections, and these two guys, both newly appointed, are up for their first one. What they did was refuse to usurp the power of the legislature and change the wording of the ballot summary.

Understand, everyone agreed that the wording that the legislature supplied for their amendment was inaccurate and misleading, but the proponents wanted the court to substitute new language. The court found that it has no power to do that, and just threw out the amendment, which is the standard procedure. Essentially these two justices are being attacked for not exceeding their authority.

The legislature should just stop trying to get “cute” on its summaries and just tell people what they are. They propose amendments for only three reasons: pandering to their base, pandering to campaign contributors, and/or negating amendments sponsored by outside groups. If they just label all of their amendments with one or more of those explanations, they would be cleared for the ballot every time.

There are six amendments on November’s ballot after the pruning by the Florida Supreme Court.

Project Vote Smart does its usual thorough job of providing all of the relevant facts at their page, Six Amendments on the 2010 General Election Ballot. They include the summaries that will appear on the ballot, the actual text of the amendments, and the standard statements from supporters and opponents.

I will give you my reaction to each, but make your own decisions. My reactions are for my circumstances, YMMV:

Amendment 1 – NO This is the Republican legislature’s attempt to undo a citizens’ initiative to provide public financing of elections. There is too much corporate money in our elections, and I’m not thrilled by millionaires deciding they want to dabble in government while waiting for their yachts to be fixed. Government is not a business. The goal of business is to maximize profits, and that is definitely not the goal of government.

Amendment 2 – NO This was legislature pandering to the military, and while it sounds good on the surface, it will be a nightmare if passed. It provides an extra homestead exemption on property taxes when a member of the military is deployed. First off, outfits like Special Operations and Special Forces don’t publish deployment information, and don’t want their troops talking about it, so how will anyone know about it? Second, if you are going to give this benefit, why not just give it to serving members of the military? This is a gimmick, not real relief.

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That’s what the Republican Party of Florida is all about.

They have two ads running attacking Alex Sink that are totally bogus.

First off “the pension ad” – Politifact rating “Barely true”

Now let’s return to the key claim, that state pension fund staffers “lost billions. Then Sink gave them bonuses.” This ad accurately highlights Sink’s oversight role of the state’s pension fund but after that, this ad stretches the facts and misleads the viewer. The $24 billion is not gone. Sink did not personally make the risky investments or give bonuses to staffers, and the staff bonuses preceded the fund’s loss in value. We rate the RPOF ad Barely True.

That’s entirely too generous. The Chief Financial Officer is one of three people on the pension oversight board, and the other two, the majority, were Republicans during this period.

The Republicans fail to mention that they blocked Ms Sink’s attempt to reform the board by adding an investment professional and a representative of the government employees.

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October 4^th is the last day you can register in Florida and vote in this year’s election. This is Okaloosa County’s Registration Information link, which covers the process.

You could have done it on-line, but I wouldn’t chance it this close to the end, nor would I trust snail mail. Remember, Republicans are in control of the state, and they will use any excuse to stop people from voting.

If you don’t vote, you forfeit your legitimate right to complain. Not voting is the same as voting for the results, so, unless you are happy with the way things are, do what is necessary to vote against what is going on.

If you don’t like the choices offered, write in your own name, or anyone you know who is old enough to qualify for the ballot.

The Local Puppy Trainer has a brief article on them today covering the explanation by the Supervisor of Elections, Paul Lux, GUIDE: Get the lowdown on the 6 proposed state amendments.

Not a lot of detail, but my state senator managed to get a Republican talking point slipped into the article about Amendments 5 & 6. The Republicans already lost their bid to negate these amendments when the court threw out Amendment 4 7 [my mistake] as a con job.

These are the amendments on redistricting, and the Republicans don’t want to give up their power to control everything by creatively constructing the districts to guarantee them a majority of legislative seats at the state and Federal level.

Fair Districts Florida is the group behind the amendments which are very simple and straight forward – districts should be compact and not drawn for political purposes.

On their web site they have examples of the current districts to show you what the problem is. If you look at the voter registration statistics you will see that the state is 42% Democrats, 36% Republicans, 19% independents, and 3% minor parties. Compare that with the reality that 65% of the state legislature and Congressional delegation is Republican. The 22% who aren’t members of the two major parties have no representation at all.

Elections shouldn’t be decided in party primaries, but that’s the way the system currently works.

This is an important change. This is a way to attempt to bring accountability back to the state government.

Both candidates come from farming families, but neither is actually a farmer.

Both candidates are native Floridians.

Both candidates entered politics early: Adam Putnam was elected to the Florida legislature at 22, Scott Maddox was elected to the Tallahassee city commission at 24.

Adam Putnam, as should surprise no one [the football stadium is named for his grandfather], graduated from the University of Florida with a bachelor’s degree in food and resource economics.

Scott Maddox graduated from Florida State University with a bachelor’s degree in political science and public administration and then a law degree.

Here are the links to Wikipedia, a Lakeland Ledger profile, and the campaign site for Scott Maddox.

FYI: Adam Putnam was part of the House Republican leadership, but his committee assignment was not Agriculture. Believe or not he is on the Committee on Financial Services and the Subcommittee on Capital Markets, Insurance, and Government Sponsored Enterprises, the House watchdogs who didn’t bark before the economy collapsed. Oh, yes, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are “Government Sponsored Enterprises”.

I wouldn’t take farming advice from either one, but Scott Maddox is overwhelmingly better on the environment and consumer issues. Florida’s number one asset is its environment. If we mess it up, the BP oil spill showed us what will happen.

There are four officers in Florida government that are elected state-wide: Governor, Attorney General, Chief Financial Officer, and the Commissioner of Agriculture and Consumer Services.

Most Floridians simply call the last job “the agricultural commissioner” and think that farming is all the job entails. The next time they’re in a service station, they should look at the sticker on the pump telling them it was inspected for accuracy, because the name on the sticker is the “ag com”. While agriculture is half of the job, the other half is being the advocate for consumers in the government.

Normally the people running are qualified and mostly non-partisan, despite what it may say by their name. Normally a lot of people just don’t bother to vote on this line. Well this year, things aren’t normal because Adam “Howdy Doody” Putnam is the Republican nominee.

Putnam is the grandchild of Ben Hill Griffin, just like Cruella de Harris. Ben Hill didn’t have a farm in central Florida, he created a citrus and cattle empire. Putnam isn’t in farming, he’s in agribusiness. He’s not likely to have much sympathy for small farmers and their problems.

Then there’s energy. Putnam led the charge in Congress to open Florida’s waters to oil drilling, and when he talks about home grown energy resources, he must be talking about sugar cane, which only prospers in the area that is supposed to be returned to the Everglades.

I’m guessing that Putnam sees the Ag Com job as a step towards the US Senate or Governor. That means a large campaign chest, and he isn’t going to get that by helping small farmers and consumers.

That’s my opinion, YMMV.

It would appear that the Orlando police blew it up.

FYI: it was the St. Petersburg police that considered blowing up the croissant.

This Saturday a publicity hungry leader of a micro-church [30 people] has scheduled a stunt in Gainesville to gain some notoriety. This is not making the people of Gainesville happy.

First and foremost, Gainesville is the home of the University of Florida and this Saturday is a home game at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium. If this stunt interferes in any way with the tens of thousands of people who will show up to see that game, there will be trouble. College football is very serious business in Florida. [The compensation package for the football coach was $4 million/year the last time I heard.]

Next I would like to make clear that no one seems to know if this person is related to the Flavor Aid Fruitcake, but he is definitely not associated with Monty Python in any way.

John Locke was easily the most influential philosopher on the “Founding Fathers” of the United States. Parts of the Declaration of Independence are “borrowed” from his writings. His response to the questions of a friend, A Letter Concerning Toleration, is a guide to the thinking behind the First Amendment’s freedom of religion.

The simple fact is: intolerance towards any religion is unAmerican. It violates the letter and spirit of the Constitution.

… and the legislature is outraged.

Florida Supreme Court strikes 3 GOP-backed amendments from Nov. 2 ballot

TALLAHASSEE — The Florida Supreme Court struck a blow to the GOP-dominated legislature Tuesday by stripping three proposed constitutional amendments off the November ballot, ruling they were confusing to voters.
…

The rulings are the latest in which the court has asked lawmakers “not to play games when it comes time to write amendments,” said Ron Meyer, a constitutional lawyer who argued against Amendment 7, the legislature’s redistricting amendment. “Stop hiding the ball. Stop wordsmithing. Be direct. In the words of the statute, be clear and unambiguous.”

The Court upheld lower court rulings that Amendment 3 [a temporary tax break], Amendment 7 [redistricting], and Amendment 9 [health care] failed to pass the test for a clear summary that would be put on the ballot, i.e. the summary didn’t explain what the amendments would do.

In the case of Amendment 7, it would neutralize Amendments 4 & 5. Those two amendments were designed to get politics out of the redistricting process and produce compact districts, rather than the rather strange creatures that inhabit the current political map of Florida.

If you are not from Florida, this was about the language that was to appear on the actual ballot. This has nothing to do with what is in the amendments. The Court is not pre-judging the language of the amendments themselves, only the summaries for the ballot. You have 75 words or less to explain what your amendment will do, and the Court decides whether your summary actually does that.