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Gitmo prisoners: why not jail them in the US? … Miami,Florida

Gimleteye — Wed, 20 May 2009 16:57:00 +0000

Isn't it wrong to refuse incarcerating prisoners/terrorists in our own jails on our own territory? I understand it is not popular to have terrorists or enemy combatants on US soil. Is it a security concern? When was the last time a prisoner broke out of a maximum security facility? I just don't see why we feel it is necessary to imprison enemies/terrorists/criminals elsewhere. If the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are legitimate enough to commit the blood and treasure of American children, why isn't America good enough to hold their murderers and plotters? Do you see a difference between jailing maximum security prisoners tried and sentenced for domestic crimes as opposed to jailing terrorists awaiting trial or convicted here?

Gov. Crist: you must veto these two stinker bills: SB 360 and SB 2080

Gimleteye — Wed, 20 May 2009 10:00:00 +0000

Budget woes tied to the collapse of the housing bubble sucked the oxygen from press accounts of the Florida legislature that preoccupied itself with irrelevancies and more monuments to failed economic policies. It is no surprise that the perpetrators in the Legislature used the crisis-- the worst in Florida since the Depression-- to pass two new bills that only compound the difficulty of reviving the economy unless they are vetoed by Gov. Crist. SB 360 is another attempt by the Growth Machine to hobble "management" of growth in Florida. Year after year, special interests go after the Florida Department of Community Affairs in the idiotic effort to pin blame on the economic mess caused by suburban sprawl. The bill is particularly toxic in an important respect: the conversion of rural lands to sprawl without state review. As Miami-Dade taxpayers know, it was only the state of Florida's opposition to large scale developments outside the Urban Development Boundary that stymied powerful developers who control the county commission. SB 2080, if signed into law by Governor Crist, will cut the public out of key water decisions before Florida�s Water Management Districts. The legislature wants to turn back time to the days decisions were made behind closed doors, by bureaucrats safely protected by the revolving door between private industry and agencies. SB 2080 circumvents government accountability and Florida�s sunshine law. Under SB 2080, key permitting decisions regarding our water supply would no longer be made by a multi-member board in a public meeting. Instead, the districts� Executive Directors will decide on requests to withdraw water from our aquifer, rivers, lakes and other sources. The story of water management in Florida for the past decade has been all about pipes and engineering: the more, the better. If SB 2080 passes, regulators and regulated will be indistinguishable. Email Gov. Crist today charlie.crist@myflorida.com or call 850-488-4441: there are only a few days left for Gov. Crist to act on these bills. Please do it, now. (click 'read more', for more detail on these bad bills.) Sierra Club Florida is urging the veto of CS/CS/SB 360, titled �The Community Renewal Act.� This bill would undermine the ability of the State�s Department of Community Affairs and our regional planning councils to regulate growth throughout Florida. Specifically, the bill would: 1) Create a distorted definition of dense urban land areas - In lines 235 to 242, the bill amends section 163.3164, Florida Statutes, to redefine dense urban land areas as a municipality or county that has an average of at least 1,000 people per square mile of land area or a county which has a population of at least 1 million. The definition is woefully inadequate; 1000 people per square mile is approximately one home per 1.5 acres. This would allow many low-density suburban communities and rural towns to fit into this generous definition of dense urban land areas. 2) Grant easily-obtained exemptions to State transportation concurrency requirements � In lines 472 to 687, the bill amends section 163.3180, Florida Statutes, to provide a transportation concurrency exception to any county or municipality that fits into the new definition of dense urban land areas. For a county or municipality that doesn�t qualify as a dense urban area, the bill would allow it to provide the designation to any land classified in its comprehensive plan as urban infill, part of a community redevelopment area or part of an urban service area. This new policy could encourage so many requests for exceptions that it would lead to a wholesale abandonment of state transportation concurrency requirements. 3) Gut the State�s Development of Regional Impact process � In lines 1145 to 1218, the bill amends section 380.06, Florida Statutes, to exempt from the development of regional impact process any proposed developments in those counties and municipalities that fit into the new definition of dense urban land areas. For a county or municipality that doesn�t quality as a dense urban area, the bill would allow it to provide the designation to any land classified in its comprehensive plan as urban infill, part of a community redevelopment area or part of an urban service area, thereby granting that area, too, an exemption from the DRI process. This would destroy the intent of state law to require regional planning councils to weigh the impacts of proposed development in one county on its neighboring counties. 1000 Friends of Florida estimates that following implementation of SB 360, the entire territory of eight of Florida �s largest counties and 245 cities throughout Florida would qualify for transportation concurrency exemptions and Development of Regional Impact (DRI) exemptions. The Putnam County Environmental Coalition writes the following, about SB 2080: This bill was initially supported by conservationists across the state because it finally raised Florida-friendly landscaping to prominence. Senate Bill 2080 was passed in the final hours of the regular legislative session after damaging amendments were added. PCEC seriously questions whether most legislators were even aware of the last minute additions and their potential for unintended consequences to Florida�s water resources. It is likely that they thought they were voting for a move to make our shared goals of water conservation more likely. The eleventh hour amendments are a slap in the face to Florida Native Plant Society and other conservation activists who have worked long and hard to get this kind of legislation passed. Now, this previously good bill has been hijacked and used to cover up a very devious plan that sharply reduces opportunities for citizens and local government planners to have input into the permitting process. What this bill does: 1. Eliminates the checks and balances on District executive directors� decisions on consumptive use permits, variances and other withdrawals. 2. Suppresses the ability of the public and local governments to express their concerns about consumptive use and environmental resource permitting. 3. Eliminates the basic structure and functions originally and carefully designed over a period of many years in the creation of Florida�s water management districts. The new structure created by SB 2080 will fly in the face of years of legislative restructuring aimed at creating Districts with voting governing boards that promote good water policy. 4. Eliminates the collective diversity, wisdom and local area balance inherent in a voting governing board. 5. Vests virtually unlimited authority in the five individual water management district executive directors in their respective districts to allow water withdrawals. This authority will foster bias, favoritism, and a high potential for abuse and squelching of opposing opinions regardless of validity. 6. Favors development and growth special interests for increased and unnecessary water withdrawals to the detriment of meaningful conservation efforts, local resources development, and comprehensive growth planning. 7. A district water czar with too much power and the potential for serious and unintended consequences will result from this delegation of power to just one person in each of the five water management districts. Each of these government employees would be given the power in their district to approve and fund water projects costing taxpayers in the billions of dollars that involve hundreds of miles of pipelines and treatment plants designed to take water from Florida�s rivers and other sources. This kind of power should not be the sole purview of one individual. For these reasons, the Putnam County Environmental council strongly urges you to contact Gov. Crist and request that he veto Senate Bill 2080. In our opinion, SB 2080 is a blatant attempt to silence advocates for common sense water resource management in Florida.

Steve Shiver In North Carolina. Miami,Florida

Geniusofdespair — Tue, 19 May 2009 19:33:00 +0000

Do you miss the former County Manager Shiver? See Steve Shiver on the video begging for money for his theme park! He said he is facing death threats. Could North Carolina be more dangerous for him than Miami?

Pepe Diaz’ Key Largo bungalow … Miami,Florida

Gimleteye — Tue, 19 May 2009 10:36:00 +0000

A month ago, The Miami Herald's Jack Dolan broke the story of Miami-Dade county commissioners using sergeant-at-arms as private chauffeurs, costing hundreds of thousands of dollars including massive overtime charges. County Commissioner Jose "Pepe" Diaz was ferried "at least 144 times in 2007 and 2008". Diaz explained to the Herald "that he used the sergeants-at-arms to carry out his duties." From the dais in county chambers, those duties include fronting for big developers like Sergio Pino and an application to move the Urban Development Boundary by Lowe's Home Improvement. Commissioner Diaz' duties also included, apparently, the hour and a half drive to his vacation get-away in the Key Largo mobile home park, Calusa Campground where he he has owned a lot since 2004. Diaz, Miami-Dade county commissioner, is assisting fellow lot owners at Calusa to rezone the property as single-family residences. It is a controversial issue in the Keys; a county that has had enough speculative real estate development to fill a county a hundred times its size. This 2007 photo shows a Miami-Dade police cruiser parked near Commissioner Diaz' lot at Calusa Campground. (The photo was provided by an Eyeonmiami reader. Hit it to enlarge.) ''As you know, the responsibilities of a County Commissioner extend far beyond meetings at the Stephen P. Clark Center,'' Diaz told the Herald. "I have used sergeants-at-arms when necessary to ensure my safety and security.'' Posted on Sun, Apr. 19, 2009 Police taxi Miami-Dade politicians, and public pays tab BY JACK DOLAN jdolan@MiamiHerald.com Despite pocketing an $800 monthly car allowance, several Miami-Dade commissioners use sworn police officers to chauffeur them in county cars -- costing taxpayers hundreds of thousands a year in overtime and raising concerns about personal abuse of public money. Commissioner Jose ''Pepe'' Diaz was ferried at least 144 times in 2007 and 2008 by Kevin Greenwood, one of the commission's sergeants-at-arms who provide security at meetings and, of late, have essentially become personal drivers for a handful of commissioners. Greenwood's service frequently stretched beyond his normal eight-hour shift, according to his signed logs, earning him overtime on at least 125 trips. Some nights, he put in exceptionally long hours, dropping the commissioner off at midnight or later at least 15 times. Being Commissioner Diaz's personal chauffeur helped drive Greenwood's $85,050 base salary to $142,240 last year. Another officer, Paul Hernandez, drove Diaz to the celebrity-packed grand opening of the Fontainebleau hotel in Miami Beach last fall, a fellow commissioner said. Hernandez logged 27 hours of overtime over that weekend with Diaz. In an e-mail Friday, Diaz declined to discuss the Fontainebleau weekend but wrote that he used the sergeants-at-arms to carry out his duties. ''As you know, the responsibilities of a County Commissioner extend far beyond meetings at the Stephen P. Clark Center,'' Diaz wrote. ``I have used sergeants-at-arms when necessary to ensure my safety and security.'' While Diaz appears to be the most frequent user of the service, he is certainly not alone. Commissioners Bruno Barreiro, Audrey Edmonson and Barbara Jordan are among the others, according to a Miami Herald review of the officers' activity logs. The practice has tripled the number of police officers working for the commission since 2002, and increased their cost to taxpayers from $211,000 to $743,845 in 2008, payroll records show. The number of commissioners, 13, did not change during that time frame. Driving the politicians has turned the generally ceremonial job of a sergeant-at-arms -- they spend much of their time asking visitors to remain quiet and take their seats during commission meetings -- into one of the most lucrative assignments on the county police force. Newly elected commission Chairman Dennis Moss, who drives himself to County Hall and to almost all public functions, sent a memo to the board on March 25, laying out strict new rules for how the commission security staff shall be used. ''Sergeants-at-arms are not personal chauffeurs and are not specifically assigned to any commissioner,'' Moss wrote. He explicitly prohibited his colleagues from using them to run personal errands, accompany them out of town, or ``provide personal transportation for family members in situations that have no relevance to a county event.'' Moss added that his office will review all requests for overtime and will approve them only when necessary. The armed, plainclothes chauffeurs are part of a growing list of trappings that county commissioners have bestowed on themselves in recent years, including an expanding pot of taxpayer money they distribute with few rules and little oversight to voters in their districts. The current total exceeds $700,000 a commissioner per year. While their listed salary is low -- $6,000 a year -- commissioners pocket more than $50,000 annually from an accumulation of other perks, including a $24,000 expense account, a $10,000 executive bonus and the car allowance, which totals $9,600 a year. At a time when essential county services are threatened by declining tax revenues, some on the dais think it's unseemly for their colleagues to be driven around town. Commissioner Carlos Gimenez, whose name rarely appears in the logs, noted that each commissioner already gets the car stipend from taxpayers to lease a car. ''You're supposed to use that car for county business,'' Gimenez said. Commissioner Sally Heyman, whose name shows up on one officer's logs 53 times, said she relied on the driver while it was unsafe to operate a car because she was taking muscle relaxants and pain medication prior to surgery. ''I think the memo Dennis sent was responsible and prudent,'' Heyman said. ``It's time to reevaluate the use of the officers for other county purposes.'' None of the officers approached by The Miami Herald would comment, saying they were not authorized to speak to the media. The newspaper reviewed their handwritten daily logs, which show the time they came to work, the time they left and which commissioners they chauffeured. Rene Cortinas Lopez drove then-Chairman Barreiro 100 times in 2007 and 2008, records show. He also frequently drove Diaz and Edmonson. Lopez got the biggest overtime pay bump of the group in 2008, lifting his annual pay from $79,410 to $141,107, a 78 percent increase. Barreiro said he asked for rides when he went to meetings in faraway places like North Broward and Palm Beach counties, or when he had to make several stops on the same day. ''That was very good usage'' of the officers' time, Barreiro said. ``You have to attend two or three events and give a proclamation, or give a certificate.'' OVERTIME TRIPS Jorge Brito drove commissioners on 190 occasions in 2008, and 144 of those trips pushed him into overtime. Commissioners Joe Martinez, Natacha Seijas, Diaz, Edmonson and Heyman were all frequent passengers. Brito's base salary went from $84,690 to $136,353. Seijas also had health concerns that prevented her from driving during some of that time, said commission spokeswoman Griselle Marino. Owen Ferguson, who joined the sergeant-at-arms staff last year, drove Jordan 54 times from late June to mid-December, half of those while on overtime. ''I'm not doubting what you may have there,'' Jordan said on Friday. ``Had I known that the overtime was an issue, certainly I would not have continued the sergeants-at-arms.'' She added that being driven by others afforded her time to make phone calls and check e-mail, work she now does from home. Michael Roan, another sergeant-at-arms, drove Edmonson 89 times from March 2007 to December 2008, working overtime on 52 of those occasions. ''If that's the truth, then print it,'' Edmonson said. Reached on her cellphone, she said she was at a meeting in Washington, D.C., and did not have time to answer any other questions. Edmonson is not accompanied by any of the sergeants-at-arms on this trip, spokeswoman Marino said. But the records show they have flown to the nation's capital with commissioners in the past, collecting overtime practically around the clock. All told, seven sergeants-at-arms have collected $630,000 in overtime since 2006, largely from chauffeuring commissioners. More than $250,000 of that came in 2008. In an interview Monday, Moss declined to cite specific abuses, or explain in detail his reasons for putting the brakes on the service. ''It was just important to set up some rules,'' he said. ``Now everybody can conduct themselves accordingly.'' After consulting with county attorneys, Moss released to The Miami Herald the daily logs for most of 2007 and 2008, but he divulged no details on how the sergeants have been used since he took over as chairman in January. ''At the moment, there are no records being kept,'' said Roan, whom Moss appointed as lead sergeant-at-arms. SYSTEM FOR RECORDS The record-keeping system began in February 2007 after the MDPD Internal Affairs investigators asked then-Chairman Barreiro where Roan had been on two specific dates in 2006, according to correspondence obtained by The Miami Herald on Saturday. Neither Roan nor Moss responded to requests for comment Saturday. If Moss follows through on his threat to curtail the car service, no commissioner would be impacted more than Diaz, who regularly leaves his county-leased Cadillac Escalade at home in favor of a ''dignitary vehicle,'' as the sergeants-at-arms' cars are called. Take the weekend of the Fontainebleau opening, Nov. 14, 2008. After clocking in to work at 8:30 a.m. that Friday, Hernandez drove Diaz to the Miami Beach gala. He clocked out at 3 a.m. The next morning, Hernandez drove the commissioner from 8:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. On Sunday, he spent 12 more hours chauffering the commissioner, records show. At 1 � times his hourly wage -- the standard overtime rate -- Miami-Dade citizens would have paid Hernandez more than $1,500 that weekend. Although Diaz declined to address questions about the weekend, Barreiro confirmed that his colleague went to the Fontainebleau accompanied by Hernandez. Barreiro knows because he, too, had a sergeant-at-arms drive him to the party. But Barreiro wasn't with his driver the whole weekend. ``He took me home that night and that was it, I think.'' � 2009 Miami Herald Media Company. All Rights Reserved. http://www.miamiherald.com

1BOG: cool solar energy business to reduce what you pay FPL … Miami,Florida

Gimleteye — Mon, 18 May 2009 17:13:00 +0000

Love this idea! 1BOG ( One Block Off the Grid ) organizes big groups of people together who want to get solar energy, and gets them a huge discount. Homeowners looking to buy solar panels face a few problems: The website says: "It�s expensive It�s complicated They don�t know which installer they should trust. 1BOG organizes people in a community to go through the process together. This approach has several benefits: An organized community can buy solar in bulk, so 1BOG negotiates with installers to get impressive discounts for each homeowner in the collective. We make the process much more simple and painless, as well as use our deep solar energy expertise to educate consumers throughout the process. We offer safety in numbers, and unlike the installers themselves, our incentives are always aligned with yours. "

As lobbyist, Carrie Meek needs to clear up an ethical conflict of interest … Miami,Florida

Gimleteye — Mon, 18 May 2009 10:46:00 +0000

Former Congresswoman and lobbyist Carrie Meek sees no conflict in riding two horses. Meek represents both the County or Wackenhut, the security firm charged with systematically bilking taxpayers. In The Miami Herald, Robert Myers, of the M-D Commission on Ethics and Public Trust, says, "It's kind of hard to represent two masters." It is particularly difficult, when the legacy of the former Congresswoman is so closely intertwined with her son, Kendrick Meek, who district voters sent to Congress and is now running for US Senate. Notwithstanding her real contributions to civil rights causes over a distinguished career, Carrie Meek has been closely tied to developers/ campaign contributors from the sprawl industry; far from her district. They commanded big infrastructure and government contracts consistent with development policies that caused so much ruin and arguably ran contrary to the interests of her constituents when she was a powerful force in Congressional appropriations. In Feb 2003, The Watchdog Report noted, "The Miami-Dade County Commission honored retired Democratic Congresswoman Carrie Meek Thursday for her service to the community over the years and the millions of state and federal dollars she assisted bringing to the community, especially when she was on the U.S. House of Representatives Appropriations Committee. Meek said that since she has retired a foundation has been set up under her name to allow her to continue working on community and social issues she supports County commissioners later at a luncheon in her honor held at the Port of Miami presented the venerable state and federal legislator with a $46,000 check made out to The Meek Foundation from their own district funds. The foundation was exclusively created for charitable educational, cultural, health, community and economic development pursuits throughout Miami-Dade County." It would be a shame if this current controversy lingers. Posted on Sat, May. 16, 2009 Carrie Meek seeks to remain a lobbyist in Miami-Dade security contract debate BY BETH REINHARD breinhard@MiamiHerald.com In the escalating showdown between Miami-Dade County and Wackenhut Corp., former congresswoman Carrie Meek is on both sides. She lobbies for Miami-Dade, which is accusing Wackenhut of bilking the county out of $3.4 million. And she lobbies for Wackenhut, which is suing the county for $20 million in damages. ''It's kind of hard to represent two masters,'' said Robert Meyers, executive director of the Miami-Dade Commission on Ethics and Public Trust. But Meek is asking county officials to disregard the conflict of interests and allow her to continue representing both Miami-Dade taxpayers and the security company. She has received $150,000 from the county since mid-2007. She declined to disclose her Wackenhut pay. ''I don't see any reason why I can't continue to represent Wackenhut, and I've always been a strong proponent of the county,'' said Meek, a civil-rights pioneer who represented Miami-Dade in Congress from 1992 to 2001. Allegations that Wackenhut was doctoring timesheets and leaving county transit stations unguarded go back to a whistleblower's civil lawsuit filed in 2005. The county auditor found evidence of overbilling in 2006 and released a report in 2008. In early April, County Manager George Burgess said the Palm Beach Gardens-based company should be barred from doing business with Miami-Dade. Meek didn't file her conflict-waiver request until April 27 -- a year after the audit became public. She said she didn't know the county requires its lobbyists to give notice immediately in case of an ''actual or perceived'' dispute with a private client. ''I can tell you that Wackenhut feels that they're being unfairly judged,'' said Meek, who added that she did not know the lawsuit was coming. ``I can't tell you who is right or wrong.'' LONG-STANDING TIES Meek and her family have long-standing ties to the Palm Beach Gardens-based security company. Her son, U.S. Rep. Kendrick Meek of Miami, sold security contracts for the company from 1994 to 2002, and his Senate campaign has received the maximum $10,000 donation from Wackenhut's political action committee. Meek's wife, Leslie, registered with the county to lobby for Wackenhut in 2004, according to public records. The former congresswoman began lobbying for Wackenhut in April 2007, the same month the county hired her to focus on transit issues. She asked the county if she could continue representing both clients after she was reminded last month about the county's policy regarding lobbying conflicts, said Joe Rasco, director of the county Office of Intergovernmental Affairs. ''I think it's time we asked and that they proferred,'' Rasco said. ``I think it's a fair question and we'll be taking a look at it.'' Miami-Dade's lobbying contract describes a conflict of interest as a position contrary to county policy or its financial interests. Representing a client at odds with the county without permission ''shall result'' in the lobbyist's contract being thrown out and/or the lobbyist being barred from working for the county for up to three years. ''It is incumbent on the consultant and its employees, partners and subcontractors to remain mindful of the county's policy and fiscal interests and positions vis-a-vis other clients,'' reads the agreement. Meek didn't make the initial cut in 2006 when the county decided to scale back its Washington lobbying team from eight to three firms and put the contracts out for bid. The county had been spending nearly $1.2 million a year. `SIMPLY UNACCEPTABLE' ''Paying this much for this many people was simply unacceptable,'' County Commissioner Sally Heyman said in March 2006. But two months earlier, Heyman directed staff to add Meek and former state Rep. Mike Abrams -- who came in fourth and fifth place -- to the lobbying team. ''This was coming out of nowhere,'' Rasco told county investigators, who concluded Heyman did not violate the ethics code because the lobbying office reports to the commission. The commission unanimously approved hiring Meek and Abrams on an ''as-needed basis'' and set their pay at a maximum of $75,000 a year. County officials said the money would come from reserves set aside for hiring outside experts in case of an emergency, such as a terrorist attack or major hurricane. Two years later, Heyman now says the county should consider paring down to two lobbying firms. The county pays two full-time employees in Washington to lobby the federal government, in addition to the team of three law firms plus Meek and Abrams. ''Are we getting our money's worth?'' Heyman asked. ``Originally, I thought so. I don't know right now, to tell you the truth.'' � 2009 Miami Herald Media Company. All Rights Reserved. http://www.miamiherald.com

Compare: Miami Herald and Palm Beach Post on legislature … Miami,Florida

Gimleteye — Mon, 18 May 2009 08:49:00 +0000

I'll say straight out: it's not exactly fair to compare a news report with a newspaper editorial column. But I have been trying to make a point about the parochial and spotty coverage by The Miami Herald of the worst tendencies of the Florida legislature: dominated as it is by Miami Dade County interests. This comparison gets to the point of the Herald needing a "new narrative" for Florida: and not just the idea the paper has embraced as inevitable... that economic development can only happen through increase in population numbers. (That point is made in today's Business Monday.) The Herald article is about Miami-Dade legislators bringing home the bacon, for the most part. It is a positive story about the power of the Miami-Dade delegation, with the only negative note about the failure to secure agreement-- possibly because of infighting-- for a half cent sales tax to support Miami Dade College. If you only read the Herald story, you would have no idea that this legislative session was one of the stinkiest in modern history. OK, so that wasn't what the Herald was writing about. But we still haven't had the full accounting of the worst piece of legislation brought forward during the session: Alex Diaz de la Portilla's effort to ram through changes to election law in Florida. Only a state-wide and then national outcry caused retreat, but it was no thanks to the Herald and we still don't have a clue who in Miami-Dade was its driving force. Though we can guess. The Palm Beach Post gets a lot closer to a state-wide look, including some sense of the players. I have to say this: I get more from the Palm Beach Post than from our hometown newspaper on state-wide stories. Posted on Sun, May. 17, 2009 Lawmakers tout wins for Dade BY BREANNE GILPATRICK Herald/Times Tallahassee Bureau With a record budget deficit, this was a year legislators went home with little to brag about. Unless they were from Miami-Dade. During the legislative session that ended on May 8, Dade lawmakers found money for a medical school at Florida International University at a time when higher education was being cut. They inserted last-minute language into the budget that gave local school boards the opportunity to temporarily raise property taxes to cover funding shortfalls. They tucked a provision into an 11th-hour gambling deal to the shuttered Hialeah Park racetrack, and they put plans for a $1 billion Port of Miami tunnel back on track after state transportation officials had declared the project dead. ''I'd be hard pressed to name a county that did better than we did,'' said Rep. Juan Zapata, a Miami Republican and Dade delegation chairman. ``In a very difficult year, I think we had some significant successes.'' Lawmakers traveled to Tallahassee with a $6 billion budget hole. Even with money from the federal stimulus package shrinking the deficit to $3 billion, legislators had to look to new fees and service cuts to close the gap. Despite a budget year that was so brutal it kept lawmakers in Tallahassee an extra week, Dade legislators protected funding for Jackson Memorial Hospital, found $11 million for FIU's fledgling medical school and secured funding for smaller local agencies like La Liga Contra el Cancer. To give school districts more funding flexibility, lawmakers included a provision in the budget to allow school boards to increase property taxes by a rate of about $25 per $1,000 in taxable value. To keep the tax hike, voters will have to sign off on it in the 2010 general election. Dade lawmakers also were successful in pushing a top county priority: an extension of the Dade's documentary stamp surtax to secure affordable housing money. The surtax is collected on a portion of property sales in Dade, and the county uses the money to provide housing to people with very low to moderate incomes. Under the bill by Rep. Carlos Lopez-Cantera, a Miami Republican and House majority whip, the surtax will be extended to 2031. ''In a tight budget year, to get a dedicated funding source for Dade County affordable housing is tremendous,'' Lopez-Cantera said. PORT TUNNEL BACK ON Delegation members also used their political clout to put plans for the Port of Miami tunnel back on track. Pressure from local leaders helped revive the project, after state transportation officials pulled the plug on the tunnel in December. When the Florida Department of Transportation announced plans to reopen the project to construction companies worldwide, Dade legislators feared that would delay its completion, so they persuaded FDOT to stick with the original construction deal after weeks of mid-session negotiations. ''Considering it was declared dead, reviving the port tunnel was nothing short of miraculous,'' said Rep. David Rivera, a Miami Republican who helped broker the deal. Another big victory was including provisions in a larger gambling bill that could resuscitate Hialeah Park, which closed in 2001. The complex bill, approved in the final hours of session, offers a new gambling deal to the Seminole Tribe and a lower tax rate for parimutuels. It also gives the dormant track quarter-horse racing, card rooms and -- after two years of live racing -- slot machines. Estimates indicate the reopened park could generate thousands of jobs, and after word leaked that it might finally reopen, 4,700 showed up looking for work. ''Hialeah's back,'' said Sen. Rudy Garcia, R-Miami. POWER PLAYERS Unlike last year, Dade didn't have the benefit of a House speaker from Miami, but it still had several senior members and well-placed legislative leaders. Sen. Alex Diaz de la Portilla, of Miami, is the Senate Republican leader, and Sen. Alex Villalobos, also of Miami, was the Senate rules chairman. Rivera and Rep. Marcelo Llorente, R-Miami, were the top House budget chiefs, while Rep. Anitere Flores, R-Miami, oversaw the House pre-K-12 budget. `WORKING TOGETHER' Some worried the delegation's reputation for infighting, fueled by the fact that the three House budget chiefs are running for the same open Senate seat, would be a disastrous combination. But lawmakers said they wanted to leave the politics down in Dade. ''You don't get that many big-ticket items done without the delegation working together,'' Flores said. Some delegation members said the budget crunch forced them to pull together. ''Nobody had time to think about those things,'' said Rep. Erik Fresen, R-Miami. ``We pretty much were marching to the same cadence.'' But others point to the delegation's major defeat as proof that personalities still interfere with policy. Lawmakers spent the session pushing a bill that would allow Dade County to ask voters whether to impose a half-cent sales tax to benefit Miami Dade College. A similar statewide referendum failed in November but won 61 percent of the vote in Dade. The proposal by Zapata and Villalobos won unanimous approval in the Senate, but could not get a vote on the House floor. Some say political infighting might have been the reason the bill stalled in its last committee stop. ''Frankly, for it not to even get heard on the House floor is incredibly disappointing,'' Villalobos said. ``I think that really let down a lot of families in South Florida.'' Breanne Gilpatrick can be reached at bgilpatrick@miamiherald.com � 2009 Miami Herald Media Company. All Rights Reserved. http://www.miamiherald.com COLUMN: Delusion in Tallahassee By Randy Schultz Palm Beach Post Editor of the Editorial Page Sunday, May 17, 2009 When the Florida Senate finished nine days ago, there was more delusional self-love than at a John Edwards/Sarah Palin lunch. Sen. Jim King, R-Jacksonville, acted as if the Legislature had pulled its money from Bernie Madoff just before the feds swooped in. Two days ago, he said, things had looked bleak. But thanks to his colleagues, the 2009-10 budget isn't nearly as bad as it might have been. Senate President Jeff Atwater, R-North Palm Beach, practically canonized lead budget negotiator J.D. Alexander. It reminded me of the Woody Allen line in Annie Hall that "life is divided into the horrible and the miserable." The horrible are "blind people, crippled. I don't know how they get through life." The miserable "is everyone else. So you should be thankful that you're miserable ... " Florida for next year will be only miserable. Sleep on that. No Republican in the Senate or House, of course, mentioned the $5 billion gorilla in the chamber. Without the federal stimulus money that got all of three Republican votes in Congress - and no votes in the House - Sen. Atwater, and House Speaker Larry Cretul, R-Ocala, would have had to cut $5 billion more or find that much in new taxes or "fees" or "surcharges." Horrible would have looked pretty good when they finished. Someone needs to crash this party. Let the crashing begin. A legislature that deserved to congratulate itself would have used this financial crisis to transform how Florida taxes and spends. Instead, this Legislature in the past year has taken short cuts. Legislators swiped $2.2 billion from trust funds and $1.1 billion from the Budget Stabilization Fund, a key reserve account. These figures come from Kurt Wenner, Florida TaxWatch's director of research. There's no obligation to repay the trust funds. Still, Gov. Crist did promise the family of former Gov. Lawton Chiles that the state would make good on the $700 million stripped from the fund named for him and financed by the tobacco settlement that Gov. Crist tried to block as a state senator. But the Legislature does have to replenish the Budget Stabilization Fund, which Mr. Wenner calls "the cornerstone of state reserves." The Florida Constitution requires that the fund be at a minimum level compared to what the state collects in taxes. According to Mr. Wenner, the fund is about $1 billion short. That bill comes due next year. The Legislature also has to replace the federal stimulus money that will stop after next year's budget. Most of the gift from Washington went for what the bean counters call "recurring expenses" - education and health care. Basically, this Legislature is borrowing from future Legislatures, meaning the taxpayers. What does it mean to you? Florida's once-impressive financial rating is starting to look like an orange that has citrus canker. In April, the Moody's rating service placed Florida on notice for a possible downgrade. Obviously, the lousy economy was a big reason. But Moody's didn't let Florida off the hook. Among the state's other problems: "Failure to prepare a reasonable plan to restore budgetary structural balance" and "General Revenue Fund surpluses were essentially drawn down during the course of the last three fiscal years with increasing reliance on the use of non-recurring revenues in fiscal year 2009." (That's the trust fund and reserve fund raiding we discussed.) A downgrade would force up Florida's debt cost. Moody's offers some tips to head off a downgrade. Florida would have to shore up those reserves and craft a more realistic budget. The warnings include "increased reliance on one-time solutions to balance budget" and "lack of a reasonable plan to restore reserves." Uh-oh. That's why Gov. Crist wants to be Sen. Crist in 2011. Republicans control Tallahassee these days, but the problem is bipartisan. In 1992, coming out of the last bad recession, the Taxation and Budget Reform Commission offered a menu of good ideas. The Democrats didn't bite. Now, though, Florida is on the brink. Those running the 2009 Legislature didn't want to feel miserable after 65 days. It was horrible to watch them try to fool themselves. Randy Schultz is the editor of the editorial page of The Palm Beach Post. His e-mail address is schultz@pbpost.com

Crazy Pat Buchanan: Republicans need to run against global warming … Miami,Florida

Gimleteye — Fri, 15 May 2009 10:24:00 +0000

Now there's a good idea: revive the Republican party by running against global warming. That little tidbit is incorporated within an editorial carried by The Miami Herald this morning. Why not just try campaigning against the setting sun: "We Republicans had light all day when we were in power. Now the Democrats claim we need twelve hours of darkness a day!" In, "There's no choice but to stand and fight", Old Stand Pat writes, "More and more Americans are coming to conclude, after the record cold temperatures in many cities this winter, that global warning is a crock -- that there is no conclusive proof it is happening, no conclusive proof man is the cause, no conclusive proof it would be a calamity for us." That's just baloney. There are signals of climate change all around us. One of the anticipated effects of climate change is global weirding, ie. our current drought in south Florida-- the most intense since record keeping started. ( Here is a good website, with many links, for perplexed doubters. ) Buchanan reminds me of recently departed William F. Buckley: both were very articulate, but the few things they said that made sense (in Buchanan's case, he was right about the distortion and weakening of the US economy through loss of manufacturing to low cost labor nations) were surrounded by heaps of nuttiness. Republicans heeding Buchanan, are like this recent New Yorker cartoon and an excellent proposed caption in its weekly contest : "I was only curious, what's your excuse?"

Market’s down 200 on retail sales news? Miami,Florida

Gimleteye — Wed, 13 May 2009 17:43:00 +0000

Here's what Bloomberg is reporting this afternoon : "Retail sales in the U.S. unexpectedly dropped in April for a second month, indicating that rising unemployment is prompting consumers to conserve cash." The market is down 150 points. But if you really want to know what is going to happen to retail in the months ahead, another news report serves as an indicator: "Cargo ships treading water off Singapore, waiting for work." According to the NY Times, 735 cargo ships are idled offshore. "Hundreds of cargo ships � some up to 300,000 tons, with many weighing more than the entire 130-ship Spanish Armada � seem to perch on top of the water rather than in it, their red rudders and bulbous noses, submerged when the vessels are loaded, sticking a dozen feet out of the water... The root of the problem lies in an unusually steep slump in global trade, confirmed by trade statistics announced on Tuesday. China said that its exports nose-dived 22.6 percent in April from a year earlier, while the Philippines said that its exports in March were down 30.9 percent from a year earlier. The United States announced on Tuesday that its exports had declined 2.4 percent in March." The flu seems a perfect reflection of the economy. And students of the stock market are about to learn the lesson of bear market rallies.

Father Cutie Update. Miami,Florida

Geniusofdespair — Wed, 13 May 2009 13:29:00 +0000

Let’s analyze this stupid story some more: Did you actually think you would find something here. This isn’t the Miami Herald.

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