Letters to the Editors

Lower taxes offer liberation from big government

The Jan. 12 column, Florida sliding back to its Old South ways, is nothing more than a mean-spirited attack on my administration that tries to equate some of my policies -- especially my support of lower taxes -- to those of a particularly dark period in the South's past.

Reasonable people can disagree about what policies and tax rates are better for Floridians, or whether tax reform is necessary for our state, but it is beyond the pale to brand those advocating lower taxes as secessionists or de facto racists. Low taxes do not discriminate; they help everyone, including African-Americans and other minorities, because they pay taxes, too.

Since 1999, our state has steadily moved toward a better and brighter future for its citizens -- improving their quality of life and expanding their economic opportunity -- while clearly distancing itself from the Old South ways mentioned in your article.

Florida is today a national leader in a number of issues, and all our citizens should take pride in that. We have increased funding for our K-20 education system by $3.9-billion over the last four years. We have gone from 78 "F" schools in 1999 to zero this year. We have provided health care coverage to 85 percent of all eligible children thanks to our KidCare program. We have increased by 48 percent the funding allocated for community-based care for our elderly. We enjoy the lowest crime rate since 1972. We have doubled the funding destined for child welfare programs since 1998. In partnership with the federal government, we have committed $8-billion to protecting and restoring the Everglades. Our list of accomplishments goes on and on, all while lowering taxes.

I prefer to think of lower taxes, better policies and visionary leadership not as secession, but as liberation from the slavery of big, bloated government.
-- Jeb Bush, governor, Tallahassee

Marxist drivel

Re: Florida sliding back to its Old South ways.

Professor Diane Roberts' column, in which she compares the Republican Party in Florida to the League of the South, an organization whose goal is the re-secession of Southern states, is an insult to all citizens.

Roberts complains that in lowering the massive taxes Floridians already have to pay, the state has "seceded from a commitment to a just society." Unfortunately, this is the sort of Marxist drivel our kids are subjected to in today's university system.

Roberts goes on to accuse the state of "seceding from a serious university system" because state universities are finally being held accountable by boards of trustees rather than the tenured-professor-controlled Board of Regents.

Roberts accuses legislators of "seceding from responsibility for the poor and the old" by reducing or doing away with the Florida intangibles tax. The poor and old could be taken care of quite well by redirecting some of the current massive education spending, including some $11-billion to date from the Florida lottery, to programs for them. A freeze on university professors' income would also go a long way in this regard.

Tenured university professors, who in effect have fiefdoms for life and can attempt to instill whatever they wish into the heads of innocent young people present a much larger danger than whatever tax reduction bills come out of Tallahassee.
-- J.M. McCarthy, Weeki Wachee

A responsible budget

Re: A flimsy budget.

You buried the lead in your Jan. 17 editorial accusing Gov. Bush of putting forth a "flimsy budget" of only $49-billion. It took you until the second-to-last sentence to say what you really want: ". . . surely there are taxes the Legislature could levy."

The hard-working taxpayers of the state of Florida are certainly not "cheap and flint-hearted," as you suggest, for wanting to use more of their own money to pay for the pressing needs of their own families.

I don't see the governor's budget as "flimsy" at all. I see it as a responsible budget that increases funding for our highest priorities without giving in to the insatiable appetite of those who think no amount of government spending is ever enough.

In a consumer-based economy, there is a delicate balance between an endless, well-intended, wish list of government initiatives and the taxpayers' ability to transfer revenues from the private to the public sector without detrimental effects.

When such an imbalance occurs, the result is an economic slowdown with the accompanying loss of jobs and increase in the prices of goods and services purchased in our state. Republicans in Florida will not allow this imbalance to occur.
-- Al Cardenas, chairman, Republican Party of Florida, Tallahassee

Education suffers under this governor

Re: A flimsy budget.

It should come as no surprise that our governor says that education is his top priority. It always has been. What is unfortunate is that his priority is to destroy public education. His goal has been to underfund and cut the education budget while providing tax breaks to his corporate cronies.

He has achieved this goal through voucher incentives and will continue to rape the system as long as the voting public keeps him in office.

Every citizen in this state should be outraged with his horrific tactics.
-- Christopher Becker, Homosassa

Get the full story on school funding

Re: Bush boosts school funding, Jan. 9.

Gov. Jeb Bush is proud of the $983-million in "new money" that he is giving to schools. But ol' Jeb counts like the gambler who, on returning from Las Vegas, excitedly tells his wife how he won $1,000. What he doesn't say is that he also lost $10,000.

Florida schools lost more than $600-million last month to make up the budget shortfall that Bush likes to blame on Sept. 11 (even though the shortfall was in the news back in July). With inflation and the increased number of students, the $983-million won't even replace what the schools just lost.

This tells you two things:

1. Bush knows that the people of Florida place great value on education.

2. It is an election year.

And so, like the gambler lying to his wife, Bush brags that he has brought home the bacon, even though he's lost a whole pig.

So what does he value? Bush's priority in good times and in bad has been exempting the rich from paying their fair share of taxes. He sticks with them through thick and thin, and the rest of the state gets, well, it gets stuck with the bill.

Bush knows what the people of Florida value. If he would do less talking and take a little action, Florida might stand an even chance of getting through this recession without long-term damage. But if he just keeps on bragging about his winnings from Vegas, we're sunk.
-- Anne Glasgow, Gainesville

Those aren't real dollars

Last week I received via e-mail a press release from the governor's office touting his new education funding proposal. Because I have kids in the public school system I try to pay close attention to such issues. But in reading the release I was struck by one sentence that I just didn't believe to be true.

The release said, "Over the last three years of Governor Bush's administration, the education budget for K-12 has seen . . . a per-student increase of 9.6 percent or $513 per pupil." My experience in my children's classrooms told me otherwise, so I called the governor's office to ask how they arrived at those numbers.

To my amazement I was told, "Oh those aren't real dollars, those are allocated dollars." It seems that schools project the number of students they expect and dollars are "allocated." When more students than expected show up, those "allocated" dollars are spread thin to accommodate them, resulting in lower per-pupil spending of "real" dollars. When fewer students than expected show up, those "allocated" dollars are simply withheld at the state level, never turning into "real" dollars. In short, the explanation given to me by the governor's office meant that the spending of "real" dollars was nowhere close to the increase of 9.6 percent or $513 per pupil he was claiming.

When the governor puts forward statistics about school spending, I think he should use "real" dollars and acknowledge the state of our school system instead of cooking up phony and misleading "facts."
-- Beth DeFazio, Clearwater

Antidrug program will get support

Bravo for your Jan. 12 article Budget woes halt antidrug programs. It correctly captures the benefits of the drug court programs, which offer nonviolent offenders treatment in lieu of prison time as a way of breaking the cycle of addiction, crime and incarceration.

One of Gov. Jeb Bush's priorities has been the decrease of crime and drug abuse; drug courts have been key to achieving his objectives. We have doubled the number of adult and juvenile drug courts during the first three years of his administration, while increasing dependency courts seven-fold. By July, we expect to have 74 drug courts operating in Florida, up from 26 in December of 1998. Treatment funding from state and federal sources has grown significantly to meet the needs of the approximately 11,000 clients referred annually by the courts to treatment. The results have been high retention in treatment, low recidivism rates and more contributing citizens free of addiction and the life of crime that goes with it.

In attempting to bring the state budget into balance during the second special legislative session in December, some treatment dollars were cut. The governor has restored these cuts in his current budget proposal, which will get us back on track by July. In the meantime, he and other state leaders are doing everything they can to provide treatment services within the correctional system in the short run. Any interruption in treatment should only be temporary.
-- James R. McDonough, director, Florida Office of Drug Control, Tallahassee

Direct experience preferred

Re: Fort Myers man heads Elder Affairs, Jan. 12.

I see that Gov. Jeb Bush appointed a 45-year-young person to head the Department of Elder Affairs. I'm sure if he stays in that job for the next 20 years he will become more sensitive to the needs of the elderly each year.

However, many of us cannot wait that long, and I believe that this is just one more case of the governor sidestepping the needs of the elderly.
-- Bob Coffey, Clearwater

Share your opinions

We invite readers to write to us. Letters for publication should be addressed to Letters to the Editor, P.O. Box 1121, St. Petersburg, FL 33731. They also can be sent by fax to (727) 893-8675.

They should be brief and must include the writer's name, address and phone number. Please include a handwritten signature when possible.

Letters may be edited for clarity, taste and length. We regret that not all letters can be published.

For e-mail users: Letters can be sent by e-mail to letters@sptimes.com. E-mail messages must be text only and cannot include attachments. If you're using a word processing program to write the message, you must use its "Save as'' function to save it as a text file, then import it into your e-mail program. Please include your return e-mail address, as well as your name, mailing address and phone number, in the text of the message.

© 2006 • All Rights Reserved • St. Petersburg Times
490 First Avenue South • St. Petersburg, FL 33701 • 727-893-8111

Contact the Times | Privacy Policy
Standard of Accuracy | Terms, Conditions & Copyright