Excerpts from Democratic debate

The following are excerpts from Tuesday's gubernatorial debate in Palm Beach Gardens between former U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno, Tampa lawyer Bill McBride and state Sen. Daryl Jones of Miami:

On the Department of Children & Families:

JONES: "Leadership does make a difference. I think it's important for us to make sure that caseworkers are paid adequately . . . pay them more, give them the tools to do the job well."

MCBRIDE: "The DCF is just crying out for good leadership. (Gov. Jeb Bush) promised two things . . . to improve a lot of public schools and clean up the mess at the Department of Children and Families. He's done neither."

RENO: "I would look for a leader that has experience. They can do so much if they are given the tools and we can do so much in that department in terms of preventing abuse and neglect in the first place."

On the FCAT exams

JONES: "The FCAT tells us something that I personally don't care to know. I want to know how we're competing against New York, California, Germany and Japan."

MCBRIDE: "The use of this FCAT test has been a centerpiece of Bush's program and it's been a disaster."

RENO: "I think the FCAT has been a miserable failure in terms of what the governor has tried to use it for. The real question is how do we improve our public schools for the future."

On state taxes

JONES: "Our tax system is unfair. It's a regressive system. Poor people pay more, or a bigger portion of their income, in taxes than do the wealthy people in Florida. We want to broaden out the tax base to more things that are not currently taxed under the sales tax scheme that we have now and lower the sales tax from 6 to 5 percent while we do that so we can show a win-win for everyone."

MCBRIDE: "This governor has taken such a poor approach to what's going on. This state has $1-million and $6-million and $7-million homes and marinas filled with $100,000 boats. Surely, we can find enough money to take care and improve our public schools and protect our children."

RENO: "Before you ever talk about new taxes, you've got to convince the people of the state of Florida that we're spending their money the right way, without waste, without abuse and we will be about that. You've got to make them feel comfortable in the fact that we are ordering our government the right way. . . . You've got to make sure that the system as it is fair, and then we can improve on it."

© 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