Editorials
A vote of confidence
Proposed rules for handling flawed ballots and conducting recounts would help to restore confidence in Florida's flawed election system.
$120-million can be a big help
House Speaker Tom Feeney offers two excuses for refusing to delay the intangibles tax cut he pushed through last session: Such a delay would be bad for the economy, and the money it would save -- about $120-million -- is minuscule compared to what's needed to erase the deficit. If Feeney's first excuse is questionable, his second is downright offensive. To keep his pet tax cut, Feeney is inviting the elimination of multiple programs -- any one of which, individually, makes up a far smaller slice of the budget than the tax break he fights so hard to protect. If Feeney can put his tax break off-limits with a minimalist argument, why can't those programs do so as well?
Keep tabs on aid to victims
Aid organizations face a new problem -- how to spend nearly $1-billion that's been raised for the families of the victims of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. The money is pouring in at a rate of $28-million a day, and the people giving -- schoolchildren, businessmen, single parents, waitresses -- deserve the comfort of knowing the money is being ably managed and will be well spent.
Letters
Children's needs require strong local alliances
You made some excellent points in your Oct. 14 editorial (Change child welfare cautiously), but you won't be surprised to learn that some of us who are close to the issue find even more to be cautious about. The Florida Health and Human Services Board Inc., was formed as a not-for-profit organization in 2000 deliberately to study and advise on community-based care and the integration of health and human services. I will mention here only two concerns that we feel you understated -- the failure of local communities to organize community alliances, and the failure of the Department of Children and Families to yield control to local communities.
