FLORIDA POLITICS
Since 2002, daily Florida political news and commentary

 

UPDATE: Every morning we review and individually digest Florida political news articles, editorials and punditry. Our sister site, FLA Politics was selected by Campaigns & Elections as one of only ten state blogs in the nation
"every political insider should be reading right now."

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Welcome To Florida Politics

Thanks for visiting. On a semi-daily basis we scan Florida's major daily newspapers for significant Florida political news and punditry. We also review the editorial pages and political columnists/pundits for Florida political commentary. The papers we review include: the Miami Herald, Sun-Sentinel, Palm Beach Post, Naples News, Sarasota Herald Tribune, St Pete Times, Tampa Tribune, Orlando Sentinel, the Daytona Beach News-Journal, Tallahassee Democrat, and, occasionally, the Florida Times Union; we also review the political news blogs associated with these newspapers.

For each story, column, article or editorial we deem significant, we post at least the headline and link to the piece; the linked headline always appears in quotes. We quote the headline for two reasons: first, to allow researchers looking for the cited piece to find it (if the link has expired) by searching for the original title/headline via a commercial research service. Second, quotation of the original headline permits readers to appreciate the spin from the original piece, as opposed to our spin.

Not that we don't provide spin; we do, and plenty of it. Our perspective appears in post headlines, the subtitles within the post (in bold), and the excerpts from the linked stories we select to quote; we also occasionally provide other links and commentary about certain stories. While our bias should be immediately apparent to any reader, we nevertheless attempt to link to every article, column or editorial about Florida politics in every major online Florida newspaper.

 

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The Blog for Wednesday, April 20, 2005

Lee Plays Hardball

    The Florida GOP can't seem to get anything done:
    Six years into all-Republican, anti-tax, statehouse control, the resolution of this year's legislative session could rest on one Republican's insistence that Florida identify a tax source to pay for billions of dollars of roads and schools.
    That Republican, Senate President Tom Lee, has a point though: he wants a dedicated "source of money to pay for $35 billion of unbuilt roads and schools that the state needs or will need over the next decade". And he's willing to play hardball to get it:
    House Speaker Allan Bense and Gov. Jeb Bush both want to repeal the remaining $300 million intangibles tax on stocks and bonds portfolios and also pass laws protecting businesses from lawsuits.

    Lee has said the intangibles tax cut is directly contingent on a new money source for growth management. Other senators believe that Lee's willingness to go along with lawsuit limits will also depend on Bense's and Bush's willingness to come up with hundreds of millions of dollars per year for roads, schools and water projects.
    "Money for growth blocks budget discussions".

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