Slavery in Florida on Jeb's Watch: Ignoring Published Reports, He Permits it to Continue

Some officers of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission were indulgent over Memorial Day weekend. Oh, they did their duties - no drunken boaters got away with BUI, no manatees got prop-scarred with impunity, poachers got pinched and people in peril were plucked from pending perdition.

But to send the top brass a message that they were unhappy with being left out of law-enforcement pay raises, some FWC officers gave warnings instead of writing tickets, as much as possible. I spoke with six or eight last week who said they will "use discretion" again on the Fourth of July and Labor Day weekends.

[Law Enforcement Officers in] the Departments of Transportation [state troopers (who got length-of-service raises of $600 to $1,200 a year)] and Environmental Protection used some leftover salary money to combat "salary compression" - the factor that has 10-year veterans sometimes making the same as a rookie, or barely more. But [head of the FWC, Col. Julie] Jones said the FWC didn't have the money to do that.

The housing boom is a story of windfalls for developers, real estate brokers, home-sellers -- and governments whose tax bases are fueled principally by property taxes. As property values rise, so do tax assessments. Government revenue usually follows. ...

Governments have a choice. They can use the windfall to catch up with long-standing needs on their wish lists. Or they can cut or roll back their tax rate so that revenue next year doesn't exceed this year's. It's not a given that more tax revenue should result in tax cuts. ...

What should be a given is that local governments level with taxpayers honestly about how much money is coming in and how much money is needed to meet next year's budget. State law requires that honesty. Local governments don't always comply. ...

One reason governments don't feel compelled to level with the public, when they get more money than their budget calls for, is that the whole budget process revolves around tax rates instead of actual dollars. But it should be simple enough for governments to lay out their bottom line at every step of the process. If Government A prepares a budget based on $50 million in revenue in July, it should stick to that budget come September even if revenue clocks in at $52 million -- and adjust the tax rate accordingly. Alternately, that government should tell the public, clearly, why it's holding on to the money and keeping its tax rate unchanged. Good reasons may abound. This year, for example, governments will be looking to pad their reserves with as much revenue as they can in light of hurricane scares. But they should tell their constituents that they're doing so (and give constituents a chance to speak on the matter) rather than, essentially, take the money and run.

More cynical observers have suggested that provoucher groups are using minorities to leverage universal vouchers. Others say vouchers are a diversion from more expensive initiatives they believe are more likely to help, including better teachers and smaller class sizes.

"There are those of us who believe there is - I won't call it a plot, but a plan - to destroy public schools," says Gerald Bracey, a fellow at the Educational Policy Studies Laboratory at Arizona State University who has written extensively about vouchers. "Vouchers are part of that plan."

As Randy Johnson forked a morsel of sugar-cane lobster tail into his mouth Friday afternoon, he enjoyed the taste explosion -- which was good. Because not everything that he's going to be force-fed in his upcoming statewide campaign for chief financial officer will taste quite as swell.

An opponent, after all, will most certainly remind voters that the state rep from Celebration once used campaign money to reimburse himself for 30,000 miles he claimed he logged. That's enough miles to circumnavigate the Earth.

An opponent might also look at his past expense reports and raise questions about receipts Johnson turned in from such places as Brooks Brothers and Brookstone. ...

Johnson has reason to feel confident now. So far, the term-limited Republican isn't facing much in the way of big-name competition for the post that serves as consumer, insurance and financial guru for the state.

Voucher systems in Florida are not designed to offer a better choice for parents seeking better schooling for their children. If they were, they would require private schools receiving vouchers to be held as accountable for academic achievement, overall safety and financial responsibility as public schools. They would require that parents be provided with comparative information to help them make the best choice.

Instead, Florida's three voucher programs have minimal oversight. Private schools receiving vouchers get millions in tax dollars but how good are they? That information is not shared with the public, not even the FCAT scores. ...

By diverting public-education dollars to voucher programs, the state can slowly move itself out of the costly education business. And some critics say that is the goal. Indeed, legislators have been reducing the state's share of Florida's education funding for years. The budget just passed allocates 56.6 percent of state spending for education, down from 61 percent six years ago.


When lawyers address the Florida justices on Tuesday, their arguments will be about whether vouchers run afoul of the constitution's "no-aid" clause. Yet the overriding issue remains: Turning schooling over to private providers who are paid with tax dollars and not held to any standards is fundamentally wrong and doesn't improve public education.

Volusia County and four other school districts are challenging Florida's school-funding system this week in a trial that could set the stage for a legal showdown on whether the state adequately supports its public schools.

The five districts, including Broward, Miami-Dade, Monroe and Palm Beach, lost tens of millions of dollars after state legislators last year changed the complex formula used to divide money among the state's 67 school districts.

On Wednesday, a federal judge in Miami ruled that Florida was in violation of the deal it made for fixing the Everglades.

For some reason, this ruling seemed to come as a surprise to Gov. Jeb Bush's administration.

The state's defense: We're doing what we can, as fast as we can.

Maybe they'll be able to get this judge kicked off the case, too. When the last judge on the case criticized Florida's foot-dragging, the sugar industry got him removed for being biased.

Creating a printed record of every vote would add redundancy and could quiet concerns about votes lost in a computer's memory banks. That won't excuse lapses like those that happened in Miami-Dade County. Simple attention to detail doesn't capture the buzz of introducing printers or changing systems, but it helps assure that votes are counted accurately. If Palm Beach County's butterfly ballot in 2000 didn't scream it loud enough, voters don't need any more surprises from their elections office.

For decades, the fruit and vegetable pickers who work Florida fields from October to May have labored with no right to unionize, no overtime, no health insurance and a lack of other safeguards other workers enjoy. Whether poor citizens or undocumented illegal immigrants, they faced the danger of forced labor at slave wages (or no wages), exorbitant charges for transportation to the fields, high-cost group housing and pay that amounted to $7,500 or $8,000 annually.

Slavery in Florida on Jeb's Watch: Ignoring Published Reports, He Permits it to Continue

claimed there were new and compelling allegations of abuse or neglect that the state Department of Children and Families had to investigate.

documents released by DCF Friday reveal few fresh allegations that Schiavo was abused or neglected. Investigators wrote that there were "no indicators" of abuse in any of the cases.

the only allegation in the batch not heard before: A March 7 complaint that accused a nursing assistant at Schiavo's Pinellas Park hospice of using an "air freshener substance" in her bath water in July, which caused a rash. DCF investigators learned the substance was an aromatherapy oil that the assistant placed in a spray bottle, not in Schiavo's bath.

Another complaint, made on March 8, said Schiavo was moaning because she was in pain from recent dental work. But other complaints allege that Schiavo received no dental work for years.

Some people called to complain that the blinds in Schiavo's room weren't open wide enough.

Agents of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement [who] told police in Pinellas Park, the small town where Schiavo lies at Hospice House Woodside, on Thursday that they were on the way to take her to a hospital to resume her feeding.

For a brief period, local police, who have officers at the hospice to keep protesters out, prepared for what sources called "a showdown."

In the end, the squad from the FDLE and the Department of Children & Families backed down, apparently concerned about confronting local police outside the hospice.

"We told them that unless they had the judge with them when they came, they were not going to get in," said a source with the local police.

Timothy Goldfarb, chief executive officer of Shands HealthCare, the second-largest Medicaid provider in the state, opened Bush's news conference and spoke glowingly of the efforts by legislators and the governor to fix the broken Medicaid system.

But when asked afterward whether he thought the plan would actually work, Goldfarb said: "I'm not sure that it can." ...

Goldfarb declined to elaborate about his concern, instead choosing to commend the slow implementation process that will give the health-care community and the legislature years of study before the reforms go statewide.

Bush had the worst legislative session of his tenure this spring. Among a host of rebukes, the GOP-led Senate refused to expand vouchers into yet another program, as Bush wanted.

But a loss in court wouldn't necessarily hurt Bush in a future run for the presidency — at least in the GOP primaries where conservative candidates have tended to do better in recent decades.

He can claim credit for pushing through the nation's first statewide voucher program, as well as leading Florida to having the largest number of vouchers in the nation.

Bush has said repeatedly that he is not running for president in 2008 but has declined to speculate about 2012 or thereafter.

In 2002, the U.S. Supreme Court, ruling in an Ohio case, said vouchers going to religious schools did not violate the U.S. Constitution because tax dollars were not going directly to the schools. The money, the court ruled, went to the parents, who then decided where to send their children. There was an indirect benefit to the religious schools, but not a direct one.

But Florida's constitution, with the Blaine Amendment, goes further than the U.S. Constitution. It reads: "No revenue of the state shall ever be taken from the public treasury directly or indirectly in aid of any church, sect or religious denomination or in aid of any sectarian institution."

"The language is very plain and clear that no money should go to religious organizations directly or indirectly," said Elliot Mincberg, a spokesman for People for the American Way, which is co-counsel for plaintiffs in the Florida case. "The court ought to decide, as lower courts have, that Florida's constitution goes further than the federal constitution and that the value of the separation of church and state should remain."

Attorneys who are representing the state and parents whose children are using vouchers see things differently.

BellSouth's plan to feature state legislators in public service TV ads collapsed Thursday when the state Ethics Commission decided the ads would violate limits on gifts from lobbyists.

"Payola for the political class," said Ethics Commission member Peter Antonacci. "This is just a terrible, terrible idea."

Sen. Bill Nelson, fortunately, is fighting the ruse. But Sen. Mel Martinez's commitment is less reliable. He appeared ineffectual, if not deceptive, when he announced he had obtained guarantees against drilling off Florida in exchange for supporting the administration's plan to drill in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. In truth, those protections already existed. So far, Martinez seems more interested in pleasing the administration than serving his state.

For the past week - what would normally be considered a fairly slow post-session news week - we've gotten at least one news release a day each from Attorney General Charlie Crist and Chief Financial Officer Tom Gallagher.

Most of the faxed, hand-delivered or e-mailed statements take bold stands on such issues as protecting worshippers in their places of worship, banning oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico and helping homeowners prevent uninsured losses during hurricanes.

Gallagher's state-paid staff fired off a news release to tell us what he said there. Gallagher noted, "Just like any parent in this state, my first priority is the safety of my family."

Stay tuned for more I'm-a parent-and-Crist-is-not quotes coming from the Gallagher camp as the campaign heats up. Gallagher added in his press release that anything the state can provide "to protect my wife and child" is welcome - another way to accentuate the difference between himself and the bachelor Crist.

Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., expressed concern Thursday that Gov. Jeb Bush appears to be backsliding on a promise made in 2001 to protect Florida waters up to 285 miles off the coast of Tampa Bay.

Bush said Wednesday that he hopes to extend the state's protection into federal waters about 100 miles off the coast, according to the Associated Press.

"If you promise to protect up to 100 miles off the coast, that means the oil companies get the other 185 miles," said Dan McLaughlin, spokesman for Nelson's office.

Due to a communications glitch, the governor's office initially sent out word that the governor had signed the bill, which prompted Attorney General and gubernatorial candidate Charlie Crist to quickly send out a press release praising its passage and the strong message it sent to would-be looters.

Crist had not responded to the news that Bush had, in fact, vetoed the bill. A spokesperson said his feelings on the bill's intent had not changed, although she didn't know if Crist agreed with Bush's reasons for the veto. "He still supports the concept," said JoAnn Carrin.

As familiar as the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test is to 1.7 million schoolchildren, important aspects of the test remain cloaked in obscurity and secrecy.

Last month, we reported here about Jeb Bush's courtroom efforts to crush the life of an abused, poverty-stricken 6-year-old girl in his gubernatorial satrapy of Florida. Later, against all odds, a jury of ordinary citizens thwarted the dynast's brutal will. But as befits a scion of the ruling family, Bush is now brushing aside this interference from the rabble and pressing ahead with his plans to strip the little girl of all public assistance.

People we [Fox 13] talked to outside the courthouse in Pinellas County were surprised by the lack of accountability [of judges] and so was Governor Jeb Bush.

Doug Smith: Judges have unlimited vacation. Do you think that's a good idea?

Governor Jeb Bush: No, I don't. ...

Doug Smith: You get four weeks off.

Governor Bush: I don't get four weeks off.

Doug Smith: You don't take four weeks, but you get it.

Governor Bush: That's right. Four weeks is ridiculous as far as I'm concerned. I hope our judges don't take more than four weeks. ...

"Maybe at this time it would be prudent for us to request each of the districts and circuits to provide the legislature with an annual report on leave taken for vacation time." State Senator Victor Crist said.

Governor Jeb Bush agreed and told us, "The judiciary should work just as hard as the legislature and the executive branches. We all should work hard as public servants."

The judiciary should work just as hard as the legislature and the executive branches.

Once upon a time, a rich and powerful father gathered his four young sons and urged them to become rich and powerful, too. Take risks. Push yourselves. Influence others, he ordered in a bold voice.

Then he whispered, "And if you muck things up, a fairy godfather will always appear to make things better."

Those may not have been the precise words spoken, but this is no tall tale. It's the business model adopted long ago by George and Barbara Bush to propel sons George W., Jeb, Marvin and Neil into the high ranks of industry and, at least for two boys, politics.

What's intriguing is that, time and again, all four brothers have chosen to use a remarkably similar two-step business model.

STEP 1: Leverage the Bush family name and a small personal investment into really big money, always provided by others.

STEP 2: If any deal goes sour, exit early with personal fortune intact. Or rely on a bailout from one of Dad's fairy godfathers: some of the thousands of wealthy Republican fundraisers and longtime supporters of former President Bush.

A federal judge says Florida has continued to allow phosphorous-laden water to flow into a wildlife refuge.

In an unprecedented ruling, a Miami federal judge on Wednesday found state and federal government agencies have violated a court-approved agreement requiring lower pollution levels by the end of 2006 as part of the $8 billion Everglades cleanup.

South Florida water managers have repeatedly violated their pledges to clean up the Everglades, a federal judge ruled Wednesday.

The decision by U.S. District Judge Federico Moreno is at least a symbolic slap at the state's water managers, environmental leaders and Gov. Jeb Bush, who have proclaimed the Everglades their top ecological priority.

Environmental advocates embraced the deal Wednesday, but the enthusiasm was tempered becaused the protection extends only to state waters. Escalating oil costs are increasing congressional pressure to expand domestic drilling in federal waters.

Last month, U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., unveiled a proposal to redraw federal water maps so oil-rig-friendly Louisiana's seaward boundary is moved east to encompass 3-million acres of submerged lands off Florida's Panhandle. [See "Martinez, Big Oil's Guy In Florida".]

The state has enjoyed a presidential moratorium against any new drilling leases since 1995. But there still are nearly 100 in federal waters off Florida's shore.

"Twelve million is a small price to pay to guarantee there will be no drilling within state waters forever," said Mark Ferrulo, director of Florida Public Interest Research Group. "But I hope it doesn't create a false sense of security. We have 99 active (federal) leases off the Florida coast that could mean oil rigs just beyond state waters, within 11 miles."

The abortion opponents who surrounded Gov. Jeb Bush as he signed the "Women's Health and Safety Act" on Tuesday were evidence enough of the political motivations at play. Abortion clinic regulations, after all, have been struck down in the past by courts that found them to be a backdoor attempt at shutting clinics altogether.

Mischievous intent, though, doesn't always lead to bad law.

Stephanie Grutman, executive director of Planned Parenthood of Florida, said at least half of Florida's 65 clinics provide first- and second-trimester abortions, making them subject to the increased regulation.

"We're going to have to wait and see what impact whatever rules AHCA creates have on clinics," Grutman said. "But [officials] don't seem to be motivated by need as much as by ideology." ...

Vicki Saporta, president of the National Abortion Federation, which represents abortion providers, said Florida is among 34 states that now have what critics call "TRAP" laws, "targeted regulation of abortion providers."

"These are politically motivated, plain and simple," Saporta said.

Like squirrels hoarding acorns, during the recent session our state legislators foraged for extra cash in the funds set aside to manage and protect Florida's precious environmental lands. They carried away about $600 million intended to maintain natural lands, staff parks and preserve water supplies.

That's nothing new, of course. In good times and bad, lawmakers annually raid the accounts dedicated to protecting the environment. Every year, they find a need more pressing than sparing open acres from the bulldozer or staffing state parks.

But this time, they made it permanent. In two years, 90 percent of new money intended to help the environment and build affordable housing will go instead into the general pot for other things.

Florida Gov. Jeb Bush would be "awfully good" in the job of president, but the timing isn't right, his father and former President George H.W. Bush told CNN Tuesday.

Asked if he would want Jeb to run, Bush said, "Someday I would, yes."

In Miami-Dade County, expensive new touch-screen equipment has failed to restore voter confidence, primarily because of its inability to produce a paper record of each vote. This is the primary reason why the Miami-Dade County Commission should view favorably a recommendation by Supervisor of Elections Lester Sola to switch to optical-scan equipment.

Mr. Sola's analysis concludes that scanning equipment would be easier to use and would create an auditable paper record, two big pluses compared to electronic voting. County Manager George Burgess has received Mr. Sola's report and, after reviewing it, will make a recommendation to the commission.

he is determined to make abortions safer for women who terminate their pregnancies ...

Tougher standards for second-trimester abortions could force some clinics to close, opponents of the new law say.

Finding themselves short of qualified staff, Florida growers, gardeners and builders said they would welcome efforts to boost the labor market with workers from overseas as proposed in an ambitious immigration bill unveiled last month.

A judge has thrown out a lawsuit challenging the way Gov. Jeb Bush runs the state university system.

Circuit Judge Russell Cole dismissed the suit filed by Floridians for Constitutional Integrity but said the group, which includes a former Florida House speaker and a former university president, could rework the lawsuit and refile it within 45 days.

The lawsuit, filed in December in Tallahassee, said Bush and the Republican-controlled Legislature are running Florida universities in violation of Amendment 11 of the Florida Constitution.

The amendment, passed by voters in 2002, gave the Board of Governors authority over Florida's public universities.

Will FPL do better this year? FPL says it will. The public will have to take FPL's word for it.

It could have been different. Senate Bill 526, sponsored by Sen. Ron Klein, D-Delray Beach, called for a broad, public review of power distribution. It passed the Senate, but the House version died in committee. The Public Service Commission exists to set rates and establish service territories but has no power to scrutinize FPL's claims of hurricane preparedness. That is up to the company.

the perfect 2008 Republican candidate for you. He would be a governor, because recent history demonstrates the nearly insuperable advantage governors (Carter, Reagan, Clinton and Bush the Younger) have when it comes to running for president.

He would be from a populous state, because his success there statewide might win him 10 percent of the electoral-college votes he would need on Election Day.

He would have to be acceptable to social conservatives with resolute stands on social issues like abortion, because the Bush victory in 2004 demonstrated the importance of being able to bring evangelical churchgoers to the polls. But in manner and style he should be easygoing, in order to undercut the ability of Democrats and the mainstream media to paint him as a crazed extremist.

He should have particular appeal to Hispanics, because (again) the Bush 2004 victory was built in part on pulling Hispanic voters away from the Democratic Party. And he should probably have Southern credentials, because the GOP has to be able to rely on the votes of the solid South to prevail in the Electoral College.

Bush now downplays what had been the key element of his education reform plan.

For more than a decade, Jeb Bush has portrayed vouchers as a linchpin in an education revolution that would save Florida's schoolchildren from lackluster public schools. That legacy may not last past his final year in office. ...

"The voucher element is a small part of a broad strategy to create a climate for rising student achievement," Bush said.

That's a shift from years of Bush's evangelical zeal for vouchers.

Mel Martinez, who sits on the energy committee, unsuccessfully challenged Mrs. Landrieu's proposal. He did, however, vote in favor of the larger energy bill, which included the provision.

That raises an obvious question: If Mr. Martinez really opposes drilling operations off Florida's shores, as do most Floridians, why would he vote in favor of something that would encourage just the opposite?

Even Mr. Martinez acknowledged in a news release that he expects even more egregious offshore-drilling amendments to be introduced when the full Senate takes up the energy bill. How will he vote then?

Hypocrisy and trickery are nothing new to Congress or the Bush administration. And Florida's other senator, Republican Mel Martinez, has made it even easier to pull off this chicanery. Martinez says he cut a deal with Norton to keep oil rigs 100 miles off Florida in exchange for his vote to drill in the arctic. Tract 181 lies beyond the 100-mile line, so Martinez saved nothing except his reputation for being an easy dupe for the Bush administration.

Incredibly, the Sunshine State continues to keep the public in the dark.

The questions and answers to the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test remain a big secret. No wonder so many teachers, parents and students are frustrated.

Republicans say U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson will be one of their leading targets for elimination when he's up for reelection next year.

Yet, 18 months from the election, not a single Republican has stepped forward to challenge the freshman Democrat. The leading reason? U.S. Rep. Katherine Harris.

Republicans have even suggested Bush, who can't run for reelection as governor in 2006 because of term limits, and retired Army Gen. Tommy Franks, a part-time Tampa resident. Both have rejected such entreaties.

Then there are Florida House Speaker Allan Bense and U.S. Rep. Mark Foley, neither of whom have run statewide before but could have easy access to campaign cash. A spokesman for Bense didn't rule him out. Foley, who was a leading candidate for an open Senate seat in 2004 before bowing out to tend to an ailing father, suggested he's interested -- if the party wants him.