Alexander: Sorry lobbyists, no proviso for you

In striking a $2.8-billion budget deal with Miami Reps. David Rivera and Marcelo Llorente, Sen. J.D. Alexander made a bold pledge: This proposal is one of the most special interest-free budgets in Florida history. So the Senate proviso language that appeared to spare about half a dozen Community Workforce Housing deals in counties of 1.2M or more (Broward, Dade) didn't appear to make the final document, etc.

''I believe we did a yeoman's job making sure that special interests didn't get their stuff in,'' Alexander said.

DEP could have used a lobbyist. Its budget was whacked 12 percent ($240M), compared to an overall average cut of 2 percent in the entire budget. DOT barely suffered. It lost $3.5M, or 0.043 percent.

At a glance: The plan cuts $1.2B in total spending, bringing the bottom-line budget to $65B, less than the FY06 plan. As for the cuts that apply to the deficit, they want to trim about $978M in general-revenue spending, bringing the GR total to $24.6B (about $100M more than the FY05 budget).

The trust fund sweeps of $1.6B break down this way: $400M from the Budget Stabilization fund, $700M from the Lawton Chiles Endowment Fund and $486M from other trust funds.

More here.

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Comments

[Cynical Idealist]

This budget, like everything the R's have done recently, robs Peter to pay Paul, and only enables Florida to fall further behind the rest of the country...

OK, Cynical, how would YOU balance the budget? Its far easier to complain than actually say, work.

Crisis my a s s! It’s a 3.5% reduction, following a 75% increase in revenue. Show me any government agency, and I’ll show you at least 20% waste. These criminal politicians are working the biggest scam of Floridians in history, supported by a bunch of culpable, lazy, and degenerate media monkeysticks.

And you malleable morons are falling for it, big time!

Freaking Brilliant!

No wonder we’re “Last in Education and First in Corruption!”

Rollback taxes and spending to 2002 levels, cap taxation and spending at the annual CPI going forward, expand SOH to all property both residential and commercial, and vote every incumbent out of office at your first available opportunity!

Problem Solved!

Maybe Alexander can get his Hearland Parkway after all

Make that "Heartland" Parkway

what is with everyone voting incumbents out of office? this is a tough job. give credit where it is due.

What happened with the cuts they were talking about to Visit Florida, and closing welcome stations?

[I hate to say "I told you so, but..."]

"DEP could have used a lobbyist. Its budget was whacked 12 percent ($240m), compared to an overall average cut of 2 percent in the entire budget."

Conservative Grand Strategy:

1.) Bankrupt Government with tax cuts.
2.) Use Budget as an excuse to gut business and environemtal regulation.
3.) Unrestrained development and pollution ruin our state.

I've been repeating it ever since "Problem Solved!" and his TaxWatch pals started shoving tax reform down the voter's throats two years ago.

Now you see how their plan is bearing fruit for their Big Business and developer cronies.

I like the percentage cuts explained for everything BUT education...

[Buzzard]

Anybody see the misprint this weekend saying Pinellas school budget was bloated? Must have been a misprint. Can't imagine the pro-tax-everything Times printing a message like that. Maybe publisher is out. There will be hell to pay when she gets back, by golly. Harumph. Bloated indeed.

I also noted the Times editorial board had their panties in a wad about the Highway Patrol increasing fines on violators. Wassup with that? I think it's great that they nail those criminals.

And Cynical...how are we falling behind everyone else?

[Alan]

Shake out the colleges and universitys, which have become a haven for the politicians to grab pork jobs when they leave the legislature...Impose minimum 5 year delay in accepting State Jobs....like the military does with senior officials who want to work in the Defense Industry...

Maybe after 5 years they won't be seen as carrying as much influence.

These guys never have a problem shaking down the 'special interests' for campaign contributions.

More importantly, if these guys were such fiscal conservatives they would put pressure on their own Party leader to audit the books of the RPOF. The biggest slush fund going.

Visit Florida was cut $9.9 million. That's almost half their budget.

Cynical Idealist - It's true Florida is falling behind due to irresponsible Republican leadership, but we're not as bad off as California, where Prop 13 has resulted in a massive budget shortfall and is turning a prosperous and beautiful state into a ghetto.

We could achieve the same horrible results if selfish and shortsighted Republicans succeed in ramming tax reform down the voter's throats with their lies and spin.

[Buzzard]

10:28 - Where you been? We already be having the ghetto's. All the tax money stops at the top in bloated bureaucrat salaries.I don't see how Charlie's cuts are going to change that for the worse. It can only get better.

Why is JD always such a jerk? What is the deal with this guy? Why can't he just be a nice, decent person? He fights with everyone, including his own family.

Rivera... there is no hope for him. He is just evil.

[Peter]

WHY DID THE TRANSPORTATION BUDGET NOT GET CUT ? FEWER PEOPLE ARE ON THE ROADS. GASOLINE IS STARTING TO GO BACK UP. GROWTH IS FLORIDA IS GOING IN THE REVERSE. ELECTRICITY HIKES OF 25 PERCENT BY PROGRESS ENERGY ARE CREATING ANOTHER CRISIS. COME ON CUT THAT BLOATED TRANSPORTATION BUDGET....

[Listen Up J.D.---the Dear Leader has Ordered:]

J.D.--capitalist stooges will be sent to re-education camps and the following will lovingly honored and observed:

DO buy vehicles from GM, Ford and Chrysler because it helps our UAW friends the economy
DON'T drive them as they pollute the environment and cause global warming

DO insist that nationalized, single-payer government provided health insurance is the solution to our health-care crisis
DON'T mention that a government health care bureaucracy is just like a private insurer's healthcare bureaucracy except that with the former, you don't get another choice

DO condemn smoking in public and private venues because it is filthy and selfish and increases health care costs
DON'T stop buying tobacco products because the collective needs the tax revenue

DO despise elitist wealthy fat-cats like CEOs of Wal-Mart and other companies that do useful things
DON'T despise elitist wealthy fat-cats like the Sulzbergers, the Kennedys and the Hollywood celebrities who do useless things

DON'T fight terrorism with military action, treat it as a civilian police matter
DO hamper police investigations at every turn in the name of civil rights

DO denounce oil companies for their "excessive" profits whenever the world markets drive the price of oil up
DON'T allow them to drill for oil in the US or do anything else that might reduce these prices

DO rail against the loss of American factory jobs to China, India et al
DON'T stop increasing the environmental, labor and other regulations that make it impossible to open any kind of factory in this country

DO demand fairness in hiring, lending, college admissions and other circumstances
DON'T mention that the dictionary definition of fairness bears little resemblance to the political concept

DO despise war and demonstrate constantly for peace, violently if need be
DON'T hide your glee when the US or one of its allies, like Israel, is losing

DO require bi-partisanship in government and that the rights of the minority party be respected
DON'T make us laugh when we're in the majority

DO politicize science by bullying and cajoling everyone into beliving the AGW myth
DON'T fail to accuse real scientists (who have facts to disprove the myth) of politicizing science

DO holler about the need for more government programs to help the poor
DON'T notice how much these programs actually benefit politically-connected hacks and crooks who are not poor

DO continuously harp on the main vice of capitalism, the unequal distribution of its benefits
DON'T ever mention the only virtue of socialism, the equal sharing of its miseries

DO emphasize the Progressive commitment to preserve individual choice when it comes to aborting a pregnancy
DON'T emphasize the Progressive commitment to prevent individual choice when it comes to everything else

NEVER even think about the fact that on the Progressive farm, some animals are more equal than others

[Listen Up J.D. --- the great Libertarian Fascist God has ordered:]

Listen up J.D. the devil himself has put forth his manifesto of greed, hate, and selfishness at 11:36. Join your fellow conservatives in a Two Minutes Hate directed at all government services that don't benefit the rich or our masters, the corporations.

Time to end corporate tax breaks and invest in people again.:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/12/opinion/12krugman.html?_r=1

[terminator]

does this mean the CSX deal is kaput for this year?
if you believe it is, I've got some land in Sopchoppy I can sell you!

JD isn't going to let his Parkway get cut or the CSX deal. He has to make his money don't forget.

Let's see. First, JD sues his uncle for his uncle's money. Then JD gets sued by his female cousin for giving her side of the family a raw deal. He then gets sued by his other cousin for screwing up the family's holdings. Seems to be a pattern here.

Liberal Grand Strategy:

1.) Bankrupt Taxpayers with tax increases.
2.) Use Crisis as an excuse to pile on business and environemtal regulation.
3.) Restrain development using lies and distortion about the pollution impact.

Now you see how their plan is bearing fruit for their Big Government and Socialist cronies.

2:14 I see. Tell me, though, why do the liberals do that? What's the motive? It doesn't make sense. I mean with the conservative strategy I outlined, you can clearly see that the motive is the for rich to use the government as a tool to strip more and more wealth from the land and the middle class and add it to their own pockets.

But with the "liberal strategy" you propose, what's the sin? Surely it's not greedy and self-serving to want government to help our fellow human beings and protect the environment, is it?

JD is truly liked by no one. Does he think ANYONE will answer or return his calls when he finally gets out? Without his title, he's nothing.

Noone answers his calls now. They only return them cause he'll beat them up and yell at them if they didn't call him back.

[Buzzard]

It's greedy and self-serving when said "government help" is legislated upon and enacted by a bloated staff of overpaid bureaucrats.

2:27 - "Surely it's not greedy and self-serving to want government to help our fellow human beings and protect the environment, is it?"

do you mean self-serving in that when they give contracts to their cronies to provide free services to a majority... therefore increasing their electability?

Nah, they don't get any kickbacks or profit... (or have a warrent served to search their freezers)

Don't worry. The JEBusites will leave Florida like rats run from sinking ships --- once they have emptied all our trust funds and safety valve monies into their fellow Bu$hco profiteer pockets.

Onward to their next victim state. Corporate raiders gone Wild -- we shoulda filmed it and sold copies to survive after they dump us for their next victims.