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Just wanted to call extra attention to the interesting responses from board member Karl Nurse and from the planning director of the Pinellas Suncoast Transit Authority to my earlier post -- go to that post and click on the "Comments" link at the bottom. (I do challenge the guy's claim that my column was not based on "facts," in my comment following his, but he has other stuff to say too.)
More well-stated disageement with Thursday's column on guns at the workplace:
[Y]ou compared SB 2356 to legislation being considered that would ban political demonstrations from supermarkets. I find this to be a rather poor comparison myself. Banning political demonstrations would prevent disruptions and loss of business, something that SB 2356 would not do. A firearm that is legally carried in a vehicle (which you do not need a concealed permit for) must be out of sight and not immediately accessible. Simply put, no one would even know they were there. The other problem with
this comparison is that banning demonstrations would not infringe on the ability of the people to exercise their rights elsewhere, SB 2356 would. -- Eric Powell
If for a moment one grants that the rights of property owners must trump all other rights, then property/business owners could also choose to ignore child-labor laws and can refuse to hire blacks or women. Anti-discrimination laws would suddenly be invalid. Acording to your premise, since Amendment 2 can be invalidated by property rights, slavery could exist on private property, beyond the dictates of Amendment 13 of the Constitution. -- Lee McGee, Jeanerette, LA
If I am walking from my car to WalMart, Publix, etc., I do not ever think about how many of the cars in the lot might have guns in them, and if every car has two or three, it is unlikely that I will ever know it. On the other hand, if I see Girl Scouts, band members, sports team members, petitioners, etc., I know that I am going to be "confronted" by them at some point. Whether I am happy to see them or not does not change the fact that they are going to be an obstacle which is "obstructing" my path to the store. Since one affects the customers 100% of the time and the other most likely will never affect them, I would think that the store's concerns should be different. -- Robert S.
Hopefully the concerned business owners are working diligently at obtaining the required permits to install clearly visible roadway signs proclaiming, "All lawful gun owners are encouraged to shop elsewhere as we support the rights of criminals to assault, rob or rape law abiding citizens who will be powerless to defend themselves on our property." -- Don
Do you really think that a madman will decide not to commit a crime because there is a law against it? You have nothing to fear from law abiding citizens with guns. Criminals have everything to fear from law abiding citizens with guns. -- M. Trcic
There are two kinds of people who drive Interstate 275 South through St. Petersburg -- those who don't know where they're going, and are whipsawed back and forth in a panic by exit-only signs, and those who do know, but are in deadly peril from the first kind.
The fiery and fatal crash of a diesel-fuel truck on Wednesday night, which has put the I-375 exit out of commission, apparently occurred after the driver mistakenly exited left instead of continuing southbound.
At that exit, the leftmost lane is exit-only, headed for downtown St. Petersburg. The next lane over gives you the option of exiting left or continuing to the right. I can't tell you how many times I've been in that lane, exiting, when a panicked driver in the leftmost lane has suddenly veered across my path, desperately trying to get back to the southbound side.
Yet immediately afterward, the southbound interstate splits again, with I-175 bearing to the left toward Tropicana Field, and I-275 to the right continuing toward Bradenton and Sarasota. Once again, the wise St. Petersburg commuter knows that at that split, last-minute drivers in the left lanes will panic and plunge back to the right, unmindful of the fact there may already be cars in those lanes.
Oh, and just for funsies, as the road continues southbound from there, the original two lanes each in turn become exit-only lanes (at 22nd Avenue South and 54th Avenue South), so to keep southbound, you have to be sure to keep moving back to the left.
In sum, to tell people how to get through St. Petersburg: don't accidentally go left at I-375. Then don't accidentally go left at I-175. But then you can't stay where you are on autopilot; you have to keep getting over to the left to avoid exit-only lanes on the right.
Now, in a perfect world, if drivers were alert, paying attention and savvy to the signs, can they negotiate this without a hitch? Yes. But in this world, people ignore exit-only signs, they talk on the cell phone, they get distracted, they panic easily, and in that moment of panic they think it is more important to yank the steering wheel than to look first. The question is not whether people ought to be better drivers, but whether we can post enough signs and warnings and signals to keep them from being worse ones.
On this morning's column on a proposed state law that would make sure employees could their guns locked in their cars at work, and that employers could not have no-guns-on-premises rules:
If a person wants to do harm at his/her place of work and break already existing state laws against killing or injuring people, does Troxler really think that telling the person that weapons aren't allowed on the property going to stop anything? -- Butch
Liberal idiot..... -- e
So if you want to carjack a person or just rob them or simply kill them the best place to do it would be while they are traveling to work. The perps can rely on their victims being unarmed at those times. It's Open Season on victims during the comute -- Richard
I was hoping you could enlighten us as to your personal experiences as a Times employee. Do your bosses randomly search your car in the parking lot, or only on special occasions? Do they ask you for a key or just break out the slimjim and go at it? Do they look in the glove compartment, trunk, inside containers such as briefcases, file folders, etc.? Are you subject to discipline if they find a Tampa Tribune in there? -- Chris Casper
People that have a right to carry a concealed weapon have undergone extensive training in the rights and liabilities o0f doing so. They have had a through background investigation done and have paid well over $100 dollars for the permit. Criminals that do the workplace shootings are just that......criminals! They usually have a stolen or illegally gotten firearm. Do you think that a sign saying "no firearms allowed" is going to make them obey that rule? -- Richard Petruschke
Pretty smart comments, 'scept for that one name-callin' guy. I like Chris' the best. So far, Chris, no, the Times has not been searching our cars in the parking lot -- but what if it announced such a policy? I would have the free-market choice either of quitting or parking somewhere else, or subjecting to the search. Pretty much like the choice I have everywhere else our society has gone overboard on searching and "security precautions.'' Seems just as invasive to me for employers to require employees to urinate into a cup for drug testing. At any rate, since the Legislature is always telling me how important Private Property Rights are, it sure is odd how quickly those rights are being cast aside here... it is no coincidence that the Chamber of Commerce is horrified at this bill and deeply opposes it, while supporting a bill of the opposite philosophy, allowing businesses to keep out First Amendment type activity such as petition gathering.
Thanks for the comments; I'm sure there will be more.
In the 16 years that I've worked at the Times, the one local agency for which I have heard nearly universal and unanimous criticism is the Pinellas Suncoast Transit Authority, or PSTA. The general theme boils down to this: You'll Ride Our Buses When And Where We Tell You To, Buddy, And No, We Won't Lift A Finger To Cooperate With Anybody Else. (Here's one of my columns, in which local-government head-butting actually managed to get people hurt.)
So this morning's news that executive director Roger Sweeney is retiring seems to me to present as just much opportunity as it does upheaval. Sweeney easily survived an attempt by dissident PSTA members to fire him recently, but there was more dissatisfaction than met the eye, and there had been some renewed back-door feeling-out lately.
If we don't abolish PSTA outright, or merge it into a regional mass-transit system, then the agency needs to get a whole new attitude about regional rapid transit and how PSTA should interact with everybody else. I am eager to hear from anybody who has thoughts on this...
My column this morning mocked a bill in the Legislature that would prevent employers or businesses in Florida from banning guns on their property. Employees or customers could keep a gun locked in their car under the proposed law.
I said it was ironic that at the same time, the Legislature also is considering a bill to allow Publix, Wal-Mart and the like to ban petition gathering by the public on their grounds. In other words, a property owner has a right to kick out the First Amendment, but even private property rights have to give way to the Second Amendment. I figure the two are of equal importance.
Here's part of an interesting reply from reader Roger Gulbransen of Gainesville, who thinks I make a false equivalence:
Just as the fight over hiding names and addresses last year pointed out that it doesn't take a license for someone to shoot a gun at work or home, if someone is mad enough at their employer, they would be just as apt to bring a gun with or without permission to have a gun locked in their car at work.
Not being allowed to have their gun locked away while they work means that license holders have no defense while traveling to/from work or shopping on that trip to save gas.
I don't equate the overwhelmingly law abiding license holders with the Hare-Krishna's and political wannabes . Those folks have a plethora of 'public' owned places to practice their solicitations.
Thanks, Roger. Meanwhile, most of the e-mail and comments have run against Joe Redner, the famous nude-club owner from Tampa who finished second in a Tampa City Council race against incumbent Gwen Miller. For example:
I've always thought Redner's political runs were mostly ego-driven. Every pimp craves respectability. Joe Redner seems to have a compulsive need and a knack for publicity, and I think one must admit the local press including the St. Pete Times and Creative Loafing have been his enablers. -- Z
I'm still catching lots of flak from Tuesday's column, in which I disagreed with the faculty decision at the University of Florida to deny former Gov. Jeb Bush an honorary degree. Check out today's letters to the editor page for even more. Most folks think Bush shouldn't get an honorary degree on the basis of his track record as governor. One comment-poster at the end of the column also disagreed, at least I THINK so anyway --
if howard troxler had a single creative thought in his head it would die of lonliness -- Travis
If you didn't catch my live chat on Tuesday, you can still read the transcript of comments, questions & my replies here. A few comments are still trickling in, including this one:
I would like to know why the Times never publishes a letter criticizing Bill Young. I have only been in St. Pete 12 years now but even when he tried to explain why he never did anything about Walter Reed the paper did not call him on it. Is there some kind of "give Bill Young a Pass" card that I do not know about? -- schauer
No offense, schauer, but the reason I include your question here is because it is a prime example of modern rhetoric: The assertion of the thing that is Simply Not True. In the past month we have run letters both criticizing and supporting Young; I have copied over the texts of some of them in reply to your question.
Best wishes to all and happy Thursday,
Howard
The 56-44 victory by Tampa City Council member Gwen Miller over challenger Joe Redner was a surprisingly decisive margin. When Redner finished second to Miller in a crowded field in the March 6 election and qualified for a runoff, I thought he had a strong chance to win. In retrospect the relatively strong early voting and turnout -- nearly matching the first election, a rarity -- was to Miller's benefit.
Some people say Redner's missteps during the runoff campaign hurt him, for example, his offer of free admission to his nude-dancing club as a reward for voting, which reminded folks of his background, or his ill-considered claim to be "blacker" than Miller. (He meant well, I believe -- he meant he would be more sympathetic to the disadvantaged. But honestly, I don't think any of us white folks get to claim we are "blacker" than anyone who got the short end of the stick during the era of legal segregation and Jim Crow laws.) At any rate, both incidents reminded voters of his unpredictable nature.
Redner was widely credited with being a strong, articulate and knowledgeable candidate. He has come a long way. But in the end a combination of factors did him in: a better ground-level campaign by Miller, the threat that Redner posed to the status quo (especially business and development folks), and a gut-level reluctance by rank-and-file voters to take the chance on a wild card, who no doubt would have gained Tampa some colorful and unwelcome national publicity as well. Those in favor of upsetting the apple-cart will have to be content with the gain of Mary Mulhern on the City Council.
Gotta admit, the strong majority of comments in today's e-mail, and in my online chat with readers earlier today, is in strong disagreement with my column this morning about the University of Florida faculty's rejection of former Gov. Jeb Bush for an honorary degree.
I said, look, the guy was governor for eight years; this isn't supposed to be a screening or litmus test of his politics. But most readers supported the faculty and, let's call it, a "merit-based'' approach -- and said Jeb didn't merit it. Examples:
I suppose I get your point. However I wouldn't be willing to bestow a honorary degree of dogcatcher just because of his policies! Ever stop and think how bad his policies must have been just to perpetuate this unprecedented no vote? Except for their dad, the Bush boys should earn their degrees the old fashion way, study and take the tests. Even if it means taking the ones regarding separation of powers over and over again until they get the concept. Thanks for the ear, senator -- J.Blomgren
Troxler's reasoning seems so weird on this... that I can't believe HE even believes it. Maybe he just didn't realize the extent of Jeb's fiddling with the university system & faculty unions, but find that unlikely too. So maybe the topic was just an "assignment," --not that we'll ever know. -- Bill Bucolo
Look at the University System, totally dismantled by Governor Bush, and now left to fend for themselves even as the Board of Governors imposes rules on how money is spent and obtained... The Bush follows in his brothers foot steps. What have they done to our system of education? ... They have left behind children, students, faculty and staff at each grade level of education from kindergarten to doctoral degrees...Why should this governor be honored by this education system that he imposed on us? -- Mike Temple
I agree with the U of F. faculty Senate because of what Bush has done to the higher educational system in the state of Florida. The Board of Regents worked very well and took the politics out of higher education. Now, every university has to compete with the others to get money for their schools. Bush returned higher education back to "gutter politics". Big business is the only one that should be rewarding Bush for all of the huge tax cuts they received from him, and I would be willing to bet that they will pay him back "big time". I am proud of U of F. -- Margaret Hyde
Unfortunately, honorary degrees are giving out like candy by all the community colleges and universities for various reasons, mostly political, and financial. Contribution to education, scholarship or just good moral examples for graduates has been the basis of a minority of honorary degrees in my experience in about 20+ graduations. Rather than being critical of the faculty senate, I am critical of the system for giving honorary degrees for political or financial reasons which doesn’t benefit education. -- Curtis
Not that it was unanimous. This gentleman copied me on an e-mail he sent to UF President Bernie Machen:
It is a rare day indeed when I can agree 100% with anything editorially written in the St. Petersburg Times. Howard Troxler is always a particularly challenging contributor, but today he was right on target. I trust you have read the article. Frankly, as an alumnus [as are my wife and two adult children] I was so angered by the actions of the University that I felt it better to not write, but Troxler prompts us all to action. I just have some additional thoughts to his perceptive analysis. -- Richard W. Cope
Well, that was a quick two hours. Thanks to everyone who took part in today's exchange. If you'd like to see what folks wanted to talk about, then see the next post down on this blog and click on the "Comments" link at the end of it. I'll leave the comments function open so folks can add stuff later if they'd like.
Okay, I'm sitting at my desk in the Times newsroom, armed with caffeine, carbs and an iPod to block out the background noise of the ongoing Media Conspiracy, eager to talk.
Click on the "Comments" link at the bottom of this post to submit your own question or comment. I'll make replies via comments as well. Just keep refreshing the comments page to get the latest.
So, is anybody there?
At 11:30 a.m. today I'll put up a post here announcing the opening of a two-hour chat with readers. There will be a link for "Comments" at the bottom of that post, just as there is for every item on the blog. You can click on the "Comments" link to post a question or comment, or to read everyone else's comments and my responses to them. Keep refreshing the comments page to get the latest.
This is the first time I've done this so we'll see how it goes. I fear there will be too few people to make for a lively exchange. If the opposite is true, and lots of folks take part, I could use your help in spacing things out -- no sense everybody posting a question at 11:30.
Here's the opening of my column for tomorrow's newspaper:
This smarty-pants little slap at former Gov. Jeb Bush by the faculty of the University of Florida is irksome.
Last week, UF’s faculty Senate voted 38-28 to block an honorary degree for Bush, an rejection that appears to be unprecedented.
I don’t care if the professors disapprove of Bush’s policies. I didn’t like a bunch of his policies either.
But I didn’t realize that getting an honorary degree from Gainesville involved faculty screening of one’s politics.
Bush was governor of Florida for eight years. He served honorably. He led our state, and led it especially well in crisis. A strong majority of Floridians looked up to him and they still do.
Former governor of Florida? That pretty much qualifies you to get an honorary degree from the university that bear’s the state’s name...
Let's try an online chat from 11:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m. Tuesday, March 27. I'll be here live, answering questions and responding to comments. This is the first time I'm trying such a thing via this blog, so I feel a little like Charlie Brown worried that no one will show up at his party.
At 11:30 I'll put up a post on this blog declaring that the chat is open. We'll use the "comment" link at the bottom of that post to talk with each other. You can get the newest comments and my answers just by refreshing the page.
Since it is my party, I reserve the right, etc., etc. -- see the policy limits on comments over in the left-hand column of this page, and see also my blanket refusal to play the role of St. Petersburg Times critic under the post category titled, "Just To Be Clear, I Am In Charge Of Exactly Squat.''
As for all the idiotic things that I say myself, I am entirely responsible for them, and at your service...
Ah, I've gotten several copies of this GOP talking point lately as proof of Liberal Media Bias, and I know it won't do any good to answer it, since actual facts do not matter, but what the heck.
I have not yet found the Times to be reporting that Bill Clinton and Janet Reno fired all but one of the federal prosecutors when he took office; but, of course, those firings did not involve politics(a joke). -- Atty. Fred C. Zimmer(retired), St. Petersburg
Yep. Clinton replaced all the U.S. attorneys. Bush replaced all the U.S. attorneys, too, when he took over. Each president replaces the U.S. attorneys when the administration changes. The current scandal in Washington is over whether this administration was furthermore picking and choosing and getting rid of U.S. attorneys on an ongoing basis because they wouldn't play along with the White House, wouldn't use their investigatory powers for partisan and electoral purposes, etc...
This guy is a freakshow why is he even in government. Get someone in who does not have mental problems the guy has a family for peets sake why does he need to wear womens clothing? Sounds coo coo if you ask me, and before you go calling me a christian I'am not I just think the guy is mentally ill. -- Darren
The "Washington Monument Syndrome" is a joking term I first heard many years ago about the tendency of government, when faced with a budget cut, to threaten the most publicly popular things first, such as closing the Washington Monument. You rarely hear someone say, "Oh, my gosh! If this happens, we'll have to fire some assistant city managers!''
Reader Rob Skerkavich notices it happening now:
Clearwater & St.Pete officials are saying they would have to cut all these things if the property taxes were rolled back to the 03-04 budget. You know,close 4 of 5 libraries, 4 rec centers, eliminate jolly trolly, etc,etc,etc. This budget was only 3 yrs ago and all these services were here too. So what gives Howard? How were they able to pay for these things then,with a lower budget but now everything will be cut.
Well, Rob, of course we'll will talk about closing libraries and rec centers first. It would be a fun exercise to take a city budget and make drastic cuts to it WITHOUT touching those things. But the answer to your question is that three or four years of steady increases can add up to a huge amount of money, and I suspect there really is no way to accomplish the kind of cuts the Legislature is talking about without cutting into muscle somewhere in local government.
Along those lines, reader Robert Vincent of St. Petersburg makes level-headed observations:
Unfortunately, personnel costs have been much higher than that [proposed annual cap]. Union contracts are in place and have been over the past several years which have given employees in all levels of government raises much higher than 3 or 4 percent per year. These contracts were agreed-upon by government officials because such pay levels were required in order to retain employees and conduct effective recruiting in a very competitive market...
Mr. Vincent, you are right that some salaries and overall personnel expenses have risen according to contract, although not for "all levels of government.'' But the general point is, the cost of some things DOES go up faster than the proposed cap, which means either doing less of it (even if it's hiring police officers and firefighters), or cutting something else.
The decision tonight on whether to go through with the firing of Largo City Manager Steve/Susan Stanton ought to rest entirely, solely, 100 percent on whether his gender change reduces his job effectiveness to an unacceptable degree.
Not whether anybody considers Stanton's choice personally distasteful or "immoral."
Not whether the boss changing genders is "disruptive" to city business. Of COURSE it's been disruptive -- in part because the City Commission decided to fire him instead of just supporting him. The quicker we get past all this hoo-ha and back to business, the less disruptive it will be. We have used the word "disruptive" in our history to justify all kinds of prejudices.
Neither does it matter, on the other hand, whether enough activists come in from around the country to champion the Cause of Transgendered Persons Everywhere. If Stanton were a crummy city manager, or it could be proven his ability is compromised, I would not care in the slightest if 10,000 activists showed up.
Nope. The decision ought to be based solely on the determination that Stanton is somehow less fit to do the job. And even then, it ought not be based on speculation or guesswork or prejudice or vague assertions, but on some kind of evidence.
Here's a compromise suggestion for City Commission. Give him a grace period -- three months, six months. Think about some reasonable standards for measuring, during that grace period, whether his performance has fallen off. Then make a decision with a real track record to go on.
There's nothing more serious that deciding how Floridians ought to be taxed. But our state House's annual session in Tallahassee has degenerated into an on-the-fly, throw-it-up-and-see-what-sticks affair.
Here's the latest scheme-of-the-day, in which every county in Florida would vote on its own rules, creating a crazy-quilt patchwork. Counties could either get rid of their property taxes altogether, and increase sales taxes by another 2.5 cents on the dollar, or they could roll back their tax collections to 2003-2004 levels.
At the same time, here's a second article by my colleague Alex Leary, pointing out the arbitrary nature of the "tax relief'' being considered in Tallahassee -- the 30 poorest counties would get a break, but heaven help you if you're only the 31st poorest!
Don't forget, of course, that the House's original idea, still kicking around, was to kill property taxes, roll local budgets back to 2001 levels, and then allow them to factor back in a limited annual increase.
The overall impression here is of a bunch of doctors arguing over which kind of surgery to perform after the patient is on the table and opened up. The Senate is moving more slowly, once again demonstrating the virtue of a two-chamber Legislature.
A comment on Tuesday's column about being confounded by insurance in the drugstore line:
Sir, sir! Last week you politically avoid criticism by changing the subject, then you say, anyway, you're not quitting. This week you tell us your senile. Wow, that's great news. We can now look forward to sharing your dotage. Meanwhile, the public amuse themselves more and more to death and you merrily feed their sophomoric tastes with the only pap you can digest. And all the things you complain about get worse because no one wants to think about solutions, just join your raving and marvel at the arc of the froth flying from your lip.
My column last Thursday talked about a bill by state Sen. Charlie Justice, D-St. Petersburg, that would crack down on cities and counties taking sides in local elections using tax dollars, as in the Penny for Pinellas referendum. Yesterday evening Justice sent this e-mail with the subject heading, "SB 734":
Passed out of committee unanimously today. House bill still waiting to get heard in first committee.
Sometimes I think elections are too important to be left to elections supervisors, especially when they seem to take such a lackadaisical approach to what ought to be a near-sacred process. We keep seeing such stories from the Hillsborough County Supervisor of Elections office such as this morning's by my colleague Jeff Testerman. Supervisor Buddy Johnson moved two precincts in the last city election without notifying the voters. First his office said it had notified them, but actually it hadn't. Next Johnson said it was okay because the turnout was good anyway, but it wasn't. And so forth.
Here's a list at the end of Testerman's article about past incidents involving the Hillsborough office:
August 2004: At an early voting site, one of Johnson's workers leaves a voting machine in the "test" mode, resulting in the loss of 245 votes. Johnson's staff does not report the lost votes to the state for 13 days, making the 245 votes void.
September 2004: Johnson's vote tabulation machines slow to a crawl, delaying final vote counts until almost dawn, making it one of the slowest vote counts in the state. Johnson blames the failure of a "software indexing system."
November 2004: Witnesses say Johnson tries to butt in line to vote in a crowded early voting site at the College Hill Library. Johnson backs out after being caught on videotape, denies doing anything wrong and later votes on Election Day at his Plant City precinct.
July 2006: A private group seeking to put the question of a county mayor on the 2006 ballot fails. After a private audit, the Taking Back Hillsborough Group says the petition drive failed because Johnson's office lost hundreds of petitions and inexplicably rejected many others that bore valid signatures.
Johnson, a former state legislator, was appointed supervisor in 2003 by then-Gov. Jeb Bush.
On Friday night, the Largo City Commission will decide for good whether to fire gender-changing City Manager Steve/Susan Stanton. The commissioners voted 5-2 last month to start the process.
We have flogged the social debate on this pretty well, I think -- if you really want to rehash it, check out the 267 comments on an earlier post, "And Largo Smote Its City Manager...''
But what strikes me as odd about this morning's article is that suddenly, Stanton's opponents have decided that the real issue is that he was actually a bad manager -- this, after consistently giving him good ratings and raises. D'oh! This quote from Vice Mayor Harriet Crozier, who herself gave Stanton a good rating: "Unless you've worked with the man behind the scenes for many years, you wouldn't know his management style. That's not the kind of city manager I would want.''
Look, they are entitled to fire the guy for whatever reason they want. After all, the tenor of most "oooh, it's so ICKY'' comments has been that his sex-change itself was too ''disruptive.'' But if they now try to change horses in mid-stream, it isn't going to fool anybody.
On today's column about being a befuddled old guy at the drugstore counter:
Working on the other side of the counter is a riot, did that for fifteen years... calling an insurance co only to have them say, " but we don't pay for needles, only insulin" uhhhhh HELLO.... drinking it isn't an option, anyway just wanted you to know... been there done that... Hang in there....it only gets funnier. -- Jane Silvis
You ain't seen nothing yet. -- Mortimer Brown
Reader Wayne Mock reacts to an earlier column about governments spending tax dollars to try to influence elections:
I ask -- are the dues that cities and counties pay to maintain their respective associations-League of Cities and the Association of Counties -- is it limited by law and if this isn't using tax money to lobby legislators. Cities and Counties maintain "armies" of people to influence legislation. I don't remember any article questioning this practice... I wonder why they just don't mail a position paper to the government and spend the money on city or county needs?
You are spot-on correct, Mr. Mock. I have complained about this over the years as well. One year, the Pinellas schools even used their TV channel to encourage citizens to put pressure on the Legislature to pass a more favorable version of the state budget! From time to time we have articles talking about how much money governments spend trying to lobby each other.
And lastly, this gentleman seems to agree (I think) about the alleged "savings" of an earlier daylight saving time:
Go to Winn-Dixie and purchase a loaf of Bunny Brand white bread (or Dandee if you have to). Then bring it home and set it on your counter. DO NOT UNWRAP THE TIE WRAP. That is important so I capitalized it. Now, take out your pocket knife and rip open the bottom of the cellophane bag. Using the sliced bread at the bottom of the bag make a bologna sandwich. Tape the bottom of the bag back together. You will now notice that you have saved the top slices. This is much like changing the time. -- Ken Eaton
Let's try an online chat from 11:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m. next Tuesday, March 27. I'll be here live, answering questions and responding to comments. This is the first time I'm trying such a thing via this blog, so I feel a little like Charlie Brown worried that no one will show up at his party.
At 11:30 I'll put up a post on this blog declaring that the chat is open. We'll use the "comment" link at the bottom of that post to talk with each other. You can get the newest comments and my answers just by refreshing the page.
Since it is my party, I reserve the right, etc., etc. -- see the policy limits on comments over in the left-hand column of this page, and see also my blanket refusal to play the role of St. Petersburg Times critic under the post category titled, "Just To Be Clear, I Am In Charge Of Exactly Squat.''
As for all the idiotic things that I say myself, I am entirely responsible for them, and at your service...
Surely your mother asked you at some point, when you were complaining about what everybody else was doing: "If everybody else was jumping off a cliff, would you jump too?''
And yet, if everybody else was getting out of the way of an oncoming Mack truck, it might make sense to follow suit.
In that spirit, check out this morning's story saying that Florida might become the only state in the nation NOT to stock up on antiviral drugs in case of a flu pandemic that could rival the 1918 influenza epidemic. We can blow zillions on corporate tax breaks and "incentives,'' but not $37-million for this.
"It just doesn't rank as on of my priorities,'' said the state lawmaker in charge of that part of the budget, Rep. Aaron Bean, R-Fernandina Beach. Something tells me that good representative will be encouraged to reconsider.
Meanwhile, my colleague Ivan Penn has written several good articles taking a close look at the state grant program that is supposed to get money to people who strengthen their homes against hurricanes. This morning's article says the state is falling far short of the advertised $5,000 -- not that a single check has been written yet anyway. The whole things smacks of typical bureaucratic boondoggle. To quote from Penn's story:
Some 14,000 homes have been inspected, but with just over two months before hurricane season starts, no one has received money through the grant program.
Moreover, the program came under fire after it was revealed in January that a contract for its pilot phase improperly escalated from $457,000 to almost $3-million without public notice or bids.
As for me, in spite of all the important things in the world, my column today is about a disconcerting experience at the drugstore, in which I found myself cast in the role of Old Guy Who Must Be Spoken To Firmly. Go ahead and laugh, kiddies; it will be your turn one day too. Sic transit vita.
This afternoon I talked to Tom Pelham, secretary of the state Department of Community Affairs, and asked him why it wasn't a bad idea for him to be arguing cases from his private law practice (see blog item below, and Saturday's news article).
Pelham replied:
(1) These were the last two cases on appeal remaining from his private practice, which he shut down as fast as he could once Gov. Charlie Crist tapped him for the DCA job. He notified Crist's transition team of the cases and was allowed to finish them.
(2) Neither case conflicts with his role as DCA secretary -- neither case involves the DCA's authority. One is a routine land-use case in Pinellas, the other is a challenge to beach renourishment in the Panhandle. He is on the side of defending the state law in that case.
(3) He took personal time for the case he's already argued and will again for the second and final argument. He said he felt an ethical obligation to see the cases through, and in fact would not have taken the state job if he couldn't have finished them.
Seems to me that if Pelham's private cases were more extensive and ongoing, or involved a challenge to the very laws he is supposed to be enforcing, this would be a bigger problem. As it is, he got dispensation on the front end and is about to wrap them up on his own time. Am I crazy about a sitting DCA secretary representing a developer in court? No, but it seems like a one-time and limited thing that will not be an issue any more.
Agree or disagree?
It's the stories inside the newspaper that sometimes make me sit up and yell the loudest. Here's one: The man that Gov. Charlie Crist has hired to oversee growth management in our state is Tom Pelham, 
secretary of the Department of Community Affairs. Without a doubt, Pelham is an expert on the law. But, check out this article by my colleague Craig Pittman: Even after taking his state job, Pelham intends to continue to represent developers as a private attorney! This seems too weird to be true, and will probably be the subject of my column tomorrow.
Incidentally, one of Pelham's cases as a private attorney included helping the city of St. Pete Beach fight a citizens' group that wanted direct voter control of growth decisions. Pelham argued in Court for the city that these things were Too Complicated for voters to handle directly. Well, the citizens' group won in court and then at the ballot box, and now has a majority on the St. Pete Beach City Commission. Check out an article in today's paper by Cristina Silva.
Also, here's an interesting article on the condo movement in downtown Tampa by Michael Van Sickler. Ever since I got here 25 years ago the talk in Tampa has been about how to get a residential component downtown. One interesting difference to me between Tampa and St. Pete, which has been condo-izing its downtown for years, is the deliberate targeting of more reasonable price ranges. Now, if Mayor Iorio can throw in a car-less downtown with step-on, step-off transit...
If history teaches us anything (to paraphrase Michael Corleone), it is that anybody can be beaten in politics -- but they usually aren't. It is hard as heck to defeat a sitting politician, especially one as veteran and entrenched as U.S. Rep. Bill Young, R-St. Petersburg.
Can the Democrats successfully target him, as this morning's article reports they are doing? Sure. But here's how NOT to do it -- sneer at him, call him nasty names, try to whip up the usual Five Minute Hate, and expect the moderate and reasonable voters of Pinellas County to jump right in. I would use the "He's A Nice Old Guy And We Are Grateful But It Is Time And Besides Did We Mention He Is In The Same Party As Bush'' approach.
But, why win when you can smear? The motto of modern party politics is: Us good, them bad. State Democratic chair Karen Thurman set the tone on Thursday, saying Young cares more about "public relations" in the Army hospital scandals than "wounded soldiers falling out of their beds and sleeping in their own urine.'' Very nice.
Elsewhere:
* Don't be fooled by this bogus promise in Tallahassee of "repealing" the big 2003 telephone rate increase. The big hikes have occurred already and can't be taken back. The repeal would only cover future increases that probably weren't going to happen anyway -- the phone companies got what they wanted. More about this fight in the Legislature between phone and cable companies in my column coming Sunday.
* Do we have enough proof yet that the Legislature's special session on insurance rates didn't fix the problem?
* All I know is what I read in the papers, but this mooning seemed a little more than innocent and youthful exuberance. A good old-fashioned drive-by would be one thing...
Mostly agreement so far with today's column about local governments telling us how to vote:
Agree with you on your view of this matter, as usual. Perhaps next you might substitute 'Bishop' for 'city hall'. Isn't there something about separation of church and state in the Constitution? -- John
Well, at least the bishop cannot take my house if I do not pay taxes to him. The government CAN take my house unless I pay taxes, and then the government uses those taxes to try to tell me how to vote? Sheesh!
So you are saying your superiors at the "Times" who endorsed the" Penny Sales Tax" are wrong and you aren't, right! Mr. Gailey needs to take you to the wood shed! -- Leo
Good thing I don't work for those guys, then. Mr. Gailey probably growls at his B section in the newspaper now and then, but so I do to the editorial page, so it all evens out.
The law needs to state if they put X dollars in to "educate us" they must supply the same amt to the opposition. It's our money. Right? -- Boo-Boo
Ah, equal time for the opponents? I kinda like it...
And now, onto other matters:
I look forward to your take on (the) Pinellas County School Board’s 5-2 vote to play chicken with the State Board of Ed, as well as how you view the District’s going on offense and any related impact on its plan to come back to taxpayers next year, asking that the special property tax that supports increased teacher pay be renewed. This on the heels of a $6.1 million in-your-face give-back, and a potential $6 million out-of-pocket punitive mandate. -- Jim McCormick
True, but it might be a game of chicken that the locals win by default, if the Legislature changes the STAR merit-pay plan that Pinellas and other counties have refused to take part in. Looks like that might happen...
It's my understanding that, as the FL statutes are currently written, the PSC commissioners can't do anything about the telephone rates. If a consumer advocate wants to be on the PSC, like a certain elected official, aren't her hands tied in trying to "fix" the telephone rate issue if the statutes aren't changed? -- Anonymous
Ah, you're talking about Sen. Nancy Argenziano, R-Crystal River, a consumer advocate trying to get a job on the PSC. Don't worry, between electric, gas and water utilities, there's still plenty for the PSC to do, even if local telephone service (and profits) are largely deregulated.
I wish you would devote a column or a blog to the firing of the US (attorneys). This is a huge story that I believe will lead to the resignation of Gonzales. It gets right to main problem with the Bush Administration. -- Armand, Monticello
Fortunately it seems to be getting pretty good attention, unlike a lot of things that ought to and don't. As for me, I am a metro columnist, meaning that most of what I write about deals with stuff in Florida and in our local communities in the Tampa Bay area. Now and then I venture into a Washington issue though so you never know.
This morning's follow-up article about the Penny for Pinellas by my colleague Will Van Sant included this passage:
One commissioner said the groups that pitted themselves against the Penny may have actually diminished their shot at having a seat at the table when spending and policy decisions are being made.
County Commissioner John Morroni said that was certainly true of the Catholic Church, which rather than having raised its profile, grievously disappointed many of the faithful, including him.
"As the only Catholic commissioner, I was appalled by the bishop's involvement in this," Morroni said. "Where was he when we were out speaking to the public in recent months? He was nowhere."
The commissioner's frustration is understandable, but I am sure that, upon reflection, he will not be making his important policy decisions, and multi-million-dollar budgetary allocations, based on who ticked him off in the last election.
Here's the contribution list of the private group called Citizens for a Better Pinellas, formed to support the Penny for Pinellas sales tax. The group was formed last Thursday and mailed in its $67,000 contribution report on Friday:
Tampa Bay Builders Association: $25,000
Suncoast Utility Contractors Association: $40,000
Johnson, Pope, Bokor, Ruppel & Burns, P.A.: $1,000
Jack Latvala Inc. $1,000
Okay, so this is March, four months after the Great Mysterious Undervote in Sarasota County, and only now are we finding this out? Here's the lead of Anita Kumar's front-page story today:
The maker of the voting machines used in last fall's disputed Sarasota area congressional race warned state and county officials that voters might have trouble recording their votes but the company's advice for fixing the problem went unheeded.
It turns out the machines had developed an extra delay of several seconds before recording votes, maybe enough to throw voters off (think about how fast a touch-screen ATM responds).
This is not proof that Christine Jennings won the race for Congress. But it's slap-your-forehead dumb and astounding that (1) the Sarasota elections office didn't do anything about it and (2) nobody since then thought this was worth mentioning, despite all the litigation and controversy.
Congratulations to supporters of the Penny for Pinellas sales tax, which passed handily in Tuesday's referendum. A strong majority of those who turned out to vote agreed to extend the 1-percent sales tax to 2010. Not that many people voted (16 percent) but the 57-43 margin was entirely decisive.
Now for the sour grapes: Once again, in this election we had the hand of local governments taking sides in elections, and spending tax dollars to advocate a particular outcome. To me this is the most dangerous, insidious, anti-American idea possible. There's a bill in the Legislature that would outlaw it, but it is coming under heavy opposition, naturally, from local governments. It's one possible topic for my column tomorrow.
Other quick Wednesday morning notes:
* You know how the Legislature "fixed" our insurance mess in its special session a few weeks back? Check out Jennifer Liberto's front-page story today about how the insurance industry is trying to get some of that undone. One example: Instead of having to pay claims within 90 days, the industry wants to change the rule to say it has to pay within 90 days of.... when it decides to pay! Good grief.
* Voters in Clearwater finally found a downtown waterfront plan they liked, spending almost $11-million to build 129 boat slips, a promenade, a boardwalk and a fishing pier near downtown's Coachman Park. And in fractured St. Pete Beach, two critics of City Hall, Linda Chaney and Harry Metz, got elected to the City Commission, which means everything is now officially their fault.
And now, this exchange with one of my favorite correspondents, upset at my use of the adjective "regressive" to describe sales taxes:
THERE YOU GO AGAIN! "SALES TAX IS REGRESSIVE, HARDEST ON THE POOREST"....SPREADING THE LIBERAL PROPAGANDA THAT SALES TAXES ARE REGRESSIVE TO THE WORKING POOR. SUGGEST YOU READ MORE FROM THE WORKS OF NOBEL PRIZE ECONOMIST.....THE LATE MILTON FRIEDMAN THAN THAT NEW YORK TIMES COLUMNIST WITH THE SAME LAST NAME!
THE LAST TIME I CHECKED, THERE ARE NO SALES TAXES ON FOOD, MEDICINE AND MEDICAL CARE WHICH CONSTITUTE A LARGE PORTION OF THE WORKING POORS SPENDING. IF THE WORKING POOR DECIDE TO BUY A BOTTLE OF JIM BEAM OR A SIX PACK OF BUD.....THEY SHOULD BE TAXED LIKE EVERYONE ELSE. THE POOR HAVE LESS MONEY FOR DISCRETIONARY SPENDING AND THEREFORE PAY LESS TAXES. THATS FAIR. PERCENTAGES MEAN NOTHING -- ACTUAL TAX DOLLARS COLLECTED ARE THE IMPORTANT CRITERIA.....AS I SAID IN A RECENT LETTER TO THE EDITOR.......YOU PAY MORE TAXES ON A YACHT THAN A CANOE.
BY THE WAY........DO JOURNALISM MAJORS IN NORTH CAROLINA TAKE ANY COURSES IN ECONOMICS?
ALL THE BEST.......JOHN H.
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Don't you use all capitals to ME or make snippy comments about economics courses or how you are so smart and I am so dumb, Mr. H. The sales tax is regressive any way you cut it and all your harrumphing does not change the actual fact.
Even with exemptions on food and medicine, the percentage of disposable income spent on taxes in Florida increases as income level decreases. Studied to death. The reason is we all have taxable necessities, such as the clothes on our back; the more discretionary money that we have on the other hand, the more we spend on non-taxable items.
Hence I laugh out loud at the assertion that the poor are taxed "like everybody else." Good God, what nonsense! Simply put, Florida taxes the things that EVERYBODY has to buy, and we do NOT tax things that only people with more money buy. We have created hundreds of loopholes in the sales tax for that very purpose. We tax the poor man on a can of Raid, but we do not tax ME for having pest control. And so forth.
And since we have so sweetly capped the sales tax at purchases of $5,000, it helps to make sure Mr. Mercedes pays the same tax as Mr. Ford Taurus, in the same way that I pay exactly the same Social Security taxes as Bill Gates -- what could be more fair, the Mr. Hs of the world would ask sweetly?
Somebody smarter than me said something like, "The rich and poor are punished equally for stealing bread.''
Holy cow! Pinellas County Administrator Steve Spratt today said he will drop the county's idea of pumping water from lands within the Brooker Creek Preserve for golf-course irrigation.
"In my opinion at this point,'' Spratt wrote in a memo to his bosses on the County Commission, "there is simply too much negative, wasted energy being expended on this matter relative to the potential public benefit of augmentation of our reclaimed water distribution system.''
This is a huge win for opponents such as the Friends of Brooker Creek group. It is a defeat for the county's Utilities Department, which was heck-bent on pumping. And it is an interesting concession to political reality by Spratt. Earlier, the very citizens' group he had hand-picked to "advise'' him on such matters -- the Environmental Science Forum -- had voted 9-4 to recommend against the pumping.
One question, though. If the Penny for Pinellas sales tax is defeated today, the Brooker Creek flap will have been one of the contributing factors. The county could have had some good publicity for free by announcing this a couple days earlier. And don't tell me the county wouldn't dream of trying to influence the outcome of an election!
Today is another Election Day in various places locally, headlined by the Penny for Pinellas referendum in Pinellas County. For a rundown of all stuff on the ballot, click here. For today's article by Will Van Sant on the Penny issue, click here. For my column today, expressing some sarcastic skepticism of the government and presenting some counter-arguments, click here.
I do not know if it is self-indulgent navel-gazing to talk about the process of writing a column, or a useful peek. Here I truly did not want to Tell People What To Think (a common allegation!), but I definitely wanted to give some ink to the "no" arguments, because I hate the way the government freely spends tax dollars to advocate the "yes" side. I still think it should be seriously illegal for the government to advocate the outcome of an election, ANY election. More about that soon.
Our "retired" Pulitzer Prize-winner Lucy Morgan continues to shed light on how Tallahassee works with an excellent run of articles on the role of lobbying. A front-page story by her today points out the ongoing loopholes in Florida's law -- you can't buy a legislator a cup of coffee, but you can shower lawmakers with cash through various committees and charities.
The moral here is not that the petty rules need to be loosened up, but that the major loopholes need to be closed. A registered lobbyist has no business buying or giving anything to a legislator, directly or indirectly. Why is this so hard?
Two criticisms, one sweet, one, er, slightly less so about Sunday's column on daylight saving time:
Well, Howard, I say phooey to you and your attitude =). I’m recently retired and I LOVE early DST. I can sleep until 8 without the sun streaming in and I can putter around outdoors an hour longer in the evening. To all you morning people (never did like those anyway) and working stiffs I say PHHHBBBT! -- David Bryant, Clearwater
At least he put a little smiley-face in there, unlike this gentleman:
Such populist whinery is clear and convincing evidence that Troxler sees his job as writing whatever will elicit howls, pro or con. He has no interest in elucidating issues or explaining the difficult choices we all must make in life and how we readers/voters can better understand the world. He just throws shout bombs. He revels in this blog because it's a chance to show off how much mail he gets. Maybe that's how he gets paid, by the reader mail. If his compensation were tied to the value of what he writes, he'd be in tent city right now. Grow up, Howard, and try to be a journalist. -- Nelson
Ouch! Well, there's a link of the right side of this blog to my last few months of columns, and there also are 16 years' worth available in our free online archive. Some of them are light and trivial, some of them are about serious issues and some of them are light approaches to serious issues, and some of them, despite my best effort, are too-dull explanations of serious issues. I hope there will be something you like over there. If not, sorry, but I ain't quittin' yet.
Assorted weekend comments, including agreement with my rant this morning about going to daylight saving time earlier:
I completely agree with your comments about daylight savings time. I think we'd be better off without it at all, but certainly this current schedule is without any benefits that I can identify. How can we get this changed? Who/how should be contacted for most effective results? -- Mary Reiner
Yes, yes YES! I remember you wrote a column back when they decided to hasten government mandated time manipulation and have been trying to rally a one-woman grass roots deal since (not very successfully). -- JoAnn E. Smith
Thanks. I'm sure others will disagree with us. As far as doing anything, either C
