Tallahassee Knows Best

If you don't like something that a city or county in Florida is doing, you can always try to get the Legislature to overrule the locals. Of course, that violates the stated Republican principle of "local control,'' but principle often flies out the window when money is at stake.

Here's a couple of examples of Tallahassee trying to bigfoot local government. The first was outlined in an article in Saturday's newspaper by my colleague Rebecca Catalanello, headlined 18 words imperil 3-million acres. The bill would take away the power of 20 counties in Florida, including Hillsborough, Pinellas and Hernando, to have their own rules on the destruction of wetlands. Hillsborough, in particular, has rules tougher than the state's. The sponsor of the measure, Rep. Will Kendrick, R-Carrabelle, calls it too much duplication than adds too much to the price of a house or development, and a violation of -- wait for it -- private property rights.

Check out the St. Petersburg Times' special report on wetlands in Florida. That's what state and federal regulation has gotten us, so if locals want to have even stricter rules, that seems like a fine use of "local control" to me.

Here's a second example that's still being hashed out in the Legislature on the topic of mining. The House version of the bill says that...

... no county or municipality shall enact or enforce any ordinance, resolution, regulation, rule, policy, or other action which prohibits or prevents the construction or operation of a limestone mine on lands where mining is a permissible use or on lands zoned or classified as mining lands or agricultural lands pursuant to s. 193.461, Florida Statutes.

Here's the Sierra Club's tracking of the bill.

Comments

[Mike]

This duality in thinking (which the ruling corporate bosses don't even see as duality) is everywhere in their agenda. They call themselves 'conservatives', but they are not at all conservatives, at least in my understanding of the Barry Goldwater mold. They are totally money & profit driven; private profit (especialy quick massive profit) is their god and moral yardstick. To see which way they will take ANY issue, just follow the money.

[Jim Johnson]

You assume there's a qualitative difference between Republicans and Democrats. Both parties have booths at the county fair; one party steers you to the arts & crafts, the other steers you to the livestock barn. But for all intenst and purposes, youre at the same place. There are Democrat activists who claim George W.Bush would be the best Democrat President of all time if the 2000 election werent such a debacle. I agree. And all elected officials work to concentrate power in their particular office, taking power away from lesser officials or the citizens. So the present Tallahassee power-grab is business as usual.

Do you really expect our politicians (most of which are funded by developers) to pass any substantive measure to protect these precious lands? Expect something like the insurance legislation. To wit: A lot of backslapping and bullsh*t. “Thanks for the vote, now shut up.”

[Jim Johnson]

In response to comment #3: The American Revolution was ignited because GEORGE III sold-out the American colonies to the East India Tea Company to exploit commerically. The King and Parliament enacted laws the Tea Company favored. Their laws tied American merchants in knots. So Americans started smuggling and using Spanish money, to survive. The Tea Company forced the King to intervene with troops, and the rest is history.

[Jim Johnson]

(NOTE: This is from a different Jim Johnson).

The reason DC and Tallahassee feel the need to get involved in local issues is two-fold.

1) People elect legislators. That means issues that are important to the voters get addressed at every level. Thus, we have No Child Left Behind, A+ Plan, and efforts by the local school board. Politicians meddling because the voters elected them to do so.

2) It's just easier (and cheaper) to lobby state or local government. Florida has 67 counties and 400+ cities, which means there are more than 2,500 local elected officials (plus hundreds more bureaucrats) they have to work with... as opposed to 160 legislators and a handful of state agencies in Tallahassee. Expand that to the other 49 states, and it's easier to lobby 535 members of Congress than the tens of thousands of state and local government officials.

Oh, and while the typical corporate/business interest groups are the ones vilified for doing this, special interest groups across the spectrum do everything they can to find the path of least resistance (big tobacco, Sierra Club, AARP, big oil, teachers unions, trial lawyers, retail federation, home builders, etc).

This land & power grab is an abomination! Let's hope the bill never passes the House, but if it does, let's hope the Senate buries it, but if they don't, let's hope our populist, pro environment, & pro consumer Governor vetoes it!

You can not administer environmental permitting with a cookie cutter approach! The reason most, if not all of twenty counties in this state have additional permit requirements is that they feel the state regulations do not meet their unique circumstances. It has always been intended that the state regulations were to provide a benchmark. In an instance(if one exists) where a county's regulations are merely duplicative of state permit requirements then this law has a little merit; but only in that instance!

[Lorraine Margeson]

If you like polluted rivers, you'll love this Miami Herlad piece. Another state-initiated pile of bunk to further destroy environmental protections. You just have to wonder if the mantra of money and profit has wiped out ALL sense in our state government's policy-making........

http://www.miamiherald.com/540/story/58519.html