|
1/23/04
E
Messenger
The
Electronic Newsletter of the
Florida
AFL-CIO
New
Members according to the AFL-CIO Work in Progress
This week's WIP: 1,084
Year to date: 1,563
STATE
NEWS
Jeb
Bush’s new budget – same as it ever was
Too
Many Gimmicks
(
01/22/2004
© Ft.
Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel)
Gov. Jeb Bush's
budget proposal isn't as tight as the current austerity budget. That's the
good news. His $55.4 billion proposal, however, still relies on too many
budgetary gimmicks to be called a sound spending plan.
An
unkind cut
(
01/22/2004
© St.
Petersburg Times)
As politics is the
grandest of theaters, effective politicians need to be good actors. If
they were eligible for Oscars, Gov. Jeb Bush's budget show the other day
would make him a favorite in the category of best performance in an
unsupportable role.
Florida
Governor Unveils Ambitious $55.4 Billion Budget Proposal
(01/21/2004 © Miami
Herald)
Jan. 21 - Coming
off an unusually tight year that sent acrimonious lawmakers into overtime
to craft a budget, Gov. Jeb Bush on Tuesday unveiled an ambitious $55.4
billion budget proposal that cuts taxes and increases funding for
education and economic development.
Budget
plan reflects regressive tax code
(01/23/2004 © Miami
Herald)
Thanks to a robust
economy Florida has more money to spend this year than last, but still not
enough to cover its needs adequately. Gov. Jeb Bush's budget proposal,
while more generous this year, needs to be tweaked and tuned to better
accommodate the state's needs.
The
food chain
(
01/23/2004
© Gainesville
Sun)
Politics is all
about the big fish eating the little fish. And on the political food
chain, the minnows are the locals, and they're always on the menu.
Jeb defends the
budget
This article ran in newspapers all over the state yesterday and today.
Year
appears brighter, but storm has not passed
(01/23/2004 © Ft.
Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel)
While other states
continue to face deficits and struggle to find their financial footing,
Florida is more fortunate, thanks to fiscal discipline and good
governance.
Kids set to lose health
insurance
Storming
the fortress
(01/21/2004 © Daytona
Beach News-Journal)
On one side of a
great divide stand 100,000 Florida children and their parents, people who
work hard but can't afford or qualify for health insurance. On the other
side, a handful of men (and a few women) who have
gathered the power and treasury of state government in
Tallahassee
and see no political
benefit in helping these families.
Democrats
Urge Kidcare Session
(
01/22/2004
© Capitol
News Service)
Democrats at the
Capitol are taking the historic step of attempting to force a special
session to put money immediately into the Florida Kidcare
Program. They think the 30-million dollars the governor wants to put in
next year's budget for the health insurance program will be too little,
too late. ...
KidCare
funding cuts outrageous
(
01/22/2004
© Florida
Today)
The recent
editorial headlined 'Kids don't count' correctly pointed out that our
state legislators are ignoring the dire need for health-care coverage for
sick children whose families cannot afford health-care insurance.
Democrats
demand session on KidCare
(01/22/2004 © Gainesville
Sun)
ALLAHASSEE -
Democratic state lawmakers on Wednesday demanded that Florida act now to
provide health insurance for more than 100,000 children who have been
frozen out of the state's subsidized health plan.
Jeb’s defense
Gov.
Bush defends KidCare funding
(01/23/2004 © Orlando
Sentinel)
A recent editorial
in the Orlando Sentinel and a column by Myriam
Marquez criticized my administration's budget for 2004-2005 and assailed
Florida's commitment to health insurance programs for children.
Who needs health
insurance when you can get $2 off a new jacket!
Bush
pushes revived tax holiday
(01/22/2004 © Jacksonville
Business Journal)
A $48 million
sales tax holiday could boost retail spending later this year if state
lawmakers agree with Gov. Jeb Bush that the practice should be revived.
Giving fall shoppers a nine-day sales tax break on items such as clothes,
books and school supplies ended in 2002, after a four-year run.
Voters may get
a chance to do what the politicians are afraid to
Ballot
initiative takes aim at tax loopholes
(01/23/2004 © St.
Petersburg Times)
TALLAHASSEE - A
bipartisan group of state government experts on Thursday blamed loopholes
in the tax system for many of Florida's failings, and they are pushing a
citizen initiative to force legislators to take a fresh look at hundreds
of tax exemptions
Proposal
to repeal sales tax exemptions nearing ballot review
(01/22/2004 © Tallahassee
Democrat)
Former Senate
President John McKay says a bipartisan petition campaign to force
legislative review of sales tax exemptions is nearly ready for Supreme
Court review, a crucial first step toward the ballot in November.
Petition
seeking revision of taxes
(01/23/2004 © Tallahassee
Democrat)
Most Floridians
would save money if lawmakers were forced to justify sales-tax exemptions,
Leon County Commissioner Cliff Thaell said
Thursday at a symposium on a petition drive for a tax-reform
constitutional amendment. "Clearly,
Florida
's sales-tax structure is
antiquated and regressive," said Thaell,
the incoming president of the Florida Association of Counties.
They passed the law very
quietly, now everyone is climbing over each other to repeal it.
Phone
Rate Law Debated Again
(
01/22/2004
© Capitol
News Service)
Governor Jeb Bush
says he doesn't think the legislature needs to revisit a controversial law
phone companies used to push for a rate increase. Senate President Jim
King is asking lawmakers to draft a new bill tackling some of the concerns
of last year's law. He says there are questions surrounding t...
King
wants to evaluate residents concerns about phone rate hike
(01/22/2004 © Naples
Daily News)
TALLAHASSEE —
State senate leaders are having second thoughts about a law that allowed
the state's biggest local phone rate increase and are moving to evaluate
its effect on consumers just weeks after it was approved by regulators.
Legislators
awaken to realization that the phone rate law stinks
(
01/23/2004
© St.
Petersburg Times)
- Gospel of
Matthew My, my, they are startin' to weep and
gnash now, ain't they? The president of the
Florida Senate, the honorable Jim King, R-Jacksonville, now says that he,
too, is having second thoughts about the law he passed to jack up
everybody's telephone rates.
Disney needs your money
to advertise
Proposals
would steer millions to tourism ads
(01/22/2004 © Orlando
Sentinel)
Hoping to lift
Florida's tourism economy out of a nearly three-year slump, state
officials are pushing plans that would give the industry more money for
advertising.
Education
Teachers tell School Board about their struggles
Many say they have to do too much with too little -- and they
want more respect.
By
CYNTHIA L. GARZA
The Times-Union
A drove of
Duval
County
teachers dressed in red came
out Tuesday night to echo one message to the School Board: "It's
about respect and dignity."
Teachers told the board
about the hours they spend preparing and detailing lessons, having to buy
or get donated materials for their classes and even their struggles to pay
for their children's college education.
Teachers are asked to do
more and more, with less and less, said Terrie Brady, president of Duval
Teachers United, the local teachers union. "Somewhere it has to
stop," she said.
Last month, the union and
the school system agreed on a 2 percent salary increase for teachers for
this school year after months of negotiation.
Brenda Priestly Jackson,
the only board member to respond to Brady and the teachers, said the board
was thankful for all the teachers and the job they do, but that "it's
disingenuous to say this board has not been respectful after you agreed to
the [contract] in December."
"We have done what we
felt we could do,"
Jackson
said.
Brady asked the board to
"start in February to direct the staff to budget a larger amount of
money for employee salaries and benefits." She also asked the board
to start allowing teachers time to prepare for classes and offering
adequate support for beginning teachers.
Luann Bennett, former
union president, walked into the board room with a rolling dolly with a
waist-high stack of materials used to accompany one textbook.
"We're supposed to
include all those things in planning a lesson," Bennett said.
"It can't be done."
Grace Wilhelm, a 22-year
teaching veteran whose husband is also a teacher, said paying for her two
children's college educations and other bills on their salaries is
difficult. She said the 2 percent pay increase she received this year paid
for one college textbook.
Brady pointed to a teacher
survey presented to the board last spring that showed teachers felt they
were stressed, tired and not treated with respect.
"What has the board
done?" Brady asked. "We haven't seen a single board agenda
addressing the findings of that survey."
Also during the meeting,
the board unanimously voted to not pursue recommendations made by a state
auditing firm necessary to make it eligible for a state Board of
Education-designated Seal of Best Financial Management, to defer a reading
course requirement for sixth- and ninth-grade students until the 2005-2006
school year and to delay a vote on school boundary changes that would
affect Highlands and the new Oceanway middle
schools.
cynthia.garza@
jacksonville.com,
(904) 359-4380
The
problems with public schools begin in Tallahassee
(01/23/2004 © Jacksonville
- Florida Times Union)
I hope that when
you read a story on the front page of Thursday's Florida Times-Union, you
got mad, mad enough to say this baloney must stop.
Summit
Quest will not be investigated
(01/22/2004 © Florida
Today)
VIERA -- Lack of
money is the reason why neither state nor School District officials will
investigate possible financial mismanagement that led to the closure of
Summit Quest Charter School in Melbourne last June.
Those
crazy kids!
State
legislative leaders meet to bury the hatchet
(
01/23/2004
© Ft.
Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel)
TALLAHASSEE
· Taking a cue from the
Hatfields and
McCoys
,
Florida
's legislative leaders on
Thursday met over cookies, Coke and turkey gumbo to make a stab at a
permanent peace.
House,
Senate Republicans remain at odds
(
01/23/2004
© Palm Beach
Post)
TALLAHASSEE
-- House Speaker Johnnie
Byrd brought his legislative team and a pot of turkey gumbo. Senate
President Jim King brought Senate leaders and the staff directors of every
Senate committee.
How will
you know if your vote is counted?
State
cant paper over the conflict on recounts
(
01/23/2004
© Palm Beach
Post)
If the March
presidential primary in
Florida
is close, election
officials would have no way to recount ballots cast on touch-screen voting
machines. The rules for such a recount don't exist. That is among the
factors that persuaded U.S. Rep. Robert Wexler,
D-Delray
Beach
, to file suit last week.
NATIONAL
NEWS
Omnibus
Bill
Passes
- $11 Billion in
Pork and Bush Wish List Along With It – Including Overtime Change
Senate
to Vote on Ending Spending Delays
Fort Worth Star-Telegram
After
Disputes, Congress Passes Spending Plan
The
New York
Times
1/23/04
Senate
Pushes Funding as Democrats Relent
The
Washington
Post
1/23/04
Bush
Wins Big in Senate
Minneapolis-St. Paul Star Tribune
1/23/04
Labor
Dept. to Issue Overtime Rules
USA
Today
1/23/04
Immigration
reform?
2
senators offer alternative to Bush's immigration plan
Philadelphia
Inquirer
No
bright side to Bush's immigration plan
Houston
Chronicle
1/23/04
Border
Agents Assail Bush's Plan to Bring in Guest Workers
Los Angeles
Times
1/23/04
Only
an illusion of hope, legal status
Miami
Herald
1/23/04
The economy looks great!
Unless you have to work for a living.
A
Serious Jobs Crisis
Newsweek.com
1/22/04
Low-Pay
Sectors Dominate U.S. and State Job Growth
LA Times
1/22/04
Job
growth lags despite good economic news
USA
Today
Washington
looks at pensions
Agreement
Reached On Pensions (washingtonpost.com)
Washington
Post
Congress
weighs pension relief
Fort Worth Star-Telegram
New
Hampshire
Debate
Full
Transcript for N.H. Debate
Washington
Post
1/23/04
If you have
suggestions on how we may improve this online publication or have
information you would like to see posted please contact our communications
director at (850) 224 – 6926 or at rtemplin@flaflcio.org.
SUBSCRIBE
Union members may subscribe to the E Messenger by visiting our website
at www.flaflcio.org.
UNSUBSCRIBE
If you would not like to receive future copies of this newsletter
please let us know at
cbell@flaflcio.org.
Rich Templin
Communications Director
Florida
AFL-CIO |
