In my prior legislative experience it had seemed that the idea, too often, was less important than where it came from. But by putting our heads together in a bipartisan effort, we crafted a single measure that will be closing a tax loophole to promote tax fairness, and in the same stroke restore Florida Forever and an affordable housing program.
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In November you will have nine (9) amendments on the ballot. One was placed on the ballot by the Legislature, another measure through the citizen initiative process, and the remaining seven (7) by the Taxation and Budget Reform Commission (on which I was a nonvoting member). Here is my primer to all the amendments, along with recommendations and a little attitude.
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Florida is facing soaring gas prices, horrible windstorm rates and property taxes
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Yesterday the House sent its budget over to the Senate. The debate went as predicted (see "Budget Debate" post from 4/9), the vote was party line, and the cuts reflected what any good captain of a sinking ship might do (lock the women, children and seniors in steerage; put the corporate bigwigs on the lifeboats without scuffing their wing tipped shoes). The Republicans directed billions in cuts mostly from services provided children, sick children, infants, sick infants, school children, abused children, seniors, sick seniors, and dying seniors.
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For the most part, the debate went as expected, with the Republicans defending their suggested cuts to education, health care, and road construction as advantageous to forcing companies who are getting a free ride to pay their fair share——and as predicted, they used a lot of procedural maneuvers to avoid debate on our budget alternatives to their corporate pork. That being said, I want to share a few bright points.
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At 11:00 AM tomorrow, the full House begins debate on the state budget. Since most Floridians have far more to do than to watch seven hours of floor debate during working hours, I wanted to take a moment to share with you exactly what the Republicans will say.
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...the decision of my Republican colleagues to once again turn the floor of the Florida House into their own personal ideological soapbox is a disservice to the people that we serve...
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