In honor of our country's Independence Day, I thought it would be appropriate to quote fully, the document which made July 4th such an important date. One thing is for sure: they don't write like this anymore:

IN CONGRESS, JULY 4, 1776
The Unanimous Declaration of the Thirteen United States of America

When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. — Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their Public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.

He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected, whereby the Legislative Powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.

He has obstructed the Administration of Justice by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers.

He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.

He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.

He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power.

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

For protecting them, by a mock Trial from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:

For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:

For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:

For depriving us in many cases, of the benefit of Trial by Jury:

For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:

For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies

For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:

For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & Perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.

He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these united Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States, that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. — And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.

Progress Florida's Best of the Blogs for week ending 7-3-09
Note: the Best of the Blogs is featured weekly as part of Progress Florida's popular free Daily Clips service.

On Florida Hometown Democracy, For Four!
By Gimleteye
Eye On Miami
According to The Miami Herald, developer Jorge Perez has whittled down his debt to $1.2 billion from $1.5 billion but has stashed away enough net worth to consider investing in the Miami Dolphins football team.

Capitol Offense: Is Amendment 4 Being Proposed by the Underpants Gnomes
By Kenneth Quinnell
Florida Progressive Coalition
Okay, I know I’m going to catch some flack for this one, but I’m stating this as honestly and openly as I can.

Progressives Help Bring Substance to St. Pete Mayoral Race
By Ray Seaman
Progress Florida
If you've ever followed a local election, you often know they're fraught with personalities and process stories that turn off voters.

Florida Republicans On Message, Off Truth
By Buck Banks
Pensito Review
The leadership of the Republican Party of Florida (RPOF) is many things (dumber than a sack of hammers comes to mind), but one thing they do know how to do is stay on message.

Hagan pulls a Johnson
By Mariella
Sticks of Fire
County Commissioner Ken Hagan is using the same tactic Buddy Johnson used to get his name out for the next election.

If you've ever followed a local election, you often know they're fraught with personalities and process stories that turn off voters. You never seem to learn what they actually want to do if elected. It's one of the reasons why local, particularly city elections, are won by dozens or hundreds of votes - often a consequence of such a low turnout that would make the founding fathers want to cover their faces in embarrassment.

It's unclear how much voters care about the biggest political race in Florida in 2009: the race for the mayor of St. Petersburg, Florida's 4th largest city. However, progressive groups including Progress Florida, SEIU's city workers union, Florida Consumer Action Network, Clean Water Action, and the Alliance for a Livable Pinellas sponsored a debate last night which attracted more people and fleshed out more substantive answers than anything previous. Imagine that!

Whatever the reason, the candidates for mayor engaged in their most substantial conversation about policy yet Tuesday, offering specific solutions to economic and environmental concerns during a debate hosted by local progressive groups. There were still a few silly jokes, some shallow answers. But, for the most part, the candidates offered new insight about how they would lead the city.

This is a testament to how progressives, when united, can both do a great service for the public and demonstrate the importance of our issues.

Amendment 4, aka the Florida Hometown Democracy Amendment, would take land use decisions away from county commissions and give them to voters via referendums. As I said in a previous blog post, the Chamber of Commerce and big developers are vehemently against voters crashing their lavish party.

You can expect the Chamber and their anti-Amendment 4 front group, the Orwellian-named "Floridians for Smarter Growth", to use every ridiculous argument under the sun to stop Amendment 4. Here's a foretaste of things to come:



The money quote from Florida Chamber of Commerce President Mark Wilson:

What the special interests behind Amendment 4 want is no jobs and no growth.

Exactly! I'm sure those are precise intentions of Amendment 4's backers - we don't need no stinking jobs!

Oh brother, it's going to be a long fight for Hometown Democracy backers. I hope Wilson's quote is played over and over as an example of just how embarrassingly desperate the supporters of the status quo are.

Hometown Democracy backers should still be careful - no matter how ridiculous the above talking point is - simplicity sticks. If Amendment 4 is successfully framed as "anti-jobs" - it's game over. However, if Amendment 4 can successfully be framed as "pro-sustainability" or even "pro-democracy" - then it may just have a chance. In addition, there's also the opportunity to frame the anti-Hometown Democracy folks as tools of the developers, a group of people who most Floridians look upon unfavorably.

A growing trend in American politics:

You can watch video of Governor Corzine campaigning at a gay pride event -- and making it very, very clear he supports marriage equality here. It's pretty clear that Corzine himself -- unprompted -- is the one making marriage an issue. He wants to talk about it. He's not coming up with convoluted excuses, like so many pols do. This is the future. And, more Democratic candidates need to stand up and be upfront about their support for what's right.

Importantly, Corzine isn't just talking about marriage in front of LGBT audiences. As the [Philadelphia] Inquirer piece noted, Corzine made a pro-marriage equality statement in his June 2nd primary night victory speech.

Jon Corzine is the current Democratic Governor of New Jersey - and he's currently in a very tight race for reelection - so it's truly noteworthy that Corzine is using an issue that just a few years ago was radioactive to Democrats.

Florida is not New Jersey - our state tends to be more conservative on this issue. On the other hand, we've never had a "mainstream" or high profile Democrat (or any state leader for that matter) declare vocally their support for marriage equality. If that happened, and opponents of equality were aggressively responded to, I have a feeling we would find out Florida is more progressive than the conventional wisdom dictates. As always when it comes to driving a progressive agenda, it comes down to that increasingly cliche term: leadership.

Even if timid Florida Democrats running for office don't want to embrace marriage equality right away, there are numerous other equality-related issues that demand leadership. There's the incredibly awful gay adoption ban, where our state is the only state along with Mississippi to keep this bigoted practice. A majority of Floridians want to get rid of the ban. There's also domestic partnerships and civil unions.

It would be truly great to see someone like Alex Sink, or even Dave Aronberg or Dan Gelber get out in front on these issues, not merely for their own political gain, but for the sake of advancing the rights of everyday Floridians.

The healthcare debate reached a new level last week as the House and Senate released early proposals for comprehensive healthcare reform. The main bone of contention, as you might have expected, is the one item that determines whether this reform is truly reform or not: the inclusion of a public option for health coverage that competes with private insurance plans.

Politics is a funny thing. You see, Senate healthcare "leaders" like Max Baucus (D-MT) believe that we just have to have bipartisan support in order to pass meaningful healthcare reform. The House, on the other hand, has mostly left the notion of bipartisanship by the wayside, with Speaker Pelosi saying that there will be no healthcare vote in the House without a public option in the final reform package.

So, under the banner of "bipartisanship", Sen. Baucus and his cohorts in the Senate have proposed a healthcare plan without a public option. The House, obviously, has released a plan that does. So who turned out to be truly bipartisan in the sense of a broad coalition of individuals from both political parties and independents agreeing on a solution? Not the Senate - not by a long shot. Recent polling from NBC and The Wall Street Journal now shows 76% of Americans want a public option for healthcare:

76 percent of respondents said it was either "extremely" or "quite" important to "give people a choice of both a public plan administered by the federal government and a private plan for their health insurance."

Personally I take this as clear evidence people want some alternative to their often expensive, unhelpful, and unreliable private health insurance. A public option makes sense to Americans.

The Senate is practicing Washington DC's version of bipartisanship - feauxpartisanship - caving to the extreme right of American politics when things get tough.

There is such a thing as bipartisanship, and on healthcare, it's the center-left position of having a public option, not some far right idea cooked up at the Heritage Foundation and sauteed in corporate money.

A few weeks ago, Gov. Crist signed SB 360, a horrendous bill that significantly weakened Florida's growth management laws, inviting more urban sprawl in rural areas. Environmental groups, and Progress Florida, vehemently fought SB 360 for this reason. For more info, watch this great YouTube video:



We unfortunately lost that battle, but in the wider war against wasteful and destructive low-density urban sprawl, who is really going to win? That question has not been answered yet. While it seems that big developers won the day, they might have just shot themselves in the foot at the same time. You see, as the title of this blog post suggests, every time big developers and their allies in the Florida Chamber of Commerce push through another short-sighted bill that extends the already hated status quo, the more support builds for solutions like the Florida Hometown Democracy Amendment. Some folks consider Hometown Democracy a very radical solution, taking land-use decisions away from county commissions and instead turning them into public referendums. This would undoubtedly slow down the rate at which farms are gobbled up and turned into golf courses and gated communities. Many Floridians think this would good thing, but developers obviously view it as a terrifying prospect.

When SB 360 passed, I heard the same refrain from several unconnected individuals - that this will make it easier for Hometown Democracy to pass. I think they're right. The passage of SB 360 will only harden local resistance to sprawl, and the seemingly impossible notion of attaining real growth management regulations from the state will only drive more moderate environmentalists and Floridians into the arms of Hometown Democracy.

I actually consider myself among the latter group. I have my qualms with Hometown Democracy, mainly because I think sprawl can be stopped and new urbanism promoted through stronger and more consistent community organizing at the county level (something that really doesn't exist right now throughout Florida.) However, I know that for the sake of our state's future, sprawl has to be stopped in the next few years. I'm willing to embrace Hometown Democracy if the developers, the Chambers of Commerce, and the Builders Associations keep pushing for the kind of nonsense "solutions" like SB 360 that merely advance their bottom line at the expense of everyone else.

Should Hometown Democracy make it onto the ballot (an increasingly likely prospect) and pass the necessary 60% mark, it will be due both to the hard work of the Hometown Democracy movement, and the developers' own short-sightedness and utter greed.

Who said elected officials don't listen to their constituents? Sen. Nelson noticed the more than 3,000 Floridians standing up to Big Oil and opposing drilling off Florida's coast. He wanted to share this message with you:

All,

I want to thank all the folks at Progress Florida for helping me stand up against drilling off Florida's coast. Last week, on the Senate floor I told the leadership I didn't want to mess up their energy bill - but I will, if it allows oil rigs ten miles off our state. Ten miles! That's roughly only half the distance between downtown Tampa and St. Pete. Drilling would turn our state into an industrial nightmare, while ignoring the path to U.S. energy independence through alternative fuels. Thank you, again, for helping in this fight.

Sincerely,
Bill

Progress Florida easily blew past its goal of 3,000 signatures to our "Stop Offshore Oil Drilling" letter - so we've raised it to 5,000! Join this growing movement by signing our letter here.

Yesterday, the Senate Energy and Natural Resources committee voted to open up Florida's coast to drilling.

In less than 24 hours, Progress Florida responded by alerting our network of this major threat to Florida's coast.

Most importantly - you've responded. We're more than 1/3 of the way to our goal of 3,000 signatures to Sen. Nelson (urging him to keep up the fight against Big Oil) by Friday.

If you haven't signed this important letter yet - do so by clicking here.

Here are just a tiny sampling of some of the responses we've received so far:

In these times of energy shortages, every ounce of effort needs to be focused on developing true renewable energy resources. Offshore drilling will damage our coasts without improving our energy situation.

Thank you for all your hard work as it is appreciated! Please please keep up the fight. It matters to me and my family of Floridians dating back to the civil war!

In LA in March and went for a walk on Roy Rogers Beach. Had to throw away my running shoes that were covered in oil tar. Please don't let them do that to Caladesi and 3 Rooker. Thanks for all that you do.

Please do not let the Florida coast become the oil sludge that has damaged the Texas coast line and its Tourism business. Drilling is not the answer to our energy problems.

One commenter merely replied, "Fight on." And we will - with your continued support.

If you've already signed the letter - make sure you invite your friends by either clicking here, or copying and pasting the message below and sending it to your friends.

Hi,

Some politicians just can't stop their old fossil fuel loving ways or let go of Big Oil's embrace. That's why a U.S. Senate committee voted yesterday to allow oil rigs just miles from Florida's beaches.

I just signed a letter standing with Florida Senator Bill Nelson, who is against this scheme, urging him to do whatever it takes to protect our coasts from Big Oil. I thought you might be interested in signing with me:

http://progressflorida.org/page/s/fightdrilling

Opening our coasts to destructive drilling would do little to lower gas prices or make us more energy independent, but it would threaten our beaches with pollution and oil spills and could destroy our multi-billion dollar tourism and fishing industries. Faster, cheaper, cleaner and longer-term energy solutions like energy efficiency and clean, renewable energy exist that would do more to help our country gain energy independence than oil drilling ever could hope to do.

We can't drill our way to energy independence - please join me in standing with Sen. Nelson and against Big Oil in protecting our coasts from offshore oil drilling:

http://progressflorida.org/page/s/fightdrilling

Someone's not giving us the full story.

Much hubub was made when Education Week announced its state rankings a few months ago, showing Florida was 10th best in the nation:

Today, pigs fly.

Florida ranks No. 10 among states in education quality, according to the latest annual report card from the highly regarded Education Week newspaper.

The rankings, released Wednesday, are based on six broad categories -- including student achievement, standards and accountability, and funding -- and dozens of specific indicators, such as licensing requirements for teachers and scores on Advanced Placement exams for high school students.

Florida earned a B- this year, up from a C+ last year. The national average is a C.

In three years, Florida has climbed from No. 31 to No. 14 to No. 10.

"It's extraordinary news," Florida Education Commissioner Eric J. Smith said. "This is a very credible evaluation of state performance against other states."

...but wait a minute. Let's take the narrative here at face value: Florida's education is great and getting greater. If that's the case, then why do more than 43% of the students who enter this fantastic system drop out? A new study released today from "Diplomas Count" shows Florida is 5th worst in the nation in dropout rate, which is consistent with previous studies:

The "Diplomas Count" study determined that 57.5 percent of students completed high school on time with a regular diploma in 2006, compared to 69.2 percent nationwide. That's the fifth lowest in the nation.

State Department of Education figures indicate the 2006 rate was actually 71 percent. The state's calculation takes special and General Education Development diplomas into account.

I threw that second paragraph in to point out some of the yawning standards and measurement gaps that seem to plague the education debate.

This is one of many reasons why groups like the Florida Center for Fiscal and Economic Policy are so important, to help us figure out what all of this means. In January they published a brief that drills down into the Education Week rankings and uncovered the full story. I encourage you to read it. Florida earns high marks on accountability measures, mostly due to heavy focus on this issue since the 1980s, but particularly in the last decade with the arrival of Jeb Bush's "A+" Plan and the rise of the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test (FCAT) as a universal assessment tool. However, Florida falls flat on its face when it comes to funding (although not on funding equity, thanks to progressive Gov. Ruben Askew's brainchild, the Florida Education Funding Program, FEFP) and graduation rates.

The two previous points: funding and graduation rates, are two key focal points in the education debate. No matter how rigorous or tightly controlled our accountability standards are, if schools aren't well funded, and kids are forced into a straitjacket-like curriculum, our education system will consistently fail.

Looking solely at the state's FCAT data, we see that Florida students do well in elementary school, but by high school, we've lost many. Reading scores are where this is most striking, where 53% of 4th graders get a 3 (passing) or above and only 37% of 10th graders do the same. There is much debate about why this is (strict curriculum, not enough PE and electives, lack of parental/community involvement...it runs the spectrum.)

Does Florida have a great education system? I wish I could say yes, but I'm not convinced in the slightest. A system that is touted as a good one, but can't even graduate 60% of its high school students leaves much to be desired.

"I'm not sure what the rush is. I believe there are still a number of unanticipated changes that should lead the Legislature to put the brakes on this."
- Karen Woodall, lobbyist for the National Organization for Women (NOW)

In 2005, the Florida legislature passed one of the most reactionary health care reforms in the country, privatizing the delivery and care systems of our state's Medicaid program. This was a pilot program which was hailed as a potential national model should it succeed.

The inner workings of the plan were described as follows:

Under the plan, Florida would "largely be a buyer rather than a manager of health care," as the state would pay monthly premiums to private health insurers rather than fee-for-service payments to health care providers, the New York Times reports. The waiver authorizes private health insurers to limit "the amount, duration and scope" of services provided to Medicaid beneficiaries and allows the state to establish a "maximum per-year benefit" cap for each beneficiary (New York Times, 10/20). The state would pay health insurers a "risk-based" premium based on the health of Medicaid beneficiaries (South Florida Sun-Sentinel, 10/20). In addition, the waiver authorizes the state to establish a pool to provide as much as $1 billion annually to hospitals and other health care providers that treat a large number of uninsured patients (New York Times, 10/20)
...
Florida Medicaid beneficiaries will select from a number of managed care plans, "most likely HMOs, although state officials predicted that physician networks and hospitals could also band together to offer services," the Miami Herald reports (Miami Herald, 10/20). The state will automatically enroll Medicaid beneficiaries in managed care plans in the event that they do not make a selection.

By handing public money intended for a public program whose beneficiaries were both poor and young to profit-driven HMOs, you might have guessed what happened next.

Now, 3 years into the program, horror stories abound:

Amy Silverman, 52, calls the pilot program a "horror" after trying to get treatment for her atypical bipolar, severe depression, heart and kidney problems. Silverman says many of the doctors and specialists listed in her plan have either dropped out or aren't taking new patients. She's had such trouble getting appointments that she's gone to the emergency room, instead, for minor things that could have been handled by a doctor. The plan also denied a medication she's been using for years.

"I fear that my only hope for decent health care will be to move out of state and away from family," said Silverman, a Broward County resident.

However, the most damning fact of all is that despite 3 years of existence NO DATA EXISTS on key metrics of the program. I'm serious:

Nearly three years into a Medicaid privatization program former Gov. Jeb Bush said could be a national model, state officials say they do not have crucial data to measure the program's effectiveness, including how many patients' treatments and prescriptions have been approved or denied.
...
AHCA [The Agency for Health Care Administration, a federal agency] paid the University of Florida $2.5 million in 2005 to conduct an independent study of the program, but Paul Duncan, who is heading the study said he had not yet received the data.

Various groups, including Georgetown University, the health care advocacy group Florida CHAIN and the AP, have asked for the encounter data for nearly a year, but have not received it. The data should include patient diagnoses, what treatments and prescriptions doctors have prescribed and whether they were paid, denied or delayed. The data would also show how many specialist appointments have been paid or denied - a chief complaint among patients.

Simply outrageous. Any nonprofit in the state of Florida that receives state money has to account for every cent, and show how funds are being used according to a certain set of metrics. If a nonprofit screws up one year, they tend to lose state funding for obvious reasons. However, this program has gone on for 3 years and has likely spent billions, yet it apparently has no data to show for itself.

Putting aside the unbelievable stupidity of all this, let's not forget the trouble patients were having getting access to care. All of those folks who say that a public good like health care should managed by private, profit-seeking companies should wake up and smell the chaos.

Florida's government tried to get out of the business of helping deliver health care to its neediest citizens - it's time it got back in the game.

Two years from now, the funds that kept Florida afloat in the form of federal stimulus dollars (more than $6 billion) will run out. Assuming Florida has not fully recovered from the recession (a good bet based on current circumstances), and our tax base can't make up the difference, what happens?

The Florida legislature is known for incredibly short-term thinking, both due to their own ineptitude and the nature of their 2-4 year term-driven institution. After all, one of the reasons why Florida ranks last or near last in many categories from education to healthcare is because the legislature earlier in the decade refused to make strong public investments and instead threw back most of the economic surplus in the form of tax cuts for people who didn't need them.

Speaker Cretul will tell you that indeed the legislature is preparing for the day when no more stimulus dollars flow from Washington. The deal struck between Cretul and Senate President Atwater included some of the fee hikes proposed by the Senate with some of the cuts made by the House. The small surplus has been socked away to help close the stimulus gap in 2011. The problem is, I'm not sure how this small bundle will do much to plug what could be a very large hole in the state budget.

The bottom line is this: there will be some excruciatingly painful choices for our state to make in 2011/2012 unless outside forces help (in the form of a second stimulus package for instance) or progressives and independents prevail in the post-stimulus debate.

There are two paths our state will have. Conservatives will argue that Florida cannot depend on federal largesse to fund the state's programs, and therefore the state will need to reevaluate it's mission and it's programs (read: gut Medicaid and public education.) Progressives and independents will need to argue that indeed our state can't depend on the federal government to bail us out everytime we're too timid to challenge our state's regressive tax structure that unfairly burdens working people while the wealthy don't pay their fair share.

This debate will be just as important at the local level, where 40%+ of public education funding is generated, mostly through property taxes. Local groups, activists, and elected officials will need to start figuring out ways to raise the revenues required to maintain quality public schools, and general community services in addition to convincing the public of the necessity of these new revenues.

This debate is not one that will happen years from now, it has already begun.

This is a prime organizing opportunity for Florida progressives to begin changing and reframing the debate on tax reform, if they choose to take advantage of it. People who once only saw the tax debate as a matter of how much to cut property taxes can begin to view the unfairness of our current tax system and the value of public investments in community assets like public schools and infrastructure. It's an increasingly important dialogue that we need to have with the public. If voters understand the importance of a fair tax system and public investment, it will be easier for a more moderate legislature to pass progressive programs than if voters do not understand these concepts.

How will Florida fund and sustain itself after the stimulus dollars run out? Conservatives have made their plans known. How will we respond? Nothing short of Florida's future is at stake.

The Campaign for America's Future and Media Matters has released an interesting report today, America: A Center-Left Nation. It confirms most of what progressives already know, but nonetheless compiles polling and surveys into a full picture.

I encourage you to read the full report itself, or at least check out the polling and illustrative graphs, by clicking here. Here are some highlights which I think are worth mentioning:

NES 2008: "The less government the better; OR there are more things government should be
doing."

Gov't Should Do More 66%
Less Gov't The Better 32%

"Should the government in Washington provide national health insurance, or is this something that should be left only to private enterprise" - CBS News/The New York Times, January 11‐15, 2009

Government 72%
Private enterprise 32%

"Would you be willing or not willing to pay higher taxes so that all Americans have health insurance they canʹt
lose, no matter what?" - CBS News/The New York Times, April 1‐5, 2009

Willing 57%
Not willing 38%

"Which do you think is more effective in stimulating the nationʹs economy and creating jobs: An economic agenda focused on returning money to taxpayers through tax cuts, or an economic agenda focused on spending for improvements to the countryʹs infrastructure such as roads, bridges and schools?" - Los Angeles Times/Bloomberg, December 6‐8, 2008

Infrastructure 54%
Tax cuts 33%

There's a lot more in the actual report of course, but I think this reveals a fundamental truth about Americans: we believe that our government can and should help its people, and that we're willing to support our government to those ends.

The false narrative that the far right has been weaving for years, that government is the problem and should just get out of the way, has simply fallen on deaf ears amid the reality of an interconnected economy and complex policy issues that only collective action can solve.

While all the surveys mentioned above were national and did not necessarily have regional and state breakdowns, Florida is roughly in line with national opinion. If the above data is true for Floridians (and again, I do believe its roughly on target), then it just goes to show how wrong-headed our own elected officials (including some Democrats) are in guiding our state. People don't want useless tax cuts, they want public investment. Floridians want to see their schools do well, their roads to be paved, and their fellow citizens have access to quality healthcare, not just save a measly $100 a year on their property taxes.

Our leaders should take heed of the data above for next year's challenging legislative session, and stand strong against further cuts to public investment, and fight for better and more efficient programs for the public interest.

Miami-Dade county is trying out a new public-private partnership with Blue Cross Blue Shield in an effort to cover more of the almost 600,000 uninsured who live there in addition to lowering health care costs:

Called Miami-Dade Blue, the county worked with Blue Cross Blue Shield of Florida to develop a plan that would cost the average 35-year-old about $110 a month in premiums.

After a deductible of $250, the plan pays 90 percent of in-network hospitals, a $10 co-pay for generic drugs, 100 percent of in-network lab tests, with a lifetime benefit of $5 million.

The focus of health care reform since the 1980s has been mostly cost control (minus the political blip that was the failed Clinton health care effort in 1994.) The idea was (and is) by lowering the cost of health insurance coverage, more people would buy it, and the number of uninsured would go down. The rather myopic focus on cost control was mostly due to failed major reforms in the 1970s and the Clinton effort. It allowed policymakers to tell their constituents they were trying to do something about improving healthcare, without rocking the boat or committing political suicide by taking on the two-headed insurance and pharmaceutical monster.

Of course, times have changed, all efforts at trying to control costs within the current system have failed miserably. Now, with a new President and a different Congress, the public is demanding the kind of sweeping health care reform comparable to the major reforms of the mid-1960s (with the creation of Medicare and Medicaid.)

I applaud Miami-Dade for actually trying to come up with a different way of trying to get more people insured - experimentation is good in this arena. However, the reform likely won't work. Miami-Dade may be more likely to insure more people by lowering costs, but I doubt they'll make a large dent in the overall population of the uninsured.

Most of the uninsured are poor, and even lowering premiums to $110 a month is still likely too high for people who work low-wage service jobs. In addition, as most people with private insurance will tell you, if you get very sick, it's never a guarantee that your insurer will actually help pay your bills. After all, as a chronically sick person, you're a drag on the insurance company's profits.

The other major demographic among the uninsured are young people who feel they don't need health insurance and don't purchase it. This naturally tilts the risk pool away from younger, healthier people towards older, and less healthy people. Miami-Dade's plan does little to solve this issue.

However, let's say Miami-Dade gets more aggressive and mandates everyone gets health insurance. Like similar reforms in Massachusetts, you'll lower the number of uninsured to almost zero, but the cost problem remains. This points to the fact that local, and even state-level solutions to the health care mess are mostly piecemeal. Each state and locality innovating their own health care solutions is fine in the short-term, but if each area develops its own unique health care system, it would be a disaster in terms of administrative costs.

The bottom line is if we really want to solve the health care crisis, change will likely need to come from the federal level. Nothing short of a comprehensive, nationwide solution will likely do little to help the uninsured in addition to every American who has a right to quality healthcare. States, counties, and cities will still play a role in the form of implementing reform, but reform itself cannot come in the form of hodge-podge changes in all 50 states.

It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us -- that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion -- that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain -- that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

- Abraham Lincoln

This quote, taken from the end of the Gettysburg Address, essentially sums up my view of Memorial Day. I won't go on much longer (Lincoln has already taken most of my thunder.) I think Memorial Day is a message to the apathetic and those who believe that we can do better alike. We can best honor those who served, and died, for our country by doing our best to make sure that they did not die in vain. We can Memorial Day mean a lot more by fighting for the things that are so desperately needed by the living: a strong education, real health care, stable pensions and retirement, a clean environment, and reliable, quality services for our veterans.

Progress Florida is one year old today.

On May 21, 2008, Progress Florida sent out our first action alert on protecting the Everglades from urban sprawl, and introduced ourselves to the Sunshine State.

It's ironic that today, May 21, 2009, Progress Florida sent out another action alert, this time urging Gov. Crist to veto a bill (SB 360) that would gut growth management laws and allow further urban sprawl throughout the state.

Some things never change - but other things do.

In one year, Progress Florida has mobilized tens of thousands of Floridians to take on incredibly powerful special interests (big developers, the legislature on many occasions, and far right hate groups, to name a few.) In that process, progressive voices were finally being collectively heard on important issues of the day: from budget cuts to public education, health care, and the environment to supporting clean energy and protecting the right of every Floridian to vote to holding former Speaker of the Florida House Ray Sansom accountable for violating the public trust. Those voices, I believe, will only get more numerous and louder in the months and years ahead.

It's also important to note we also launched our DailyClips service, helping deliver condensed Florida news (in addition to progressive blogs) to thousands of inboxes every day. We started our Job Bank, helping Floridians get jobs in the progressive movement.

There's a lot that we're proud of, but we're obviously not satisfied. There is so much more work to be done. Too many Floridians don't get the education they deserve, the health care they need, or the quality of life they cherish. We continue to look forward to working with all of you over the next year and the years after that to rectify these problems, move Florida in a progressive direction, and towards a more sunny future.

You're likely familiar with the saying, "The definition of insanity is to do the same thing over and over and expect different results."

Florida developers have built miles and miles of sprawling, low-density development for the last 50 years. The real estate bubble that burst and helped cause the current recession was helped in part by the supply glut of homes left in the developers' wake.

So our state is strewn with thousands of homes, either foreclosed or freshly built with no buyers on the horizon. What's the developers' solution to this problem?

Build more houses!

Developers are throwing all their might behind SB 360, which would loosen growth management regulations and also lower "concurrency" requirements. This is when you build a development, you're required to pay impact fees to help pay for the additional infrastructure needed to support the new development.

Naturally, environmental groups (including the Audubon Society, arguably the most conservative of the environmental advocacy community) and generally sane people are vehemently opposing this giveaway:

In a letter to Crist, Audubon Deputy Director Eric Draper wrote that "it is simply not appropriate to allow any small city or town, or any county no matter how rural, to establish a safe haven for large scale land development activities that escape the (review) process."

But Wade Hopping, a lobbyist for the Association of Florida Community Developers, said it's unfair to require developers to make up for the pileup of needed transportation improvements.

"Most developers have accepted their responsibility for paying for their share of growth," said Hopping. "What they don't accept responsibility for is paying for backlog."

Supporters of the bill argue that existing growth rules discourage the redevelopment of urban areas by saddling developers with exorbitant costs.

But Florida Association of Counties spokeswoman Cragin Mosteller said the bill could saddle residents with the burdens of unwise development.

"You could conceivably have a great, brand-new housing development on a two-lane country road with no plans for improvements," she said.

Hopping's argument is simply outrageous. Developers were the ones who heavily lobbied county commissions around the state to keep impact fees embarrassingly low during the good times, which is exactly why transportation improvements are years and tens of millions (in some areas billions) of dollars behind schedule.

Besides, the last thing the housing market, our economy, or our environment needs is more unnecessary sprawl. Let's put our construction workers back on the job setting up solar panels and developing sustainable communities in already built up areas. This recession is the opportunity for our state to transition from a sprawl-based to a sustainability-based economy. SB 360 will merely continue Florida on the same old path it has been on for the last few decades - an unsustainable course that will lead to more low wage jobs, pollution, and environmental destruction.

This is interesting:

A recent opinion by the state attorney general gave cities the go-ahead to create Facebook pages, but warned that much of the content could be subject to public records law and would have to be retained. Even content on the pages of a city's online "friends" might be subject to public records law, Attorney General Bill McCollum said. Nor could elected officials engage in discussions with each other about items of public business on Facebook.
...
The state's Government in the Sunshine Laws say that elected officials on the same board or commission can't discuss things they might vote on unless they're at a meeting where advance notice is given and minutes are taken. And communications a politician has with others also are subject to public view; even a politician's e-mails are public record -- if they're about public business.

State law hasn't set rules for Facebook, such as how long postings would have to be kept, Stewart said.

"The state of the law is lagging woefully behind the state of the art in communications technology," he said in his memo.

Put simply, the core problem is that content posted on Facebook pages can be removed by the user that posts them or the the page's admin(s). This naturally violates the Sunshine laws, where open records are a key pillar.

However, Facebook (and other social networking sites) offers another avenue for public officials and government to connect with their constituents. It also opens up new avenues for holding our leaders accountable, and in an age of a waning press, surely we can agree we need more avenues of communication and transparency rather than less.

Either Florida has to update its Sunshine laws to reflect the reality of social networking sites and web 2.0 (and with our current legislature, I'm frankly a little worried about how the current crowd would "update" these important laws), or social networking sites like Facebook and others will need to set up new types of accounts for public officials to comply with existing laws.

With Gov. Crist now in the race for US Senate, and caught in a primary battle with crazy, tea party pandering, right wing former House Speaker Marco Rubio, things are getting interesting.

As is the case in most primaries, candidates who are considered "moderate" (which Charlie Crist really isn't) are supposed to position themselves closer to their base, particularly when their opponent is probably more representative of the hard core base.

Naturally, this is what Crist, always the political chameleon type, is doing now. Yesterday, Crist signed the "no new taxes" pledge from uber-right wing ringleader Grover Norquist's group Americans for Tax Reform:

Republican U.S. Senate candidate Charlie Crist has signed the national Americans for Tax Reform Taxpayer Protection Pledge. By doing so Crist promises to "oppose any and all efforts to increase the marginal income tax rates for individuals and/or businesses; and ... oppose any net reduction or elimination of deductions and credits, unless matched dollar for dollar by further reducing tax rates."

Naturally, this puts Crist in an awkward position considering he has a budget before him that includes tax increases in the form of a $1 per pack cigarette tax increase (something which Norquist and ATR vehemently opposed during the legislative session) in addition to a number of fee hikes.

Crist, through his line-item veto power, has the ability to strike down the $1 hike in cigarette taxes and look pretty for the anti-tax crowd. However, for the rest of us who aren't running for US Senate, and don't live in Norquist's alternate reality (powered by libertarian magic dust), we would likely get the fuzzy end of that lollypop. Even Republicans like Senate budget guru JD Alexander agreed that if Crist takes out the cigarette tax increase, that will blow up the budget:

If Crist vetoes the largest tax hike, a "surcharge" of $1 more for every pack of cigarettes, it would remove the lion's share of state money for Medicaid. And that would cost the state $2 billion in federal matching money for the program serving 2.6 million Floridians. Many fee increases, such as for driver licenses and car and truck registration tags, are tied to $900 million for K-12 schools.

"If he vetoes the revenues, the budget would come apart," said Senate budget chief J.D. Alexander of Lake Wales. "The governor told me personally he wouldn't veto the tobacco surcharge, for what it's worth."

Let's hope so, because the last thing our state needs (after all its been through) is for our financial and economic well-being to be held hostage for the sake of out-of-state right wing special interests.

The previous legislative session that Florida just endured probably demonstrated, better than most events in recent memory, just how broken Florida's political system and our democracy really is.

Last week, St. Petersburg Times columnist Howard Troxler identified four major reforms to at least improve our terrible legislature:

And yet the age-old question recurs:

What can we do about it? In the civics textbooks, the answer is: Vote for better candidates. But in the real world, there's not much chance to elect "somebody else." The system is rigged.

So here are some suggestions on how to reform that system -- not with a bunch of top-down laws and impractical new rules, but with fundamental, bottom-up changes geared toward electing a better Legislature in the first place.

Four points:

(1) Fair districts to improve competition, making incumbents more answerable for what they do.

(2) "Honest money" so voters can see who is really paying for legislators' campaigns.

(3) More experience, in the form of longer terms, to give legislators time to develop more judgment and independence.

(4) A "citizen accountability project" that reconnects election campaigns to the actual decisions that the Legislature makes.

I totally agree with Troxler on all four of his suggestions. However, I'd like to add another, something that's more long-term and pays huge dividends down the road: stronger and better civics education.

We have required civics classes in our public school system today. For full disclosure, I attended private school during high school. In my high school experience I took Civics my freshman year and then Government & Politics my senior year. Both classes were rather duplicative of each other.

I think the ideal would be to have a basic Civics course taught early in high school or in middle school that gives students both the basics (The Constitution, Bill of Rights, Separation of Powers, the three branches, Locke, Rousseau, Montesquieu, Paine, Jefferson, Hamilton, Madison, etc.) that focuses mostly on the federal government.

Beyond this, there should be a required "Everyday Civics" class taught later in high school that focuses more on state and local government in addition to how everyday citizens interact with, and have the power to change, government.

Knowing about government that's closest to us is extremely important in my view. Getting it into the heads of our community's future leaders that incredibly important decisions are being made, not solely in the far off marbled halls of Washington, but down the road in their county seat and in Tallahassee is critical.

Most of the regressive policies being rammed through in Tallahassee are a direct consequence of a citizenry that doesn't know or understand what's going on.

Short-term fixes such fair districting, more open government, and a more awakened press are very important. However, these reforms become useless if future Floridians don't know they exist or don't understand them.