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Pinellas Will Have A Say In 5 Florida House Races

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By KEITH MORELLI | The Tampa Tribune

Published: October 27, 2008

Voters in much of Pinellas County will cast ballots for their representatives in the Florida House of Representatives this November. Five district races are being contested. One features a write-in slot, and in another, a challenger has withdrawn even though her name remains on the ballot.

District 48

Republican incumbent Pete F. Nehr of Tarpon Springs is squaring off against Democratic challenger Carl "Z" Zimmermann of Palm Harbor in the district covering the northern region of Pinellas County.

Nehr, 56, is seeking his second term in the Florida House and said the main issues include affordable homeowners insurance, lower property taxes and health care. He backs legislation forcing insurance companies to lower premiums for homeowners who fortified their homes against storms.

"Since January of 2007 when I was first elected to the Legislature, we have not approved a single rate increase requested by the insurance companies," he said. But more needs to be done.

He backs the establishment of a national catastrophic fund to spread risks over a larger pool and incentives for people who storm-proof their homes.

Nehr also wants to slow locally imposed hikes in property taxes and favors looking into other revenue. He co-sponsored a bill recently to impose a $1 per pack fee on cigarettes, which can raise over $1 billion, he said – money he wants to see go for education.

He also favors expansion of gaming opportunities in Florida.

"If people are going to gamble anyway, why should we allow that potential revenue stream, which runs into the billions, go to other states and not Florida?" he asked.

Zimmermann, also 56, is focusing on health care, education, property taxes and helping small businesses flourish.

On insurance, Zimmermann said the Florida Legislature has held the line on big insurers, but "these are artificial Band-Aids and don't address the problem." The matter is only going to get worse, he said. He favors a national catastrophe fund and more regulation of insurance companies.

As for falling revenue, Zimmermann said the state should tweak taxes on businesses and rental properties to provide part of the answer.

"As we search for new revenue sources," he said, "we need to begin by scouring our current exemptions."

Zimmerman said the state also should also look into areas where no taxes are imposed, such as Internet commerce.

District 51

The seat for District 51 was up for contention this election, with Democratic incumbent Janet C. Long challenged by Republican Terry Lynn Sanchez. But Sanchez wrote a letter to elections officials saying she was bowing out of the race. Her name remains on the ballot.

District 52

District 52 stretches along eastern Pinellas County south of Gandy Boulevard to downtown St. Petersburg, Both candidates are from St. Petersburg. The incumbent is Bill Heller, 73, a Democrat, and the challenger is Ross Johnson, 55, a Republican.

Heller, who is running for his second term, identifies the main issues as improvement of public schools, property insurance and tax reform.

"Reforming the property insurance market needs to be a priority agenda item," Heller said. "We need to be actively seeking proposed solutions that are both innovative and wide-reaching."

Legislators, he said, also should examine other ways to raise revenue.

"Twenty-two states now tax Internet sales," he said, "and Florida should be doing the same."

He favors an increase on cigarette tax and says lawmakers also should review some of the sales tax exemptions.

"Only those [exemptions] that serve the public good should be maintained," he said, "and the rest should be eliminated."

Johnson, who has worked in finance, banking and real estate, favors any plan that makes government more accountable and Florida more energy independent through responsible offshore drilling and investing in nuclear power plants. He wants to improve the educational quality of public schools.

He said the Legislature has not done enough to curb giant insurance companies.

"Individuals no longer trust their insurance company to do the right thing," he said. "Restoring confidence in the rate setting process is important. This must be accomplished by both the insurance agencies and the state regulators providing greater transparency to consumers."

Faced with a sagging economy, the only answer for the state is to create a smaller government, he said.

"Smaller government is the answer," he said. "Less bureaucracy."

District 54

District 54 covers western Pinellas County along the coast from Dunedin to Tierra Verde. James C. "Jim" Frishe of St. Petersburg is the Republican incumbent, and George A. Gonzalez is the Democrat challenging him. Gonzalez is from Madeira Beach.

Frishe favors strong educational values by reducing administrative costs and putting more money directly into the classroom. He also backs a tight state budget with lower property taxes.

On the insurance question, Frishe said, "We're going to have to decide if we want to be in insurance business or not. If we are, we need to get into it in an authoritative way and take over the industry.

"If not, we need to extricate ourselves completely and let marketplace take care of it."

Frishe, 59, thinks the state needs to come up with innovative ways to create new revenue.

"We absolutely need to broaden the base of our sales taxes," he said, adding that there are obvious inequities in the existing structure.

"You don't pay sales tax on dry-cleaning," he said. "You don't pay a sales tax on a luxury box. You do pay sales tax on clothing that we wear every day. You don't pay sales tax on a book bought from from Amazon.com, but you do on a book you buy at Haslam's Book Store in St. Petersburg.

"That is just plain not equitable. If anything else, the tax code should be equitable."

Gonzalez, 55, a real estate agent, favors reduced property taxes and homeowners insurance premiums. He also wants to expand Florida's revenue base by attracting new industry to the state so that Florida is not so much dependent on tourism dollars.

Gonzales said the Legislature has not done enough to curtail the insurance industry. Lawmakers need to examine a national or regional catastrophe fund more than ever before, he said. That would keep premiums down and lower the risk for insurance companies.

He favors lowering local property taxes but recognizes that in the past eight to 10 years, the state "has balanced the budget by shifting the cost of government to the local level."

He said there should be a review of all the tax exemptions. "Keep the ones serving a public good and eliminate the ones that are for special interest. We should look in to why we don't pay a sales tax on Internet purchases. This puts our local businesses at a disadvantage."

Additional revenue can be realized by ferreting out Medicare fraud and expansion of some types of gaming and parimutuel operations, increasing fees paid to the state, he said.

District 55

The District 55 race was won by Darryl Rouson in April in a special election. Rouson is running again because his seat is in this election cycle. He beat a Democratic in the August primary and is facing only a write-in challenge.

Calvester Benjamin-Anderson, a St. Petersburg minister, has qualified as a write-in candidate.

Rouson, 54, has identified property insurance rates as a top issue, along with lower property taxes, "to make homeownership a reality."

Better schools, safer neighborhoods and quality health care are other issues, he said.

A community leader, Rouson has led grass-roots fights to eliminate sales of drug paraphernalia in neighborhoods and sparked a gun buyback initiative in St. Petersburg. As a representative, he has pushed for faith-based prison concepts to cut recidivism.

Rouson defeated Charles S. McKenzie Jr. and St. Petersburg City Council member Earnest Williams on March 25 in a special primary election.

The seat was vacated when Frank Peterman resigned to become secretary of the Florida Department of Juvenile Justice.

In April, Rouson defeated Benjamin-Anderson, who was a write-in candidate then as well.

District 55 includes parts of four counties, stretching from south St. Petersburg into Hillsborough, Manatee and Sarasota counties. More than half the district's 77,000 voters are black.

Rouson has touted his work to attract new businesses into St. Petersburg's economically disadvantaged Midtown area and to reduce crime and drug problems.

He said similar efforts are needed in East Tampa neighborhoods.

Reporter Keith Morelli can be reached at (813) 259-7760 or kmorelli@tampatrib.com.

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