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Face Realities Of Troubled State

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The Tampa Tribune

Published: March 1, 2009

Florida has turned its back on major problems for years, which has helped make this year's budget crisis harder to manage.

Wise voices have long urged a more responsible, broad-based approach to governing and have for just as long been ignored. The latest to be brushed aside was a report by the LeRoy Collins Institute titled "Tough Choices."

In many areas the Legislature opted for the easy choices and slapped a quick Band Aid on every problem. This year much more is required. The theme of the legislative session which begins March 3 must be "face it."

Lawmakers must face it that the tax structure demands more reform than a few new cuts for favored groups while slyly shifting the burden to newcomers and businesses. The newcomers stopped coming, and businesses are suffering through a slowdown in sales that not all will survive.

Let's face it that Florida spends less per person than any state in the South and that emergency measures are needed to keep the social safety net from being ripped apart by the added weight of layoffs, falling home values, foreclosures, lost insurance and vanishing savings.

The ideas being discussed to cut taxes or shift them from us to them would easily fill this page, and some of the approaches have merit. But let's face it, Florida's priority this year should be to stop falling further behind in the national competition for the best jobs, the best-educated workforce and the best all-around place to live.

Smarter ways to raise revenue are essential. Florida should raise the tax on cigarettes, join the national effort to collect legally owed sales taxes on products bought on the Internet from merchants in other states, and find practical ways to encourage in-fill growth in towns and cities.

Growing Smarter

Speaking of growth, there isn't much of it right now, but that's no excuse to pass measures such as the Community Renewal Act that would define all of Hillsborough County as a dense urban area.

Florida has been overly dependent on rapid growth which everyone knew couldn't continue forever. Things stopped quicker than almost anyone predicted, but it's not the Legislature's responsibility to offer incentives to build more houses than the market can absorb.

Lawmakers' attention should turn to existing homeowners who carry a new and invisible risk - the burden of helping pay for damage that would be caused by a major hurricane. The state has kept insurance rates artificially low by setting up an underfunded underwriting scheme that is beginning to tick like a time bomb.

Another can that lawmakers have been kicking down the road is gambling. Florida voters have said they don't want to be a casino state yet have let themselves get suckered into allowing slot machines in a few counties. That opened the door for more gambling on federally controlled Seminole land.

Gov. Charlie Crist negotiated with the tribe to allow more games in exchange for a multimillion-dollar share of the pot for the state, but by excluding the Legislature from the process and ignoring the struggling pari-mutuel industry, he created a legal and political mess. The best way out, without a community-damaging expansion of gambling, is to accept the deal, take the money, and stop the spread of casino-style gambling.

As for vices, a problem larger than gambling is the state's growing reputation as one of the easiest places in the country to fill illegal prescriptions for powerful painkillers. A bill to join wiser states in tracking the sales of these addictive and deadly drugs will be a top priority of lawmakers who face it that Florida is becoming the nation's supermarket for pill pushers.

Holding Down Costs

To save money, the state could delay the Central Florida rail project until a more favorable deal can be made with CSX for both taxpayers and Lakeland area residents who would see an increase in freight trains.

Lawmakers intent on saving tax dollars could explain why Florida's elected officials get sweeter pension deals than rank-and-file workers of state and local governments. They will also limit future taxpayer obligations by ending guaranteed pensions for new state employees and replace the benefit with investment accounts similar to the ones offered in the private sector.

Another expense that should be postponed is the reduction in class sizes, mandated by a 2002 constitutional amendment. Hiring the teachers and building the classrooms to meet the goals by the 2010 school year will cost another $1.4 billion and cause problems voters never considered when saying yes to fewer students per teacher.

The Legislature should ask voters to give schools a little flexibility. The change could avoid costly, unintended consequences, such as an 18-student class being forced to divide into two tiny classes because of the mid-term arrival of a 19th student.

A deal that shouldn't be delayed is the purchase of land to help restore the Everglades. Nor should the state stop buying and preserving environmentally important tracts statewide.

This recessionary year may require some projects to be delayed and rainy-day funds to be tapped, but that's no excuse for procrastinating on the tough task of giving Florida a more solid financial foundation. The more willing the Legislature and governor are to face the state's problems, the brighter its future will be.

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