Florida, Tampa Bay officials deliver perfect examples of why we need Florida Hometown Democracy
May 27, 2009 at 9:45 am by Kelly Cornelius
Photo credit: amerune at Flickr.com
OR
Photo credit: Daquella Manera at Flickr.com YOU DECIDE!
By Kelly Cornelius
PoHo contributor and R-LAND activist
As if the past dirty deeds and developer-driven agendas of many of our Hillsborough County commissioners wasn’t proof enough (yes, we mean you Team Sprawl) now the Florida Legislature has shown you exactly why we need Florida Hometown Democracy (FHD). FHD is a citizen-driven initiative that would allow voters to make growth decisions instead of leaving it in the greased and dirty hands of politicians. To help make the case for FHD, there is this year’s legislative session.
Where to begin?
The move to gut the DCA showed a blatant disregard for smart growth and exposes the obvious motives of our elected officials (Recall that Republican state Rep. Rich Glorioso supported this). Next up the many attempts to abolish local control of wetlands (supported by none other than our own Reps. Glorioso and Faye Culp, R-South Tampa). Then there is the bill already signed by Guvnah ‘I am outta here’ Crist regarding impact fees throwing the burden of proof on the local government (this is bad news for taxpayers who will now probably have to shoulder all of that burden). Let’s not forget the biggie, SB 360, which guts growth management laws (otherwise known as the supersize the sprawl with a side of traffic jam bill). This video does a good job illustrating the impact of SB 360.
And for all of you water fans don’t forget the move by Sen. J. D. Alexander, R-Polk County, to usurp control of wetland filling and water permitting by giving it to a five member state-wide board and kicking out that pesky public. Your legislators at work (for developers).
While many of them are widely thought to be in the pockets of developers these bill scream developer welfare loud and clear. The worst thing about the state of our state with regard to growth and sprawl is that we got where we are with regulations!
Problem is our local puppets for development elected officials have the power to rape amend those regulations and they too have given us plenty of examples on why they are not fit for the job of deciding growth management (think Brandon). Now, with the housing market flooded the move locally just like at the state level is to weaken the rules. They call this economic development………the rest of us call it just plain ole development! Same as it ever was only worse. Fellow activists tell me that the local economic development task force started by County Commission Chairman Ken Hagan are pushing for gutting of growth management laws in something that sounds suspiciously like SB 360. Meeting attendees report that it is looking like the only economic development these people are looking to improve is business for their local land use buddies.
While we do have some good elected officials, sadly they are in the minority so I would much rather trust residents to make growth decisions than politicians. In fact, I would happily leave the decisions up to third graders or even my neighbor’s cow but not politicians. Interesting to note that some of the same people opposing FHD (The Florida Chamber) are also supporting the weakening regulations on growth … imagine.
I found this link to the Florida Chamber website where they grade our Florida Legislators. Very telling that they give ex House Speaker turned criminal defendant Ray Sansom a perfect score of 100 (they must grade on one hell of a curve). They also call us voters the “special interests” and the Chamber backed group is of course named Floridians For Smarter Growth (considering the Fl Chamber gave Sansom a 100, it begs the obvious question…. define smart?)
The opposition to FHD (including the FLORIDA CHAMBER) have pulled so many stunts already we can’t take any chances so tell ten friends and send the folks working hard promoting FHD some $$$ to help fund their efforts if you can. Don’t be fooled when you get to vote, Hometown Democracy is the real citizen driven initiative and as their website points out it is the only one on the ballot that has Democracy in the title.
