I have never seen Florida’s economy and shortcomings so well explained and so depressing and dire. Here are the report’s conclusion:
Key indicators of the health of Florida’s economy point to a state in trouble.
Of particular concern for the future will be the need to direct spending to the most important priorities of the state, such as investments in education that will strengthen the capacity of Florida residents to prosper in a different kind of economy, with the goal of producing higher-paid jobs. The traditional drivers of economic growth in Florida have weakened and in some cases there is no prospect for change in the near future. Population growth is not expected to match the historic post-World War II rate, providing less demand for new homes and other construction – demand that spurs economic activity. The huge supply of existing houses for sale will further depress construction and economic activity which, in turn, will dampen tax revenue collected by the state. As the recession wanes, tourism spending will begin to recover, and so will jobs in that sector of the economy. But most of those are of the low-wage service variety — not the kind of higher-wage occupations around which to build a vibrant economy.
Creating an economy with better jobs in the future will be made more difficult against the backdrop of state funding in many areas that has long been inadequate and now is being further cut as a national recession drives down the tax revenues needed to pay for government services.
Still not at panic attack stage yet? Try these bullet points:
The promise of reforming health care has been a singular focus of President Barack Obama — well, along with dealing with the banking crises, the foreclosure crises, and getting the economy recharged.
But now that crunch time is approaching, the various voices that comprise the debate in Washington are speaking up, and some groups previously considered as potential allies, (such as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce) are now speaking critically of the legislation being discussed right now.
Posted by Wayne Garcia on Jun. 4, 2009, at 1:30 pm
The Atlantic has a great column by Conor Clarke that should be required reading for every numnut who is going around spouting off that President Barack Obama has turned this nation into a socialist satellite. Yes, we can argue the wisdom of the GM bailout/semi-nationalization (and it appears, at least at this point, to be a bad deal for us taxpayers) but we are farrrrr from a socialist nation as a result, as Clark points out in his column and in this amazing graphic:
Do me and The Atlantic a favor and read the entire column and pass it along via e-mail to your goofy friends/relatives who bombard you with BS email about how we are becoming socialists.
Posted by Wayne Garcia on May. 15, 2009, at 2:34 pm
It’s not unexpected news that General Motors today started notifying some 1,100 dealers that they no longer want to do business with them, as we’re learning today, so why does President Barack Obama’s minions feel the need to euphemize the job losses?
Here is the top of the news release from Treasury:
Treasury Department Statement
on GM Dealer Consolidation Announcement
WASHINGTON – Today, General Motors initiated the dealer consolidation plan it laid out in its interim plan on April 27, 2009.
Under that terminology, we’ve got one helluva jobs consolidation situation going on right now.
General Motors notified 1,100 of its 6,000 dealerships Friday that it is terminating their contracts with the struggling automaker, the first step in cutting up to 40% of its retail network.
GM spokeswoman Susan Garontakos said that the dealers receiving notice Friday are being told that their contracts will not be renewed in October 2010. Many of them are expected to close shop this year.
Posted by Wayne Garcia on May. 15, 2009, at 6:37 am
The shockwaves from the government-labor takeover at Chrysler is reverberating in the Tampa Bay area, as seven dealerships are set to be closed as part of nearly 800 dealer closings across the nation.
Posted by Wayne Garcia on May. 7, 2009, at 6:14 am
CNBC’s reputation-damaged investment show host Jim Cramer just told The Today Show that the “banking nightmare” is over as a result of the stress tests on banks being released today.
His point? That even though a few banks still need billions to shore up their balance sheets, they are making money and likely can raise those extra funds in the market – not from taxpayers.
Bloomberg reports that the market indeed likes the results of the financial stress tests:
Stocks rallied after the news, sending the Standard & Poor’s 500 Financials Index to its highest level in four months. The results are the culmination of weeks of investigations, led by the Federal Reserve, into the banks’ lending practices, funding strategies and securities and loan portfolios.
“The markets are telling us we’re in a recovery and the banks are beginning to heal,” William Isaac, former chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., said in an interview today. The end of the stress tests after “three months of water torture” is providing investors some relief, he said.
The regulators put an emphasis in their reviews on tangible common equity, and will give firms needing bigger reserves six months to meet their requirements. Citigroup’s assessment reflects the New York-based bank’s previously announced plan to convert some of its preferred shares into common stock.
President Obama announced on Earth Day new initiatives to harness alternative energy including wind, solar, and ocean currents. During his speech, Obama made it clear that his new initiative was not only intended to address threats of climate change but could also create new jobs.
Now, the choice we face is not between saving our environment and saving our economy. The choice we face is between prosperity and decline…. The nation that leads the world in creating new energy sources will be the nation that leads the 21st-century global economy.
It is refreshing to finally have a president who recognizes that “environmentally friendly” doesn’t mean “bad for the economy.” A video (after the jump) demonstrates how a green economy can actually create jobs. The new initiative will lease federal waters to harness wind and ocean currents as a renewable source of energy. These facilities must be designed, materials need to be bought, their construction needs to be contracted, staff needs to maintain it – all are positions waiting to be filled.
Posted by Wayne Garcia on Apr. 21, 2009, at 11:37 am
How bad are things at Centro Ybor, the entertainment and restaurant destination in Ybor City (that, disclosure time, I once did PR for)?
Even the Starbucks there is looking at shutting its doors. As part of a nationwide closure of the ubiquitous coffee shops, the coffee monster wants to shutter the Centro store, but the neighborhood association is not taking this lying down, according to TBO.com:
It isn’t a full-fledged protest yet, but an Ybor City neighborhood association has launched a modest campaign to persuade Starbucks to stay at Centro Ybor.
The Historic Ybor Neighborhood Civic Association is encouraging Starbucks fans to call the Seattle-based corporation and urge it to stay put at the Ybor City entertainment center. Starbucks revealed earlier this month it plans to leave Centro Ybor, but hasn’t given a time or date.
Posted by Wayne Garcia on Apr. 14, 2009, at 11:44 am
Tampa, as a government, has done better than some in its handling of private nonprofits that it supports over the past three years of tightening budgets. Two years ago, it cut funding to city-owned partners like the Florida Aquarium by 10 percent and other nonprofits by 20 percent. Last year, no cuts were made.
But in the upcoming budget, Mayor Pam Iorio says she will be forced to cut funding to both categories by the same formula as two years ago, 10 percent cuts to the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center, Lowry Park Zoo, Florida Aquarium, Tampa Theatre, Tampa Museum of Art, and H. B. Plant Museum, and 20 percent cuts to a dozen or so other nonprofits.
Posted by Wayne Garcia on Apr. 14, 2009, at 11:28 am
President Barack Obama is giving a major economic speech at midday, reviewing what he has done about the economy in his first 12 weeks in office and why, a much more cogent argument for change and economic revolution than you will hear at any Tea Party tomorrow.
“It is simply not sustainable to have a 21st century financial system that is governed by 20th century rules and regulations that allowed the recklessness of a few to threaten the entire economy,” the president said. “It is not sustainable to have an economy where in one year, 40 percent of our corporate profits came from a financial sector that was based too much on inflated home prices, maxed out credit cards, overleveraged banks and overvalued assets; or an economy where the incomes of the top 1 percent have skyrocketed while the typical working household has seen their income decline by nearly $2,000.”
Obama then turned to the Bible for an analogy.
“There is a parable at the end of the Sermon on the Mount that tells the story of two men,” he said. “The first built his house on a pile of sand, and it was destroyed as soon as the storm hit. But the second is known as the wise man, for when “…the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house…it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock.
“We cannot rebuild this economy on the same pile of sand. We must build our house upon a rock. We must lay a new foundation for growth and prosperity – a foundation that will move us from an era of borrow and spend to one where we save and invest; where we consume less at home and send more exports abroad.”
He called for more scientists and engineers and fewer financial pencil-pushers and manipulators, as well as a transition to a clean-energy carbon emissions cap. And Obama said people who focus on cutting “a few earmarks” or slashing the National Endowment for the Arts misses the bigger picture, that the deficit is driven by entitlement programs such as Social Security and Medicaid/Medicare. Changing the health care system, then, is crucial to a long-term solution.
And he rightly puts some blame on the culture in Washington and the media’s shortening attention span. “For too long, too many in Washington put off hard decisions for some other time on some other day,” he said. “There’s been a tendency to score political points instead of rolling up sleeves to solve real problems. There is also an impatience that characterizes this town – an attention span that has only grown shorter with the twenty-four hour news cycle, and insists on instant gratification in the form of immediate results or higher poll numbers … instead of confronting the major challenges that will shape our future in a sustained and focused way.”
Posted by Wayne Garcia on Apr. 3, 2009, at 8:04 am
March was the 15th straight month of job losses, with the U.S. economy losing another 663,000 jobs, the monthly government labor report says this morning.
“There is no letup,” said James O’Sullivan, senior United States economist at UBS. “The trend has been truly dismal.”
The figures offered a stark contrast to some recent glimmers of life elsewhere in the economy, which have buoyed stock markets and heartened hopes for a turnaround. The sharp and continuing increase in unemployment suggests that even if the downward spiral is beginning to level off, job losses are likely to keep piling up for the rest of this year and into 2010.
Although the Federal Reserve expects unemployment to crest near 8.8 percent, many economists say it will rise above 10 percent and will only begin to ebb after the broader economy is well on the way to recovery – a wrenching forecast for the 13.2 million people in the United States who are currently unemployed.
Posted by Wayne Garcia on Mar. 24, 2009, at 6:44 am
The weekly Political Whore Podcast (the “HoCast”) is ready for your enjoyment. We had a great session that started off with a listen to the Free Republic’s Kristinn Taylor exhort the patriots at the Orlando Tea Party this weekend.
Posted by Wayne Garcia on Mar. 23, 2009, at 3:46 pm
Finally, some good financial news: Wall Street may have liked what it heard in Barack Obama’s toxic-assets sell-off plan today, rallying up nearly 7 percent.
The Treasury Department’s new plan to take toxic assets off of banks’ balance sheets spurred a blistering stock rally Monday, leaving major indexes with their biggest percentage gains since November.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average jumped 497.48 points, or 6.5%, to 7775.86, its biggest point gain since November 13, 2008, and the fifth-biggest point gain in the measure’s history. Monday’s finish marked the highest close for the Dow, which is up 18.77% from its 12-year closing low of 6547.05 hit March 9, since Feb. 13.
The Dow was pushed upward by gains of 25% for J.P. Morgan Chase and 26% for Bank of America. Citigroup rose 20% and American Express bounced 19%. Alcoa rose 13% and General Electric gained 9.3%.
By Ben Luongo
PoHo contributor Ben Luongo is a USF political science graduate student. He will be graduating this spring.
Talk of the St. Pete Pier has dominated a lot of local discussion. Last week the City Council approved $40,000 in rent reductions to help out business owners. There is still talk in town, though, as to how much more the city should do to keep the pier afloat.
The Pier provides St. Pete with shopping, dining and tourism, and its upside down pyramid shape makes the Pier a landmark in the city. However, the Pier has a history that predates the retro-70s architecture that we have all come to know and love.
Posted by Wayne Garcia on Mar. 22, 2009, at 9:23 am
OK, I get it that people are angry. I’m angry. I get it that in tough times, nationalism is the natural response. I don’t like that, but I also get it.
But here’s my question to the people who go to the so-called Tea Parties: Are you carrying zero debt? Do you have no credit cards, or an equity line, or a mortgage on your home that is in excess of its value?
Because unless you can meet that test, you are PART of the credit crisis/banking problem and have no room to bitch about the government efforts to have us (all the US citizens who caused it by taking on too much personal debt) pay for it.
…More than 4,000 people attended the Orlando Tea Party, a conservative rally aimed at expressing discontent with Washington.
“This is maybe the greatest single gathering of God-fearing patriots in the history of Orlando, Florida,” local conservative radio host Bud Hedinger, who emceed the event, told the crowd.
Posted by Wayne Garcia on Mar. 18, 2009, at 1:34 pm
In testimony in front of a House subcommittee, AIG Chairman and CEO Edward Liddy dropped this gem that was not in his prepared remarks: He has asked all AIG employees getting bonuses above $100,000 to return half of the money.
“I’ve asked the employees of AIG financial products to step up and do the right thing,” Liddy told the panel this afternoon. “Specifically I’ve asked those who received retention payments in excess of $100,000 or more to return at least half of those payments, some have already stepped forward and offered to give up 100 percent of their payments.”
You can read my earlier post about his prepared remarks, and download them in their entirety, at this link.
Posted by Jim Johnson on Mar. 13, 2009, at 5:53 am
Today is the 11th day of the 2009 Legislative session.
Well, it is Friday, March 13th. Perhaps the legislature is triskadecaphobic — neither chamber is meeting. But then, they may be looking to avoid bad news from the Revenue Estimating Conference.
Posted by Wayne Garcia on Mar. 10, 2009, at 8:48 am
Speculative real estate buying is what got Florida in this current economic mess. We’ve got an unsold inventory of an estimated 300,000 homes. So what is some lawmakers’ answer to this economic crisis? More unfettered, unfocused and unrealistic growth.
Craig Pittman at the St. Petersburg Times reports this morning on a new bill unveiled yesterday that would abolish the state’s growth-guiding agency, the Department of Community Affairs. Its responsibilities would be shifted to the unelected Secretary of State’s Office (which was once held by Katherine Harris).
Under Crist’s pick as secretary, Tom Pelham, the agency has blocked such controversial projects as the mammoth Wiregrass development off Bruce B. Downs Boulevard in Pasco County and a Taylor County development proposed by St. Petersburg surgeon J. Crayton Pruitt.
Pelham’s agency blocked the Wiregrass development – which promised 12,000 homes or apartments, three elementary schools and enough stores to fill two major shopping malls – because Pasco officials failed to nail down road improvements to accommodate all that growth.
And in Taylor County, Pruitt had proposed destroying 58 acres of wetlands adjacent to a state aquatic preserve in order to build 624 condominium units, an 874-unit hotel, 280,000 square feet of commercial space and a golf course. Pelham contended those plans went far beyond the state’s plans for how the coast should be developed and failed to protect the fragile environment.
“Close them down, get them out of business,” Mr. Shelby, the senior Republican on the Banking Committee, told ABC’s “This Week With George Stephanopoulos.” “If they’re dead, they ought to be buried.”
While the Alabama senator did not say which banks to shutter, he suggested that Citigroup might be on that list, saying the bank has “always been a problem child.”
Mr. McCain, appearing on “Fox News Sunday,” echoed that sentiment without identifying any banks. Mr. McCain, who lost the presidential election last November, also accused the Treasury Department of avoiding the “hard decision” to let “these banks fail.”
Posted by Wayne Garcia on Feb. 24, 2009, at 9:30 pm
Credit: Whitehouse.gov
From the White House, as Barack Obama speaks:
Excerpts of the President’s address to the joint session of Congress tonight:
We have lived through an era where too often, short-term gains were prized over long-term prosperity; where we failed to look beyond the next payment, the next quarter, or the next election. A surplus became an excuse to transfer wealth to the wealthy instead of an opportunity to invest in our future. Regulations were gutted for the sake of a quick profit at the expense of a healthy market. People bought homes they knew they couldn’t afford from banks and lenders who pushed those bad loans anyway. And all the while, critical debates and difficult decisions were put off for some other time on some other day.
Well that day of reckoning has arrived, and the time to take charge of our future is here.
America is in a recession, and Floridians have not been spared. Florida’s unemployment rate is 8.1 percent, higher than the national rate of 7.2 percent. It seems as if every day, newspapers throughout the state report layoffs by Florida companies. Last year, Florida lost 255,000 jobs.
Times are tough, and the full attention of our elected leaders should be given to economic recovery, transition and job growth. While Florida is faced with the same economic challenges as the rest of the nation, we are fortunate to have a governor who understands the need to invest in long-term transportation solutions even in these tough times.
Posted by Wayne Garcia on Feb. 24, 2009, at 7:36 am
As President Obama preps for his first address to a joint session of Congress tonight at 9 p.m., the punditocracy is going wild with predictions and desires of what he will/should say. He’s catching heat for being a doomsayer so far instead of the hopeful candidate whose pop art depiction graced untold Hope posters. This is a tough speech for him: he must be hopeful and realistic at the same time. He must explain how his borrowing trillions of dollars from the Chinese squares with his desire to cut deficit spending. He has to roll out an austere budget proposal yet still pad it with social programs and safety-net spending that his party demands.
President Obama is benefiting from remarkably high levels of optimism and confidence among Americans about his leadership, providing him with substantial political clout as he confronts the nation’s economic challenges and opposition from nearly all Republicans in Congress, according to the latest New York Times/CBS News poll.
A majority of people surveyed in both parties said Mr. Obama was striving to work in a bipartisan way, but most faulted Republicans for their response to the president, saying the party had objected to the $787 billion economic stimulus plan for political reasons. Most said Mr. Obama should pursue the priorities he campaigned on, the poll found, rather than seek middle ground with Republicans.
Posted by Wayne Garcia on Feb. 19, 2009, at 5:51 pm
The Republican Party’s anti-Obama stimulus gambit appears not to be paying off. A poll by AP/GfK shows the public widely is siding with Obama and Democrats in Congress on the economic recovery plan — and panning the GOP.
Obama’s approval rating on the economy is 68 percent. The Democrats in Congress get a 49 percent approval, while Congressional Republicans score only 33 percent approval.
Posted by Wayne Garcia on Feb. 19, 2009, at 9:24 am
The Swedish automaker, now part of General Motors, is meeting this morning to decide whether to file for reorganization in a Swedish court, an alternative to a bankruptcy filing.
Earlier on Thursday, Swedish public service radio reported, without disclosing its sources, that Saab’s board had called an extraordinary meeting to decide on a reorganization of the carmaker.
A reorganization filing, which is an alternative to an outright bankruptcy filing, would be made with a Swedish court after which the viability of continuing operations is assessed.
“There has been a company board meeting, it has not really finished yet, and it started around 1100 (CET),” said Micael Lindell, a union representative at Saab.
By Peter Schorsch
PoHo contributor
Peter Schorsch is a political consultant and writes St. Petersblog 2.0.
Two of my passions are gourmet food and politics. When I’m not walking door-to-door for a candidate, I’m in front of a stove or near a wine bin or doing something otherwise epicurean. So the fundraising event for a candidate running in Dunedin I recently attended was a real McFlurry, a seemingly contradictory juxtaposition that comes out wonderfully by the time you’re finished. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by Wayne Garcia on Feb. 10, 2009, at 7:47 am
From the Miami Herald:
When the Republican governor helps the Democratic president sell his economic stimulus plan tomorrow in Fort Myers, Charlie Crist will put himself at odds with all of the state’s representatives on Capitol Hill. Every House Republican voted against the plan, and Sen. Mel Martinez is also expected to vote no.
Consider Crist’s support in the context of the statement issued Friday by U.S. Rep. Connie Mack, a Republican who represents the Fort Myers area.
“While he is here, we hope the President will take the time to listen to the people’s views on why the Democrats’ stimulus plan won’t stimulate the economy, and why we need pro-growth solutions that will create jobs and jumpstart our economy,” Mack said. “The people of Southwest Florida, and indeed the nation, want to see a plan that will get our economy moving, not a plan that is chock-full of spending for pork and special interests.”
An aside: It is especially hilarious to hear Mack call for more unfettered growth, since he represents one of the worst cases of overbuilding and speculation without proper growth management down in Lehigh Acres. The New York Times wrote of the place: “In Lehigh Acres, homes are selling at 80 percent off their peak prices. Only two years after there were more jobs than people to work them, fast-food restaurants are laying people off or closing. Crime is up, school enrollment is down, and one in four residents received food stamps in December, nearly a fourfold increase since 2006.”
But Mack depends on those landowners and developers for his campaign cash, and since he’s mulling a U.S. Senate run, he wants to push his “conservative” credentials against the president’s stimulus plan. Since when did being a conservative equate to being a land-rush huckster?
Posted by Wayne Garcia on Feb. 10, 2009, at 7:40 am
Smart-growth activist Mariella Smith reports on Sticks of Fire that a majority of Hillsborough County commissioners are moving toward easing development rules to speed construction in their version of a stimulus package.
Smith reports:
Near the end of their meeting last Wednesday, the commissioners discussed their ideas for how to get us out of the hole they helped dig. Four of them think the solution is to keep digging. Faster.
Incredibly, four of the seven commissioners – Jim Norman, Ken Hagan, Kevin White & Al Higginbotham – see the solution to our housing glut as MORE housing. And all the new strip malls and office buildings sitting around vacant? Yep, they want to see MORE of that commercial stuff built, too. And fast.
They want to deregulate development. It’s what they always want to do. When the housing bubble was booming they used that as an excuse to push for less oversight, and now that the bubble has burst, they’re trying to declare an “economic state of emergency” as a way to toss out the rules that manage growth and protect the environment. They claim that deregulation will stimulate more building.
Posted by Wayne Garcia on Feb. 9, 2009, at 3:45 pm
Yahoo! Financial has an amazing list of companies that may bite it before the year is out, and two of the 15 are near and dear to my heart: Krispy Kreme and Sirius XM radio.
Sure, Chrysler is on the list, too, but honestly, how can something as tasty and wrong as a Krispy Kreme donut be veering toward extinction? Here’s how, according to Yahoo! (h/t to ABC Action News):
Krispy Kreme. (KKD; about 4,000 employees; stock down 50%). The donuts might be good, but Krispy Kreme overestimated Americans’ appetite – and that’s saying something. This chain overexpanded during the donut heyday of the 1990s – taking on a lot of debt – and now requires high volumes to meet expenses and interest payments. The company has cut costs and closed underperforming stores, but still hasn’t earned an operating profit in three years. And now that consumers are cutting back on everything, such improvements may fail to offset top-line declines, leading Krispy Kreme to seek some kind of relief from lenders over the next year.
Posted by Wayne Garcia on Feb. 9, 2009, at 1:49 pm
The two hottest searches on Google today are for Americans for Prosperity and No Stimulus Petition, which links you to the anti-Obama stimulus package movement and an online petition. Evidence enough that Barack Obama faces an uphill battle for the hearts and minds, as his White House has allowed the anti-stimulus package forces to define the legislation and the terms of battle. Classic framing theory, and surprising to see just how rookie the Obama Administration handled it.
One reason is likely that he won’t/can’t stand up publicly to the self-destructive House Democrats. Sure, less than 1 percent of the House bill was really pork. But it was pork that was indefensible, and at a total tab of more than 800 billion, it was pork that individually ran into the tens of millions of dollars.
Out in Real America, that kind of cash is still big money and can’t be p’shawed away so easily. For the past week, my email inbox has been stuffed with pointed, funny and (mostly) successful anti-stimulus propaganda: The Libertarian Party, “America’s third largest party tonight urged Senate Republicans and Democrats to scrap plans their joint plans for a $780 billion package of wealth transfers and expanded government spending;” the National Black Republicans, “The fierce urgency of pork;” and the new House Republican plan website that “details the smarter, simpler stimulus plan proposed by House Republicans that will create twice the jobs at half the price “
(Take a look at this cool WaPo graphic on where the money would be spent if you need help visualizing where it is all going.)
So as Obama preps for his Fort Myers dog-and-pony on Tuesday and a prime-time news conference tonight to try to take back the high ground in his first major legislative battle, here are 10 Talking Points for what he must say and commit to do:
Posted by Wayne Garcia on Feb. 4, 2009, at 9:20 am
From the Tampa Bay Business Journal:
The housing market is expected to improve later this year, according to a new report from Metrostudy, but for now, construction on new homes is limited.
Tampa had 932 single-family housing starts in the fourth quarter of 2008, a drop of nearly 33 percent compared to 2007, marking the first time in 23 years that the Tampa Bay market had fewer than 100 housing starts.
The previous low, 1,041 starts, was reported during the first quarter of 1991, said Metrostudy Tampa Bay division director Tony Polito. The year-over-year decline mirrors what the market did over the course of 2008, falling just under 35 percent to 4,730 units.
Posted by Wayne Garcia on Feb. 3, 2009, at 1:43 pm
Employees at the St. Petersburg Times were told today that the newspaper is making some more quiet cuts/adjustments to its bottom line. Significant on the list: the media company’s employees who didn’t take last year’s buyout offer will be asked again to consider the package.
In addition, the Times is stopping its contributions to employee 401(k) plans, freezing pension credits for those longer-term employees still eligible for pensions (the company stopped offering pensions to new hires some time ago) and extending a 1-year wage freeze that was set to expire on June 1 for another year.
Media General, the owner of Newschannel 8, TBO and the Tampa Tribune, publicly announced similar benefit cuts in January.
UPDATE: After my post I got my hands on the e-mail announcement, it follows the jump. The Times’ Eric Deggans also writes about the move.
Posted by Wayne Garcia on Jan. 30, 2009, at 7:35 am
The state hopes to get $3.5 billion in stimulus money earmarked for education, a big help in filling Florida’s budget hole.
But the Orlando Sentinel says not so fast there.
The daily reports that a provision in the economic recovery package calls for the stimulus money to go only to those states that can support “schools for the next two years at the levels they had in the 2005-06 school year.
“But the state is below that threshold,” the paper reports. “In fact, school funding coming directly from the state is now lower than it was in the 2004-05 school year. With Florida’s budget shortfall for next year ballooning toward $4 billion, it’s not clear it could meet that requirement.”
I say that not because I like pork (yes, Pelosi et al. stuffed some junk into the bill that has very little to do with stimulating the economy.) Or because I think the plan has enough tax breaks for small businesses (it has some, but could use a little more.) Or because I like socking future generations with nearly a trillion dollars in debt. I don’t.
But the consensus among economists is that spending is needed to create jobs. Building infrastructure is not only a quick way to put people to work but makes a small dent in our national backlog of public investments in roads, bridges, transits, energy-efficient buildings and a new energy grid that is sorely needed and will pay dividends (and create jobs) in the long run as well.
What you saw yesterday wasn’t the end of Barack Obama’s ability to reach bipartisanship, nor was it a principled stand against Big Government by Republicans. It was two other things:
President Obama announced on Earth Day new initiatives to harness alternative energy including wind, solar, and ocean currents. During his 
