Desperation in the air

Desperate for some kind of hook, something that will keep 2008 from being an epic, prodigious electoral failure for them, Republicans are emptying their bags of dirty tricks faster than they can think of them.

Facing almost certain electoral carnage against Rep. Robert Wexler (D-Fla.), Republican candidate Edward Lynch went on The O'Reilly Factor yesterday to air his claim that Wexler's address in Delray Beach is fraudulent.

"Is it not a ruse?" host Bill O'Reilly asked John Fund, author of Stealing Elections: How Voter Fraud Threatens Our Democracy.

Fund said it is not illegal for Wexler to use his mother-in-law's address, which is in a deed-restricted community for people 55 and over. But that it certainly is not within "the spirit of the law," he said.

"In the next few months, (Wexler) might want to shop around for a little garden apartment in Delray Beach," Fund said.

Edward Lynch, a Republican running for Wexler's congressional seat, has been researching Wexler's living arrangements and took his argument to the Fox News program.

"The house he lists on his voter registration is his in-laws' house, in a gated 55-and-older community," Lynch said. "Legally, he can't move back with children under 18."

Lynch said Wexler's three teenage children attend Charles W. Smith Jewish Day School in Rockville, Md.

A Fox News reporter surprised Wexler in his Maryland front yard.

Wexler, wearing shorts, a T-shirt and a ball cap, said his mother-in-law does own the house in Delray Beach. But he also said he lives there.

"Yes, it is my residence," Wexler said.

A spokesman for Wexler denounced the accusations.

"Congressman Wexler moved to Florida when he was 10 years old and he has continually met Florida's residency requirements ever since," spokesman Josh Rogin wrote in an e-mail. "As members of Congress have since the founding of the nation, he also keeps a home in the Washington area so his wife and three children can be with him while he serves in Congress."

Lynch said he intends to file legal papers about the issue in the coming weeks.

Yeah, good luck with that, Ed. You're not even going to get in the courthouse door with that load of crap. Find me a member of Congress who doesn't maintain a home in the D.C. area, Ed. At least among those whose actual home districts are too far from Washington to commute, you can't find one. But, you know, take your claim to the propagandists at Fox News and they'll put you on teevee, so everyone can see just how foolish you are. Even the hand-picked wingnut pundit said what Wexler's doing isn't illegal.

It's fun to watch Republicans squirm.

Someone give Gov. Crist a fiddle ...

... because he might as well fiddle while Florida -- at least its economy -- burns down around him.

Just take a look at section B of the Palm Beach Post today. The front page of the section alone has three articles about the drastic measures Palm Beach County and its municipalities are having to take in order to contend with the cuts in revenue caused by the heinous Crist/Rubio tax cuts.

At the top:

Cuts prompt exodus at state attorney's office
-- Longtime homicide prosecutor is latest to resign

With the office's budget cut 6 percent this year and projected to be slashed another 10 percent for the year beginning July 1, career prosecutors are jumping ship, too. The latest: Homicide prosecutor Patrick McKamey. His last day on the job is Friday. McKamey is joining the criminal defense law firm of Perlet & Shiner, where he will make more than the $80,000 he's paid as a prosecutor.

Husband and wife Heidi Perlet and Marc Shiner also are former Palm Beach County prosecutors, as is another attorney in their firm, Darren Shull.

McKamey, 40, has been a prosecutor for nearly 12 years. With no pay raises or cost-of-living increases for two years, McKamey said he has taken a pay cut when inflation is factored in.

"When you get to that crossroads financially, you start losing ground," McKamey said. "I made the financial sacrifice as long as I could to do something I love. It was a hard decision. I struggled with it for months."

McKamey is married with a 2-year-old son, and he said that was a factor. "If I were still single, I could have weathered the storm."

Earlier this month, Michelle Marken quit the office after about seven years. She too blamed the lack of pay or cost-of-living raises now and in the foreseeable future. Marken was making $67,729 and prosecuted difficult crimes against children cases, in addition to arson cases. She has gone to work as a prosecutor in Virginia.

"This is the second year we're going to be stagnant," said Al Johnson, a 15-year veteran of the office. "Basically, there is no future in the state of Florida in the state attorney's office - that's what the legislature is saying."

[...]

"You cannot put a three-year prosecutor in crimes against children," Johnson said. "Patrick's caseload doubled in the last three weeks."

It could get worse before it gets better. In order to make payroll if next year's budget is trimmed 10 percent, [State Attorney Barry] Krischer says he will have to lay off some attorneys. This on top of other experienced prosecutors he lost in recent months. Among them: Stacey Ibarra, who went to the statewide prosecutor's office, and Jennifer Millien, who joined the U.S. Attorney's Office.

[...]

[T]here were 5,131 active felony cases as of April 14, including 2,141 that were 6 months old or older, Johnson said. "The less time you can devote to each individual case, you're going to see more cases fall through the cracks. We cannot concentrate on every case.

"The public is suffering now. They just don't know it yet."

These are real consequences, folks: the real effect of the few hundred dollars that Crist and House Speaker Marco Rubio have put back in a few Floridians' pockets (mostly wealthy homeowners who don't really need the extra cash).

Want more evidence?

$36 million in school cuts seen; officials say it could be worse

Palm Beach County schools will need to cut $36 million from its budget next year after legislators approved the 2008-09 education spending plan they plan to finalize on Friday.

The cuts amount to a 2.7 percent budget reduction, slightly better than the state average.

Florida would spend about $130 less on each of its 2.6 million public school students next year [according to] the state budget. In Palm Beach County, the per-pupil cut would be $117.

[...]

District officials point to school districts such as in Broward and Miami-Dade counties that drew up multiyear contracts promising rising salaries to teachers.

Now those districts may have to go back on their promise or lay off teachers to make ends meet. Miami-Dade Superintendent Rudy Crew already recommended the school board suspend raises negotiated two years ago.

It's the same thing that happened in the early 1990s, when Palm Beach County schools had to renegotiate its contract with teachers after it couldn't afford promised raises.

Okay, so let's see what the damage is so far: we're sloughing off law enforcement personnel left and right, our public schools are suffering cuts they can't afford, and attorneys and teachers alike are losing or are at risk of losing their jobs. Nice work, Charlie!

But wait -- there's more!

Delray residents pitch in on budget

Facing a difficult budget process in the coming months, the city should consider freezing employee salaries, combining the police and fire departments and dissolving the community redevelopment agency.

The recommendations were among the dozens of cost-cutting ideas residents offered at a small forum Tuesday night at the Delray Beach Golf Club.

[...]

Delray Beach, like most Florida cities, is bracing for a bloody budget process this fall because of a decrease in tax revenue from the voter-approved property tax amendment combined with a failing economy and stagnant housing market.

The city must approve a budget by the start of the new fiscal year, Oct. 1.

Kucera urged commissioners to spend wisely and find small ways to increase revenue, such as increasing parking fees. Other residents proposed increasing the fines for driving and code violations, charging user fees for parks and using the tennis complex for more events.

We shouldn't have to do this, Charlie, not in an already sluggish economy. And we likely wouldn't -- at least not to such a great extent -- but for the hard-on you and Marco have for burnishing your Good Republican Credentials (an oxymoron if there ever was one) by pushing through tax cuts the state neither needs nor can afford.

Let me put it more simply, Charlie: you are slowly strangling Florida. Is that what you want your legacy to be? You can be the governor who forced Florida into bankruptcy! Congratulations, Gov. Crist!

I can see it now: Tallahassee, 2011. "Sorry we don't have a gold watch to present to you as you head off into the sunset, Charlie, but here's a hearty pat on the back for burying the state in mountains of debt. You did more to destroy the state in four years than Jeb! could do in eight. Way to go!"

The picture's not much better in the rest of the country, thanks once again to Republican asshats making the decisions in Washington. Why, just look at the Post's Business section, starting on pages 10B and 11B of today's paper. The headlines alone are sick-inducing:

Flouring Dilemma: Global demand finally affects U.S.

Consumers continue to see grim prospects
(featuring a graphic headed "Confidence free-fall")

State incentive fund to lure big biotech dries up

Nursing home costs up, especially in Florida

Sounds just peachy, doesn't it? I know, I know ... no one could have predicted that we'd be paying nearly $4 a gallon for gas and having stores ration flour and rice and ... well, that's a bunch of bullshit, and Charlie, you know that as well as anyone. What the fuck were you thinking, pushing tax cuts in the midst of a recession that threatens to become a full-fledged depression?

We're going to remember this, Charlie. And I for one won't let you forget.

(cross-posted at Florida Progressive Coalition Blog)

Tax or consequences

Florida House Speaker Marco Rubio and his pals in Tallahassee have been crowing about their success in bringing tax "relief" to the people of America's Wang™.

And now we begin to see the consequences. Behold what the Republicans ... excuse me, the fucking Republicans ... are doing to our state, using two Palm Beach County municipalities as examples.

First, Boca Raton:

A report submitted to the state Agency for Workforce Innovation this week revealed the city of Boca Raton might lay off up to 75 employees because of budget cuts.

It appears to hint at how the city might deal with state-mandated budget cuts, though with council members on an extended break over the summer and the city manager's budget recommendations not expected until next month, the city has offered few specifics.

[...]

"It really is a what-if scenario," said Patrick Canann, director of public relations with the alliance center, which also helps employers contemplating layoffs learn what services are available for their employees.

The what-if scenario for Boca Raton, which the Workforce Innovation agency mistook for an official layoff notice and posted on its Web site Monday, follows up on prior comments by city leaders that budget cuts could result in layoffs.

Meanwhile, just up the coast in Delray Beach:

Proposed budget cuts have City Manager David Harden searching high and low for ways to pinch pennies - from laying off the city's only state lobbyist to having floors polished just once a year - as he struggles to save money and inevitably save jobs.

City commissioners postponed voting on the proposed tax rate this week so Harden could have a few more days to study the $99 million budget and find more ways to trim the spending plan. Harden still needs to cut another $1 million to meet 2005-2006 budget levels.

The proposed budget imposes a tax rate of $6.57 per $1,000 of taxable property value, down from $7.30 per $1,000. If approved, it would be the [lowest] tax rate since 1990.

New proposals he plans to discuss with the city commission next week include closing the Veterans Park Recreation Center and cutting the city's state lobbyist, which would save an estimated $200,000. Harden has already suggested that commissioners get rid of the city's federal lobbyist as well.

Yes, that's right, Marco ... and Gov. Crist, too. Your tax cuts, putting a couple hundred dollars back in the hands of Florida taxpayers, have real consequences. They will increase unemployment, disrupt critical services to Floridians, and potentially destroy an economy still reeling from the stormy years of 2004 and 2005.

Indeed, Florida Atlantic University also has had to impose severe financial restrictions. An e-mail to university personnel two weeks ago outlined some of these restrictions:

As a result of the budget shortfall, all state universities and agencies have been asked by the governor and the legislative leadership to prepare for a budget reduction of at least four percent and to identify 10 percent of their budgets that could be eliminated for the 2007-08 and 2008-09 fiscal years. This plan is to be submitted no later than August 8, 2007. For Florida Atlantic University, a four percent reduction will eliminate $7.5 million from our Educational and General budget; a 10 percent reduction would eliminate $18.5 million.

As a university, we have just completed an extensive and collaborative budget development process that resulted in an operating budget of over $500 million. Even before these recently announced budget reductions, we struggled to achieve a balanced budget for 2007-08 due to reduced enrollment growth funding and the governor's veto of an anticipated five percent tuition increase at the undergraduate level. While there was not sufficient funding to support all of our priorities and strategic initiatives, the allocation of new resources was completed with deliberation, thoroughness, and, most importantly, openness and transparency.

Over the next few weeks, we will be working on our budget reduction plan using the same principles we utilized in the development of our 2007-08 operating budget. During this time, we will have comprehensive discussions on where and how these reductions will take place. First, we will look first to innovative ways to maintain services at reduced costs and other operating efficiencies, but these types of initiatives will not cover the full amount of the reduction. Next, we will look at ways to reduce the budget while doing everything possible to fulfill our key mission of educating students while protecting the university's employee, financial, and physical resources. This job will not be easy as each proposed reduction must be evaluated not only in terms of immediate savings but also in long-term benefits and costs.

In addition, the University instituted "a temporary freeze on all travel, equipment purchases from operating capital or expense funds, and filling of [budgeted permanent and temporary] positions."

These cuts are nothing short of catastrophic, and their deleterious effects will be felt for years to come, I'm afraid. The rat bastard Republicans may be able to campaign on tax cuts next year, but I hope the electorate is smart enough to see what they really are: service cuts that will decimate our education, our quality of life, and indeed our very safety and security.

A smart electorate? In Florida? Yeah, color me skeptical ...