Recent editorials from Florida newspapers:
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March 29
The Miami Herald on Gov. Ron DeSantis denying a reporter access to his coronavirus press conference:
Gov. Ron DeSantis denied Mary Ellen Klas, a Miami Herald/Tampa Bay Times reporter in Tallahassee, access to his coronavirus press conference on Saturday. It was vindictive, petty - and illegal. He should be ashamed - not because he thinks he put one over on a reporter, the Times or the Herald. No, to them it’s not personal.
Rather, he should be ashamed because, in not allowing Klas to do her job and ask the serious questions that deserve his serious answers, he is really denying access to the Floridians who look to these media outlets for vital information.
There’s no denying it: DeSantis, like some - but not other, more-conscientious - Republican governors, is taking his marching orders from President Trump, who is still downplaying the intensity of COVID-19’s grip on the nation, ignoring medical experts and playing politics with Americans’ very lives. After all, the president had threatened to hold coronavirus aid hostage unless certain governors who have criticized him play nice.
Deplorable.
DESANTIS VS. FAUCI
But that’s why, when Dr. Anthony Fauci, the infectious-disease expert, warned in early March that there was “community spread” of the virus in the state - a worrisome sign - Florida’s governor pushed back, claiming, No, there isn’t any such thing. That was another early and worrisome sign.
That’s why the governor has not - will not - issue a statewide shelter-in-place order, even as the number of Floridians infected with, and dead from, the coronavirus continues to grow as more tests are done; and even as there is overwhelming evidence that staying home is one of the most effective ways to stem the virus’ spread. His concerns about damaging the economy should not supersede his concerns about Floridians’ health and well-being in fighting this singular scourge marching around the state.
And that’s why, on Saturday, the governor of Florida denied Klas access. After all, reporters who ask the tough questions to which Floridians want answers are the “enemy.” It’s worth noting that DeSantis didn’t respond to at least a week’s worth of questions that Klas submitted to him, as did other reporters who, in the interest of staying in good health, monitored his briefings via teleconference.
SPECIAL TREATMENT
However, another reporter was gifted car service on Saturday, courtesy of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. Freelance video journalist Mike Vasilinda was able to hitch a ride in an FDLE vehicle at the Capitol so he could attend the governor’s press briefing along with other, more favored, reporters.
This tells us everything we need to know about how DeSantis divides the media into “friend” and “foe.”
It should be noted, too, that the Herald Editorial Board published three editorials critical of the governor’s incremental approach to confronting the coronavirus. We called it “timid,” and we’re not sure much has changed. However, what the Editorial Board does and what reporters such as Klas do are two distinct and independent duties. DeSantis, who has never accepted our invitation to talk, even as a candidate, should know better than to punish a reporter for what the opinion writers express.
FIRST AMENDMENT RULING
DeSantis, a lawyer, should also know a First Amendment violation when he sees one. A 2015 judicial ruling by the Seventh Circuit found that, “A public official who tries to shut down an avenue of expression of ideas and opinions through actual or threatened imposition of government power or sanction is violating the First Amendment.”
Sure, Klas could have monitored the briefing via teleconferencing again. But she was at the doorstep this time, determined to have her questions answered. DeSantis, indeed, “shut down an avenue” for Klas to participate.
When it comes to confronting the coronavirus, Florida’s governor has abdicated his role as the state’s leader, just as Floridians look to him for leadership.
He should be ashamed.
Online: https://www.miamiherald.com/
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March 29
The Palm Beach Post on the state budget not including the economic impact of the coronavirus:
What were they thinking?
That has to be the question on the minds of millions of Florida taxpayers in the tumultuous days since the Florida Legislature unanimously passed a record $93.2 billion state budget.
A record budget, mind you, that includes $543 million in corporate tax cuts, despite widespread small business shutdowns and spiking unemployment claims due to COVID-19. The highly contagious and deadly disease caused by the novel coronavirus is burning its way across the Sunshine State. In the week or so since state legislators passed the budget in a surreal two-hour meeting, the numbers of confirmed cases among Floridians has grown exponentially — from roughly 450 to more than 4,000 as of 6 p.m. Saturday.
Why go through the exercise of passing a placeholder, a relic of the pre-coronavirus era of just three weeks ago?
The coronavirus, which has nearly shut down our tourism-dependent economy, will cost the state billions in sales tax revenue. Post-haste, Gov, Ron DeSantis, rather than sign the budget bill (HB 5001), should quickly call state lawmakers back to Tallahassee for a special session to overhaul the unrealistic budget they passed on March 19.
Of course, they could have avoided all this drama to begin with, and showed Floridians that their state leaders indeed care about the public’s health. But they didn’t, because they apparently don’t — at least not enough.
Granted, state lawmakers did scale back a major tax cut package. They also included $52.5 million in additional money, most of it from the federal government, for COVID-19 response in the current budget year. Another $300 million in contingency funds can be used by DeSantis for emergency response on top of a $3 billion fund intended for emergencies.
Florida Senate President Bill Galvano, R-Bradenton, said, “we’ll see what the future holds.”
“Where we are today, what we’ve done today, is the appropriate place to be,” he said after passing the budget.
And state House Speaker José Oliva, R-Miami Lakes, who downplayed the seriousness of the pandemic in the weeks leading up to the budget vote, said lawmakers would only come back if there was a “prolonged economic crisis.”
A week or so of economic upheaval wrought by COVID-19 has shown those statements to be incredibly short-sighted. As anyone else who has been paying attention could surmise, a budget rewrite has been all but guaranteed since early March.
Indeed, state Sen. Tom Lee, R-Thonotosassa, told his colleagues that the current situation “feels worse” than after the 9/11 attacks, when lawmakers had to come back and revise the budget.
“I have constituents at home that are going to wonder what we were thinking,” Lee said. “We do the best we can with the information we have at the time.”
That’s what is supposed to happen. That is not what happened.
A day after the budget vote was taken, state Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis asked lawmakers to begin meeting with state economists with regard to revised revenue projections used to frame the budget.
Why? Because while it wasn’t yet clear just how bad the economic damage will be, the Florida Restaurant and Lodging Association was already saying that hotels and businesses had shed 400,000 jobs since the coronavirus outbreak. Still, lawmakers reassured each other on March 19 that the $4 billion in the unemployment compensation fund would be enough to weather the storm. But earlier this week, DeSantis reported that jobless claims were coming in at a rate of 15,000-20,000 per day. Enough so that it continues to crash the state’s website.
DeSantis said Wednesday that he isn’t in a rush to review the budget or 196 other bills as he focuses on the fight against COVID-19. He also told reporters Wednesday that the state might not have to dip deep into its reserves with President Donald Trump declaring earlier in the day that a major disaster exists in Florida.
“I’m just going to let the budget sit for now. I’m not going to start vetoing everything, and I’m not going to sign it yet,” DeSantis said. “Let’s see where we are, and let’s kind of see how the situation unfolds. This is a constant thing where you are reassessing everything you know.”
The budget and other measures technically haven’t been sent to the governor’s office, as House and Senate officials work to pace the delivery of the bills around the state’s response to COVID-19. When DeSantis receives them, he has 15 days to sign, veto or allow them to become law without his signature. He also has line-item veto power on the budget.
Patronis, meanwhile, doubled down on Monday on his call for the governor to revisit the budget in an interview with Florida Panhandle TV station WMBB. “I was here when the collapse happened last time and I don’t want to dig us out of that mess again. Been there, done that, learned from it. And I know as much money as we can hold onto, that much quicker we recover from this challenge.”
State economists have started meeting every month now, instead of every quarter. But the Legislature doesn’t need to wait to be told what they already know. They should meet again soon in special session and make changes before July 1, when the budget takes effect.
Governor, it’s time to make that call.
Online: https://www.palmbeachpost.com/
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March 26
The Orlando Sentinel on Sen. Rick Scott and unemployment benefits:
On Wednesday night, four U.S. senators briefly held up a $2 trillion stimulus plan designed to help our nation weather this economic storm.
Their beef: The unemployment benefits were too generous.
No surprise here in Florida that one of the holdouts was U.S. Sen. Rick Scott, whose disdain for the unemployed goes back a decade.
Scott’s chief concern with the stimulus bill was that if people made too much money from unemployment benefits they wouldn’t be interested in going back to work.
“We should boost the Unemployment Insurance program to help those that need it most,” Scott tweeted Wednesday before he spoke on the Senate floor. “But when this crisis is over, we need people to get back in the workforce. We shouldn’t create the opposite incentive.”
As if the general public is more interested in eating bonbons and watching Oprah than holding a job.
This has been Scott’s way of thinking since he was Florida’s governor - the cynical belief that, given the opportunity to slack off and go on the government dole, people will choose sloth over work.
When he became governor in 2011, one of Scott’s first orders of business was overhauling the state’s unemployment benefits system.
The maximum weekly benefit already was a meager $275, one of the lowest in the nation. And that’s the maximum; someone making $10 an hour would get around $200 a week.
Scott and the Legislature moved on to other areas of opportunity, like reducing the duration of benefits to as little as 12 weeks.
Both of those provisions - maximum benefit and duration of benefit - could become key factors for out-of-work Floridians. The federal government’s stimulus plan gives workers an extra $600 on top of their state unemployment benefit.
Details of how that’ll fold into state plans aren’t clear just yet, but the end result could be that Scott’s policies as governor set Floridians up to receive less money over a shorter period of time than people in other states.
For the unemployed in Florida, just getting those benefits requires more suffering than it should.
Scott and the Legislature created a system to apply for benefits that’s unwieldy and frustrating. It works so poorly - so well, if you’re trying to discourage people from applying - that the percentage of unemployed Floridians who actually get benefits is one of the lowest in the nation.
On Thursday, we got a taste of just how breathtaking the unemployment crisis will become: The number of people applying for unemployment benefits across the nation was 3.3 million, with 74,000 in Florida alone.
The numbers probably would have been worse if Florida had a more efficient system for people to apply. This week saw widespread reports of people unable to use the online application system or get through by phone. Next week’s numbers may be even worse.
At least Gov. Ron DeSantis has waived some of the onerous unemployment obstacles put in place under Scott’s administration, like making the unemployed offer proof they’re looking for a job by contacting at least five employers per week.
This miserly, unwieldy unemployment system in Florida is Rick Scott’s legacy, his creation.
But there he was on Wednesday, once again trying his best to ensure the unemployed weren’t treated too well. In particular he wanted to ensure no one made more money through unemployment than they did in the job they had just lost.
At this moment in history, who cares, senator? If anything they’ll use that extra money to feed a starving economy. And the benefits aren’t going to last forever. So who cares if they’re momentarily better off financially? Our economy is on the brink. People are terrified.
Republican leaders, including President Trump and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, tried to discourage the rogue senators from obstructing the bill. The quartet of outliers were a tiny number even in their own party.
The Senate ultimately passed the bill Wednesday by a vote of 96-0.
All that drama so Scott could take another stab at making life harder on the unemployed, when they’re at their most vulnerable.
Hey senator, how about let’s get to work helping people at the time of their greatest need rather than trying to stiff them?
Online: https://www.orlandosentinel.com/
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