Thursday, March 3, 2011

Awake the State!

Tuesday March 8, 2011 is the first day of the new Florida legislature. What have they been doing in the two months since they were sworn in? Who the heck knows? But so far all they seem to have managed is to annoy the crap out of a lot of people.

Rick Scott says no to high speed rail and the jobs and billions of dollars it will provide.. even after Senator Bill Nelson managed to get the towns on the I4 corridor to guarantee the additional money needed so the state will not be on the hook.

Senator Don Gaetz has introduced a bill declaring that medicaid recipients should be forced to lose weight, and stop smoking and drinking or stop receiving coverage.

Florida's proposed budget is set to drop all corporate taxes and property taxes (mine runs less than $800.00 a year) AND to cut funding to education, prisons, police forces, firefighters, and many OTHER public workers, while requiring them to pay more for health care and their retirement.

Does anyone else thing I have possibly moved to Wisconsin?

Well, I'm mad and I'm not going to take it anymore.

I will be at the Destin Commons next Tuesday night. I will be holding a sign. I may be holding a microphone. I have to get off Blogger and call the news media. It's time for Floridians to stand up and shout that we LIKE our middle class. We LIKE our teachers.

AWAKE THE STATE!

I signed on the organize this thing.. and now I am having heart palpitations!

6 comments:

Michelle said...

You'll do great at organizing it--you're a rock star!

Can I just say that I'm terribly jealous of your low property taxes? When I lived in Illinois they more than doubled from $600 to nearly $1300 on my 900-square-foot condo over a six-year period. I don't currently own property here in MN but I know that property taxes are in the neighborhood of $2500 a year for a 1200-square-foot condo in downtown Minneapolis.

Ahab said...

Kudos for speaking up and being politically active. Florida needs progressive voices now.

LeftLeaningLady said...

But what do you get for that amount of money, Michelle? And it is NICE to see you on Blogger again. I had NO idea who was commenting! You did have snow removal, which we do not. But what about parks? Roads? I seem to remember the IL roads being pretty good.. the one time I was there in the last decade. Public transporation? None here. And our budget is 4 BILLION dollars in the red.

Ahab, will you still be around to comment? Or are you walking completely away? Let me tell you it is difficult to be progressive in NW Florida.

Ahab said...

I'll still be around to comment. And, given all the feedback I've been getting from my readers, I've decided to keep the blog active, but only post once or twice a week.

Is Destin near Tallahassee?

Mauigirl said...

Good luck, hope it all goes well!

(O)CT(O)PUS said...

I am so demoralized by the proto-fascist onslaught, I am still trying to get myself in gear. At least one thing, I accomplished today:

Act Blue: Join the Recall Effort in Wisconsin

Earlier, I sent in my contribution - ten times more than I gave last time. And if I am just as angry tomorrow as I am today, I'll send another contribution - 100 times more than today - until the %$*& *@#^%$ are removed from office.

BTW, any recall effort yet in Florid-dah?