That sounds like the Democratic talking points from the election, and most of it is false or exaggerated. I work for the state, and I have been a
victim of the paycuts and job losses, and yet I still support the Governor's position on most of the things you have referenced in your post.
Here is my take:
Originally posted by pajoly
reply to post by whaaa
Is it any wonder? The new governor is a complete a-hole. His old company had to pay the largest fraud fine ever of $1.7B (that's a B) for defrauding
the taxpayer when he was CEO. He exits with a $300M golden parachute. He bankrolls his election where he lied repeatedly in ads and made himself look
like a sweet hero of humanity.
As far as I know, the offenses took place before he absorbed that company, and once his company was in control they expedited the situation, settled,
and paid the fines.
Fast forward. He uses state money to have press conferences in PUBLIC areas where he uses cops to keep out people who do not support him. He
trucks fake audiences around with him.
This is something that every elected official does. Congressman Boyd had to run out the back of his town hall meetings a couple of times while the
cops held every one at bay so he could escape. In general politicians are scumbags, and the incumbents use taxpayer resources for their scumbaggery.
In this regard, Rick Scott is certainly no worse than any other, and from what I have seen, he is a little better.
He guts education funding by billions then sets up a photo opp with little kids holding signs about how the governor is for education. Turned
out the kids were bused in from a private school operated by one his best business assiciates who is now flush with much more state money for his
charter schools.
I haven't heard of this event, and I don't agree with all of the education cuts, although I do like the incentive based salaries and the fact that
tenure is going away. Teachers should be paid for performance and nothing else.
He has a ready made "support" letter on the state website that allows you to automatically forward an essentially I-love-our-wonderful-governor
letter directly to prominent Florida newspapers in an effort to counter the flood of negative letters to the editors hitting the papers.
His website
Florida has a Right to know also has all of the state's budget, spending, contracts,
salaries, and everything else he promised on the campaign trail. He delivered what he promised.
He has lost the support of the police and fire organizations in just a few months. They have publicly withdrawn their support.
He lost their support because of the same funding cuts that they supported when he was campaigning. They thought they could support him, get him into
office, and then tweak his approach to benefit themselves. Instead, he has followed through on cutting the budget the way he promised and they are
disappointed in their lack of influence.
He rejected billions in federal money for the train between Orlando and Tampa because he said it would cost the taxpayer money. So a consortium of
public and private organizations killed themselves to come up with a plan that contractually covered all the costs and guaranteed no cost to the
taxpayer. The gov still rejected the money. Jobs lost? Estimated thousands.
Again, just as he promised, he did away with a horrible project that would have had major cost overruns, and he turned down the ridiculous bailout
money, and instead he tried to convince the Federal government to invest in our ports and infrastructure. When the Fed refused to support the common
sense approach, he turned down the money and worked on his own to build our infrastructure improvements for a major initiative with Central and South
America. Things don't happen overnight, but his plan should bring Billions in business and jobs to Florida and make us the preeminent state in the
Union for imports and shipping!
He shortened unemployment to max of 20 weeks even as FL unemployment is already the LOWEST in the nation at $275/week. Now hundreds are falling
off the rolls (makes his employment look better) and facing homelessness.
Good! There are jobs available. Everywhere I turn in Tallahassee there are help wanted signs. There are businesses that can barely cover their
shifts due to turnover and poor attendance. I have had 3 people in the past year beg me to fire them, so they could collect unemployment. 20 weeks
is plenty of time to find another job.
He passed a law that forces drug testing of both state workers and state welfare recipients. State workers got so furious he quietly halted
that part of the requirement, but now welfare recipients have their 4th amendment rights violated for his glee. Oh by the way, there was NO study that
showed a signifcant problem with welfare recipients being on drugs. Oh and the fun kicker, his former start that he turned over to his wife (and
recently she may turned it over too) is a MAJOR benefactor of that law since it makes its money off......drug testing. Now its his cronies business
and they are pulling in millions in new money.
More rumors and lies. The contract for drug testing would have to go through the competitive bid process just like every other contract in the state,
and the process is readily apparent on the MyFloridaMarketPlace website, and on the Governor's own site.
None of the "good" state workers were against the drug testing. In fact, every state employee already signs a waiver allowing drug testing, so the
provisions are already there. The only difference was going to be actually enforcing the requirement pre-employment. I have had several employees
that our human resource department and legal advisors refused to let me drug test, despite admissions that they were high at work! It is ridiculous
that we are hamstrung by the threat of lawsuits, when every other corporation in the state is drug testing its employees.
In fact, I am sorely disappointed, as a state worker and supervisor, that he caved in on this point.
Even after the 4500 jobs that were cut, there is still a huge waste in state government. I see it everyday. I have made suggestions for further
cuts, but the state worker mentality is to not let any positions go, and protect the positions you have, whether you need them or not. The system is
broken.
As far as approval rating, they come and go. Polling is useless, only the elections count, and he won that!
edit on 23-6-2011 by
getreadyalready because: (no reason given)
edit on 23-6-2011 by getreadyalready because: (no reason given)
edit on
23-6-2011 by getreadyalready because: (no reason given)
