A round-up of Sunday editorials from Florida’s leading newspapers:
Tampa Bay Times — House should back immigration reform
The voices of SOUND ECONOMICS and reason are making good use of the August congressional recess by pressing the case for comprehensive immigration reform. The legislation passed by the Senate in June would bolster Social Security, cut the federal deficit, expand the economy and provide employers the workforce they need while strengthening the border. This is why respected institutions from every corner are expressing their support and calling on House Republicans — including those from the Tampa Bay area — to act this fall.
In recent weeks, two leading groups representing seniors, the National Committee to Preserve Social Security & Medicare and the AARP, teamed up to promote the financial benefits of the Senate bill. A report by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office says the Senate bill would cut nearly $1 trillion off the federal deficit by 2033. Over that same period, the expanded workforce created by the legislation would increase wages, productivity and capital spending, boosting the nation’s economic output by 5 percent. An analysis by the chief actuary for Social Security estimates that by bringing illegal workers into the above-ground economy, the legislation would add $284 billion to the Social Security trust fund and extend its solvency another two years, to 2035.
The Bradenton Herald — Big picture on rowing shows its potential for Manatee-Sarasota economy
As the Manatee-Sarasota delegation of public officials and private partners head to South Korea in pursuit of hosting the 2017 World Rowing Championships, they will be basking in the glow of the just-completed U.S. Rowing Masters National Championships. Nathan Benderson Park proved quite worthy with athletes marveling at the calm lake waters, an ideal surface for rowing.
Representatives of the International Rowing Federation, or FISA, scrutinized the park during the four-day masters event this month, and the organization plans to select host sites for both the 2016 World Rowing Cup and the 2017 championships next week.
Surely they left impressed with both the venue and the widespread support of rowing here.
Even Gov. Rick Scott attended the masters championship and stated his commitment to the park. Over the past two years, he signed off on two $5 million grants to the venue — that after initially denouncing the project and vetoing that same amount in the state budget.
A convert to the cause, the governor told the Bradenton Herald: “We should be the absolute No. 1 tourist destination in the world. It’s not going to happen unless you make things like this happen.”
Indeed, the venue is all about economic development and job growth. The masters event, the park’s first true national regatta, attracted 1,500 athletes with a projected economic impact ranging from $800,000 to $1.5 million.
The world championship would be huge for the region, possibly bringing in 42,000 athletes, spectators and others. Manatee and Sarasota would also benefit from a global viewing audience in the neighborhood of 130 million — priceless free advertising.
The Daytona Beach News-Journal – Dubious distinction for Daytona Beach
[We’re No. 1! Oh, no! Some Volusia County officials had a bad case of mixed feelings when they learned that a travel website had labeled Daytona Beach the most affordable Labor Day tourist destination.
It’s generally good for a tourist town to receive national and international attention in travel ratings and surveys, even if the focus is on low price instead of quality. Trivago.com, a travel site based in Germany, identifies Daytona Beach as the top “value destination” for the Labor Day weekend. That seems like a welcome designation for the World’s Most Famous Beach, which hasn’t been able to parlay its fame into big increases in tourism since the Great Recession began to recede several years ago. So maybe this No. 1 ranking will help draw more visitors.
But Volusia County Councilman Doug Daniels thinks low prices are to be avoided, in that they usually mean “the attraction” has a hard time attracting visitors with money or plastic in their wallets. “What you really want to be is an expensive destination, but one that everyone says is worth it,” Daniels said.
Daniels has a point. Daytona Beach has not been burning up the tourism market, and low prices seem like a symptom of the malaise. If hotel prices climb in Volusia County, it will likely be a sign of rising demand — and increased interest from tourists with money to spend.
The Florida Times-Union — Budget hearings reveal good and bad of city government
The City Council Finance Committee budget hearings: the good, the bad, the shameful and the absurd.
Let’s begin with the shameful.
If I’m not mistaken, the year is 2013 and we live in a city that claims to be modern.
Yet while examining JEA’s budget, Councilman Reggie Brown wanted to know when large areas of his district were finally going to get city water and sewer services.
The Lakeland Ledger — Developmental Disabilities: Care for Floridians
The long-intractable problem of supporting and caring for a portion of people with developmental disabilities is being approached with a wave of determination from leaders of the state Agency for Persons with Disabilities. Fueling their enthusiasm is an increased budget for the fiscal year that started in July.
The agency works with people who have spina bifida, autism, cerebral palsy, Prader-Willi syndrome, Down syndrome and intellectual disabilities.
Among the efforts of the agency, headed by Director Barbara Palmer, is traveling the state to hold town hall meetings with residents who have developmental disabilities and family members.
Wednesday afternoon, Palmer and other agency representatives held such a meeting at the W.H. Stuart Conference Center in Bartow. Afterward, they met with the Editorial Board in Lakeland.
About 90 people attended the two-hour town hall meeting in Bartow, reported The Ledger’s Robin Williams Adams in an article Thursday. Among them was Gov. Rick Scott, for the first hour.
Scott, who pushed for the new funding, said improvement in the economy and employment could make even more funding possible.
“If you have a disability, it doesn’t mean you can’t work,” Scott added.
However, much of what developmentally disabled residents and those who advocate for them said focused on still-tight funds and regulations. The result is needs not met.
RECOMMENDATIONS SOUGHT
Palmer, whose manner is optimistic and energetic, acknowledged the difficulties. However, she urged people with experience with the state support system to become involved with one of a group of statewide committees. The committees have a deadline of Nov. 15 to provide recommendations that may be used to create legislative proposals, or improve policies or procedures.
The Miami Herald — ‘De-funding’ Affordable Care Act: A losing proposition
During this unquiet summer, President Obama and his advocates have carried on a running argument with Republicans and their allies over the merits of the Affordable Care Act, which he must implement on Oct. 1. By far, the president has gotten the better part of this argument.
Having failed to stop enactment, the anti-“Obamacare” faction, relying on scare tactics and false cries that doom is about to descend, has been waging a nonstop crusade against the law ever since the president signed the bill and made it official. Validation by a conservative Supreme Court, instead of tempering their efforts, only increased the opponents’ fervor.
By and large, the arguments fall into two categories: (1) It won’t work — even though those parts that have been implemented already are working, and popular. Or (2) it’s too expensive — even though subsidies will help many of the working poor and some of those already insured have gotten rebates from insurance companies that spent too much on administration instead of patient care.
The latest notion, supported, among others, by Sen. Marco Rubio, is that Congress should de-fund “Obamacare” when the fiscal year begins on Oct. 1 or, failing that, shut down the government. That’s the wackiest idea yet, with numerous prominent Republicans speaking out against it.
A “de-fund” bill might get through the House, which has cast some 40 futile votes to repeal the law, but it would never pass muster in the Senate. And even if it could, the president would never sign it. The effort is DOA.
As for the notion of shutting down the government, level-headed Repubicans have been warning their hot-headed colleagues in Washington to put a lid on it. Among them are card-carrying conservatives like Sen. Tom Coburn of Oklahoma, Sen. Richard Burr of North Carolina, Sen. John McCain of Arizona, Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan, the party’s candidate for vice president last year.
The Orlando Sentinel — King’s ‘Dream’ at 50: America still marching
Fifty years ago, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. peered into a sea of 250,000-strong lapping at Lincoln’s feet along the National Mall in Washington, and shared his vision:
“I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal.’ “
His words were the soaring aria in a seminal movement in America’s civil-rights opera: The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.
King held up a mirror and forced America to take a hard look.
“When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men would be guaranteed the inalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”
Until then, America had passed bad checks. King painted a disturbing tableau:
Of disenfranchised black voters in Mississippi and disaffected blacks in New York who wondered why bother to vote. Of civil dissenters who suffered the slings and arrows of outrageous police brutality. Of blacks who blinked back despair in Northern ghettos and slums.
Yet, in the midst of that darkness, King dreamed of light.
The Tampa Tribune — Tribune endorsements for St. Petersburg primary
Voters in St. Petersburg will go the polls Tuesday to vote on the mayoral race, three council seats and a referendum on the future of the proposed Lens design to replace the existing pier. If no candidate for mayor wins more than 50 percent of the vote, the two candidates with the most votes will meet in a runoff Nov. 5.
The top two candidates for each of the council seats will meet in a runoff Nov. 5 to decide those races.
The vote Tuesday for the Lens design will decide whether that project moves forward.
The Tribune recommends:
For Mayor: Bill Foster. He’s presiding over a construction boom downtown, clamped down on panhandlers and has the backing of law enforcement and the chamber.
For District 4: Darden Rice. She will be an informed proponent of a mass transit system and wants something simpler than the Lens to replace the existing pier.
For District 6: Karl Nurse. He is working to rid neighborhoods of foreclosed homes and wants to better define the uses a replacement for the existing pier might offer.
For District 8: Amy Foster. She wants to focus on creating safer neighborhoods and will target the illegal activity along 34th Street.
End contract to build the Lens: Yes. The Lens design is inconsistent with the historic waterfront and has divided the city. Vote “yes” to stop the Lens.
The Palm Beach Post — Fifty years later, still reason to keep marching.
During the early, less-quoted portion of his closing address at the 1963 March on Washington, the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., said of the marchers, “In a sense, we’ve come to the nation’s capital to cash a check.”
With the Declaration of Independence and Constitution, Dr. King said, our founders “…were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir…It is obvious today that America has defaulted on the promissory note insofar as her citizens of color are concerned.”
