A round-up of Sunday editorials from Florida’s leading newspapers:
Tampa Bay Times — 10 reasons to vote for Greenlight Pinellas
The single issue in Tuesday’s election that holds the greatest promise for positive change in Pinellas County and the Tampa Bay region is the Greenlight Pinellas transit referendum. Pinellas voters have an opportunity to make a smart investment in the future by approving a 1-cent sales tax to create a modern transit system with robust bus service and a 24-mile light rail line from downtown St. Petersburg to downtown Clearwater. This could be the first step in creating a regional transit system for the 21st century that makes Tampa Bay more competitive for younger residents, better jobs and more tourism.
1 Tampa Bay has to compete. This region is the nation’s largest urban area without a modern transportation system that includes rail, and nearly all of those existing rail systems have plans to expand. Employers and younger workers see transit as a quality of life issue.
2 Better transit means better access to jobs. Workers need more options to get to jobs in downtown St. Petersburg, the Gateway area, the beaches and North Pinellas. Tampa Bay has far fewer jobs within a 30-minute transit commute than cities such as Denver and Pittsburgh, which have a similar number of workers.
3 It’s not just about rail. Bus service would increase by 65 percent. There would be added rapid bus service along key routes, and buses would run every 15 minutes along main routes. Service would be expanded on nights and weekends. Ridership would increase with more frequent, reliable service.
The Bradenton Herald — Keep the early momentum on voting in Manatee County going
President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who resided in the White House from 1933 until his death in April 1945, once observed: “Nobody will ever deprive the American people of the right to vote except the American people themselves and the only way they could do this is by not voting.”
The countdown to Tuesday’s general election continues, and today is the final day of early voting. We encourage all registered voters to assert their right to cast a ballot and engage in the democratic process.
A record number of absentee, or vote-by-mail, ballots — 55,028, were requested in Manatee County, and a lot of people have been quick about returning them to the supervisor of elections. As of Thursday, the office had received 39,788 of those ballots. By the numbers, those voters are strongly committed to casting a ballot, and cheers to their citizenship.
Voting by mail is so easy, more and more people are staying home to select their preferences. Citizens voting early at four sites scattered around the county are enjoying quick access to ballots since lines are nonexistent, according to Supervisor of Elections Mike Bennett.
The Daytona Beach News-Journal — Campaign 2014 comes to an end
By the time voting ends Tuesday, for many Floridians Campaign 2014 likely will have felt like a cross-country road trip with two kids constantly bickering in the backseat.
But enough about Rick Scott and Charlie Crist.
The gubernatorial candidates are the marquee matchup on the November ballot, and their respective campaigns have flooded the airwaves with millions of dollars worth of advertising, most of it negative toward each other. It seems to have worked: Polls show that nearly half of all voters find both men unappealing.
After the constant drumbeat of attacks and the repetitive airing of the same ads over and over, the public can succumb to campaign fatigue. Hopefully, it won’t dampen interest in other down-ballot races, which include several pivotal local races as well as three proposed amendments to the state constitution. So far, it appears to be a motivated electorate — more than 2 million Floridians have cast early ballots. That’s more than a third of the total who voted in the 2010 midterm elections.
The Volusia County Council has three contested seats in play, including the at-large berth that pits two incumbents against each other, Joyce Cusack and Pat Northey. They often occupy opposite sides of a 4-3 split on the council, and their campaign friction has contributed to public squabbles among other members during meetings.
The Florida Times-Union — Suicide affects even physicians
There is the side of the person dealing with intense psychological pain.
There is the side of society itself that would rather look away and relies on simplistic and incorrect notions.
In between comes the journalist whose assignment is to try to make sense of the pain and help rally practical ways to help deter this most treatable illness.
That is what makes the book “Crazy: A Father’s Search through America’s Mental Health Madness” such a rare and important book.
Pete Earley, a first-rate journalist, writes about his son’s struggles with bipolar illness. But he also uses his reporting skills to write about the dysfunctional mental health system in America.
The decline of mental institutions often leaves prison cells as the main resort for patients with serious mental illness. So Earley obtained access to the jail system in Miami-Dade County.
Earley quotes an expert as saying most mentally ill people do stupid things, not bad things. Jail is the last place one should expect help for mental illness.
Earley explains the difficulty of respecting the civil rights of the mentally ill while recognizing that they often are not capable of assessing their own mental health.
Florida Today – Endorsement roundup: Our picks
FLORIDA TODAY recommends the following candidates and positions based on research and interviews by members of its editorial board.
Local
County Commission District 2: Jim Barfield (R).Barfield has the best idea for keeping taxes low while sustaining services and quality of life.
County Commission District 4: Curt Smith (R). Smith’s work ethic, small-business success and focus on solutions earns our respect.
School Board District 2: John Craig.Craig has the fiscal and strategic outlook to serve Central Brevard well.
School Board District 5: Andy Ziegler.Ziegler has worked hard to understand the issues and represent a diverse South Brevard constituency.
One-half cent sales tax for critical school facilities: Yes.This is a fiscally responsible solution to an embarassing community crisis.
Economic development tax exemptions: Yes.Please reauthorize these basic, non-controversial incentives for growing business and jobs.
State
Florida governor: Rick Scott (R).Scott has made a higher priority of Brevard businesses and economic development at Kennedy Space Center, Melbourne International Airport and Port Canaveral.
Amendment 1, water and land conservation: Yes.This would tie conservation to development by ensuring a portion of taxes on real estate transactions fund state purchases of sensitive lands.
Amendment 2, medical marijuana: Yes.A “yes” vote would expand personal freedom and health options for the hurting with little potential downside.
The Gainesville Sun – On the amendments
Florida voters are considering three proposed amendments to the state constitution on the Nov. 4 ballot.
With Election Day looming, we offer these summaries of previously published editorials.
* Amendment 1 comes at the right time for Florida.
Lawmakers have failed to protect our natural resources, instead cutting environmental regulations and funding for Florida Forever, the state’s major land-conservation program.
Amendment 1 wouldn’t create a new tax. Rather, it would set aside one-third of revenue from the existing documentary stamp tax on real-estate sales over 20 years for purchasing, managing and restoring conservation land.
Florida needs a consistent, dedicated revenue source for land conservation. We recommend voting yes on Amendment 1.
* Amendment 2 would allow patients and their doctors, rather than politicians, to make decisions about treating serious medical conditions.
Medical marijuana provides an option for treating chronic pain, nausea and other conditions associated with cancer and other debilitating diseases — without the same risks of overdose and addiction associated with legal painkillers.
We recommend voting yes on Amendment 2.
* Amendment 3 would significantly change the way the state replaces Supreme Court justices and appeals court judges.
It creates the potential that an outgoing governor — even one defeated at the polls — could fill the vacancies.
Former Supreme Court Justice Harry Lee Anstead calls Amendment 3 “a bizarre ‘solution’ searching for a non-existent problem.”
We agree and recommend voting no.
The Lakeland Ledger — The Buck Stops With You, Voter
Government leaders are sometimes called decision-makers. The buck is supposed to stop with them on local, state and national policy.
But in a democracy, the true decision-makers are the voters. Despite the influence of powerful PACs and political donors, it is ultimately the voters who decide who will represent them at City Hall and the county chambers, in the Legislature and Congress, and as governor or president.
In election years, the buck stops with the voters. It stops with you. Absentee ballots have been sent out. Early voting in Polk County continues, but today is your last chance to cast a ballot before Tuesday’s elections — just go to the nearest location between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m.:
Bartow — Polk Street Community Center: 1255 Polk St.
Davenport — Elections Branch Office at Ridgeview Plaza: 45665 U.S. 27.
Haines City Library: 111 N. Sixth St.
Lake Wales Library: 290 Cypress Garden Lane
Lakeland — Larry R. Jackson Library: 1700 N. Florida Ave.
Lakeland — Polk County Government Center: 930 E. Parker St.
Mulberry City Hall: 104 S. Church Ave.
Winter Haven — Gill Jones Center Northeast Polk County Government Center: 3425 Lake Alfred Road.
EARLY TURNOUT
In Polk, 77,779 ballots had been submitted by 6 p.m. Thursday, according to the Supervisor of Elections Office. Broken down, that includes 54,719 absentee ballots and 23,060 walk-in votes.
Decisions — on ballot questions and candidates that will affect you and your family’s health care, education, taxes, jobs, environment and more — are about to be made.
The Miami Herald — No need to panic
The paranoia over Ebola reached dangerous levels last week when Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey imposed a mandatory quarantine rule on nurse Kaci Hickox, who registered a fever after returning to this country following a stay in West Africa to combat Ebola but had not contracted the virus.
Facing withering criticism and the possibility of a lawsuit, Mr. Christie relented this week and the nurse was transferred to her home in Maine on a private airplane. Still, his initial action, which wound up forcing Ms. Hickox to spend the weekend in a transparent tent with a sink and toilet but no shower, set a bad precedent.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo of New York initially followed suit before backing off and allowing medical professionals who have been treating Ebola patients but show no symptoms of the disease to remain at home and receive compensation for lost income.
Even assuming the governors acted only with the best of intentions — when in doubt, err on the side of caution — and with no political motives, their actions were unjustified. The doctors, nurses and other health workers fighting to stop the spread of Ebola at the point of origin, in Africa, should be treated as selfless heroes rather than criminals.
Hostile measures against individuals who have no symptoms and may never develop any serve only to feed public hysteria, rather than to improve public health. Such actions also have counter-productive effects by limiting the number of potential responders to the emergency in West Africa.
The Orlando Sentinel — Firms, regulators share blame for lethal air bags
Safety equipment in Hien Tran’s car that should have saved her life instead killed her.
In a minor traffic accident on her way home from her Orlando workplace, Tran suffered horrific neck wounds. She died in the hospital three days later without regaining consciousness.
Investigators were baffled over the cause of her injuries until they saw reports of exploding air bags in older Honda models such as Tran’s Accord. Lurking like a grenade hidden in a pillow, the defective air bags deploy with such force that they send shrapnel hurtling through the passenger compartment.
A week after Tran’s death, a recall letter arrived to replace her air bag.
Tran’s story is tragic enough, but it wasn’t the first time such a malfunction led to serious consequences. Flying debris linked to faulty air bags has slashed, blinded or killed dozens of drivers.
Yet such suffering was unnecessary. Both Honda and Takata Corp. of Japan, the air bag manufacturer, were aware of the threat for at least a decade.
The timeline reflects outrageous negligence by those companies and the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration.
The Ocala StarBanner — Balancing act
Florida’s recent history on energy consumption is a tale of two sides.
On one side, through foresight and some luck on the part of the electrical utilities, Florida runs largely on natural gas. And because of the surge in domestic production in the past decade, natural gas is plentiful and cheap — while polluting less than oil or coal. All of this keeps Floridians’ power bills relatively low and their air relatively clean.
On the other side, because of a growing population and rising demand for energy, Florida’s fossil-fueled power plants burn a lot of natural gas, along with some oil and coal. All of these contribute to climate change which, many scientists say, is already damaging Florida’s environment.
Both sides will need to be balanced as the Public Service Commission reviews the state’s energy conservation goals for the next five years. A decision on those goals is due Nov. 25.
The balancing act won’t be easy, but a solution may lie in changing the way the PSC calculates utilities’ rates.
It’s a crucial challenge because the state’s major electrical utilities have asked the PSC to drastically reduce their current conservation goals.
The Pensacola News-Journal — Carl Hiaasen: Who’s the least worst for governor?
Rick Scott. Charlie Crist.
Nineteen million souls in the state of Florida, and this is the best we can do? You could toss a mullet net over any park bench between Key West and Pensacola and drag in two people who’d be more inspiring.
As of this writing, the governor’s race is polling dead even. Numbed by all the attack ads, disheartened by lackluster choices, lots of people are in a mood not to vote.
Bad idea.
Obviously this election isn’t about picking the best and the brightest. It’s about picking the candidate who is the least dangerous to Florida’s quality of life. Scott won’t accept the concept that, unlike the job of a corporate CEO, the job of governor is supposed to be conducted in the open.
The Palm Beach Post — Finally, it’s all about voter turnout
The months of negative back-and-forth political campaign ads that have managed to challenge even the most informed voter now comes down to this one thing: turnout.
Forty-eight hours before the polls open for arguably Florida’s biggest midterm election in more than a decade, candidates and proposed amendment foes alike admit all that truly matters now is how many Floridians exercise one of the most important rights we have as citizens of a democracy.
In truth, that’s the way it always should have been. But the constant din of negative attack ads, open forum name-calling and specious half-truths combined to drown out that basic message: vote.
As of Friday morning, nearly 2.6 million people had cast in-person early votes and absentee ballots — with the GOP holding onto a shrinking lead, according to the Florida Division of Elections.
But voters seem to care less about that now. And rightly so.
“They’re tired of the mud-slinging,” Larry Munch, owner of Munch’s Restaurant in south St. Petersburg told The News Service of Florida on Friday. “All you hear is the ads instead of talking about what the topics are. That’s what the talk is over the coffee mugs.”
The talk now should be how their vote can make a difference. But first they have to turn out.
The Panama City News-Herald — CRAs bring benefits and problems
There is no question that Community Redevelopment Agencies, when administered correctly, can bring enormous benefits to blighted and often ignored sections of a community.
However, there certainly is a question as to whether the benefits to one part of town come at a cost to other parts of a community.
In 2001, the Panama City Beach City Council adopted a resolution and created the Front Beach Road Community Redevelopment Area. The CRA is funded by increases in property values which create increases in property taxes. The amount above what was collected for Bay County coffers at the time the district was formed goes back to the CRA.
Panama City Beach officials created their CRA before a change in the law required a city to collect property taxes in order to be eligible for the CRA plan. PCB only collects sales taxes but still gets the benefit of directing CRA property taxes ($81 million so far) back to Front Beach Road projects.
It is akin to taking a cake to school for your birthday and eating in front of the other, hungrier children. You could argue that it is your cake and your birthday but that doesn’t make it the right thing to do.
Essentially, Panama City Beach officials never have to face the hard choices involved in a millage rate that must be raised or lowered depending on property values but still get most, if not all, of the benefits such a rate would bring. The city even won a Florida Supreme Court case over the matter.
The Tallahassee Democrat – Mind your own busyness
Have you ever been guilty of being “busier than thou”?
I know I have.
That’s because busyness has become the new status symbol by which we evaluate ourselves and others.
In her new book, “Overwhelmed: Work, Love, and Play When No One Has the Time,” Brigid Schulte writes that, by the end of the 20th century, researchers found that busyness was “not just a way of life, but glamorous. … It’s a sign of high social status.”
It’s gotten to the point where many of us even brag about busyness. You can hear the one-upmanship any time parents get together. We list all the activities our kids are involved in, how jammed our weekends are, how there’s no time for ourselves. We sigh, moan a little, shake our heads.
But nobody talks about how to cut down.
“As a culture, we have translated speed into a virtue,” said Edson Rodriquez, a sociologist who studies frenetic families. “If you are busy, if you get things done quickly, if you move quickly throughout the day, it expresses success. … The feeling is, if I’m not busy, something’s wrong.”
A woman at my synagogue once asked me how I was doing, and I launched into how tired I was, rattling on about everything I was doing.
The Tampa Tribune — Jeb Bush: the leader Washington needs
The news media is abuzz with the reports that former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush is considering a run for president. We are familiar enough with Bush, who stopped by our offices many times during his two terms in office, to know that whatever he decides will have little to do with what political pundits have to say about his prospects.
Bush will decide the matter based on his intellect, his heart and his family.
But for what it’s worth, we hope Bush concludes a presidential campaign is right for him. We think it would be right for the country.
Forget the political calculations over whether the nation is Bush-weary or whether the Republican base will rally behind someone who supports Common Core standards and immigration reform.
What is important is that Jeb Bush is a leader, the kind sorely needed in Washington.
His record as Florida governor provides powerful evidence of what Bush would do in Washington.
He would fearlessly challenge the status quo, and seek to make the federal government smaller, more efficient and less costly on all levels. He would be a problem-solver who demanded accountability from every member of his team. There would be no buck passing if things went awry.
After Barack Obama’s government-centric administration, a President Jeb Bush would look to free up the private sector and encourage entrepreneurship. He understands the private sector produces jobs and wealth and would surely try to cut damaging regulations and taxes, particularly the nation’s highest-in-the-world corporate tax.
