It's all over but the shouting and the honking. Three days after the 2011 Legislature adjourned, union members and liberal groups plan to rally Tuesday outside selected legislators' district offices and on streets across Florida.
The "Awake the State" campaign, which drew some 10,000 protesters in 30 cities on the session's opening day, expects to stage follow-up demonstrations in 24 communities this time around.
Tallahassee organizer Barbara DeVane said protesters oppose the newly approved state budget that "imposes devastating cuts to education, health care, social programs and environmental protection."
The Legislature's $69.7 billion budget was not quite $1 billion smaller than the previous year's, and nearly $4 billion more than Gov. Rick Scott proposed.
Among the legislative district offices targeted for rallies: Senate President Mike Haridopolos (Melbourne);Reps. Jeff Brandes (St. Petersburg), John Wood (Haines City), Seth McKeel (Lakeland), Clay Ford (Pensacola), Carlos Lopez-Cantera (Miami), and Dennis Baxley (Ocala).
While politicians paid lip service to improving the job climate in Florida, at the end of the day, all they did this year is make it tougher for our state to recruit quality teachers, nurses, first responders and other vital service workers. And theyre gonna hear about it from Florida voters, said Broward rally co-organizer Franco Ripple.
(See list here for times and locations of all "Awake the State Again" rallies.)
In Tallahassee, DeVane said motorists will be encouraged to honk their horns in front of the Old Capitol from 4:30 p.m.-6 p.m. Tuesday.
DeVane and the "Awake the State" organizers were particularly irked by passage of a pension-reform bill requiring government employees to pay 3 percent of their salaries toward their retirement fund.
"The budget unfairly taxes the middle class including teachers, nurses and firefighters, while handing out tax breaks to corporations," she said.
Prior to passage of the pension bill -- which was less robust than Scott's call for a 5 percent contribution and did not include his proposal to put all new hires on 401(k)-style retirement plans -- Florida remained the lone state to fully fund its public-employee retirement system.
Robin Stublen, who led a tea party rally at the Old Capitol on the opening day of the Legislature, said, "Democrats need to wake up" to new fiscal realities.
"Individuals paying into their own retirement as an investment is not a tax increase. Cutting the budget a little more than last year's budget is not devastating -- unless you are one who has bellied up to the public trough for years," said Stublen, who resides in Charlotte County.
While "Awake the State" boasts 7,434 Facebook "likes," online sign-ups for Tuesday's rallies pointed to smaller turnouts than those in early March.
"Democrats have a distorted view of grass-roots," Stublen said. "True grass-roots do not depend on George Soros or the Florida Democratic Party to pay for their protests."
DeVane, a retired teacher and lobbyist for the National Organization for Women, said the Tallahassee rally is getting support from "all the unions," including AFSCME, AFL-CIO and the Florida Education Association.
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Contact Kenric Ward at kward@sunshinestatenews.com or at (772) 801-5341.
