"Florida needs to speak with a unified voice regarding the importance of the space program. With the close of the shuttle program there will be a direct loss of 9,000 jobs and a loss of 14,000 other jobs in other sectors of the population that serve space industry employees. These would include people like teachers, waitresses and dry cleaners. That's very significant in a state where the unemployment rate is as high as it is,"
--Mark Nappi, Vice President, Launch and Recovery Systems, United Space Alliance

By Kenric Ward

WASHINGTON -- For all our bemoaning the tortures of health care reform, the debate has been healthy for the nation.
Everybody's crazy aunts and uncles have been let out of their respective attics and basements, and it's good to know who they are. It's also been helpful for Americans to see how the sausage is made and figure out whether they really want any.

The deficit for last year was $1.4 trillion. The deficit rose as a share of the gross domestic product from 3.1 percent in 2008 to 9.9 percent in 2009, the highest deficit as a share of GDP since 1945. The projected deficit for the fiscal year that ends in September is another $1.3 trillion.

A state senator who doubles as the head of Floridas Republican Party opened a new election-year battle with the Democratic-allied teachers union on Tuesday by proposing legislation that would base teacher pay on how well students do on standardized tests.

The measure, SB 6, demands that teachers get paid based on student performance, rather than on the educators years of service. Schools who fail to comply with the new system will be penalized, losing a percentage of their state funds, under the bill.

Gov. Charlie Crist presented a State-of-the-State address on Tuesday that did more than underscore the need to balance the state budget in these rocky financial times.

Businesses fretting over a major hike in the state unemployment compensation tax can relax. At least, for now.

On their first day of session, lawmakers delayed until 2012 a looming increase that could have resulted in as much as a twelvefold increase in the unemployment tax for businesses. Gov. Charlie Crist immediately signed the bill into law.

If taxes had not been delayed, the minimum unemployment tax businesses would pay per person would have risen from $8.40 to $100.30. Businesses paying the maximum rate per person would have seen a rise from $378 to $459.

Florida communities with surplus former military installations could reap a significant amount of money through increased property taxes if SB 126, which passed the Senate Military Affairs and Domestic Security Committee Tuesday, becomes law.

"The big moments are the ending of segregation. And Gov. Leroy Collins -- his moment. I don't know if Florida would be what it is today without them."
--Rivers H. Buford III, director of legislative affairs, Florida Department of State, whose grandfather served as attorney general, Florida Supreme Court justice and member of the House of Representatives