After 10 Glorious Years, Sunshine State News and I Are Passing the Baton

We are now in day two of a three-day special session called by Governor Scott, Speaker Corcoran and Senate President Negron. The special session was called after Governor Scott and Speaker Corcoran along with President Negron agreed to increase the per-student spending in the education budget and to increase funding for Visit Florida from $25 million to $76 million as well as create a new economic incentive program called the “Florida Job Growth Grant Fund”.

In recent months, we have seen Venezuela slip into complete chaos. Under the brutal and oppressive dictatorship of Nicolas Maduro, we have seen things go from bad to worse. Food and medicine shortages, violence on the streets and economic uncertainty.

For years I’ve traveled back and forth to Tallahassee attempting to have an impact on the legislative process. I’ve watched the way things have worked in Tallahassee and have become disgusted by it. The people of Florida have been shut out of the process. We have had our voices muffled and silenced. As one back room deal paves the way for the next back room deal, the people of Florida have continually footed the bill for pet projects, higher regulations (that we then have to live under), corporate welfare schemes and crony capitalism projects.

As changing technologies and preferences make government-funded broadcasting increasingly preposterous, such broadcasting actually becomes useful by illustrating two dismal facts. One is the immortality of entitlements that especially benefit those among society's articulate upper reaches who feel entitled. The other fact is how impervious government programs are to evidence incompatible with their premises.