Florida's Jeb Bush Republicans rolling back 25 years of state protections under cover of recession

[seafan]

Fury doesn't come close to describing this.



Develop, bulldoze, fill, pave; repeat

By Diane Roberts, Special to the Times
In Print: Sunday, April 19, 2009

.....

Your elected representatives are taking advantage of the recession to roll back 25 years of clean water regulations, habitat protections and intelligent growth management. They mean to push through dozens of bills that stink of the "build here, build now" mentality that has wrecked so much of Florida's natural beauty.
There are bills to make it easy to sprawl and harder for local governments to protect wildlife and natural areas, bills to "streamline" building permits, and bills that would weaken the conservation powers of water management districts. Many bills are overstuffed goodie baskets for builders. Senate Bill 2026 is full of permit extensions and rule relaxations to gladden a contractor's heart. Perversely, it also contains an amendment that protects Florida's springs and forces new homes to have eco-friendly sewage systems.

.....

Sen. Mike Bennett, R-Bradenton, and Rep. Chris Dorworth, R-Lake Mary, want to abolish the state's growth management agency, the Department of Community Affairs. DCA put the kibosh on such godawful proposals as 13,000 houses and 4 million square feet of commercial space on 5,000 flood-prone acres of wetland ecosystem in Sarasota County, a subdivision that would pollute Leon County's Lake Jackson, a state aquatic preserve, and a "resort" with a huge marina and a yacht channel dug through the sea grasses that act as marine life nurseries in Taylor County.

It may not be entirely irrelevant that Bennett is a contractor and Dorworth a real estate broker.

Florida Forever is often described as "one of the best conservation programs in the world." Yet it's currently top of the state's endangered environmental programs list, even though more than 80 percent of Floridians say they support it. ..... Many legislators and more developers would prefer to see concrete on those wild lands. They argue that freeing up building permits will create jobs — quit worrying about wetlands and start putting up drywall. "The theme of these bills is 'get regulation off our backs,' " says Charles Pattison of 1,000 Friends of Florida. "That mentality believes that all growth — no matter where it occurs — is good."

Indeed, developers are tanned, rested and ready: They want to build more than 600,000 new houses. They want to raise whole new towns, including one called "Destiny," a new city of 100,000 on a vast chunk of Osceola County pasture. ..... But more than 300,000 houses around the state stand empty. That's not counting foreclosures. ..... So who is going to live in all these houses? Florida can't count on aging baby boomers to rescue our economy. We can't count on young families to move here, either, given that insurance rates in Florida are crazy-high and school funding is criminally low. ..... A cynical person might think the Legislature's passion for development has something to do with developers' campaign contributions. Or maybe it's the well-lubricated job opportunities post-term limits: Former state Rep. Randy Johnson is now shilling for the Destiny project. No matter that most Americans look with horror on the way lax regulation and licensed venality have brought us to the brink of financial ruin, Florida's lawmakers see nothing wrong with wildcat development. There's a near-religious faith that Florida can turn the clock back to the fat years.

.....

Part of the Legislature's hostility to limiting growth and safeguarding the ecosystem is ideological. Lawmakers point to a report produced by the James Madison Institute, a Tallahassee think tank of laissez-faire fetishists and Ayn Randistas. The report's author, FSU economist Randall G. Holcombe, has said that government is "unnecessary but inevitable" and regulating growth in Florida somehow abridges citizens' rights. His "Creating a Public/Private Partnership for Florida's Conservation Lands Management" claims private firms could save the state money. Conservation experts and environmentalists are skeptical. "The 'free market solves everything' approach brought us the recent financial meltdown," says Guest. "This ideology is currently in profound disrepute."

Moreover, Guest points out, Gov. Jeb Bush (professor Holcombe was a member of his Council of Economic Advisers) famously tried privatizing various state functions such as compiling electoral rolls. The result was tens of thousands of voters disenfranchised in the 2000 presidential election.

.....

Florida's survival hangs in the balance.

[newfie11]

1. 600,000 new houses, build new towns???

are they crazy. Well yes of course they are, I didn't need to even ask that.

They can't sell the houses that are for sale NOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[nashville_brook]

3. i really don't see where the profit is in this - it's killing the real estate market

we've got TOO MUCH "product" out there right now.

[n2doc]

4. My thought too

New housing starts are near an all time low. The only thing that makes sense is if they want to "set the table" for after the depression is over. Of course, Florida may be under water by that time...

[Wednesdays]

6. Follow the money

It'd be worthwhile to check out who'll be snatching up all that real estate at bargain-basement prices.

[UTUSN]

2. K&R #4 n/t

[nichomachus]

5. Why do you think they went to such great lengths to destroy the economy

This is all part of the plan. Don't people get it yet? Once they've brought the country to its knees economically, they can do anything they want.