The diary below is my attempt to get Kossacks to see Charlie Crist for what he truly is:
(Oh, and forgive me for the block quotes not being quite right, haven't figured it out yet)
Kossacks, please stop throwing your support behind Charlie Crist if he runs as an indie. He is nothing but a shameless, opportunistic, panderer who changes his positions on issues with the direction of the political winds. If we as progressives/liberals/whatevers want someone that is going to be progressive and stick to the democratic platform and issues that we care for, we should at least go with the candidate with the (D) in front of (behind?) his name. Look at where Independent got us with Lieberman. Wonder how many in Connecticut regret that vote.
(BTW, as an aside, Rick Scott of bilking the medicare system billions, or was it millions? fame is quietly campaigning for Florida Gov. Will do some research and write another diary at later date on him)
When he finally saw the outrage and the tremendous word of mouth organization against this union busting, anti minority bill, then he decided to vetoe it, but he was for it before he was against it.
From the St. Pete Times/Politifact 4/15/10
Florida Republican says Charlie Crist wasn't always against GOP led teacher tenure bill
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Buzz up!ShareThisGov. Charlie Crist's decision to veto a controversial education bill linking teacher raises to student performance created a swift backlash from Republicans who considered the measure a legislative priority.
House Majority Leader Adam Hasner, R-Delray Beach, reacted less than 10 minutes after Crist announced his veto of Senate Bill 6 on April 15, 2010.
"I'm disappointed that after sending his top policy staffer to the House Committee to testify in support of the proposal, Governor Crist would change his mind and now veto the bill," Hasner said in a press release.
We know Republicans have said Crist supported and would sign the bill -- Republican Party of Florida Chairman and state Sen. John Thrasher went as far as to say Crist promised he would sign the bill -- but did Crist ask a staffer to attend a committee hearing to indicate the governor's support?
State records show -- and video evidence confirms -- that a Crist staffer did attend a House committee hearing in support of the education bill.
On March 25, 2010, at a hearing of the House PreK-12 Policy Committee, Crist education policy chief Terry Golden said she supported the teacher pay bill on behalf of the Office of the Governor.
Here's a copy of the appearance record from the meeting, which was first obtained by the South Florida Sun-Sentinel.
PolitiFact Florida also watched an archived video of the 3-hour, 40-minute hearing, to see if Golden attended the meeting, and if she indicated she supported the teacher tenure bill. Two hours and 55 minutes into the committee hearing, Golden is recognized to speak.
She stands up from her seat and says: "The Office of the Governor waives in support." The comment is typical in committee meetings when a group indicates its position but does not wish to take the time to address the full committee. (If the first video link doesn't work, try this one).
And this from 10/24/09 St. Pete Times
A day off here, there
Crist is intimately familiar with how a politician's work schedule can become a campaign liability. In 2006, the Republican hammered Democrat Jim Davis, his gubernatorial rival, for frequently missing votes in Congress.
"I'll come to work every day," Crist said in one debate.
His campaign attacked Davis with ads featuring an empty chair. Later, Democrats turned the tables with emptychaircharlie.com, a Web site to highlight what they say is Crist's lax effort.
The Times/Herald reviewed Crist's daily calendars from his first day in office on Jan. 2, 2007, through Friday. Days in which he worked four hours or fewer were counted as half days. Holidays and weekends were excluded, though Crist occasionally attends events on those days. And particularly during the spring legislative session, there are days that begin early and run late. Also, when disasters strike — like Lady Lake's killer tornadoes Feb. 2, 2007— Crist is quickly on scene.
As governor, Crist earns $130,273 a year. Unlike other state employees, his work hours aren't strictly defined or mandated. He is not limited to 22 days off yearly, as are senior managers and political appointees in state government.
Crist didn't take his time off all at once. He took a personal day here, a half-day there.
Add all the blank time together and Crist hasn't scheduled at least 29.1 weeks of work — about 9.7 weeks a year. On 173 other days, Crist's schedule shows he worked between four and six hours. And on his half days, he was scheduled to work an average of 2.5 hours.
Crist's schedule shows he's often on a campaign — whether it's touting low crime rates or seeking a spot last year on Sen. John McCain's presidential ticket. Crist has flown to spots around the state and nation more than 525 times, according to his schedule, which doesn't list everywhere he goes.
Many of his schedules feature the cryptically labeled "Work and Call Time." Crist said he uses it to talk to staff, return calls, read reports or just have a few moments to focus on what's important.
During such time on Sept. 16 this year, he was spotted shopping with his wife at Bloomingdales in South Florida
And this from Politifact, which doesn't go on to show the devastating impact of his tax cuts. That of thousands of teacher losses, millions of dollars cut from municipal budgets for law enforcement, fire fighters and hey, just plain fixing the damned roads
Crist claims largest tax cut in Florida history
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Buzz up!ShareThisIn his final State of the State address, Gov. Charlie Crist made a big claim that we've heard before.
"In our first year, we guided our state through the storm of skyrocketing property taxes and property insurance," Crist said March 2, 2010, in front of a joint session of the Florida Legislature. "We worked together to enact meaningful property insurance reform and the largest tax cut in Florida history."
Crist has often touted his tax-cutting record and repeatedly said he and the Republican Legislature passed "the largest tax cut" in the state's history. He's made that claim in news releases, political speeches and in the first radio ad for his U.S. Senate campaign. We first put it to our Truth-O-Meter in September 2009.
Here's the background:
The property tax changes Crist is talking about were passed by the Legislature in 2007 and sold as the antidote to citizens' complaints that local government spending had spiraled out of control.
House Bill 1B required local governments to reduce their property tax rates to 2006 levels and mandated deeper cuts based on how much a local government collected in property tax dollars. The reported savings to taxpayers: $15.6 billion over five years.
House Bill 5B, meanwhile, let voters consider further property tax changes. Also known as Amendment 1, the changes — which included an additional homestead benefit, limited property value increases for non-homesteaded property and created portability for Save Our Homes — were approved by voters in January 2008. The savings: $9.3 billion over five years.
Combined, that's about $25 billion in predicted property tax savings over five years.
But those predictions don't jive with reality, we found.
Specifically, the governor's $25 billion estimate could be accurate only if:
• Property tax values increased as analysts predicted back when the tax package was passed (3 to 5 percent a year), and;
• Local governments failed to reduce their tax rates.
We will never know what governments would have done to their tax rates, but we do know about property tax values: They haven't gone up. They've gone down. Taxable property values dropped 15 percent in 2008, according to figures from county property appraisers. Property values dropped again in 2009 and are expected to drop in 2010.
That means the governor's projections are high.
And moreover, another tax cut is bigger -- Save Our Homes.
Save Our Homes, an amendment to the state Constitution approved by voters in 1992, limited increases to the property value of homesteaded property in Florida. While there is debate about whether those savings were offset by people without homestead exemptions, the savings to homesteaded property owners is quantifiable.
From 1996 to 2008, almost $1.9 trillion in property value went untaxed because of Save Our Homes. Using a conservative tax rate of 17 mills, that equates to $32 billion less in property taxes paid — or about $2.66 billion per year without adjusting for inflation. In 2007, the savings was about $7.27 billion and from 2004 to 2008 the estimated savings was more than $26 billion.
Those numbers certainly are bigger than Crist's tax package, in reality or projection.
The governor's office said it did not consider Save Our Homes when it made the claim that the Crist tax changes constitute the state's largest. Officials then provided data that showed the savings in the first years of Save Our Homes was modest. But that's because the large savings came in later years as Save Our Homes protected against increases to properties' taxable value.
The Crist-led changes to Florida's property tax structure certainly required the lowering of tax rates and assessment values throughout Florida. But there are all kinds of holes in projecting the size and scope of the legislation's impact. For example:
• The basis for the governor's estimate assumed a future that did not come to pass. Specifically, the governor's estimates relied on future property values continuing to increase and local governments failing to lower their property tax rate. We now know property values are decreasing.
• The governor's office admitted its projections are inaccurate because of declines in property values statewide.
• A state analysis concluded that the tax measures have failed to produce the savings estimated by the governor. Portability, for instance, was predicted to cut taxable property values by $11.5 billion in 2008. But it cut property values only $3.4 billion, the analysis showed.
In the absence of additional data, and with the knowledge that Save Our Homes has cut property tax bills for Florida residents $32 billion or more, we find no changes since we rated this in September. We can't agree with Crist that the 2007 and 2008 changes constitute the largest tax cut in state history. We rule Crist's statement False.
And let's not forget this whopper, which Politifact ties up in a nice neat bundle:
Charlie Crist says he didn't endorse stimulus bill
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Buzz up!ShareThisFlorida Gov. Charlie Crist, facing a potentially bruising Republican primary for the U.S. Senate, continues to run from any assertion that he is linked to President Barack Obama.
Last week Crist told reporters he didn't know Obama was traveling in Florida. On Wednesday, Crist told a national television audience he didn't endorse the $787 billion federal stimulus bill pushed by Obama and passed by Congress in February.
"I didn't endorse it," Crist told CNN host Wolf Blitzer. "I — you know, I didn't even have a vote on the darned thing. But I understood that it was going to pass and I wanted to be able to utilize it for the benefit of my fellow Floridians."
This, from the same man who skipped a Florida Cabinet meeting to campaign with Obama for the stimulus in Fort Myers in February? Who went on national talk shows and across the state selling the plan?
As the interview continued, Crist got on a roll.
"You know, unfortunately, the president thinks that everything we need to do for every problem that comes along is spend more money and that's just wrong," he said.
"Frankly, enough is enough. And I know that the people understand that. And I understand it. And I understand it because I'm the grandson of a Greek immigrant who came to this country with nothing, really taught me the value of a dollar, because his first job in America, in Altoona, Pa., was shining shoes for a living for $5 a month."
Crist's comments about the stimulus startled conservatives, Democrats, and frankly, us, who all remember things differently.
The conservative Club for Growth responded Thursday with an online television ad, criticizing Crist's support for the stimulus plan. And the Democratic National Committee blasted Crist's comments to reporters across the country.
Let's go back to earlier this year, to see what Crist had to say then.
From Hardball with Chris Matthews on Feb. 3: Speaking of the stimulus, Crist said, "It's going to help (Floridians') children. It's going to help their traffic situation. It's going to help produce more jobs here in the Sunshine State. That's a perspective that I have to have as, in essence, the CEO of Florida. And that's why I support it."
From Time on Feb. 10: "I see this package as a pragmatic, commonsense opportunity to move forward. I didn't campaign for Obama, we don't agree on everything, but he's my president, and my job is to help Florida stay in the black."
From Meet the Press on Feb. 22: Q: Why would you buck your own party, which did not vote for this plan in Congress, as you know, to support the stimulus?
Crist: "It's not a matter of bucking the party, it's a matter of helping the people. I mean, I really view it as an issue of what can I do that's best for the people of Florida? We've got almost 20 million people that live in the Sunshine State now. I think my obligation is in essence the CEO of the state, to do everything I can to help us get through this tough economy. Certainly this stimulus package, about $12.2 billion to Florida, will help Florida an awful lot."
And that's just a sampling.
And this from the Miami Herald 4/26/10. So while trying to duck and run from his endorsement of the Stimulus, his office is still trying to cash in on it's success.
Stimulus has helped 153,000 Florida workers
Sun Sentinel
Stimulus spending in Florida sped up in the first three months of this year, saving or creating the equivalent of 33,218 full-time jobs, the state's stimulus czar said on Friday.
Workers affected by these jobs amounted to 74,969, the state estimates. That includes many who were hired for some portion of the three-month period using stimulus dollars.
The grand total of Florida workers who were helped directly or indirectly by jobs saved or created since the start of the stimulus bill more than a year ago amounts to 153,000. That's the estimate from the federal Council of Economic Advisers.
Jobs `saved' means layoffs that were prevented as a result of the bill, officially known as the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.
A year ago, Florida expected to receive about $12.5 billion from the stimulus bill. Now the estimate is up to $19.5 billion.
Much of the difference comes from $1.25 billion of high-speed rail money awarded in January to develop train service linking Tampa and Orlando and eventually South Florida.
Florida's total includes extra unemployment benefits and other aid sent to individual residents.
We expected it to have a significant impact (on Florida's economy), and it has, said Don Winstead, special advisor to Gov. Charlie Crist. As we've seen additional awards, that impact has grown.
All this spending has not reversed the state's rising unemployment rate, which reached a record 12.3 percent in March. Stimulus proponents say it would be worse if not for the burst of federal spending.
Much of Florida's share has gone to schools, which contained the number of layoffs of teachers and other personnel.
Schools are struggling as is, but take this money out and the struggle would have been extremely more difficult, Winstead said.
Nationwide, the stimulus bill has saved or created jobs affecting an estimated 2.8 million workers