Mark Wilson Wins Again

Florida businesses will get an $830 million tax break in unemployment compensation. The tax cut will be for 2 1/2 years. How is Florida to pay unemployment compensation to laid-off workers, you ask. Florida doesn't. The fund has been drained. Florida borrows money from the federal government to pay out unemployment compensation. The state may be constitutionally mandated to have a balanced budget. That is done through accounting smoke and mirrors. This is the classic Florida Republican tax shift game.

Ellyn Bogdanoff wrote this horrible last minute amendment. 39 state senators voted for the amendment. The amendment makes no sense with Florida's current budget problems. Yet it received bipartisan support. That is because Mark Wilson wanted this tax cut.

"Unemployment compensation tax reform is vital in positioning Florida as one of the most favorable business climates in the global marketplace,” said Mark Wilson, president and CEO of the Florida Chamber of Commerce . “Passage of this important bill will help secure Florida’s future and build on the Florida Chamber’s efforts to create a more stable and predictable business climate."

Wilson is the most powerful man in Florida politics. What Wilson wants he gets. Wilson is also hurting Florida by driving the state deeper into debt. Wilson is the same man that successfully limit unemployment compensation and speed up foreclosures. It is hard to think of any person whom is hurting Florida working class people more than Wilson.

Update: Florida Senate Majority Leader Andy Gardiner sent out this email.

Facing a $1.4 billion shortfall, the Senate stayed true to its commitment to balancing the budget without raising taxes on Floridians and directing revenue toward areas that will support job growth while serving the critical needs of Florida. Lawmakers agreed upon a $70.04 billion budget with more than $90.3 million in tax relief measures. Along with Governor Scott, the Republican caucus showed its commitment to education, supporting more than a $1 billion in additional funding for K-12 education.

Only Florida Republicans can equate borrowing money from the federal government with balancing the budget.

Mark Wilson Has Been Busy

The Florida legislature is passing $124 million in tax cuts. The cuts will go to benefit corporations. The cuts will go to benefit corporations.

(Gov. Rick) Scott is pushing a key element in the package that would increase the corporate tax exemption from $25,000 to $50,000, excluding 3,770 companies from the 5.5 percent tax and reducing state revenue by $29.4 million. The governor wants to phase out the corporate tax, which accounted for nearly $2 billion in state revenue last year.

Scott and other Republicans are billing this as a jobs bill. Florida has one of the lowest corporate tax rates at 5.5 percent. The result is the state has been running deficits shortfalls, which resulted in budget cuts. The corporate taxes have not produced jobs, as can be seen by the chart below.



Florida's unemployment is higher than the national average. There is no evidence that corporate tax cuts produce jobs. It is merely a talking point for Scott and fellow Republicans.

This legislation has Florida Chamber of Commerce president Mark Wilson. A man who represents everything that is wrong about Florida politics.

Wilson lobbied for the the Polk County Sunrail line. The only reason the project was approved because the line was near JD Alex Alexander's business Atlantic Blue. The property value of Atlantic Blue would increase greatly.

Alexander and Scott didn't approve the Sunrail line over high-speed rail over fiscal concerns. The high-speed line would cost $280 million and create 23,000 job. The Sunrail line will cost the state $901 million. State and Polk county would have to pay the cost for any Sunrail accidents caused by CSX. The deal is stupid beyond words.

Wilson's latest goal is gerrymandering the redistricting process. The most powerful man in Florida politics can't be bothered with subtlety. Wilson believes he is above the constitutionally-mandated fair districts law.

"Anybody who understands politics looks at a redistricting and says, 'This is a chance to reset the table,' Wilson said.

Many Floridians were illegally thrown out of their homes with forged foreclosure documents. Attorney General Pam Bondi has been accused by for employees of stonewalling an investigations of questionable foreclosures by banks. Florida's foreclosure courts do not review the documents, before forcing a homeowner to vacate his property. Apparently, the foreclosure process is too slow for Wilson.

"As our economy tries to recover, we recognize there is a lot of pain in the foreclosure process but the delay in the foreclosures is drawing out that pain throughout the entire economy."

Wilson can help you with your pain by making the chances that you become homeless greater. What a nice guy.

Horrible SunRail Project Approved

Florida state Sen. Paula Dockery comes out against Gov. Rick Scott's decision to move SunRail forward.

“This morning, Governor Scott had his Secretary of Transportation announce that he will betray the trust of the conservative electorate who put him in office by moving forward with the least cost-efficient commuter rail project in the nation. This decision has completed the governor’s transformation from businessman to political insider. When the SunRail/CSX commuter project is viewed from a purely business vantage point, the project falls so far below what a savvy business owner would accept that it is somewhat baffling. It is unclear if when making the decision the governor had a change of heart, if he simply succumbed to the desires of the big money special interests, or if he has a severe case of amnesia and thought that he was supposed to be representing CSX instead of Florida’s taxpayers. Governor Scott’s general counsel, a former CSX executive, admitted to giving blatantly false financial facts regarding High Speed Rail in front of the Florida Supreme Court. For that reason, it is overwhelmingly disappointing but not altogether surprising that the facts about SunRail, a sacred cow of special interests, would be ignored and the decision would be based upon arguments put forward by highly paid public relations consultants, using Floridians tax dollars. The facts are as follows: nationwide, this is the lowest rated project for cost-effectiveness by the federal government, low ridership estimates, excessive liability is transferred from a for-profit corporation onto all Florida citizens, and it is a blank check waiting to be written by the taxpayers for any and all cost-overruns and operating subsidies. While ‘warnings’ were given to the local governments during Tuesday’s dog and pony show, this fact remains: the agreement between the federal government and the State of Florida clearly places the financial responsibility for all but $300 million of a $2.6 billion project squarely on the backs of Florida taxpayers.”

Dockery is correct. SunRail is rated the least cost effective rail project. I wrote that I had problem with the fact that Florida pays CSX for the tracks. CSX is also off the hook for any liability, if CSX is responsible for faulty upkeep of the tracks.

I noted the Sen. J.D. Alexander pushed for SunRail because he stood to financially gain.

The blog Stop CSX in Polk County broke the story that Alexander's was purchasing Phoenix Industries. Alexander owns Altantic Blue. The company bought Phoenix Industries, a frozen food vender that does business with CSX. The transporation bill would have placed CSX's new hub near Alexander's warehouse. One needs a scorecard to track Alexander's conflicts of interest.

Below is a cost comparison between SunRail and high speed rail. The maximum cost of the federally funded high speed rail project for Florida would be $280 million. The maximum cost of the SunRail project would cost Florida taxpayers $901 million. The counties that would have been involved with the high speed rail project would have zero tax obligation. Volusia, Seminole, Orange and Osceola counties would have to pay $526 million. Scott's idea of fiscal conservatism is turning down federal money and making Floridians pay for a rail project few people wanted.

23,000 would have been created from the high speed rail project. Only 8,000 jobs would have been created from SunRail. There are no private investors involved with SunRail. The high speed rail project has secured $400 million. Scott hates President Obama so much that he took the better deal. It also puts the rest the bogus claim that Scott has a brilliant business mind. No smart business man would take SunRail over the high speed rail project. It makes no fiscal sense.

High Speed Rail v. SunRail

Update: A very big reason SunRail was approved by Scott. Florida Chamber of Commerce President Mark Wilson approves of the project.

“SunRail is a smart infrastructure investment. This is another example of Gov. Scott and the legislature putting Florida’s long-term goals ahead of the short-term interests of a few.”

Scott gives a reason for approving SunRail that I don't buy.

Scott said his lawyers told him there was a “significant risk” he would have lost a similar court challenge had he tried to block the commuter project.

Scott's Florida Supreme Court victory set a (very bad) legal precedent. Scott was given legal authority to ignore legislation approved by his predecessor Charlie Crist. Scott claims that the legal ramifications of high speed rail and SunRail are totally different. Scott fails to cite how that is so. I call bullshit on Scott's legal claim.

Florida Corporate Tax Cut Madness

Scott Maxwell details how given Darden Restaurants a corporate tax cut would be more than what the company pays in taxes.

Legislators were trying to help Darden Restaurants get a tax break.

Their problem was this: The Fortune 500 company was paying so little in corporate-income taxes on its headquarters in Orange County that the break was bigger than its tax bill.

And it's hard to find a way to let the company to pay less … than nothing.

This, my friends, is the state of corporate taxation in Florida.

Florida has a 5.5 percent corporate tax rate. Which is one of the lowest in the country. There are also the endless loopholes in the tax code. Gov. Rick Scott plans to eventually eliminate Florida's corporate tax. Contrary to what Scott and other Republicans say, eliminating corporate taxes isn't about creating more jobs. It is about maximizing profits.

Corporations are in the business of money. It is understandable that they would want more profits. I just wish people like Mark Wilson, of the Florida Chamber of Commerce, would be honest and stop saying eliminating corporate taxes is about job creation.

Rick Scott Signs SB 408

Gov. Rick Scott's office has been flooded with emails and phone calls urging him to not sign SB 408. Florida Sen. Mike Fasano said homeowners would see their insurance increase if Scott signed the legislation.

“On behalf of the constituents I represent, and all homeowners in Florida, I am disappointed that this bad piece of legislation has been signed into law,” Senator Fasano states. “For an administration which vowed not to support new taxes or fees, this bill virtually guarantees a 15% premium “reinsurance” increase for Florida policy holders. This is a backdoor tax and fee increase that will hurt most homeowners with a mortgage, consumers and small business owners at a time with very high foreclosure and unemployment rates, all during a fragile economic recovery.”

Of course, Scott signed SB 408.

When Florida Gov. Rick Scott signed SB 408 today, he said, “A healthy, stable and competitive private insurance market is critical to the success of Florida, given the hazards we face. I commend the Florida Legislature, especially Sen. Richter and Rep. Wood, for bringing this important legislation forward.”

The new law allows insurers to raise rate without the approval of the Florida legislature. Homeowners will have to pay for their own repairs before insurance companies will offer reimbursements. If you can't pay for your own repairs then insurance companies won't reimbursement. Homeowners previously were allowed five years to file a claim. The new law shortens the time to three years.

The man who pushed for this legislation is Mark Wilson, president of the Florida Chamber of Commerce.

“Despite what the critics say, signing this bill into law is the first step toward stabilizing Florida’s property insurance market. It will increase competition by attracting insurance companies that currently do not write property insurance policies in Florida,” said Mark Wilson, president Florida Chamber of Commerce.

Wilson fails to mention the 15 percent cost increase homeowners will likely face yearly. Insurance companies claim that they are losing money. Fact: State farm made $2.6 billion profit during the past decade. State Farm is involved with the offshore company DaVinci Reinsurance Ltd. Since DaVinci is not based in the Florida it can charged the highest rates. State Farm claims not to own DaVinci. Yet DaVinci has picked up its clients from State Farm and refuses to disclose who is on its board. A Google Map search of DaVinci's Burmurda address reveals it to be located at a yacht club.

The insurance industry isn't hurting in Florida. They are rigging the system to its advantage.

Florida Republicans Equate Unemployed With Pigs.

Florida Sen. Nancy Detert sent out this gag-inducing press release.

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – Senator Nancy Detert, R-Venice, released the following statement today on the passage of Unemployment Compensation reform:

“As Chair of the Senate Committee on Commerce and Tourism, I worked with and included provisions requested by my colleagues in the House, the business community, the Governor and his agencies, and advocates for the unemployed, to ensure our state’s unemployment compensation system remains a solvent safety net for those in need.

“The proposed reforms provide relief to employers by weeding out individuals taking undue advantage of the system and provide relief to the unemployed by offering additional assistance to help them get back to work. The bill also saves administrative costs which can be reallocated to make sure those receiving benefits are meeting the requirements of the program. By modernizing and streamlining the current system we will be able to help more Floridians who are struggling to find work.

“Through an innovative concept of using a sliding scale to adjust the available weeks of unemployment compensation benefits based on the unemployment rate, the reforms include tax relief for businesses while ensuring we continue to provide for those actively seeking employment.

“Unemployed Floridians are hurting, and so is our state’s business community, which finances our state’s Unemployment Compensation Trust Fund. We have a responsibility to uphold our commitment to out-of-work Floridians while providing tax relief to our state’s businesses as they continue to weather the difficult economy.

“I want to thank Chair Dorothy Hukill and Rep. Doug Holder for the joint package. This is a big step toward helping our small businesses to stay in business and to hire more employees.”

Before the passage of this legislation Florida had one of the worst unemployment systems in the country.Getting unemployment compensation is a paperwork nightmare. The National Employment Law Project ranked Florida's weekly $275 check as the 46th lowest in the country. Detert's legislation does not increase weekly unemployment checks.

Deter had a
uncompassionate answer to her critics.

“Pigs get fed, hogs get slaughtered,” Detert said. “Learn to like it or get nothing.”

Detert feels that the unemployed are pigs. Detert desribed her bill as "gift of the year" to the business community. It isn't hard to figure out where Detert's priorities lie.

Florida has one of the nation's highest unemployment rates at 11.5 percent. Mark Wilson of the Florida Chamber of Commerce pushed this bill through the Florida legislature. Wilson's reason is the less unemployment compensation businesses have to pay the more profits can be held onto. Wilson has fought for businesses to pay less for unemployment insurance and the workers to pay a bigger share. Wilson succeeded in getting the legislature to make Florida the only state with a sliding unemployment scale.

Under the House version, the national standard of 26 weeks of benefits would no longer be available to unemployed Florida workers. Instead, the maximum number of weeks would vary from 23 weeks when the state’s unemployment rate is as high as 10.5 percent to as low as 12 weeks when the rate drops to 5 percent.

What the Florida legislature is doing is creating a homeless stimulus program. The Florida economy has been in the tank for several years. Homelessness increased by 11 percent from 2008 to 2009. The national average during that time was 3 percent.

In Florida, unemployment increased by 67 percent from 2008 to 2009. Similarly, foreclosures went up by 34 percent and the number of households below the federal poverty line and paying more than half their income for rent went up by 18 percent. These rates were all higher than the national average.

"Not only did Florida have these increases, but it also had levels of risk factors that were high to begin with," Sermons said. "And that resulted in increased homelessness."

If people have no form of income coming in they are headed towards homelessness. Like Sen. Detert said, "Pigs get fed, hogs get slaughtered." The people in Florida getting slaughtered are the unemployed. As long as Mark Wilson is happy the Republicans in the Florida legislature are happy.

HB 1231 Harms Net Neutrality

Shame on Peter Schorsch for running a Florida Chamber of Commerce press release without doing the due diligence of researching it first. Commerce president Mark Wilson is backing HB 1231. Wilson is selling the legislation as a way to create jobs and modernize internet and telecommunications.

The first version of HB 1231 has telecom companies removed from the oversight of the Florida Public Service Commission. The word "monopoly service" would be removed. The legislation is moving back to the days of Ma Bell. Telecom monopolies are against federal laws. That was the whole point of breaking up Bell.

The legislation is anti-transparency and net neutrality. The FPSC or any other state agency would have

364.04, F.S.; providing that the commission has no jurisdiction over the content, form, or format of 32 rate schedules published by a telecommunications company; providing that a telecommunications company may undertake certain activities... and 36 364.08, F.S., relating to price regulation, regulatory methods for small local exchange telecommunications companies, experimental and transitional rates

Are you looking forward to being billed for those "experimental and transitional rates." You wouldn't know since, under the legislation, no state agency would be allowed to ask what those experimental rates are. The state would have a harder time investigating a telecom company of criminal wrongdoing since the FPSC wouldn't be allowed to see documents or obtain a search warrant.

revising provisions relating to access of the commission to certain records of a telecommunications company; repealing ss. 364.185, 364.19, and 364.27, F.S., relating to powers of the commission to investigate and inspect any premises of a telecommunications company, regulation of telecommunication contracts, and powers and duties as to interstate rates, respectively;

I like to hear Mark Wilson explain how keeping the FPSC from investigating telecom companies for price fixing is going to help create jobs.

Republican Union Busting

Mark Wilson, president of the Florida Chamber of Commerce wants union leaders to take an economics course.

"This is a sincere offer," he said. "I'm willing to pay for 100 union leaders to go through an Economics 101 class so that they have a basic understanding of how this economy works."

Unions are withdrawing money out of Regions Bank, Bank of America, PNC Bank, SunTrust Bank and Wachovia. The banks are member of the Chamber of Commerce. Unions are doing this in protest of the Paycheck Protection Act.

What unions are doing is classic political activism. After Rosa Parks was arrested for not giving up her seat on a Alabama bus. A boycott ensued. On June 4, 1956, the segregation of buses was ruled unconstitutional. The boycott also financially hurt white Montgomery, Alabama businesses. I doubt the union protests will be as successful. Unions are doing this because Wilson supports legislation that would financially destroy the right to collectively bargain. Unions don't need an economics lesson to understand that Wilson wants to lower wages and benefits.

The Palm Beach Post correctly pointed out that Republicans in the Florida legislature are using the legislation has political payback. Republicans don't want unions to be able to collect dues to engage in political purposes. Yet Republicans in Tallahassee have no problems in restarting the once banned Leadership Funds. The hypocrisy is staggering. Grover Norquist publicly said Republicans will break groups that don't back the GOP.

GROVER NORQUIST: "We plan to pick up another five seats in the Senate and hold the House through redistricting through 2012. And rather than negotiate with the teachers' unions' and the trial lawyers and the various leftist interest groups, we intend to break them."

Legally, the Payment Protection Act makes no sense. Laws are suppose to protect life, liberty and property. Who is harmed from a union member giving a voluntary deduction to the AFL-CIO? The Supreme Court ruled in Citizen United v. Federal Election Commission that government can not limit profit or non-profit corporate expenditures on political activity. The Payment Protection Act is designed strictly to limit union expenditures on political activity.

The Payment Protection Act will eventually be signed by Gov. Rick Scott. The legal challenges will begin after that.

Meet Mark Wilson: FL Chamber of Commerce President

Florida Chamber of Commerce president Mark Wilson made the claim that unions were busing in protesters from around the country.

"We've see the images on television: government unions from around America staging protests in Wisconsin," chamber president Mark Wilson says in a radio ad that began airing March 3, 2011. "They're not fighting for ordinary citizens, but grappling for power and money. Unfortunately, Florida is next on the union bosses' hit list. They're busing protesters to Central Florida right now to harass your courageous representatives."

Politifact rating this claim a pants on fire lie. Florida unions are not busing in protesters. Progress Florida and Susan Smith are organizing the Awake the State rallies and I doubt they could buy pizza for the protesters. This may come as a shock to Mr. Wilson but progressive activism doesn't pay as well as being the president of the Florida Chamber of Commerce.

What I was struck most was by this portion of Wilson's statement.

"They're not fighting for ordinary citizens, but grappling for power and money."

That begs the question: what is Mr Wilson fighting for. Excuse me but when did the president of the Florida Chamber of Commerce become a working class hero. Remember these comments Wilson made to the St. Petersburg Times after the Chamber was successful in funding the 2010 Florida Republican victories.

"If we don't have a good three or four years … then we've blown it," Wilson said during a legislative briefing before 50 area business leaders in Tampa on Tuesday morning. "This is our time in the business community to do what we do best."

It doesn't sound like Mr. Wilson is fighting for Tom Joad. Wilson is fighting to cut (the already low) state corporate tax and make employees pay a bigger portion into unemployment insurance. Wilson wants to pass on a tax increase to working class people to pay for a tax cut in unemployment taxes to corporations. I ask again, whose interest is Mr. Wilson fighting for.

Florida Chamber of Commerce Not Interested In Reform

Mark Wilson of the Florida Chamber of Commerce couldn't hide his glee to the St. Petersburg Times editorial board. Wilson knows that the Florida Chamber of Commerce owns the Florida legislature and Gov. Rick Scott.

"If we don't have a good three or four years … then we've blown it," Wilson said during a legislative briefing before 50 area business leaders in Tampa on Tuesday morning. "This is our time in the business community to do what we do best."

Wilson laid out what the Chamber wanted Scott and the legislature to make law.

• Spreading the risk on businesses that have to shore up the state's depleted unemployment insurance trust fund. Florida has been borrowing $300 million a month from the federal government to keep unemployment benefits flowing. One option the chamber floated: having employees pay a portion of the unemployment tax now paid by employers.

• Passing an education package that includes cutting back on teacher tenure, establishing teacher pay-for-performance, expanding access to virtual schools and creating education savings accounts.

• Tightening medical malpractice suits and venue-shopping for judges.

• Making Internet retailers responsible for collecting sales taxes on Florida transactions to capture an estimated $3 billion a year in lost state revenue.

• Pushing a property insurance system overhaul that was vetoed a year ago.

It is against federal law for states to tax internet businesses. That is good idea but dead on arrival. The rest of what the Chamber wants would screw over Floridians at the expense of the Commerce's self-interest. The proposal of taking unemployment taxes off of corporations and onto employees is horrible. This is nothing more than a tax shift.

What kind of education are students from internet classes and not being able to interact with teachers? Students would have less access and teachers wouldn't be able to keep a disengaged student from slacking off. Conservatives aren't suggesting that Harvard or MIT have only internet classes. Republicans want to kill public schooling and tort reform because teachers and trial lawyers have been longtime donors to the Democratic Party. This has been a longtime strategy by Grover Norquist.

"We plan to pick up another five seats in the Senate and hold the House through redistricting through 2012," he says. "And rather than negotiate with the teachers' unions and the trial lawyers and the various leftist interest groups, we intend to break them."

The Chamber of Commerce's proposals aren't about reform. This is financial and political self-interest placed ahead of Floridians. That is why Wilson refused to be critical of Scott to the Times editorial board.

In a meeting with the Times' editorial board later in the day, Wilson was hard pressed to find fault with any of Gov. Rick Scott's early moves in office — including controversial parts of the governor's proposed $66 billion budget that call for cutting per-pupil spending by 10 percent and laying off about 6,700 state workers.

Though some state legislators were sharply critical of Scott's budget, Wilson predicted that "80 percent" of the proposal will pass.

The Florida Republican establishment and Chamber of Commerce is the marriage made in policy hell.