How should Florida spend surplus?
somewhat disparate ideas, whichwe are broaching today. Here are mine:
the money to help pay the transition costs of a complete shift to a defined contribution, 401( k)- style pension plan for all state employees. Most private employers shifted from defined benefit to defined contribution pensions decades ago because they found the former to be unsustainable. Florida’s pension system is in good shape at the moment, but sowas Illinois’ at one point, and nowit is ruinously in the red. State employees deserve wage and benefit packages equal to those offered by quality private- sector businesses, but they don’t deserve more than theworkers paying the freight.
study this year using hard data shows that charter schools in most categories of student achievement score higher than traditional public schools. Yet, charter schools ( which are public schools) receive only about 60 percent of the funding of their traditional counterparts. Use some of the budget surplus to better fund charter schools, without shortchanging traditional public schools.
are vital to workforce training, yet they often are ignored by the Legislature in favor of the state’s universities, in particular its flagship institutions. The community colleges deserve better.
to Florida’s economy than it’swater resources, but as former Sen. Bob Graham and many others have pointed out, they have been badly neglected in recent years. Use some of the budget surplus to purchasewetlands, help fundwater management district projects, and improve pollution controls. potentially contributing to another budget bonanza.
Second, the governor and the Legislature could allocate all $ 845 million to the Ultimate Capitalist Investment Program, to see if, with the proper expertise and planning, it could transform one blighted, urban area into a productive tax base as a model for the state. The goalwould be to educate and train residents for productive employment, provide health and other social services to families, and create an environment to enhance existing businesses and attract new ones— most of what they despise.
No cronies of the governor or the Legislature need apply: A team of nationally recognized entrepreneurs, business leaders, bankers, teachers, job trainers, sociologists, health professionals, architects, general contractors, technologists, landscape designers; in short, anyone who could assess and put a price tag on the area’s human and infrastructure needs would develop and implement a master plan. If it requires more than the $ 845 million, corporations and foundations should be asked to contribute.
What are the chances ofmy ideas, especially the second, being implemented? Zero, of course. Money is the honey with which politicians buy votes. The governor and the Legislature can’twait to redistribute the surplus to their cronies. They won’t abandon them for the hoi polloi.
More importantly, they’d never agree to the Investment Program, terrified that it willwork, discredit Republican top- down economic policy, and set a precedent that could remake the nation.
For sure, it alsowould put an end to the hollowgesture of “listening” tours, if only the governorwould hear— and act!