A round-up of Sunday editorials from Florida’s leading newspapers

A round-up of Sunday editorials from Florida’s leading newspapers:

Tampa Bay Times – Florida cannot afford Scott’s corporate welfare

Gov. Rick Scott is campaigning to make Florida the king of corporate welfare. He toured the state last week to promote his $1 billion tax cut that would primarily benefit big business. On top of that, the governor wants to set aside $250 million in corporate giveaways in case his out-of-state photo opportunities produce the jobs he brags about. This is trickle-down economics at its worst, and Florida cannot afford to keep giving away tax dollars when it desperately needs to invest in itself after years of neglect.

By all appearances, Florida is broken. It cannot afford to build new highway lanes unless it slaps tolls on them. It is looking to allow hunting in state parks, which have been told they have to pay for themselves. Public schools struggle to pay for basic maintenance, and the University of Florida president’s highest hope is for a new boiler. The Justice Department is investigating the dangerous state prison system, and it also should investigate the shameful abuse and neglect exposed by the Tampa Bay Times and the Sarasota Herald-Tribune in state mental hospitals. The overburdened courts scrimp by on less than 1 percent of the state budget, and children continue to die from neglect and abuse even after they are on the state’s radar. Look in any direction, and the state’s basic infrastructure is crumbling as Scott travels in his private jet to Kentucky and New York to bribe companies with taxpayer handouts to bring jobs here.

Need more evidence about the governor’s misplaced priorities? Environmentalists are suing the state because it has failed to invest in preserving land as voters demanded by approving Amendment 1. Forestry firefighters travel to western states to fight blazes because they cannot make ends meet on their state salaries. The state crime lab is backed up for weeks because it can’t pay its analysts enough to keep them. Aging computers are issuing thousands of drivers licenses with the wrong addresses. And Florida spent more than $400 million this year to help hospitals cover the cost of treating the uninsured because Scott and Republican lawmakers refused to accept federal Medicaid expansion dollars that would have covered many of the same people. This failure to invest has real consequences for millions of Floridians,  from public school students to crime victims to the uninsured.

The Bradenton Herald – SMR’s major improvements to Premier Sports Campus bound to pay off

Manatee County’s surging sports industry will likely witness another spike with an expansion of the Premier Sports Campus in Lakewood Ranch. Schroeder-Manatee Ranch, the developer of the award-winning master-planned community, unveiled plans this month to erect 3,000 stadium seats, restrooms, a concession stand, medical room and meeting space, all within seven months.

Upon opening in April 2011, Premier earned a sterling reputation for its carpetlike grass stretching across 23 playing fields on 145 acres. But spectators had to haul in lawn chairs or blankets to watch soccer and other sports. Portable toilets served visitors.

In commenting last week on the not-so-surprising jump in Manatee County’s tourism industry, county Commissioner Vanessa Baugh cited the growth:

“And it’s not just because of our beaches; it’s the diversity we have in our county. The new thing right now is sports.”

Indeed, as we’ve opined before, the county is blessed with economic engines such as the internationally renowned IMG Academy as well as Premier Sports, the Ellenton Ice and Sports Complex and many other sports-related businesses.

The Daytona Beach News-Journal – District decides one size fits all

The Volusia County School Board knows it wants to dress students in school uniforms next year. It just has no idea what those uniforms will look like.

Rather than fixing the current, apparently broken dress code, board members on Tuesday voted unanimously to scrap it and replace it with a – literally – uniform policy. Well, sort of. The board agreed each level of schooling – elementary, middle and high – should have its own policy, with high schoolers being given more leniency. Apparently they will be trusted to wear open-toed shoes responsibly, whereas those on the lower levels will be required to have closed-toe footwear.

But the nature of other attire – polo shirts, slacks, shorts, skirts – remains up in the air. District officials are expected to present a more detailed policy for the board’s consideration in December.

The move toward uniforms has been in the works for months following widespread dissatisfaction with the status quo, a dress code that is unevenly enforced. The News-Journal’s Dustin Wyatt recently reported that DeLand High School, the district’s third-largest school, had the most dress-code violations in the past year with 370. By comparison, Spruce Creek, a larger school, had 23.

Does that mean that DeLand students collectively dress “worse” than their counterparts across the county? Not likely. The discrepancies probably reflect different enforcement and reporting practices by various school administrations.

The Florida Times-Union – Cheers: Sontag Foundation strengthens the fight against brain cancer

Bravo to the Sontag Foundation for providing $1.2 million to two researchers seeking to make significant breakthroughs in treating brain cancer.

The Ponte Vedra Beach foundation awarded separate $600,000 grants to Peter Fecci and Kyle Walsh, who are researchers at Duke University and the University of California, San Francisco, respectively.

In all, the Sontag Foundation has donated more than $25 million over the years to back research on brain cancer.

The foundation deserves our community’s gratitude for its ongoing and significant support toward the effort to fight a terrible disease.

Florida Today – Candidates’ tax plans could shake Brevard

If you work in the health care, defense or space industries – or sell to people who do – it’s time to pay closer attention to the presidential candidates’ tax and spending plans.

If you’re retired or have a child bound for college someday, you should tune in, too.

Here’s why: Almost all of the leading candidates’ tax plans would worsen deficits and debt, even after accounting for strong economic growth spurred by reform. Just breaking even on those plans – and matching the deficit spending under President Obama – would require hundreds of billions of dollars in annual cuts.

Consider these highlights from candidates’ plans and the analysis of them by the nonpartisan, pro-business Tax Foundation in Washington.

The Gainesville Sun – Cheers and jeers 

After Florida just held its first bear hunt in decades, state officials are now considering allowing hunting in state parks.

What perfect timing for Gov. Rick Scott to receive an award for being such a wonderful conservationist.

The Fish and Wildlife Foundation of Florida is honoring Scott tonight for his conservation record. It’s no wonder that animals advocates are planning to protest the ceremony.

Jeer: Scott and Department of Environmental Protection leadership, for a wretched conservation record that now include the consideration of hunting in state parks. As the Tampa Bay Times reported, a checklist to allow planners to consider hunting in the largest state parks was recently expanded to include each of the state’s 161 parks.

The idea follows proposals to expand cattle grazing and other revenue-generating activities in state parks such as Paynes Prairie Preserve. As state Rep. Jack Latvala, R-Clearwater, put it, allowing hunting in state parks “would be a disaster waiting to happen.”

State parks already pay 77 percent of their own expenses, but DEP Secretary Jon Steverson has said he wants the number to be 100 percent. The Scott administration previously tried to put private golf courses and privatized RV camping in state parks.

Despite that record – or perhaps because of it – the Fish and Wildlife Foundation of Florida is honoring Scott and his wife for their “leadership for effective conservation and youth engagement in Florida.” The foundation is a support group for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, which is run by the governor’s appointees.

The Lakeland Ledger – A wonky issue worthy of watching

Earlier this month Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul reintroduced legislation to audit the Federal Reserve, the agency that controls the nation’s money supply. Paul garnered the support of his fellow GOP presidential contenders, Sens. Ted Cruz of Texas and Marco Rubio of Florida. Other candidates for the GOP nomination, such as New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and former Pennsylvania senator Rick Santorum, have also voiced support for such a proposal.

Yet it’s not just a Republican idea. Congressman Alan Grayson, an Orlando Democrat whose district includes much of eastern Polk County, for years has championed a full-scale audit and greater transparency at the nation’s central bank.

We note this because Monday marks 101 years since the 12 branches of the Fed, as it’s commonly known, opened for business.

The bank’s past may shape its future as the Republican battle royal continues. The Washington Post noted last week that concern about the operation and leadership of the Fed was one issue that united all the GOP hopefuls during the Milwaukee debate.

Opponents of opening the bank’s books – current Fed board chairwoman, Janet Yellen, her predecessor, some presidents of the Fed’s individual branches and many economists – maintain Paul’s bill is simply a bad idea. They claim it’s unnecessary, since the Fed is already audited internally, as well as by a top outside accounting firm and the Government Accountability Office, Congress’ investigative agency.

 Miami Herald – An ‘Act of war’ against Paris

Since our own horrific 9/11, al-Qaida and the Islamic State have killed thousands of innocent people in terrorist attacks across the world.

But the carnage in Paris is different.

Not since World War II has Paris seemed so vulnerable – and if Paris is vulnerable so is the Western World.

Friday’s attack was executed by eight suicide bombers who targeted locations crowded with people enjoying the start of the weekend.

The Islamic State is proudly taking credit for killing people sitting at outdoor cafés, attending a concert by an American band, and outside a crowded soccer stadium where even the president of France was present.

That the terrorists did not enter that stadium seems a blessing or the work of security personnel.

The Paris attacks will change America, too. Our presidential election just took a shot of sobering reality; our current president might now have yet another “American boots on the ground” decision to make.

Now, the tenor of the upcoming G20 summit in Turkey has a critical focus.

French President Francois Hollande said it simply: “It’s an act of war.” He’s right and heaven help us all as to what that means for the U.S. and Europe.

The Ocala StarBanner – Ryan and Social Security’s future

The Washington Post recently reported that new House Speaker Paul Ryan is determined to pursue major changes to Social Security. That’s bad news because, while the system clearly needs some adjustments to ensure it has a solvent future, it is not in need of an extreme overhaul and certainly not privatization, as Ryan has often suggested. Indeed, Ryan’s plans could be counterproductive.

Over-amped political rhetoric has created a sense of hopelessness about Social Security. But set aside the doomsday scenarios and focus on the projections of the trustees’ report: Even after reserves run out by the mid-2030s, incoming revenue will be able to cover more than 70 percent of benefits through 2088 and beyond, they’ve concluded.

It’s no ringing endorsement of the status quo, for sure, but it’s far from the death sentence that many have said Social Security faces.

Among other steps, Ryan has suggested privatizing a portion of Social Security – an action that Hillary Clinton rightly called a giveaway to Wall Street, which would rake in investment fees even as the system’s financing is undermined.

That’s wrongheaded and unnecessary. What’s needed instead are modest steps that will strengthen Social Security across several decades. These cannot be short-term fixes but need to be long-term solutions. The adjustments could include:

— A very gradually imposed increase in the Social Security tax. It is estimated that raising it from today’s 12.4 percent (split between employer and employee) to 15.02 percent, over 20 years, would eliminate more than half of the projected shortfall. Keep in mind, there are more and more people are collecting Social Security benefits while at the same time ratio between contributing workers and beneficiaries continues to widen.

Orlando Sentinel – Support for sugar policy hurts Rubio

Florida Sen. Marco Rubio so far has proved himself skilled at ducking punches concerning his missed Senate votes and his use years ago of a Republican Party credit card. But last Tuesday’s debate among GOP presidential candidates featured a new line of attack – Rubio’s sweet tooth.

We’re not talking about leftover Halloween candy. We’re talking about Rubio’s eagerness to gobble up contributions from the sugar industry while supporting a federal program to protect the U.S. sugar industry from foreign competition. It’s a program that many Republicans – including one of Rubio’s key rivals for conservative voters – have called “corporate welfare.”

To be sure, the swing that Texas Sen. Ted Cruz aimed at Rubio during the debate hardly was a haymaker. In fact, most of the audience probably did not understand that Cruz was taking a jab at Rubio when Cruz said his plan to slash the federal budget included eliminating “corporate welfare, like sugar subsidies.”

Cruz continued, “Sugar farmers farm under roughly 0.2 percent of the farmland in America, and yet they give 40 percent of the lobbying money.” And, Cruz said, “That sort of corporate welfare is why we’re bankrupting our kids, and grandkids. I would end those subsidies to pay for defending this nation.”

While it doesn’t involve direct subsidies, the sugar program utilizes government loans, import quotas and tariffs to prop up prices for U.S. producers and protect them from foreign competition.

The Pensacola News-Journal – The vetting of Ben Carson

Ben Carson has much to commend him. He was raised in poverty by a single mother and rose to the pinnacle of medicine, becoming an accomplished pediatric neurosurgeon. He and his wife have established a scholarship fund for needy kids. And his low-key way of speaking is a pleasant change from some of the loudmouths seeking the Republican presidential nomination and other political offices.

But none of this means that Carson is either immune from tough scrutiny or entitled to play fast and loose with the facts.

Because Carson, like Donald Trump and Carly Fiorina, has no prior experience in government but now seeks the nation’s highest office, the need for careful vetting is even greater for him than for someone who has long been in the political arena. While politics is not as technical as medicine, there is something to the argument that handing the White House to a political neophyte is like being operated on by an untrained surgeon.

The world is a very dangerous and complex place. Even an old hand at foreign policy is going to struggle to find the right level of U.S. engagement in places such as Syria and Iraq, manage the rise of China, and figure out what to do with Vladimir Putin’s newly aggressive Russia. Some of President Obama’s foreign policy missteps stem from his lack of experience in that area when he took office.

What’s more, American politics is more polarized than it has been in generations, with both parties retreating to their ideological corners. Carson’s backers push the idea that the problem can be fixed by an outsider, one who just happens to be on the far right of the political spectrum.

The Palm Beach Post – Learn from tragedy by shoring up state boating laws

People who know boats and love the water know how quickly weather and circumstances can change. One moment, the Atlantic is calm and serene. Minutes later, a squall rises, and rough waves can send even a sturdy boat bobbing and listing like a bathtub toy.

In these dicey circumstances, having the right equipment on board and the right training can mean the difference between life and death. In the wake of the tragic disappearance of 14-year-old Tequesta teens Perry Cohen and Austin Stephanos, last seen July 24, a good solution has been proposed by state Sen. Joe Negron, R-Stuart, and Rep. MaryLynn Magar, R-Hobe Sound. It would reduce vessel registration fees for boaters who invest in personal beacons.

We support such a measure, but we hope legislators will seize this moment and go further, focusing on improving Florida’s boating laws so that they are more in line with other states’. Because if the boys’ 19-foot vessel really did capsize – it was found by the Coast Guard, overturned, on July 26, about 65 nautical miles from Daytona Beach – a beacon’s intermittent pulse might not be the complete solution to preventing tragedy.

As we’ve noted before, Florida has among the highest rates of boating accidents in the nation. Florida had 11.5 percent of the nation’s boating deaths in 2014, even though it has just 7.4 percent of the nation’s registered recreational vessels.

According to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, 73 people died while boating in the state that year. Most (28 percent) fell overboard. In all, there were 634 boating accidents resulting in 365 injuries. Alcohol and drugs played a role in 12 percent of the deaths.

The Panama City News-Herald – Chapman Republican tax fantasies

The Republican presidential candidates have not rallied behind Ben Carson in his clash with the news media, but they should be grateful to him. His misrepresentation of reality on matters concerning his past has distracted attention from his rivals’ misrepresentations of reality on a matter concerning the nation’s future: tax policy.

The GOP was once the party willing to challenge entrenched dogma on taxes, arguing that they have a major influence on the supply of labor and capital, as well as economic growth. That was the rationale behind the reduction in marginal income tax rates under President Ronald Reagan.

It was a bracing insight that many economists now accept to one degree or another. But in practice, it fell short of hopes. A study of Reagan’s 1981 tax cuts concluded they did not enhance the vigor of the economy or the willingness of taxpayers to work. The study had particular credibility because it was co-authored by Martin Feldstein – who had been Reagan’s chief economic adviser.

But as is often the case in theological disputes, the heresy has morphed into dogma. Modern Republicans no longer assert the benefits of reducing tax rates when they are so high as to cause destructive effects. Modern Republicans think reducing tax rates is the only thing to do in every economic circumstance.

South Florida Sun Sentinel – All Americans entitled to real entitlement reform

The recent congressional budget deal got the country tested debt-limit crisis until after the 2016 election. It did little, however, to get the country past the entitlement crisis that especially affects Florida.

No state has a higher percentage of residents 65 and older. Florida politicians of both parties faced a potential double whammy last month when all seniors learned that their Social Security checks would stay the same next year but some monthly Medicare premiums would increase as much as 50 percent.

Congress mostly solved the Medicare problem with a $7.5 billion loan. The maximum premium increase will be 15 percent, and it will apply to more affluent seniors. Long-term, however, lawmakers must keep Medicare and Social Security solvent by acknowledging the needs of seniors without unfairly burdening younger Americans and business owners.

Seniors blamed President Obama and Congress when they didn’t get a raise. In fact, Social Security’s cost-of-living adjustment was linked to inflation – not political decisions – four decades ago. Since this is the third time in seven years that checks haven’t gone up, some lawmakers want to change the system.

The Tallahassee Democrat – Caring for Alzheimer’s patients can be arduous

Imagine your loved ones unable to remember who you are or what you mean to them – years of memories suddenly lost. Perhaps you no longer recognize the person now living inside a familiar body, the result of major personality shifts that cause sudden and unpredictable mood changes. That’s what my family and I experienced with my mother-in-law, Irene, before she passed away a year ago, ending her 10-year battle with dementia.

The heartbreaking reality of Alzheimer’s is that the insidious disease declares war on the mind, mounting an all-out assault on the intellectual capabilities of some 5 million Americans. About one in 10 of them live among us here in Florida. That’s why it’s especially important that we pay particular attention during Alzheimer’s Awareness Month, which runs throughout November.

According to the Alzheimer’s Association, someone in the United States develops the disease every 67 seconds. That’s just the tip of the iceberg, through, since the disease also afflicts countless family members and friends who are called upon to serve as caregivers.

My husband’s parents, Gene and Irene, were married for an awe-inspiring 66 years, and his mother was able to live that entire time in her home with the man she loved. Our whole family pitched in to support Gene, freeing him up so he could focus his attention and his energy on taking daily care of his beloved wife. It was emotionally and physically draining, but we have no regrets.

The Tampa Tribune – Wildlife corridor film breathtakingly illustrates need to save Florida’s remaining treasures