Marc Yacht: Florida takes a slow, sad slide under Rick Scott

Walkin’ Lawton Chiles may be the last of Florida’s governors who cared about Florida through action. He showed genuine concern for local families. During his tenure, necessary human service programs expanded, the environment had effective regulatory programs, public health flourished with strong programs regulating food service, sanitation, infectious disease, and maternal and child health.

I met Gov. Chiles and his wife Rhea on three occasions as Pasco County’s health officer. He appreciated government workers and reached out to them. I never had an invitation to visit Jeb Bush or Charlie Crist. I had thankfully retired and did not have to suffer the Rick Scott  agenda of agency downsizing and staff purges characteristic of his administration.

Florida memories of Chiles have faded. The effective selling that government is bad and can’t do anything right has been the mantra of conservative Republicans who have accomplished little more than devastate services and purge many talented state employees. That’s their legacy.

Politics runs rampant and civil service is on the wane. Florida is run more like a banana republic than an American state. The humorless, callous conservative control shows little empathy for the poor and prefers to enrich its friends through agency privatization.

Scott recently vetoed $461 million from the state budget. Until you comprehend the detail of those vetoes and understand the effect on the state’s environment, public education, health care, human services and, more specifically, raises for firefighters, one may cheer the cuts. The devil is in the details. Among the allocations denied are critical resources to education, healthcare, the homeless, community infrastructure needs such as bridges and water systems, public safety programs, and many other local and state projects.

Florida will suffer more from Scott’s leadership. His slash-and-burn philosophy may permanently scar the state. It should be noted that the poorest states in the nation typically have compromised public services, deteriorating infrastructure, underfunded public education, and the largest numbers of health uninsured. They are typically Republican states. Quality of life, public safety and needed oversight are victims of such cold-blooded stewardship.

The $461 million veto added to the lost $700 million that Scott and the Florida House rejected from the federal government will cripple Florida’s human service needs for years.

Aside from Florida potentially sliding into Third-World status, the overt antagonism between Scott and the Florida Senate threatens the necessary  cooperation with the House, the Senate and the governor’s office.

Florida cannot have growth by constricting jobs, opportunities, and infrastructure neglect. Corporations would be hard pressed to come to Florida. Executives look at community resources, the quality of education and standard of living. Tourism may suffer with concerns about food service and public safety. The Alliance for Retired Americans is urging people not to move to Florida and not just retirees: anyone.

Florida has not fared well under conservative leadership starting with Jeb Bush. Wise up, Floridians: The only way to move this train in a different direction is at the polls.

Marc Yacht M.D. is a retired physician living in Hudson, Fla. Column courtesy of Context Florida.