‘Awake Again’ rallies mark end of disastrous Florida legislative session

They say that all good things must come to an end.

Thankfully, so do bad things.

In the wee hours of Saturday morning, the Florida House and Senate adjourned in what the Miami Herald called “a rocky end to one of the most ambitious and ideological sessions in modern history in which legislators set overhauled schools, healthcare, courts, pensions, development and even election laws.”

Indeed, the GOP-dominated Legislature promised to be one of the most conservative in our state’s history, and they’re off to a horrifically good start. In the process of approving $69.7 billion for the budget year beginning July 1—a devastating $4 billion cut from the current year which will cost almost 4,500 jobs—House and Senate Republicans extended the 60-day spring session into Saturday as they passed a host of measures that will literally do nothing to create jobs or improve the economy. Among Florida Republicans’ shining victories:

• An unprecedented overhaul of Medicaid in which almost 3 million poor, disabled, and elderly recipients will be placed into managed care programs and left to the profit-driven whims of private HMOs
• A radical revamping (128 pages worth, to be exact) of the state’s election laws which establish a new wave of voter suppression throughout Florida

o   The new law, HB 1355, aims to eliminate voter registration drives by making it considerably more burdensome to start one or even volunteer for one. Those who want to start or volunteer for a voter registration drive must register with the state in advance and then must turn in all registration cards within 48 hours of signature or face fines of anywhere between $50 and $1,000.

o   The law does away with a decades-long provision allowing voters to change their address or name at the polls, which will prove troublesome for numerous students, military families, newlyweds, and divorced citizens.

o   It decreases the time for early voting from 14 days to 8, undoubtedly adding more pressure to countless working people who have trouble finding time to make it to the polls on Election Day.

o   (Despite Republicans’ claims that these measures will help prevent voter fraud, the Florida Department of State disclosed that there were only 31 cases of alleged voter fraud between 2008 and 2011, only 2 of which actually ended up in arrests.)

• The implementation of a ludicrous new teacher evaluation and merit pay system (to start in 2014) which will link teachers’ salaries and job security to students’ standardized test scores
• Rolling back over 20 years of necessary growth-management legislation meant to keep overdevelopment, sprawl, and pollution in check by repealing the 1985 Growth Management Act
• Requiring those applying for unemployment insurance to take a drug test beforehand, which they must pay for themselves out-of-pocket
• Slashing maximum unemployment benefits from 26 to 23 weeks if unemployment is at 10.5 percent or higher (It’s now at 11.1%, seasonally adjusted) and which will continue dropping as the jobless rate drops, while cutting unemployment taxes for employers

o   Despite popular right-wing opinion that unemployment insurance is a drain on the economy, Moody’s Analytics calculates that every dollar spent on extending unemployment benefits results in $1.61 “bang for the buck” in the economy, compared to $0.32 from permanently extending the Bush tax cuts (Yes, that’s a loss, Republicans).

• Cutting public employees’ paychecks by 3% by mandating them to pay into the state pension plan, the Florida Retirement System, for the very first time
• Cutting the corporate income tax by $30 million per year (What’s the point when they don’t pay taxes anyway?)
• Privatizing prisons across South Florida
• Forcing women to undergo medically unnecessary ultrasounds prior to getting an abortion, among several other radical anti-choice measures
• Making bestiality illegal.

That last one’s not a joke, by the way.

So are these the acts of legislators serious about getting Florida “back to work,” as Gov. Rick Scott, Senate Pres. Mike Haridopolos, and House Speaker Dean Cannon claim?

On Tuesday afternoon, Floridians rallied all across the state to answer that question at the second round of Awake the State events, this time called Awake Again. The Orlando rally was again held in beautiful Senator Beth Johnson Park, although this time there was not a march. Although the Awake Again rally was smaller than the original one, the turnout was nonetheless exciting (over 200 protesters), and there was no shortage of progressive anger at the outcome of the 2011 legislative session. Among the passionate speakers at the event:

• State Rep. Darren Soto (D-Orlando):

Let me tell you a little bit about what it was like—and many of your remember—Election Day this last year. I woke up to see a man I didn’t want as the governor. I woke up to see us fall below the amount—the numbers we would need to enforce the rules, and I knew it was going to happen. Big Business was going to rule. Big Business was going to rule, the Republicans were going to rule, and we were going to scream about whatever we could to try to stop them. And while there are victories, I’m going to start with some of the defeats. Because our friend, Rep. Jeff Clemens—you remember what he had to say—pretty artfully, he said, every day that we got on the floor, “Who are we sticking it to today?” “Who are we sticking it to today?” And the list goes on, so forgive me if I leave anybody out. But we have the middle class, right? We have women. We have the unemployed. We have labor. We have the environment. We have consumers. And heck, I forgot, so much happened, it goes—thank you! Teachers’ merit pay. League of Women Voters. Boy Scouts, even, who are trying to register people! Students! Thanks! Anybody else? Who else are we sticking it to? Maybe I forgot somebody. Voters! Thank you! And to end with what Jeff Clemens said, “We’re sticking it to Floridians.”

• Sue Idtensohn, President and CEO of Planned Parenthood of Greater Orlando:

I’m here to talk and represent all the women in Florida that got screwed this year in the state legislature, and I just want to kind of paraphrase that, what I meant by that. As you all know, this year we had more anti-choice bills in front of the state house than we’ve ever had, and we had five bills that got passed. That’s an all-time record. And you’ll be pleased to know that Florida led the country in the number of bills that were proposed, with 18 anti-choice bills. Yep! So, I think the lesson from this is everyone in Tallahassee, with the exception of our friends here and some other progressives—mostly men, mostly Republicans, mostly conservatives have basically decided that they’re going to tell us what should do continuously with our bodies. And I don’t know about you, but I don’t particularly want to have a conservative Republican legislator in my bedroom. I also don’t want a conservative legislator telling me what I can’t do in the privacy of my doctor’s office. Now, in the state of Florida, along with 15 other states, we have mandatory ultrasounds. So, regardless if the doctor thinks that it might be necessary or not, they’re going to mandate that a woman have an ultrasound.

• Linda Kobert, Founding Partner of Fund Education Now:

I’m also a proud product of Florida public schools and a Florida native. Now, all of us are gathered here today in this beautiful free country in this beautiful state, where moms and dads, neighbors and friends—there are Republicans, Democrats, and Independents here. But we all see eye to eye on one thing, and that’s the love for our children and the responsibility that we have to them because they are the future of our state. Our state legislature just cut $1.1 billion from our public schools. Our public schools! That’s an unprecedented amount of nearly $600 per child. And that’s on the heels of several years of very damaging cuts to our schools. In Orange County, that’s going to mean layoffs. In Lake County, they’re talking about 4-day school weeks. And in Seminole County, tonight, they’ll vote on whether to close a 50-year-old ‘A’ school called Longwood Elementary. This is a neighborhood school. This is the product of an impending $39 million in cuts to that county. Know this: your school boards are having to make very difficult choices. But the blame lies squarely with our State Legislatures. They’ve refused to fund education. It’s their constitutional duty. They spent this session passing bills like SB 736, the so-called teacher merit pay bill. I’m the first in line to say we should pay our teachers what they’re worth, but this bill is a $2 billion unfunded mandate. Who runs a business like that?! It ties 50% of a teacher’s pay to a child’s performance on a test, a test that was not designed for that purpose. They’re turning our neighborhood schools into high-stakes test-taking factories. They do not benefit our children. The only people they benefit are the adult proprietors of test-taking companies!

• Tamecka Pierce, President of Organize Now!

My name is Tamecka Pierce. I’m the President of Organize Now!, and I suffer from Systemic lupus and kidney disease. Two years ago, I became unemployed, and when I became unemployed, I also lost my health care, at a time when it was a fight for my life. I couldn’t get insurance because of the preexisting conditions, and I couldn’t afford it. So I had to apply to the Medically Needy Program, and the Medically Needy Program is a program where people who do receive some income, but they receive too much to be on Medicaid. And I battled for two years, two years in and out with that program. I hear the State Legislators were trying to cut that program, also along with Medicare. I think it’s a disgrace. People like me, who have medical chronic illnesses need that program. Had it not been for that program, two years of chemotherapy that kept my kidneys from dying out, I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for the Medically Needy Program. That program kept me in the hospital that helped me get a quality of life while I’m here talking to you today. Had it not been for the Medicaid and Medically Needy Program, I would be dead today. And I think it’s a shame that our legislators were even thinking about taking away people’s quality of life, who have a lower income than most, or who don’t have any income, or even the elderly people who have Medicare and that cannot afford insurance as well…Today, we’re here telling the Florida Legislature that we’re awake and we’re watching and we’re not going to let them destroy our state. I stand here today in support of the Affordable Care Act, and I suggest that the legislators support that program.

Also speaking at the event was State Rep. Scott Randolph (D-Orlando), who this past March was criticized by Republicans for using the word uterus on the House floor. After the rally, I spoke with Rep. Randolph about the incident and about how Republican initiatives are going to hurt the middle class in Florida:

Me: The first thing I wanted to ask you, how do you feel your career’s changed, if at all, since the famous “uterus” incident?

Rep. Randolph: [Laughs] I don’t think it’s changed at all. I hope it’s—you know, there was such a concerted attack on women throughout the country. You know, this was really—the states were really the forefront of attacks on women this year, and I think—you know, I think, I hope that we just sort of hit the hypocrisy that’s going on there. And I’m glad that came to the forefront, I think it became sort of a rallying cry, and I’m glad it did. You know, it’s sort of funny, we go to some places and people certainly know us.

Me: Sure. How do you feel that the Democrats now, in the coming years, are going to try to fight against this disastrous session that just ended this past weekend?

Rep. Randolph: I think we have to continue to focus on the middle class. And people of all sorts consider themselves middle class, whether they’re working minimum wage jobs or they’re, you know, working professionals. They consider themselves middle class. And we have to keep focus on that message, and I think the Republicans are going to help us out a lot at the federal level, trying to get rid of Medicare.

Me: Right, yeah, we’ve already seen the town hall meetings going terribly for these people.

Rep. Randolph: Yeah, and Boehner’s talking about basically really getting rid of Social Security to meet his budget goals. I think people will look up. You know, here in Florida, we had a moderate Republican governor, Charlie Crist, and I think people—I think Democrats got a little complacent, because they hadn’t really seen what could really go wrong in Tallahassee. And I think they’re seeing what could go wrong in Tallahassee when you have a far-Right governor, along with the same far-Right Legislature you’ve always had, that Charlie Crist was there for the past four years to block all of that.

Me: Do feel the measures passed this session are going to have a really scarring effect?

Rep. Randolph: You know, what’s going to have the most scarring effect are education and the environment. The other things can be reversed. But those education—you know, one of the big things they did this year was remove—so they lost at the ballot box on the class size amendment for the second time, so rather than actually fund education, they removed 700 courses that had to meet class size amendments, but they decide to un-classify all these core curriculum classes. That allows them to basically pile kids into classrooms and fire thousands of teachers.

Me: Right. My mom’s a Head Start teacher at Davenport School of the Arts, and slashing Head Start and everything is completely awful.

Rep. Randolph: Oh, yeah, there will be thousands of teachers across the state that are going to be laid off and fired in the next couple of months. And that can’t be undone. That’s going to take a long time to be undone. Environmental stuff they did, with growth management and permitting, that’s decades to undo.

Me: Mm-hmm, that’s literally decades of law overturned.

Rep. Randolph: Yeah. So there’s going to be some stuff that we can undo, and there’s going to be other stuff that’s going to leave long-term effects on Florida.