Florida Republicans either want it their way or no way. Last year, the Republican-led Legislature rammed a new pension law down the throats of Florida teachers that forced all newly hired educators to contribute 3 percent of their salary to their retirement fund.
Attempting to explain their feeble effort to undercut public workers, Alexander and his Republican colleagues claimed that it would save the state almost $900 million by the newly implemented contribution program and by eradicating all cost-of-living raises for state workers.
On Tuesday, Circuit Judge Jackie Fulford ruled the law unconstitutional and ordered the state to stop the collections.
Senate Budget Chairman JD Alexander says that he may ignore the judge’s ruling and that it has no impact on this year’s state budget. Alexander was struck down by a judge and now does not want to obey the ruling. When Republicans do not get their way, they make a new way to get what they wanted in the first place. It is a conflicted game of political theatre and apathy toward the state’s public workers.
But the state’s leader by name, Governor Rick Scott, is no better than Alexander.
Scott has the name “unconstitutional” stamped on his forehead lately. A judge ruled last year that the state’s new welfare drug testing law violated the Constitution, his newly created Office of Fiscal Accountability and Regulatory Reform was ruled unconstitutional, and last year’s failed prison privatization attempt was placed in the same illegal basket.
At the end of the day, it is Florida’s workforce and working families who deserve our attention and protection. As long as we have political cowards like Mr. Alexander and Mr. Scott railing against us, our state does not have an opportunity to move forward.
We have a stubbornly high unemployment rate, 9.9 percent as of December 2011, a high recidivism rate, and one of the nation’s highest foreclosure rates. We have more pressing issues to focus on instead of unmitigated attacks on working citizens and families.
We need new thinkers, visionaries, men and women of character and principle, not crooks looking to break the souls of Florida citizens.
