So the new Florida: An Economic Overview came out yesterday and shows some interesting statistics, this one shows unemployment by county. Orange barely slipped below the US average, St. Lucie didn’t come out so lucky. Give it a glance.
How social security went broke in one pretty chart. Thanks to the Washington Post for creating this.
As I stated in my first published article in the Central Florida Future, college tuition has inflated to incredible levels, and shows a lot of the same issues as a regular bubble. Intensely rising costs, no questioning of the validity of the investment, and a mixture of investment and luxury mixed together that increases the price substantially. What I didn’t have when writing that article was this beautiful graph that shows just how crazy and out of control college tuition has gotten. Don’t forget, this is the cost when taking for inflation.
The new Census data got crunched to show income inequality by city and state in the United States. This is shown by a measure known as the Gini Index. The higher the Gini index is, the worse your income inequality is.
Florida Gini Index is 46.9, making our income inequality worse than Rwanda at 46.8 but better than China at 47.
Miami, being the second worst income inequality city in the United States with a 49.3 score, making it worse than Sri Lanka (49.0).
Tampa / St. Petersburg has a score of 45.9, making it slightly worse than the Phillipines (45.8)
My city, Orlando, has a Gini score of 44.2, making our city roughly equal to Iran, with a 44.5 score.
Get the scores per country here
Orlando Buddy Dyer held up his end of the bargain and sent a proposed draft ordinance for establishing a domestic partner registry to Orange County Mayor Teresa Jacobs this week.
Gay rights activists had pressed both mayors for a registry over the summer, but Jacobs said her policy plate was too full. So Dyer took up the cause and said he would look into the issue, and report back to Jacobs in the fall.
Here’s the draft proposal Dyer’s team sent Jacobs Tuesday. Now the ball is in Jacobs’ political court.
The county mayor is in Brazil on a trade mission with Gov. Rick Scott, but Jacobs had said previously she would consider bringing the city’s work on the issue to county commissioners for consideration this year.
Advocates say that a number of same- and opposite-sex couples don’t have the same hospital, death and school privileges that married couples enjoy. A registry that officially recorded such relationships could be helpful when minor and major emergencies arise, especially for same-sex couples who are barred from marrying in Florida.
Opponents say the registry is not needed, and securing certain legal forms can solve these issues. Gay rights activists say that the added, costly legal paperwork amounts to discrimination, and doesn’t always work.
Dyer and the activists argue it would be ideal to pass an ordinance that applied countywide, and not over a patchwork of cities.
Today, the Central Florida Political Pulse reported on a mailer sent from a “shadowy organization” in Tallahassee that is calling incumbent mayor of Altamonte Springs, Pat Bates, a “liberal democrat” and attacking her for tax evasion. Tons of money and resources has been dumped into this race by the “Small Business Advisory Council”, yet no ones knows much about this group. They were created four months ago, have not released public disclosures yet, and their chair refuses to answer questions. What business does a group from Tallahassee have dumping boatloads of money and resources into a small mayors race in the quaint town of Altamonte Springs?
The answer that all political insiders know, but the Orlando Sentinel can’t publish, is that she is the subject of a political hit job by Representative and future federal prison occupier Chris Dorworth.
In the house race for 2010, Pat Bates Republican and ex mayor husband, Dudley Bates, came out with this release:
- Dudley Bates, (R) Former Mayor, Altamonte Springs:
As a life-long Republican, I strongly believe in and support the conservative values of my party. That said, in the Florida State House District 34 race, I am compelled to cross party lines and support Democrat Steve Barnes.
Steve has shown a commitment to our community and to integrity in government that his opponent, incumbent Republican Chris Dorworth, has not.
Representative Dorworth has tried in his advertising to make this race a referendum on President Obama. This race should not be about partisanship and the federal government….it should be about who is best qualified and dedicated to bring new jobs to Florida, to serve the citizens of District 34 and central Florida, and to govern with integrity.
Having worked closely with both men, I am confident that Steve Barnes is best qualified in all regards and will make a better Representative for all the people of the District.
I strongly endorse Steve Barnes.
- Dudley Bates, Altamonte Springs City Commissioner 1981-87; Mayor 1987-99
The man Steve Barnes was running against was none other than our friend Representative Chris Dorworth. Dorworth was furious about this cross from his own party, but had no recourse. Dudley Bates had no intention of getting into politics, yet his wife was the current mayor and running for re-election. Dorworth is now dumping all his resources and connections into getting Dudley Bates back for his percieved cross. He has plenty of people willing to help him too, as he was recently announced as the future Speaker of the House.
It’s a real shame too, Pat Bates has been able to grow the Altamonte economy, get rid of the deficit, and is a self described “fiscal conservative”. The Republicans should love her, but this is personal and dirty. The Small Business Advisory Council hasn’t released their donor list yet to the state, but when they do I’d venture a bet that Dorworths Shadow organizations “Madison Christopher Holdings LLC”, “Rochelle Holdings LLC”, and the “Guerra Project” will be very prominent on there.
When the federal indictments start rolling down on Dorworth and the rest of the Republican Party, we’re gonna see this whole thing blow up.
Much has been said lately of the Casino business and its potential economic impact in the state of Florida. Rep. Erik Fresen (R-Miami) and Rep. Ellyn Bogdanoff (R-Fort Lauderdale) are expected to put in a resolution to increase gambling in Florida to three new Casino’s in the state for the Genting Group, a malaysian based Casino organization. This is being pushed hard by the Associated Builders and Contractors of Florida, who want to see this resolution pass.
“We support the project not just because the project will offer much needed jobs for our members and their families but because of the economic benefit it will bring for the great state of Florida and the region,” the resolution reads.
Graph I just made on excel based on the new consumer confidence numbers that came out from the Bureau of Economic and Business Research. As you can see, Rick Scott entered office in January and since then consumer confidence has shot down to only 5 points over the record low in 2008.
This has long term implications, as consumer confidence is tied to demand, which is tied to private business, which will then get hiring again. Without consumer confidence, we have no chance of digging ourselves out of this hole. This is what massive cuts to government investment does to an economy, sucks the blood from it.
Thanks Rick Scott!
Representative Bullard spoke to me at Legicamp this weekend, asking me to put more pressure on speaker designate Chris Dorworth, as he “walks around like hes bulletproof, and has way to much baggage to act like that”. This is before any of us knew the firestorm that was about to rain down on Dorworth.
Above is State Rep Chris Dorworth. He is best remembered for his role as “Chunk” in the Goonies, in which he does the now famous Truffle Shuffle. Well he’s about to be famous for something else, as the future speaker of the Florida House who flubbed it up by being dirty and greedy.
In short, Dorworth’s house was being foreclosed on, he couldn’t cover his expenses, his only assets were 40,000 in cash and a car, and he only made a representatives salary. His investments were all under water Suddenly, last week, he released that he has accumulated 713,000 dollars from a group involved in development of Wekiva Parkway, a project he pushed hard in session. It’s looking more and more like there was rampant fraud in this case, dirty politics at its purest.
This is our time to take out this jerk-off once and for all. Call his office and tell his to answer the questions posed by Scott Maxwell. (407) 333-1815 . We need to put some pressure on this Goonie.
