The giant Ponzi scheme that is Florida

[B o d i]

reposted from GD

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x5264822

Gary Mormino, a professor at the University of South Florida, has compared the economy here to a giant Ponzi scheme, the confidence game in which investors are paid with the money of new investors.

The Ponzi State. The phrase is catching on and it's making Mormino famous.

He says Florida's economic setup has always depended on ever more people, often retirees on fixed incomes, arriving from out of state with money to spend.

Since 1970, the state has grown by an average of 350,000 new residents a year — or a thousand a day.

To accommodate them, politicians in Tallahassee basically let developers build whatever they wanted just about anywhere they wanted. Usually, that has meant apartment towers and minimally inspected cinder-block homes on concrete slabs.

The construction barely paused and neither did the waves of tourists — as many as 80 million vacationers a year, all ready to pay hotel taxes and rental taxes and restaurant taxes and sales taxes.

Now, everything's flat. In fact, more residents might be leaving than arriving. And the tourists are staying away.

For Mormino, Florida is just a palm tree fantasy with a tax structure "that was insane." And now, he says, "we're paralyzed."

Unemployment is nightmarish and rising. Tax-hating Floridians, turning to their government for help, are finding a stunted, business-driven entity with nothing to offer.

"When people began looking behind the palm trees and into the account books," says Mormino, all they discovered was "massive fraud and lack of oversight."

MUCH MORE AT LINK http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2009/03/10/f-rfa-macdonald.html

[vinylsolution]

1. Then along came Jeb Bush....

.... to dig an even deeper hole.

[stingingstick]

2. Things could be worse...

and will be soon thanks to a frighteningly "productive" session for the Florida legislature. Legislators passed a number of bills that will encourage even more reckless development and give the state and counties even less oversight over developers. One bright spot, though: Gov. Crist has not yet signed SB 360. He apparently was going to sign it a couple days ago, when he signed three other developer giveaways, but something has made him reconsider SB 360, which has been called the developers' biggest prize from this year's legislative session. News reports indicate that that "something" was a deluge of calls and e-mails from Floridians concerned about turning the clock back on the state's growth management laws. Since then, SB 360 has been all over the op-ed pages in the state's papers. A few examples:

http://www.gainesville.com/article/20090522/NEWS/905229984/-1/OPINION?Title=Dan-Waite-It-s-not-smart-growth-
http://www.tampabay.com/news/politics/legislature/article1003741.ece
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/opinion/content/opinion/epaper/2009/05/21/a12a_engelhardtcol_0521.html

State Sen. Mike Bennett, who's certainly earned his contributions from developers this year, has also been making the rounds of the papers with this misleading editorial:

http://www.news-press.com/article/20090522/OPINION/905220363/1015

Right now this could go either way. Chances are still very good that the Governor will sign SB-360 if the public loses interest, so if you live in Florida, please contact Gov. Crist to urge him to veto this bill. His contact info is here: http://www.flgov.com/contact_governor

And if you're, well, short on time, you can send him a template e-mail from Audubon: http://audubonaction.org/campaign/urge_gov_crist_to_veto_sb360

Thanks!

--Hank

[stingingstick]

3. Video about SB 360

Hi all,

Just a reminder: please contact Gov. Crist today to urge him to veto SB 360. Want to know what it's all about? Here's a short video summarizing this developer giveaway: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=01EhpYxih_o

If the phones stop ringing, we lose, so please do take the time to call the Governor.

Thanks!

Hank

[carpetbagger]

4. Meme of the year.

I've had the same thought more than once. That was clearly the assumption behind Christ's tax reforms, but in all fairness it was the assumption behind everything Askew, Graham, and Chiles was doing as well.

Mormino's book "Land of Sunshine, State of Dreams" is a terrific synopsis of the history of Florida from the eyes of the hoards of, well, Carpetbaggers like myself who have made it home, the development/land/retiree/tourist state.

The other meme we'll learn soon is this one:

God made California to warn Floridians about our future.