On Growth Management: Florida can't afford Rick Scott ... by gimleteye

Rick Scott, the GOP candidate for governor in Florida, wants to eliminate the state agency charged with the orderly management of growth in one of the nation's most sprawl-ridden states. As such, he represents special interests who have seized on the collapse of the economy, spurred by more speculative development than taxpayers could afford, to gain an even tighter reign on political levers in Tallahassee.

Scott's naked grab for power is not so different from the ways health care insurers, such as the one that made Mr. Scott a centimillionaire, sowed confusion as health care expenses for citizens skyrocketed raining billions in profits to a small group of insiders and shareholders, who do not face financial ruin the way middle class families with catastrophic illnesses do. Like the greedy developers to whom Scott is now pandering, calling for the abolishment of the DCA, owners of the nation's health care insurers don't care how their profit models are wrecking the economy. They argue the reverse.

While one is tempted to succumb to anger at the way invention of reality continues to play out according to the Karl Rove playbook-- that organized Republican majorities in Congress around the failed terms of George W. Bush-- the bright fact is that Florida Republicans did a fair job implementing growth management in the first place. Growth management, such as the one Rick Scott wants to ruin, was meant to match conservation and protection of the environment, with the needs of economic growth in a fiscally prudent way. These conservative values are the ones Florida conservatives now want to destroy.

Tom Pelham, DCA chief, knows what jeopardy is being inflicted on Floridians because he was the state's first DCA secretary. Pelham was called by GOP governor Bob Martinez in the 1980's to implement the agency. Pelham is smart, eloquent and dedicated to the original spirit of the Growth Management Act. Better than anyone, he knows how tattered and faded the Florida example has become that was once a model for the nation. And Pelham knows that the opposition to the purposes of growth management is from wealthy GOP donors who scorn the idea of communities and neighborhoods and the common good.

This theme dominates the American political landscape in the 2010 mid-term elections: how a tidal wave of special interest money has been unleashed, thanks to Bush choices for the US Supreme Court, swamping the public interest. Somehow, the anger of the Tea Party has failed to identify its true enemies; likely, because its purposes and candidates have been usurped by the same set of secret GOP donors whose purpose is to wreck government. Period. Under Jeb Bush, Florida was to become a test tube for policies that would hollow out government from within. Under this banner, The Florida Department of Community Affairs was Number One on the hit list of big campaign contributors who propelled Jeb Bush forward, and Rick Scott-- who is filling in right behind-- has signaled that if he is elected, the Dark Ages return.

For all his flaws, Governor Charlie Crist kept his commitment to the original organizing principle of growth management in Florida by retaining a Republican, Tom Pelham, as secretary of this important agency. During this time, Pelham has not only comported with dignity while absorbing repetitive attacks by Republican legislators/developers, he has also retained the spirit of bipartisan cooperation that caused growth management to be an important purpose in the first place.

Neither the influence of big money nor the wages of fear should deter Florida voters from the reasonable conclusion that any candidate for public office who would put a gun to the head of growth management-- like Rick Scott-- is off his rocker.