A Governor's Miss Calculation
Tim Williams
June 09, 2011
Like so many of our "Illustrious" elected officials of late most of them always manage to insert foot in mouth when it comes time to explain concepts, ideas, proposals, and legislation much like Sarah Palin has so eloquently stated on too many occasions. In Florida, Governor Scott has managed to yet again, conjure up another idea to make Florida the economic pinnacle of the United States with his version of making Florida the shipping capital of the East Coast. Delusions of grandeur at it's finest hour to date. Florida's leading "Wizard" is poised to pump millions of tax dollars into dredging the Port of Miami in order to felicitate the maneuverability of the super container cargo ships that now will be able to pass through the Panama Cannel.
This plan has many flaws. Right from the moment when he proposed "I want to make Florida the shipping capital of the East Coast if not the entire United states" he failed to point out that so many other factors have to be considered before any attempt is made to deliver on this pre conceived idea. Yes, this is the same Governor who turned his nose up on the Federal Stimulus funding to build high speed rail service in Florida. Luckily Illinois was able to grab all those funds and are on their way to ensuing a more reliable and better mass transportation system. One of many miss calculations and miss opportunities to turn our souring economy around. On this one issue our Governor is really missing the boat. This is because in order to accommodate more vessels coming into our ports the infrastructure has to be already in place before any Post Panamax container ships that currently go to New York and Savannah arrive in Florida.
This is only the beginning of the many issues that have to be really considered before any attempt at funneling tax dollars into a project that has relatively no chance of producing the kind of results necessary to put Florida's economy on the right track. Least we forget it was our Governor who put the kibosh of the rail system in the first place. In order to achieve the idea of expanding and improving our ports using tax dollars the port of Miami needs to have an existing rail system large enough to transport cargo coming of these container ships. Another element in this equation is when these containers are off loaded the state of Florida is again ill prepared. This is because we don't have the Distribution centers that would be able to handle the volume of cargo coming in. The distribution centers in and around New York and Atlanta are already more than sufficient to handle the vast amount of imports that come in. The ports of Savannah and New York are more accessible, reliable and already have the needed infrastructure necessary for smooth transfer of any and all cargo. To throw tax dollars [that we really don't have] in enlarging the port of Miami without the infrastructure in place is like putting the cart before the horse. But that is precisely what many of our legislatures continue to do.
The logistics of transfer from the more heavily loaded and much larger cargo ships requires an extensive infrastructure in place, something that Florida doesn't even come close to having. To provide the services to actually make Florida capable in handling more imports now is too cost prohibitive to even contemplate. Other factors to really consider before any embarkation on enlarging our ports is the fact that Florida is more vulnerable to major hurricanes that could interrupt the flow of commerce at any given time.
The Governor has also signaled the initial adding of another nuclear power plant to provide additional energy is another ill conceived idea and a total miss calculation in the desires of the majority of the population. Where countries like Germany and Switzerland are already light years ahead of the United States concerning Green energy, are shutting down their nuclear facilities and promoting more Wind and Solar to augment their energy needs. The idea should be to focus on putting Wind Farms along the east and west coast of Florida using retractable wind turbines { in case of any hurricane } and more abundant Solar farms in places where vacant land is available. All of which would be more cost efficient and produce allot more energy than any nuclear energy plant does today. The more we invest in green technology for our energy needs the less expensive our utility bills will become and a greater economic impact on our society results. A win win for the people of the state of Florida and the country. Unfortunately, our Governor has other ideas?
The future of this state and of this country depends on the development of alternate green energy and quality in education for our youth. These issues are no where addressed today by our Governor and legislature. When budget cuts prevail in eliminating the prospect of retaining quality teachers or even recruiting caliber teachers puts this state at greater risk of more economic distress. The most important issues today are the availability of affordable and stable energy along with improving our quality in public education. These two factors of which Florida could very well be the leader in innovation in improving both has yet to cross the minds of the Republican party who control so much of the way policies are shaped and implemented today. What has occurred is equivalent to the exact opposite of what is necessary to spur economic growth and quality in education. Now is not the time to focus extreme measures in an already deteriorating conditions in public schools and a continually escalation in are already high energy costs. Which, by the way increases the overall cost of living.
They say timing is everything. Well, the time for action is now! Not only the state of Florida but the country is falling further behind in educational standards than any other industrialized nation. To put it bluntly, if this country doesn't turn the state of public education around now a further decline in our whole economy will result. A just recent study indicated that our youth today have succumbed to educational levels far below those when compared with other countries. Our youth instead of improving are degenerating in educational standards. With budget cuts primarily focused on education only exasperates the decline in our whole educational system. Crisis in education puts this country at greater risk not only economically but our whole national security and sovereignty are in grave jeopardy.
When a governor focuses on so called expedient ways of providing more energy, like nuclear power, or oil only shows that the purse strings attached are so entangled with existing conglomerates any deviation results in pulling corporate donations away from the campaign coffers of incumbents. It would be such a great relief if just once we had an elected leader in office that had the courage and conviction to pull the plug on corporate sponsorships of political parties and elected officials and instead focus on the real needs and concerns of the general publics welfare now and for the future. The future is alternate renewable affordable green energy. Wind, solar, hydroelectric etc. all of which will produce the kinds of benefits that produces the economic expansion necessary for the overall growth and stability of a nation.
Putting into effect a coordinated plan of direction using the available resources at hand in securing education reform and implementation of more green energy programs into the state of Florida and the rest of the country will produce enormous economic and environmental benefits. What's happening currently is our leaders are still focused on budget cuts and outdated harmful energy policies that won't and cant' produce the necessary results that will keep America competitive in world markets now and in the future. Only when our elected officials realize that outdated and current policies have only accelerated our whole counties demise will corrective measures be made. Courage and conviction of elected officials to actually do the publics will is too rare today. To put this country back on the course of economic and social prominence our elected officials all across the country cannot continue to put forth the same kinds of policies only with different variations of the past 40 years. Reform is vital, is necessary, and is most warranted now. To continue to miscalculate, misinterpreted or deny know facts only spells unequivocal disaster for this country and our state of Florida.
This plan has many flaws. Right from the moment when he proposed "I want to make Florida the shipping capital of the East Coast if not the entire United states" he failed to point out that so many other factors have to be considered before any attempt is made to deliver on this pre conceived idea. Yes, this is the same Governor who turned his nose up on the Federal Stimulus funding to build high speed rail service in Florida. Luckily Illinois was able to grab all those funds and are on their way to ensuing a more reliable and better mass transportation system. One of many miss calculations and miss opportunities to turn our souring economy around. On this one issue our Governor is really missing the boat. This is because in order to accommodate more vessels coming into our ports the infrastructure has to be already in place before any Post Panamax container ships that currently go to New York and Savannah arrive in Florida.
This is only the beginning of the many issues that have to be really considered before any attempt at funneling tax dollars into a project that has relatively no chance of producing the kind of results necessary to put Florida's economy on the right track. Least we forget it was our Governor who put the kibosh of the rail system in the first place. In order to achieve the idea of expanding and improving our ports using tax dollars the port of Miami needs to have an existing rail system large enough to transport cargo coming of these container ships. Another element in this equation is when these containers are off loaded the state of Florida is again ill prepared. This is because we don't have the Distribution centers that would be able to handle the volume of cargo coming in. The distribution centers in and around New York and Atlanta are already more than sufficient to handle the vast amount of imports that come in. The ports of Savannah and New York are more accessible, reliable and already have the needed infrastructure necessary for smooth transfer of any and all cargo. To throw tax dollars [that we really don't have] in enlarging the port of Miami without the infrastructure in place is like putting the cart before the horse. But that is precisely what many of our legislatures continue to do.
The logistics of transfer from the more heavily loaded and much larger cargo ships requires an extensive infrastructure in place, something that Florida doesn't even come close to having. To provide the services to actually make Florida capable in handling more imports now is too cost prohibitive to even contemplate. Other factors to really consider before any embarkation on enlarging our ports is the fact that Florida is more vulnerable to major hurricanes that could interrupt the flow of commerce at any given time.
The Governor has also signaled the initial adding of another nuclear power plant to provide additional energy is another ill conceived idea and a total miss calculation in the desires of the majority of the population. Where countries like Germany and Switzerland are already light years ahead of the United States concerning Green energy, are shutting down their nuclear facilities and promoting more Wind and Solar to augment their energy needs. The idea should be to focus on putting Wind Farms along the east and west coast of Florida using retractable wind turbines { in case of any hurricane } and more abundant Solar farms in places where vacant land is available. All of which would be more cost efficient and produce allot more energy than any nuclear energy plant does today. The more we invest in green technology for our energy needs the less expensive our utility bills will become and a greater economic impact on our society results. A win win for the people of the state of Florida and the country. Unfortunately, our Governor has other ideas?
The future of this state and of this country depends on the development of alternate green energy and quality in education for our youth. These issues are no where addressed today by our Governor and legislature. When budget cuts prevail in eliminating the prospect of retaining quality teachers or even recruiting caliber teachers puts this state at greater risk of more economic distress. The most important issues today are the availability of affordable and stable energy along with improving our quality in public education. These two factors of which Florida could very well be the leader in innovation in improving both has yet to cross the minds of the Republican party who control so much of the way policies are shaped and implemented today. What has occurred is equivalent to the exact opposite of what is necessary to spur economic growth and quality in education. Now is not the time to focus extreme measures in an already deteriorating conditions in public schools and a continually escalation in are already high energy costs. Which, by the way increases the overall cost of living.
They say timing is everything. Well, the time for action is now! Not only the state of Florida but the country is falling further behind in educational standards than any other industrialized nation. To put it bluntly, if this country doesn't turn the state of public education around now a further decline in our whole economy will result. A just recent study indicated that our youth today have succumbed to educational levels far below those when compared with other countries. Our youth instead of improving are degenerating in educational standards. With budget cuts primarily focused on education only exasperates the decline in our whole educational system. Crisis in education puts this country at greater risk not only economically but our whole national security and sovereignty are in grave jeopardy.
When a governor focuses on so called expedient ways of providing more energy, like nuclear power, or oil only shows that the purse strings attached are so entangled with existing conglomerates any deviation results in pulling corporate donations away from the campaign coffers of incumbents. It would be such a great relief if just once we had an elected leader in office that had the courage and conviction to pull the plug on corporate sponsorships of political parties and elected officials and instead focus on the real needs and concerns of the general publics welfare now and for the future. The future is alternate renewable affordable green energy. Wind, solar, hydroelectric etc. all of which will produce the kinds of benefits that produces the economic expansion necessary for the overall growth and stability of a nation.
Putting into effect a coordinated plan of direction using the available resources at hand in securing education reform and implementation of more green energy programs into the state of Florida and the rest of the country will produce enormous economic and environmental benefits. What's happening currently is our leaders are still focused on budget cuts and outdated harmful energy policies that won't and cant' produce the necessary results that will keep America competitive in world markets now and in the future. Only when our elected officials realize that outdated and current policies have only accelerated our whole counties demise will corrective measures be made. Courage and conviction of elected officials to actually do the publics will is too rare today. To put this country back on the course of economic and social prominence our elected officials all across the country cannot continue to put forth the same kinds of policies only with different variations of the past 40 years. Reform is vital, is necessary, and is most warranted now. To continue to miscalculate, misinterpreted or deny know facts only spells unequivocal disaster for this country and our state of Florida.
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