Sunday, April 26, 2009

Interesting Contrast

From the Orlando Sentinel:


Rep. Dean Cannon, R-Winter Park, sent us this message this weekend: "As President (Jeff) Atwater and Speaker (Larry) Cretul indicated, talks aren't over. Folks are continuing to run numbers this weekend and I anticipate that they'll continue talking on Monday.

"Right now all the discussions are at the presiding officer level, and I know they are both doing their best to come to a resolution."


From the indictment of Ray Sansom:


"Further, Your Grand Jurors find that the appropriation process that gives unbridled discretion to the President of the Senate, Speaker of the House of Representatives and Appropriation Chairman needs to be changed. This State should be guided in openness and transparency. The procedure currently in place requires that our elected Legislators vote on a final budget that they have no knowledge about because it is finalized in a meeting between only two legislators. This process allows taxpayers money to be budgeted for special purposes by those few legislators who happen to be in a position of power."

...

"Further, far too much power is given to The Legislative Leadership on these budget issues which led to this appropriation that was voted on basically hidden in a huge budget. Regular members has no idea that they voted to build an aircraft hanger for a college that owned no aircraft and funded a building on land that the State does not own. Your Grand Jurors recommend to The Legislature that it clean up this process and that the State of Florida become an example to the Nation as a State that works for the people and not the special interest of those who have money to influence The Legislature."


Good to see that Cannon, Cretul and Atwater have learned from the mistakes Sansom made.

(h/t FDP)

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